A/N: Wow! So many positive responses to the prologue! I'm so happy. I'm glad everybody thinks the premise is really interesting. It came to me in a dream I had after reading Schmemento and A Rip In Time really late at night. Anyway, as usual, much as I've begged AZ, I do not yet own CSI. He wouldn't even give them to me for my birthday!

PS: I'm so sorry for waiting a bajillion years to get this chapter out, but I just got a new job and I've been under a lot of stress. Again, sorry.

Chapter One

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A flash of blinding light, and Sara was no longer the Sara of 2005, but a different Sara, younger, without the weight of the world on her shoulders. A Sara who knew what was coming, but didn't have to worry about it.

Sara rolled over in the bed she had woken up in and groaned. It was way too early. Seven in the morning.

"Sara Hannah Sidle!" A voice shouted. "Get your ass out of bed or you're going to be late for school." That wasn't the voice of Laura Sidle. Oh, right. By that time Laura Sidle would have been in jail and Sara would have been in a foster home. The voice belonged to Shannon Wood, Sara's adoptive mother.

"Coming!" She yelled. Sara pushed off the comforter and moved towards her closet. Instead of the miniskirts, tights, and sweatshirts Sara would have found if she was going to school in the 80's, she found bell-bottom jeans and loose peasant tops. Sara selected a particularly comfortable looking pair of jeans and a dark blue sweater. She pulled her dark hair into a ponytail and ran downstairs.

"Morning Sara." Dave greeted his pseudo-daughter. Sara remembered how much she liked living with the Woods. Dave had always treated her well and Shannon tried to make Sara feel as though she wasn't an adoptive kid, but rather the Woods' own daughter. Shannon and Dave couldn't have kids, and when they met Sara at the orphanage, they knew she was the daughter they couldn't conceive.

"Morning Dave." Sara dropped a kiss on his cheek and peeled the sports section up to grab the front page. Shannon handed Sara a paper bag with a bagel and cream cheese sandwich in it and five dollars for lunch.

"Thank you." Sara said thank you to Shannon and Dave every morning. It was her ritual. In case something happened, she wanted them both to know how thankful she was that they had pulled her from the personal Hell that had been her previous life and then moved out to LA so that Sara could restart.

Dave folded the sports section and got up, standing next to Shannon. "Don't think we've forgotten it's your birthday, young lady."

Sara grinned. The Woods never forgot her birthday. She'd come to live with them on her thirteenth birthday and Shannon had taken her out to get her an entirely new wardrobe. Her fourteenth birthday had brought her a chemistry set, a redecorated room for her fifteenth birthday, and a tape deck for her sixteenth birthday. They always made birthdays special, so that Sara would remember how much they loved her.

"So, we were thinking, what does a seventeen-year-old girl in LA need? A cute boy?" Dave pretended to think. "But, no, I'd have to go through the process of buying and registering a gun, then learning how to shoot it so I could effectively threaten said boy with it. So then we thought, what about a dog? And Shannon pointed out that maybe you were a bit old for a dog. And then it came to us." Dave led Sara out front.

"Dave…I gotta catch my bus." Sara grinned, following Dave to the front porch.

"Ah, not true. So Shannon and I finally figured it out. What you needed was a new bike." Dave waved his hand at the street. Sara followed his arm and screamed. "Oh." Dave's expression fell. "They brought us a '65 Mustang instead. Oh well, I guess that could be your gift, if you'd rather have a car instead of a bike."

Sara screamed. "A car? You got me a car? You've got to be kidding."

Shannon handed her the keys. "Get your butt to school, young lady."

&&&&&&

Sara pulled into the parking lot of Brody High School. It seemed that Lily and the cosmos had created a life for her and given her memories so that she could function normally. She found the registrar and got a list of her classes. First up was advanced bio. Yay for the cosmos giving her challenging classes. "Where's the Biology classroom?" She asked the registrar.

"Just down the hall, dear. It's the last door on the right."

"Thank you." Sara jogged down the hall and pushed open the wooden door. The teacher stopped lecturing and turned to face Sara.

"May I help you?"

"Yes, I'm Sara Sidle. I'm supposed to be in this class." She shifted nervously.

The teacher nodded. "Why don't you have a seat over there." She pointed to a table where a lonely-looking kid sat. He had bright blue eyes and curly brown hair.

"Okay." Sara sat on a stool next to the kid. "Hi, I'm Sara Sidle." She had a sneaking suspicion that this was Grissom as a seventeen-year-old.

"Gil Grissom." He replied, barely lifting his head.

"Oh." Sara wished that this Grissom was at least a little more approachable than the Grissom her elder self knew, but he wasn't. "I just transferred."

