Okay, so I'm sure by now everyone's confused at the ages of these rugrats. I'll try to make this short and sweet, and hopefully won't confuse anybody any further. Kassie turned 6 in Nov, Sydney was born in May. Then, Kassie turned 7; AJ was born in Jan, before Sydney was even a year old. And Jason is no longer with us. Thanks to thespoon. Come on Jess, yell at me some more for bringing him up again and what YOU did to him.

I hope that's better. Thanks for the continued support from everyone, especially thegreatbluespoon. We are having too much fun right now with our stories. And thanks to Just Thinking, she's always making sure I'm on the right track.

T&T: Youth and Reckoning

Chapter 3

Grissom was still in disbelief as he fastened AJ into his car seat. He couldn't believe his son's actions at the play area. Sara helped Sydney into hers as Kassie silently climbed into the back seat. Everyone tried to avoid Grissom, because they knew he was already upset.

The ride towards the house was silent. Once AJ and Sydney had slipped off into dream land, Grissom began his rant. "Where does he get his attitude from?" Sara continued looking out the windshield, knowing he was asking a rhetorical question.

Kassie was texting a friend when she heard his question and felt obliged to answer. "You."

Grissom glared at her through the rear view mirror, his eyes giving her fair warning not to continue sharing her thoughts on the subject.

Once home, Grissom retrieved AJ, while Sara got Sydney. They both headed up the stairs and into the kids' respective rooms putting the sleeping kids down. Grissom covered up AJ and quickly headed to the basement. Sara watched as he passed her in the hall but said nothing. She went back to her truck to help Kassie get their purchases out.

"So, Dad's pissed." Kassie commented as she saw her mother enter the garage

Sara sighed. "Yeah, well, you know your father." Kassie scoffed as they continued to unload.

The first day of school was here before they knew it. Sydney was excited about moving up to the next level, Kassie was more worried about what she was going to wear than her classes, and AJ, well he didn't want to be forced into spending half of his day in a room full of strangers.

Grissom sat in his usual morning spot reading the paper and drinking his coffee. Sara was making a quick breakfast for the kids, and to continue her tradition she had started with Jason and Kassie, always drove them to school on the first day.

Sydney was the first one down. "Good morning Daddy, good morning Momma." She climbed onto a stool next to Grissom, he leaned over still eyeing his paper and she kissed him on the cheek.

Sara came around the bar, placed a glass of juice in front of her, and kissed her on top of her head. "Good morning sweetie. Where's your brother?"

She took a sip of her juice. "I think he's barricaded himself in his room."

Grissom snickered as he sipped his coffee. Sara shot him a glare he never saw through his paper. She served up Sydney some cereal with bananas as Kassie made her presence known.

"I can't find anything to wear!"

Grissom looked over his paper at his complaining daughter. "You just bought a bunch of new clothes last week. What happened to them?"

"Hello, Dad, it's the first day of school."

"I'm aware of this." He deadpanned.

"Yeah, and well the whole goal of the first day is to be best dressed." She spoke with her hands flailing about before coming to rest on her hips.

"Oh my God." Grissom muttered under his breath as he returned his attention to the paper.

Sara wasn't shocked at Grissom's response and couldn't hide her own smile. "Don't worry, you look wonderful."

"Oh God, I'm ruined." Kassie turned and headed back upstairs.

Sydney laughed along with her mother as she continued eating. Sara decided it was time to get her son downstairs, so she decided to send in his father. "Gil, would you go get AJ?"

Grissom looked over his paper. "You make that sound so easy." She smiled at him as she poured another bowl of cereal. He gave her a half smile back and stood to make the attempt to extract his son from his room.

Very slowly he opened the door, after his last encounter, Grissom was met with flying arrows. "AJ, come on son, you have to have breakfast before going to school." He pushed through the door, at first glance the room was empty, but a slight movement from under the bed caught his eye. Grissom sighed heavily, unsure that AJ had heard him. "I wonder where my son is." He walked up to the small fish bowl and asked the beta swimming around. "Ike, have you seen AJ?" A smile formed on his face when he heard AJ's muffled giggles. "You know Ike, AJ would really enjoy school. There will be kids there his age that he can play with, and even his friend across the street is starting school today as well. I'm sure he'd like to see AJ." Grissom stepped back and sat down on the bed. As he suspected the laughter increased when he sat. "Something's wrong with this bed, it's laughing at me." He bounced a little harder as the laughing intensified.

