Disclaimer: I don't own.

A/N: So, I'm trying to make sure I stop you guys at a good stop before I'm unable to update for over a week... and thus, two chapters tonight. So please please be nice, as I'm being nice, and review both. Or if you don't want to do that, at least comment on both in one review, because I really want to hear your seperate reactions.

Enjoy! :) I'm going to ready myself for another onslaught of unfair Jace comments. :P Goodnight!

Chapter Seventy Three:

Good Lord, the man could punch. And he didn't stop at one—we were lucky that we were in a room full of cops, because he completely blindsided me… I didn't even have a chance to try to defend myself. I covered my face in alarm, already feeling the stinging in my eyes and the blood dripping between my fingers. …If he hadn't been so blind with rage, he probably would have broken my nose… as it was, my jaw felt like it'd been knocked completely off and I knew I would have a black eye and a fat lip in a matter of minutes.

Sara came to me first, dragging me into the kitchen and quickly wetting a cloth to wipe up the blood that was dripping from my nose. …Did I mention the man can punch? Fuck me, it hurt. She didn't even glance in his direction while she was taking care of me, apologizing repeatedly, blaming herself for rising to Susan's provocation and starting this whole mess. And despite a rather bruised ego, it felt nice to lean against the counter and close my eyes, letting her small frame flit around me as she tried to clean up my face without causing any more pain than I was already feeling, her body brushing against me carelessly the entire time.

If I had to get punched in the face, there was nothing better than having her close and caring, forgetful that she was even angry with me.

It was fifteen minutes later, as I sat with a package of frozen green beans pressed over my fact because she didn't have ice packs big enough to cover the entire damage area, that one of the men who'd pulled him off me stepped into the room. "…We've got him cuffed, Dr. Grissom. You'll need to come down to the station to file charges…"

"No." I said, shaking my head, surprised at my lack of hesitation. "He isn't in his right state of mind… his daughter is missing. …Besides, it's not like I haven't punched him myself. …It's fine."

He frowned. "…He could have seriously injured you. …Truth be told, I think he still wants to."

I frowned too, not thinking that I wanted to press charges, but that Jace and I both needed to remain in this house without ripping each other's heads off. Sara leaned close to me. "…Let me try to talk to him for a minute, okay?"

I didn't like the idea of that, especially with Jace in such an aggressive state of mind… "You'll take a cop with you?"

She smiled softly and kissed a small portion of my cheek that wasn't bruised. "Fortunately, I've never slept with his mother… I'm not worried. …I'll be back soon, okay? There's more green beans in the freezer…"

I cracked a smile at that, and she moved out of the room. The kitchen was mostly open to the rest of the house, so I could see her instruct the men to uncuff him and I watched as she led him back into the hallway, no doubt to find a room to speak in private, while everyone glanced between them and me. The man in the room beside me shook his head, muttering to himself, and went back out to the living room… and then Susan sauntered into the kitchen, looking rather proud of herself.

I leaned back against the counter against, flipping the green beans and leveling the woman with my best disbelieving glare. She smiled. "…She must love you. She's never yelled at me like that over my son."

"…He could have been arrested. The kidnapper is only willing to talk to Jace… do you realize that? …That your mind games are hurting everyone and putting an innocent little girl at risk?"

She leaned against the counter opposite me in the small kitchen, her voice quiet enough to not be heard in the next room, but loud enough to carry. "…I know you, Gil. Or did you forget that? …There was no way you would press charges, especially if it would put little Ayla at risk. I watched you looking at Sara's little photo album. …You look at her like she's yours, even now that you know she has my blood in her."

I glanced at her through one swollen, un-green-bean-obscured eye. "…There's nothing of you in that little girl."

"…No? She even looks like me."

"She looks like Sara."

She raised an eyebrow. "…Sara and I look a lot alike, Gil. Don't they say that men are attracted to women who remind them of their mothers? ...I mean, when I look between us, I don't struggle to see how you could have fallen for both of us."

