Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, etc.

A/N: Sooo, like I said, this is a favorite. Please review this one, even if you're going to be a meanie-head and not review the other two. :P

Chapter 21: Breakfast Conversation

It was hard, when Sara moved to the day shift. I woke up that morning to find her already in the shower, Halle sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal and the comics from the newspaper in front of her. I smiled. "Sara already made you breakfast? Here I was going to see if you wanted breakfast tacos."

She grinned. The first time I had made them—hash browns, scrambled eggs, and breakfast sausage wrapped in tortillas—both she and Sara had given me a look. Like I was crazy. The look went away once they tried it. I had rolled my eyes excessively that morning—it was not all that unusual a breakfast item, but apparently neither had even heard of such a thing.

Sara had picked out the sausage. …I keep forgetting, when I cook, that she's a vegetarian. I'm going to have to try to remember, from now on.

I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly until she let out a squeal and a stream of giggles—she was very ticklish—and moved to make my own bowl of cereal. By the time I was sitting across from her, Sara rushing in, fully dressed but looking a little harassed. At my raised eyebrow, he made a grumbling noise.

"I'm not used to being ready to go so early. I feel disorganized!" She poured coffee into a travel cup rather more aggressively than absolutely necessary, and Halle and I exchanged a glance—we were both trying to hide our smiles.

"Let me help. What do you need?"

"Ugh. Nothing, I have it all now. I just have to leave in about ten minutes. I don't even feel like I should be awake this early."

I nod, sympathetically. "It's going to take a while to adjust…"

She nods, drinking deeply from the coffee—this seems to help. She moves over to Halle and kisses her cheek softly. "You okay, sweet pea? What are you and Gil gonna do today?"

She shrugs, and the corners of my mouth turn down. Well, she can't always be happy—it was a rare treat that she'd been so smiley thus far this morning. Sara and I exchange another glance. We were going to need to talk about this—we were pretty much settled, and school was now looming a few weeks away.

Maybe we would at least need to contact a grief counselor, to tell us how we could help her… to see if we should be worried. She obviously couldn't be expected to be happy overnight, but we also didn't want to leave it so long that, by the time she saw someone, it had become and deeper and more complex problem. We just wanted her to be healthy.

Sara hides her frown and tickles the same spot I had just tickled, eliciting and giggly response, and that brightens both our spirits. Another kiss and a smile to me, and she's sweeping out of the room to leave for her first day on day shift. I know that Ecklie will probably be there throughout her shift—the bright side about working grave is that he's usually gone, unless he needs something. Although I'm sure he'll stop in tonight, because it's my first night back.

Ugh.

The front door closed loudly, and then I heard Hank's tags jingling—he was trotting into the kitchen, looking sleepy. The door must have woken him up. I grin and give him a scratch behind the ears, and then he moves over to Halle and rests his head on her leg. It makes me really glad we kept the dog—a little girl needs a dog.

I put my dishes away slowly. "So, Halle… did you want to go to a park today? We could take Hank, let him get some fresh air…"

Her spoon slowly stirred the soggy remnants of her cereal in the chocolate-colored milk. "The back yard has a swing set… and air."

I blink in surprise. Okay then. "Oh… okay." I say, because I don't know how to respond, but I don't want to say nothing at all. I put my dishes away slowly, still trying to determine how one should deal with a comment like that, the next time it's thrown out, when she speaks again.

"How come… you and Sara… don't sleep together?"

I nearly choked, though there was nothing in my mouth. "W-what…?"

Her eyes narrow in deep concentration. "My mommy and daddy said that… I asked them where babies came from, and why they couldn't have one… why they had to get me from my-other-mommy… Sara. An' they… they said that babies were made when a mommy and daddy loved each other, like they loved each other… but just sometimes it didn't work, no matter how much a mommy and daddy tried."

I try to follow her train of thought, try to keep up with what this has to do with Sara and I's sleeping arrangements, but before I'm certain I know where she's going, she's explaining further.

"So if… you and Sara loved each other, to make me… How come you don't sleep like my mommy and daddy?"

My jaw has dropped, and I struggle to regain control—to save face. Sara and I—it hadn't even occurred to us… that she would ask a question like this. But of course she would. Why wouldn't she ask? I draw in a deep breath, to steady myself.

"Well, uh… you… you like Aladdin, don't you?"

She nods, her nose wrinkling. She doesn't understand.

"Remember… in the beginning, they love each other, but then the guards come and pull them apart?" She nods. "And when they see each other again, they're not… together and in love, because… they had been apart, for so long."

I underestimated my little girl's brain, and overestimated my understanding of the plot—I hadn't really paid attention, when we watched the movie… mostly I had watched Halle, and lost myself in my thoughts.

She frowns. "But… they weren't just apart, Jasmine thought Aladdin was dead. And then she thought he was Prince Ali, and that he was mean like the other princes… and then, when she spent some time with him, they were in love again."

Oh. Shit. "Okay, maybe, uh… maybe it wasn't a good example. I'm just… your mommy and I… we did love each other. We did make you with… with love. But she lived in Boston, like you used to… and I lived here, in the townhouse… and after we made you, we didn't see each other for a long time."

"But when Aladdin and Jasmine saw each other, after being apart a long time, they fell in love again." It was official. I was never making a Disney analogy again. I sigh.

"Right, but… but when Sara and I saw each other again, uh… I was her boss. I… You're not allowed to love someone you're the boss of."

She giggles. That was not the reaction I expected. "That's silly. Nobody can say who you're allowed to love! Aladdin and Jasmine weren't allowed to love each other, but they did… and they got married. …I think you and Sara should get married."

I blink in surprise. "W-wh… what?" She giggles again.

"Well you already said you loved each other. My mommy said that when you love someone, you always love them—forever and ever. And when a mommy and daddy love each other, they get married." She shrugged, a tiny smile on her lips. "Come on Hank, let's go play Barbies."

She got up then, slipping from her chair as if we'd just been discussing her favorite color or what she wanted for supper that night, and left, headed for her room, the older Boxer trailing behind her with a lazily wagging tail.

She was definately her mother's daughter.