I know I know!!!!! Again, very sorry for the wait. Took me a while to get into this chapter and I still don't think I'm doing the story justice – there's so much more I could do with this but I can't get into it, I have to admit I had an easier time writing the end of this chapter, I wonder if it shows. Anyways, I'll let you get on with reading it now. TTFN

Leddy: Thank you very much for the review. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

Barb8: Thank you!!!!!!! Early Christmas pressie – I'm happy that you thought so. Here – here's a mince pie to go with your Christmas pressie. Don't worry I didn't make it myself so you won't get poisoned or anything!!! I'd never kill off one of my loyal readers!!!!! Enjoy the chapter.

Chapter Eleven – The Greatest Man I Never Knew

Time seemed to move very slowly for Jade over the next two weeks. She spent nearly all of her hours of everyday with Gil in the hospital. Answering his questions, watched as he took all the information in, processed the answers she'd given him, become louder and more opinionated about himself and his whereabouts. She'd noticed that most of the questions were about himself, friends or family and he never asked much about his work, his career – his life. When she'd asked him he merely said he wasn't interested in that at the moment, needed to process who he was before he worked on what he did. She found that strange from her point of view because to her his work was him, and he was his work. But from his point of view it probably didn't seem that important, he seemed to see it as a job he'd picked for some reason, other than it being who he was to put other people's puzzles of life and death together. She'd tried to reason with him about it and he'd just told her,

                "Knowing what I do for a living won't help me understand who I am."

                "I can understand that you might think that, but a huge part of you is in your work. You are your job and your life revolves around it – it makes you who you are. And who you are is a good man dedicated to helping others. Someone who inspires other people to do what you do, and what you do isn't easy."

She told him gently, patiently. He just nodded at that but didn't say anything.

                "Look, I'd better go and let you rest. I'll be back in the morning, okay?"

He smiled.

                "Sure. See you tomorrow."

She nodded a goodbye and left quietly. Outside the room she paused before heading towards the exit, then turned and headed for Jack's office. He was sitting in there doing some paperwork and invited her in immediately, asking her how she thought Gil was doing.

                "I know you told me it would take a long time but something isn't right. He's acting completely differently. He's not who he used to be, not even slightly. He's louder, more opinionated and not in the way he used to be. Sometimes he even looks like he's laughing about what I'm telling him he's like. It's like I'm talking to a stranger."

Jack could see that the strain was showing on Jade. The other CSI's had been very busy and she'd been shouldering most of the burden of helping Grissom on her own. He hadn't known Grissom before so he didn't know what he used to be like but from what she'd told him about her God-father he was at that moment, being arrogant, difficult and pretentious  - traits she hadn't come close to describing about him.

                "Jade, try not to worry. He's just trying to find who he is and he may go through a lot of changes before he gets there. Keep doing what you're doing, keep being patient. I was thinking, physically he's probably able to leave the hospital so maybe in a few days you could take him home, show him where he lives, where he works. It may trigger something that talking to him won't."

                A small pang of hope sprang up inside her at the idea and she agreed. They planned to take him out of the hospital in two days where she'd take him home for a while, then into work, before taking him back to the hospital.

*****

Two days later, Warrick joined Jade in wheeling Grissom out of the hospital and to the car. Even though he moaned that he could walk, it was hospital policy to wheel patients out of the hospital. He carefully got into the car and they headed through Las Vegas to his home. Pulling up he got out of the car and looked at the building in front of him.

                "I live here?"

                "Yeah. This is your home. You've lived here for as long as I can remember."

He 'hm'ed and walked up to the door and waited for Jade to unlock it. She gestured for him to enter and he strolled in and looked about the place. His expression was blank for a moment as he watched Jade pick up the mail that had arrived, search through it as she headed through towards the kitchen area, before putting them on the kitchen counter with a huge pile of other letters. She turned to look at him standing there in the middle of the room, looking about at the furniture, the books, the cases of bugs, insects and the like on the walls.

                "Well...?"

She asked him, wondering if anything seemed familiar.

                "It's...sparse."

                "That's how you like it. Ordered, no clutter. Anything seem familiar?"

He took another long gaze around the room, then looked back at her.

                "Nope. Nothing. Just a room. Doesn't look lived in – are you sure I've lived here a long time? I can't see myself living here – it's like a museum. Is the whole place the same?"

He wandered off down the corridor to look. Jade looked over at Warrick who was still by the front door and he could see her shoulders lower in disappointment. He gave her an encouraging smile.

                "Jack said it would take time. It may not trigger anything now but it might later."

He told her. She gave him a nod and small smile, then planted a slightly bigger fake smile on her face as Grissom came back from the other rooms.

                "Whole place is sparse. Suppose I could get used to it. Are we done here?"

                "If you are. Next place is work. I told the others we'd pop in and see them."

                "Ok doke."

He said in a matter of fact way, and walked back outside to the car. Warrick held the door open for Jade who headed over slowly, feeling herself slowly sinking into despair, but holding her head up for Grissom's sake.

                Reaching CSI headquarters they enter the building to loads of people greeting them, telling Grissom they're glad he's on his feet and happy to see him back at work. He merely gives them a small smile, staring at the strangers talking to him, but not saying anything back in return. Most of them don't notice but a few who knew him better gave him looks as he passed, knowing there's something wrong. Jade would give them smiles and nod, as if mentally telling them he's still not well, which they accepted. They showed him through the labs, at some of the evidence, down to the morgue, and the whole time he was completely silent except when he saw Cath, Sara, Nick, Jim or Al who he'd met a few times during his stay in hospital. Getting back to the lab she'd left Warrick in with Cath, she asked him what he thought.