"Daddy!" AJ backed his way out from under the bed.

"Oh, there you are." Grissom quickly reached forward and scooped up the boy. "Why don't you want to go to school?"

AJ buried his head into Grissom. "I just don't."

"I think you'll like it. Rifle will be there, you'll get to learn new things, meet new friends." He carried AJ out of his room and down the stairs as he continued to try to convince him of why he should go to school.

AJ clung to his father as Grissom attempted to set him down on the stool. Sara was smiling at the pair as she poured milk on AJ's cereal. "Come on honey, sit down and eat your breakfast."

Finally, AJ let go and let himself be placed in the chair and slowly began to eat. Grissom sat down next to his son and finished off his coffee. Kassie came down once again, in a totally different outfit. This time Sara didn't say anything about it.

"Well, I'm off." Grissom folded his paper and went down the row of chairs and kissed each of his children on the cheek. "Have fun at school." He moved around to where Sara was standing, and walked up behind her. "Good luck." His whisper tickled her ear before he kissed her neck. "I love you. See you tonight."

"Love you too." She continued to eat her fruit and flip through one of the many catalogs that arrived in the mail. The commotion behind her indicated that breakfast was over. "Alright, get your things and get in the car, time to go to school."

AJ took some extra convincing, Sara practically drug him to the car. She got them to school on time and escorted AJ to his pre-school class. The room was full of five year olds as they mingled and played about with the many toys. There were two adults in the room watching over them.

"Okay, this will be a walk in the park." Sara kneeled next to her worried son.

"But I don't want to." He whined.

"Don't you want to make Daddy proud?" AJ nodded. "Okay, so you'll go in there and meet new friends, and learn new things. That sounds like fun. So, you get to have fun and make Daddy proud, it would make me proud too." She smiled at him and gave him a reassuring hug.

"Hey, AJ!"

They both turned to see Rifle waving at them. AJ stepped away from Sara and waved back before running off to join his friend. She stood and watched proudly as her youngest made his next step in life. Her smile extended even further at the thought of finally having some time to herself, even if it was only a few hours a day.

The end of October rolled around and everyone had made plans for beggars' night. Kassie was going to a haunted house at the high school with her friends. AJ and Sydney had costumes and were going trick-or-treating with Sara and Grissom.

It was early in the evening when someone knocked on the front door. Grissom had just ordered a pizza for the youngsters as he opened the door. "Mrs. Campbell"

"I'm so sorry to bother you, but my husband's father is in the hospital in Flagstaff. We are driving down tonight and it's so late notice that I can't find anyone to look after Rifle." Her voice was stressed and desperate sounding.

Grissom smiled and looked down at the redheaded boy clutching a duffle bag. "It's no problem, he can stay here."

"Oh, I can't thank you guys enough. Here are our cell phone numbers." She handed over a small slip of paper. "I'm hoping we'll only be away a few days." She turned and knelt before her son. "Now Rifle, you be good for Mr. and Mrs. Grissom." She kissed him on the forehead, thanked Grissom once again, and ran back across the road.

Grissom escorted Rifle into the house and took his bag. "I ordered a pizza, do you like pizza?" Rifle nodded and continued to follow Grissom. "It will be here shortly. Come on, I'll take you to AJ's room." They climbed the stairs and went to the only closed door on the second floor. Without knocking Grissom entered. "AJ, Rifle's here."

AJ was going though the closet like he had lost something, but stopped when the announcement hit him. He turned and went up to Rifle. "Can he have dinner with us?" Grissom nodded. "Can he go trick-or-treating with us?"

"If he wants to, that's fine." His father responded.

"I have my costume in my bag." Rifle pointed to the bag Grissom was holding.

He set the bag down. "Once we finish dinner, Mom will help you boys get ready." Grissom turned around and left.

"This is going to be fun." AJ pulled Rifle further into his room. "Come here I want to show you something."

Kassie was in the bathroom fixing her costume with her best friend Stacy, as they prepared for their night of fright. "It's not dark enough."

