Reparation

Rating – M, just to be safe…but that won't be until later

WIP

Summary – Greg shocks Grissom with a bit of news that challenges him to repair the things he has done, the choices he has made, and the damage done to his heart.

Terrible summary, sorry.

Disclaimer – Obviously not mine! If they were, they would be on their own spinoff series about Geek love and Geek babies.

Reparation

CH 1

Tonight was a night that Greg Sanders was positively dreading. As a general rule, he wasn't afraid of Grissom. He had respect for him. Admired him. Understood his horrible mood swings and despicable funk that he had been in for well over a year. Hell, he too had felt the loss and hadn't quite wrapped his mind or emotions around it. But he didn't fear the man. Tonight, however, he was terrified.

He gripped the envelope in his hand, sweaty with anxiety and quietly lumbered his way to the supervisor's office.

Despite arriving an hour before shift, he knew that Grissom would be there. And that his colleagues were unlikely to be…the reason he chose this discreet time. He knocked softly on the frame when he reached the office and Grissom looked up from his mountain of paperwork, glasses perched on the end of his nose.

"Hey, Griss. Do you, uh, do you have a minute?"

Grissom motioned him in and stared in confusion as Greg shut the door quietly behind him and nervously slouched in the chair opposite him. Wanting to give the younger CSI some time and space for something he was obviously dreading, Grissom approached slowly.

"You're here awfully early tonight, Greg."

"Uh, yeah. I…yeah…"

His hesitation piqued Grissom's interest even further, but he still did not push. Minutes dragged on as Greg sat across from him, unsure how to begin, eyes flitting briefly to Grissom and then away.

"Greg…is everything okay? How was the conference?"

"Well, that is what I wanted to talk to you about Well, kind of."

"Okay…"

"I, uh, well you know I signed up for the session on forensic photography. And I tool my department camera with me."

"Yeah, I remember…"

"Well, they gave us some fantastic techniques and tips…it was really great. And, they sent us out to take pictures in and around the neighborhood of the university."

"That sounds great. But if you are going to tell me something happened to your camera, you are going to need to fill out an equipment incident report and submit it to Ecklie."

Seeing that Grissom was obviously unprepared for what was coming, Greg again became quiet, unsure how to proceed. After another moment of two of silene, Grissom again spoke.

"Greg…it's okay. Accidents happen-"

"No…it's, it's not that." Taking a deep breath, he hesitantly continued. "I…there is a small park there at the university. Playground, small pond, walking paths. Seemed like a suitable location, so I walked around there taking photos. And then I saw something that…I wasn't quite expecting. Someone."

"Greg…" Grissom's guard was up, immediately on alert as the anxiety coiled in the pit of his stomach. Greg slowly slid the envelope across the desk to him.

His hand reached the envelope, grasping and sliding it the remaining distance and into his possession. Grissom gently opened the metal clasp and then the flap of the envelope, sliding a thin stack of 8x10 photographs out onto the desk in front of him. His breath immediately froze in his chest, his heart clenching.

She was beautiful. He had always thought so. Sara. She had turned his world upside from the moment he had met her, all those years ago. She entered with a flurry into his life, upending his routine and his heart. And she left in equal fashion, destroying his meager life and tearing an irreparable hole in his heart when she left a little over a year ago. He knew he wasn't blameless in that, but he was a broken man, nonetheless.

For what seemed like years, Grissom stared, unspeaking at the photo, until finally he whispered, "How is she?"

"Um, I…I never spoke to her." At Grissom's questioning gaze, Greg immediately piped up, "Look at the next photo."

Grissom slid the top photo off and onto the desk revealing a photo that both shocked him and scared the hell out of him. He stared at another photo of Sara. Her hair was longer than he had remembered seeing it in a long time. It was highlighted and sun-kissed around the edges. She was smiling. She was happy. And…she was holding a baby.

He didn't know what to say. How to feel. How to react. So he said nothing. He sat staring, mesmerized by the sight of it. Finally, Greg spoke, breaking the tension and silence in the room.

"I was shocked. I mean, a baby? Sara? At first I thought maybe it wasn't her kid, you know. Maybe she was babysitting or something. But…well, I watched her for a while. From a distance. She loves that baby. It's hers. And –"

"Greg… why the hell are you showing me this?" Grissom boomed from across the desk, startling the younger man. Grissom's unease was quickly being replaced by anger. He didn't want to feel any of this. He didn't want to feel anything, period. He had given up on that when Sara left. Why was Greg doing this to him?

"I…Look at him Grissom! Look at his face! The sandy brown hair. The blue eyes. The dimpled chin. Come on! You may think you fooled everyone, but I am not stupid. She was my friend, and I loved her too. And something happened. Before she left she was broken. And then she left here so quickly, barely said goodbye to any of us, and never looked back. That is not Sara. We were like family. We were a family. And she just left?! No way." As he talked on and on Grissom sat watching him, absorbing his rapid-fire, barbed words, without a thought to interrupt the impassioned man. "Something happened. And funny thing is, Griss, at the same damn time, you started acting funny. Moodier than normal. More pissed off. More miserable. You weren't the same person right before she left, and never have been since. And you want to know why? Because something happened between you two. I knew it. And now I know exactly what happened. Because I look at her son, Grissom, and do you know what I see? I see you. I see your son."

Holy shit. He stared into the face of Sara's baby…his baby? No. Absolutely not. He couldn't be. Could he? She would have told him. Wouldn't she? But…he did look like him. A lot. In fact, he could recall a fairly similar picture of his mother holding him as a baby. You probably couldn't tell the difference between the two infants if you held the pictures next to each other. But…there was no way. How old was her baby anyway? 6 months? 5 months? He was never good at that kind of thing. Did the math work out? He couldn't think straight enough to compute 2 plus 2 at this point let alone extrapolate a probable conception date. No, this was not his son. Sara would not do that to him.

"Greg…you really don't know what you are talking about-"

"Save it, Grissom. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to know. I know enough already. You hurt her and she left. That's on you. But, I thought that you deserved to know. No matter what happened, no matter how it ended, no matter how shitty you were to her, you have a right to know this."

Greg stood, then, looking back at Grissom as he moved to the door. "Keep them. And do what you have to do. I just thought you should know." And with that, he left Grissom with a bewildered look on his face and the beginnings of a killer migraine.

Thoughts? feedback? I would LOVE to hear it! It has been a long time since I have written or read any GSR, but this one just popped into my head.