Dec. 3 2007

He came back to himself like an adventurer returns home. Slowly, sadly. When the cold tile of his bathroom floor became his reality again, Grissom held up his hands and inspected them. Everything seemed normal. He swallowed. He let out a long breath. It was incredible. Short, but incredible. But how could he not have taken into consideration the length of time he'd be in the past? What controlled the amount of time he stayed? Could he alter it? As he pondered, staring at the vial of dark liquid, he realized that the phone was ringing. Oh.

In one long stride, he tackled his cell and brought it up to his ear.

"Grissom," he breathed into the phone.

"Hey Gil."

He caught his breath. Sara. She was calling early this week.

"Sara. Hi. How…how are you?"

"I'm okay. I just, uh, just felt like I needed to hear your voice. Did you just get back from a crime scene or something? You sound out of breath."

Grissom bit his tongue, unsure what to say.

"Sort of."

"I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

"God, no, Sara."

He could hear her smiling into the phone.

"I had the weirdest dream. About you and me."

"Yeah? Last night?"

"Actually, just a few minutes ago. I fell asleep in my hotel room, and I dreamed about…about the day I came to Vegas. Do you remember that?"

Grissom let himself sink onto the bed.

"I remember."

"It was, uh, a pretty vivid dream. When you turned around and looked at me, in my dream, it was like you were really there with me. It was like…a memory, except I was looking at the whole thing from above. I was looking at our old selves, you know? I was me from today, but I was watching the us from seven years ago. Am I making any sense?"

Grissom closed his eyes and pressed the phone closer to his ear, reveling in the sound of her voice.

"More than you know."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matthew ran his thumb over the framed picture of Katie that he kept by his bed. They had been just sixteen, laughing into the camera as Katie's best friend snapped a hasty picture of them about to dive into the town swimming pool. Across the room, Brandon sighed.

"Dude, the police are going to think you did this."

Matthew shook his head as he thought of Todd, sprawled with eyes wide open across the doorway.

"I didn't do it. They won't find evidence to say I did it."

Behind, he could sense Brandon rolling his eyes.

"Well, where were you, man?"
It had been hard, lying to Brandon. He had long ago decided against sharing his secret, and he usually just hid in a secluded place whenever he wanted to go back in time. That way, nobody could see him and discover that he was only a body without a soul. That way, there were no sounds to bring him back to the present before he was ready to return.

"I was asleep."

It was one of his tried and true excuses. Where were you last night, Matthew? Asleep. Sick. Studying. Somehow, no one ever questioned it.

Brandon belched loudly.

"Dude, I think you need to something fun. Come with us to Jenna's party tonight, huh?"

This time, he was saved from answering by the ring of his cell phone.

"Change your ring tone!" Brandon yelled after him as Matthew exited the dorm and shut the door behind him.

"Mr. Rush," Matthew said nervously into the phone.

"Matthew. I heard about this scandal over the dead boy. They searched your dorm room, am I correct?"

Matthew felt his fingers go numb. Shit. He wasn't ready to deal with this yet.

"Yeah. They, uh, they took it."

The man on the other end of the phone cleared his throat deeply. When he spoke, Matthew could tell he was upset. But as always, he didn't raise his voice.

"They took it? We had a deal, Matthew. You know as well as I do what this means."

Just hearing him say it made Matthew want to cry. He wished suddenly that he could lie to himself and Rush and say that no, he didn't know what this meant.

"I know."

There was a disappointed sigh.

"The investigation. Is it taking place at Las Vegas crime lab?"

"Yes."

"Do you think they know what it is?"

"I told a CSI," Matthew admitted in one burst of guilt. "I was scared, and I was just so tired of lying all the time."

There was a long silence on the other end.

"It's okay, Matthew. Can you tell me his name?"

Matthew froze. Graham? Gilson?

"Grissom," he affirmed finally. "It was Grissom."