Chapter 3: The New Reality?

Those few weeks flew by faster than anybody thought could happen, so before they knew it, it was the day after their 22nd birthday and they were at the airport, not really ready to say goodbye but knew they had to.

Sara and Grissom both hugged their youngest while telling her to be safe and said that if she needed to talk that they were only a phone call away, then another hug, a kiss and the words I love you were said, they walked away to let her sister and boyfriend say goodbye.

Destiny looks at Faith and they hug, and while in the hug, Faith asked. "You remember what I told you, right?"

Destiny nodded as she pulled back from her sister. "Yes, I promise."

Faith nodded with tears in her eyes. "I love you Destiny and nothing will ever change that."

Destiny wasn't a very emotional person, but this was her sister and she was going across the ocean for a year, so her eyes were also tearing up. "I love you too Faith." They get into another hug, and after a few minutes, they pull back and she smiles. "I better let your man say goodbye." Faith nods while sniffling.

Destiny pats her on the arm and walks up to her parents, leaving the couple to themselves.

Jeremy puts a hand on Faith's cheek and said. "You will be back before you know it, you will be too busy to miss me."

She smiles sadly. "Are you trying to convince me or you?"

He smiles a little sadly too. "Probably a little of both."

She nods while bringing him in a hug. "Are you sure we will be ok?"

He holds her tighter. "I am positive. When you get back we will plan the future we want, ok?" She nods and started sniffling again.

The woman on the intercom told the passengers that it was their last call, so they pull back and look into each others eyes, he then puts a hand on her cheek again and wipes a few tears away. "I love you Faith."

She nods her head and replies. "I love you too." Then they kissed.

When they pull back this time, they say goodbye one more time, then she waves at the rest of her family, turns before walking away while everybody watches her, which they were already counting down on when she will be back.

When she was out of sight, and while the parents just stood there, Destiny walks up to Jeremy and looks at him. "You know she will be fine. There isn't another man on this planet that's going to take her away from you."

Jeremy smiled and looks over at Destiny, which she smiles back at him. "I know how she feels about me, and that's what will get me through."

She nods before speaking with a bigger smile. "That, and me shooing off every available woman away from you."

Jeremy does a small chuckle, so Destiny crosses her arms over her chest while asking. "What? You don't think I could take them?"

Jeremy puts his hands up in surrender. "Oh I know you can, you may seem small, but you will definitely surprise people."

Destiny may not look like she has a lot of strength but anybody who knows her, knows she has more strength then she posses.

Destiny hits Jeremy lightly on the arm while saying. "You got that right."

Jeremy just smiles and she smiles back, then they turn around and head to where Sara and Grissom were so they could leave the airport and try to continue on without a missing piece of their family for the time being.

Not knowing one moment can change everything around them.

Two days later

It only took two days for their world to come crashing down. When she had stepped on that plane they had no idea that it was going to end up being like this.

The weather didn't match the storm that was going on inside of everybody who was close to Faith Grissom. The sun was shinning bright and no clouds around while family and friends were standing up with their heads bent down as they listened to a prayer from the preacher telling them they have another angel up there looking down on them with a smile.

After they all said 'amen' the group broke apart and some of them left while others walked up to the tombstone to say their last goodbyes, and Sara looks at Grissom both having tears in their eyes, wondering how this could have happened.

Grissom wraps his arm around her shoulders and brings her to him wishing it wasn't true, wishing that they didn't get their world rocked when that phone call parents never want to hear, the plane went down and they tried everything they could but found no survivors.

Grissom puts his chin on her shoulder and looks over at their remaining daughter, and she was standing next to Jeremy as they were both looking down at the tombstone.

Destiny looks over at Jeremy, and said the only thing she could think of. "I know it won't bring her back, but I am so sorry Jeremy."

Jeremy wipes a tear away before looking at Destiny and nods. "It wasn't your fault Dest. I should have convinced her to stay, then we wouldn't be here right now."

