This one is pretty fluffy but I really wanted to set up a strong foundation for Nova and Sara. Hope you all enjoy.

Disclaimer: it's still not mine.

Give me love like never before,
Cause lately I've been craving more,
-Ed Sheeran's Give Me Love;

She emerged from the steam filled bathroom with hair wrapped in a towel atop her head and clad in pajamas that clung to her damp frame as she made her way out to the living room where her mother sat idly flipping through the channels. Nova perched on the arm of the couch as she unrolled the towel from around her head and began to squeegee the water from her thick blond locks as she halfheartedly paid attention to the TV, smiling when her mother settled on The Princess Bride. "Life is pain, highness," she quoted. "Anyone who says differently is selling something."

"Come here," Sara told her softly, reaching out to pull her off the couch and onto the floor between her feet. The mother grabbed her hairbrush that she kept on the end table for days when she was racing out the door after oversleeping and began to work her way through her daughter's tangled locks. "You remind me of Buttercup."

"Because I'm blond," the teenager asked, folding her legs under her and picking at the fraying edge of her plaid pajama pants.

Sara laughed. "Because you both have the same tenacity for life – refusing to do anything that doesn't suit you. I've always admired that about you."

"Are you working tonight," Nova asked quietly, hoping she hadn't come all the way just to be abandoned again.

"Not tonight," Sara told her. "Or the next few days. DB, the guy who took over for your dad after Cath left, gave me the rest of the week off. Told me to hangout with my kid."

"You told them about me," Nova asked as she turned around, ignoring the stinging of her scalp when her sudden movement caused the brush to rip through a tangle. "Dad... He said you couldn't."

"When he was my boss... It would have looked untoward," she explained as she carefully guided her daughter back into facing the TV, starting an intricate braid at the top of her damp head. "Ecklie probably would have thrown the hissy fit to end all hissy fits and we wouldn't have been able to work together. It was selfish of us. Keeping you a secret like you were something to be ashamed of. Because you're not, Nova. We're both immensely proud of you. And since daddy's retired and... and we're divorced. There's no reason for them to not know about you."

"Do... Will they like me?"

She kissed the crown of Nova's head as she secured the braid with a hair tie around her wrist. "The boys already love you on principle alone and once they get to know you... they'll probably love you even more than they love me. Fin and Morgan are excited to meet you as well but... Greg and Nick and Brass are family."

"I wish I could have met Warrick," she spoke softly. "Daddy talked about him a lot when he would call and I know it hurt you both a lot when he was killed.

"Warrick would have adored you," Sara promised, wrapping her arms around her daughter. "Maybe if his ex says it's okay... me or Nick can take you to meet Eli, Warrick's son. CSI kids. You two should know each other. Hell, if things had played out differently... You and Lindsey would have grown up together."

"Catherine's daughter."

"Yeah."

Nova sighed. "I used to get really jealous when daddy would talk about her."

"He and Catherine were best friends long before I ever came into the picture," Sara explained. "Lindsey's dad wasn't a good guy... He treated Cath and Lindsey pretty horribly from what I heard and so Grissom did what he could to be there for them."

"But he couldn't be there for us?"

Sara sighed. "Honey, he tried. And he will always be there for you, I know that. There is nothing on this planet that Gil Grissom loves as much as he loves you, Nova Elizabeth."

"But he's supposed to love you too," the fourteen year old protested. "We're supposed to be a family."

"I don't think... I don't think us separating has anything to do with how much we love each other," Sara told her. "And it's just as much my fault as it is his, honey. I'm the one who chose to come home and stay here."

"But he stopped working for it."

"Maybe we both did, I don't know. Maybe I'll figure it out someday." Sara sighed. "He loves me, honey. And I'll always love him too. We just... We just can't be together right now because we're hurting each other and we keep hurting each other the longer we stay together. We'll always be a family, we'll always be bound together through you, but right now... Gil and I can't be a couple without hurting each other and, believe me, honey, that would hurt you just as much as it would hurt us."

"Did your parents ever love each other?"

Sara exhaled slowly, so many questions from her inquisitive daughter. "I think they did... I think they both had issues that they should have gotten help for and when they didn't get help they turned toxic until they turned on each other completely. I don't want that for you. I don't want you to see us love each other so much that we start to hate each other."

