Nick Stokes walked into the break room, happy to be back. After the upheaval of Sara's kidnapping and rescue and then departure and Warrick's subsequent meltdown, Nick had needed a break. He missed Sara, worried about his mentor and friend, Grissom; and then was scared by Warrick's dependency on drugs and the mayhem that followed. The whole team was falling apart as far as he could see. Feeling overwhelmed, he had requested two of his three weeks vacation and headed for his home in Texas. The two weeks ended yesterday and now he was back and ready to get to work.
"Hey Nick," Greg called to him as he walked into the room.
"Hey Greg. Everything okay?"
"Yeah. Not much has changed. Grissom is still cranky, Warrick has his good days and his bad days, and Catherine is still the glue holding us together."
"Grissom is still cranky? I thought he was beginning to come out of it."
"He was. He actually seemed better. Even went to breakfast with Catherine and me one morning. Brass made a wisecrack at a scene and Grissom actually laughed."
"So what happened?"
"Sara sent an official letter of resignation. Ecklie couldn't wait to show it to him. Threw him back into depression and he hasn't come out of it. He and Brass got into a shouting match the other day. Hadn't seen that in a long time."
"What about?"
"Well… it started over a piece of evidence but ended up being about Sara… or Gris and Sara. Brass told him to get off his ass and go find her 'cause he's making us all miserable."
"Wow. What did Gris say?"
"Nothing. He just stormed out."
"Damn…"
"So how was your vacation?"
"Okay. It proved the old saying though…"
"What old saying?"
"You can't go home again."
Greg eyed the older CSI, thinking about what he had just said. "Guess we're screwed then."
"What? Why?"
"You can't go home again…means Sara can't come back. And Grissom will still be a grouch."
As Nick thought about Greg's statement, he wondered if coming home to CSI would be any better than his reentry at his Texas home.
Gil Grissom walked into the room and spotted Nick. "Good to see you back, Nick."
"Ah…thanks."
"Good vacation?"
"Alright. Good to get away, good to be back."
Grissom's blue eyes studied his former pupil. Nick noticed that they were dull. Gone was the spark that usually shown there. Now they reflected pain. "Had enough of your parents already?"
"No…now, I love my family. But…it's true, you just can't go home again. Once you leave, things change and when you go back, it just isn't the same. You're not the same."
Nick saw the grimace that played on his mentor's face. He immediately regretted his comment. He knew that for Sara, Grissom had been home. And now, Grissom was waiting for her return. The thought that things would have changed too much was painful, Nick realized. And then Nick understood something he had not gotten before. Gil Grissom would wait the rest of his life for Sara to come home, because she was his home too.
Okay, can't believe I'm writing this. Well, yeah...maybe...since there will be some twists and turns in the whole GSR thing. Going to have to read and review to find out what they are though.
