"Always knew it would happen," announced Hodges as he and Wendy stood across the hall watching Gil Grissom empty the locker, looking at each item, before he placed it carefully in the box. "I just wish it wasn't like this." he finished looking across to the supervisors office that was now bare expect the women stood in it looking at her name place and the single photo frame that stood next to it.
"Gil," Cath had to jog a little to catch up wit him as he left, "he guys will be here soon."
"I've said my goodbyes," replied Grissom monotone.
"Perhaps you should wait a bit," suggested Cath pacing a hand on his shoulder, which he reacted to like he had been scolded.
"I've said my goodbyes," repeated Grissom making Cath question if he was in fact listening but that was it, Gil Grissom had gone not with a bang not even a whimper simply faded out. Leaving Catherine alone in the bare office until she left with three sheets of paper. There was no chat in the break room as they were given out. Warrick, Nick and Greg simply took them and left. It was too early still, the constant reminders everywhere. Hodges turned round and picked up the morning paper and there was another reminder 'funeral held yesterday for CSI killed at work.' They didn't deserve this not after all they'd been through they deserved some meaning to it. He remembered when the call came in, suspect had returned to the scene and Sara had been stabbed. Ten minutes later Ecklie had gathered everyone and told them she died on the way to the hospital. That was it instead of the night shift slowly leaving retiring but coming in to see each other as the group grew old together it was ripped apart and Hodges couldn't' find any meaning in it. He felt they deserved something; something to say this is why it happened. They caught the man responsible and his only explanation was she touched my things, no reason and no meaning. Hodges knew now the lab wouldn't be the same, he knew now the group were going to part early and still there was no meaning. Gil Grissom had just taken early retirement and in seconds turned back into his shell, something Hodges doubted very much he would ever come back out off. Now the only thing Hodges could give meaning to was the fact lie carried on with little reminders of what had been lost.
"Want to get a drink after shift?" asked Wendy breaking the silence.
"Sure," replied Hodges watching as Catherine entered placing a piece of paper down on the table she stopped staring at something Hodges had missed, it was just a scarf, but it was Sara's scarf, just one more reminder of the void she had left and that had grown when Grissom left taking his and hers things as he did.
"Julie from days is moving shift could you send her to the break room," said Cath leaving. She hadn't progressed into her knew office because to her it was still Grissom's as it would be for years to come even after she'd been in there for so long that it almost looked like home, there was still that thought that it was Grissom's. Even when the picture of the night shift was partnered with a picture from her and Warrick's wedding it remained Grissom's office. The lab carried on just as Hodges had thought with the odd reminder of its previous occupants. Greg passed his level two proficiency, Warrick became swing supervisor and Nick married Casey a lawyer he met at work, yet with all this it was never the same, the photo still hung in the break room of the old shift despite the many faces that came and went they were never as close, never the same. Grissom taught at a couple of universities then while Catherine and Warrick were on honeymoon the news came he had died in a car accident, he'd come of the road and hit a tree, no other cars were involved he'd simply been somewhere else, where he was now, with Sara finally together and at peace.
THE END