Chapter Twelve - Adjustment Required
"Before you make your final decision, I think that you should weigh up all the advantages and disadvantages. I'm completely behind you, whatever you decide, but I think that you need more time to think about such a huge decision. You've only been planning the birth for the past... two weeks since our last antenatal class, Sara." Grissom pointed out to her, handing her another piece of tape from the wheel in his hands. He watched her sealing up the box, before he handed her the marker to label it. "Are you sure that's what you want?"
"Yes."
"But are you sure?" He stopped her from grabbing the box, quickly picking it up himself. "Won't it be harder for you if you don't have the hospital bed and all the equipment to monitor you both?"
His super protective side was starting to get on her nerves, but she wasn't about to kick him out. This was the only free time he had to visit her. She had finally submitted to maternity leave from the lab, mostly to get Ecklie off her case, but also because her baby bump was starting to get in the way of work. She had to get up to pee every few minutes, the lab chairs weren't very comfortable for her aching back and she couldn't bend to pick anything up. The extra weight of the baby also made her feel out of balance and clumsy, making her a liability on the job.
Time away from the lab gave her more time to prepare for their new arrival, but it also gave her less time with the man she was planning to move in with for the past four weeks now. She meant to do it sooner, but her place was taking a lot longer than expected to pack up and move across the city to his place.
"Gil, I've been thinking about this for a while now. It's not like I just opened the birthing plan book and picked one at random. Honestly, I've thought more about this then moving in with you." The woman chuckled softly, reaching out for his hands to assist herself to her feet. She gave the man a smile, stealing a quick kiss from his lips. "It's my decision." She got to work on the various letters and paperwork that had been left on the top of the table.
"It's just so..."
"Ow." Sara suddenly yelped.
"What is it, the baby?" Grissom rushed to her side, his eyes wide and his face as white as a sheet.
"No, I got a paper cut." She held her hand out to him, letting him see for himself. "My hand has finally started to heal as well. Look at that, right in the join. I hate that."
"Do you have a first aid kit?"
"It's a paper cut, Gil. I'll be fine." Sara couldn't help but laugh, turning to grab another roll of bubble wrap. "It's not exactly the worst pain I'm going to go through. Can you cut right along here for me?" She motioned towards the scissors behind him.
The man picked them up off the coffee table, carefully cutting along the line for her. He watched her using it to carefully wrap up a glass dolphin statue off the top shelf, before she placed it into the open box. "Dolphins?" He finally asked.
"Yeah, a leaving gift from the San Francisco lab. I wore a necklace with a dolphin pendant on it one day and they suddenly think I'm obsessed with the things. They all chipped in to buy it for me the day I left to come here. It's kinda pretty though, right?" Sara double wrapped it with newspaper to make sure it didn't break, using Grissom's hands to help herself to her feet again.
"Are you sure about this water birth though?" Grissom got back to his original point.
"My doctor said that we have to start our birth plan now that we're in the final stages. Ideally I want it to be pain free, but I know that won't be the case. I don't want any drugs near this kid. All my research has led towards a birthing pool being the most comfortable and stress free for both mother and baby." Sara directly quoted her research, motioning towards the book shelf that needed to be packed next. "Let's get started over here."
"What made you decide on a water birth then? With all the medical advancements that we have now, why would you want to do something so..."
"It's my choice, Gil." Sara stopped him there, grabbing a handful of books off the shelf. "I've never been a fan of needles anyway. I don't want pain relief or everyone fussing over the baby once it's born. I don't want the baby born all drugged out or forced out of me unnaturally. Child birth is natural and I want to do it my way. Having a water birth is the most natural and stress free way to do it. It's not only good for me, but it'll be good for the baby too. They get to be with me, rather than off on some cooling table with a bunch of strangers poking at them. You know how much I hate hospitals, anyway. Oh, c'mere, quick." She ushered him over, placing his hand on her side. "Can you feel that?"
Grissom waited a moment, before he allowed a smile to spread across his lips. He lifted his gaze to meet Sara's, anxiously biting his bottom lip as he tried to get up the courage to say those three little words out loud to her.
But he couldn't let it go.
"It's just..." He thought the idea was so primitive and full of more worries than any kind of reassurance. "What if something goes wrong?"
"I've already spoken to my doctor about it and she thinks it's a good idea. Provided we don't have any complications in these last few weeks, she's happy for us to go through with it. She gave me a number for a birthing centre or we can do it from home."
"And if there's complications?" He set the books down into the open box.
"I'll go to the hospital, of course. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardise the life of our baby." She promised, handing him another stack of books. "Everything I've read about birthing pools is completely safe. If there's something wrong during labour, I'm willing to do anything to make sure this kid makes it, but I'd rather do it myself in a birthing pool. I'm going to add you as my next of kin too. If there's any complications, I want you to make sure they prioritise the baby over me."
"I don't know if..."
"Just promise me." Sara cut him off. "The kid before me. That's more than my mother ever did for me."
