Disclaimer: Don't own the main characters

Summary: A misunderstanding 10 years earlier changes the course of a couple's life, can they reclaim the life they should of had a long time ago or is it too late for them? Please read and find out. AU. Details inside.

AN: Hi everybody, I wanted to try something different so this story came into my mind. Since it's AU it does have a couple of twists, the two I mostly want to point out right away is that the age gaps between the characters are very different than cannon, like for example Sara and Grissom are only 3 years apart, and they lived in Vegas before and went to school together. You'll see more stuff as the story goes along. I just hope you give it shot.

Title: That Night
Genre: Romance, Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Friendships, Family
Rating: T
Spoilers: Subtle mention of the Pilot Episode
Time-line: Pre-Series, AU
Warnings: Implied/suggestive behavior
Main Parings: GSR, Sara/Nick/Warrick Friendship
Minor Parings: Sara/OC, Catnip (Catherine/Nick)
Other Characters: Brass (Later Chapters), Greg (Later Chapters), OC's

Chapter 1: Thinking of the Past

Flashback

12 years earlier

It was the first day of High School for 13 year old Sara Sidle and her two best friends, 13 year old Warrick Brown, whom she had been friends with since fourth grade when she had moved to Vegas with her first foster family, and 14 year old Nick Stokes, whom she had been friends with since sixth grade when him and his parents moved from Texas.

They were very excited about this new step in their lives because they couldn't wait to see what high school would bring them.

When the bell rung, indicating it was the start of school, Sara gave her friends smiles, and they smiled back before Warrick spoke. "I guess I'll see you two in Science class."

They nodded while the smiles remained as he headed for his History class, then Nick spoke to Sara in his Texan accent. "Have fun in Math class."

"Oh, you know I will."

As much as Sara loved Science, Math was her favorite subject. In fact, she was so good a it that she was already two math classes away from college level.

After the two of them chuckled, Nick headed for his English class while Sara went the opposite direction.

When she made it into the room, seeing that most of the students were Juniors with a few seniors mixed in, she goes to the chair that was in the front row, front seat on the left side of the room before sitting down and getting her Math notebook out of her backpack.

After the second bell rung, and while she was writing her name and date in the corner of the first page in her notebook, she heard a male's voice come into the room, which even though it sounded younger than if it was a teacher, it was music to her ears and she couldn't help but look up, making her silent gasp as she noticed he had beautiful blue eyes.

"Hi everybody, as you can see I'm a little young to be Mr. Williams, so those of you who don't know me, I'm Gilbert Grissom, and I'll be his TA this semester. Mr. Williams is running a little late, so he asked me to hand out these practice tests." Before the class groaned, he continued. "Now they won't be graded, he just wants to see what you remember over the summer." As he finished, he raised an eyebrow above his glasses. "Shall we get started."

He grabbed the test papers from the desk that was in the front right corner of the room before going along the first desks and passing out the papers that had the same number of students that were in that row.

When he stopped at Sara's desk, her brown eyes met his blue ones, and for a split second everything had seemed to stop around them. But he shook it off as quickly as he could, noticing she looked younger than a senior or junior, before handing her the last of the papers, then he cleared his throat as he turned his attention back to the whole class. "Alright, there should be silence and everybody look at your own paper, and remember, relax. This is only a practice test, you may begin."

After Sara and Grissom shared one more look, he turned his back on her so he could walk to the teacher's desk, while Sara took a few more seconds before she could concentrate on her work, or at least tried to, which kind of scared her since she never had to concentrate so hard before because she loved learning and school had always came natural to her.

She just knew something was up because her heart was still racing, and in the back of her mind, she couldn't shake those beautiful blue eyes out of her head.

End of Flashback

25 year old Sara wakes up with a gasp as her alarm clock goes off. Then she sits up and reaches for it to turn it off while wondering after all this time why she had a dream about that moment, about him.

Before more thoughts about the past showed up, her phone started to ring from her nightstand.

She took a breath as she reached for it, then smiled at who was calling her before answering her phone. "Hi Nicky."

Nick smiled on his end of the phone. "Hi Sara, are we still meeting up for breakfast before going to the seminar?"

"Of course, I'll see you in 45 minutes."

"Ok, see you then, bye Sara."

"Bye Nick."

Once they hung up, Sara gets out of bed before she grabs her clothes and heads to the bathroom to take a quick shower so she could meet Nick.

After High School, everybody pretty much went their own way, and after studying at Harvard before going to Berkeley, she became a CSI; A career path that took her by surprise when she had chosen a semester of forensic science, which at the time wasn't a very popular subject. But she enjoyed what she did because most of all she loved getting justice.

