Dedicated to Beth, my fellow Eponine.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, as much as wish to.

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She felt like flying. Spreading her wings and jumping, soaring, leaping, to let go and go and go and never have to land. She wanted to tilt forward and go. To let her feet leave the ground for the last time and never touch it again. Let her arms bear the burden, not her tired feet.

She wanted to go over the edge, and find her peace. Let go of all her ground-related problems; her ex-boyfriends, her friends, and those she couldn't save. Couldn't find justice. Couldn't find their peace, and their families.

A tear escaped. She once thought this was cowardly. She had newfound respect for those who had gone before her. This was something that required bravery. She straightened her wings again. She had let them slack during her thoughts. She opened her eyes wider, looking at the spot at the bottom that once sported crime-scene tape that marked where a Jane Doe was pushed and landed.

Another one that got away, she thought. Another. That was the key word. She straightened her arms again. She had not been able to bring justice to another. She laughed. She had never been able to bring justice to herself either. She had cheating boy-friends and fiancé's, dead fish and hermit crabs and plants she had tried so hard on, and a painful unrequited love.

She laughed again. So ironic. She closed her eyes and began to rock on the balls of her feet, her face and hair being caressed by the wind.

It wasn't like she'd be missed. They'd just replace her at work, sell all of her crap in an estate sale, rent her apartment again, and Gil would keep on going. She was always an Eponine, never a Cosette.

Gil always kept on going. He was as married to his work as much as she was. It's how they got to know each other. Then their work environment acquaintance turned to crush and crush to love…for her. She tried so hard to get him to do something about their relationship. She knew that he felt something for her. What, she didn't know, but…she could at least say she tried. She tried asking him to dinner, sitting next to him at briefings, getting boyfriends when he said no, seeing a shrink when she got depressed or angry or suicidal…

Like now. Except now she understood that this was the only option with a positive ending. She didn't have to do anything hard. She just had to fly. But, the whole flying process was hard. She had to jump, and jumping took bravery.

Bravery was something she could fake most of the time. She could fake it when he said no, on a case, interrogating a suspect, doing something she really didn't' want to do.

But she knew after this there'd be nothing else but flying, soaring. She decided that after a lifetime of running, hoping, losing and falling, flying would be just fine.

She found solace in slowly leaning forward. She found peace in feeling her heels leaving the ground for the last time. She found happiness in two arms wrapping themselves around her torso and pulling her down, down, down. She found elation in opening her teary eyes. She found home in five words.

"Sara, don't, I love you!"

She found love in Gil.

Flying could wait.

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