"I promise." Grissom set the books down in the box, looking a little uncomfortable by the subject. He would rather have both of them then lose either one of them. "I didn't realise you had so much stuff." He glanced around at the boxes they had already filled and the stuff that had yet to find it's home in a box.
"Do you think it will all fit in your place?"
"I cleared out some space for you. Some." He repeated himself, giving her a smile as she handed him another stack of books. "I was thinking of a way to make some more room in my place for you and the baby. You know my huge dining table? It takes up all the room next to the kitchen. I think we should get rid of that and move your smaller table in there instead. My front room is full of my stuff. If I get rid of my other sofa and move some of my books into storage..."
"No, Gil. You've already got rid of your office. It's really sweet of you, but I don't want to completely invade your space."
"That would defeat the whole point of you moving in with me, Sara. I want you to completely invade my space." He set the books down, lifting off the photo frame from the top shelf. He brushed his fingers across the dusty glass, looking at the team pictured in the frame. "You're my family now, Sara." He pointed out to her, setting the picture down in the box. "I don't want it to just be my place anymore. I want it to be filled with these little scented things that remind me of you." He lifted the little pouch of lavender off the hook on the wall, bringing it to his nose to breath in. "You have more colour then my apartment has ever seen. I want all of that around me. What is this anyway?"
"It's supposed to keep out the moths." Sara grabbed the scented pouch from his hand, tossing it into the box between them. She smiled at the adorable man, reluctantly agreeing to his plan of stripping his single life memories from his apartment. "If this ever gets too much for you, just let me know. I won't even be mad. I like my space, so I'll understand."
"It's not too much." Grissom stepped forwards to seal a kiss to her lips, gently smoothing his hand across her stomach. Her top had crept its way up her stomach again, revealing the huge beach ball inside. "You know we don't have that much longer to go. We don't have anything for the baby yet."
"Isn't it bad luck to buy it too soon?"
"You're thirty one weeks this week. I think it's bad luck for the baby to get here and not have any stuff."
"Not entirely true." Sara made her way through to the kitchen, grabbing the gift bag off the side. She handed it over to her partner, while she grabbed the last of the books.
"My mother?" Grissom noticed the label right away. He reached inside the gift bag, smiling as he lifted out the newly boxed pacifier that had a cuddly lion toy dangling from it. "When did she give you this?"
"This morning actually. She stopped by while I was cleaning out my closet. She told me she's in the process of stitching a quilt or something, but she wanted us to have this. She didn't stay long." Sara took another look at the pacifier, before she got back to her packing. "I think she's really starting to warm up to me."
Her first encounter with Mrs Grissom was more than a little awkward. She already knew the woman was deaf, so she was already nervous about meeting her without really knowing her language. She did her best to learn as much sign language as she could the night before, stupidly thinking that she would have Grissom there to help her out, but he bailed on the two of them at the last minute for a work thing. She managed to say 'hello' and tell her how far along her pregnancy was, but they literally had nothing to talk about for the next hour or so that she was there.
Betty was not impressed with what she saw and Sara felt even more out of place.
Luckily, Grissom's mother was a forgiving woman and willing to give her another chance, especially since she was carrying her first grandchild. Less than two weeks later, the woman was stopping by whenever she liked to give her little gifts or pieces of advice for her pregnancy.
"We seem to be getting on alright now." Sara assured him, turning his attention towards the other shelf. "I think I have some newspaper left over for the little knickknacks. They're nothing important, so it doesn't really matter if they get broken."
"I've brought some bubble wrap over. It's still in my car." Grissom made his way towards the front door, retrieving his car keys from his pocket. "What's this?" He picked up the book from the table beside the door.
"Oh... exactly what it looks like. Sign language for beginners." Sara shrugged her shoulders together. "Your mother actually bought it for me. I never realised how difficult it was before. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but it's a huge part of yours and your mother's life, so I think I should at least try. I read in there that you can teach baby's sign language, so they can communicate their needs to you before they learn to talk. Might be worth looking into."
Grissom smiled in her direction, setting the book back where he found it. "I'll be right back." He gave her a wave, disappearing down the hallway to the stairs. As he reached the bottom his cell started to ring, reminding him that he was still on call. "Sofia, hi. What's up?"
"Sorry to call you on your day off, Gil, but we're a little stretched at the moment." Sofia quickly signed the form the receptionist held out for her, turning to look at the busy lab. "We've got more cases coming in then we can handle with just the two of us at the moment."
"Two?" He asked, reaching his car.
"Greg has his deposition today, so he's not in. Catherine and Warrick are still busy with their case. Nick's in LA, so it's just me and the replacement." Sofia stopped in the hallway, watching the rookie scrambling across the floor to collect the pieces of paper they had just dropped. "The rookie can't work a case on his own, so I'm stretched across three cases at the moment. Ecklie keeps promising he's going to get someone in, but so far, nothing. Sorry, but we really need you in."