And one of the best parts about her career was that her friends had also chosen the same path, so they could actually talk about their jobs with one another without any of them getting disgusted on what they had to deal with on a daily bases.

Now there was a seminar in San Francisco, a city she now lives in, which Nick was here visiting from Texas, where he had went to college and had stayed there after, to attend it with her, and it was something she was very excited about since they hadn't seen one another in almost a year because of their busy schedules.

When Sara made it into the building, her eyes scanned the diner, but before she saw him, she heard him from the side of her. "Well, look at you, long time no see."

Sara turned her head to the left and smiled as she looked at one of her longest friends, right before they moved closer to one another so they could wrap their arms wrapped around one another tightly as they started chuckling.

After they pulled back, she smiled again. "It has been awhile, which is why you decided to come, right?"

He nodded as they walked to the booth he had been sitting at before she showed up, then spoke as they sat down across from one another. "That, and I felt like I could use this seminar/break."

Then she snickered. "That, and your boss wanted you to come and take notes on the new developments in the forensic world?"

Nick then chuckled with a nod. "Yes, that too."

After ordering their drinks once the waitress came over to their table, they started looking over the food items on their menus while Sara spoke again. "I'm sorry that Warrick couldn't show though."

Unlike Sara and Nick, Warrick stayed in Vegas to go to college at WLV and was now working at the lab there, and a high priority case came so he had to scrap his plans on visiting them.

He nodded as he continued to look at his menu. "I know." Then he looked over the top of his menu to look at her, which she was still looking at hers. "But, least we got some of the gang back together."

Right as she heard that she didn't answer, because like her dream earlier, she had a flashback of the past.

Flashback

12 years earlier

(3 months after the start of school)

Sara was standing in front of the drink table in the school gym that was decorated for the winter formal that Nick and Warrick had made her promise she would come to. She was wearing a long red dress that went down to her ankles with medium-sized straps, she had on her usual amount of make-up, and her hair was down, which was usual, but curled. She was a little uncomfortable with the setting and her attire but she had promised the guys that she would be here and she wasn't going to wear her usual pants and sweaters, or t-shirts, depending on the weather.

She reached for a small water bottle, then she turned around to watch the dancers, and smiled as she watched the guys dancing with a couple of girls.

A few minutes later she looked to the left and saw 17 year old Gilbert Grissom walking her way, making her heart race, not only because he was here, getting closer to her every step he took, but because he was wearing a blue dress shirt that brought out his eyes, and black slacks with shoes that matched.

He stopped next to her and cleared his throat. "Hi."

Sara gave him a small smile. "Hi. I uh...I didn't know this was the type of scene I would ever see you at."

Since they share an advanced History class together, they have talked a little, but it wasn't like she knew him all that well. She just got the impression places that had a lot of students in it didn't seem like his place. She's also seen him alone a few times on campus, and whether that was the way he wanted it or not, she wasn't sure.

Of course, it wasn't like she enjoyed going to places like this either, but she was honoring a promise.

She mentally shook her head as she saw a look in his eyes, so she continued."I don't mean to offend you."

He smiled a little, making her heart speed up a bit more, before he shook his head. "That's ok, and you are right, I'm not. I was actually made to come here."

Before she could say anything, a beautiful, slim build woman with strawberry blond hair with blue eyes walked up to them while smiling with a smirk. "As I live and breath, Gilbert Grissom is at a school dance."

Grissom turned her attention to the other woman, making Sara feel a spark of jealously, even though she tried to hide it.

He smirked at her. "Well, it was you that ganged up with my mom, so you really think I would go against her wishes?" After she smiled, Grissom cleared his throat before introducing the two women. "Catherine Flynn, this is Sara Sidle."

Catherine Flynn, a Sophomore, became friends with Grissom during one of their classes last year when he helped her out with a few assignments, which to the outside world it would seem like an unlikely friendship, but to them, it felt natural.

When Catherine looked toward Sara, Sara couldn't help but see something in her eyes, like she recognized her, even though they've never met formally.

Then Catherine looked at Grissom and asked. "This is Sara Sidle?"

Before he could speak, Nick walked up to the small group. "Hi Sara, you came."

Sara smiled at her friend before nodding. "I had to honor a promise, remember?"

He smiled with a nod before looking at the other two people, then Sara cleared her throat as she replied. "Nick, this is Catherine and Gilbert."

Nick had seen Catherine around school but never had the courage to go up to talk to her, and when he saw her here talking to Sara, he thought this was his shot to get introduced to her.

Nick smiled at them (mostly at Catherine though), then replied. "Nice to meet you two." Then he cleared his throat and asked Catherine. "Can I have this dance?"

