Authors Final Note - Here it is Ya'll, I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry that it took me so long to get to this point I feel really bad. But three chapter in one day aint half bad if I do say so myself. So here's the 10th and final chapter. Hope it's up to all your standards! R&R if you please!!!

Chapter 10

Sara had been to several funerals in her lifetime, but never one as massive and heart wrenching as this. She stood next to the grave with her head bowed. She stood wearing a long black skirt that fluttered around her ankles and a simple black sleeveless top with black sequins across the neckline that hid the bandages wrapped around her waist. She clutched the dark sweater around her shoulders and listened as the priest gave the eulogy…

It was your typical eulogy, one that Grissom scarcely listened to as he scanned the people surrounding the grave sight. Everybody was there, all with their heads bowed, some people looking shocked, some scared, and some were wiping tears from their eyes. Already flowers of every possible size shape and colour, the only radiance to the otherwise dreary surroundings, surrounded the casket and headstone. But Grissom barely registered any of this, the only thing he could see was the explosion that consumed two people he had worked with for a very long time. Two of his friends. One lay in the a hospital burn ward suffering through third degree burns while the other lay before him, to scarred for even and open casket ceremony.

Over and over the explosion played in his mind, the last moments before the fire swallowed them whole. Warrick had gone back for Catherine; he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to her feet. It was then the bomb went off. It sent shards of wood and glass from the house out across the hill and fire almost halfway down. Sara had buried her head in his shoulder while the two of them crouched down together behind a tree. He listened to Catherine and Warricks screams of pain linger together and rip through the night as the fire caught them both. E.M.T's appeared, seemingly, out of thin air and rushed to the scene while fire trucks finally appeared putting out the fire so that it didn't burn down the hill. In the heat of the explosion the skin on Catherine and Warricks hands had fused together and had to be cut apart. One was pronounced dead on the scene, the other was rushed to the hospital.

The eulogy ended and Sara fell from her thoughts. She looked around as people set the remaining flowers on the dark wood casket. The priest began to say a prayer as the coffin was lowered into the ground, to be filled in once the final mourners had left. People began to file away. Sara followed the group, but stopped a few feet away. Grissom still stood over the grave. Sara doubled back and moved up beside him, he didn't even register that she was there. There was a long moment of silence.

'You know' Sara finally said 'we always say that our job is to speak for the people who can't speak for themselves, but it takes something like this to make you think. Sometimes even the people left behind need somebody to speak for them.' She looked up into Grissoms drawn face. 'Like now' she said as she slipped her hand into his. He still didn't respond. After a moment she went to move away, but he tightened his grip on her hand.

'Don't leave yet' he muttered, his voice barely audible over the gentle breeze, 'speak for me.' She looked at him for a moment, he finally returned her gaze. And though he tried so hard not to show it she could see the pain in his face. She reached up and touched his cheek with her hand, then pulled away and leaned into his shoulder. They stood together and looked down at the, elegantly and meticulously carved, headstone.

Catherine Willows

Hard Worker

Beloved Mother

Dear Friend

May she know that she will always be loved

And may her soul rest in peace