"Okay." The man sighed, grabbing the bubble wrap and extra boxes from the back of his car. "Give me... fifteen minutes." He tucked them under his arm, locking his car back up again. "I have to get a change of clothes and my kit."
"Alright, I'll text you the address of your first scene."
"Thanks." Grissom snapped his phone shut, slotting it back into his pocket. He hurried back up the stairs to Sara, dropping off the extra packaging supplies at the door. "Sara, I just called into work. Sofia's stretched thin across three cases at the moment. Ecklie's not bringing in any backup, so I'm it."
"Okay." She gave him a smile, tightly wrapping the newspaper around the three inch fairy figurine. She had no idea where she even got the ugly looking thing, but it had been there for so long, it felt odd leaving it behind. "Call me when you have some time. I'm almost finished up over here. I'll start packing my clothes and things from the bedroom in a minute."
"Don't lift anything too heavy." He warned her. "I'll be back to help you with the furniture. I'm sorry. I have to go."
"It's okay. It's just packing. I don't mind." Sara quickly pushed herself to her feet, catching his arm before he left. "Be careful, Gilbert." She slipped her arms around him, hugging him close for a moment. She knew he'd never initiate something like that himself, because he wasn't that kind of guy, but it was more for her than him anyway.
She found herself missing him a lot when he was gone, a lot more then she'd like to admit. The thought of being on her own through all of this terrified her more than anything. She thought that telling him would be the most terrifying part of it, but being on her own with a baby was a lot more terrifying. She'd literally be alone with the one thing she never thought she would ever have.
"Sara..." He patted his hand on her back, feeling her clutching his shoulders a little tighter than normal. "I don't have to go if you want me to..."
"No, they need you." Sara breathed in a deep breath, before she reluctantly let him go. "Will I see you later?"
"Yes, you will. I'll call you when I'm finished up. Don't lift any of those boxes by yourself." Grissom brushed her hair back behind her ear, smiling as he looked into her eyes. "Don't lift anything heavy. And you..." He playfully prodded her stomach. "Stop kicking your mother." He leant forwards to steal a kiss from her lips, brushing his thumb across her cheek.
"You're really getting into this parenting thing." Sara chuckled softly, smoothing out the creases in his hair. "I think they're just excited to be moving in with you. Do you want to sleep at yours tonight or do you want to crash here?"
"Whatever's best for you, my dear." He pulled back from her. "Hank might need a walk though."
"I can take him out." She suggested, still not too keen on the idea of using her ex-boyfriend's name in reference to her new significant other's dog, but Hank the dog was around long before Hank the cheating paramedic. "I still have your key. We need some quality time to get to know each other better anyway. I don't want him to feel as though I'm invading his space. His house is already filled with my boxes."
"Alright, his leash is by the door. Give him water and biscuits after, you know where it is. Help yourself to anything in the fridge. Goodbye, my dear."
"Bye." Sara called after him, struggling to sit herself on the floor. She rubbed her stomach as she felt a twinge, feeling exhausted already, even though she had only been awake for a few hours. She didn't have the energy to pack much more. She didn't really feel up to walking the dog either, but she couldn't leave Hank stuck in the house all day by himself.
Using her new key to let herself in, Sara eased the door open, smiling at the sight of the confused looking dog inside. "Hi, Hank. Hello." She knelt down to greet him with a gentle stroke to his head. "I know, I'm a lot earlier than usual. Do you remember me? Yeah. Shall we go for a walk?"
She struggled to push herself to her feet, grabbing his leash off the shelf. She spied the fridge out the corner of her eye, making Hank wait just a little longer, while she took a peek inside for a quick snack.
Even though she was a vegetarian, the open packet of cold cuts on the middle shelf looked so appetising to her right now. She stood in the open door for a moment, breathing in the delicious scent for a few minutes, before she quickly closed it.
She didn't want to indulge. She really did, but how could she live with herself if she ate anymore meat?
"Okay, Hank. Let's go." Sara tried to distract herself, clipping his leash to his collar. She led the way out the door, following the path to the familiar trail that she had walked with Grissom before. She stopped as the pathway started to narrow, letting the cyclist with the baby carriage on the back get through. She caught sight of the sleeping toddler in the back as he passed her, allowing a smile to spread across her lips as the little boy even had a cycling helmet of his own fastened around his little head.
"Morning." The cyclist nodded to her, watching his feet around the dog, but Hank was too timid to get close enough to the bike.
"Good Morning." Sara smiled back at the man, giving Hank's leash a gentle tug to get him moving again. They passed by a jogger a short distance later, wearing fluorescent yellow running gear and blue headphones that had some kind of punk metal blaring out of them. She didn't look the type to listen to that kind of music, but she had learned over the years as a CSI not to judge a book by its cover.
"Morning." An elderly couple greeted her at the familiar crossing to the children's park that had a dog park on the other side.
The man looked as though he could barely walk with a crutch in each hand and an arched back, but his wife held onto his arm tightly, trying to keep him moving. She spied the wedding ring on each of their hands, smiling to herself as they were still together after all this time.
