No Place Like Home
Author: Lolly4Holly
Pairings: GSR - Sara and Grissom
Summary: Sara leaves the family home for the first time on a business trip.
Another in the short series of Sara, Grissom and their daughters, Charlotte and Abigail. Suggested by a a reviewer that I make this into a series. Others in the series so far include 'Story time at the Grissoms' and 'Home to a Mess'. Please let me know what you thought, thanks for reading.
Anxiously biting her nails as she waited for the elevator to take her up to her old floor, Sara subconsciously checked her outfit in the reflection of the blurry wall again, wondering why she was so nervous to return to a place that felt like home to her for such a long time. When the doors finally slid open, she inhaled a deep breath, making her way towards the front desk to let them know that she was here.
"Sara!" The receptionist, Judy immediately squealed her name, recognising her the second she stepped out. "They never said you were coming in today. Where have you been? How are your little girls now?" She bombarded her with the first of many questions that she was expecting from everyone at the lab.
"Actually, I'm here to see, Catherine. Is she around?"
"Yes, Ms Willows is in her office."
"Thank you, we'll catch up later." Sara promised her, signing herself in at the front desk, before she made her way through the familiar halls towards, Catherine's office.
She gave the door a light knock, smiling as the woman finally got her name marked on her door. She used to complain that people from other shifts used her office as a spare room, but now she had her own set of keys and her name inked on the window to let everyone know that it was hers.
"Hi, not intruding, am I?" Sara smiled at her old friend.
"Sara..." The woman jumped up from behind her desk, hurrying round it to greet her old colleague with a hug. "You did not have two children, look at you, you look great." She complimented her, surprised at how long Sara was wearing her now. She had the same sort of style that she used to have, but it was so much longer and beautifully cascading around her shoulders.
"Thank you, you didn't tell anybody you asked me to come along?"
"I wasn't sure if you actually would." The woman confessed, leading her former colleague down the familiar hallway towards the fully refurbished break room.
It used to be a cold room with a tiled white floor and shoddy wooden cabinets in one corner. A small round dining table used to sit in the centre of the room and an old couch and coffee table sat in the far corner of the room. Now they had a carpet, professional looking coffee machine, fridge and toaster all in matching chrome colours. The new cabinets were complete with marble counter tops that she felt she just had to run her hand along, before she turned her attention towards the large glass dining table that looked more like a conference table than somewhere to eat lunch.
"Wow, what kind of budget are you guys working on now?" Sara queried, patting her hand against the padded leather chairs that were positioned all around the table.
"Oh, well the old conference room down the hall is now one of the supervisors offices, so the big bosses upstairs decided to strip and refurbish our old break room to double as our conference room. Gil's old office has been stripped too. They put a wall up in the centre of it, making two new offices. Nicky's is the left one. Coffee?"
"No, thank you." The woman shook her head, glancing out the windows behind them towards her husband's old office. She hadn't even noticed it as she walked past it, but it really had been split into two offices. It felt as though her memories had been split by returning to this place, seeing how much everything had changed since she left. "So, why did you ask me here?"
"Maybe we just missed you." Catherine smiled at the woman, but she wasn't fooling her. "Your professional expertise on a case that's gone cold. Serial killer. We think seven victims total, most of the evidence is inconclusive."
"Why call me in?" Sara continued to give her a curious look.
"Because you worked something similar here a few years back." Pulling back one of the chairs, Catherine lifted the old box of evidence onto the table, wasting no time in briefing her former colleague on why she thought that the two cases were related in some way. They spent the next few hours going over the old and new case notes, before Sara finally got to retire to her hotel room.
"Oh no, no, no... you have to come out for drinks with us." Catherine insisted, realising that Sara wasn't the same single gal that had no responsibilities for her back at home. "C'mon, don't you want to catch up with the old team?"
"There's not much of the team left." She pointed out to her. "I'm gonna go call my husband. I'll see you tomorrow."
Catherine gave out a reluctant sigh, waving the woman off, "Night."
Sara quickly grabbed her things, waving goodbye to her former colleagues, eager to get herself checked into a hotel for the night. The second she set her suitcase down, she felt as though she recognised the room. She felt an eerie chill run down her spine as she realised that she must have processed a room exactly like this over a thousand times back when she used to work in this city.
Trying not to let it get to her, Sara kicked off her heels, hitting her speed dial for home. She knew that the girls would be in bed by now, but she was hoping that her husband was still up, just so she could check in with them. "Hi, you're awake."
"Yeah... I'm reading." Grissom moved the papers off his chest, removing the reading glasses from his face. "How was your flight?"
"There was a baby onboard, but it wasn't too bad." She brushed down the end of the bed, before she perched herself on the mattress. "I miss you. What have you been up to? Did Charlotte finish her report? Did Abs eat all her dinner this time?" She had never been away from the girls for more than a day since they were born, so she wanted to know everything that they had been up to since her departure.
"Reports all done and Abi ate every last bite. We miss you too, but I'm fine. The girls are fine, we just can't wait for you to come home. Any idea when that will be?"
"Soon." Sara spoke softly, suddenly feeling a sense of déjà vu.
She used to stay up late after her shifts from the lab, waiting for Grissom's call in the evenings while he was out on conferences and long lectures. She thought it would feel great to be the one out of the house for a change, but she wanted nothing more than to have her family all around her again.
"There really is no place like home."