Grissom sat behind his desk replaying the previous few days in his mind. He smiled as her face populated his mind's eye. His heart ached, but it was different from before. It was hopeful. He could already see how much better she was in just a short time. He was confident that she could over come this, that she could come back to him soon.

But weeks turned into months and Grissom was getting frustrated. Each time he suggested she'd come back just to visit, she would say that she wasn't ready or she couldn't. They continued to talk regularly, but he felt lonelier each day. He just wanted her back.

October 2008

"Sara!" Greg exclaimed as she walked into the coffee shop.

"Greggo!" She smiled back and embraced him in a hug. "It is so good to see you." She took a seat opposite him and ordered a large cup of coffee. "I was surprised to get your call." She admitted once they were settled down.

"You know that book I was working on? About Las Vegas' history?"

"Yep."

"Well I've been shopping it around to some studio heads. I was in L.A. for the past two days."

"Any bites?"

"A few prospects." Greg glowed.

"So what are you doing in San Fransisco then?"

"Figured I swing by, see the scenes. I've never been out this way."

"Mhmm." Sara said doubting Greg's response.

"Alright, I figured if I was already here, you couldn't turn me down to meet up." He flashed her his greg-grin. "You look well, Sara."

"I feel well." She smiled back. The two shared an easy afternoon together and caught up. Eventually though, Greg had to return to the airport to catch his flight. He gave Sara a big hug and made her promise to keep in touch before he got in a cab and departed the city.

"Oh, God." Grissom pulled Warrick's limp and bloodied body out of his car and into the alley way. Blood spewing out from his neck as Warrick gasped for air. He quickly took his jacket off and pressed it against the wound. How did this happen? Just minutes earlier the team was grabbing breakfast together at Franks, celebrating Warrick's innocence. Grissom departed the diner first and stopped by a nearby news stand remembering Sara had told him to check out an article on Costa Rica butterflies she had seen in this month's Nation Geographic.

He was flipping through the magazine to find the article when he heard his police scanner from the car, "Officer Down." He looked at the cross streets. It was right by him. And that's when he found Warrick.

His green eyes looking up at him, terrified. Blood gurgling in his throat. Grissom looked up to see the Under Sheriff walking toward him.

"Where are the paramedics!?" Grissom shouted, "Get the paramedics!"

Warrick continued to squirm in Grissom's hold. "Hang in there Warrick. Stay with me." But blood was everywhere and Grissom couldn't stop it. He felt Warrick stop squirming, felt his body go limp. Grissom scooped him in his arms and held him tightly, tears trickling from his blue eyes. "No, Warrick!" He yelled internally as he held him tighter.

By the time the paramedics arrived Warrick had passed. The sun was peaking up over the horizon now casting eerie blue light over the scene. Grissom sat against the brick wall opposite Warricks sheet covered body. He was drenched from head to toe in Warrick's blood, his face drooped in deep sadness.

"Have you photographed the body yet?" Ecklie asked as he approached them.

"I haven't done anything yet." Dave responded smally.

Grissom looked up and stood for the first time as Ecklie spoke again, "Gil, how do you want to handle this?"

"I want us to do this, Conrad."

Catherine approached the two men, "I just got off the phone with Greg. He's on his way back from the airport. I told him to go straight to the lab."

Sara's phone rang as she stepped out of the shower. She glanced at the caller ID and smiled.

"How can you miss me already? I just saw you a few hours ago."

"Sara..." His voice was small and shaky.

"Greg? What is it? What's wrong?"

"It's Warrick... He's—" She could hear his voice cracking as he tried to manage words, "He's gone, Sara."

"What do you mean, he's gone?"

"He's been shot. He died, Sara." She could hear him push down tears.

"Where are you?"

"I just landed in Vegas and got Catherine's call..."

"I'm taking the next flight out."

Sara quickly got on her computer, booked the next ticket out of San Fransisco and got changed. She stuffed a small suitcase hastily and ran downstairs to print her boarding pass.

"Whoa, girl. Where's the fire." Harry teased as he bit into an apple. She didn't respond, barely hearing him as she rushed around to leave the house. "Sara?" Harry softened, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay?"

