A/N: For ScullysEvilTwin. She knows why. Thanks to Princessklutz04 for the beta. :)
Monster. The green kind.
She always talked. An endless litany of thoughts that she couldn't contain in her head, that needed to come out, needed to be shared with her parents.
When there was a baseball game on, she talked. Leaning back against the couch, comfortably nestled between her parents, she laughed and explained and didn't notice in the least when Sara and Grissom slid forward to the edge of the couch, inched as close to the TV as they could get while still seated.
Poker games on TV didn't deter her from talking either. While Grissom tried to concentrate, she talked about kindergarten and how she had swallowed a couple of dried peas.
They finally introduced a rule. No talking during baseball and poker games. She was allowed to talk during the commercials. Only the commercials.
It was hard for her at first and Grissom shot her the occasional long suffering look before she understood that as long as there was a man on TV trying to hit a ball with a bat or a group of guys with cards in their hands, she had to shut up.
So she learned to sit quietly, have whispered conversations with her stuffed toy horse and, thank God, she never once attempted to set the rug on fire to get her parents' full attention. Baseball was a religion, so was poker and while both seemed a tad boring to a three year old, she watched overtop of the ears of her horse.
She watched homeruns and happy moments and moments where Sara flopped back onto the couch and told Grissom that he better not dare to say anything or else.
Or else he would sleep on the couch (which he never did).
She learned what Cubs and Red Sox meant and for a while she whined about wanting a baby teddy. When she finally got one, when Grissom brought one home one morning, she explained to him importantly that this was Cub, the Red Sock. It was a bit weird but they still bought her four pairs of rose red baby socks to put on the teddy.
Cub, the Red Sock got to watch baseball from now on. He sat in the little girl's lap, held tightly as she began to understand the meaning of "top of the fifth" and "bottom of the ninth" and the rules of the game became clearer to her.
She sat quietly, listened and watched and one day, when Sara was in the kitchen to grab a glass of water, she watched a homerun.
"Mommy! David Ortiz got a homerun!" she screamed, standing on the couch with the bear clutched tightly. Sara looked from her to Grissom and smiled.
"We created a monster." she stated, winking at the girl on the couch.