A/N - I'm not asking too much of you for this chapter, just, oh, that you forget everything that happened for 7 years on the show and stuff. But that's what AU is all about, right?! Good times.

Thanks to my beta GSFanatic, 'cause she's got the beta skillz. Also: our geeks are engaged. We all know that, but it's worth saying again. happy sigh

2007

Overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed, that was what Gil Grissom was. He liked things a certain way, and now, like it or not, everything was about to change. Things were already different after his divorce, but that was just his personal life. His personal life, he could handle. Now change was coming to the lab, and it wasn't the good kind of change.

The team spent 9 months chasing the miniature killer; carefully plotting, obsessively looking over every detail of the miniatures. They all thought Ernie Dell was the man responsible, but when Grissom received another miniature in the mail after Ernie's death, he was proven wrong. And now a member of the team was dead, and he couldn't help but feel somewhat to blame for it. He knew when Jim assigned Holly to the case there would be trouble. He should have told Jim that the case was much more complicated than what Holly could handle and to have Catherine or Nick do it instead. But ever since Jim started dating Holly's mother, it was hard to tell him anything about Holly. If Jim didn't have stars in his eyes, he would have noticed that Holly started to be much less efficient than the rest of the team. She was a good investigator, but she didn't have the strength, the heart, the courage everyone else did. And now that she was gone, there was nothing anyone could do except turn back time and fix everything.

Things had gotten so mangled in this department, and now that he was supervisor, he was going to fix things. He had no choice--Jim had been demoted to homicide, where he got his start in law enforcement, and now Grissom was in charge of Graveyard. Catherine was still on Graveyard, but Warrick was finally sent to Swing shift, and it was about time. He and Catherine were practically married, of all things, and the fact nobody said anything about it before was a true sign of how complicated everything had gotten.

Only Natalie Davis could have known why she took Holly and let her die in the desert under a red Mustang, and she wasn't talking. When her apartment was searched, there were clues that indicated she thought Holly was the reason Ernie killed himself. Clearly there was only room for one woman in Ernie's life, and Natalie felt that by Holly questioning Ernie, by getting to know him even in the most basic of ways when she was questioning him about the case, Holly had crossed some line that Natalie only knew about it in her sick and twisted mind.

Doc Robbins did the autopsy, and he said she died only an hour or two before they found her in the desert. Between the torrents of rain the night before and the burning heat of the next day, she never really had a chance, but still everyone blamed themselves. Everyone knew they could have worked harder and gotten to the desert quicker to save her. But what nobody said was that they weren't surprised. Nobody said it, but they all knew: Holly Gribbs was not a survivor. They all wanted her to be, but in the end, she wasn't.

At Holly's funeral, her mother broke down and sobbed in the way only a parent who's lost a child could. Jim tried to comfort her, but eventually he had to escort her away from Holly's coffin. He told Grissom later that he'd probably be taking some time off, because his life was more than just him now. It was Jim, and it was Jane, and he had to do what was best for her because that's what his life was now. And he seemed happy about that.

At that moment, Grissom thought of his ex-wife, and how he hadn't felt that way about Avery in a long time. And when he thought of the person who he could imagine feeling that way about, as always, he pictured Sara Sidle. He hadn't seen her in nearly a decade, but he never forgot. She was too memorable for that.

Grissom stared at the computer screen, knowing he was about to write the most important email of his life. He knew he should probably call her instead, but they rarely talked on the phone anymore. Email was much more convenient. Plus, if he didn't talk to her on the phone, he wouldn't hear her voice and a flood of memories wouldn't come rushing at him all at once, yet again. It was just easier that way. He was pretty sure she understood.

There was a knock on the door, and Catherine strolled in without waiting for an answer, as usual. The only thing different about it now was that he was in a much bigger office than before. He brought in a lot of interesting insects from home to decorate his new office, and most people, upon first glance, would look at him, then at all the spiders and pig fetuses and other strange species, and then back at him, like he was the biggest freak in the world. It actually gave him great pleasure.

"What are you up to?" Catherine asked him, sitting in a chair in front of his desk. She picked up the nameplate on his desk, touching the words as if she didn't really believe them. "Gil Grissom, supervisor. I never thought the day would come."

Gil sighed. Not this crap again.

"We've been over this," he said in warning. He did not want to have this conversation again.

"God, Gil, I know, but I still don't get it. So what if Warrick and I hid our relationship? I'm not his supervisor, it's no big deal. You suck with office politics, everyone knows that. I just think I would have been a more logical choice for the position."

"I know you think that," he said, taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes. "And I'm sorry it happened this way. And you didn't just hide your relationship, you hid it for 2 years. And you would have kept hiding it even if you did become supervisor, and you know that. So let's move on with our lives and think of other interesting things to say to each other."

Catherine nodded.

"Fair enough. I guess I'm wondering who you're going to bring in to replace Holly. And you know you need to do it fast because without Warrick, cases are piling up."

"Yes, I have noticed that, thank you," he replied. "I have a few people in mind, I'll let you know who I decide on."

Catherine studied him closely. He was used to her studying him; she knew it made him nervous and more apt to spill his guts. It worked 75 of time.

"Come on, just tell me. You know I'll get it out of you one way or another."

