Title: Joy, Love and Happiness
Summary: Response to Unbound Challenge. G/S, you have been warned there is a character death.
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, still waiting for it to come up on ebay.
A/N: The muse is out be feeling decidedly angsty.
Joy, Love and Happiness
Her socks were mismatched again. Grissom shook his head, no matter how she tried something was always slightly wrong, slightly off, quirky.
Still, she looked adorable. Her hair was escaping from the hastily arranged pony tail and was curling around her face. No matter what she did it always ended up curly.
At the moment she was staring determinedly at the book lying open in front of her. He smiled from the door way. He was always amazed by the way she could focus, blocking out all her surroundings. Never noticing the times he stood watching her. Sometimes for hours.
He laughed as she blew her hair out of her eyes, she looked up and grinned at him.
"Hi, how long have you been standing there?" she asked.
"Not long, honey. Whatcha looking at?" he replied.
"Nicky lent me a book about the mating rituals of birds. It's really fascinating. Do you want to borrow it after me."
"I'll give that a miss." He smiled. "And don't you think that should be Uncle Nicky?"
Melissa Sara Grissom smiled up at her father.
"He says that "Uncle Nicky" makes him feel old! He said it was OK to call him Nicky. Is it, Dad?" she looked a little worried.
"If Nicky's OK with that so am I." He strolled over to the desk she was sitting at and pulled her pony tail. "What are you doing sitting inside? It's a lovely day out there, why don't you sit in the sun for a while."
"I was going to go out in a little while. I wanted to finish."
Melissa had certainly inherited her mothers determination to finish what she started. Sometimes it felt as though he had a mini Sara on his hands. Like Sara she could twist him round her little finger with just a smile. She had the same gorgeous brown eyes and the ability to light up any room. She hadn't inherited the gap tooth but Sara had thought that was an advantage, Grissom didn't know if he agreed with that.
"You run out and get some sun, sweetheart. Cath and Warrick will be round in a bit with James so you'll have no time to sit and relax after they arrive." James was 4 years old compared to Melissa's seven, and the two children were especially close.
"OK, OK, jeeze I'm going." Melissa said as she grabbed the crutches from the side of her desk. She squeezed herself past Grissom and out into the garden. Grissom pressed a kiss to her head as she passed.
A familiar lump had come to Grissoms throat as he had watched her struggle to get her balance. With luck she would be off the crutches in the next couple of weeks. She had been on them for 6 months now and he was proud of the way she had managed the restrictions they had imposed on her. He was also immensely proud of the way all their friends had rallied round to help. Catherine had cooked up a storm and still insisted on arriving with baskets of food whenever she visited. Nick, Warrick and Greg spent most weekends around the pool and helping with Melissas physio. He couldn't have asked for more supportive friends.
But none of them could fill the emptiness that threatened to consume him almost every minute of the day. The accident that had left Melissa on crutches had taken away his Sara and left him completely bereft. The only thing that kept him going was the memory of Sara's hand gripping his and her soft voice.
"Look after Melissa, Grissom. She's going to need you to be strong. Don't close yourself of from her." She had smiled softly and reached up to wipe the tears from his face. "Don't cry, Gil. I don't have any regrets, we've made some wonderful memories and you have to hold onto them, babe. I'm still gonna be here, you just won't be able to see me, but you better know, mister, I'm gonna be watching every step you make. Remember when Mel was a baby and you used to spend hours rocking her to sleep, how she totally relied on both of us?"
Grissom nodded unable to speak.
"Remember how we used to huddle together and make plans about how clever she was going to be, how she'd grow to be a beautiful person, how she'd have the best of both of us. Do you remember, honey?" Again he mutely nodded his head. "Well, babe, you've gotta make those things happen for her, I'll be doing my best from upstairs, but you've got to be her guide, her inspiration, her best friend. I know you can do it, Gil, cause you did it for me. I love you both, Gil, you and Melissa have given me the best years of my life. I feel peaceful knowing you're going to look after one another."
"Sara, honey. I promise you that Melissa will grow up knowing what a great mom you were. My life has changed so much since we got together, I can't begin to tell you how happy you've both made me. I promise, Sara, Melissa is going to have a great life, full of joy, happiness and love. I promise."
Sara smiled her beautiful smile as Grissom leaned down to kiss her. Grissom felt the grip on his hand loosen and he knew she was gone. He finally broke down. He had no idea how long he spent at her bedside, but he finally realised that Cath and Warwick had joined him, and fighting their own silent tears, they led him out of the hospital room.
Grissom turned away from his memories, and reached up to softly brush away the tears that had appeared on his cheeks.
"Well, Sara honey, I hope I'm making you proud. Melissa is healing well and I'm trying to make sure that the joy, happiness and love are there everyday. It's hard for both of us, honey, we miss you so much, but the memories you left us help. Lord, I didn't realise how many happy memories we had made. I feel you sometimes, I wake up and feel your presence in the room. I swear I saw you from the corner of my eye the other day when Nicky and Rick were playing charades with Melissa, you were laughing. God, Sara, I wish you hadn't had to leave, but I'm so glad we had the past eight years. I'm glad I have Melissa."
He heard a whisper at his ear.
"Me too, honey. Now go find our girl."
He found her on the backporch blowing soapbubbles.