Disclaimer: I do not own CSI, any of its characters or stories - I'm just borrowing these lovely nerds for a bit of fun!

A/N: Well, here's to those plot bunnys! After writing 'Wednesday' a couple of weeks ago, ideas for stories about Gil, Sara, and their little girl just kept popping into my mind. So I figured I might as well turn this into a series. I hope you enjoy and this helps to fill some of the void left by the end of CSI (I'm still not crying, you're crying!).

I hope you enjoy!

Sara and Gil Grissom could not be happier with their decision to move back to Las Vegas. It was not that they did not miss the spray of the ocean or the nights spent wrapped together in the dingy cabin of their boat as a storm raged outside and the waves swayed them from side to side. They did. They would always look back on the year they'd spent sailing to the Galapagos with fondness, and considering they had never quite made it to their destination, they hoped to go back. But hopefully, by the time they returned to that little cabin and felt that familiar ocean smell again, the baby whose appearance had prevented them from reaching their destination int he first place would be old enough to appreciate the journey.

Charlotte Wednesday Grissom was about to turn three. After her unexpected arrival on a south pacific island and the family's return to Las Vegas, the three Grissom's had quite easily settled into a simpler and far more child-friendly life-style.

Which is not to say that their life was without adventure. While they were certainly far from their weathering tropical storms on a boat, and trying desperately to reach the closest harbour before running out of fuel days, life with their little girl was not short of adventure.

There had been the day their 2 year old toddler had walked away from them in the back yard and been found 5 minutes later giggling at the way the bees from her father's hive buzzed around her – her mother may have been terrified that she'd get stung, but the little girl certainly seemed unfazed. Grissom had been proud.

Then there had been her encounter with Grissom's iguana, Ichabod. Both Gil and Sara knew their daughter liked animals – they'd seen her attach herself to stranger's dogs at the park and refuse to let go enough times to know a puppy would, one day be in their future. But they hadn't quite counted on their 2 and a half year old opening her father's terrarium to play with the 'dog' he kept there. It wasn't that the reptile was any danger to her, in fact they were quite certain she'd never gotten very close to it. But finding a toddler gleefully chasing an iguana through the house when she was meant to be asleep was certainly not what either had expected when they'd laid down on the couch to enjoy some peace during her nap.

And so the rules list pinned to their refrigerator had begun.

1. Keep bees in gated area.

Charlie had still managed to end up sitting under the bee-hive.

2. Lock gate to bees.

3. Keep Ichabod's terrarium locked.

4. Teach Charlie the difference between an iguana and a dog.

5. Charlie insists Ichabod is a dog. Get a real dog.

When their three month old boxer puppy had erupted out of his crate and straight at their sofa, a whole new set of rules had been created.

6. Keep Doug off couch.

7. Keep Doug to one side of couch.

8. Give Doug baths regularly and leave him be. Gil, don't try to pick him up. We don't need you hurting your back again.

Now, with a finally house-broken puppy, an effective barrier in place between their child and their bees, and a successfully contained, if a little grumpy Iguana, the Grissoms hoped the adventures would die down.

"Gil," Sara called from the kitchen as she stirred the soup she was cooking with one hand and turned the page on her cook-book with the other. She'd come a long way since getting back to Vegas, and could actually cook without assistance most of the time, but the particular recipe her husband and daughter had requested was one she could only hope to pull off by following Betty Grissom's neatly-scrawled instructions.

"Yea?" her husband called back from the hallway through which his was ushering their daughter, hoping to get far enough away from his wife that she wouldn't notice the dirt stains on Charlie's clothes before he got her in a bath.

"Skype!" she called back, the sound of the offending piece of technology finally registering with him as he looked back over his shoulder – it was Sunday evening, his mother's usual time for checking in.

"Grama?" Charlie turned back to Grissom as she, too, heard the sound.

Momentarily blinded by his daughter's radiant smile, so much like her mother's, Gil barely caught her in time to stop her rushing to the computer, "Woah, there!" he smiled as she giggled and wriggled in his arms, "bath first, ladybug!"

"No, daddy," the little girl continued to giggle as Grissom tickled her.

"I'll be right there," he called over his shoulder to Sara before putting his daughter down, "go get ready for your bath, ok?" he asked as he pointed towards the little girl's room, "daddy will be right there."

"But Grama…" Charlie pouted.

Smiling, Gil brushed a hand over her hair, "I'll ask Grandma to call back after your bath, ok? We can talk to her then."

The smile back on her face, Charlie perked up, "ok."

"Now go on."

"Toys take bath wid me?" she asked, an innocent little smile on her face – the smile she had long known would get her father to say yes to anything.

Sighing, already foreseeing the splashing that would take place, and how soaked he was going to get, Gil nodded, "but what did we agree?" he asked with a mischievous glint in his eye – the exact same one his daughter had as she replied.

"We no tell mommy 'bout bugs," she whispered conspiratorially.

"Got it," he narrowed his eyes at her in that playful way she could imitate so well and rushed back towards the still-ringing computer before Sara got mad at him for more than accidentally covering their child in dirt.

"Gil?" Sara asked as she exited the kitchen and saw her husband already closing the skype window, "was that your mom?"

"What?" he turned, not expecting her to come out of the kitchen, "yea…" he could immediately tell by the way her eyes narrowed as they took in the sight of his shirt, that his daughter wasn't the only one with evidence of their back-yard excavation all over her.

"Where's Charlie?" she asked in that soft, almost sing-song tone which told him she was more than on to him.