Stacy sighed. "Well, that's what you get for having brown hair." She set down the can of colored hair spray. "It's purple, I can see it."

"Yeah, but I wish it was more like yours." Kassie looked into the bathroom mirror at her friend with half blue and half purple hair. Stacy shrugged her shoulders. "Well… just leave these here, we need to get going."

They both went down the stairs and as they passed the dining room table Grissom stopped them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa…wait a minute. What happened to your hair?"

Kassie went over to him and hugged him as he sat. "Don't worry Daddy, it washes out." She kissed him on the cheek before saying her goodnight and heading out.

He looked back at Sara confused. "Goodnight?"

"Remember, she's spending the night at Stacy's." Sara explained before taking a slice of pizza.

The boys were furiously eating; AJ was on his third piece, as Rifle was finishing his second. Sydney stopped after one and a half, and then excused herself to get dressed. Sara took the boys upstairs to get them ready before helping Sydney. Grissom was stuck cleaning up which wasn't hard, leftovers in the fridge, paper plates in the trash. He sank into the sofa and turned on the news.

AJ was dressed as a pirate, Rifle was a cowboy, and they were up to no good. Deciding what they needed to do to get their 'fix' was still undecided. Sara returned downstairs after helping Sydney finish her costume before realizing she forgot something. She then yelled up the stairs at AJ, to bring June along as they came down. The black light bulb went off above AJ's head. He rushed into Kassie's room and called June out of her bed.

The white dog was reluctant to go to the young boy calling her name, but she stood and walked to him. "Hey there girl, want to go trick-or-treating? You'll need a costume." June slowly wagged her tail as AJ ran his hands down her thick white coat, almost as if she was concerned with what the boy was planning to do with her.

Grissom was watching the news when Sara sunk into the couch beside him. He put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "You feeling alright?"

She inched closer to him. "I'm fine." She sounded as if she was tired, but just about to catch her second wind.

Suddenly laughter erupted from the stairs. Grissom and Sara turned and looked at the commotion. Neither could believe what they were seeing. A princess, a pirate, and a cowboy were laughing while walking a blue and purple dog.

"What on earth did you do to your sister's dog!?" Sara stood as Grissom sat in shock.

"If she's going, she needed a costume." AJ answered proud of his handy work.

Grissom stood alongside Sara. "You do realize she's going to probably hurt you, right?"

"I heard her say it washes out." The boy was confident his plan was going to work.

After a few hours of walking around the neighborhood, they returned home and washed June. They washed her again, and again. Grissom was soaking wet, AJ was laughing as they looked upon the faded blue and purple dog.

"I guess it takes more than three washes." AJ laughed harder at his father's remark. "I don't know what you find so funny about this. When Kassie gets home she's going to be mad."

AJ was still laughing when Sara joined them in the back yard. "What's he laughing at?"

Grissom shrugged his shoulders. "His future whoopin' I suppose."

Sara picked up her amused son and took him into the house. Grissom continued to dry June. "I'm sorry girl." The dog was compliant the entire time she was constantly getting bombarded with soap and water. He did his best to get her as dry as he could before bringing her into the house.

Grissom watched as she headed for the stairs and to Kassie's room.

He checked his watch and knew Sara was probably having problems getting the trio to bed. She had objected the idea of letting them have some of their candy; he didn't see a problem with it, and while they were discussing the idea AJ was already into his bag along with Rifle. A smile crossed his face when a few thumping noises came through the ceiling.

Sara came down roughly ten minutes later to see her husband sitting comfortably on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table, watching TV. She moved to stand between him and the television. Grissom looked at her midsection before leaning off to the side to see around her. Sara moved to block his line of vision again.

"You know, you make a better door than a window?" He attempted a little of his dry humor.

She put her hands on her hip and glared at him. "You do realize that while you just sit down here relaxing, I'm up there attempting to put your son, who's hyped up on sugar, in bed."

He moved his eyes in an attempt to avoid her stare. "Yeah, I heard you." Grissom raised his hand and pointed to the ceiling.

When she narrowed her eyes at him, it was the tell tale sign that she wasn't amused. "You're the reason they had candy before bed. You should have been the one to fight to get them to settle down."

