Disclaimer: I Don't own the main Characters

Hi everybody, did anybody miss me? Here is a brand new story.

Summary: It's been four years since they parted and an event brings Grissom back but is it what he thinks it is or will he be surprised? Will it make him stay? Will they be able to forgive their past mistakes and be like it was meant to be or have they moved on from one another? Also somebody is targeting them, will they make it out alive? Flashbacks are set in season 13 with my own twist.

AN: Characters might be a little out of Character, I really do try.

AN#2: Even though I know Catherine is not in Season 13 this is my twist so I included her instead of Finely sorry if you don't like that but please still be respectful to the story.

Title: Healing
Rating: T
Genre: Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Drama, Angst, Friendship
Time-line: 4 years after season 13
Spoilers: Any episodes from seasons 1-13 could be referenced
Warnings: Mention of Major Character death, Very Minor Character(s) Death, Violence, Minor suggestive themes, some language
Main Parings: Sara/OC, GSR, OC/OC
Minor Pairings: Catnip, Greg/OC
Other Characters: DB Russell, Morgan (Mention and a brief visit), Finley (Mention only)


Title: Healing

Chapter 1: Where life had taken her

Sara was in a room, sitting in a chair, at place she never liked and this time was no exception, even more so now. She hears a beeping of the heart machine indicating that there is still life in the young child that is lying in the bed next to her chair. She took a shaky breath and looked at the little, brown-haired girl in the bed, she was laying on her side with her blue eyes closed, sleeping soundly.

Sara puts her hand on the little girl's cheek, ran her thumb up and down and said. "It's ok baby we will find out what's wrong with you." When her little girl was getting sicker she took her to the doctor and they ran a bunch of tests now they just need to wait for the results.

If someone would have told her when she was younger that she would have ended up like this she would have never believed them.

As she looked over her daughter she thought back to the past:

It was 1999 and she was 26 going on 27 when she first walked in that seminar and the second she saw the teacher standing in front of the classroom behind the podium she felt like her heart was beating for the first time and from that moment on there wasn't a day or moment that went by where he didn't come into her thoughts. They formed a strong bond in those three days he was in San Francisco and their friendship carried on through the months after he left, emailing and calling each other with thoughts about work or whatever else that was on their minds, except for how they really felt.

When he called her on that October day in 2000 asking her to come to Vegas to help in an internal investigation she said yes, anything to get her closer to him and plus she had really missed him, yeah they talked often but it wasn't the same as being face to face.

When he asked her to stay she didn't hesitate a minute because she had a feeling he felt the same as her and she thought it was only going to be a matter of time before they told each other how they felt then everything would be out in the open so they could start their new lives together but what she didn't count on was being around a different kind of man than she had met in San Francisco. He was more guarded around her, especially after her first year there.

The two years that followed were some of the hardest and confusing times when it came to him. One moment it would feel like he was pulling her close to him and then the next he would push her away, and every time he did that it left her heartbroken. It became so hard to work with him at one point that she wanted to take a leave of absence to rethink if she could really stay. Then he sent that plant and her heart won out, she knew she couldn't leave more than she could stop breathing so she stayed, hoping that was a turning point. Which it was but not in the direction she was hoping.

Things were good for a few months but then he started pushing her away again, acting differently and more guarded than ever. It wasn't until years later till she found out the reason why, he was going deaf and he didn't want her to think of him any differently and she never would have because she loved him. She had so much love for him she even stayed after he rejected her dinner invitation.

That rejection hurt more than words could express and with the combination of the rejection, almost getting blown up in the lab, being the other woman in another relationship and not getting the promotion, she turned to alcohol. She didn't realize how far she had taken it until she was pulled over for an almost DUI, he had come to the police station and taken her home. After that night things between them started to turn again, this time for the good. It was baby steps and a very slow process but it was working.

A couple of months into her fifth year she broke down and told him about her childhood. It was hard to do but he wanted to understand a little at what she was going through and she thought if she lowered her walls then he might do the same so she told him. As she poured her heart out about her childhood he was there the whole time, holding her hand and finally there was the glimpse of the man who she had met in San Francisco and her heart was rejoicing.

Even though they were taking more steps working on their relationship after that day, it didn't take a major turning point until she was held hostage in the mental hospital. Those few terrifying minutes sent a shock through him and he finally knew what to do about them and so on that Sunday all their feelings came out and that was the start of their romantic relationship and besides a few minor things trough the years, that was best thing that had ever happened in her life at that point.

But just because they had what they had always wanted it still wasn't easy, especially because they had to keep it a secret from everybody. They didn't want to be separated or worse one of them losing their jobs so they did what they had to do and dealt with their ups and downs as a couple no matter how hard it became.

And for two years things were better than ever between them and more than she had imagined. And despite the rocky parts of his one month sabbatical and Heather coming back into their lives briefly her life was just as she wanted it, who would have thought that in one moment everything changed.

A serial killer, who they named the Miniature killer, was on the streets which they had tried to track down for months. Towards the end of the case the Miniature killer wanted to get back at Grissom so she took the only woman he ever loved and placed her under a car and left her to die but with determination and not wanting her life to end like that she freed herself, just to almost die in the scorching hot desert.

When she opened her eyes in the helicopter her guarding angel was looking back at her with all the emotion he could show and with his hand in hers she knew they were going to be ok, she just didn't know how wrong she was.

The aftermath of the Miniature killer left them to deal with their secret being exposed and one of them had to move to swing shift, she told him that she would do it because the team needed him and she thought she could use more sunlight in her life. She found out that she may have worked in the sunlight now but her life was starting to feel like darkness again. Murder after murder, crime scene after crime scene was taking a big toll on her and the only bright spot in those months was his proposal. It had come out of nowhere but she couldn't imagine it any other way by him and there was only one answer to that question, yes.

