Title: Beneath The Skin
By: gnr_lab_rat
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A suicide like so many others.

***

It had been another long shift, too many people dying and never for a good reason. The latest bothered him more than he cared to admit, and he knew it was that reason that found him standing in the morgue, staring down at the too still figure on the cold metal slab before him.

She had black, shiny hair, a small widow's peak giving her the appearance of having a heart shaped face, dark eyelashes fanned on ghostly pale skin, never again to move from their permanent rest. By all standards she was a very plain young woman, nothing in her appearance that would make her stand out from the crowd, but she had stood out to him.

He wasn't sure why, and that was one more thing bothering him about this case. It was a simple one, she was found alone in her apartment, her body stained in a sea of blood as the last remaining drops slid from the opening in her wrists.

A suicide like so many others.

Her ID had said she was only twenty seven, much too young to find life not worth living anymore. He wondered what had been so wrong in her life that she could slice gashes into her own wrists, watching her blood gushing forth, waiting for death to take her.

It was true enough that sometimes there wasn't a real reason, that sometimes some small mental anguish was enough to send someone so completely over the edge, but it had never seemed reason enough to him.

He shouldn't get attached, Grissom had told him that often enough, but he couldn't seem to distance himself from the woman lying in death in front of him. He wondered if she had loved ones that she left behind, if she had called someone before deciding to end her own life, wondered if she had called for help, realizing too late that she didn't want to die.

Reaching his hand out, he let his fingertips ghost over her cheek, the coolness of her body sending a shiver through him. Gently touching her lips, watching her lying there in death, knowing she was gone, he couldn't help feeling as if she could open her eyes at any moment, scaring away the paleness of her features, scaring away the feeling he had that this shouldn't have happened.

Hearing the door open, he glanced up into his supervisor's eyes, trying to hide the emotion, to bury it like Grissom was so good at doing. Pulling his hand away, he straightened up as Grissom walked into the room, prepared to defend himself for some imagined transgression.

Instead he watched as Grissom gazed down at the young woman, his eyes hidden from view. Watching as Grissom placed a hand on the woman's hair, gently stroking it as if he were trying to comfort her.

Looking up into Nick's eyes, he whispered as if not to disturb her, "We can't save the ones who don't want to be saved, Nicky. No matter how much we wish we could."

Nodding solemnly Nick watched Grissom's retreating form, glancing one last time at the beautiful young woman on the table before following in Grissom's wake.

***