Disclaimer: I don't own 'em...though I wish I did! And if I did...the fun I could have!!!
A/N: This is another prequel to "Lindsey's Surprise." I had a few people ask why Grissom left town. This is my attempt to explain it.
"Gris—Gil. It's not going to happen. You knew before you agreed to any of this that it was just going to be me and Catherine raising him."
"That was before. Before I saw him. Before I realized how difficult this would be," he pleaded.
"I'm sorry. Really, I am. But we're his parents. As unconventional as it may seem to some people, we're it. We're what he has."
"But it doesn't have to be that way. I can—"
"No! No, you can't. We told you. You agreed. We're his parents. You can be his uncle—just like the rest of the guys. But you're not playing daddy."
"I could get a lawyer. Is that how you want to do this?"
"A lawyer? Are you fucking serious?" Catherine had joined the argument now. "Gil, you signed the legal documents our lawyer drew up. You already signed away any legal rights that you have."
"Babe, go back inside. I'll deal with this," Sara said as she attempted to usher her wife back in the house.
"Yes Catherine. Just go back inside. This is between me and the mother of my child," Grissom was just adding fuel to the fire now.
"You son-of-a---," she was cut off by a furious Sara.
"Catherine! Inside. I will deal with this," Sara said before turned her anger back on Grissom. "Grissom, you know how much I've always wanted this. Someone to love me unconditionally. Someone to share to my life. A place I could truly call home. And once I had all of that, I realized I wanted more. I wanted a baby. I wanted to start my own family. The thought of it—well, it scared the shit out of me given my past. But, I still wanted it. And you were able to give me that gift." She took his hands in hers. "You gave me the most precious gift anyone could have ever given me. You did that! Please don't take it away. Not now."
Grissom knew that everything Sara was saying was true. Yet, he also knew that he had lost his chance with her. "Sara, I don't know what to do about this." "By the time you do, it will be too late." When they had come to him and humbly asked him to father their child, he hadn't agreed at first. He told them that he needed to consider their request. Of course, he wanted to immediately shout, "Yes, I'll have a baby with you, Sara." But he hadn't. He had known then as he knew now, that this was Sara's family with Catherine. And still, a part of him had hoped that this would be a way for him to ensure that he would always be close to Sara. A way to guarantee a life-long connection to the brunette he loved. But now, here she was pleading with him to back off.
"Sara, I don't know what to do about this," he said to her.
Now, where have I heard this before? Infuriated by his lack of understanding and persistence, Sara stepped closer to him and put a finger in his face. "We were perfectly willing to let you have some role in his life. That's why we said you could be an uncle to him. That's more than our lawyer advised us to let you have. You don't get it, do you? We never were and never will be—together. If you agreed to help us have Gibson just so that you'd always be connected to me, well, then, that's just sick." She watched his expression change. "That's it, isn't it? You thought that if you did this for us...for me…that what? I'd be so grateful that sooner or later I'd quit playing house with Catherine and come running to you? It's not going to happen." She spun on her heels and slammed the door leaving a very stunned Grissom just standing there.
Two days later, Grissom was leaving the office and walking toward his SUV when he was approached by a young man that reminded him of Greg. The man walked up to him and said, "Gil Grissom?"
Gil responded, "Yes. And you are?"
The man smiled and stuck his hand inside his jacket, retrieving a packet of papers. "I am… serving you."
Grissom took the papers that were extended to him. "Serving me with what?"
"Sorry, man. I don't read 'em. I just make sure you get 'em." He turned and walked away, leaving Grissom staring after him slack-jawed.
Grissom put his kit down and opened the papers the man had handed him. Words began to leap off the papers at him…relinquishment of paternal rights…cease and desist…restraining order…Sara Sidle…Gibson Tyner Sidle…no further contact…
Stoically, he folded the papers and placed them in his coat pocket. He picked up his kit and got into his Denali and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed the number he knew by heart.
She looked down at her ringing cell phone. Fuck. Flipping her phone open, she didn't bother to greet the caller. "Grissom, you received the papers. You're not supposed to call. You're not supposed to…"
He interrupted her. "Sara, how could you do this?"
"How could I do this? You were supposed to be my friend, Grissom. You helped us and led us to believe that you were doing this for us. And all along, you had some twisted, fucked up reason for wanting to help. I'm done with you, Grissom. We're done with you. You call again. You show up again. You try anything and there will be hell to pay. You signed away your rights. You…"
"I get it Sara. Don't worry. I'll never bother you again," he said as he closed the phone.
He showed up at his scene and like classic Grissom, he was emotionless. He processed the scene and returned to headquarters. As he walked toward his office, he saw Catherine in the hallway. He smiled at her and nodded his head in acknowledgement of the fact that she and Sara spoke several times a day and she was obviously aware that he had received the papers that they had drawn up by their lawyer. He continued through the corridors of crime lab dropping off evidence in Trace and DNA as he went along.
One week later…
"Sara? Sara? Sweetie, where are you?" Catherine called out as she put her things down in the living room.
"Catherine? Why are you home so early? Is something wrong?" Sara said as she came rushing down the stairs.
