The results, Greg had said, were positive.
Chloe and Grissom were indeed related.
Reactions were different around the room. Sara just shook her head in disbelief. She saw and heard weird things all the time but this was one that definitely took the cake. Chloe suppressed tears of joy with a tight-lipped smile. A few trickled down her cheek. Grissom, on the other hand, just sighed and turned to her.
"I'm sorry, Chloe," he said. Then without another word or a gesture of welcome, he left the lab.
Chloe looked as if she'd been slapped. Sara didn't know what to say.
"I don't understand," Chloe said, wiping her eyes, though no tears surfaced. "I thought…he might be…why is he so…so frigid?"
"Well," Sara, the voice of experience explained, "that's just the way he is. He's a nice guy, but when he's cold like that, he's just being formal. Just being Grissom, really."
"But—"
"Chloe, he deals with people every day. People who kill; commit crimes. It's just the way he acts around strangers."
"I'm obviously not a stranger."
"But to him, you are. Maybe he just needs some time to get to know you, figure things out in his own time," Sara sighed. "Maybe he's being shy."
Chloe raised an eyebrow and when she did, Sara was overwhelmed at how much she looked like Grissom. "Shy?" she asked, "Miss Sidle, my four-year-old is shy. Mr. Grissom is being downright cruel."
*
He was staring at his jar of cockroaches. Head in his hands, glasses off.
"Grissom?" Sara stepped into his office slowly, carefully, like Odysseus trying not to awaken the slumbering Cyclops.
"Go away, please," Grissom mumbled.
"No," Sara said firmly. "Grissom, what was that all about? You didn't even look her in the eye. You shattered her when you made your swift exit and I was left picking up the pieces. She thinks you're some kind of monster now."
Grissom looked up sharply. "I did look her in the eye, Sara. And once I did, I couldn't anymore."
"Why?"
"Because all I saw…was Rose."
Sara slumped into the chair across from Grissom at his desk.
"Everything Chloe said was true."
Sara was stunned. She wanted to speak, but Grissom looked as if he wanted to say more. Sara feared that if she said anything, Grissom would stop and she would never know anything. Since Grissom was very secretive about his private life, him opening up like this was a milestone.
"Rose was my sister," Grissom began. "We were very close from the day she was born, but we were very different. We were, as my mother said, like night and day—I was night of course, being dark and secretive. Rose was day, with her sunny cheerfulness.
"I was newly six when she was born, after my parents' divorce. Mother called her 'the pleasant surprise'. With our father gone, I appointed myself her guardian. I followed her around when she learned how to walk, making sure she didn't hurt herself. I helped her with her schoolwork and taught her how to read.
"Rose was intelligent, but I didn't think it very wise of her to take up with George. Mother just plain didn't like him, but I knew his reputation. He'd been arrested on several accounts of robbery and DUI, and once on possession. I warned her time and time again but she spent a good amount of time convincing me she could change him.
"By this time I was working my way through college and came home on the weekends to watch out for her. It got so that I began to spy on them when they were together, following her. If he should touch her in the wrong way or raise a hand to strike her…I wanted to be ready to pounce."
Sara's eyes widened, trying to imagine Grissom beating the crap out of his sister's boyfriend, "So what happened?"
Grissom sighed heavily, "Rose found out that I'd been spying. She was livid. I'd never seen her like this before, pacing back and forth, her arms crossed over her chest.
"'How dare you,' she spat at me. 'How dare you follow me and spy on me? I can take care of myself. I don't care what you say or what Mother says.'
"I tried to explain that I was only doing what was best for her and she laughed in my face. She told me to leave her alone.
"'You have to let me go, Gil,' she scolded of me. 'You're not my parent. You can't tell me what to do and you can't tell me not to see George. He is my oxygen. I can't live without oxygen and I can't live without George.'
"When I saw her so distraught, I apologized for my rash actions and offered my services in anyway I could, as a 'big brother'.
