Thank you for reading. So long and goodnight.

January 2005, 2 hours later

Grissom sat in the parking lot at the lab and rested his forehead against the steering wheel. He couldn't believe himself. The signs were all there. They had practically been falling out of the sky and hitting him on the head and he had remained oblivious.

She had dropped everything and moved to a different state at a moment's notice and never went home for the holidays. In fact, she had willingly worked every one except for a single Thanksgiving when she had had the flu. She came in on her days off, beat him to scenes when on call, maxed out on overtime every month and only missed work for enrichment seminars. He had known that she had no social life outside of work. He owned that it was partially his fault. He even wondered when she managed to sleep, but he had never really asked why.

Oh on occasion the strength of her reactions had made him wonder if something had happened to make some cases so personal. He had considered rape or domestic abuse on a few occasions, but he would never invade her privacy so far as to check her files and how would he have asked?

He had also wondered about her family. He knew who made up the families of his other CSIs and had met quite a few of them, but all he had ever learned of Sara's was that she had a brother. They didn't discuss family a lot at work, but they were occasionally mentioned in passing. Except by Sara, who was utterly silent on the subject.

No family, no diversions, an unhealthy level of empathy, and yet her full disclosure had still shocked him. It hadn't surprised him because it fit exactly with his observations, but the abrupt and horrific violence had shaken him. He thought ironically that this would normally be the point in a case where he felt the triumph of full understanding, but he had been so blind. He only ached.