A/N: I've never been a fan of the whole GSR idea – much prefer the CSR realm. That said, assume Sara left during the "Goodbye and Good Luck" episode, but the kiss and the letter, etc. never existed. Neither did the actual GSR. I watched the "Family Affair" rerun last night and this idea screamed at me. It's sorta in-ep, but there are alterations to the events that happened in the episode, just FYI. I own nothing but the idea.
Not beta'd and barely proofread...my apologies if you can't follow.
Spoilers: Goodbye and Good Luck, One to Go, Family Affair
Chapter 1
Sara and I have been in touch for about a year now. The first time she called was a month or so after Warrick's death. She wanted to make sure I was dealing with the loss of my best friend and not just sweeping it to the side; we talked for hours. It was like she'd never left. Then again, we rarely talked before she left. It was more like she was my long lost best friend I didn't know about. She asked me not to tell anyone she'd called, so I didn't. I've kept it quiet ever since. At first, we only talked about once a month. It gradually became a more frequent thing. Recently, we've been talking almost every other day, so the past week without a word has actually been driving me nuts. She told me she had a trip coming up and communication would be spotty. She wouldn't tell me anything about it – said there were so many unknowns that she didn't want to get her own hopes up by talking about it. She assured me that it was only for 11 days, that she'd call me as soon as she could, and that she would tell me all about it when it was over. That's all I could really ask, but it's still been frustrating.
When Sara first left, none of us knew where she went. While she was back for the funeral, she avoided talking about herself. When she was asked direct questions, she mostly answered them, but we could tell she was leaving a lot out. I was hurt at first, that she wouldn't trust us with her "personal" information. As I studied her, I came to realize it wasn't us she wanted to keep things from; it was Grissom. Once she started calling, after swearing me to secrecy, Sara gave me more details about where she's been. She's been doing humanitarian work, mostly in Central America. She's helped build schools in three villages, and was a driving force in bringing clean water to four others.
These days, whenever I talk to Sara, she sounds happy. She tells me she's excised her demons and shooed away the ghosts. Recently, she says she misses her work here, but I'm not sure if it's the work, or her friends. Sometimes it really sounds like she wants to come back and be a CSI again. I But then, I think that's just wishful thinking on my part. I would love to have Sara back here again – for more than just professional reasons. But I'm afraid if she came back, her demons would be here waiting. Even when we weren't so close, I wouldn't have wanted that for her.
Sara was ticked when Gil found her in Costa Rica: she blamed me for telling him where she was, but eventually figured out that he picked up on really subtle clues from her letters to the team. She also realized that she had still been pretty vague with me on where she was. If I had wanted to, I'm sure the CSI in me could have figured it out, too. But Sara made it a point not to tell any of us where she was, and as much as I disliked it, I respected her privacy.
More to come...reviews please!