Thanks so much for the reviews guys. They are greatly appreciated and keep me writing, so keep them coming!

Okay, I now know where this story is going to go.  Not to give anything away yet, but Whispering Winds, great minds think alike [but I'm also thinking just a little bit differently…8-) hehe]

And let's see if I can tell you some more without giving everything else that I am plotting away…so…adpi24 you might end up happy too.

*a.l.

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Sara could barely open her door she was shaking so badly. She somehow managed to shove the thing open, but she then couldn't bring her self to walk inside. It was as if her feet were too heavy to step over the thresh hold of her apartment. But Sara knew she had to; she had to move on.

As she walked down to her room, she drooped everything that she had been holding tightly in her hands; her purse, her gun, her coat, her cell phone…they were now all scattered across the hallway, but Sara didn't care. She staggered into her room and collapsed on the bed without even bothering to change out of her clothes. That was a small detail and it was going to have to wait.

Sara took a few deep breaths and pulled the covers up over her head. It was as if she was trying to hide from everything underneath them. Sara buried her self down towards the bottom, now breathing in the hot heavy air. What had caused her life to comet to this? The point in which she mentally (and a little bit physically, too) breaks down at work, realizes that she hates it there, hates the people there (or at least a good portion of them), and is now at home hiding under her covers?

From out in the hall, she heard her cell phone go off.  Sara had a pretty good feeling she knew who it was. If she had enough strength she would have gotten up and tried to flush the stupid thing down the toilet.

Thousands of thoughts were racing through Sara's head trying to figure out how this had all come pouring out. She was willing to admit that this week had been quite hard on her, but it had also been hard on everyone else. Monday had been a murder-suicide done by the husband. Tuesday had been a rape and the girl had been left for dead.  By the time they arrived at the scene she was barely clinging to life. Wednesday had been paperwork until four in the morning and Sara had finally just collapsed on the table and slept until the end of shift.  Thursday had been two dead bodies, one woman and her child, and they had already convicted the husband. Now it was Friday and Sara was trying really hard not to let these cases get to her, but they already had. Seeing those poor innocent people being killed night after night had taken a toll on her.

Sara rolled over onto her side and stuck her head out from under the covers. She had to do something about all of this. This was no way to live a life, especially hers. When she was fresh out of college she had so many options. Going to an Ivy League school meant that people were practically sitting on her doorstep just so she could come and work for them. So why exactly had she chosen forensic science? And then like a ton of bricks it hit her exactly why.

This was all because of the fact that Grissom had to come to Harvard to do a lecture on his stupid bugs. If he had never come, Sara would have never have met him, she would have never have fallen for him way back then, never realized that his career fascinated her, never chosen to peruse forensic science, never gone to San Francisco and then never called to Las Vegas to help him out. It made her feel a little bit better knowing that she could blame all of her problems on Grissom, but made the whole thing a lot worse because he was all of her problems.

Sara now threw the covers off herself and lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling. She needed a vacation. No, not a vacation, a leave of absence. She turned to her right to see how her last threat of leaving had turned out, and she was quite surprised that the plant was actually still alive. For a while Sara had stopped watering the plan, hoping that the thing would die a slow and painful death and with that her feelings for Grissom too; But no, the thing was still alive and thriving. She wished she could flush that thing down the toilet right now.

Deep down inside Sara knew she couldn't threaten to leave again because it would end up the same way; Grissom letting her know just a little bit that he cared, and Sara would get weak in the knees and forget about everything she needed and stay. She realized that the only thing she could really do was get up and go, just leave and not look. But where, and how and would she then ever come back to Vegas?

The sound of her phone ringing woke Sara from her thoughts. She knew it was never going to stop unless she did something. Sara staggered down the hall and picked her phone up off the floor. Because she was the curious sort, she flipped it open and looked at the caller. GRISSOM was spelled out across the top. Sara considered pressing the talk button and giving him an ear full, but she was already so drained and didn't think she could handle it. Instead she flipped her phone closed and placed it in the refrigerator. At least she couldn't hear the ringing anymore.

Sara walked over and slumped down on the couch. She had to get away from this place, if even for a day. She had to go somewhere to take her mind off everything that was happening here. But the thing is, Sara couldn't just leave. It would be too obvious. She practically lived at the lab and for her to just stop showing up would be really obvious and people would ask questions that she wouldn't want to answer. What if she slowly disappeared like a cloud disappearing after a storm? Coming in hard at first and then slowly letting up until no one even noticed the cloud was gone? And when someone did finally realize that she was gone, it would be too late?

Then, everything began to work out in Sara's head. She would go to work tomorrow as usual, and then by the next day she would hang back a little more; go home early, not using any more over time. She would continue this for the week until she was practically not there at all. By this time next Friday she would be spending a bare minimum at the lab and she had next Saturday off. Sara decided she would disappear Saturday.

Her stomach now growled and Sara realized that she hadn't had anything to eat since before shift. Sara stood up and made her way to her kitchenette. What she really felt like was some pizza, but Sara was in no mood to call for some and then wait an hour for it to be delivered. Instead she opened the fridge only to find the phone still ringing.

Sara took the phone in her hand, ready to chuck it across the room, when instead she opened it expecting to see Grissom's number again. Instead she saw Nick's. She might as well talk to him; she could use someone to talk to right now.

"Sidle" Sara half barked into the phone.

"Sara?" Came Nick's voice from the other end, "Is that you?"

"No, sorry, wrong number." She said sarcastically. "Of course it's me Nick. What do you want?"

"I got nervous after I heard you go stomping out of Grissom's office. I tried to talk to him, but he just shut the door in my face. What was that all about?" Nick asked in a worried tone. Sara knew he cared about her; he was her best friend.

"I just needed to let some things pour out Nick, and I did exactly that." Sara walked over and sat down on the couch, curling up into a tight ball.

"Are you okay now?" He asked, his voice still filled with concern. "Do you want me to come over there, or go beat Grissom up?" 

Sara laughed. If only Nick could go beat Grissom up for her. She knew he was only saying it as a joke, but Sara whished what he was saying could be true. "No, No, Nick. I'm…" Sara knew she wanted to tell Nick that she was okay, but she just couldn't bring her self to lie anymore. She wasn't okay. "I'm just going to spend some time alone." She then replied. That was the truth. Sara was going to spend a lot of time alone now.

"Will you be back to work tomorrow? Two cases just came in and we're kind of down a CSI right now." He said referring to the fact that Sara was now at home.

"Yah. I guess I'll be back tomorrow. Sorry about that. I think I just need some time to wind down." Sara said with sadness in her voice. She could really care less about the fact that they needed her right now. When she was there they didn't seem to notice her, but once she was gone the realized that she carried a lot of weight, and now it was going to be split up among the four remaining people there. This meant that they were now all going to be grumpy and mad at her for just running out. Serves them right, Sara thought, they could use the extra work anyway.

"Well, if you're sure your going to be fine…"

"I'm fine Nick. Really. Go back to whatever you were doing and stop worrying about me." Sara said. Nick said his goodbye and Sara ended their phone conversation. She looked at the phone in her hand, and threw it back to the floor. She then buried her head into her knees as she felt more tears coming on.

Then, Sara stopped crying suddenly. In one week this will all be behind me, she thought silently. That alone gave her strength to get up off the couch. Now she had the rest of the day all to her self, and what was she going to do? Sara thought for a moment, and then walked off towards the bathroom where she was going to go take a bubble bath. If nothing else, the bubbles would make her smile some more.

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