Fade Away

Fandom: CSI

Character(s): Grissom, Nick, Catherine, Warrick, Sara, Brass, Greg

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: CHARACTER DEATHS, AU (future 2010 and beyond), drug/alcohol use, gambling, heavy character angst, mentions of illness, violence.

Disclaimer: I own no rights to these characters and/or the show. I'm making no money, just borrowing them for a short time.

Summary: The longer a team works together, the stronger they become. But even the strongest fall sometime.

Part One- The Fall Of Gil Grissom

No one noticed anything at first; he had always been a little . . . 'out there' as some had put it. A little forgetful when he had his mind wrapped tightly around a case. It was expected. But he had never forgotten any detail pertaining to the case, no matter how minute. And he had certainly never gotten lost, especially in the lab. He knew the layout by heart, could traverse it without incident with his head buried in a file.

But that May was when people really started to worry and call his memory into question.

His footsteps echoed as he walked down the quiet corridor, eyes buried in a file. James Callow, 27, the newest suspect in the Holladay murders, was waiting in an interview room with Brass. And that's where he was headed, at least that's what he thought until a hand grabbed his arm and halted his progress. Grissom looked up into the grinning but slightly concerned face of Nick and realized he was nowhere near his destination.

'Hey Gris. I thought you were going to interview that kid Brass bought in?' Nick pulled him to the side of the hallway, still smiling but Grissom could see the worry lingering behind it.

'Yeah, I was just on my way there now.' The side of his mouth quirked in a small smile.

'You okay, man?' Nick's smile slipped from his face as he tentatively put his hand on Grissom's arm and gave it gentle squeeze.

Grissom just nodded, not entirely sure. But instead of giving voice to his concern, he gave Nick a pointed look. 'Something you need?'

'Uh, yeah. I've got something you might want to see before you go talk to him. Greg's got the DNA results from the saliva found on the youngest daughter's shirt.'

Grissom, try as he might, couldn't keep the confusion off his face. Saliva? He glanced back down at the file in his hands but resisted the urge to flip through his notes to refresh his suddenly depleted memory. Instead, he nodded and followed Nick down the hallway.

And it had gotten progressively worse over the next few weeks. Only after the urging and prodding from those closest, did he go and finally get checked out. Warrick and Nick had joked that it was finally old age and teenage experiments with drugs catching up with him. But behind their laughter was concern.

Three months later, he called a meeting of the graveyard shift, gathering all his CSIs into his office to make the announcement that would test us all.

'What's going on Gris? What's with the meeting?' Nick asked as he strolled into the bug-filled office with Warrick. 'We getting a raise or something?'

'Yeah, picture that!' Warrick laughed as he closed the door behind him. The easygoing mood that had always surrounded the group filled the room with snickers and snorts. But as the banter died down, the air was filled with tension as they all turned their eyes to their supervisor.

'Gris?' Sara was the first to note the nostalgic look in Grissom's eyes.

'I was just thinking.' He smiled at his team as he leaned forward, arms resting on a desk devoid of papers and its usual paraphernalia. This wasn't lost on the team anymore than the intent blue gaze was; the gaze that seemed to soak in each of them before Gil started to speak again.

'I got the test results back.' No one needed to ask what tests, for they all knew. But it did suddenly dawn on them all that whatever words were about to follow next weren't going to be good. He didn't make them wait long as he decided no tact was needed with his closest friends. 'It appears that I'm in the early stages of Alzheimer's.'

Nothing was right after that meeting, for anyone. We had all walked out of the office in a daze that night, not really comprehending much beyond the fact that the ever unflappable, indestructible Gilbert Grissom was now on a downhill slope with the rolling rocks under his unstable feet carrying him to a faster descent. Still in the early stages of the disease process, but failing rapidly, Grissom handed over his position as supervisor to Catherine.

He still came in almost everyday, unofficially consulting on cases and giving his expert opinion on bugs. He was still very much a part of lab life until early December when Brass came into the break room, a grim look on his face.

He listened to the laughter as graveyard gathered in the break room a few minutes before shift, a well-known and well-loved tradition. And he knew as soon as he stepped through that threshold, he would break their hearts. But it needed to be done.

'Hey Brass!' came the cheerful call from Warrick as he sunk back into the couch with a mug of coffee. But the smile slipped from Warrick's face only a moment later.

'I've got some bad news, guys. Gil's been in an accident and is on his way to Desert Palm.' He quickly held up his hands to stave off the worried questions that were sure to come. 'He appears to be fine, just a few minor cuts and bruises. The first officer on scene said he was extremely disoriented.' He sighed and rubbed his forehead before continuing. 'It was only his car. He hit a pole on a back road so no one else was involved. We don't need to investigate but someone should head over to the hospital to check on him. He was asking for you, Nick.'

All eyes turned to Nick as he swallowed convulsively. But he never said a word, just threw his cup in the trash, pulled his keys from his pocket and headed out the door.

At first, we all wondered about Grissom's request for Nick over anyone else, but after mulling it over, it only made sense. Once Nick had gotten over his initial hero-worship and incessant need to please Grissom, they had become close, evidently closer than we realized, like father and son. So it was Nick who made all the arrangements for in-home nursing care for Grissom even though Jim held Gil's power of attorney. And it was Nick that went to visit and sit with him before and after shift everyday.

The next year, in June, Gil Grissom as everyone knew him was lost to the world. Oh, he was still there physically. But mentally he was a different story, trapped in a whole other world where his friends and family no longer existed. It broke us all to go and visit him, which we did as often as possible, even though he never knew we were there. It hurt Nick and Sara the worst, Nick losing his surrogate father and Sara losing the closest thing she ever had to a lover.

Sure, he had moments of almost coherency; moments when he would look at someone's face and a flicker of recognition would flash across his face. But as the months wore on those moments became fewer and farther between. That was when we all made the decision to move him to a full-time facility out in California, his real home and where we all knew he'd want to be in his final days. Nick had taken two weeks to go out with him and get him settled. That's when we all knew that Gilbert Grissom, entomologist, CSI, greatest mentor known to us, man undeserving of this hell life served him at the age of 55, was slowly fading away.

TBC

Next Part- Unlucky Stokes