A/N: A wee bit short, but it's late and I have to get up early for work. Thanks to all who reviewed. Keep them coming please! Enjoy!

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Day 1

5:21 PM

Sara had been waiting for nearly two hours. Visiting hours weren't until 5:30, and it took all of her strength not to run screaming from the building.

'Ms. Sidle?" Sara looked up to see one of the nurses staring at her.

"Yes?" She looked at her watch, which read 5:31.

"Your mother is ready to se you now." Sara didn't say anything, merely walking with the nurse towards the visiting room.

There, she found her mother shackled to a chair wearing a white pull over shirt and white sweat pants. Her socks were also white, with textured rubber bottoms to replace actual shoes.

"Be good, Laura," the nurse told her as she walked out. She walked back in a moment later to tell Sara that there was an armed guard outside the door should she need him. Sara thanked the kind woman and sat in a chair across from her mother.

Neither said anything for quite some time. There was no clock in the room, and security had taken Sara's watch, but she estimated that they had been in the room for almost fifteen minutes. Sara was about to get up and leave when her mother spoke up.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Sammy?" Sara was taken aback. She hadn't been called that for over twenty years, but she played along.

"Yes, it has, Lily. How have you been?"

"Excellent. In fact, I'm looking forward to getting out of this prison pretty soon."

"Oh, you didn't hear?"

"What didn't I hear, Samantha, dear?"

"You're in here for life." Sara's voice was icy, and she swore her lips were freezing as the words left her mouth.

"Samantha!" Her mother was taken aback. "I thought I raised you better than that. You speak to adults politely! Now apologize."

"Oh, now, see, you've got it backwards." Sara leaned across the table so that she was only a few inches away from her mother. "You never raised me. You're no adult; you're a child, a nagging, spoiled child who only thinks of herself. And I don't think I should be the one apologizing."

"Spoiled! I am not the self-centered bitch you make me out to be, Sammy, dear. I'm sorry if that's what you think of me."

"That's a start. But you're apologizing for the wrong thing." Sara sat back down in her chair. "And sorry, mother dearest," she said sarcastically, "but you are the self-centered bitch I make you out to be."

"Excuse me! I saved us! I saved you!"

"You saved us? You did nothing of the sort."

"He was going to kill us all!"

"He was going to kill you!'

"Exactly!"

"So you took the knife and stabbed him!" Sara was on the verge of a breakdown. "You picked the knife up from the kitchen counter and stabbed him and stabbed him and stabbed him." She emphasized her point by banging her fist on the table over and over again. "You never gave him a chance!"

"He never gave us a chance!"

"Maybe we didn't deserve a chance! Maybe that's how things were supposed to be!"

"No, Sara, baby." She had used her real name, Sara realized, and her mom tried to reach out to her, but the restraints held her back.

"Just like it's always been. No matter how hard you tried, mom, you get never reach me. You spent your days hiding with the rest of us, pretending with the rest of us." Sara's voice was calmer now, understanding. "But, it doesn't reverse the past. It doesn't heal my wounds, mom. There are times when I wish I could just erase everything that happened to me. And I know I can't." Sara got close to her mom for one last comment. "And that's what keeps me going day after day. The fact that there is always something out there that I have to control, or it will control me. And what thoughts kill me day after day? Thoughts of you."

With that, Sara got up, told the guard she was finished, and left her mother for the last time.

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7:02 PM

It had been four and half hours since Grissom started his journey to Sara, and it seemed like it just began when he pulled up in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Mental Correctional Facility.

When he stepped out of his Denali, he noticed another Las Vegas truck sitting in the parking lot. He couldn't believe it. He had found her. He had finally found her.

He had never run so fast in his life than when he ran to that truck.

He looked in and saw Sara, sitting in the front seat, crying like he'd never seen her cry before. "Sara!" he screamed. She looked up, and before she could react, he had her door open and in his arms in one fluid motion. "Oh my God, Sara," he whispered, turning his head to smell her hair, to make sure she was really there.

She was still sitting there, in shock. At most, Grissom had held her hand when she told him about her family. Now he was hugging her? This was too much for her to deal with at the moment, and she pulled back, but what she saw was something she thought she'd never see.

Gil Grissom stood in front of her, tears streaming down his face, an unreadable emotion drawn on his face. "Sara," he said again, softer this time.

"Gil."

"There's so much I want to say to you." He took her hand and brought her out of the car. She accepted and the stood a respectable foot apart. "I'm so sorry, Sara."

"No, I'm the one who should be apologizing. I left without telling you and I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry."

"No, no. Shh." He came over and brushed her hair lightly with the back of his hair. "You didn't do anything wrong."

They stood there for a minute, his hand still in her hair. "How did you know where I was?"

He shrugged. "Played a hunch. Look," he said, reaching this time for her face. "I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you years ago. We thought, I thought, that you had been taken that you were…" He couldn't say, not even now, not even when he knew she was alive. "I thought I lost you forever, Sara. I should have taken you up on that dinner invitation, it was just…"

Sara knew this was hard for him. Opening up was definitely not one of his strong suits. "Look. It's okay. Apology accepted." She forced a smile, but it didn't have its desired affects.

"No, it's not okay. I've hurt you for too long, Sara, and I don't know why you chose to stay. But you have no idea how glad I am that you did." He put his other hand on the other side of her cheek. Checking her eyes for approval, he closed the few inches difference between her lips and his.

It started out light, but when she kissed him back, it quickly turned into a fury of heated, passionate kisses. When lack of oxygen forced them to stop, he rested his forehead against hers, both breathless.

"What I was saying before was that I really am sorry I hurt you, and I don't plan on doing it any time again in the future. With that said," he looked into her eyes. "I just wanted to tell you that I didn't want to go through the rest of my life without telling you that I love you, Sara Sidle."

Sara only kissed him again in response, and when they pulled away, she whispered, "Thank you. And I love you, too."

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A/N: Not the end! TBC!