Dave stepped into the room hearing the commotion, "What's going on?"

"It's Warrick—my Vegas CSI colleague, he's..." She paused, not sure if she could manage to say it aloud. "He's been shot... he didn't make it." Tears welled behind her eyes as she spoke the words aloud. "I just booked a flight, it takes of in less than an hour."

"I'll drive you." Dave grabbed his car keys and Sara's bag and headed outside quickly.

Grissom walked through the lab halls, Warrick's blood still caked on his face, his hands, his shirt and pants. Eyes upon him as he walked through. He watched as colleagues came together, consoling one another as they cried.

He turned the corner to see Greg walking toward him, face somber and heavy like the weight of the lab. They made eye contact.

"I, uh—I need to do something." His voice was small and cracking. Eyes red with tears.

"You could, um, pick up Warrick's clothes from the coroner."

"Okay." Greg nodded and moved on as Grissom continued is slow walk to Hodges' lab.

Hodges helped place Grissom's bloodied clothing into paper evidence bags. Watching as the supervisor was forced to strip down.

"Here." Hodges spoke softly, extending fresh clothes to Grissom. "Black shirt, medium. And your department windbreaker."

"Thank you." Grissom voice continued to be soft and monotone. He couldn't process his thoughts, his feelings. He felt lost and cold.

Grissom left Hodges' lab and walked down the hall back to his office. He stopped abruptly in the threshold. There she stood, leaning against his desk, waiting for his return. Her face soft and sad. She pushed off the desk and took a step toward him. His feet moved just the same, slowly taking him to her. Their eyes locking before finally embracing in a hug. He could feel her crying against him now.

"I got the first flight out." She sighed as she held onto him tighter. He closed his eyes, letting the feeling of her against him comfort him.

"Thank you." He finally spoke, his voice so small and almost inaudible as he tightened his hold of her.

They finally let go of each other and took a seat by his desk. She held his hands in hers, seeing blood still caked around his fingertips, embedded in his nail beds.

"How?" He spoke softly.

"Greg called." She smiled sadly and nodded.

"He didn't want to go, Sara." he spoke a bit absently.

"Tell me."

"I was holding him." He looked back at her now, "God, I could feel his life. I guess I felt that if I could hold him tight enough, that he would be okay."

"You know there is no where in the world that he would have rather been in the end." She paused to push back some tears that threatened to fall, "He loved you."

"Yeah... I loved him." He whispered.

Sara's attention turned to the door as she was Catherine approach. She sighed when she saw Sara.

"I'm so sorry." Sara moved to hug Catherine, and saw Greg entering the office behind her.

"It's so good we can all be together."

She moved to hug Greg now. He hung on tightly, realizing that the hug they shared just a few hours prior was a happy one, a complete contrast. "I'm so glad you're here."

She moved to Nick and hugged him as well as he entered the office.

"Look, um, maybe I can pick up some of the slack. I—I know I can't work the case but, maybe I can make some of the arrangements?"

"That would be great." Grissom nodded.

"I'll help you" Greg chimed in.

Greg and Sara drove to Warrick's apartment in near silence. The air between them think with unspoken sadness.

"When did he move?" Sara asked as they pulled up to the apartment complex.

"When he and Tina split up."

"Oh." Sara realized that happened just after she was abducted. The thought on that for a moment, realizing that the two had gotten married after Nick's abduction. Nick's abduction story was one of hope and survival. Of not taken life for granted. That's why she and Grissom had finally gotten together, why Warrick and Tina tied the knot. Sara's abduction had been the opposite.

They entered the apartment together.

"Looks like never settled in." Greg observed as he walked past half opened packing boxes.

"Yeah."

Greg and Sara found a suit and tie for Warrick's funeral, along with the surprising discovery that Warrick was a father, and was fighting a custody battle with Tina. Greg and Sara watched court psych tape, where Warrick described the father figure in his life. "Fair and honest. Someone who's taught me how to be inspired and to inspire others."