Destiny shakes her head while she puts her hand on his shoulder. "Now come on, you were excited for her to go, you wanted her to be happy, and it wasn't your fault either."

He nods, knowing her logic was right, but then said sadly. "But It doesn't make us feel any better, does it?"

She shook her head no, then moves closer to him and puts her head on his shoulder, and after a second hesitation, he puts his arm around her shoulders, both trying give each other a little comfort for their grieving hearts.

A few seconds later, Grissom and Sara walk up to them, and while Grissom looked at their little family, he said. "We will get through this tragedy together. It won't be easy, but I know we can do it."

They all give him a small smile, then Destiny takes her father's hand and Grissom squeezes Sara's hand, all vowing to help each other in this difficult time.

Six months later

It was six months since the tragic day, and life did eventually move on for the mourners, it wasn't easy, but they did what they had to do.

Grissom still works on days, and Sara was moved to swing shift so she could be promoted to a Supervisor, they had missed working with each other but they were happy that they at least got to spend their evenings together. Destiny had finished her last proficiency and was now officially a CSI level 1 on her dad's team, and Jeremy had finished the police academy on top of his class and was a rookie cop.

Destiny and Jeremy had a routine of hanging out twice a week or any free time that they had, which wasn't very much, and that's what they were doing right now.

They were eating dinner, and she had just finished her last bite of steak, then she smiled and said. "That was excellent."

Jeremy smiles in return. "Thank You."

Destiny nodded while taking a sip of her water as he stands up to take the plates, then she shakes her head. " I can do that."

"Don't worry about it, you're the guest."

"Ok, if you're sure."

Jeremy just nods and continued with the dishes as Destiny gets up from the dinner table before walking toward the couch and sitting down, looking out the window once she was comfortable.

A few minutes later her cell phone rings, so she picks it up, and when she saw the number, she sighed and turned it off before setting it back on the table, then got comfortable on the couch again.

Jeremy was getting ready to sit down next to her when he asked. "So who was that?"

"Just an old High School boyfriend. I saw him at the supermarket the other day."

He raises an eyebrow. "And which one was that?"

Destiny smiles and chuckles a little before replying. "You're talking like I had a lot."

"I'm not saying that, I just want to know if I have to have a little one on one with one of them, you know if they are bugging you."

Destiny rolls her eyes, and looks back out the window as she said. "Well it was AJ, he was pretty harmless."

"Yeah, if I remember correctly you were the one that broke his heart."

Destiny turns her head to look at him, and he had a smirk on his face, then she shakes her head. "I didn't break his heart. We barely went out a week and we BOTH agreed that we didn't have the chemistry to make it work, now Tony was a different story." She stopped with a bigger smile, remembering him.

Jeremy nodded again while taking a sip of his soda, then replied after he swallowed. "Oh yeah, Tony Roberts, he was definitely a different story. He dates you for a year, sleeps with you after Junior Prom then dumps you the next day for the head cheerleader, yeah what a lovely story you have there." He finishes the sentence with a sarcastic tone.

"Well I didn't say it ended good, I am just saying before all that happened we had the chemistry."

He shrugs his shoulders and took another drink from his soda looking away from her, but Destiny saw something in his eyes, so she says a little shocked. "Oh my god, you were jealous? Weren't you?"

He turns his head to her fast, and replied immediately. "Of course not, I had Faith."

Destiny still saw the look, then she nodded her head and said with a little laugh. "Yes you did, and yes you were so jealous. Was that just because he was my first serious boyfriend or was it other guys too?"

Jeremy looks down, not saying anything, but that gave Destiny her answer, so she shakes her head and scoots closer to him. "I had no idea. I had always thought that Faith was your whole world."

He shakes his head with no hesitation, looks at her again and replied. "She is, I mean she was, she meant everything to me. But a small piece of me had always had this protective side for you, and when any man hurt you, I didn't like it."

