Summary: Greg and Nick lose someone very close to them. Prequel to 'The Broken Heart'.

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or SPD.

A/N: Yes, people... This is a prequel to a crossover with Power Rangers: Space Patrol Delta. Please givethem botha chance. I am very pleased with how both fictions have come out so far. You do not have to watch either show to understand the plot.

Sara Sanders glanced up from her paperwork to see her husband of eighteen years walk into the break room and make a beeline for his infamous Blue Hawaiian coffee. He had made her so happy throughout the years, even more happy than she had even thought to give him credit for. If someone would have told her that she would be married to him twenty years ago, she would have laughed in their face.

She knew that he had always been attracted to her, especially when he tried to hide it behind his goofy antics and sexual innuendoes. At first she had found it annoying and humorous all at the same time. Then she started to crave them. She would walk into his lab just to bug him all the while hoping that he might make some comment to put her at ease. She didn't know when or how, but soon she realized that she had become addicted to Greg.

It wasn't until he was promoted that her feeling began to change. Upon his becoming a CSI he was usually assigned to work under her. Not that she minded, after all their working conditions made it really easy to start noticing things about him that she would have usually overlooked. It took two years of working over him to recognize her true feelings for him.

Never once did they go on a date or have a romantic relationship, but when he suddenly asked her to marry him, she knew that she would have been a fool to say no. Shaking her head, the sound of their beepers drew her out of her memories.

CSI

Greg glanced up from his work. It had already been a long night and it was only bound to get longer. The case was a big one. At least big enough to warrant having two teams. His eyes wondered over the scene before him, hoping to find something he missed. Instead they landed on Sara and Nick who were discussing something or other.

By now, the three of them were the only ones left at the Las Vegas Crime Lab that hailed from the time he had been promoted. The others had either been moved up and out, or moved on completely. It didn't seem to hinder the relationship of the old team, after all they were all still really close.

Greg watched as Sara glanced over to give him a smile. The same smile he had fallen for the first time he met. It had stunned him then, and it stunned him now. So much that he didn't even register that a shot had been fired.

CSI

Time seemed to stop completely for Nick. He had heard the shot and felt the warm spray hit his face before realizing that she had been hit. She slumped on to him forcing his arms to react before she hit the ground. Glancing up, he saw Greg kneeling next to a plaster he had just cast watching the scene before him in shock. The look on his face was enough to set the middle aged Texan's heart on fire. Looking down, his eyes began to tear.

"Sara," he said in a broken voice. "Don't go."

She opened her eyes to search his. "Tell him," she whispered. "He made my life beautiful."

Nick was shaking his head as she went dead weight in his arms. "Sara don't."

By this time, Greg had come out of his stupor to rush over to where a small crowd had gathered and was pushing his way through to see his best friend cradling his wife. Her eyes had just closed and in a barely audible whisper she said. "Tell him, I love him."

Nick glanced up at Greg who had knelt and grasped her hand repeating one word over and over with twin streams flowing down his face as sirens could be heard in the distance.

"No."