"I understand." Nova sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Are you getting a migraine?"

"Mmm," the girl hummed her agreement and moved so she was laying on the couch with her head on her mother's lap. Sara silently undid the braid that she had just finished doing, raking her fingers through the curls gently undoing it as she used the pads of her fingers to massage her baby's scalp as the colors danced in the girl's eyes and she furrowed her brow in protest to the pain. "You're the only one who knows how to make them better," she whispered. "Even Gram can't do this right... she just has to give me a pill and let me sleep it off."

"Your dad taught me," Sara explained softly. "You were so little when you got your first one and you cried so much – it was the first Christmas you came to stay with us in Vegas and I was so scared that there was something really wrong with you. You were holding your head and throwing up and your dad just stepped in and showed me how to make it better."

"It works," she mumbled sleepily. "I hate taking the pills... They make my stomach churn and I sleep the whole day away when I take them. This works so much better."

"I'm glad." Sara bent and pressed a gentle kiss to her daughter's ear. "Do you get them a lot anymore?"

"Once a month or so," she explained. "Less since I got my reading glasses."

"Good."

Nova relaxed under the touch, tension releasing as she sunk into he couch and snuggled tightly into her mother's side. She had longed for this for so long, longed for her mother to chase away her demons; it was so rare that they got moments like that. "Don't usually snuggle."

"Your sensory issues are getting better," Sara explained. Nova had suffered from a mild case of sensory processing disorder since she was a child; she shied away from physical affection, only okay with deep touches and only when she was the initiator, and unable to handle crowded spaces due to all the noise that didn't quite filter through right. For a long time there had been certain clothing articles and textures that made the little girl want to cry but it had gotten easier with the help of early childhood intervention and time accompanied with reassurance.

"Mmm," Nova agreed. "I don't walk on my tiptoes anymore."

"So proud," Sara told her honestly. Guilt bit at her stomach, she should have already known those things but she'd turned the job of parenting her daughter over to her soon to be ex mother-in-law. "And you're going to graduate next fall?"

"Yeah," she whispered as Sara flicked off the TV so they were cloaked in darkness. "Winter finals mark the end of my junior year courses. I'll get my diploma at my next winter break. Three and a half years ahead of schedule."

"A year ahead of me," Sara told her. "I didn't walk until I was sixteen. You'll barely be fifteen."

"I'm sorry."

Sara laughed lightly. "Are you kidding me, kid? I'm so proud. My little genius. Have you thought about what you want to do after?"

"Been talkin' to grandma about taking a year off," she explained, sleepiness clinging to every word. "Wait until I have my license to start college – what's the point of going if I can't really take care of myself?"

"That's a good point and I think you've earned yourself a break." The brunette continued to card her fingers through the blond hair but slowed her movements. "Do you know where you want to go?"

"Grandma says Harvard or Oxford or something," Nova breathed. "I was looking at Pantheon-Sorbonne in Paris when I thought... But you know UNLV has some pretty good programs too? And I'm really still just a kid and if I... if I was living here then I wouldn't have to wait until I was sixteen to start."

Sara breathed in deeply. "Do you want to live here?"

"I want my mom," she mumbled as she clung to her leg. "When are you sending me home?"

"I'm not..." Sara breathed. "You could... you could live here if that's what you wanted. I can talk to Rose and your school and see what we can do about you finishing up here in Nevada. We could go check out UNLV – see if they have any programs you like. Or I'll move to Paris and you can go to Pantheon-Sorbonne or to England and you can go to Oxford or I'm totally okay with moving back to Boston so you can go to Harvard."

"But this is your home," she protested.

"You're my home, Nova," Sara told her honestly. "I am just so sorry it took me so long to realize that."

The girl smiled. "Can we talk about this when my head isn't making me want to cry?"

"Sure," Sara told her.

"But you can totally call grandma and talk about me finishing school here, if you want. That much is a yes."

Sara smiled big time. "Okay."

"I love you, mom." She sighed. "I'm glad I'm home."

"I love you, Nova," Sara promised. "I'm so glad to finally be able to bring you home."