"First baby?" The woman pried, noticing the size of her stomach right away. "When are you due?"
"Oh, I got two months." Sara tugged her t-shirt down a little, wishing she had worn a different top today. She thought this was a comfortable fit when she first put it on, but it kept creeping up her stomach, revealing her branchy red stretch marks to the world.
"Wow, you look so big already. Probably because you're as thin as a rail. I blew up like a balloon with all of mine." The woman puffed out her cheeks, giggling softly. "I had huge feet, swollen ankles, tree trunk thighs... the only weight you have is that belly."
Sara smiled at her slightly, wondering what it was about her baby bump that made complete strangers want to talk to her.
"Looks like you're carrying a boy." The complete stranger placed her hand on Sara's stomach. "You're carrying low and I can't see a blemish in sight. Girls tend to steal your beauty. I had acne all over my face with my daughter, but with my sons, not a blemish in sight. Good luck, dear."
"Thank you. C'mon, Hank." As soon as the traffic cleared, Sara quickly led him across the road, hearing the screams of children.
From their position on the path, Sara could see the children's playground, watching all the little kids running around wild, while their parents struggled to keep up with them. She cringed watching the children scream, cry, spit, kick and whine.
There was no way she could deal with any of that.
Some of the other parents clearly weren't managing that well either, making her worry that she wasn't cut out for any of this.
Sara turned her attention towards the mother's with strollers passing through the park, pulling Hank back as one of them walked right past her. She had a toddler in the pushchair, an adorable little girl with blonde pigtails and a doll tucked under her arm. She looked a little more behaved than some of the other kids, but she still looked a little sleepy.
"Aww," A woman suddenly cooed, kneeling down beside the dog at Sara's side. "He's so adorable. Is he friendly?" She tucked her hair behind her ears, looking at his adorable little face.
"He doesn't bite." Sara smiled at her, seeing the school aged child stood beside her. "His name's Hank."
"Aww, isn't he lovely?" The mother glanced at her child beside her. "Hi, Hank. Hello. Aren't you just so cute? Yes. Yes you are. Aww. We've been begging Daddy to get us a dog for months." She finally straightened up, revealing her pregnant belly. "Do you have a child that goes here? I haven't seen you here before." She motioned towards the school behind them that Sara hadn't even realised was there.
"Oh no... I was just... walking." Sara pulled the leash back, before Hank tried to jump up at the little girl. "How old do the kids have to be to go here?"
"Oh... new Mom." The woman grinned, spotting the protruding bump in Sara's stomach. "Don't worry, we were all newbie's once. This building here is sort of a pre-k and kindergarten." She turned her attention towards it. "I think they can start as young as three. My little one here started when she was five and she's in the first grade now." She proudly put her arm around her daughter. "It's never too early to sign them up. Do you want me to show you to the office?"
"No... that's okay." Sara shook her head, deciding to stay well clear of anything to do with children for a while. "I still have two months to go, so I think it's a little early. Thank you though."
"Two months, wow. You're in the end stages and you're still so thin." The woman smiled, placing her hand on her own stomach. "This is my second. I'm only twenty one weeks, but I feel as big as a house already. We just found out we're having another little girl last week."
"Oh, you got the gender test?" Sara turned it down at their last scan, not even asking if Grissom wanted to know, because she wanted the whole thing to be a surprise at the end.
"Yeah, the technician told us at our last scan. We were hoping for a little boy this time. More for my husband's sake. He's not so good with all the princess stuff. I'm Lynda, by the way." The woman introduced herself. "This is my daughter, Sophie. She's seven, I know big age gap, right? We thought we were just going to stop at the one, but this one was a nice surprise. So you didn't want to know?"
"No." Sara shook her head, trying to keep up with the woman who babbled a mile a minute. She reminded her a little of Greg, but at least he only did it with people he knew instead of complete strangers. "I'm Sara."
"Hi, nice to meet you." Lynda greeted her with a handshake, feeling the dry skin on the back of her hand. "Dry hands, that's a sign of a boy. Do you live in the area?"
"Yeah... just moving in actually." Sara wasn't usually one to share her personal business, especially with a complete stranger, but she didn't have any friends who had baby's. She didn't actually have any friends outside of work, so she took a moment to get to know someone who was in the same boat as her.
Lynda led her towards the school where she dropped off her daughter, before they made their way towards the park to talk. She seemed to know a lot more than the people at work did about baby's and she had her own rather gruesome tale about the long labour and birth of her daughter, Sophie.
"All that labour pain and literal pain is completely worth it in the end though. I don't think I let anyone hold her for the first few days. Just be careful with your pushing, you don't want to tear everything open down there like I did." Lynda cringed at the thought, placing her hand on her stomach. "I'm having a planned c-section for this one. I don't want to be in hospital for a month and a half again."
"You can do that?"