"Charlie?" he asked trying to feign innocence, "oh, in her room. Getting ready for a bath. I was going to do that, since you're busy cooking…"

"Gilbert…" Sara cut him off with a grin – at least he knew she wasn't really mad, "did you let Charlie dig in the back-yard again?"

"What? Me…" he gave up at her knowing yet loving look, "she wanted to see the ants," he shrugged.

"And did she get covered in dirt like the last time?" she asked again, her arms folding in feigned sternness.

"Well…"

But Grissom never got to finish his sentence as a crash and the sound of broken glass had both adults' heads whipping in the direction of the corridor. Without a word, they both rushed towards the sound, and, reaching the open door to Gil's study, stopped in their tracks.

There, sitting happily on the floor, surrounded by scattered earth, a few large shards of glass, and what appeared to be thousands of fleeing dots, was Charlie.

"Ladybug," Grissom was the first to approach her, as both parents obviously terrified that she'd gotten hurt, rushed into the room, "are you ok?"

Scooping her up in his arms, he and Sara examined every inch of her to find that, miraculously she seemed to be unharmed.

"Look, mommy," Charlie smiled brightly at her mother, seemingly unfazed by the broken terrarium on the floor behind her, or the mounds of earth now scattered over the floor of the previously-clean office, "ats!"

Grissom couldn't help it, he had to laugh – he was so relieved Charlie hadn't cut herself, and she looked so adorable in her dirt-covered, previously-green shirt, holding her index finger up and giggling at the poor ant on it, trying to find its way back to safety, that he just had to laugh.

Smiling and sighing in relief, Sara joined into her husband's laughter, taking Charlie from him and hugging her close to her.

"Oh, baby girl," she looked in relief at Grissom, "don't scare mommy like that, ok?"

"Mommy scare?" Charlie asked with a frown as Sara pulled back from their hug and hoisted her up on one hip, brushing a finger over her daughter's cheek, "why?"

"You could have gotten hurt, ladybug," Grissom offered the explanation, pointing to the broken glass around the office.

"Daddy mad?" the little girl asked looking back at her dad, her lower lip beginning to tremble.

"No, honey, no one's mad," Sara smiled reassuringly, "you just have to be more careful, ok?"

"'kay," Charlie responded, still looking a little unsure.

"Why were you playing with the antfarm?" Sara asked, looking at her daughter and how her husband's beloved ants were crawling up and down the exposed length of her legs.

"Want to see," she pouted.

"Hey," Grissom gave her a kiss on the head, briefly tickling her side to get her to smile again, "if you want to see the bugs, ask daddy, ok?"

"'kay," she replied with a smile.

"Now, you, baby girl, are covered in dirt and ants. Time for a bath while mommy cleans this mess up," Sara said with a smile, handing Charlie over to Grissom and surveying the damage.

"I still play toys in bath?" the toddler asked her father with a tiny smile.

Grinning and winking at her, Grissom nodded, "of course! A deal is a deal!"

"Yay!" she beamed at him, "and don wowy, daddy," she added just as Grissom was about to make his way out of the room, "I no tell mommy 'bout bugs."

To her credit, Charlie did try to whisper.

"Gilbert!" Sara called, causing her husband to turn back to her, Charlie still in his arms, "are you trying to blackmail our daughter?"

Knowing he was most definitely between a wall and a hard place, Grissom decided to go for a diversion tactic. Walking back towards his wife, he quickly leaned in for a kiss, their daughter squirming in his arms with an exasperated, "daddy!"

"I think we need a rule number 9," he smiled at her, raising the hand that wasn't holding Charlie to pick up a very lost and confused ant from his wife's shirt collar and holding it up on a finger for her to see, "keep door to office locked at all times."

"Hmm…" Sara pondered, seeing right through his attempt at distracting her, "and rule number 10."

Gil looked at her in anticipation, she grinned, "diversion tactics will be severely punished."

Raising his eyebrow, somewhere between incredulous and intrigued, Gil nodded then motioned with his head towards the door, "I'm going to give Charlie a bath now…"

"You do that," Sara replied, her attempt at sounding stern failing as she took in the sight of her husband and daughter both covered in dirt, the knees of his trousers stained from the grass he'd no doubt been kneeling on, Charlie giggling at how the ants on her legs were now braving new ground onto her father's shirt.

Narrowing his eyes at Sara, that little twinkle she so loved accompanying the quirk of his lips, Gill turned and left with Charlie. Standing there, still smiling at the image her family had painted, and plotting exactly how to get back at Gil for attempting to blackmail their child, Sara never saw the other member of their family coming until it was too late.

Doug, who had been completing his master's excellent excavation work in the background, must have realized he'd been alone and, intent of finding his humans, rushed into the office in a flurry of displaced carpets, knocked over plants, and skidding paws. His sights set on Sara, Doug leaped from the door and, his oversized paws landed squarely on her chest, pushing her backwards towards Ichabod's terrarium.

Moving to Vegas may have meant the end of their ocean-adventure. But Sara was sure a boxer puppy running in terrified fear from an escaped Iguana in a room now fully invaded by run-away ants while her two favorite people were in the other room, covered from head to toe in dirt, was all the adventure she needed.

And they really needed to implement rule number 9 ASAP.

I hope you enjoyed that, it was certainly fun to write. I anticipate at least two more stories following our little geek-baby as she grows and our two favorite nerds as they try to adapt to being parents.

If you feel so inclined, I'd love to hear what you thought!