I Realize that there is a formatting problem with this story, but I'm not sure how to fix it, sorry. The song in this chapter is How Long by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sorry that it's so short, I'll try to update soon. Please Review.
"Hungry?" Lisa, a tall, blonde, thirty something, single mother who was a CSI for the San Francisco police department, asked her newest coworker. Sara had been with the team for over a year and by now she felt like family. "I'm ordering takeout from that Thai restaurant that you like so much. Was wondering if you wanted me to pick you up something."
"Hmm?" Sara Sidle was seated at a table in the break room, studying a piece of paper that was lying on the table in front of her.
" I was just wondering if you wanted me to get you something to eat." Sara never looked up from the paper. She was distant, consumed by a memory from what seemed like a past life. Things were so much easier in San Francisco; the people were nicer, closer. She hardly even thought about Vegas now. But every night, in that stage where you are not quite asleep and not awake, she couldn't help but wonder about them and what she left behind. She hadn't heard a word from a single member of that team since Nick's phone call from the hospital almost a year and a half ago.
But while going through the last of the boxes still packed in her closet, she found a picture; a picture of the group that Brass had snapped a few months after her move to Vegas. There they all were, lined up, smiling, their images frozen in that moment forever. Catherine and Nick were grinning wide, toothy grins and hamming it up for the camera. Warrick and Grissom had small subtler smiles. That was the funny thing about those two. They were so different and yet completely the same. Warrick, although he wouldn't admit it, was Grissom's protégé. Greg wasn't in the picture; he hadn't seemed like an important member of the team at that point. In fact, she didn't have any memories of Greg until about two weeks after she started working there. Although it was mean to say, he was forgettable. Was. Soon after those two weeks were up, she could never get him to leave her alone. God, he never shut up! He was always so unbelievably happy. Turns out he was never that happy because happy people don't kill themselves. Or attempt to kill themselves. She still didn't know if he had survived the "attack". She never called to find out; she wouldn't be able to live with herself if he died. He had to survive. He was Greg.
"Earth to Sara. Are you there?" Sara looked up at her impatient coworker. "Sorry." She grinned. "I spaced out."
"What's that?" Lisa inched her way closer to the picture. Once she got close enough, she yanked it out of Sara's hand. "It's my old team. From Vegas."
"An eclectic group."
"Yeah."
"Why do you never talk about any of them?"
"Well." Sara began, unsure of how to explain this. "We didn't end on the best of terms. That man, right there" she pointed to the image of Nick, "we were both up for the same promotion. He got it and a recommendation from him" indicating Grissom.
"What were they like?" Lisa pressed.
"Why do you want to know about all of this?"
"Because you want to remember."
She smiled. "This woman right here is Catherine Willows. You remind me a lot of her. She was so strong-willed. A single mother, like you. She always looked out for every one of us. That's Gil Grissom, my former boss and teacher. He was very reserved and didn't get along with people that well. Maybe that's why he works with dead bodies; he doesn't get along with live people at all. That's Warrick and that's Nick. They always fought and made bets on the outcome of the cases."
"That's not everyone, is it?"
"There was Greg, a CSI in training and DNA analyst. He was the one who kept us all from letting that job make us suicidal. He blared music through the lab, joked around, and kept us all on out toes." Lisa looked at her pityingly.
" You need to talk to them, Sara. You miss them."
"I know."
I heard your voice through a photograph
I thought it up and brought up the past
Once you know you can never go back
I gotta take it on the other side...
Centuries are what it meant to me
A cemetery where I marry the sea
A stranger thing that never changed my mind
I gotta take it on the other side
I gotta take it on take it on...
How long, how long will I slide
Separate my side
I don't, I don't believe its bad
Slitting my throat it's all I ever...
Turn me on, take me for a hard ride
Burn me out, leave me on the other side
I yell it tell it that its not my friend
I tear it down, I tear it down
And then it's born again
How long, how long will I slide?
Separate my side
I don't, I don't believe its bad
Slitting my throat it's all I ever...