"Yeah, my doctor practically insisted on it. I was determined to do this one all natural like I did last time, but they all think it's too risky with my previous birth. Don't worry." Lynda tapped her hand, realising she had scared her a little. "I was nineteen when I had, Sophie. They always say that teenagers bodies aren't built for baby's and they were right. I'm sorry, is this too gruesome for you?"
"Oh no..." Sara shook her head. "I deal with gruesome for a living. I'm a crime scene investigator." She didn't let on that she was more than a little freaked out. She knew that all sorts of things could happen during the labour and birth of her baby, but she didn't realise that tearing everything down there was one of the complications.
"Blood pools are dry." The newbie CSI, Oscar noted, glancing up at his new supervisor, looking for direction. "What do you think happened?"
"There's fresh coffee. Can you smell that?" Grissom ignored the younger man's question, following his nose to the kitchen. He snapped on some gloves, lifting the coffee mug from the machine. "Mmm... timers set for eight o' clock, on the dot. I reset mine every night before I go to sleep. What do you make of the scene? First impressions." He replaced the coffee mug to the machine, giving the man a curious look. He wanted to see how much he knew, wondering how much he had to teach the newbie, before he could become a reliable part of their team.
"If the coffee maker was reset and the blood pools are dry... crime scene must be at least twelve hours old. If there were body's here, they must have been moved. Maybe to a car by the direction of the drag marks."
"How many body's?" Grissom asked him.
The fair haired, Oscar turned his attention towards a photo held to the fridge by a magnet, seeing a mother, father and young child. "Maybe three. Mom, Dad... kid." He pointed out the different sized blood pools. "Do you think they're dead?"
"What do you think?" He turned the question around on him. "C'mon..." He forgot his name for a moment, about to say, Warrick, Nick or Greg, but then he remembered, "Oscar. You must have been sent to us for a good reason. What's your theory?" He encouraged the younger man.
"Well the back door was busted in," Turning on his heels, Oscar scanned the evidence around him, coming up with a few ideas. "There's a knife missing. Perfect weapon of opportunity." He pointed towards the knife block on the side. "Killer came in through the back door, grabbed a knife. The parents probably heard the crash of the glass from the back door, came down to investigate..." He stepped over the first blood pool, looking at the splatter on the doorframe. "It was probably dark, so they came straight in... killer stabbed one of them... then the other."
Grissom realised he had stopped his explanation, giving him a curious look. "What?"
"When you go to investigate a crash in the night, most people bring a baseball bat or something with them." Oscar pointed his supervisor attention towards the fire poker that was out in the hallway. They assumed that it was the killer's weapon of choice, because it had blood splatter on it, but it was positioned right where the second body fell. "A fire poker is easier to swing than a kitchen knife, so why didn't they swing it."
"Maybe they did. We'll know more when we get it back to the lab." Grissom shrugged his shoulders together. "Or maybe they didn't get a chance to."
"Or..." Oscar turned to look at his new supervisor. "They knew whoever it was that broke in. You don't swing at someone you know. Not well anyway."
Grissom smiled proudly at him, realising he was a valuable asset to this team, at least while Sara was away on maternity leave anyway.
When he returned to the lab, the tired supervisor made his way towards the break room to grab himself a coffee. He didn't actually have a break between his shifts, because he stopped off at Sara's place to help her pack her things up after his last shift had ended. He regretted it now as he needed at least four hours of sleep to function, but he still had a long shift ahead of him.
Grissom made his way over to the freshly brewed coffee pot, stopping at the sight of the miniature human sat at the table.
"Oh... hello." He gave her a smile, catching a slight nod from her, before she got back to her colouring. She firmly gripped the purple crayon in her hand, scribbling down the paper she had in front of her in a zigzag motion, before she traded the crayon for a green one.
Grissom looked around confused, wondering if the lab had suddenly started some sort of day care facility without his knowledge. He tended to ignore lab memos, so maybe it was in one of them.
"Hey, I found you a chocolate milk. Sorry, they were all out of fudge." Sofia appeared at the door with two cartons of chocolate milk, stopping in her tracks at the sight of the other man in the room. "Oh, hi Gil. I didn't realise you were here." She awkwardly looked between the man and the child for a moment. "I hope you don't mind. My babysitter just bailed on me. She'll be as quiet as a mouse."
"Oh..." Grissom tried not to look too surprised, but his jaw had already dropped. He watched her giving the child the carton of milk, before she joined him over the other side of the room.
From the look of the child, she was definitely the offspring of Sofia Curtis, but why would she hide something like this? The rest of his lab crew were very open about the fact that they had children, especially since they learned of his own little surprise. Some often shared horror stories or cute baby pictures with him, but Sofia had never breathed a word of her own child's existence.
"Let me guess, you didn't know?" Sofia smirked, folding her arms across her chest. "Why do you think Ecklie took me out of the running for Day Shift Supervisor?" She turned to a more serious tone, sharing a lot more than she would have liked with her new supervisor so soon. "My ex... he left us a few months back. He used to take care of her. His choice. He wanted to be a glorified house husband. He liked it for the first three years, but this last year he was really struggling. He decided that he would rather sleep with another Mom from one of Kara's playmates than take care of her anymore, so we split and I became an unreliable supervisor."
