A/N Hi there, this is just a little something I've been working on. I hope you like it, and I think it kind of explains a bit why Grissom is the way he is.

"Watch me, Daddy!"

"I am, Honey..."

"No you're not!"

"OK, OK, you got me...Now smile and say cheese for me, Iris!"

"Cheese!"

The camera flashed, and little Iris Grissom's image was captured forever – the four-year-old on the swings in the playground after her first day of school, her hair in pigtails blowing in the wind, her plaid skirt already had a yoghurt stain on it. That cheeky grin that made Gil's heart burst every time he saw it. 'No matter how old she gets,' he thought as he reloaded the film, 'this is how I'll always remember her...My little girl.'

Holding the tatty picture in his hands, he stared at it like he had done everyday for the past thirteen days. Her smile was still as bright as he remembered, her hair the same dark brown colour, just like her mother's, who had tied it up in blue ribbons that morning to match her school blazer. If he looked closely, he could still make out the cut on her knee from where she had fallen over the previous weekend – her mother had not been happy about that.

He remembered how he felt that day. It was hot, but unusually cloudy for September. He had felt like he was going to burst with pride when he had picked her up from the little elementary school down the street from her house. How he loved listening to her talk about the friends she had made, the picture books she had read, the games she played at recess. They had laughed so much on the way to the park as he had told her a story about a caterpillar that she had got hiccups – cute little ones that made her whole body shake. She was only tiny. His tiny, innocent little girl. His princess. His world.

Reloading the camera was more difficult than he had anticipated. He should of practised at home, really, but this was the way being with Iris made him – a scatterbrain, who always forgot to take her home on time. It took him long enough to find the film in the bottom of his bag, so by the time he had actually got it in the camera, roughly three minutes had passed. He hadn't heard a peep out of Iris, but she was having fun on the swings. This was her favourite place, except for her bedroom at her daddy's house. He had taken a couple of days off work to decorate it in bright pink and purple just after she was born.

"OK, Honey, you ready for me to take..."

He had turned round and frozen when he noticed her gone. Scanning the rest of the playground – the slides, the climbing frame, the see-saw – his heart began to race.

"Iris? You need to tell me if we're going to play Hide and Seek!" he yelled, getting stares from other parents sitting on benches.

He waited for an answer that never came. Becoming frantic, he ran and looked behind trees and trash cans. It's only a small park. Where could she be?

"IRIS!" he shouted one final time, before a young mother came over to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"My daughter...She's gone...I can't see her, where is she?!"

They searched blindly for a further ten minutes, until it became clear that his little girl was no longer in the park. Grissom, reluctant to admit she was really gone, dug in his pocket for a quarter for the payphone. He dialled 911.

Now, sitting here in the shadows of the playground at night on the bench he had sat on thirteen years ago to take his little girls picture, he thought about what he could of done to help his baby. Every anniversary was the same. If only he had put the film on top of everything else in his bag. If only he had learnt to load the film correctly. If only he hadn't turned his back.

"Calm down, Mr Grissom, now tell us exactly what happened."

"I turned my back for a few seconds and she was gone...I'm a criminalist, and I can't even look after my own daughter!"

"Alright sir, calm down. I thought I recognised you from somewhere," Grissom became agitated and started looking around again, in case the sound of sirens had drawn Lily back after she had chased a puppy into the trees. "Now we are doing everything we can to find your daughter. Sniffer dogs are being brought in to see if we can find a trail."

"Yes, yes, I know how it works."

He had gone over that conversation so many times in his head. If the police hadn't wasted time explaining all of the things he already knew, they may have caught up with her. And after all these years, Grissom still kicked himself now and again for not teaching her sooner how to keep herself safe, to never talk to strangers, to stay with a parent. But he was too busy enjoying all the good times they had spent together in their short four years together.

It grew gradually darker over the six hours spent scouring the park and surrounding area, and Gil started to get even more worried. Iris was afraid of the dark. She wasn't wearing a coat, and it was colder now. Looking at his watch, he remembered he still hadn't called her mother. Going over to the payphone once more, he dug for more change in his pocket.

Punching in the number, he wondered how to begin. 'I have lost our daughter' sounded too harsh, even though it was the truth. 'Someone has stolen our daughter' sounded too dramatic, and he didn't want her to have a heart attack. He was interrupted from his rehearsal by the woman's voice.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Maggie, it's Gil."

"Oh, hi. Are you guys having fun? Has Iris had her dinner yet? What did you have? Is she in bed? Can I speak to her?"

"Hold on, Maggie. I have to tell you something."

"What?"

"Um...She's gone."

"What? I don't think I can hear you properly."

"I said Iris has gone missing. I turned my back for a second and she was gone."

Silence.

"Maggie, I swear I was watching her, I don't know what happened."

Silence.

"Maggie, please say something."

"You lost my baby?"

"Wait, I..."

"No, you lost my little girl? You turned away from her?"

"Please, just..."

"Where are you? I'm coming right now."

"We're at the park."

"What are you doing at the park at this time at night? When did she go, Gil?"

Silence.

"Tell me now, Gil. When did she go missing?"

"At three O'clock."

"Three O'clock?! And why are you telling me now? When were you going to call me?"

Silence.

"Just don't say anything, I'll be there in ten minutes."

Grissom would remember that phone call for the rest of his life. He would remember the inquisitive high pitched tone of her voice as she demanded what had happened to Iris. He would remember her screams as she saw the police squad cars lining the block where the park was, and she realised that it wasn't a joke, that her baby was really gone. He would remember how her tears had felt as they splashed on his arms as he reached out for her. But most of all he would remember how much it had hurt when she slapped him across the face.

The moon had come out from behind a cloud now and was illuminating the photo in his hand. God, how he missed Iris, and how he wished he could see her one last time. He even missed Maggie, even though their relationship had been volatile at best, and that was before he lost their little girl. He had moved to a new side of town about four months after Iris went missing, and had lost contact with her mother. Getting up, he decided what he was going to do.

He set of in the direction of his daughters old house.