Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or it´s characters.

Spoilers: #711 Leaving Las Vegas

Summary: Grissom takes his sabbatical leaving Sara behind. GSR for sure.

A/N: I began to write this story a few weeks ago based on spoilers for #711 Leaving Las Vegas.

A huge thanks to my beta Come What May for her encouragement and help! Without you there´d be no prologue and lots and lots of mistakes ;-)

Enjoy!

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Here by Me

Prologue:

Waking up Grissom felt something wasn't quite right. He was in his bedroom, in his house, but something was missing.

Turning around he found the space next to him empty, only cold sheet greeting his searching hand. Where was Sara? They'd gone to bed together earlier and usually she slept longer than he did. Ironic, considering everybody thought of Sara as the woman who could stay awake for three days straight without sleeping at all.

So where had she gone? A slight feeling of panic immediately gripped his heart. Had she left him? Had she become fed up with his constant mood swings? Had she woken up, seen the wrinkled on his face and the bags under his eyes and realised that he was too old for her?

A strange sound coming from the living room caught his attention and Grissom finally got up, not fully awake yet. Maybe she couldn't sleep and went to the living room to watch TV.

He didn't bother to turn the light on, making his way down the hallway in the dark. Silence had fallen over the townhouse once again, but it didn't feel like the usual silence when everybody was asleep. No, this was different. This was like the silence that sometimes greeted him at a crime scene.

Reaching the living room he discovered the TV and light off, and the couch empty. If Sara wasn't here where had that sound come from?

The moonlight falling in through the window only illuminated part of the living room but Grissom could make out the outlines of something, sitting on his coffee table.

Carefully he made his way over, grabbing a flashlight from the cupboard next to him and turning it on.

The bright light let him see what he'd missed until now. A model. A miniature copy of his townhouse. And there was blood. A lot of blood. Not only in the miniature living room he looked at now, but also on the floor. He was standing in a puddle of blood.

Turning the flashlight towards the ground his breath caught in his throat. Sara. Sara lying in a pool of blood, stab wounds all over her body. And a baby in her arms, also covered in blood.

Now, it couldn't be. He couldn't have gotten to them. He just couldn't. The flashlight hit the ground with a thud and Grissom dropped to his knees next to Sara, taking her cold, lifeless hand in his. .

„No, no, no ,no..."He murmured. „No."

„Gil? Gil, honey, wake up."

He slowly opened his eyes, the words still on his tongue. What had happened? His body felt sticky and he was sitting up in bed, with Sara next to him, stroking his back soothingly.

„Ssh, it was just a bad dream. Come here."

She pulled him back down to lay next to her and began to wipe the tears from his cheeks.

„Everything is okay. It´s going to be okay." She whispered, laying back down on his chest.

He took her in his arms, relishing in the feel of her against him.

She was right it had just been a bad dream. But nothing was going to be okay. He needed a break.