"That's nice."

"You know, if we're going to be lab partners, we might as well be civil to each other." Sara hissed, hoping the teacher didn't catch them talking.

"I'm sorry." Grissom sighed.

"That's alright. Why don't we start over?"

"Okay." Grissom nodded.

"Hi. I'm Sara Sidle."

"Gil Grissom." He held out his hand. "I prefer to be called Grissom."

"Okay, Grissom. It's very nice to meet you. What are you reading?"

He showed her the book. An Annotated Anatomy of the Human Body. "I help out at the coroner's office and he suggested this for some light reading."

"Wow, you work at the coroner's office!" Sara's eyebrows flew up. "That's cool."

Grissom blushed. "Most people don't think so. They think it's weird or freakish."

"Well, I don't. I'm kind of a science geek." Sara ducked her head sheepishly, feeling bad for playing Grissom like this, but reminding herself that it was a necessary step in securing Grissom's affections in the future.

"I'm a science geek too." Grissom smiled. "It's nice to meet a fellow nerd. What's your IQ?" His smile vanished. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me to ask."

"It's alright." Sara shrugged. "152."

"Really?" Grissom was surprised.

"Yep."

"Maybe you won't be the worst study partner I've ever worked with."

Ah, that tactless Grissom half-compliment. How I've missed you. "I'll take that as a compliment." Sara pulled out her black and white marbled composition notebook to take notes.

"It was one." Grissom's mouth turned up into a half-smirk as he placed his biology textbook between them so that Sara could look at it too.

&&&&&&

Sara paid for her lunch and glanced around the lunchroom. Unlike her high school, people actually ate in the lunchroom. At Mackenzie High in San Francisco, where Sara had lived, people ate in the courtyard or went out to lunch on the pier. Nobody ate in the lunchroom. She didn't know where to sit. At MHS, Sara could just sit on the wharf and read while she munched on her usual, an Alcatraz Special from a stand nearby. Here, she had no clue.

"You must be the new girl." Two blondes came up beside her.

"Um, yeah." Sara nodded nervously.

"I'm Stacy Butler and this is Veronica Carpenter. Why don't you come sit with us?" Blonde Number One led Sara to their table. "Grissom said that you're a science geek." Stacy sat down next to Grissom. "So, we thought you might like to meet the science club. That's Kevin Adamson, you know Grissom, that's Ben Lawson…" Stacy pointed out each one of the members and Sara quickly memorized each name.

As lunch progressed, Sara became acquainted with each of the kids sitting at the table. High school didn't seem like it was going to be so bad.

&&&&&&

"Settle down, settle down." Ms. Shaffer, the chemistry teacher shouted at the class as the bell rang. "I hope you get along with your study partner, because the two of you will be doing a semester research paper on anything having to do with biology. So spend the class period deciding what you want to do."

Sara turned to Grissom. "So, what do you think? Something on dead bodies? After all, you work at the coroner's office."

"Well, I was kind of hoping that maybe we could do something on…bugs." Grissom winced, waiting for Sara to grimace."

"Okay, what sort of bugs?" Sara furrowed her eyebrows."

"Butterflies?" Grissom held his breath.

"That sounds cool." Sara enthused. "We could do that."

"Really?" Grissom grinned, his blue eyes lighting up.

"Sure." Sara returned the grin. The Grissom of 2005 never smiled like that. "Why don't we meet at your house to work on it this afternoon?"

"Oh, uh, well…I guess." It was obvious that Grissom didn't want Sara in his house, but didn't want to offend her.

"Or we could go to the library." She suggested.

"That sounds good." Grissom nodded.

&&&&&&

It was a tentative beginning, Sara thought. This Grissom was just as mistrusting as the Grissom she knew, but he didn't seem to have the jaded view of everything of his older counterpart.

But, Sara had won a major victory. Grissom invited her over to his house. They had a few things to finish up on their biology project, but still. It was an invite. Into his house. That was like being invited into the Batcave itself.

"Can I get you something to eat or drink?" Grissom offered politely.

"No thanks." Sara grinned. "So, I finished the drawing." She handed him the large-scale drawing she'd done of the Lysandra bellargus or the Adonis Blue.

"Oh! Great." Grissom accepted the drawing and glued it on to the piece of poster-board they were using to present their project.

"Your house is very quiet." Sara noticed, glancing around.

"Yeah." Grissom nodded. "My mom and I like it that way."

"Where's your dad?" Sara questioned, belatedly realizing that Grissom had never talked about his father, and probably for a reason. "I'm sorry. That was inappropriate of me."

