Budding
Chapter Twenty One
Catherine flipped through all of the channels and found nothing of interest to watch. She began to wonder: six hundred channels, and there was nothing to watch. It was beyond Catherine, and she didn't feel like thinking about it too much.
She ate another spoonful of ice cream. The tub was sitting on her belly, and she had a small plate of asparagus on her bedside table. Warrick was sleeping away; he was exhausted from the double shift he pulled just before his week long vacation and from going to the grocery store, which had been crowded, to retrieve some items for Catherine.
Then, when he got home, they made love, and now, Catherine was thoroughly hungry, and Warrick was tired. She really did wear him out, and the thought made her grin.
She polished off the entire gallon of ice cream by herself, then she ate the asparagus. If she ever had any doubts before, she was sure now that she was having a boy. She had never eaten this much asparagus in her life, and she craved it everyday.
She continued flipping through channels and feasting upon the asparagus. Finally, she landed on Lifetime, and there was a pretty good movie starting. It was about love, romance, denial, and loss.
Hmm, she thought to herself. Sounds a lot like Grissom and Sara's relationship.
She became engrossed in the movie, and continued to eat.
She stayed up until the crack of dawn and then she fell asleep as Warrick woke up.
He rubbed his eyes then looked over to his expectant wife. He knew that she had been up all night eating and watching TV. He smiled down at her as she snuggled even more into the covers as she placed her soft, beautiful hands atop her rounding belly. Four months of pregnancy did not put a dent in Catherine's libido. She was still a wildcat in bed.
He kissed her forehead and belly before getting up and getting dressed.
He was taking Lindsay to school, and he had to wake the nine year old up.
Catherine had painted most of the house, and it looked great; it was bright, warm, and inviting. Now he understood the reason why she wanted to paint by herself. The house was purely Catherine, and he loved it.
"Lindsay," he said softly into her doorway. "It's time to get ready for school sweetie."
She grumbled. "I don't have school today," she said. "They're fixing it."
Warrick thought back to when she told him that, and it happened to be last weekend. The school was in desperate need of some work, and it was about time that Lindsay got a little break from school. School had become a little tough for her lately, and she needed some down time.
"Oh, yeah," he chuckled. "Okay, then go on back to sleep."
She snuggled her teddy bear closer and went back to sleep.
Warrick went downstairs and began to make some breakfast. In a few minutes, Catherine would be down stairs, hungry and cranky because of her lack of sleep. She had only just fallen asleep a few hours before he woke up.
He heard her footsteps upstairs in their bedroom going to the bathroom. She frequented the bathroom either because the baby didn't agree with what she ate, or to urinate. He guessed the latter.
She padded down stairs, looking and obviously feeling as he predicted, and it was a good thing that he had prepared some sausage first for her.
"Good morning," he said.
"Morning," she grumbled as she sat down, her belly becoming more prominent. She grabbed a piece of sausage and ate it hungrily.
He set some orange juice in front of her and she drank it down in ten seconds.
"It seems like all I've been doing is eating," she said as she bit into another piece of sausage. She began to cry. "I'm getting fat and ugly."
"No," Warrick said, kneeling in front of her. "No, you're not getting fat, per se," he paused to find the right words. "I mean, you're growing…bigger because the baby is growing. You're supposed to be fat. If you weren't I'd have serious problems with that."
"I'm not ugly to you now?" She asked, wiping her tears.
"No," he chuckled. "That's impossible."
He kissed her tenderly before finishing up with breakfast so that she could eat and get back to bed. He heard her begin to cry even harder.
"Babe, what's wrong?" Warrick asked as he came to her side again.
"I don't know," she cried. She covered her face and cried hysterically. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him.
"What?" Warrick asked. "Baby, please tell me what's the matter, I can't stand to see you cry."
"I'm telling you, I don't know," she cried. "Just let me get it all out of me okay?" She asked tearfully.
Warrick just held her in his arms until her crying was reduced to sniffles and hiccups.
"Feel better?" He asked, rubbing her very wet cheek.
