"I might just become a lab tech," Sara complained as she and Warrick
crouched down trying to mark every bit of evidence on the floor.
"Why?" he asked in bewilderment.
"I can't stand leaving Maddie with Archie when I get called out to crime scenes." Sara's shoulders slumped a bit when she thought of the baby that she had come to know as "her daughter".
"You do realize that Archie is more paranoid than you, so she's be safe," Warrick reasoned.
"I know, but that's not it."
"Sara, you know, you could always take maternal leave. You'd qualify for that."
"I'd go insane," Sara replied with a slight lilt of irritation in her voice, "I have to work as much as I have to see Maddie. That seems to be the suggestion of the week or something."
"What? Maternal leave?"
"Yeah. I thought about-" Sara's thoughts were interrupted by her cell phone going off. "Hello?"
"Sara?" Archie asked tentatively over the phone. Aggravated crying could be heard faintly in the background.
"Archie? What's wrong?" Sara asked with some desperation in her voice.
"Does Maddie have colic?"
"No. Why?"
Archie sighed, "She hasn't stopped crying for the past fifteen minutes, and Grissom is ready to murder me if I don't do something about it soon."
"Oh. Listen, Archie," Sara responded, "can you move the phone so I can hear Maddie cry? I can tell you what I think is bothering her."
"Sure, just a second," he replied. There was some shuffling and static as Archie tried to move the phone to a better location.
The wails were so loud and so intense that Sara had to move the phone away from her ear. Warrick, who was standing a good five feet away from her, winced at the shrill sound. "Okay, Archie!" she yelled, "You can move the phone away now! I get the idea!"
"See why Grissom wants to murder me?" Archie responded after he did move. "Please tell me you're coming back soon!"
"I'll try, but I have to talk to Warrick first. Okay? Bye." Sara hung up the phone with a decided click.
"Let me guess: Maternal duty calls and there's no way you can avoid it," Warrick answered before Sara could even say anything. "Go ahead, I think we've covered all the bases here. Can you take the samples back with you, though?" Warrick answered her unasked question.
"Okay, thanks. I owe you," Sara responded hurriedly as she collected the bags.
"Great!" Warrick answered with a slight chuckle, "You can ask Maddie to stop pulling my hair so hard."
"She doesn't listen to me!" Sara called out before slamming her car door.
Five minutes later, Sara rushed into the CSI lab, quickly putting the samples collected on Greg's counter, and rushed down the hall in search of Archie, who at that time must have gone mad. When she got there, she had to laugh at the sight before her. Catherine was cradling Madeline, gently bouncing her up and down on her knee while Greg and Archie made ridiculous faces at her, causing her to scream even louder in terror, which they seemed not to notice. Nick was crouched in a corner, rifling through Sara's baby bag in the hopes of finding a toy or some other distraction, occasionally handing something to Grissom. Grissom, toy in hand, would then proceed to shake it in front of Maddie's face, confusing the infant, and rendering her silent for about two seconds before her wails picked up again. Convinced that a certain toy was not going to be of much use, Grissom would toss it to the side, more often than not hitting Greg or Archie in the head with it.
After watching this comedy unfold some more for about a minute, Sara spoke up and said with a smirk, "Remind me never to ask any of you to be baby sitters ever again."
A collective, "Finally!" came from the mouths of Greg and Archie. Nick stood up stiffly and demanded, "What took you so long?" Catherine and Grissom just gave her identical frazzled looks that said, "How do you do it?"
"Sorry," Sara responded, "But I just had to watch this drama unfold, you know?"
"No," Everyone in the room responded unanimously.
Maddie, who had quieted down at the sight of her "mother", picked up where she left off and began to howl in order to become the center of attention yet again.
"Look at the drama queen," Greg snickered.
"Look who's talking, Your Highness, the Drama King," Sara retorted, as she picked up the screaming baby who Catherine relinquished gratefully.
"What's wrong with her?" Catherine demanded after Madeline didn't quiet down in her mother's arms.
"She could be wet," Sara suggested.
"No, just changed her diaper," Archie replied over the racket.
"Oh, that explains the imaginative way it was done. She's hungry?"
"No way!" Greg answered that time. "Archie gave her a bottle and she was quiet for about a second, but then she made a face and threw it!"
"Sleepy?" Sara asked as she was running through all of her options.
"She'd have fallen asleep from the fatigue by now," Catherine retorted gently with the experience of a mother.
"Okay, I know what she wants," Sara said with a slight grimace. "Can I have an empty office or something, Grissom?"
Grissom nodded slightly, wincing as the throbbing in his head increased with the movement. "You can use mine if you want."
"Thanks Grissom." And with that comment, Sara hurried down the hall as quickly as possible to allow the lab techs an opportunity regain their senses after the noise they were being subjected to.
