Just a short little story that came to me one night as I was sitting on my bed. Enjoy! As always, I do not own CSI.

It was a beautiful autumn afternoon and a warm breeze was blowing the brightly colored leaves around her. She watched the autumn colors dance in the bright sunlight as she stood at the grave and slowly traced the letters etched into the marble headstone. It had been many years since she had visited the grave, but now, nearing the end of her life, she knew that it could be her last chance to pay her respects to the man who had sacrificed everything for her. She slowly knelt down in the grass, her knees protesting vehemently, and layed a single white lily in front of the stone.

"Hello, Gil," Sara said softly. "It's been a long time. I'm sorry I haven't come to see you much lately, but it's getting harder and harder for me to get out these days. My age is starting to catch up with me." She chuckled softly and remembered all the times he had playfully commented about his age catching up with him sooner than he liked. She smiled and pressed her palm flat against the cool marble of his headstone.

"Our daughter and her family are doing well," she said with a wistful smile. "Jenna and Mark just gave birth to their second child. It's a little boy, Gil, and they named him Patrick Gilbert. Hannah was so excited to hear that she had a little brother." Sara's smile widened. "Jenna is such a great mother and she's so smart. She's a forensic biology professor at UNLV. You would be so proud of her, Gil. She's done so well and come so far. "

Sara fell silent and sat in the grass, staring at the ground, lost in memories. She pulled up a handful of grass and watched as the breeze blew the grass from her hand and mixed it with the swirling leaves. She took a deep breath.

"I guess I didn't really come here to babble on about my age and our family," she said hesitantly. "I just…I just wanted to tell you that I've missed you and…that I'm sorry."

Sara took a shaky breathe as a tear slipped down her cheek. The day that had felt so warm moments before suddenly seemed cold and forbidding.

"I couldn't find him," she whispered. "I couldn't find the bastard that killed you, Gil. I used every single grain of intelligence and every ounce of skill I had as an investigator and I couldn't catch him." She was crying earnestly then, hot tears sliding down her cheeks and dropping into the grass. She leaned forward and rested her head against the cool marble of his tombstone. It was the closest she had felt to him since his death all those years before.

"I'm sorry I never gave you justice," she whispered brokenly to the unforgiving rock. "I guess I just wasn't smart enough. I hope you can forgive me, Gil."

She sat with her forehead against the white stone for a long time. After a while and with tears still rolling down her cheeks, she glanced at his tombstone and then pushed herself to her feet and began to slowly walk to the cemetery gate. When she reached it, she looked back one last time at the bright marble that bore his name. As the leaves swirled around her, she wiped the tears from her eyes and walked to where her daughter was waiting with the car.

As the car faded out of sight and the noise of the engine died away into nothingness, silence settled over the little cemetery once more and the dead lay peacefully beneath the cold hard ground. The months passed slowly by and fall faded to winter and then there was a new grave to be dug. And once the mourners had left, the grave had been filled, and a new name had been added to the bright marble, silence was restored once again. And in the silence a couple danced, unseen, over the soft, new fallen snow, happy once more, together for eternity.

Love knows no bounds.

Please, R&R