I grit my teeth. I didn't want to see the similarities, but now that she had pointed it out… they were both slender, long-legged brunettes who were passionate and strong-willed. Although, where Susan's sex appeal had been premeditated, Sara's was unconscious… she was unbelievably sexy without trying. "She's nothing like you."

"Fine," she said, unconcerned. "You don't have to see it. …But I can tell that you're still affected by me. …Do you still dream about the nights we shared?"

"No." I said. I had stopped having those particular nightmares years previous. I flipped the green beans again.

"…Sara doesn't know about us. Not really."

I sneered. "…About the respect you mentioned? …She knows enough."

She laughed. "So nothing at all." She stood up, turning to face the large opening in the cupboards that faced the dining room. "…Does it make you nervous, that she's alone in her bedroom with my son?"

"Does it make you nervous that your son will come out knowing the truth?"

She opened the drawer beside her, fiddling inside it absently. "No. …He isn't going to believe a cheating wife over me." She offered a laugh. "See, I know my son, just like I know you… and whether you'll admit it or not, you miss me, Gil."

I opened my mouth to deny the claim, but I wasn't given the opportunity—Crack! I flinched again, dropping the green beans to the floor. She'd taken a ruler out of what looked like a junk drawer and snapped it on the counter. My face was burning and I was breathing heavily, feeling every inch a scared nineteen year old boy who was afraid to do something wrong and disappoint. She tittered a laugh and I swallowed, regaining my enigmatic expression with difficulty. I left the beg of vegetables on the floor, retrieving a fresh one from the freezer and moving out of the kitchen and away from her without a word.

I needed to find Sara.

I pulled him into my bedroom after leveling a glare at my mother in law who looked smug and unconcerned, despite the world falling down around us. Gil was right—he wasn't in his right mind, with Ayla missing. I closed the door and watched him sink onto my bed, putting his face in his hands. I hesitated and moved over to him, sitting beside him and pulling him gently into a hug—the first real affection I'd shown him since the cruise. He stiffened in surprise and then relaxed, clinging to me, shuddering.

I rubbed his back calmly, giving him a minute, and then pulled back to look at his face. …He looked like a man at the very end of his rope… he looked like a man with nothing left to live for. I sighed softly. "…Will you let me explain this to you, before you say anything?"

I expected him to yell… to rage that I had known about them all along and not told him… but he didn't. He nodded softly and leaned back into my embrace, desperate for human contact. I allowed it, sensing that he needed it more than he was revealing and from someone he could trust… he trusted me, after all of this, more than his mother. …I was banking on it.

"Jace… first of, I want you to know that I didn't know… none of us knew that… they had been… together. When they saw each other today… it was bad. But it wasn't what you think, okay? …Gil was innocent."

He snorted in disbelief and I clucked my tongue. "…You think I would say that if it weren't true?"

He leaned back, looking into my eyes for a long moment, and I saw a shift in his—resignation. He closed his eyes. "…No."

I pulled him tight to me again. "Gil was nineteen… she's almost twenty years older than him. …He was a science nerd and a virgin who had been raised with a deaf mother… he wasn't exactly the type of guy to seduce his teacher. …She initiated the first encounter, and after it, he told her that it couldn't happen again, because she was married. …Later, she told him that she'd gotten a divorce, which she obviously hadn't. …Jace, hon', Gil still believed that she'd been divorced until today. He never found out."

He sniffled softly, and I knew he was fighting back tears. I squeezed tighter. "…She was controlling and manipulative, Jace, just like she is with you. …But it was worse, because she wasn't just trying to get him to cut his hair and guilting him into going to parties thrown by her women's groups and telling him who he could take to his proms… she was manipulating their sex life."