"You never mentioned... not once I believe."
"I lost my job once already because of my choice to become a mother." Sofia pointed out to him, turning to face the rest of the lab. "I don't know how Catherine manages it, but I'd rather that these vultures didn't know anything about her. No offence, but it's hard enough being a woman in this line of work as it is. If they know I'm a mother, I feel like they'll look down at me even more."
"I won't tell." Grissom promised her, watching young, Kara scribbling away on the sheet of paper in front of her. "Ecklie really demoted you because of her?"
"He demoted me because I chose my daughter over the job." She corrected him, muttering, "Sexist prick. He said this was why women didn't make good supervisors. Then he goes and promotes, Willows to my position. I don't know how she managed that one."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know."
Sofia shrugged her shoulders together, turning back to look at her daughter. "I never even told my team. I didn't tell Ecklie, not until I was ducking out early all the time to pick her up or take her somewhere else."
"Married?" He curiously asked.
"Oh no, never. We never went in for that traditional stuff. A little bit like you and Sara, I guess." Sofia smirked, making her way back to the table as her daughter attempted to get up to show her the picture she had drawn. She really didn't seem like the motherly kind in the brief time that he had gotten to know her, but she seemed like a natural with the child that looked like a carbon copy of her.
"Don't let Ecklie see her." He warned her, hoping she wouldn't get into more trouble for letting her stay in the lab.
"Lucky for me, he's in meetings all day... hey, would you mind watching her for me? Just for a few minutes? I've gotta get down to autopsy, before Doc Robbins starts without me and I can't exactly bring her with me down there."
"Oh... I don't know." Grissom anxiously looked towards the door, trying to think of something he urgently had to get to. He only had to wait for lab results to be processed though, so it wasn't really anything urgent.
"Oh, c'mon. It'll be good practice for you. I hear you only have two months to go, before you have your own."
Grissom sighed softly, more annoyed over the fact that the gossip had reached her already. She had only been in the building a few minutes, but someone had already made it their business to discuss his personal life with her. "Just a few minutes." He sternly warned the woman. "I've got a lot of work to do."
"I will and she'll be as good as gold." Sofia promised the man, pecking a quick kiss to her daughter's forehead. "Be a good girl, Kara. I will be right back." She tapped her on the back, giving the man a smile as she squeezed past him.
Grissom stayed in the doorway for a moment, before he turned his attention towards the child. He tended to avoid interactions with children, especially on their cases, unless it was absolutely necessary, but he didn't have a choice this time.
"Kara, is it?" He sat himself down in the chair opposite her, watching her scribbling away with the blue crayon now. She wasn't much of a conversationalist, but she shared her crayons with him, letting him draw his own picture. He drew a giant purple ant for her, trying to teach her the body parts and how ants lived, but she was more interested in feeding her bear a cup of pretend tea.
Kara lost interest with her toys quite quickly after that, wanting to explore the lab a instead. She couldn't handle most of the heavy doors by herself, prompting him to help her. He almost lost sight of her out in the hallway, surprised that someone with such little legs could cover so much distance in a short space of time.
"Hey, boss." The fair haired, Oscar appeared in front of him, looking a little nervous. He watched the child run to the window of the DNA lab, before he glanced up at his supervisor. "Uh... I got the blood work back from our scene. The technician said that there was four people in the house. Three of them are related."
"Three family members, it makes sense." Grissom turned to keep an eye on Kara's whereabouts, trying not to lose sight of her. "Fourth one didn't come up with a match?"
"No... not in the system." Oscar shook his head. "I'm just waiting on fingerprints. Uh... boss," He stepped in front of him, stopping him from walking away. "The Captain guy said the family's car was found a mile away from the house and there's a body in the trunk."
"Is it being towed in?"
"It's here. I was just..." Oscar stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking a little uncomfortable. "I've never seen a dead body before. A fresh one, anyway." He watched the man taking off after the little girl, leaving him stood alone in the hallway for a little while, until he returned.
"Look, I know it's difficult, but it's a part of the job." Grissom turned to teaching mode. "It's best not to think about it too much. Just go down there, breathe in a deep breath and get it over with. Think of the family, solving the crime. The victims are what matters. We are the voice for victims who no longer have one." He turned his attention towards the elevator, smiling at the sight of the familiar face. "Just the man. Greg, meet Oscar the graveyard shift's newest recruit. Fancy being a mentor for the day?" He introduced the two of them.
"Uh... sure." Greg nodded slightly, taking one look at the new boy, before he noticed the child that Grissom was chasing around. "Did Sara have the baby already?"
