I know it's been forever since I've updated any of my stories and I want to thank everyone for being patient with me. I was dealing with a rough personal crisis and now that I am on the mend my muse has started to pester me again :).

A/N: Some of the quotes used in this chapter obviously wouldn't have been around at the time Sara was in high school so I am using a little creative license .

I remember us sitting down one night sorting through the mail when I came across a letter from Grissom's high school. School. It had always been one of those places where I thought I could escape. The true reality of life back then was no place was that place. Well not until Grissom anyway. So I used to think that I was the only person who had used school as an escape from the rest of life. That was until I met the delectable Dr. Gilbert Grissom (for whom I now have many nicknames). He was escaping the silence he found at home and I was escaping the noise I found in mine. It didn't matter that I had no friends. Teachers praised me for being their best student and Harvard acknowledged that fact when they sent me my acceptance letter. That was the first time I ever felt like maybe my past wouldn't always define who I was. But the truth is, your past always defines who you are. Griss once told me that one of the things he admired most about me my was my strength, the way I was able to carry on in the face of insurmountable odds. He said it probably had a lot to do with my past. When he made that comment it got me thinking about a paper I did for my AP English class my junior year in high school. The topic was diversity. We had to chose one or two quotes about diversity and base our paper around them. I chose a quote by Arthur Golden, "Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are." At the time I wrote the essay I didn't whole heartedly agree with the quote I just needed to get the paper in on time. But looking back on my life I realize how true it is. Each time I walked through the fires of hell and came out, even if I did so scarred, I was reminded of my own inner strength. And if it wasn't for my past I wouldn't be who I was today, the woman Gil fell in love with . Of course you know Gil, he couldn't finish a comment like that without punctuating his hypothesis with a quote. He had never said who the author was so later I had Googled it. The author was Barbara Bloom,. Her quote, "When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful." He had continued by saying, "And you my dear are the most beautiful creature on earth." I knew it was his way of telling me he wasn't ashamed of me and that I shouldn't be ashamed of myself either.

Thanks for taking the time to read this chapter and as always reviews are never turned away. You think they have support groups for review addiction:)