"What did you expect me to do Sara?"

"What you normally do, nothing." She didn't even raise her voice before storming off down the hall.

He shut off the TV and followed her. "Sara, come on. You're blowing this all out of proportion." As he entered the bedroom, he was greeted by his pillow flying at him.

"Go sleep in your cave tonight." She pulled down the covers on the bed without even a look to him.

"Sara." Grissom ignored her request and moved to stand behind her. "What's this all about? Surely it has nothing to do with what happened upstairs." She felt his hands on her shoulders, and her body froze. He moved closer to let their bodies come in contact. "Sara…" His voice was soft. "Tell me what's really bothering you. Please, honey." Grissom finished his plea with a tiny kiss to the side of her neck.

A lone tear escaped as she leaned back into his touch. His hands went down her body to wrap around her waist. Grissom held her to him and waited until she was ready to share what was making her overreact. "I'm…I just …" She let out a weak sob. Grissom reacted by holding her tighter. "I need…I don't know."

"Sit down." He maneuvered her to sit on the bed. "Whatever you want or need, just ask and I'll do everything in my power to make sure you get it." His hands moved to cup her face, and when she looked up into his eyes, Grissom leaned forward and kissed her.

Her eyes remained closed after they parted. "How do you do it?"

"How do I do what?" Grissom asked confused.

"Everything you do. You juggle everything that happens at the lab, you come home, spend time with the kids, and even have time to do your experiments. How?" Another tear fell and Grissom was quick to wipe it away. "I'm here twenty four- seven, and feel like I've accomplished nothing."

"Honey." Grissom pulled her to him and embraced her once again. "You have no idea how much you accomplish. You get the kids up, dressed, and to school. Everything is always neat and picked up here, the laundry is always done, and when Sydney and AJ are out of school, you entertain them all afternoon, and still have time to make dinner." His hands rubbed up and down her back soothing her. "What I want to know is how do you do it? I know I couldn't."

She pulled back to give him a weak smile. "How do you manage to always say the right things?" Grissom smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Come here." Sara reached up to his neck and as she leaned back, pulled him down with her.

Sara woke refreshed, and after pulling on her robe, headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. She always made cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning, but not from scratch. It was much easier to let someone else do the hard part; make up the dough, and place them so nicely in a well decorated box. With a smile, she took the pre-made rolls out of the box, and popped them into the oven

She grabbed the Sunday paper from the front porch and took a seat at the breakfast bar. Shortly after she sat down, Grissom emerged wearing his robe. His first stop was to give her a kiss. "Good morning."

"Morning." She took a sip of her coffee and continued to thumb through the paper.

Just as he was about to ask her a question, the front door opened, and slammed shut. They silently looked at each other as Kassie stormed past the kitchen and up the stairs. "Where's June?" He whispered.

"Outside." Her eyes grew wider as she remembered what the dog looked like.

Grissom took a seat grabbing the paper. They remained quiet and waited for the peace to end. In a few minutes AJ made his way down the stairs. He walked into the kitchen, saw that breakfast wasn't ready, and headed back to his room. Sara smiled and shook her head.

"I wonder about him sometimes." Grissom thought aloud. Sara looked at him without responding to her husband's sudden realization. She waited for him to elaborate, but a shrill scream cut her off. They both looked at each other and headed to the back yard.

Kassie was on the ground clutching her dog. "What did he do to my baby?" She stroked the blue and purple dog. "I'll make him pay for what he did to you."

"What makes you think it was 'him'?" Grissom asked from behind her.

She stood furiously. "Because, he's responsible for everything that happens around here. If something is broken, AJ; if something disappears, AJ; if my dog turns blue and purple, AJ. It's always AJ, and you guys don't do a damn thing about him. He's like a wild animal running loose in the house." Kassie stormed by them, June following her distraught owner.

Grissom and Sara looked at each other and didn't know what to do, about Kassie, or about AJ.

Okay, so I wish I was a fly on the wall that night. Have you ever seen a blue and purple dog? This kid's not exactly the poster child that some would expect, since Grissom and Sara are his parents. I'm sure he'll drive them into the looney bin before it's all said and done.

And since you're done reading, now it's time for your final task, review. Gracias.

TDCSI