He flinched at those words and I let my hand slide over his back to sooth him. "Jace… before Gil knew that she was your mother, years ago… he told me that she would make him pretend to be 'earning' a grade. …He looked like a frightened little boy when he saw her… and she was provoking him, today. You know that because you saw it... you even defended him. …I'm sorry that you have to hear this about your mother and I know her leaving had be painful if you never told me about it… but you can't blame him for her life choices. …She left you and your dad and sisters… she cheated and lied. …And you can't blame Gil for the choices I made either. Honey, I… I didn't mean to fall in love with him. I didn't mean to hurt you. But it is my fault… and I admit that. I take responsibility… she hasn't, for twenty years."

He pulled back, wiping at the tear or two that had escaped him. I gave him a minute, and then held his hand instead. "…What's important right now is finding Ayla. …You and Gil and I… that's what we want. …She just wants to cause problems. …Let's just calm down, find Ayla, and then… then we can try to deal with all of this after the fact, okay?"

He wiped at his eyes again. "I… I can't believe that I've… I've lost my family, time and again, for him. …What does he have that I don't have?" His voice was quiet and desperate and pleading and I felt tears fill my eyes.

"Nothing, honey. …Look at me." He did, reluctantly, and I squeezed his hand. "…It's not anything you lack. Okay? …We're just not right for each other. I don't know why your mother made the choices she did but… but for us, I feel like… like I wish we had ended it before we got married. …We could have ended it on good terms and… and looked at our relationship as one of the happiest times in our lives. …Just because I'm in love with him doesn't mean I don't love you, Jace. It's just… it's not the same. …It's not enough."

He swallowed. "…But now… you won't look back and say that… that you were happy with me?"

I smiled softly. "…Believe me, I could never forget how happy you made me, no matter what we've done to each other or… or how ugly things have gotten."

"Sara… I, uh… I wanted to tell you… I've been trying for weeks. …Months, really. I… I wrote it all down, it's in this book of poetry in my room. Sara… I…" Another tear slid down his face. "I don't… want you to hate me. Sara, I just… I love you so much. And I… I want—"

A knock came at the door, and Jace frantically wiped his cheeks. "Sara?"

It was Gil, in the hallway. I glanced at Jace, and after a moment he nodded. "Come in."

He slid the door open, glancing between us in the dim light of my desk lamp. "I, uh… I'm sorry to interrupt. I can—"

"No." Jace said, standing up and turning to him. Gil took a defensive step back, and Jace put up his hands, open-palmed. "I… I just wanted to say that I… I'm really sorry, Gil. I… I know it's not an excuse but with Ayla missing…"

"I know." Gil said, not nicely or understandingly, but at least without anger or animosity. Jace nodded, as if he thought it was more than he had a right to expect anyway.

"I… I don't know if… if this is the time to talk about all of this, but… if we find—No, when we find Ayla… I…" He stopped again, uncertain, and Gil nodded.

"We'll talk. …After we find her."

Jace nodded too, and slipped out of room past Gil, who turned his gaze to me. …His face looked awful. There was a smear of blood beneath a bruised nose, and his left eye was black. …He was extremely lucky he'd taken his glasses off to look at the photo album before all of this had started. …His jaw was already showing bruising too. I stood up and he moved over to me, wrapping his arms around me. "…What did you say to him?"

I closed my arms, leaning into the embrace. "…Just the truth. …That you'd told me all of it before you knew she was my mother in law… that it wasn't much of a stretch to take the woman he'd grown up being manipulated by and see her manipulating in other ways… He didn't want to believe it, but I think he knew it himself, before I even told him."

Gil nodded against the side of my head, squeezing me tighter. I swallowed hard and glanced at the clock over my head—it was now pushing ten thirty. "…It's getting late. …He's going to call, isn't he? I mean, if he doesn't… if he hasn't… what does that mean?"

He rocked us gently, and for once didn't offer me an empty promise of certainty. He sighed softly under his breath, tucked his head into my shoulder, and breathed against my neck, "…I don't know."