--

Entering her office, she looked at the girls who were reading on the couch. "Hey, what's going on?"

Lily looked up from her book, "Rachel, Kerri, and Melissa all got sick; we think they have the chicken pox. Nancy didn't think it was a good idea for everyone to stay over, so Jack brought us back."

"He said that you were in an important meeting, so we sat here and read." Leanna added.

"Okay, will you girls stay here until I am done with this meeting? It could be a little while." Sara said as she glanced back at that the clock, seeing Grissom in her peripheral vision. She looked back at the girls who were engrossed in reading their books. "Or would you rather come home, we can finish the meeting there."

"We are getting hungry; we played outside since we got there." Leanna said, not even looking over her book.

"Okay, come over to the lab with me and I will discuss it with everyone else."

The girls got up and started walking out following their mother. When they reached Grissom, the girls were too engrossed they didn't notice. He walked beside Sara back to the Crime Lab, silently asking questions every time she glanced over at him.

"Hey, any of you hungry?" Sara said as she entered the break room.

Seeing almost everyone nod, Sara continued, "Want to come over and I'll make some dinner? We can work on the case there if you want to."

There were some who reluctantly nodded, but they all started to file out of the break room.

"Hey Sar, I can take 4 people in mine, Jack can take the remainder."

"I'm going with Sara." Grissom stated.

Catherine and Warrick glanced at each other, and then at Nick and Greg, they all shrugged.

"Hey, I have to stop at Jack's office, be right back." Sara said, veering off when they reached the lobby.

When she walked out of sight, all eyes were brought on to Grissom. "What?"

"What the hell is going on?" Catherine said bluntly.

"Watch you language around the kids." Jack whispered when he appeared behind the group.

"Kids?" Nick said, "Sara said you had a daughter."

"I do, but she had two," Jack said pointing to Sara who was walking towards them, with two kids in tow.

"Ready?" Sara asked.

"Wait a minute, are you going to explain?" Greg stumbled over his own words.

"Not here." And with that Sara walked out, heading over to PD, the girls and Grissom followed.

"Who else is coming, I can take some people but only if you've had the chicken pox. I think my daughter Rachel has them."

"I'll go, the rest of you can go with Tim." Nick said following Jack.

--

"Girls, where are your bags?"

"In Jack's car." Lily said with a smirk.

"Lily and Leanna, put your books down and come over here now!" Sara raised her voice.

"What?!" Lily screamed.

"Why are you mad at me?" Sara said getting eye level with one of her daughters.

"I'm mad because we couldn't stay at Melissa's and you only let us sleepover someone's house once a month."

"Then you know not to take it out on me. And you could've asked for another sleepover." Sara moved over to Leanna, "Why are you mad?" Leanna wasn't looking at her directly; she was looking over her mom's shoulder, "When did Dad get here?" Sara hung her head, as Leanna ran over to give him a hug. Lily followed suit.

Grissom embraced them and then looked up at Sara. "They know?"

"Of course they know Griss, you think that I would hold that from them?"

"You held it from me." Grissom said in a hurt tone, looking down at the two girls who were still embracing him.

"Come on, we need to get to the house." Sara said standing up and walking over to the driver's side.

During the car ride, Lily and Leanna put down their books and started asking their dad several questions that he gladly answered. Sara sat there quietly focusing on the road, but listening to parts of their conversation.

They arrived home after fifteen minutes, Sara pulled the car into the garage, and the girls rushed out into the house.

Grissom sat in the front seat a little longer. Sara waited for him to say something but when he didn't, she pushed, "Gil?"

"Don't."

"You need to know why, there is a reason to why I couldn't get the courage to tell you." Sara paused to see if he would want her to go on.

"We'll talk later." Grissom said as he exited her vehicle.

She sat there for a minute before going into the house.

Sara placed her stuff in her office, and went back towards the kitchen.

When she entered she saw Grissom sitting at one of the stools by the counter, "Where are the girls?"

"Upstairs, it's Friday, the rule is that they have to clean their rooms before they are able to watch TV or movies."