She smiles as she puts a hand on his shoulder. "That is very sweet of you, I couldn't ask for a better protector." He smiles and she smiles bigger, showing off the Grissom part of her features, then they both took a sip of their drinks.

After they swallowed, she changed the subject to him and her sister. "So you can totally tell me to shut up and tell me to mind my own business, but I was curious, have you and Faith ever you know... Slept together?"

Jeremy choked on his soda as his eyes widened. "Didn't you girls ever talk about that kind of stuff?"

Destiny shook her head no and looked down at her water bottle. "When it came to the very personal stuff she kept it to herself, something she picked up from dad." He nodded and she whispered. "But then again there is something that I have kept pretty secretive too."

He was wondering what she was talking about but he figured they should finish this subject first, if he knew her as much as he did, she wasn't going to give up on getting the answer, no matter how she asked the question.

He looked down at his soda and replied. "Once, after Senior prom."

She moved her head up to look at him and said a little shocked. "Only once? Why?"

He takes a breath before looking at her again. "When we talked about it she told me she wanted to wait until we were older, which I was willing to do, but Senior prom came and she told me she was ready, so I was as romantic as I could be." He smiles at the memory.

She smiles back, happy that her sister had a good experience, then asked. "What happened?"

He takes a breath before finishing. "The next morning she told me that she didn't feel right about continuing, she wanted to wait until we were married. She took me off the hook about not sticking around if that was something I couldn't do, but I loved her and there was no way I was going to walk away from her."

He looked down to hide his eyes because they were tearing up, while Destiny was shocked they even talked about marriage that young. "Wow, you guys talked about marriage?"

He nods, but was still looking down. "It wasn't like I proposed or anything, but yes that subject did come up."

"Well you would have made the perfect husband."

He replies, getting upset now. "What kind of husband would I be if I couldn't even protect her six months ago. That's what a husband is suppose to do."

"Jeremy there was nothing you could have done, it was a plane crash, there wasn't any..."

He cuts her off when he stands up fast, looking down at her. "Well I could have been with her the last few minutes of her life!"

She shakes her head while she stands up too, getting mad herself. "Then it wouldn't have been just her life, it would have been both of your lives! And were would I have been, huh? Where in the hell would I be if I had lost both of you on the same evening."

Jeremy processed what she just said and how she said it, which he was a little surprised about her strong reaction on if he died too, so he asked concerned. "Destiny?"

She shakes her head and looks down. "Forget it." She realized she said too much.

Jeremy puts his soda can on the coffee table before putting his hand on her shoulder. "That was a pretty strong reaction to forget, what did you mean by what you said?" She shakes her head again and started to sniffle.

He moves his hand from her shoulder to her cheek before moving her head up so she could look at him.

She finally spoke after a few minutes of looking into his brown eyes. "I love my sister, you have no idea how much, I would do anything for her, and I was happy that she had found a guy that she could possibly love her whole life. I saw how she looked at you and I knew you felt the same way as her, but a small part of me had liked you too, for a very long time. I tried pushing it away and tried finding a guy that could live up to the way that you treated her, the way that you loved her, but the ones that I kept finding were the complete opposite. I knew that I could never have you as a romantic partner, so I took you as my best friend, and if you would have gone down with my sister then I would have lost both of my best friends, so don't say you wish you weren't here because I have no idea where I would be right now." She then started to cry while Jeremy was still a little shocked on what she confessed, he had no idea that she felt that way.

He brings her in his arms and said. "I'm not going anywhere."

They hold each other tighter, and after she stopped crying they pulled back a little, then they looked into each other's eyes.

Before they knew what happened next, they were leaning forward and kissed, it wasn't very long but she felt something shoot through her.

She pulled back fast, shook her head, and got out of his arms while saying. "I can't do this." Then she turned to grab her purse and ran out of the apartment while Jeremy was still so shocked about the last few minutes that he just stood there and watched her leave.

AN: Is Faith really gone? Please review.