                "It's really morbid."

He stated.

                "How do you mean?"

Jade asked.

                "Just that. You're all dealing with dead people. Why would you even want to go into something so morbid as to have to stare at corpses all day? I think it's funny that anyone would want to do a job like this."

Cath, Warrick and Greg looked shocked at the reply and waited to see what she said.

                "You did." She said quietly. "In fact there's a lot of people all over the country that went into this kind of work because of you. You made it interesting, fulfilling. After watching you at work, solving crimes, helping people have closure in death – I wanted to be here and do that."

                "So why didn't I just become a police officer. I'd be solving crimes there, helping people – and I wouldn't have to deal with corpses, blood or bugs."

Jade looked down at the floor, not knowing what to say.

                "You've been my role-model." Warrick told him suddenly. "If it wasn't for you I'd probably be dead through gambling because I'd got myself in debt with the wrong people."

                "And I'd probably have gone back to being an exotic dancer because I hadn't had you there to help me make it."

Catherine told him. She hadn't realised how different he'd become, not having been able to come and see him as much  as she'd wanted. He'd just hurt a lot of people with even realising. He'd become uncaring, scornful and it had shocked her.

                "There's something I didn't know. You had a gambling problem, and you used to be a stripper." Grissom said as if in thought. "Does everyone in this line of work have skeletons like that in their closet."

                "It's not like that!" Jade told him sharply. He turned to her. "We all got into this line of work because we wanted to help people in ways most others couldn't. We all had an interest in science and wanted to use it to help people. I wanted to become a CSI because of you. Because of my father. I wanted to help people have closure. "

                "Then you must be a really morbid person to want to do it this way."

Jade looked really upset at that remark and Catherine and Warrick looked shocked as they stared at Grissom. Jade stared down at the floor trying to compose her emotions. Failing, she said a quiet,

                "Excuse me."

And left the room.

                "No – wait – Jade!"

Warrick called after her as he followed her out. Catherine turned to stare at Grissom. He noticed after a moment.

                "What?"

He questioned.

                "That was way harsh, Gil. You should watch what you say around people, especially when you don't know the whole story."

She told him calmly, then turned and walked out, leaving him alone in the room.

                Meanwhile Warrick had caught up with Jade who had ran down the corridor, out the side entrance of the building and into the car park.

                "Jade – wait!"

He ran up behind her and, taking her shoulders, he pulled her to a gentle stop. She turned and pushed him away, trying to stop the tears falling. He stopped moving.

                "Oh Jade."

She puts her hands up to her face and shook her head.

                "It's not him. It's not him."

She stared sobbing. Warrick pulled her in and rocked her gently. From inside, Grissom watched through the window in the lab at the scene, frowning.

*****

Catherine was back at her desk working when Jade knocked on her door and entered.

                "Hey Cath, where's Gil? He has to get back to the hospital to rest."

                "Last time I saw him he was still in the lab."

Jade nodded and sat down. Cath could see something was playing on her mind and waited.

                "It's not fair."

She said quietly after a long silence.

                "You know he didn't mean it." Catherine told her. "He doesn't know what happened to your parents, remember that."

                "I know. It's just. Everything was going so well. Why did this have to happen to him? Now? He's such a strong person, I don't understand."

Catherine stood up and walked around the desk to sit on the front of it. Putting a hand on Jade's shoulder she gave it a squeeze, and trying to put it as gently as possibly, she said,

                "Sometimes the stronger they are, the smarter they are...the harder they fall."

She let this sink in before continuing.

                "He'll get better. It's going to take some time. But you need to know, need to face up to the fact that he might never be the Grissom we all know. You just have to be thankful that he's alive and well, and even if he never comes back to the job he's still around – and he's still your God-father and he's going to have to face up to that fact. He's going to have to understand everything that's happened between you two – you have to make him understand the bond you two had and he'll have to reform it for the both of you. But the only way he can do that is if he knows everything. It's going to be the same for all of us. Maybe not as much as the others but for you and me, it's going to be a long process."

Jade looked up at her, understanding her words, knowing what she had to do.

                "Thanks Cath."

She sat up and pulled her into a hug.

                "Your welcome."

Hearing a knock at the door, they pulled away and turned to see Gil standing behind it, looking in.

                "Come in Gil."

Cath told him. He opened the door and looked through.

                "Um...we should be getting back."

He said awkwardly. Jade nodded and stood.

                "Remember what I said."

Catherine smiled to her. Jade gave her a smile and nod back, then turned and left with Gil.

                He followed her down the corridors and out the main entrance, trying to think of something to say to her since she seemed to have nothing to say to him. As they reach the car he spoke up.

                "Jade."

She turned and looked at him.

                "Yeah?"

                "I'm sorry for what I said. It was wrong of me, it's just...it's confusing – I can't remember anything I've just seen. None of it makes sense and I guess it kinda got to me. I'm sorry if I hurt you. I didn't mean to."

                "It's okay. I should have mentioned some things to you that I haven't yet. I guess I'm still not ready to."

He nodded to that and got in the car. They drove in a more comfortable silence back to the hospital where she got him settled and left to get some sleep of her own.

Well, another chapter over with. I think I'm going to go and start the next one straight away while I'm in the mood. Laters people.