"Sara... He's talking about Grissom."

She nodded slowly, "I know."

Later on Sara would show Grissom the tape in efforts to cheer him up a little. And it had, without realizing it, Grissom had been like a father to Warrick.

"And you thought you wouldn't be any good as a father." Sara teased, trying her best to lighten the mood.

"I could say the same to you." He rebuttaled.

"What does that mean?"

"I saw the way you are with Harry." Grissom smiled and reached for Sara's hand, kissing it. "Thank you for sharing this with me."

Grissom stood in front of the packed church. His colleagues sitting in pews, sniffling back tears. His eyes drew to Sara who sat in the front row along side Catherine, Nick and Greg.

"As Crime Scene Investigators, we meet people on the worst days of their lives. We meet a family member, who just lost someone they love. Often in a horrible way. A piece of their heart is gone, and will never be replaced. The phrase we're trained to offer them, 'I'm sorry for your loss', as we know now doesn't offer much. Warrick Brown was a young boy when his parents passed away. Much too young to learn that life can be cut so tragically short. But I think it taught him, how precious life is. And so he lived his life to the fullest. Each day as if it were his last day.

I was with Warrick on his last day. All the qualities that define him, his tenaciousness, his deep sense of loyalty, his courage to risk his life for what he knew was right. All those traits were with him on his last day. Just before he died, we were all having breakfast together. Our team, his friends, his family. And Warrick was—"

Grissom began to choke on the tears he was so desperately trying to push back, "He was—" He couldn't hold them in any longer, they came streaming down, "I'm going to miss him so much."

Sara watched Grissom closely has he began to shake, the tears streaming from her own eyes in seeing his pain. He made his way back to the pew, sitting beside Sara. She quickly grabbed his hand i hers and held tightly. Her other hand went to his back, rubbing small circles to comfort him.

After the funeral, Catherine spotted Tina in the back, holding onto a baby boy. She approached her.

"Tina..."

Tina smiled sadly.

"Is this Warrick's son?"

She nodded in return and readjusted in infant against her.

"May I hold him?"

Tina shook her head, a tear escaping her eye, "No," She managed, "I don't think that's a good idea." She turned to leave the funeral, strapping her son into a carseat. But before she did, the team caught a look at the baby and his piercing green eyes.

Later that night the team meet up at Grissom and Sara's loft. They sat around, drinks in hand and talked through found memories of Warrick, allowing themselves to laugh a little.

"You know," Catherine interjected as Sara finished up a story of how wary Warrick was of her originally as the team laughed, "You two probably would have never gotten together if it wasn't for Warrick's bad apple streak." She gestured between the Grissom and Sara.

"What are you talking about Cath?" Grissom furrowed his brows.

"If Warrick hasn't messed up, you would have never needed to call in that favor to have Sara act as IA. How many hoops did you have to jump through to get Sara to be the one who came to investigate him? Hu?" She smirked knowingly at Grissom while glancing as Sara's slightly shocked face.

"Alright, alright. It wasn't that many hoops."

"Gil." Sara said almost scoldingly with a slight laugh as she glanced at him, "You know, I never thought about that. The department probably just wanted you to put someone from days or swing on it."

"He shrugged. It was as good a reason as any."

The team laughed in unison together as Catherine continued to poke fun at the two.

"Remember there was that one time I swore Warrick knew." Sara laughed, directing the statement to Grissom, "You brought me dinner at the lab when Warrick and I were working late on a case and he questioned why you didn't pick up anything for him as well." She shook her head, "You said you didn't know he was working but when you left Warrick went on for a good five minutes on the fact that you personally called him in just an hour before. I ended up having to split my veggie burger with him just to shut him up."

The team continued to share stories of Warrick, some somber, some happy. Grissom sat back quietly listening, observing, seeing his team together. Seeing sara laugh with everyone again. He wanted to bottle this moment, to keep it forever. But eventually everyone filtered out leaving just Grissom and Sara together. He sighed sadly, the memory of Warrick's last breath flushing through him.

"C'mon." Sara stood and reached out her hand, "Let's go to bed."