The second the door closed to his office, and the wailing resembled a dull, though high pitched, roar, he turned his attention back to the lab staff. "Okay, everybody, back to work. There's nothing to see," he said. After contemplating what he had just said, Grissom corrected himself, and added, "Okay, so there's nothing to HEAR."
Warrick, who had just missed the entire episode, walked into a deathly silent lab. "Is everything alright?" he asked Greg, who had just made it back to the DNA lab.
"Yeah, Hurricane Madeline has been calmed down."
Perplexed by the statement, Warrick just tossed the offhand comment of, "Whatever you say, man," over his shoulder and proceeded to Grissom's office to ask his opinion about an entomological piece of evidence he had found.
"Hey Cath!" he called to the blond woman at the end of the perpendicular hallway. As he grasped the handle of his boss' door, he became aware of Catherine calling at him and at the same time, running at him like a crazed person.
"Warrick! Don't!" Catherine called desperately, suddenly remembering that Sara and Maddie were in Grissom's office. She certainly didn't want to hear another outburst from 'Hurricane Maddie', as Greg had dubbed her. Unfortunately for her, she could not stop and ended up crashing into Warrick, who had halted his opening of the door. Her momentum carried them into the office, and sprawling onto the floor. Sara, startled by the noise, stood up and faced them, only to have Catherine's jaw fall to the floor and Warrick to turn his head away quickly. The reason for their reactions: Maddie was suckling.
"Catherine, do you mind closing your mouth?" Sara asked calmly, as though her friends came crashing through the door was the most normal thing in the world. When Catherine, or Warrick for that matter, didn't respond, she continued, "I figured out a while ago that Alison breast fed Maddie."
Catherine, who had finally regained most of her faculties, managed to stammer out, "Oh. That's why. . ." She trailed off, unable to figure out what to say.
"That's why I'm doing what I'm doing?" Sara asked, finishing off her friend's question. "Yeah, that's the reason. This is the only thing that'll calm Maddie down if she isn't hungry, sleepy, or wet diapered. Think of it as a pacifier, except I'm completely animate."
"Oh," was all Catherine could manage. Warrick, his head still turned away, nodded his understanding.
"Are you guys planning to get off the floor any time soon?" Sara asked.
"Oh! Right," Catherine answered, remembering where she was. Warrick, still speechless, followed suit, though his head was still facing the same direction he had turned it when they fell to the floor.
Sara, faintly amused, picked up Maddie's baby blanket that had been slung over a chair, flipped it over her shoulder, effectively covering Maddie and sat down again. Having completed this process, she asked, "Are you guys all right? Warrick, you can turn around now." He did so, though he did it slowly, as though he was walking into a trap. Sara saw him visibly relax. "So, what brings you here?" she asked pleasantly.
"Nothing," both Catherine and Warrick answered simultaneously. "How did you learn about Maddie's little. . . habit?" Catherine piped up after an uncomfortable silence.
"Huh?" Sara said blankly. "Oh! You mean this?" she asked, gesturing to the blanket.
"Yeah."
"Um, well," Sara began, searching for the place to start, "I have to take Maddie everywhere, because I don't want to leave her by herself, so I usually put her in the baby carrier on the floor when I take a bath. She's usually good about it and I can take a quick shower. One time, she started crying hysterically, sort of like she was doing in the computer lab, and that usually indicates that she's got to eat, sleep or poop. I happened to pick her up close to my chest, and she just latched on and started sucking and she didn't seem to mind that nothing was coming out. That's the long and that short, pretty much."
"Okay," Catherine responded, sounding like she wasn't quite convinced.
"It's true!" Sara answered like a child trying to prove that she's right, "I even called the hospital to ask the Ann about that. She said that Alison did feed Maddie this way."
"I know, I know!" Catherine said, as she threw her hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Believe me, I can see why. I had a baby too, remember?"
"Is there some sort of reason for that? I mean, is it normal?" Warrick asked, finally finding his voice again.
"I don't know. I mean, I called Mrs. Delmont, our social worker, who also has a Ph. D. in child psychology, and she thinks that Maddie's just trying to re-establish normality by her standards. Make things like they were before her mother died."
"Okay, I think I get it," Warrick answered, after mulling it over in his mind for a couple of seconds. Catherine nodded her understanding as well.
"Good. I'm not a freak or anything," Sara replied.
"We were never accusing you of such a thing," Catherine placated, "We were just shocked, that's all. She asleep yet?"
"Yeah. After all she's been through in the last hour, it's not surprising," Sara answered, a small smile on her face.
********************************************
Thanks for all the reviews that everyone has sent!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
(And please review this chapter too. I do admit, the end of this chappy is kind of "out there" even by my standards, so if you don't like, please use constructive criticism! I promise the next chapter will be better and a little more down to earth!)