"It's okay." Grissom didn't answer her question. "So, we should get working on our presentation. It's due Monday."

"Yeah." Sara nodded.

&&&&&&

Sara yawned and glanced at her watch. "Oh, damn. It's almost six thirty. Can I borrow your phone?"

"Yeah." Grissom pointed to the heavy phone, sitting on the kitchen counter.

As Sara turned her back to call Dave and Shannon, a woman entered the kitchen. Gil. She signed. Who's this?

School project. He signed back quickly. She's going home soon.

Olivia Grissom frowned at her son. Where are your manners? It's almost dinner, invite her to stay.

Grissom shook his head and Olivia sighed. Sara hung up and turned around. "Oh, you must be Gil's mom." Sara held out her hand to Olivia. "I'm Sara. We're working on a school project together."

Standing behind Sara, Grissom interpreted what Sara was saying.

"Hello Sara, I'm Olivia Grissom. Are you staying for dinner?"

"Oh, well, uh, I guess so, if that's alright with you?" She turned to Grissom who promptly dropped his hands to his sides.

"Um, that's fine." He nodded. "Mom, can I talk to you in the other room, please?"

"Of course, dear. Sara, please make yourself at home."

Grissom dragged his mother into the living room. What are you doing, Mother? He signed tersely.

Ignoring his question, she signed back, she seems like a nice girl, Gil.

That's beside the point. What are you doing?

How come you've never brought her home before?

I told you, school project. Answer the question.

Olivia sighed. Gil, just because I'm deaf doesn't mean that I'm deficient or stupid. I'm trying to make sure you have at least a semi-normal life. Please, try to appreciate that.

Grissom sized her up for a moment. Fine, but please, in the future, stay out of it.

Agreed. But promise me you'll give her a chance. Is she smart at least?

Grissom shrugged. She isn't stupid. Now, would you like some music with dinner?

Please. Olivia patted him on the shoulder, even though he was a good six inches taller. Gil, would it kill you to go out with her? Who knows, you might enjoy yourself.

He arched an eyebrow and signed back: Corelli or Beethoven?

Olivia only shook her head and rolled her eyes.

Gil had chosen the Corelli, and Olivia had cooked the lasagna she'd made the morning before. "Would you like some desert, Sara?" Olivia offered her a bowl of chocolate mousse.

"Oh, thank you. That looks delicious." Sara accepted the treat. "So, Mrs. Grissom, what do you do?"

"I own an art gallery." Olivia replied. "And please, call me Olivia. Mrs. Grissom makes me feel old."

"You're practically younger than me." Grissom assured her, right on cue.

"My son is a damn flatterer." Olivia told Sara affectionately. "He's going to make some girl very lucky one day."

Both Grissom and Sara blushed.

"Thank you for dinner, Mrs. – Olivia." Sara smiled. "It was absolutely amazing."

"I'm glad you appreciated it. Will you be coming over again some time?"

"Maybe." She nodded. "Anyway, I should get home. Shannon and Dave are expecting me by eight thirty."

Olivia nodded and Sara moved for the door.

"I'll see you at school, Sara." Grissom nervously looked at the floor.

"Uh, yeah. School. See you then." Sara moved for the door again. When the door shut behind her, Olivia's hands flew into hyperdrive.

Where are your manners, young man? She frowned. It's dark outside and you're going to let that girl walk home!

She's fine. He replied absentmindedly.

Olivia glared at him for a moment and then smacked the side of his head lightly. I thought I raised you better than that. Now you go walk her home or I'll start putting your baby pictures all over the house.

Sufficiently cowed, Grissom grabbed his leather jacket and hurried down the steps and jogged after Sara. "Hey." He tapped her on the shoulder.

Sara screamed and elbowed him in the gut. "Oh my God, Grissom, I'm so sorry!" She grabbed his shoulders. "Are you okay?"

"I'll live." He wheezed. "I'm sorry about not offering to walk you home. That was rude of me."

"It's fine." She shrugged. They walked in silence for a few minutes until finally Sara asked something that had been bothering her all night. "When I was talking to your mom, why were you using sign language?"

Grissom's jaw dropped. "How did you know about that?"

"Mirror." Sara shoved her hands in her pockets.

"Oh." Grissom copied Sara's action. "My mom is uh, deaf."

"Oh." Sara didn't say another word until they came to her house. "This is me." She tilted her head at the house. "Again, thank you for walking me home."

"Yeah." Grissom looked at the ground shyly. "I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow." Sara grinned, revealing the space between her front teeth. "See you then."

A/N: Sorry about not posting sooner, but I'm one of those stupid pissy authors who has to have everything perfect. Anyway, reviews are always nice.