Thanks to everyone who reviewed: isabell89, Notorious, icklebitoff, BeTrAyEd DaUgHtErS, csialltheway, Space-Case7029, heartagram69, I want George, Anushka, EquestrianBabe, bubble cat, spooky-phoenix, CSIFan4Life, Baby23-Misery and Mma63. You guys are just awesome!

Mma63: That's exactly why I ship Nick/Sara. I think successful and healthy relationships are between two people who can make up for each other's faults... Nick and Sara are very much opposites in many ways, they do complete each other.

csialltheway: I'm touched the note made you cry. Thank you.

icklebitodd: Thank you. I'm quite a fan of the song myself. :)

isabell89: Your review really made me smile. I get emotional when I listen to Lifehouse and Aerosmith too. P Don't worry about a bad ending- I'm not a fan of sad endings. Promise. :)

A/N: I'm not really fond of this chapter, but it had to be done. It's not really that bad, but let me know what you think. Looking at things from where they stand now, I believe this story is going to be at least 15 chapters. I hope you'll stay with me 'till the end! 'Child of the Wind' is a song by Bruce Cockburn, I don't own it. Enjoy, and please R&R!

Chapter Title: Child of the Wind

Nick wore his new cowboy hat as he drove the two of them to work in the department issued Tahoe he and Sara now shared. She sat in the passenger seat with her eyes closed, one of her decidedly more frequent smiles crossing her lips. Her hand clasped Nick's between them as the SUV stopped at a red light just down the street from the lab. She yawned quietly, covering her mouth with her right hand, squeezing Nick's in her left just a little harder as she tried to speak through it.

"You were right- we should have called in sick. I'm tired…"

Nick smiled as he watched her squirm briefly in her seat, trying to get comfortable again. Sara too tired for work. That was something new.

"Need coffee…." She continued mumbling, images of the Blue Hawaiian she fully intended to steal blurring lazily before her closed her eyes.

"Mmm, but we both decided we needed to cut down on coffee, remember honey?"

Sara's eyes blinked open sleepily, and she cocked an eyebrow. "I'll have to bribe you into letting me cheat a little."

Nick chuckled as his foot hit the gas pedal again to continue down the street and into the LVPD lab parking lot. He placed a quick kiss on her check before popping his seatbelt from its buckle, then Sara's. They both exited and left the truck, grabbing their crime kits before setting off toward the entrance. Nick directed the automatic lock remote over his shoulder, and, hearing the beep of the horn that meant the vehicle was locked, adjusted his new hat subconsciously before clasping Sara's hand again. They were nearing the glass doors when Sara's cellphone rang. She stopped them for a second, frowning slightly as she took the small phone from its case on her belt and answered it.

"Sidle."

"Hey Sara, its Grissom- listen, I need both you and Nick here today, we have a big caseload and… I… need to talk to both of you."

"You know we were both supposed to come in today anyway, we both have shift tonight."

"Yes, I know, but I also know today is Nick's birthday and you're already twenty minutes late- I wanted to make sure you were coming." Admittedly, it wasn't normal for either of them to show up late for work, but they knew Grissom would probably let one day slide.

Sara rolled her eyes.

"We're at the doors, we'll meet you in your office in 5."

She closed her phone and put it back on her belt.

"Grissom?" Nick asked with interest, holding the glass door of the lab entrance open for her. The pair continued talking as they made their way to their supervisor's office.

"Yeah, he says needs to talk to both of us- I told him we'd see him in his office in five. Figured we could drop our stuff off in our lockers on the way."

"Sounds good… but I'm wearing the hat."

Sara laughed. "Yeah, don't put that in your locker. I want to show you off."

Five minutes later, Nick and Sara had made the familiar trek to Grissom's office, where he asked them both to take a seat. The supervisor stood up from the chair behind his desk and closed the door to the office, removing his glasses and massaging the crook of his nose, just between his eyes as he sat back down again. He sighed, and the pair of them noted how old he looked that day.

"I… have some bad news." Grissom paused, clearly not sure where to go from there. His features remained static, frozen as he thought. Nick and Sara sat with their hands in their laps, looking confused and worried. Finally, the older man began speaking again.

"There's been a violent massacre in San Francisco that has been tied to another chain of cases that supposedly went cold seven years ago, around the time you, Sara, were working for San Francisco PD before your transfer here five years ago. Apparently two of the four CSI's that worked those cases were killed last week; they were believed to have been targets of a bombing at a staged crime scene in an airport parkade. The other is in critical condition at Central Hospital, and their team is in desperate need of the fourth… the only other person who worked the cold cases seven years ago. Sara."

Sara looked like she'd been slapped in the face. Nick's jaw was practically on the floor.

"What does this mean for her?" Nick managed after a few moments, wide eyed and disturbed by this uncalled for news.

"Sara is being transferred for the time being to San Francisco to aid the SFPD as the only surviving member of her old team to help solve this case before these extremists kill another throng of innocent people." Grissom answered simply, his face as per usual void of any detectable emotion. The whole room was silent for what seemed like hours- Sara's hand had found Nick's again and she squeezed it firmly. Nick could feel her fear through this simple gesture, and an overwhelming urge to strangle the Nightshift Supervisor was wracking at his very being. Here this man sat- face void of emotion, telling him that not only were throngs of innocent people dead, but the person he cared most about was being transferred to this place that seemed akin to a war zone, and there was nothing he could do about it. Sara felt like she was going to be sick.

