Author's Note: Ok. This is the prologue for a story that I am writing which is based around the events of Fannysmackin'... and I'm hoping to take it through the majority of season seven ending after Leaping Lizards. It came out partly out of my frustration that season 8 isn't airing over here for aaaaages and partly because it kinda annoyed me that we never really got to see any of Greg's recovery. Anyway. This is my take on what might have happened.

Oh, and although GSR is canon on the show, and therefore will be mentioned in this fic, it will not be featured very heavily because I am a Sandle fan. So... you have been warned.

One other thing: I know this prologue is short. The chapters are longer, I promise.

Enjoy!

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The Life After.

Prologue.

Grissom was busy. He had paperwork that should have been done a month ago and Catherine would kill him if he didn’t finish it.

He didn’t like doing paperwork. He really didn't like it.

What he wanted more than anything right now was a distraction. Something that would give him a legitimate reason to abandon the papers and so he could honestly say that he had never been more relieved to look up and see Sara Sidle standing in the doorway of his office. He watched as she surveyed the papers strewn across his desk and gave a small smirk.

“Having fun?” she asked, trying to conceal her amusement.

He opened his mouth to reply, enjoying the oppurtunity to talk to her without being interrupted by the rest of the lab, but was cut off by his phone ringing. He sighed and motioned for Sara to sit down while he took the call.

“Grissom.”

“Grissom… it’s Sofia.”

Sofia didn’t sound like her usual self. There was something in her voice that worried him.

“Is everything ok?” he asked, concerned. He could see Sara’s face pulling into a concerned frown as well, even though she could only hear his side of the conversation.

“Um, no. Not really. There’s been another attack.”

“Another one?” Somehow he didn’t think that just another attack had worried Sofia so much.

“We’re not really sure what happened but… one of the victims…”

Sofia broke off, sounding as though she was trying to remain professional. Grissom sat up, now really worried.

“Sofia? What’s happened?”

There was a slight pause.

“Grissom, one of the victims was Greg.”

And the world came crumbling down around him.

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Sara watched as the colour drained from Grissom’s face. Something was wrong. Very wrong. The moment of emotion passed and Grissom’s face was unreadable once more.

“Greg? Is he…ok?”

She felt the colour drain from her face this time. Another attack… Grissom asking after Greg… Greg had been attacked.

Greg had been attacked.

Grissom was nodding into the phone, his face grim but not giving anything away.

“Right. You said one of the victims. How many others were there?”

For once in her life Sara really couldn’t care less about the other victims. Was Greg alright? Was he hurt? Was he…

She couldn’t finish that thought. That couldn’t have happened.

“So Greg saved his life…” Grissom was saying. She felt a swell of pride for the youngest CSI before remembering that she still didn’t know how he was, or where he was.

She needed to see him.

She leaned forwards and grabbed a blank piece of paper from the desk, along with a pen.

Where? She wrote, and shoved it ruthlessly towards Grissom. He nodded.

“Location of the scene?” he asked Sofia, scribbling down the answer and pushing it towards her.

“Sara’s coming down now. I’ll send Nick and Warrick to process the scene.”

Grissom’s voice faded as she ran out of the room. There was only one thing on her mind now.

Greg had been attacked.

Greg… had been attacked.

How could this have happened?

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