"She asked if she could use my window to sneak out of. She explained that the slope of our roof was beside it, making an easier getaway for when she went out late to meet George. I unenthusiastically agreed. Mine was the last window she ever climbed out of.
"Reluctantly Rose and George became somewhat of a Romeo and Juliet. Every night Rose would sneak out of my window, whether I was awake or not and by morning she would be back in bed.
"One night our mother found out what Rose had been doing. It was the most furious I'd ever seen her. With her otosclerosis, she didn't speak much and preferred to sign, especially with Rose and I. But when I heard her screaming at Rose, I felt frozen. My feet stuck to the floor. Rose was crying hysterically, begging her to let her see George, but Mother was relentless. She kept Rose under lock and key after that. Rose lasted about a week without sneaking out to see George until one night, very late, she woke me up.
"'Gil,' she said, 'Gil, I have to leave. I can't stay in this hell anymore. I'm going away with George; we're going to get married.'
"I begged her to wait a year or so, until she was eighteen. Then she could marry George legally and mother wouldn't have any say.
"'No,' Rose protested. 'It has to be now. Now or never. I can't stay any longer.'
"Well, she said it so firmly that all I could do was unlock my window and go back to bed. I guess it wasn't until I awoke the next morning that I realized Rose was really gone. I recalled what she had said the previous night, that she had to leave now or never. I toyed with the possibility that the reason she was so eager to get away was that she might be pregnant with George's child. But I shrugged this likelihood off, thinking Rose wouldn't let herself get pregnant. But if she was, I couldn't help but agree with her actions—Mother would definitely have killed her.
"When Mother discovered Rose gone, she was very smug, claiming she would come crawling back within days. Mother waited for Rose every day for nearly two weeks…but she never came back. Eventually, Mother gave up waiting and convinced herself Rose was gone for good. She accepted and from that day on, she forbid any mention of Rose.
"And now here's Chloe…coming up to claim what her mother had lost."
Sara was nearing tears, "If what Chloe said was true, why aren't you accepting her into your life? For God's sake, Grissom, you have a family!"
"I'm not a family man, Sara," Grissom explained calmly.
"No one's asking you to raise her, Grissom!" Sara practically screamed. "She's a grown woman! With a child, no less! She's as lonely as you are, all she wants is a companion, not a guardian! Take her out to dinner, ask her questions about her life. I'm sure you're curious."
Grissom chewed on the earpiece of his glasses again, the taste of wax coating his tongue, mulling over what Sara had said.
Sara stood, infuriated at her supervisor. She was seeing red over how childish he was acting now.
"Fine," Grissom replied. He stood from his chair. "Set it up."
"Set what up?"
"It's your suggestion, Sara. Set it up. Make a reservation somewhere for a quarter to eight. Tell Chloe."
"But I'm—"
Putting on his glasses, he announced, "I have to find Catherine." With that, Grissom stalked out of his office, leaving Sara in a state of perplexity.
*
"Grissom! Hey, Grissom!" Nick Stokes jogged up alongside and tapped Grissom's arm. He turned sharply, nearly giving Nick a paper cut with the file he was holding.
"Yes?"
"Ah, Greg and I? We were wondering…"
"I don't want to hear any sentence from Nick Stokes that begins with 'Greg and I were wondering'," Grissom said, and kept walking.
Groaning, Nick continued to follow, "C'mon, Grissom, I already worked out today…can't you slow down for a sec? I'm gettin' a stitch."
"Nick, just talk. I can hear you."
"Well…there's a rumor. Is it true you have a daughter?"
Grissom froze and turned. He gave Nick one of those famous annoyed-and-baffled looks that were usually reserved for Sara when she said something stupid, "No."
"Oh…thank God…you stopped," Nick gasped. "Well, that's what's going around."
"Discourage the story, please, Nick."
"Oh-kay. I was just—"
"One of these days, Nicky, you're going to break your neck jumping to conclusions," Grissom gave Nick an icy stare and stalked off.
Nick didn't follow. Just stood in disbelief, hands on his hips.