"I really hope they didn't destroy the house," Grissom said for the third time since they'd left the hospital. He didn't like the idea of six rambunctious friends having the run of his house, especially with the bugs and the dog.
Steve Sidle turned from his position in the passenger seat of Grissom's car and looked at his daughter and Grissom. "I'm sure they haven't broken anything, guys. They've only been alone for a few hours, anyway; it's not like they've been camping out in there since Sara had the baby."
Sara nodded, agreeing with her father. "Dad's right, Gil. The worst that's going to happen is that Newton's going to snitch all the food they set up, or her tail will knock over a present." She shifted in her seat to look at the baby in the car seat separating her and Grissom in the backseat. She couldn't help it; every time she saw her daughter she smiled. She wondered for a moment if it would always be like this, and concluded that it probably would be.
"Ok kids," Sara's mother said brightly, "we're almost home! All set?"
"Yeah, Mom, as long as there's someone to carry the car seat, someone to carry the diaper bag, someone to carry the suitcase, and someone to carry the baby." She paused, pretending to count. "How many hands do we have between us, again?"
Grissom laughed. "We have plenty of limbs, honey. It's my turn to hold my daughter, by the way; you can get the diaper bag."
"Gee, thanks."
When the car was in park, Grissom helped Sara out and formed the beginning of the assembly line. First came the diaper bag and suitcase from the trunk, each of which was handed off to one of Sara's parents. Next came the baby, who was handed to Sara for temporary holding. Finally, Grissom tugged the car seat free and set it on the ground, then held out his arms for their child. Sara scowled but handed her over, then picked up the car seat.
Before Steve could get his hands on the doorknob, the front door flew open, revealing a very excited Greg with an equally excited Nick grinning over his shoulder.
"Welcome home, you guys!" Nick announced. "Come in, come in . . . your party awaits you, and we await our turns to pass the baby around."
Grissom raised an eyebrow and gave Nick a smug smile. "Mine. You guys can have her when I get bored of her."
Sara nudged Grissom in the side, laughing skeptically. "Judging by the way you've been acting so far, Gris, that's going to be a big, fat 'never'." Pushing past Grissom, who was still gazing at his guests with narrowed eyes, Sara lowered the car seat to the floor and threw herself into Nick's arms for a hug.
"My god, Sara, you feel deflated! . . . Ow!" he yelped as her fist connected with his shoulder blade.
"First you make me spend nine months in fear of what you're going to do to make me cry or throw up next, and now you're making fun of the baby weight? Bad idea, Nicky! New mothers get cranky easily!" She released him and hugged Greg, then smiled at the rest of the group, who were gathered in the living room.
"Come in, guys! In, in," Nick ordered, shooing all four of them through the door into the living room.
Grissom, Sara, and her parents stepped inside and got their first good look at the room. Each member of the group had a unique reaction to what they saw: Amy Sidle laughed and clapped her hands, her husband grinned widely and slapped Nick on the back, Sara's eyes widened, and Grissom looked shocked.
Sara read the larger banner out loud, grinning hugely at the effort everyone had put into making them happy. "Congratulations, Sara and Grissom! Godparents for Rent, Enquire Within." She smirked. "That's great guys, thanks. We'll just have to see who treats us the nicest before we decide on godparents." She turned to check Grissom's reaction and found him studying the smaller banner. "Gris?"
He looked at her and blinked, a smile slowly spreading across his face. "Hey Sara . . . is that what I think it is?" he asked, gesturing to what he'd been reading.
Sara squinted, examining the strange symbols. "Oh my god, it is! Guys, that is amazing, you know us too well! Thank you!"
The smaller banner said this:
WeλCOμe Hoμe, GaLiNa ΛAreN
Noticing her parents' puzzled looks, Sara translated. "It's a mix of chemical symbols and Greek letters from mathematical notation. 'W' is Tungsten, 'e' is a decimal place abbreviation, that strange triangle is the Greek letter lambda, the 'C' and 'O' are chemical symbols for Carbon and Oxygen, the thing that looks like a backward 'u' is the Greek letter mu . . . hmm, what else. 'H' is Hydrogen. 'Ga' is the symbol for Gallium, 'Li' is Lithium, and 'Na' is Sodium. Then the 'Ar' is Argon, and 'N' is Nitrogen."
She surveyed her audience, realizing that her parents were totally lost. "Or, to summarize . . . they wrote 'Welcome Home, Galina Laren' using math and chemistry."
Her parents' faces lightened. "Oh, Sara, they know you too well!" her father chided laughingly. "Only you and Gil would understand those things and be able to figure out what it meant."
Her mother sighed. "Galina . . . such a beautiful name." She reached over and kissed her now-slumbering granddaughter's forehead. " 'Bright one' . . . yes, I think it fits her well."
"Sara," Grissom said softly so as not to wake the baby, "let's go put her to bed and check out the damage they all did to her room."
Sara nodded and followed him down the hall. "We'll be right back to party, guys."
When they were in the baby's room, Grissom gently laid her down in the crib, checking to make sure that everything in it was as the baby books they'd read said it should be. No pillow, no bumpers, no stuffed toys, no mobile . . . everything was safe. This crib wouldn't be her real bed for a month or more, though; they'd decided to put a smaller crib, a donation from Catherine, in the master bedroom with them for the first few weeks.
With the baby safely asleep, Sara, who had been scanning the room, let out a breath and hugged Grissom tightly. "Wow. They did an awesome job with this place." Grissom kissed the top of her head and she looked up, smiling softly. "You know, it's a strange feeling . . . everything we do the past few days is new. We have a baby in this house, Gil! Our own little girl."
"Galina Laren," he responded, hugging her tighter. "Thank you for deciding to use 'Laren,' Sara. I think my mom's smiling down right now and forgiving us for the spelling change. God, we have such a beautiful daughter. How in the world did the two of us produce her?"
"I don't know. I really don't . . . I think we need to just accept that we created perfection." She tilted her head up and kissed him deeply, trying to convey what she felt. When she opened her eyes, his beautiful blue ones were staring into hers.
"I love you." Grissom leaned over the edge of the crib to look at his daughter. "And I love you, little girl," he said in what Sara would have called a coo if she hadn't been so sure that he'd bristle at the label. Straightening up again, he wrapped his arms around Sara's waist and smiled. "Sara . . . I'm going to try this again."
"What?"
"You'll see." Before she could respond to this avoidance, his arms had dropped from her waist and he'd taken her hands, rubbing their backs with his thumbs. "I'm not going to do this the classic way because I don't know that I could get up again, and I suspect it would look pretty funny. So I'm just going to . . ."
"Grissom!" Sara interrupted. "Spill it! What are you talking about?"
He shut his eyes tightly and did his best to do as she'd ordered. "Sara . . . I love you. Marry me, please. For you, not for the baby or your parents or anyone else. Please." His eyes didn't open; he was terrified of what this action could yield.
"Gil . . . I . . ." Sara's hand cupped his cheek gently.
A/N: The name 'Galina' is Russian and means "bright one." I first heard it in the movie Center Stage (Galina was the Russian dancer's girlfriend) and I just love the sound of it. Say it out loud, it's like it sparkles on your tongue! 'Laren' is just the name 'Lauren' with a different spelling that I happen to prefer for some reason.
