Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Dedication: This entire fic is dedicated to Mel, for helping me out the kinks in the story line and talking me through it when I needed it. This one is for you sis!

A/N: Thanks a lot to Roch for the betaing, you did an awesome job! Before anybody starts flaming away, this fic is not the usual drama, it's heavy stuff. If you don't like it, that's alright, just close the window and don't blame it all on me. This is part of my mind and in this way I want to practice my writing techniques, I don't want to write what people want me to write. No, I want to write what I like. Alright, that said, I hope you enjoy it. Here is the first chapter, it didn't take me too long. Just beware that updates can take longer in the future, uni is busy.

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Chapter 1

The sun was peeking shyly over the horizon, its rays travelling over the city, introducing the new day. It was still early in the morning, but the heat was already noticeable when you looked out over the buildings. You could see the heat hanging in the air, it dropped a heavy blanket over Sin City, a blanket underneath which you could find hope for a better life, greed and hate. Even this early…

Jim Brass, a man always on the look-out for crime, was now sitting in his car, done with work as he watched the people starting to wake up, preparing to live yet another dreary day.

Now, he was on his way to a friend, or at least somebody he used to call a friend. He wasn't sure what Gil Grissom was to him these days, not sure if he knew him at all.

He let out a sigh and drummed his fingers rhythmically on the steering wheel, a little nervous about having to face him again. Gil Grissom had become a different man, and it scared Jim. This was going to be the first day he would see Grissom after all that had happened, and he wasn't sure what to expect.

Finally the traffic moved and Jim parked his car in the lot, walking to the reception desk and flashing his badge. The woman there inspected his ID, as if making sure it was a real one, then told him to go outside to the park. She gave him directions and told him Grissom would be ready to talk to him in a few minutes.

He followed the directions and found the park without any difficulty. He sat down and nervously fiddled with his hands. He looked around a bit, looking at all the people walking around in here. This wasn't right. 'Gil Grissom is not like them, is he?' Jim thought. 'He doesn't belong here.'

The people walking around here were crazy or… emotionally unstable. People here didn't belong in the outside world, they were a danger to the population. Maybe because they had committed something horrible, or maybe because they put other people in danger by endangering their own lives. Deep down he knew Grissom had been like that as well, and that it had been a good decision to put him in a place like this until the trial could start.

The trial - that was going to be a hard one and he wasn't sure if he would be able to be a witness in the whole case. Of course, he was a witness, but he doubted if he could testify. Testify for a friend by testifying against a friend.

"Jim, good to see you," came the voice from behind him. Jim turned quickly to see Grissom approaching him. He forced a smiled and made some room on the bench so Grissom could sit next to him. "How have you been?"

Jim forced a smile. "I've managed," he confessed, having had a hard time since the it all. He studied Grissom for a moment. He looked like the man he used to be, and it confused Jim. Had it all just been a bad dream?

"How is she?" Grissom asked, his voice dropping a bit. His eyes sought out Jim's, the question visible in the blue and Jim noticed he looked older than he truly was.

"Gil…" He started, letting out a deep sigh as he remembered the horror on Sara's face when he had found her. He shook his head to make the image disappear. "She's still in the hospital… it's critical," he said, his eyes prickling with unshed tears. Sara was like very close family to him - he loved her just as much as he loved his own daughter, and seeing her in the condition she was in at the moment cut him deep.

Grissom looked down at his feet. "Oh," was the only thing he said, a small tear rolling down his cheek. He looked back up at Jim and swallowed. "Do you think she will come see me when she's better?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

Jim looked at the man sitting next to him. "I'm sorry… I don't think she will, Gil. And I hope you can understand and accept that," he said, emotion audible in the tone of his voice. "But I will ask her to write you a letter, do you think that's okay?" he asked.

Grissom nodded wearily. "Yeah, I suppose," he said. "I uh… I'm sorry for what happened, she knows that right?" He asked.

Jim looked at his hands. "Yes, she does," he lied, just to make Grissom a little more comfortable when they would have to talk about it. "About that Gil… Could you tell me what happened, from the beginning?"

Grissom looked confused. "You know what happened right, or least of all, you think you know what happened," he said, his gaze dark, and for a moment Jim thought he would stand up and walk away. But his look softened again. "I thought I taught everybody to be objective, but clearly you're the only one listening. You're the first one coming to ask me about my side of the story."

"Gil, this isn't just a regular case, you know that right?" Jim asked.

Grissom nodded. "Yes, of course I know. But objectivity is always important, if it involves your own or not. Always make sure you see both sides of the story," he lectured. "But you didn't come here to talk about objectivity, so I'll give you the information you need."

"You're not saying she asked for it. Are you?" Jim frowned at Grissom's comment about objectivity. He'd heard those stories a lot, every single time a man would abuse a woman, he would say she deserved it, or that she had asked for it.

"No," Grissom said immediately, shock written all over his face.

Jim nodded at Grissom's former question as he remembered the part where he came in, and he'd heard Sara tell what had happened before that, but he was curious to the other side of the story as he waited for Grissom to talk.

"I think you remember it all started with the case we were working on," Grissom said as he looked out in the distance, remembering. "We couldn't catch him, even though we spent hours looking over the evidence."

"Sometimes it's best to just let go," Jim said and nodded his head a bit.

Grissom chuckled. "Not with this guy, he doesn't deserve to be walking around freely. He needs to be convicted for the damage he's done to so many people. But well, that started it all. Too many sleepless nights it caused, too many fights, but it didn't bring enough evidence." Grissom let out a deep sigh and clasped his hands together. "That's when it really started…"

TBC