He sighed and gave in.

"I'm thinking about bringing in Sara Sidle to give us a hand."

"Sara Sidle?" Catherine repeated.

Grissom nodded. "She's a CSI out of San Francisco. She's a friend of mine, someone I trust. It would be temporary, she'd help us out while we hire and train new people. I think it's a good idea."

"You've mentioned her before, I think. Is that who you're always writing emails to?"

"How do you know I'm writing emails to anybody, Catherine?"

She shrugged, her face not giving anything away.

"I have to ask. Does, or did, Avery know about this Sara?"

God, she had some nerve.

"That's a little bit out of line, don't you think?" And the answer was yes, she did know about "this Sara," but that was not a conversation Grissom was going to have with Catherine, nor with anyone else for that matter.

"Sorry, Gil. I'm sorry, things have just been so shitty around here lately and I've turned into some bitchy kind of monster. Warrick wouldn't even go over the wedding invitations with me yesterday because I was being such a bitch." She sighed before she even realized what she said.

"Um, what?"

"Oh, yeah. There's...there's going to be a wedding. It's going to be small, probably in November or December. Um...yeah."

"Congratulations," he said, meaning it.

"Thanks," she said, grinning. And then she frowned.

"I convinced Holly to stay her first day, remember? I told her to stick around until she caught her first bad guy. I was so proud when she shot that guy on her first night as a CSI, man was I proud. She had the makings of a good cop, Gil."

"Yes, she did," he said. "I think we failed her. I think we never gave her a good enough chance, and she had to pay for that."

Catherine nodded. "I think there's some truth to that. I think we all got caught up in personal things, and we let her down."

The two of them were quiet until her cell phone rang a few moments later. She smiled when she looked at the caller ID.

"Hey, baby," she said, walking out of Grissom's office. He was glad she spared him the phone call. He was happy Warrick and Catherine had each other, but he never wanted to know all the details.

He turned his attention back to his computer. He and Sara used to email back and forth quite regularly, but now only sent emails every couple of months. He wasn't surprised; it had been 9 years after all. And while the topics of their emails sometimes got interesting, they never really talked about what happened the night before he left San Francisco. He always wanted to. He wanted to write, hey, remember when we had this amazing kiss that I still think about every night before I go to bed? Yeah, that was cool, wasn't it?

When he left San Francisco, when he left her, he didn't want to think about it more than he had to. He didn't want to think there was someone else other than his wife that he could have such strong feelings for. And after a full year, he surrendered to the fact he wasn't going to forget about her. It was just a part of his daily routine now. Wake up, shower, shave, think about Sara, go to work, take some pictures of dead bodies, think about Sara, feed his spiders, do some paperwork, think about Sara. Without even knowing it, she became so ingrained in his thoughts that he couldn't imagine what it would be like if she wasn't in them. It was ridiculous and yet he couldn't let it go.

His divorce had nothing to do with Sara, or so he would like to believe. By the time the divorce was final, he knew Sara was already engaged. There had never been a right place at the right time, and while this troubled him, it suited him just fine. Because when it came down to it, he had no idea what he would do if he ever had her all to himself.

There was no reason to believe Sara would come to Vegas at all. In fact, he frankly didn't know why he was even going to bother asking. She was married and had a very good job at the San Francisco Crime Lab. Why would she want to leave that? He had no idea, but he was going to ask anyway.

And there was something else. Something he didn't particularly want to admit to anyone. Catherine had been right--he WAS bad at office politics and had no interest in participating in them. Being a supervisor wasn't something he ever wanted. And in the back of his mind, he was already formulating a plan. He wanted Sara to come in, and he wanted her to take over as a supervisor. He wanted out. He wanted to retire and play with bugs all day. This whole dead body thing had gotten to him a long time ago, and he wanted out.

It's now or never, he thought. So he started typing. And before he could change his mind, he pressed "send."

Sara,

You've probably heard about what happened here at the lab. The miniature killer wreaked havoc on the lab, and after 9 months of chasing this person we've come to know as Natalie Dell, we lost a good CSI, Holly Gribbs. Now Jim has been demoted and I've been promoted, can you believe that? Things have been crazy around here for a few years and the lab badly needs better leadership. Too bad they picked me.

Anyway, I can't believe I'm about to ask you this, but here it is: we need a seasoned professional, someone who's seen it all. We need someone to come in and help me take charge of the troops. I can't do this by myself, Sara, and I've found myself doing some soul searching to figure out who I should ask. I decided to ask you to come to Vegas, just for a few months, to bring the team back together again. Granted, I've never seen you in action, but from the tone of your emails and the brief time I had to get to know you in person, I know you're a take-charge kind of lady, and we need that right now. Okay, honestly, I need that right now. God, Sara, I just have so many unanswered whys, and I wish someone could help me answer them.

Like I said, it would be temporary while we find new people to train. I realize what I'm asking here and I know you would be doing me a favor, so don't feel obligated in any way.

Think about it, please, and let me know. I'll be waiting for your answer.

- Grissom

It only took 2 hours for her to reply.

Grissom -

I would love to. When? How long? Call me with the details.

- Sara

Smiling, he picked up his phone and called her number. A week later, she was in Vegas, and everything was different.