"Why?" he asked in bewilderment.
"I can't stand leaving Maddie with Archie when I get called out to crime scenes." Sara's shoulders slumped a bit when she thought of the baby that she had come to know as "her daughter".
"You do realize that Archie is more paranoid than you, so she's be safe," Warrick reasoned.
"I know, but that's not it."
"Sara, you know, you could always take maternal leave. You'd qualify for that."
"I'd go insane," Sara replied with a slight lilt of irritation in her voice, "I have to work as much as I have to see Maddie. That seems to be the suggestion of the week or something."
"What? Maternal leave?"
"Yeah. I thought about-" Sara's thoughts were interrupted by her cell phone going off. "Hello?"
"Sara?" Archie asked tentatively over the phone. Aggravated crying could be heard faintly in the background.
"Archie? What's wrong?" Sara asked with some desperation in her voice.
"Does Maddie have colic?"
"No. Why?"
Archie sighed, "She hasn't stopped crying for the past fifteen minutes, and Grissom is ready to murder me if I don't do something about it soon."
"Oh. Listen, Archie," Sara responded, "can you move the phone so I can hear Maddie cry? I can tell you what I think is bothering her."
"Sure, just a second," he replied. There was some shuffling and static as Archie tried to move the phone to a better location.
The wails were so loud and so intense that Sara had to move the phone away from her ear. Warrick, who was standing a good five feet away from her, winced at the shrill sound. "Okay, Archie!" she yelled, "You can move the phone away now! I get the idea!"
"See why Grissom wants to murder me?" Archie responded after he did move. "Please tell me you're coming back soon!"
"I'll try, but I have to talk to Warrick first. Okay? Bye." Sara hung up the phone with a decided click.
"Let me guess: Maternal duty calls and there's no way you can avoid it," Warrick answered before Sara could even say anything. "Go ahead, I think we've covered all the bases here. Can you take the samples back with you, though?" Warrick answered her unasked question.
"Okay, thanks. I owe you," Sara responded hurriedly as she collected the bags.
"Great!" Warrick answered with a slight chuckle, "You can ask Maddie to stop pulling my hair so hard."
"She doesn't listen to me!" Sara called out before slamming her car door.
Five minutes later, Sara rushed into the CSI lab, quickly putting the samples collected on Greg's counter, and rushed down the hall in search of Archie, who at that time must have gone mad. When she got there, she had to laugh at the sight before her. Catherine was cradling Madeline, gently bouncing her up and down on her knee while Greg and Archie made ridiculous faces at her, causing her to scream even louder in terror, which they seemed not to notice. Nick was crouched in a corner, rifling through Sara's baby bag in the hopes of finding a toy or some other distraction, occasionally handing something to Grissom. Grissom, toy in hand, would then proceed to shake it in front of Maddie's face, confusing the infant, and rendering her silent for about two seconds before her wails picked up again. Convinced that a certain toy was not going to be of much use, Grissom would toss it to the side, more often than not hitting Greg or Archie in the head with it.
After watching this comedy unfold some more for about a minute, Sara spoke up and said with a smirk, "Remind me never to ask any of you to be baby sitters ever again."
A collective, "Finally!" came from the mouths of Greg and Archie. Nick stood up stiffly and demanded, "What took you so long?" Catherine and Grissom just gave her identical frazzled looks that said, "How do you do it?"
"Sorry," Sara responded, "But I just had to watch this drama unfold, you know?"
"No," Everyone in the room responded unanimously.
Maddie, who had quieted down at the sight of her "mother", picked up where she left off and began to howl in order to become the center of attention yet again.
"Look at the drama queen," Greg snickered.
"Look who's talking, Your Highness, the Drama King," Sara retorted, as she picked up the screaming baby who Catherine relinquished gratefully.
"What's wrong with her?" Catherine demanded after Madeline didn't quiet down in her mother's arms.
"She could be wet," Sara suggested.
"No, just changed her diaper," Archie replied over the racket.
"Oh, that explains the imaginative way it was done. She's hungry?"
"No way!" Greg answered that time. "Archie gave her a bottle and she was quiet for about a second, but then she made a face and threw it!"
"Sleepy?" Sara asked as she was running through all of her options.
"She'd have fallen asleep from the fatigue by now," Catherine retorted gently with the experience of a mother.
"Okay, I know what she wants," Sara said with a slight grimace. "Can I have an empty office or something, Grissom?"
Grissom nodded slightly, wincing as the throbbing in his head increased with the movement. "You can use mine if you want."
"Thanks Grissom." And with that comment, Sara hurried down the hall as quickly as possible to allow the lab techs an opportunity regain their senses after the noise they were being subjected to.