Catherine smiled, which Sara and Grissom would consider it was a shy one, then nodded. "Ok, I'm game."

Nick smiled bigger before the two of them walked toward the middle of the gym, then Sara and Grissom looked at each other again before he asked. "So, you were practically dragged here too."

Sara chuckled, making Grissom's heart sing, then she nodded. "Yes."

After a pause, he cleared his throat before asking. "Well, since we are both here, and this is a dance after all, you want to?"

Sara slowly smiled with a nod. "Sure."

Then after placing her still unopened water bottle on the table, the two of them walked toward the middle of the gym, and after an embarrassed pause, she placed both of her hands up on his shoulders, but then Grissom took a hold of one of her hands while placing his other hand on her waist. "Like this."

Sara slowly smiled with a nod again. "Right."

After he smiled, they started moving their feet slowly, but a second later she stepped on his foot, making her cringe as they stopped. "I'm sorry."

But he waved it off with a smile before speaking. "Just follow my lead."

She nodded, and after they get back in their stance they slowly moved their feet again while she watched his steps for a bit, then before they knew it, they were dancing together like they've been dancing with one another for years. Of course it wasn't like they were doing a dance with more difficult steps, but she did feel like she accomplished something.

A few seconds of silence, he spoke. "You are a fast learner."

She smiled. "But you knew that already, didn't you?"

He had observed her in both History and Math class, and would have to agree with that, she was a very serious and dedicated student, and that was just one of the many things that drew her to him. Right as he thought that though, something else popped into his head, the negative side. 'Even though she just had a birthday, she's still only fourteen.'

When that last thought finished in his head, he stops his feet and pulled back before clearing his throat. "I can't do this." Sara looked at him with confusion as he continued. "I have to go." He then turned and started walking away.

She took a few seconds before following him out of the gym and in to the breezeway, speaking loudly. "Wait Griss, Wait!"

For some reason since she's met him, she's always wanted to call him Griss as a nickname, so when she had a chance to use it, she was going to.

Grissom stopped and turned around to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Griss?"

She stopped and smiled shyly. "Sorry, you don't like it?"

He slowly smiled with a nod. "I do." As much as he enjoyed hearing her call him by his given name, he liked that she had her own nickname for him, no ones ever said his name like that before.

Then he sighed and shook his head while losing his smile. "But I can't."

"Why, I don't under..."

Grissom cuts her off. "Of course you don't, you couldn't, you wouldn't."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

He opens his mouth to speak, but then he closed it and shook his head. "Forget about it."

As he was turning around to walk away again, Sara took a breath and whispered while looking down. "I can't forget about it when you are all I think about."

Grissom stopped quickly again after hearing what she said before turning around once again. "What?"

She looked up to see his blue eyes. "I can't forget about anything you say because you are all I think about."

"It will pass. It may seem like it won't now, but eventually there will be..."

Sara cuts him off. "Somebody else? And how has it been working for you?"

Sure, in her mind she was probably shooting in the dark with that last comment, but she took a chance, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw him look down at the ground, but before she could continue, he did as he looked in her eyes again. "I just keep reminding myself that it can't happen."

She frowned and her heart sank a little. "And why not?"

Grissom sighed. "Because you are...and I'm..."

Sara cuts him off again. "Wait a minute, don't tell me this is about our 3 year age gap?" When he didn't say anything, she shook her head. "Three years is nothing, it won't matter when we are older."

"But now is what matters." They looked at one another sadly as he finished. "I'm sorry Sara, I don't mean to hurt you. That's the last thing in the world that I wanted, but it has to be this way, you'll find somebody else, I just know it."

Then after one more look, he turned and walked away, leaving Sara behind with tears in her eyes and her heart breaking like it had never done before.

End of Flashback

Sara's thoughts came back to the present when Nick had pushed Sara's menu down on the table and asked. "Hey Sara, what's going on with you? Where was your mind at?"

Sara cleared her throat and shook her head. "I'm fine, it's nothing."

Nick shook his head with a chuckle. "How long have I known you? I know when it's something, so what's up, you can tell me."

She took a breath before telling him. "Flashbacks and dreams of the past coming out of nowhere."

He looked at her with curiosity. "Of what?"

As she looked down at her hands, she replied softly. "Well, today it was High School."

Nick took a moment before replying. "Wow, high school, what a time."

She nodded while still looking down at her hands. "Yeah, what a time."

Nick then placed his hand on top of hers as he asked. "So, is there a reason you are thinking about the past? Did something significant happen in your life recently?"

Sara took another breath before looking at Nick again.

AN: Interested in seeing where this is going? Please review. Also, more Flashbacks coming up.