"Strict."

Sara shrugged, "It keeps them in line. Want some coffee?" Sara held up a mug.

"Sure."

--

The guys entered in through the front door, Grissom head snapped up to look at Sara when he heard Jack's voice.

"He has a key." Sara said looking at Grissom.

She's moved on. Grissom thought as he sipped his coffee.

"Gil." Sara paused to make sure she has his full attention, "He has a key in case of an emergency."

"Oh," realization hitting Grissom.

"So what's for dinner?" Jack asked on entering the kitchen.

"The usual Friday night dinner?" Sara questioned.

"Sure, I'll go start the grill." Jack moved out of the kitchen, briefly brushing again Sara.

Everyone was chatting in the kitchen, when the girls came down stairs. "Is dinner almost ready?" Lily said leaning against Sara's leg.

"Jack is outside cooking the burgers, they'll be ready soon. Rachel is in the family room watching TV if you want to join her."

All the adults sat outside to eat; the girls were sitting at the kitchen table, so that they could view the TV while they ate.

"Sara, we have some questions." Greg finally said.

"Go ahead, like I said earlier, I'm more open now, hiding things became too tiring."

"How old are they?" Catherine asked.

When Sara didn't answer right away, Grissom did, "ten years, nine months, and two or three weeks depending on her delivery date."

Everyone's eyes were on Grissom until Jack said, "Sara, I thought you didn't tell him about them."

"Three weeks, how'd you know?"

"I'll answer that at a different time." Grissom started to eat more of his hamburger.

Everyone was silent for a few minutes, eating contently, until Catherine looked up at Sara and asked, "Is this why you never came back?"

Sara thought for a minute then glanced between Jack and Grissom, "No, I didn't come back because I couldn't deal with seeing the desert anymore, especially after what happened. I honestly tried to come back when I was pregnant but I only lasted two weeks before I broke down." She finished before she took a drink from her glass.

When everyone was finished, Sara cleaned up, put the dishes in the dishwasher while everyone was still outside talking about the case. She didn't even know that Grissom followed her in until she heard his voice. "I want to talk to you."

"Can we leave this for later, it's just so much easier. It's the past, what are we to gain from it?" Dropping some more dirty dishes into the sink, wincing at the noise.

"How about we talk, I've foun--"

"No, you didn't find me, you stumbled across me on the job. Remember the job?" Sara seethed, and before Grissom could reply, Leanna came bounding down the stairs and dashed into the kitchen.

"Mom! Mom! Can we start watching a movie now?"

"You, Lily and Rachel can but the adults need to socialize and work on this case, ok hunni?"

"But Mom—we always watch a movie on Friday night—together. You never break that promise, why now?"

"No 'buts' Leanna—you know that. We'll watch two movies next Friday ok?"

"OK." Leanna cast her eyes down and slowly stocked away.

When she was out of view, Grissom glanced at Sara to see a sadden struck expression.

-- -- --

They discussed the case for two solid hours before Sara stifled a yawn.

"What? Not use to nights anymore?" Warrick exclaimed as he saw her try to hide the yawn.

"Oh, I'm not use to be up for more than 48 hours anymore. Ever since I had the girls, I've always slept at least 3 hours a night. There is the rare occasion when I have to pull a double." Sara yawned once more.

"Are the girls still up?" Cath asked as she glanced into the kitchen from the den.

"No, they are probably asleep on the couch." Sara paused and turned towards Jack. "Can you take on upstairs, I'll take the other?"

Jack briefly looked at Grissom and saw the pain in his eyes as he looked at Sara. "Can someone else do it, I'm exhausted." Jack stretched.

Sara took a jab at his ribcage, "Wimp!" And with that Sara walked out of the room and into the living room to see the girls curled up on the couch. Grissom had followed her in.

-- -- -- --

Sara grabbed the remote and turned off the television. "Lily, Leanna, we're going to bring you upstairs." Sara said quietly, slowly rubbing Lily's back.

