When they pulled up to the house the next morning, Grissom made no move to get out of the vehicle. Sara looked over in concern to see him staring out into space. "Gil," she spoke, resting her hand over his.

He snapped out of his reverie, and his gaze darted over to Sara. "Let's get going," he spoke, pulling away and opening his door.

They walked into the house together. Once they got inside, Grissom stopped and looked aimlessly around the house. He turned toward Sara and sighed. "Mom has some boxes in the closet. Can you take them and start packing up the clothes and things in her room?"

"Sure," she said, squeezing his hand, "where will you be?"

"I'm going to go up to the attic and start clearing out up there."

Sara nodded and ascended the stairs, leaving Grissom alone in the living room. He stole one more cursory glance of the space before climbing up the stairs to head for the attic.

When Sara entered Mrs. Grissom's room, she immediately noticed the peaceful decor. The walls were painted a pastel blue and everything inside of the room was neatly arranged. Sara set the boxes down on the floor and sat on the edge of the bed, taking in the finite details of the room. A pale pink trim lined the room, and a picture of Grissom sat atop the dresser. She walked over and picked up the picture, recognizing that it had been taken about five years ago. His hair was less grey then, and fewer lines graced his face, but it was still the man that she loved. Sara placed the picture into a box of things to keep and then directed her attention to the closet. I might as well do this first and get it done with. I can't imagine how Grissom is doing up in the attic all by himself.

Sara opened the closet door and was met with Mrs. Grissom's ample wardrobe. Many dresses occupied the rack, most of them from days when Mrs. Grissom was younger. Sara picked up each dress one by one, carefully folded it, and put it into a box to go to charity. She had most of the closet cleaned out when she spotted something shiny hanging on the end of the rack. Sara slid some of the dresses down the rack and was met with the shiny plastic of a garment bag. She took the dress out of the closet, pulled the plastic back, and admired the beautiful navy blue dress before her. Sara ran her hands over the satiny navy blue material. This is probably what she was going to wear to the wedding. Not being able to part with the dress just yet, Sara hung it on the back of the bedroom door and returned to her task.

After Sara finished packing up everything in the bedroom, she climbed the attic stairs to see how Grissom was doing. When she reached the top, she saw Grissom sitting in the middle of the floor with various boxes around him. "How are you doing?" she asked, not daring to venture any closer.

Grissom jumped at the sound of her voice but quickly recovered. "Oh, I'm just going through different boxes of things. There are some things that I haven't seen in years."

"Like what?" Sara asked, her curiosity beckoning her closer.

"A letter I wrote to my mother when I was in elementary school," he stated, holding it up.

Sara ventured closer and took the letter from his hands.

Dear Mom,
I picked up a grasshopper during recess today. I tried to show it to the girls, but they all ran away and told the teacher that I had picked up something bad. I said that the grasshopper wouldn't hurt anyone, but she made me let it go. Now I have to write this letter to you saying that I won't bother the girls with grasshoppers again.
Gil

Sara laughed and returned the letter to him. "The teacher made you write this?" she asked.

"Yes, she didn't really like the fact that I picked up insects all of the time," Grissom reminisced.

"Oh, but you were trying to charm the girls," Sara joked.

"Something tells me it didn't work."

"It worked on me."

"Sans insects."

Sara smiled and started massaging his shoulders. "Everything is packed up from the bedroom except for whatever is in the safe at the back of the closet."

"I'll have to show you what's in there later. I wish I could say the same about the attic, I've still got a lot of boxes to go through. Can you start boxing up the pictures in the living room?"

"You want to keep them all, right?"

"The pictures, but not the frames. There should be some folders in one of her desk drawers, put them in a folder that we can take with us."

Sara stopped her massage and leaned down to kiss his temple. "Don't stay on the floor too long, your body will end up protesting."

"If I've had enough I'll take a break," he stated, "but for right now I'm going to keep sorting."

"Okay, I'm going back down to the living room."

Sara headed back down the stairs, and Grissom returned to the tedious job of sorting everything.

Sara took the pictures out of the frames one by one, placing the pictures in a folder and the frames in a box. Once everything was boxed up in the living room, Sara started to clean out the cabinets in the kitchen and rid the refrigerator of its contents. It was nearing one o'clock in the afternoon when she finished, and she decided to go back to the attic and check on Grissom.

When Sara opened the door to the attic, she found Grissom staring at a picture, still sitting on the floor. She walked up behind him and ran her hands through his hair. "Who is that?" she asked, taking note of the picture that he was engrossed in.

"My father," Grissom replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Do you want me to..." Sara started to ask, reaching for the picture.

Grissom held it away from her. "No," he said, setting the picture down, "that was all so long ago. I don't need a picture of someone who never cared to be in my life."

Grissom took the picture out of the frame and added it to the trash in the garbage bag. He put the frame in a box for charity and turned toward Sara. "Did you finish downstairs?" he asked.

"Yeah, everything is packed up. I cleaned out the refrigerator also."

