Chapter 7

Catherine knocked on Grissom's doorframe. "You still want to talk to me?" She knew she was a day late, but things had been busy.

Grissom looked at his watch. He had a meeting with Ecklie regarding the same subject soon. "Yes. Please close the door."

Catherine walked in to Grissom's office, closing the door behind her. Then she took one of the chairs opposite his desk. "What's up?"

"What do you know about Faeryn Page?" he asked.

"Good CSI. Worked in Phoenix for a while before coming here. Is there something going on I need to know about?" She was a little suspicious. Grissom never really asked about anyone.

Grissom struggled with what to say. "I want you to hear this from me."

"What's going on?" Catherine's concern grew.

"Faeryn Page is my daughter," he stated.

Catherine's jaw dropped. She couldn't have been more surprised if he'd reached across the desk and slapped her. "Daughter? As in 'flesh of my flesh' and 'blood of my blood' daughter?"

Grissom nodded.

"And you're just now telling me?" Catherine was in shock.

"I just now found out," he told her honestly.

"You didn't know you had a daughter?" She couldn't imagine not knowing that there was a child out there with half her DNA. "But you know who the mother is, right?"

Grissom again nodded. "My college girlfriend, Tess Wilson," he replied. "We were lab partners sophomore year and our relationship just grew. But just as our senior year started, she left without a good-bye. I never saw or heard from her again."

"Then how can you be sure she's Faeryn's mother?" Catherine questioned.

Grissom smiled slightly. "She's the only one who fits the time line," he replied.

"Ahhh, of course." She should have known. "Are you…okay with it?"

"I don't know how I can be anything but okay with it," Grissom responded. "It's her that I don't think is ok with it."

"Why would you say that?" Catherine wondered.

"When we figured it out, she told me to just forget it," Grissom remembered with a pang her words.

"You think maybe she was just in shock?"

Grissom shrugged. "I don't know, but I 'm not going to push. She's obviously done well for herself. She doesn't need me now."

Before Catherine could say another word, Grissom's desk phone rang. He quickly picked it up. "Ok, I'll be right there," he said in to the phone before hanging up.

Catherine looked at him questioningly.

"Ecklie, he's waiting on me," Grissom explained.

Catherine stood. "Good luck."

Grissom walked in to Ecklie's office to find Faeryn Page already there. And she didn't look happy.

"Grissom, thank you for joining us," Ecklie greeted him.

"I hope we can come to an amicable agreement," Grissom replied.

"Well, it's quite simple," Ecklie began. "As I understand it, you two had no idea about your…relationship and I am the one that hired Page. So as long as you don't work the same shift or the same case, we won't have a problem."

"That's it?" Grissom asked.

"That's it," Ecklie replied.

Grissom got up and left. Fae let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She had half expected to get fired for something she had no control over.

"Thank you, Mr. Ecklie," Fae stood.

"Not so fast, Page. I need to speak with you about another matter," Ecklie wasn't going to let her get away that easy. "There is a lab policy against dating coworkers."

"If you work the same shift," Fae clarified. "Which Greg and I don't."

"Yes, but Sanders works with Grissom," he responded.

Fae was frustrated. Just because someone donated half their DNA did not make them a relative. "Ecklie, please, I found out yesterday that Grissom was my biological father. We have no attachment as you've alluded."

"Still," Ecklie wasn't going to give her an inch. "I can't allow there to be even a hint of impropriety."

Fae opened her mouth to protest, but Ecklie cut her off. "But I'm not heartless," Ecklie smiled, but it looked more like a sneer. "Sanders can switch shifts and the problem will be solved."

Fae nodded. "Would you like me to tell him?"

"I'll speak to him before shift today," Ecklie told her, then he dismissed her, "That's all."

Faeryn left, sending Greg a text as soon as she was out of Ecklie's eyesight. She wanted to warn him that it was coming sooner rather than later. She was just glad that they had already talked about it.

After she hit send, she made a beeline for Gil Grissom's office. Her parents had made sense to her last night and she needed to talk to him. If nothing else, she might be able to find out the name of her birth mother.

When she got to his office, Grissom was sitting at his desk looking over a report. He looked as if he had been there for hours, not the minutes he'd actually been there. She knocked on his doorframe to get his attention.

Grissom was a little surprised after he looked up. "Page, what can I do for you?"

"Can we talk for a moment?" she awkwardly asked.

"Of course," he responded and motioned for her to come in.

"I just wanted to apologize," Fae started, as she walked towards his desk.

Grissom interrupted her, "You have no reason to apologize."

Fae dropped in to the chair. "Yes, I do. My reaction was…inappropriate."

"You were in shock, as was I," Grissom replied. "It is completely understandable."

"Thank you for understanding." She hesitated. She wanted to ask him something but wasn't sure about it. Finally, she just spit it out. "I was wondering if you'd want to have dinner sometime to…discuss everything."

Grissom smiled slightly. "I would like that. I would like that a lot."