Gil Grissom closed his eyes and had his CD player playing on his favorite CD, The Classics of Beethoven, currently, it was playing Flight of the Bumblebee, a piece he enjoyed, and at times felt described his life.
Gil was on vacation, well, not really vacation, he was on a plane to Rhode Island to visit his family. It had been 4 years since he had been up there, there was nothing really anything of importance, except now he was officially a great-uncle, and his brother and sister-in-law's constant pleads to come for a visit. So, he decided that it would be good to get away from the job for a few weeks and visit his family.
Gil had no real reason for his reluctance to speak about his family, especially to the CSI team, for he knew quite a lot about everyone else's families. Catherine was born and bred in Vegas, her father was Sam Braun, and her mother still lived in the area, she had no siblings that she spoke of. Warrick was also from Vegas, he grew up in the poor regions, taken care of by his grandmother. Nick came from a large family in Texas, and Sara had her parents and brother back in California.
Ask any one of those people and they would all tell you that Grissom was from California. He didn't know why he had told that lie; he hated lies and liars, but for some strange reason, he was very uncomfortable speaking about his family.
He was going to his old childhood home, a large mansion called Beechwood Manor; it was an extravagant mansion that had been in the Grissom family for decades. Beechwood Manor was built in 1801, by Charles Greenman, who was an ancestor of Gil's. The rule of the Manor was that it went to the eldest son, if there was no son, then the eldest daughter took it, if the owner had no children, then he/she would choose a niece or nephew to take care of the place.
The main secret that Gil kept from the CSI team was that the Grissom family was an old New England socialite family. Ever since he was little, he remembered balls and grand events and charity events all going on in his home. He was forbidden to attend by his parents, as he was too young, but he started attending when he turned 16. He went, mainly for his parents benefit, because they wanted to show him off to all of the other families, and hoped that he would marry a woman from one of those families. He found them dull and uninteresting, full of snooty, stuck up people who acted like they urinated liquid gold.
Gil was excited about seeing his family. His older brother, Roger, now owned Beechwood Manor and his wife, Lillian, was the mistress of the place. Together they had three children: Tom, Hannah, and Dawn. His older sister was going to be there in a few days also.
Gil still sat on the airplane, up in the air, still listening to Beethoven. According to the speaker, they were now over Indiana; they were getting closer to Newport. Grissom's parents Donovan Jonathan and Margaret Ann Elizabeth James-Grissom were during there time, Newport's most elegant family, they were the King and Queen of high society in Newport. They held every kind of event imaginable, masquerade balls, charity events, dances, soiree's, everything.
Donovan Grissom was born and raised at Beechwood Manor, when he graduated from school; he went to Harvard, another family tradition. He graduated there, and returned to Beechwood Manor, and during a soiree thrown by his parents to celebrate his return; he met a very pretty socialite from Boston named Margaret Ann James. They fell in love instantly, to the parents of the two, it was a dream come true. The Grissom's were on top of the social standing in Newport, and the James's were on top in Boston. The wedding was also a pairing of very fine bloodlines. Donovan could trace his roots through every high class family in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and some in New York. Margaret Ann could trace her lineage through Massachusetts and Maine. She also had her ancestry in England.
The James family also had a secret, something like the hemophilia in the descendents of Queen Victoria; it was the degenerative deafness disease that ran in her family. Margaret Ann's parents kept it a secret from everyone, even though, in time her father went deaf.
The James's were successful in keeping it a secret. Together, Donovan and Margaret first had Susan, followed by Roger, then Rose, then finally Gilbert, called Gil by everyone.
Back on the airplane, the speaker announced that they were landing in Newport. Gil got off the plane, and didn't have to look far to see a reminder of the old days. He saw a rather prim and fancy man holding a sign that said "Gil Grissom." "I am Gil Grissom," said Gil. "Mr. Grissom, I am Bryant, your chauffeur" said the man. Gil sighed, chauffeurs, maids, nannies, butlers, cooks, all of these things were a part of everyday life for the Grissom family, but not for him. "Come with me," said Bryant. They walked over to a limo scene, and Bryant opened the door for him. Grissom hated that; like he couldn't open a car door by himself? "I will be back shortly with your things, Mr. Grissom," said Bryant. "All right" said Gil.
Bryant came back rather quickly, and before Gil knew they were on their way back to Beechwood Manor.