"No this is... uh..." Grissom bit his lip, trying to think of something else to say, other than outing his colleague that he just promised to protect. He couldn't think of anything that made sense, so he tried to change the subject. "Oscar, why don't you bring, Greg up to speed on your case on the way down to autopsy. I'll let you know when the fingerprints come back. If there's only one of the family members down there, we still have two more to find."
"Sure, boss." Oscar led them the wrong way, getting pointed in the right direction by his new mentor. He liked Grissom's leadership a lot more than he did Sofia's this morning, but they both seemed so distracted, not at all like the great team that his professor had bragged about back in college.
By the end of her long day out, Sara just wanted to crash and sleep for as long as she could, but she still had to make it home. She let Hank off the leash in Grissom's place, making sure he had water and some food, before she crashed against the sofa for a moment. She went over the list of things to buy in her head, trying to remember everything her new friend, Lynda had told her, along with her mental tally of how many people stopped to ask her about the baby or make a guess on the baby's gender.
One woman was rather judgemental about the fact that Sara wasn't wearing a wedding ring and another was more concerned over the fact that she wasn't planning on getting married then the fact that she was pregnant at all.
Something about her pregnant stomach seemed to give everyone the right to pass judgement on her.
"Hi, Hank." Sara patted the sofa beside her, adjusting the scatter cushion for him to jump up. He rested himself snugly against her side, not even shifting as the baby started kicking at the surface of her stomach. He lifted his head after the third kick, dropping straight back to sleep a moment later. She had noticed that he seemed to warm up to her a lot more since she became pregnant. He used to keep his distance from her or go in another room when she was round, but now, he acted as though he was her protector.
"Sara... honey?" Dropping his keys on the side table, Grissom removed his jacket, smiling as Hank came running towards him. "Hello." He ruffled his fingers through his fur, setting the grocery bag on the side. He made a move for the stairs, figuring Sara was still at her place, until he spotted the beautiful sleeping form on his sofa.
Tiptoeing towards the sofa, the man gently brushed a tendril of hair from her forehead, before he reached for the blanket behind her. He carefully unravelled it across her, anxiously biting his bottom lip as she started to stir. He tucked it around her shoulders, perching himself beside her as her eyes started to open.
"Hi."
"Hey..." Sara brushed the sleep from her eyes, humming softly as she rolled herself over. "What time is it?"
Grissom turned his wrist, checking the time on his watch. "Just after ten. Shouldn't you be in bed?"
"Fell asleep after our long walk." She smiled at the dog beside her. "We had complete strangers coming up to us, asking when the baby was due and what we were having. Some even made their own professional guesses."
"Some old wives tales actually come from facts."
Sara giggled softly, struggling to sit herself up against the arm of the sofa. "I thought you might say that, so I picked this up." She reached for her purse on the floor, digging out the book she had picked up from the store. "Do you want to find out?"
"I thought you wanted to keep it as a surprise?" He asked, brushing his thumb across the spine of the 'Suspense is Torturous' book. The complete guide to old wives tales and their origins, along with a quiz of fifty one questions to test your own pregnancy with.
"I do. Well, I did." The woman corrected herself, combing her fingers back through her hair. She placed one hand on her stomach, wondering exactly who she was about to become a mother to. "I wanted it to be a surprise at the end, but now, I'm kinda curious. I want to get their room ready and buy all their little clothes. Maybe pick out a name too. Do you want to know?"
"I wouldn't mind knowing." The man smiled, opening the book across his lap. "I'm sure my mother wouldn't mind knowing either. She keeps hoping for a hint. Are you sure about this?" He lifted his gaze to meet hers, seeing the beautiful pregnancy glow in her eyes. He never understood what that was before, but these past few weeks, Sara had really started to glow with happiness over her pregnancy, rather than dreading every second of it.
"I'm sure. Let's see how accurate old wives tales are."
"Highs and lows." He read from the first page. "This one you can do just by looking south, if you're carrying high, break out the pink. If your bump is low, break out the blue."
"I think it's kinda low." Sara smoothed her hands across her bump, not sure how to tell.
"One for boy." Grissom skimmed his eyes across the pictures, before he read from the next section. "Sweet and sour. Craving ice cream every day? Sugary and spice means you're carrying a girl. Salty and Sour means you're carrying a boy."
"I've had a mixture of both."
"But lately it's been a lot of sugar." He corrected her, remembering a recent midnight run to the local doughnut store for a batch of sweet and sticky doughnuts. "One for Girl. If you're breaking out with spots, blame it on your girl. The belief goes that girls steal their mother's beauty, while boys make you more beautiful." Grissom lifted his head, smiling at the beautiful woman. "You're still as beautiful as the day I met you. Two for a boy now."
"You're a terrible liar, but thank you."
"I only speak the truth." Grissom corrected her, turning over the page. "Queasy does it. Sick as a dog during the first trimester indicates a girl. Little or no morning sickness points to a boy."
"Are we going to end up with an even match all the way through this?" Sara found herself some scrap paper on the coffee table, making up a column on the left for boy and a girl on the right. She tallied two in each column, looking back at the man in front of her for the next one.
