Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with CSI, I just borrow their characters every now and then. I promise I won't hurt them! And I bow down to Anthony E. Zuicker for their creation.
Author's Note: A little one-shot with a relation to something that I'm tossing around in my head, trying to figure out if it'll work. Reviews are, as always, highly appreciated.
Our Little Girl
"Uncle Gil, I want you to be the one to walk me down the aisle." Lindsey Willows said authoritatively. "When I meet the nicest man in the world and get married to him, you're gonna give me away. Daddy's gone now, and Mommy can't do it because she's a lady. So I want you to. I don't think Mommy will mind."
"That day's a long way off yet, Lindsey," Grissom laughed, smiling at the child he had known since she was tiny, "And you know you're not allowed to date til you're thirty. It's a little early to be talking about marriage." She was so young, but growing up so fast. Neither he nor Catherine wanted the day to come when she was truly a woman and getting married. But however many years in the future it occurred, it would still be too soon to him.
"But still, you'll do it, right?"
"If that's what you still want when that day comes, then of course."
Gil Grissom smiled in fond memory. That day was here, and all too soon, as he had feared. Catherine had lowered the no-dating barrier by almost half – Lindsey had been allowed to start going out with boys when she was sixteen – but even then, neither she nor Grissom had expected the day when little Lindsey Willows walked down the aisle to the man she loved to come so soon. In Grissom's eyes, twenty was much too young, but he knew that through his biased eyes, even 50 would have been too young.
The sight of her in her lovely white gown made him feel horrible old. He had known this child since her youngest days, been friends with her mother Lindsey's whole life. He had seen her grow from a tiny baby to a rambunctious toddler, through the sweetness of young childhood and through the rebellious teenage years. Now here she was, barely old enough in his eyes to be an adult, but ready to get married. Hell, she couldn't even buy alcohol yet – Grissom wasn't one to judge that particular as a factor of adulthood, but he knew many did.
Music started, and an elbow nudged him in the ribs. With a start, he realised that this was his cue to be in position. He was supposed to have that beautiful young lady on his arm, to walk her to the man she loved. He was giving her away, and he found that he didn't want to – he had a place in his heart just for her, and it seemed to him that when he handed her away, he would also be handing her out of his heart. She was a little girl still in his eyes, and he wanted to keep her there for years yet. But here he was, preparing to walk her down the aisle.
Sighing, and hoping it wasn't obvious that his eyes were hazy from emotion, he strode to Lindsey, and offered his arm as he had many times in rehearsal. And the many times they had done it in jest throughout her childhood. Lindsey had always entertained the little-girl's dream of walking down the aisle to her handsome prince, and it had always been Gil who had played the Father-of-the-Bride role in those pretend ceremonies. They walked, together and for real, in time to the music, with not a stumble between them, though Grissom wished it did not rush by so fast.
"Is this one the nicest man in the world?" he asked softly as they approached the front of the church.
He was answered with a quick nod, and knew he would have to be satisfied with that. With one final sigh, and a wish that he could keep her a child for just a little longer, he handed her to the man who, with any luck and lots of love, she would be happy with for the rest of her life.
He daydreamed through the ceremony, visiting the scenes he remembered from the past. But nothing escaped his well-trained eye. Lindsey's young man had an entirely soppy grin on his face – the look that none can fake, and only the truly in love could have. Lindsey's smile was gentler, a littler nervous, but happy. And as long as she was happy, he would be too. As they kissed, he smiled. Oh yes, Lindsey had met her man here.
And then all of a sudden, it was over. The vows had been read, Lindsey announced as Mrs Warren Davies. She wasn't little Lindsey Willows any longer.
An arm came around his waist then, a head leaning to his chest. "She's not our little girl anymore, Gil. She's her own woman," Catherine said softly, sadly. She was overjoyed that her daughter had found a man to love who adored her in return, but her heart still ached. She could tell from the look in Grissom's eyes that he felt the same. Though no blood-ties related them, her daughter had long been closer to Grissom than to any other man. She knew he loved her, in his own way.
"Oh, but she'll always be our little girl," Grissom contradicted with a smile, "In our hearts, she'll never be anything else."