Mommy's Little Girl
Sara tried to keep calm while she sat in the courtroom but she had never been so excited about not being on a case in her life. It had been a long and trying month. Bekki, who had predictably taken her mother's death hard, had only returned to school yesterday. She was moving in with Sara and Nick that night, after staying the month with Catherine and Lindsey, the best place Sara could think of while Bekki came to terms with her mother's passing. Sara did pick Bekki and Lindsey up from school and they had dinner together, allowing Catherine some time alone. This eased Bekki into the switch because she'd already been living with Catherine for a couple of days before her mom's death.
Catherine had been a complete angel throughout the entire month, taking vacation weeks saved up over her years working with the LVPD and had worked with Bekki and Lindsey, home schooling them to keep both girls up to date on schoolwork. It gave Bekki time.
"Sara?" Catherine whispered, poking her side lightly, jolting her from her thoughts. "Sentencing."
Sara found herself transfixed by the jury as one stood to recommend sentencing.
"We recommend life without parole." Catherine stood with Sara. The brunette breathed deeply and spoke.
"I talked to child services about Bekki because she doesn't want to go to a foster home," she said. Catherine faced her, eyebrow raised.
"And?"
"They said they'd talk to Tony."
"Have they?" They began to stroll out of the courthouse as Sara nodded.
"He wants her to stay with me," she said softly, trying her greatest to keep the fear from her voice. If Catherine caught it, she didn't say anything as she slipped on her sunglasses. Sara vaguely heard the call Lindsey shouted at her mom. She did hear the end of Catherine's reply.
"…touches on it." Sara's eyes automatically searched for Bekki's dark head. Sara found her in the back of the group, eyes downcast, but when the courthouse doors opened, she made her way to Sara's side. Bekki gripped Sara's hand tightly as Scott Paolini, Jack Banning and Anthony Lopez were led towards Nick, Warrick and Grissom down at the curbside. Sara didn't even realize that Bekki's class had moved inside the building. Lopez stopped his guard for a moment.
"Sara?" Her heart began to beat double time as she acknowledged him with a raise of her head.
"Take good care of my little girl." Sara couldn't help the small smile that flitted across her face as her arm tightened around Bekki's shoulder.
"I will Tony. For Amanda." The guards led the men to the police cars as Sara and Catherine watched with a tinge of satisfaction.
"It's over," Sara heard Catherine whisper as the cars drove off.
"Yeah, its over." Sara and Catherine led the girls back into the building to finish their field trip. Sara hugged Bekki tightly, assuring the girl with whispers and promising, as always, to pick them up after school. Then Catherine and Sara turned and walked back into the Vegas sun.
-
As the months progressed, Bekki had become more animated and lifelike, less down cast and more like her usual self. Sara couldn't say she'd done much to help – though of course others would strongly disagree – but it was Catherine who had suggested they find a therapist for Bekki to deal with such a big loss. The older woman had said that was something she regretting not having for Lindsey when Eddie was killed. She'd assimilated right back into the daily routine of school after moving in with Sara and Nick and every one in the lab was confident that custody would be awarded to both of them. The only thing left, was the final decision.
Sara and Nick sat in the courtroom on the 23rd of December, a day they had remarkably received off because of their brilliant work on the Lopez case.
"You wait, he'll call us in five minutes into shift," Warrick had scoffed as the first one to talk after hearing the news. But neither Sara, nor Nick sitting in the seat beside her in the courtroom, had been paged for work.
"Miss Sidle, Miss Bell seems to enjoy her time with you and seeing as you have a stable life, I believe the best thing for her is to stay with you until a relative may be found." Sara breathed a sigh of relief as Bekki came running at her from the gallery behind the benches. She wrapped the girl up in her arms, hugging her tightly.
"Aunt Sara?" she asked softly. Sara crouched down to her level.
"Yeah, Bekki?" Sara watched the little chest rise and fall heavily, as if she wasn't sure that she should be asking the question.
"Can I call you Mommy?" Sara burst into tears.
"Of course you can sweetie," she managed through her sobs. "Of course you can."
"And Nick Daddy?" Sara looked up at Nick where he stood, hovering over them, protecting them. He graced them with a smile.
"If that's what you want." The resolute look on Bekki's face said it all and Sara found herself in hysterical tears again.
"Mommy... why are you upset? You're crying."
"Honey, I'm not upset." Nick crouched down beside them, tears shining in his eyes too.
"We're just really happy that we're all a family." Bekki's face lit up with a grin.
"Yup. One big happy family."
I know that's probably really really weird, having Bekki call Sara "Mom" a month after her real mother died, but hey, they're my play toys and I'll do what I want with them.
By Bekki saying that though, SHE IS IN NO WAY FORGETTING AMANDA! Don't worry.
I'm probably going to skip through Christmas because it's all pretty much in Subtle Clues and I'm just that lazy. Not to mention I have the sequel to the former in the works and really should be updating that NOW!
Kavi Leighanna