"Yeah," she said quietly as she wiped her cheeks and sniffled again. "Warrick I'm sorry," she said. "I know you're tired of me."
"I'm not tired of you," Warrick assured her. "You're having our son, and I know that you're going to get a little emotional."
"A little?" Catherine chuckled mirthlessly. "I haven't cried like that in years."
There was a harsh knock at the door and Warrick went to go answer it.
"Is this the Brown residence?" A man in a black suit asked.
"Yeah," Warrick said suspiciously.
"Warrick, who is it?" Catherine asked from the kitchen.
"Is that your wife?" The man asked.
"Who are you?" Warrick asked. "And how do you know us?"
"I was sent to give your wife this," he said, handing Warrick a package. "It's for your wife's eyes only."
"Wait a minute," Warrick said angrily. "Don't come up to my house like this and think that I'm giving this to my wife and I don't know who you are or what's in this package."
"It's from Sam Braun, that's all I'm telling you," the man said before walking off.
Warrick closed the door. He was hesitant to hand the mysterious package over to Catherine; God only knew what was in it, especially if it came from Sam Braun.
"Honey, who was it?" Catherine asked as she emerged from the kitchen.
"I don't know," he said. "It was some guy in a suit and he asked me to hand you this," he said holding up the package. "He said that it's from your dad."
Catherine paled.
"What's in it?" She asked, automatically putting her hand protectively on her belly.
"I don't know," he said.
"Just open it," she said quietly, her fear permeating the air between them.
He looked at her tentatively before working on the package.
It seemed like an eternity before Warrick opened the package, and inside there was gift set with things for the baby and a card. Catherine rolled her eyes and sighed in relief.
"I've gotta give Sam a little more credit," she exhaled as she leaned her head on Warrick's shoulder.
***
Sara stared at the picture of her and her friends while she sat waiting patiently at the airport. She would miss them dearly, and she hated to leave, but she wanted to be happy again. She was never happy in Las Vegas.
She had lost the only man she ever loved, and her heart felt numb and cold. She would always love Grissom and her heart went out to no one else. She would probably marry someone sooner or later, but she would never actually fall in love with anyone again.
She tucked the picture away and gathered her carry on bag as she saw the plane taxi up to the terminal. She would be in the first section that boarded the plane.
She waited in line as people got on the plane. She sighed and shifted on her feet. She was impatient to get out of Las Vegas. She thought about it. She'd never seen anything the city had to offer except it's crime rate, which was phenomenal.
She sighed and looked at her watch.
"It's no use being in a hurry at this airport," an older woman said, shaking her head.
"I can see that now," Sara chuckled.
"Hi, I'm Marie," the woman said.
"Sara."
"Nice to meet you," Marie said. "May as well make a friend while waiting, right?"
"I guess so," Sara said.
"So, what are you going to be doing in San Francisco?" Marie asked.
"Try to rebuild my life," Sara confessed.
"Well, I suppose San Francisco's just as good a place as any to rebuild and recoup," Marie said. "What's the problem?"
"I'm just not happy anymore," Sara said with a melancholy sigh. "Frisco is my home, it's where I'm supposed to be."
Marie nodded.
Sara turned around and faced the front. The line had barely grown smaller.
After another hour or so, Sara was finally about to board the plane, she heard someone calling her name.
"Sara!"
She turned around, looking for the voice's owner.
"Sara! Don't get on that plane!"
"What psycho's calling you like that?" Marie asked.
Sara looked around and finally, she saw Grissom running through the thick crowd of people away from guards that were on his tail.
"That psycho," Sara said as she dropped her things. "Grissom!"
He finally made it to her.
"Sara, don't go," he begged. "I'm an idiot! I love you so much Sara and I'm not afraid anymore. I'm sorry I hurt you like I did. I didn't mean to. I've been such a fool and I admit that I'm the stupidest man in the world, but please don't go. I want you in my life and I would never forgive myself if you left."
Sara was speechless.
"Gris-" she was interrupted by the sound of guards jumping him.
"Arrest his ass," the fattest guard huffed out.
"No, wait," Sara said. "He didn't do anything wrong! Get off him!"