The second the door closed to his office, and the wailing resembled a dull, though high pitched, roar, he turned his attention back to the lab staff. "Okay, everybody, back to work. There's nothing to see," he said. After contemplating what he had just said, Grissom corrected himself, and added, "Okay, so there's nothing to HEAR."
Warrick, who had just missed the entire episode, walked into a deathly silent lab. "Is everything alright?" he asked Greg, who had just made it back to the DNA lab.
"Yeah, Hurricane Madeline has been calmed down."
Perplexed by the statement, Warrick just tossed the offhand comment of, "Whatever you say, man," over his shoulder and proceeded to Grissom's office to ask his opinion about an entomological piece of evidence he had found.
"Hey Cath!" he called to the blond woman at the end of the perpendicular hallway. As he grasped the handle of his boss' door, he became aware of Catherine calling at him and at the same time, running at him like a crazed person.
"Warrick! Don't!" Catherine called desperately, suddenly remembering that Sara and Maddie were in Grissom's office. She certainly didn't want to hear another outburst from 'Hurricane Maddie', as Greg had dubbed her. Unfortunately for her, she could not stop and ended up crashing into Warrick, who had halted his opening of the door. Her momentum carried them into the office, and sprawling onto the floor. Sara, startled by the noise, stood up and faced them, only to have Catherine's jaw fall to the floor and Warrick to turn his head away quickly. The reason for their reactions: Maddie was suckling.
"Catherine, do you mind closing your mouth?" Sara asked calmly, as though her friends came crashing through the door was the most normal thing in the world. When Catherine, or Warrick for that matter, didn't respond, she continued, "I figured out a while ago that Alison breast fed Maddie."
Catherine, who had finally regained most of her faculties, managed to stammer out, "Oh. That's why. . ." She trailed off, unable to figure out what to say.
"That's why I'm doing what I'm doing?" Sara asked, finishing off her friend's question. "Yeah, that's the reason. This is the only thing that'll calm Maddie down if she isn't hungry, sleepy, or wet diapered. Think of it as a pacifier, except I'm completely animate."
"Oh," was all Catherine could manage. Warrick, his head still turned away, nodded his understanding.
"Are you guys planning to get off the floor any time soon?" Sara asked.
"Oh! Right," Catherine answered, remembering where she was. Warrick, still speechless, followed suit, though his head was still facing the same direction he had turned it when they fell to the floor.
Sara, faintly amused, picked up Maddie's baby blanket that had been slung over a chair, flipped it over her shoulder, effectively covering Maddie and sat down again. Having completed this process, she asked, "Are you guys all right? Warrick, you can turn around now." He did so, though he did it slowly, as though he was walking into a trap. Sara saw him visibly relax. "So, what brings you here?" she asked pleasantly.
"Nothing," both Catherine and Warrick answered simultaneously. "How did you learn about Maddie's little. . . habit?" Catherine piped up after an uncomfortable silence.
"Huh?" Sara said blankly. "Oh! You mean this?" she asked, gesturing to the blanket.
"Yeah."
"Um, well," Sara began, searching for the place to start, "I have to take Maddie everywhere, because I don't want to leave her by herself, so I usually put her in the baby carrier on the floor when I take a bath. She's usually good about it and I can take a quick shower. One time, she started crying hysterically, sort of like she was doing in the computer lab, and that usually indicates that she's got to eat, sleep or poop. I happened to pick her up close to my chest, and she just latched on and started sucking and she didn't seem to mind that nothing was coming out. That's the long and that short, pretty much."
"Okay," Catherine responded, sounding like she wasn't quite convinced.
"It's true!" Sara answered like a child trying to prove that she's right, "I even called the hospital to ask the Ann about that. She said that Alison did feed Maddie this way."
"I know, I know!" Catherine said, as she threw her hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Believe me, I can see why. I had a baby too, remember?"
"Is there some sort of reason for that? I mean, is it normal?" Warrick asked, finally finding his voice again.
"I don't know. I mean, I called Mrs. Delmont, our social worker, who also has a Ph. D. in child psychology, and she thinks that Maddie's just trying to re-establish normality by her standards. Make things like they were before her mother died."
"Okay, I think I get it," Warrick answered, after mulling it over in his mind for a couple of seconds. Catherine nodded her understanding as well.
"Good. I'm not a freak or anything," Sara replied.
"We were never accusing you of such a thing," Catherine placated, "We were just shocked, that's all. She asleep yet?"
"Yeah. After all she's been through in the last hour, it's not surprising," Sara answered, a small smile on her face.
********************************************
Thanks for all the reviews that everyone has sent!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
(And please review this chapter too. I do admit, the end of this chappy is kind of "out there" even by my standards, so if you don't like, please use constructive criticism! I promise the next chapter will be better and a little more down to earth!)