"I don't think anything is wrong. But I have something to tell you. And it couldn't wait. And actually, I'm done with work for the day. I go back in tomorrow." She sat down on the couch and patted the cushion beside, "Come on and sit down, sweetie."
Sara bent down and gave Cath a tame kiss before sitting on the couch beside her. "So, what's up? Why are you off for the rest of the day and why do you have to go in on your day off?"
"Have you heard anything from Grissom?" Catherine asked as she took Sara's hand in hers.
"Not since he called the day he was served," she confessed.
"So he called you that day? He gets the papers telling him to leave you…leave us…the fuck alone and his first reaction is to call you? That man…anyway, listen. Grissom is gone."
Sara's reply was simple. "Gone? What do you mean…gone? Where did he go?"
"Well, I don't know where he went. No one knows where he went. He evidently turned in his resignation last week. He didn't even give his full two week's notice."
"He resigned?"
"Yeah. Keep up here, Sara. There's more," Catherine said sarcastically. "My job is changing. I went from being CSI, to swing shift supervisor, to CSI, and now I'll be the dayshift supervisor. Ecklie is moving all sorts of people around now. Without Grissom there to protect his team, Ecklie sees this an opportunity to do whatever he wants. Thank goodness you left when you did or I'm sure he'd have fired your ass today."
"Gee, thanks, Catherine. So you're on days now. Great! This means that Lindsey will get to see more of you."
"You too, baby. With me being on days, it means we have our evenings together. We'll actually get to have some semblance of a life now."
Sara pulled Catherine closer. "I know that it's good for us, too. I just know how much Lindsey has missed you. I'm here, but I can't take her mom's place. This will be good for all of us."
"There's something else, too. Remember that cabin Grissom was always talking about?"
"The one that none of us ever saw?"
"Yeah, that one. Anyway, it has been deeded to us. Well, to us, Warrick, Tina, Nick, Sofia, and Greg."
"Why'd he do that?"
"I don't know. None of us do. You okay with all of this?" Catherine asked.
"Yeah, I suppose I will be. I mean, I just thought that he'd leave us alone. I never thought he'd up and quit and then move away. I wanted him to know Gibson, I just didn't want him playing daddy."
"I know, Sar. Look, I'm gonna go change and then we'll spend the day doing something." Catherine pushed herself off of the couch and headed upstairs, still fingering the letter addressed to Sara that Grissom had left for her. She decided not to give the letter to her. There was no need to keep letting him interfere. She tossed her jacket on the bed, her clothes on the floor and headed into the bathroom to shower.
When she came out, fifteen minutes later, wrapped only in a towel, Sara was sitting on the bed with the letter in one hand and two pictures in the other. Catherine froze out of uncertainty. "Catherine, is there anything you need to tell me?"
"Not that I can think of at this moment. Why?" She was fighting the urge to run over and yank the letter out of Sara's hands and wishing she had just run the damn letter and whatever else was in it through the shredder.
Sara stood up from the bed, crossed the room and threw the pictures in Catherine's face. "How about those? Care to tell me about those?"
Catherine bent down to pick the pictures up from the floor. She stood up and made eye contact with Sara and then looked down at the pictures in her hands. She knew right away why Sara was so infuriated. "Sara. Sweetie. These pictures…they're not what you're thinking they are."
"Really? And just what I believe they are?"
"You think it means that I'm seeing Sofia. But, I'm not. I swear I'm not."
"Then why is there a picture of the two of you hugging? And another picture of you two eating lunch? Catherine, I warned you and I warned her. I wasn't going to tolerate you cheating on me or even giving the appearance of cheating on me."
"Sara, I'm not cheating. There is nothing going on between me and Sofia. Those pictures are at least a year old. I haven't seen her in months."
"In months? Lying to me again? Don't you two work cases together?"
"Damn it, Sara. I'm talking about outside of work. Look at what I was wearing in that picture. I threw that shirt away after working that decomp case back in January? February? The smell wouldn't come out."
Sara sat back down on the bed and put her head in her hands and began to softly cry. "Catherine, I can't go through this again. I thought we had put this behind us." She sighed heavily. "Grissom sent these. He has a motive behind it. He's trying to ruin our relationship. I know that. I know that. But he also knows what buttons to push. He knows how insecure I am."
"Sara, I made a promise to you the day you put this ring on my finger. I agreed to be yours and you agreed to be mine. I flirt…you knew that. And you have since made it very clear to me…and Sofia…that you don't want the two of flirting with one another. We don't. That was just two friends having lunch. I'm not going to stop being her friend—even though you demanded it. We went out after she lost the baby. They were having problems. He was blaming her for the miscarriage and she was feeling completely responsible. I was just trying to comfort her. You and I both know that there aren't a lot of women in the field we work in. Friendships with other women are limited. I was trying to comfort her. I hope that even you could understand that. What did his letter say?" Catherine asked as she handed the pictures back to her.
"It didn't say anything important. You get dressed. I'll be downstairs waiting." On her way down the stairs, Sara stopped in her office and ran the two pictures along with the letter from Grissom through the shredder.