"Chinese gender predictor. Apparently these are really accurate. Paper and noodles are terrific, but if you're pregnant and dying to know whether you should expect a boy or a girl, consult the Chinese birth chart. Discovered seven hundred years ago, the Chinese gender prediction calendar uses your age and month of conception to predict your babies gender." Grissom turned the page, opening up the calendar. "How old are you, my dear?"
"I'm pretty sure my employer should know that one." Sara grinned widely, sitting herself up a little further. "Thirty two. Month of conception... April."
"Thirty two." The man ran his finger across the chart, finding April halfway down. "It's a girl."
"Three for girl, two for boy now. I still think we're gonna end up fifty, fifty."
"It does say that in bold on the back." The man smirked, tapping his finger to it. "Predicting by the history of parents kids. You can find out the gender by going off the order of children from your own parents. If you are the first born, you will have what your mother had, starting with your second child."
"My brother was second, so does that mean boy?"
"I'm an only child, so it must do." The man shrugged his shoulders together, watching her tallying down another mark on the boy side. "Mood swings. If you're really moody, you're having a girl from the extra hormones inside you. But if you're really happy, you're expecting a boy."
"You can answer that one."
Grissom thought about it for a moment, before he answered, "Boy." He knew she was already a very passionate woman, long before the baby was ever in the picture, so it was hard to tell what was pregnancy mood swings and what was just Sara being her natural self.
"Four for boy, three for girl."
"Clumsy versus Graceful." He continued. "If your new pregnancy body has made you clumsy, you're expecting a boy. If you've been graceful throughout, you're expecting a little girl."
"Boy, definitely. I broke three test tubes the other day, just by walking into a table. I broke a few knickknacks earlier too and I tripped on the curb during our walk today. Hank probably had a good laugh about that." Sara playfully ruffled her fingers through the dogs fur. "What's next?"
"Father's weight gain. If the father to be gains weight while you're pregnant, count on a girl. If he doesn't, you're having a boy." Grissom lifted his gaze, seeing a smile spreading across the woman's lips.
"I'd have to say boy. You've actually lost a little weight since we first started seeing each other." Sara inched forwards a little, wrapping her arms tightly around the man's shoulders. "I love you." She finally said it out loud for the first time, meaning it one hundred percent. She didn't even want him to say it back. She usually waited for her partner in any relationship to make the first move for fear of a broken heart, but she felt safe with Grissom.
The man was a little lost for words at first, not sure what to say or do, until he starting reading aloud from the book again.
Fifty one Old Wives Gender Prediction Tales later, the man tallied up their results, while she made them a bite to eat. She was curious to know what to expect, but at the same time, she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to handle whatever it was. She didn't think she could deal with a pretty in pink girly girl or even a sporty boy that wanted to kick about in the garden with a football, which didn't really leave her with a lot of options.
"Results are in." Grissom joined her in the kitchen, holding back the scrap piece of paper for a moment. "Are you sure you want to know, my dear?"
"Sure."
"But..." He held it just out of her reach. "What if the results tell you something that you don't want?"
"Gil, a few months ago, I didn't want a baby, full stop. Now, I'm really excited and terrified at the same time to have a little boy or a girl. I'm fine with knowing." Sara assured him, wiping her hands down her apron. "It even says that it has a fifty, fifty chance of being accurate. We have a fifty, fifty chance anyway, so it's not like it will really ruin anything."
The man smiled at her, before he turned over the paper to show her. "It's a close call. Thirty one, girl. Twenty, boy. It looks like we might be expecting a little girl, my dear."
The colour drained from Sara's face for a moment. She stared at the piece of paper in his hand, unable to really see it due to the blurriness in her eyes. She couldn't believe it. It wasn't exactly what she wanted or what she didn't want either, which made no sense to her at all. She felt a whole mixture of emotions wash over her, feeling tingles from her toes to her finger tips.
"A girl?" She had to double check, allowing a small smile to spread across her lips.
It was at that moment that she finally realised that this thing taking over her life wasn't just a thing anymore. It wasn't an unknown object anymore. She finally began to understand and see it for what it really was.
Her baby girl.
Thank you so much you awesome readers for reading and reviewing so far!
I'm on holiday this weekend, so I'm uploading at midnight in the middle of the week, so I don't leave you all hanging for another week. Hopefully this update was worth it. The end part of this chapter was actually inspired by a vlog I watched recently where the couple did their own gender test using random old wives tales from a search on Google. Newbie CSI, Oscar is a completely made up character, so don't worry, no spoilers to the show there. I'm so behind the times anyway. I just heard from a friend of mine that CSI has actually finished now :( Going to have to track down that final episode someday. And as far as I know, Sofia Curtis on the show was never married or had children, so this is my own little twist to why she lost her shot at being the Day Shift Supervisor.
Please let me know what you thought of this chapter. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Enjoy the rest of your week and have a great weekend!
~ Holly