Title: Life or Something Like It

Summary: Grissom found someone that showed him what life can be like. GSR-Grissom's POV

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, or Flowers for Algernon, which I slightly reference in here...

So this is what it's like.

Before her, I used to sit in my office, thinking about what it would be like to have a relationship spill over into a case. I couldn't connect with anyone. I was a robot living a human life. I would sit there, watching the world go by; focusing on evidence, but never once considering human behavior to be a factor. I was stuck in neutral; I couldn't go forward, but I couldn't go back. I was living, but I had no life in me. Somebody could have programmed me, for all I know. Being a CSI wasn't a job, it was who I was, and I hated that.

Then she came along. I saw myself in her. I saw my misery and how I was letting my job control my life. Seeing her obsessed by her work was like finally looking into a mirror that told the truth. I saw what was happening to her, and I could feel it happening to me at the same time. I was Charlie and she was Algernon, just like in that book I read so long ago.

She asked me out for dinner, and I saw that I, too, could change. I turned her down, afraid of what might happen. I had never really been in a relationship. I didn't know what to expect. Being the non-human in our team was a constant. I was afraid that my world would fall apart if I said yes.

I was also curious, so I went to her. I did the asking, and she said yes. Now I know what it's like to live. To have someone to care about, someone to talk to, or just someone to be there. She showed me how I could have lived all my life. The day I asked her out started my real life. It was like the last 40 years was just practice, and now I had a chance to really play the game. I love her, and nothing can take that away.

As she walks into my office, I pull her into hug, and whisper in her ear, "So, this is life?"

"Or something like it," she replies, planting a light kiss on my lips.

a/n: This is just a short, one shot fanfic, but please review!