Sara tugged on Grissom's arms and helped him to get off of the floor. He stretched his legs and his hip popped. "See, I told you not to sit on the floor so long," Sara chided.

"Shush," he said, pulling her in for a loose hug.

"Do you want to have some lunch?" Sara asked, "It's almost one."

"Sure, I could use a break. Do you mind if we go out?"

Sara knew that Grissom needed a break from the house. "Okay, let's get going."

The two headed down the stairs and left to get lunch.

Grissom and Sara had decided to eat in a small vegetarian restaurant. The restaurant was fairly empty, and they chose a table in a corner of the restaurant, away from the general flow of traffic. Sara was eating a spinach vegetable wrap, and Grissom was picking at an eggplant salad. "Griss, you've got to eat something," Sara scolded.

Grissom looked up and gave her a half smile. He finally ate a few pieces of salad to humor her. "What's on your mind?" Sara asked, concerned.

"I'm just thinking of different points in my life."

Sara tried to give him a comforting smile; death did strange things to people. "Oh, thinking about the playground and the girls again," Sara joked, trying to pull him back to the present.

Grissom shot her a cold glare. "Okay, okay," she recovered, "I'll stop mentioning the playground girls."

Grissom gave her a small smile in return. "I wouldn't want you to be jealous," he smirked.

Sara kicked his foot under the table and returned to eating her spinach wrap. Grissom still appeared to be pondering something, and Sara was anxious when he spoke. "I don't think there was ever a time when I didn't love my mother," he stated, still picking at his food.

"You were lucky to have a mother like her."

Grissom nodded and ate another piece of eggplant. "Although she was deaf, she didn't let comments or anything else related to her condition bother her. She was always there to help out if I needed it."

Sara reached out and covered his hand with hers. "It feels wonderful to be loved," Sara stated, looking him in the eye.

Grissom nodded and set his fork down on the plate. "Are you ready to go?" Grissom asked, noticing she had finished her spinach roll a while ago.

Sara nodded. "Yeah, let's get the check."

After Grissom paid the bill, they walked out to the car and started back to the house.

Grissom and Sara worked for a few more hours until everything in the house was packed into boxes and ready to be donated. Grissom wrapped his arms around Sara from behind, and he kissed the top of her head. "Come on," he spoke, "let me show you what's in the safe."

When Grissom opened his mother's bedroom door, he saw the dress still hanging on the back of it. "I wonder what mom had that for. Did you forget to pack this dress away?"

"It was probably the dress she was going to wear to the wedding," Sara said, wrapping her arms around herself, "I found it in the back of her closet."

Grissom nodded and put his hand on her shoulder. "What do you want to do with it?" he asked patiently.

"I don't know. I felt bad putting it in a box, so I just hung it on the door at the time. I guess it would be best to give it to charity though, there really isn't a use for it now."

"We can carry it down and put it with the boxes. I'm sure the movers won't mind carrying one extra thing with them when they come to pick up everything."

Sara nodded and watched as Grissom walked into the closet and deftly entered the combination to the safe. Grissom opened the door and pulled out a small jewelry box. "Mom kept it in the safe because she felt compelled to use the safe for something. The safe was built into the house when she bought it."

Sara nodded and sat down on the bed next to Grissom when he sat down with the box. Grissom opened the box, and his hands went to a delicate silver necklace. He picked it up and admired it in his hand. "When I was in high school I won a science fair that gave a one-hundred dollar cash prize," he reminisced, "it was near my mom's birthday, so I decided I was going to get her a special gift. I went down to the jewelry store and spent hours picking out this necklace. The chain is so fine, and the intricate lace work of the butterfly is elegant. When I gave it to mom she said it was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen."

Grissom set the necklace in Sara's open palm and closed her fingers around it. "I want you to have it."

Sara opened her hand and took in the beauty of the necklace. The butterfly was carefully crafted, and it seemed as if you gave it color, it could fly away. "It's beautiful," Sara said in awe.

"That necklace was so unique, and my mother liked it so much, it's just one of the things that I wanted to keep."

Sara nodded and turned to hug him. Grissom took the necklace from her hand and fastened the clasp around her neck. "It looks good on you," he stated, turning her to face him again.

Sara reached up and felt the detail in the butterfly. "I can see why your mother liked this so much, you have good taste."

Grissom smiled a sad smile and wrapped his arms around her again. "Are you ready to load the car and lock up?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess so," she said, pulling away.

The two descended the stairs arm and arm, stealing last glances at the house that Grissom had called home.

After the few boxes of things to keep had been loaded into the car, Grissom and Sara stood in front of the house, arm in arm. "Such a wonderful life reduced to boxes," Grissom absent-mindedly stated.

Sara pulled him closer and ran her hand up and down his back in a soothing motion. Well, I guess this is it, my last glimpse of the house. So many memories. Devoid of mom, this house is meaningless. Grissom turned around and pulled Sara toward the car. "Let's go," he spoke.

Sara nodded and allowed him to lead her to the car. She took one more glance at the landscape before he pulled away, the house behind them forever.