A little follow up to The Enigma. Hope you enjoy.
----------
Matthew Gilbert Grissom had turned three last week. He was quite full of himself these days, his mother had noted. As she watched him in the middle of the floor, watching a video that his father had given him on his birthday, she couldn't help but smile at the resemblence. He was shorter, of course, but beyond that they were almost identical. His light brown curls were unruly because she refused to cut them short, but they were his father's. And his eyes...well, there was no mistaking who he got them from. Even his expressions were a miniature version of Gil Grissom. Mattie, as they called him., even stuck his tongue out and smiled in glee when he did something that he was especially proud of; a pose Catherine had seen in Gil many many times over the years. Her heart melted everytime she looked at her son, just as it did whenever she looked at his father.
"Well, dinner won't cook itself," she mused. Assurred that he was engrossed in his Insects of the Amazon video, she busied herslf in the kitchen. Mattie, hearing the cabinets and pots in the other room, peeked around the corner. Seeing that his mother's attention was away from him , he decided to go exploring. Venturing down the hall, he eased into his Daddy's bugroom. Mattie loved the bugroom. Daddy would sit with him, holding Mattie in his lap, and tell him all about the bugs in his jars and frames. Mattie loved looking at the bugs...and he loved being held by his father. Climbing into Dadfdy's chair, Mattie made it go in circles. He giggled as the motion made him dizzy. Daddy had told him that if he liked that ride, just wait til he was old enough. Daddy would take him on a roller coaster. Mommy had frowned at that.
The chair slowly came to a halt and Mattie spied his daddy's wallet on the desk. Mattie liked looking at his wallet. There were all sorts of cool things in it. Daddy had his CSI badge in there. It wasn't a real badge like Uncle Jim's, but it was still cool. And he had pictures of Mattie and Mommy and Lindsey. The three year old reached for the wallet and rested it in his lap. Then he opened it. He studied the CSI badge. It had Daddy's picture. Daddy looked mean in the picture...like he looked when Lindsey had a boy come over to play. They were playing on the couch and Daddy walked in. Daddy looked mean then. Mattie didn't understand why Daddy was so mad. Lindsey and her friend were just playing like Mommy and Daddy play all the time. Only...Mattie felt a little funny thinking about it...Daddy and Mommy played naked sometimes. Mattie had found out one day when they thought he was asleep. He heard them giggling in their room and he ran to see what was so fuuny. Whatever it was, they quit giggling when he ran in. Daddy was mad then too. After that they locked their door whenever they played in their room. But Mommy got mad when Mattie locked his door.
He looked again at the contents of his father's wallet. Ther were the pictures. Mattie thought Lindsey was pretty...almost as pretty as Mommy. But she didn't act pretty sometimes, especially when Daddy told her she couldn't have anymore boys over to play. Mattie remembered what Daddy had said, "remember young lady, I have a gun!" Lindsey had rolled her eyes and stomped off to her room. Mommy had laughed at Daddy.
Digging deeper into the contents of the wallet, Mattie discovered something in the little slit behind the pictures. Pulling it out, he examined it. Wrapped in shiny paper, like his birthday presents, Mattie found it irressitable. It took some effort but eventually he had opened the package. He studied it closely. Then he realized what it was. Daddy carries balloons in his wallet! He opened it fully and thought it seemed like a strange balloon. It was longer than his birthday balloons. And it felt different. It wasn't a pretty color like his balloons either. But he thought it was kind of cool that his Daddy had a secret balloon. He tried to blow it up but he couldn't. That didn't surprise him, he hadn't been able to blow up his birthday balloons either.
He climbed out of the chair and headed to Lindsey's room. She had blown up his birthday balloons; maybe she would help him with Daddy's balloon. He walked into her room. She was on her bed, reading. "Windsey, can you blow up my bawoon?"
She looked up. "Yeah, sure. Give it to me."She held out her hand. Mattie put the balloon in her palm. "Eeewww," she shrieked, dropping it. "Mattie where'd you get that?" she yelled.
Mattie was shocked by her reaction. Tears started to form in his eyes. "Daddy's wawet."
"Oh gross."
Catherine appeared at her daughter's doorway."Lindsey?"
"Mattie, show Mommy what you found."
Mattie reached over and picked up his treasure. He turned to his mother and proudly held it out for her to see, "Bawoon."
Shock and then laughter overtook her. "Where's you get the ...balloon, Mattie?"
"Daddy's wawet."
"Gil," she headed down the hall and into their room. Her husband was just waking up after all the commotion. "Huh" he said, still groggy.
"Mattie has something to show you. And then you get to explain it to him." She was chuckling.
"Ah...okay...Mattie?" he called.
Mattie walked into their room. His bright blue eyes were gleeful as he saw his Daddy.
"Mattie," spoke his father. "Mommy says you have something to show me?"
Again, Mattie held out his treasure.
Gil's eyes almost popped out of his head. "Where did you find that, Mattie?"
"Your wawet. It's a bawoon, but I can't bwow it up."
Gil's eyebrow shot up. His lips pursed as he fought the smile that threatened to errupt on his face. "Son, why were you in my wallet?"
"Looking at the pictures."
"Oh."
Catherine kissed her husband on the cheek and told him, "I've got dinner going so I'll let you two men have a little talk." She laughed as she headed out the door.
"Mattie, come sit with Daddy."
Mattie climbed up and snuggled next to his father."Mattie, you shouldn't go into other people's things without asking first, okay?"
"Okay," he smiled at his hero.
"And Mattie...that's Daddy's special balloon. I keep it because it is magic."
Mattie's eyes got really big. "Magic?"
"Yeah, son. But the thing is...well, you have to be an apprentice Daddy to be able know about it."
"Why?"
"Well, when you are old enough to be an apprentice Daddy, all the magic will be revealed to you. Until then, you're not suppossed to touch the magic balloons. It makes the magicians very angry."
"Oh."
"Understand son?"
"Yes. I can't touch the magic bawoons until I'm a prince."
Gil rolled his eyes and decided to accept defeat. "That's right son, not until you are a prince. Now, please go tell Mommy that I'm in the shower and I'll be down in a few minutes. I'll help her with dinner." He hugged his son and set him on the floor.
"Okay, Daddy." He ran to the doorway and stopped. Turning, he looked at his father."Daddy?"
"Yes?"
"Do princes's get to pway like you and Mommy pway? 'cause I heard her say once that you were a real prince."
Gil smiled at his son. "Mattie, I hope one day you find your own special princess to play with , just like I get to play with Mommy. But no regular girls, understand? Only a real princess like your Mommy."
"Okay." Mattie ran downstairs and into the kitchen. "Mommy, Daddy said he's in the shower and you're a princess and he wants to pway with you. Oh, and he said he'd hewp you cook, too"
Catherine looked at her son and wondered if should have left Gil alone with him.
--------------
Just a little idea that came to me. Hope you enjoyed. Please let me know, I live off of reviews:-)