Grissom watched the couple with interest, as if searching for a reaction. Nick's expression had changed to fury, while Sara looked genuinely afraid, inwardly dreading the question she already knew the answer to.

"Aspen and Neil are… are dead?" Sara's pupils were very large and she'd gone ghostly white. Nick watched her worriedly, his expression turning from livid to brotherly in an instant. Grissom sighed, putting his glasses back on and opening a folder that lay among countless others in front of him and held up notes Sara assumed he took during a phone call.

"Fatalities were Aspen McAirfeld and a Juila Fairmont… surviving CSI Neil Erykson is in critical condition with severe third degree burns at Central Hospital in San Francisco, California."

"Aspen… Juila… Neil…" Sara repeated their names, staring at the wall behind her boss, then at the ground. Tears fell from her eyes for the second time that morning, but this time they were out of mourning as opposed to joy and thankfulness. Nick looked quickly to Grissom in helpless disbelief then quickly back to Sara, who was crumpling in her seat, refusing to look up and allow Grissom to see her tears. Her grip on Nick's hand was slowly waning.

"Sara, look at me…" Nick was kneeling on the floor in front of her, his hands clasping her wrists as she sat, her body almost hugging her knees which she'd pulled in tight protectively, hiding her face behind long curly hair. "Honey please…" Sara remained very still, so he moved a hand to stroke her shoulder. Nick was surprised when she flinched under his touch. He turned around and stood to face Grissom, standing tall above the sitting man from the other side of his desk.

"Gris, if you don't mind, we need a moment."

Without saying a word, the entomologist raised from his seat, looking the man who had just asked him to get out of his own office, expression in his eyes turning from detached to uncharacteristically cold. He almost seemed to challenge Nick to fix this one. Despite how angry he was about the situation, Nick hadn't expected such abhorrence from the man he'd almost come to respect over the years as a father figure. It seemed that he still hadn't gotten over loosing Sara to him. Well, he never really had her in the first place, but seeing them together still appeared to bothered him for some reason. Nick stared back with just as much intensity, and finally Grissom walked out of the room, closing the door neatly behind him.

"Thank you…" Nick heard a small voice speaking to him from behind, and realized Sara had looked up. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her entire body was shaking. She wasn't sure why she had just withdrawn like that in front of her boss, but she'd never felt fully comfortable and secure around him. She wasn't willing to allow him to see her cry… no matter what the circumstance.

"Honey…" Nick crouched down at her feet again, wrapping his arms around her crippled form. Her head fell as it always did into the crook of his shoulder, and he held her as sobs wracked her body. Sara had never mentioned anything to him about her old team, or even her old life in San Francisco, and he'd never pushed the matter. But looking at the situation now, Nick was sure that if they had been anywhere near as close as their nightshift team, the news had to be heartbreaking. Just thinking about Sara in such pain caused his own heart to ache- he couldn't stand her being so torn apart. They were quiet for a while, just clinging to each other until Sara was ready to speak again.

"Aspen… was—" She sighed, almost hiccupping between a sobs. "…my sister. She was the closest thing I'd ever had to a real family. Neil and I were very close too."

Her words hit him like a ton of bricks. He felt helpless, and wished more than anything that he could say or do something to help.

"I'm sorry Sara... I'm so sorry…" he continued rubbing circles on her back in an effort to comfort her, and it seemed to be working, at least to some degree. She'd stopped shaking and sobbing and now solitary tears ran down her cheeks as she again wrapped her own arms around Nick's body.

"Juila and I… never got along. She- she reminds me of…" Sara squeezed her eyes shut as hard as she could, as if forcing the tears from her body to cleanse herself of the pain.

"Who, baby… who?" Nick whispered in her ear, confused.

"Catherine." Another sob wracked her body- saying that had almost made her death real, undoable. "I should have listened to her… she was right, this is all my fault… She's dead because I was stupid—"

"No, no… Sara, their deaths are not your fault, there's nothing you could have done…"

"Yes there was… Julia was right… and I refused to listen to her because I was just too stubborn…"

"Shh, honey… no…"

Sara shook her head no rather violently and pulled away from him. Nick looked to her face; she looked more vulnerable, scared and confused than he had ever seen her. "No… no… my fault… you don't understand…" She stood up, falling out of his arms still shaking her head. Slowly, her legs moved her almost involuntarily toward the closed door of Grissom's office. "I- I can't handle this… Nick, I'm sorry…"

Sara pulled her wide chestnut eyes from his, and turned to run from the confinement of the walls. She sprinted through the halls of the lab until she reached the parking lot. Nick ran after her, following until he found her collapsed on their blue Tahoe in the back of the lot, where she lay sprawled, quietly shaking and wishing she'd lived just a little differently 7 years ago, when she had been so different. Life… had been so different.

A/N: The little blueish-purple "GO!" button is calling you... D Please drop me a review and tell me what you though of this chapter! I'll try my best to make the next one not-so-angsty, but I can't promise anything. Thanks so much for your support on the first chapter, I appreciate it!

Until next time…

Sahariah

Sympathy for the devil (maybe when sar finally catches the perps?)