Greg Sanders found himself at the Las Vegas Train Station, waiting patiently as the days last train to San Francisco pulled in. His gaze wandered to the setting sun barely visible over the skyline of trees and a distant hill. The children's screams of delight and fear, the parents trying to shush them, and other ambience sound ceased to exist as he calmly breathed in, staring off into the distance. As quickly as it went away it came back full force, and what ever relaxation he was finally beginning to have went away with the trains last call whistle.

He smiled politely as a person from the train took his luggage stowing it away in the cargo hold at the back of the train and gave the person at the door his ticket, willing for just one row to himself. With every time he'd traveled on a train some one always sat beside him and always wanted to talk about their grandkids, or the daughter they had that would be good for him.

He just wanted to think.

Or stop thinking.

Which one he wanted he wasn't sure yet. Maybe he would sleep the whole way there, he hadn't really given it much thought. Turning off the brain was working already. One final whistle and the train began to pull out, and soon they were on the way to San Fran.

Dozing had worked for the first half an hour, but then his brain started working over time. Everything he had tried to push away came boiling to the surface, except for one, he had pushed it down so far it struggled to make its way back up, but he would only push it down farther. The explosion, he refused to talk, think or write home about it, it was over and done with.

It was the first week of fourth grade when it had started. Her name was Marissa; she wore pigtails and a evil grin. She was the shit, and everyone knew, and the fact that she knew everyone knew it, set her on a pedestal of her own. Girls feared her, and so did most of the boys in his class too. She was the bully of the school, there was even rumors going around that she was really 16 but she came back to beat on little kids. He had been proud it was the first couple of days that his mother hadn't packed him some foreign thing he couldn't pronounce and was just simply peanut butter and jelly with apple juice drink box and a nice homemade chocolate chip cookie. Everything was going fine, he was eating contently, when he saw the shadow loom over his desk. It had escalated from there, he never ate at lunchtime, Marissa always eating it in front of him. Soon it turned to money, and he would a dollar a day kept her away from him.

Finally his mother had asked why he needed the dollar everyday, so he finally broke and told her why. She had phoned the school telling the principal directly of what was going on and demanded that he fixed it. His definition of fixing it was suspending her for three days. It had been good those three days, but he knew it would come to an end on the fourth day when she showed up in class. He was in for it. No one talked to him that day for fear of getting beat up themselves. The day passed with out any incident until it was time to go home, living only a few blocks away, Greg was allowed to walk home. Only Marissa was able to do the same, and punched him for telling on her. He tried defending himself, only to be hit again and again. He had managed to make it home, dripping blood and unable to use his left arm. He took one step in the door, taking one look at his mother and her friends, and collapsing on the floor. He had a fractured wrist, broken nose, a mild concussion. Marissa had been expelled after his mother had waltzed in with the police during a staff meeting and showed him pictures of what Marissa did.

Greg shifted in his seat, staring blindly out the window as trees whirled by, soon the train slowed allowing more passengers on and was on the way again, leaving Greg once again in memory lane.

He had just turned twelve when his Papa Olaf had taken him aside away from his parents and the kids that had been invited for his birthday and sat him down in his fathers den.

"My father did the same thing with me when I was about your age" his Papa had taken out something from his breast pocket of his shirt. In his hands was a protective sleeve encasing a penny

"It's a penny" a young and uneducated Greg said, a little disappointed

"Not just any penny son, it's a 1909 VDB penny"

"What's so special about it?" that prompted his Papa to chuckle

"What makes it special? Boy oh boy" his Papa took the penny back and showed him right where it was labeled

"That's why my boy the man who made it signed it, a rarity"

"Cool, thanks Papa"

"No problem my boy"

Greg still had the penny, along with a few others locked away in his home safe. The thing was fire proof; waterproof and just about anything else you could think of proof. Somewhere along the lines, someone had sat down with him, a woman that much he could tell but she was turned away from him, nose engrossed in a book, which book he couldn't tell but he wasn't about to ask either.

The lunch trolley came by, offering sandwiches and bottles of juice, a rare thing these days usually trains had a lunch cart, but the duration of the trip wasn't that long so why have something that wouldn't be used? He purchased an egg salad sandwich with a bottle of apple juice. The sandwich was dry and he had drank the much needed apple juice to moisten his throat, the oncoming buildings alerted him that he was almost there, another stop and he would be home. No home was where the heart was, and his was back in Vegas with a certain brunette.

Last he heard she had to take some time off, the whole thing was hush hush, he could more than likely find out about it when he got back. The lab couldn't keep secrets.

His mother the reason why he was going home for a few days, had taken a nasty fall down the stairs, breaking her hip, his dad couldn't take time off work, they were still scraping to make ends meet, even after the checks he would send them every month. But they were happy, and that's something he could say for the rich people who didn't have to worry about money, sure they could buy happiness, but why would you want too. True happiness came from within. He couldn't exactly take time off either, with the pay cut and all but he had some money saved up, so it wasn't like he was going to starve to death.

For as long as he could remember he had been asking for a baby brother, and in the worst case a baby sister, because girls had cooties. His parents had just come from the doctors, his mother wasn't looking too good, the smile was gone from her face, and her eyes instead of sparkling looked exhausted and worn out.

"Greg we have to talk" his father had used the tone that meant I-mean-now-not-when-you-feel-like-it tone and he sat down at the kitchen table, where they had discussions before.

"What about?" Greg asked in a cheery tone, but looking at his mother once again, his voice became quiet and serious

"We just came from the doctor's" Greg didn't like the sound of where this was going

"That's why Missy's mom dropped me off instead, I know" Greg encouraged them to continue.

"I'm afraid your wish for having another brother or sister won't come true"

"Not even if I ask Santa?"

"No I'm sorry son, there are complications, ones you'll understand when you're older but your mother cannot have anymore children" he let the news digest

"That's okay, they would have been annoying anyways" he smiled, hugged each one of them, his mother a little longer and kiss to the cheek and he was off playing with Joey from down the street.

The next week, his father had become mean, his mother crying all the time and he was no longer allowed to play with Joey, or go out for that matter, he was to stay in his room and do nothing. So he studied and studied and was glad for the day he graduated high school with honors and a scholarship to Stanford. His father didn't stop him, but his mother cried harder that he had ever seen her before when he walked out that door.

He came at Christmas, and phoned and sent cards every birthday and holiday, but he had never truly been close since that day he was thirteen and told he would never have any brothers or sisters.

The sky had begun to change once again, the ever-lightening sky held the worlds many secrets and for now he kept his own. As the train began to slow, he put on his coat, and gathered his reading material had grabbed on the way in, never once ever glancing at the cover.

He stood ready to say excuse me to the lady, who thankfully stayed quiet for the trip spoke up.

"Help a lady with her luggage?" he looked down and noticed the smile upon her face

"What are you doing here, and how come I didn't notice you before?" a smile appeared on his face

"Well I had some time off, and thought you could use a friend"

"I'm not looking for a friend right now"

"That's too bad, this friend was going to let you see her naked"

"Well in that case" he extended his hand to help her up, and together they walked out. He intertwined his fingers with hers, walking towards their luggage.

"I'm really glad you're here, it means a lot"

"I'm glad I'm here too" Sara whispered back

A/N: Don't own anything. Wrote this for CSI Santa. Which CSI Valentine is up and running if you guys want. PM me if you want some info or go to the website. h t t p / w w w . f r e e w e b s . c o m / c s i v a l e n t i n e 0 7/ Just remove the spaces you and your good to go. Really worth the time to go and do. You get a fic in return for writing one.