But despite the proposal and him trying as best as he could to help her through the ordeal she couldn't take it anymore and did the only thing she felt she had to do. She left Vegas, her colleagues and more importantly him. It was truly one of the hardest things she ever had to do but she knew nothing good would have come if she had stayed and so she went out and buried her ghosts from her past.

It's kind of Ironic if she thought about it long enough but the team member who had a hand in her coming to Vegas in the first place was the same one who made her come back. The death of her colleague/friend was very hard on her, really on all of them, but no more than Grissom. She could see the pain in his eyes right before he hugged her in his office and when he was retelling the accounts of that night. All she wanted to do was wrap him in her arms, shut out the world and take his pain away. And she tried but he wanted something she couldn't give him at the time, he wanted her to stay. She loved him very much but she knew Vegas wasn't the place for her right then and she couldn't tell him to give up a career he worked so hard for. So after a heated, cryptic discussion she left for the second time. It was just as hard, if not harder than the first time.

After she left the second time she visited her mother then went out and traveled and instead of taking pictures of dead bodies and crime scenes she was taking pictures of wildlife, plant life and the beautiful sceneries that she came across, it was peace she didn't know she could have. The only thing that was missing was him. Eventually though she knew she had to let him go and the moment after she sent him that video she wanted to take it back but knew she couldn't, their lives were going on different paths.

Months after that video was sent and her trying to heal her broken heart, her and the crew members ended up in Costa Rica.

After a few days of enjoying the scenery she saw a monkey in the tree by their camp and started to take pictures of it, not knowing a few minutes later her life was about to take a turn again.

She had felt a presence behind her and it was a familiar one but she was confused by it because she thought she would have never felt it here and when she turned around and saw him standing there, her heart just about leapt out of her chest and tears wanted desperately to come out.

In that moment when they showed with their eyes how much they had missed and loved one another it didn't matter to her that it took him months to go after her. The important thing she would always remember was that he did. He retried from the life he had known long before he had met her and made her a priority, something she had always wanted. Not that she wanted to come between his work she just wanted to know she was important to him and that answered all her doubts. It was the most passionate reunion she ever had in her life and something she will always remember.

They had gotten married a few days later and after their wonderful honeymoon they broke away from the crew and went on their own and for months they traveled to places she could only dream about, visiting various rainforests and watching him become more engrossed at every bug/insect he could find and giving her a 20 minute lecture on each and every one but she didn't care because she was with the man she had loved for a decade and anything he wanted to talk about is ok with her, she could listen to him for days. They were more carefree than ever and they wished this feeling could last forever but what she should have known by now was that life could take her in a whole different direction.

She couldn't tell you why they decided to settle in Paris, until their research grant was approved, but she could tell you how she felt when he started teaching. She felt like she was going to become something she never wanted to feel like, a housewife. She loved being married to him and didn't mind doing the house chores but when she saw him have a routine of getting out of bed and going to work day after day she knew she couldn't handle just being at home waiting for him night after night, that wasn't her and not something she wanted.

So when she had gotten a call to come back to Vegas to help out she jumped at the chance, of course she talked about it with her husband and they both agreed that it was something she needed to do and that it was going to be temporary but what they didn't know was that decision was going to change their lives forever.

What started out as a temporary thing turned into something longer and before they knew it three years had passed.

He had left Paris to do his own research, their visits and talks had become slim to non-existent and she had started to miss him, being close to him, coming home to him after a hard days work and needing his comfort when she needed it the most. It started to weigh on them, especially her. She figured that he started to catch on because when they had gotten to talk, which wasn't very often by than, and before they hung up her voice would already be hitching like she was ready to cry.

So on that horrible night when that phone call she had been dreading all day came from him, telling her what he thought would be in her best interest, she really shouldn't have been that surprised. She knew something had to be done she just never thought he would have chosen the route he took and when they hung up, that was it. A 14 year friend/relationship, the only relationship that had ever meant anything to her, had ended.

After that phone call she felt off, her life was in shambles and she made choices she wouldn't have normally made.

She had gotten through some of the worst months of her life with the support of her friends. Then before she knew it four years have passed and she had moved on the best she could.

She sighed, shaking off her thoughts of the past, looked at the little girl in the bed and thinks. 'Now This.'

She hears the door open and looks in that direction and instead of the doctor coming into the room it was a short brown-haired, blue-eyed, medium-sized build, 5'11 man.

She gives him a small smile and he walks fully into the room, sits down in the chair across from her and hands her a coffee. She takes it after saying thanks and as she was taking a sip he asked. "Has the doctor come in yet?"

She swallowed, shook her head and replied with her voice hitching. "No."

The man looked at her then puts his hand on top of hers, so it was covering both hers and the little girl's hand then speaks. "It will be ok Sara, Isabella will be alright."

She took a breath looked at him and replied. "I hope your right Thomas because I need her as much as she needs me."

Thomas Dixon started working at the lab four years ago and immediately they clicked. He had come into her life at one of her darkest times and she didn't know where she would have been if it wasn't for him.

He gives her a small smile and replied. "I know you do and you know I'll be here every step of the way."

She smiles with a nod and said. "Thank you."

He nods, looks at the little girl in the bed and replied. "No need to thank me. Where else would I be?"

She sees the love in his eyes for Isabella and tears started to fill in hers she looked down and prayed her little girl would be alright.


AN: Want to know what happens next? Interested in more? Please review.