Their response were groans. That was Sara's cue to pick up one of them and take them upstairs. Grissom followed suit picking up Leanna, who instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, which made his heart melt.

"Dad?" Leanna mumbled.

"Yes, hunny?"

"Are you going to be staying with us?"

"Or are you leaving after you're done work?" Lily mumbled from a few feet away.

Sara looked at Grissom with a saddening look.

"I don't know girls; Dad has a lot of responsibilities back in Las Vegas." Sara said as she moved closer to the stairs.

"Then could he come and visit us more?" Leanna questioned lifting her head from his shoulder.

"Of course I'll be visiting you girls more, all of my girls" Grissom specified looking at Sara's dark brown eyes.

Walking up the stairs, Sara never chanced glancing back at Grissom, she didn't know what to do about the problem. Should I allow him back into my heart? Sara thought, Well he never really left my heart. Her heart battled he rational mind. She arrived at the girls' rooms. Sara pointed to Leanna's room, so Grissom could place her in her bed.

Grissom nodded and moved towards the room. After placing her down in her bed and pulling up the covers, Grissom looked around her room, at the pictures, and trinkets that covered her dresser top.

"Like it?" Sara whispered from her position at the door.

"Dragonflies?"

"Yup. Leanna loves dragonflies and Lily loves butterflies.

"Really?"

"Yeah, they love them because I told them that you were an entomologist, and they always thought that it would bring you to them."

They moved out of Leanna's room after Sara kissed her goodnight.

Walking downstairs, Sara realized that everyone had left. Turning to Grissom, she started, "I told them that so many times that I started to believe it myself." Sara paused, playing with the hem of her shirt, she slowly lifted it and pushed down her jeans a little to reveal a butterfly tattoo on her hip.

Grissom stared at it for a minute before moving closer, slowly bringing his hand up, gently rubbing his thumb across the tattoo. "I missed you." He whispered, breaking contact, and gazing into her eyes, but she cast them down. "Sara?"

Chancing to look up at him, she did. Her eyes were full of tears and about to overflow. He quickly rushed in to embrace her, feeling her sob made his heart sink.

They moved over to the couch and Sara quickly calmed down. Looking up at Grissom, her eyes red from crying she started to explain, but her stopped her. "Time." Her confused look pushed him to continue forward. "Time is what you needed. You were scared, I get that. When they were born you were faced with living with the fact that I wasn't with you. But I knew, well sort of knew." Grissom paused, not breaking eye contact. "I came to get you about two years after you left. I found out where you were through a friend. But when I came, you were still here, but you had the girls—everything telling me that you moved on. I didn't know how old they were. I got my friend Mark to find out. When he told me, I realized I had made a huge mistake for assuming that you moved on. It wasn't until years later I found out that they were mine." He cast his eyes down towards the wood floor, "after that I wanted to wait until you came out and contacted me, but you never did."

Sara didn't wait to respond, "Don't think that I didn't miss you Gil. Honestly, I tried to call you every night when they turned one. I was able to dial the first three numbers, but then I started crying. The next month, I got five numbers. About a year later, I blocked my number, and called your office phone—but you didn't answer." Sara looked up at him "You never left my heart. When I left Vegas, I thought that was the end of us. Then I found out I was pregnant and convinced myself that you didn't want 'this'" she spread her arms out. "I just got so wrapped up in being a good mom that I never realized that I was keeping them from having their father that loved them." Sara grabbed his hand and intertwined her fingers with his, got off the couch and led him to the stairs. "If you don't want to I…um…understand." Sara said, turning slightly red.

He didn't give her an answer; he just stood there staring at her.

She turned her face away, so he wouldn't see the tears. But before she realized it, he was kissing her urgently, but passionately. The same time he pressed her against the wall continuing to kiss her. suddenly he broke away, "I have to go." And with that he walked out the front door leaving a stunned Sara in his wake.

Sara slid down leaning against the wall, because she just didn't trust her legs at the moment. She burst into tears, staying where she was, and soon fell asleep.