Scheduling Some Fun
Summary: Response to the Unbound challenge
A/N : First and last lines are provided. Constructive criticism is more than welcomed. Set soon after A Break in Professionalism.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: The characters and situations in this story belong to Alliance Atlantis, CBS, Anthony Zuicker and other entities. Please don't sue me. You wouldn't like to see me sued. It would be a waste of time and money.
Sara raised a lone eyebrow as she watched the chaos unfold around her.
Five seven year olds and a fifty-something year old were frantically trying to keep a rather large tent from collapsing. The neighbor's dog, working on instinct, was herding them into a smaller and smaller circle when they should be pulling the ropes back. One of the kids, Justin, fell forward onto the tent. The dog proceeded to lick the fallen boy, sending him into fits of laughter. Another boy, Trent, went to save his comrade from the tongue bath but got caught up in one of the ropes and fell forward into the pile. The rest of the kids abruptly let go of their ropes causing the adult to fall back on his rear.
Sara laughed at the sight. Although it wasn't how she had hoped to spend the evening, her frustration was dissipating in the face of the commotion.
Her husband finally succeeded in catching the dog by the collar and walked him to the house next door. The kids, meanwhile, were trying to untie the ropes that became entangled in the fracas.
Her son, Daniel, saw her standing by the back door and waved a green casted arm at her.
"Hey Mom! We're practicing putting the tent up for our camping trip!" His wide smile showed no signs of distress over their obvious failure.
Grissom was making his way back across the yard when he locked eyes with his wife. He gave her an exasperated look and just shrugged his shoulders. He had been looking forward to spending this evening alone with Sara. Unfortunately, Justin's mom had been called in to perform emergency triple bypass surgery and Grissom was the only one free to lead the scout meeting. As if that wouldn't thwart their plans enough, Justin was apparently going to be spending the night. They might have been able to handle putting one rambunctious 7 year old to bed early, but two was going to be a near impossibility.
It took another half hour but the tent was finally up. High fives were exchanged all around.
Sara held the screen door open as the boys made their way into the house, each greeting her with a respectful "Hi, Mrs. Grissom." Her son straggled behind and wrapped his cast free arm around her waist whispering a "Hi Mommy." She resisted the urge to bend down and kiss him and opted for an equally quiet "Hi sweetie." She wasn't completely out of the loop when it came to being a reasonably 'with it' mom.
Once, when she noted that they were scheduled to lead and host three scout meetings within a two month period, Daniel admitted that his scout troupe rigged it that way. He said his friends thought it was cool that his dad worked with weird bugs and taught them how to make science experiments out of things in the kitchen. Plus, she was the only mom who knew how to make all the knots in the scout guide without looking them up, could do the high kicks like in the martial arts movies and carried a gun. She was both flattered and disturbed by what intrigued these kids.
A deep voice in her ear brought her thoughts back to the present. "Dr. Connelly had an emergency surgery. Justin's spending the night. We will…reschedule. I promise, it will be worth the wait."
The last sentence was punctuated with a peck on her cheek and a light squeeze of her ass. She gasped in shock at his brazenness and blushed.
"Alright men! Ten more minutes before your parents show up…ah, er, right except for you Justin," noting the blond boy shaking his head no.
There were some mild murmurings and wishes were expressed to extend the meeting overnight. He held his hands up to quiet them down. The last time they all spent the night, Trent tipped over a jar of crickets setting them all free, a hissing cockroach got caught in the Westfield's boy hair and the next morning Daniel fell off the monkey bars showing off to his friends as they left. His arm was still in the cast. Grissom himself still needed to recover from the stress of it all. His son's hopeful expression nearly broke him but the evening's events, coupled with the frustration of postponing the planned activities with his wife, sealed his decision.
"It will have to be another night guys. Justin is going to stay because his mom was called in to work."
"How about next meeting Mr. Grissom?" The Westfield boy asked, showing no sign of trauma from the roach incident. However, he did sport a new, closely cropped crew cut.
"Okay."
When the small crowd erupted in cheers, he realized they thought they could stay overnight the next meeting which, if memory served, was only a week away.
"I meant we could plan it at the next meeting." The smiles gave way to grousing.
Shaking his head, he led them quickly into the study to show them his new bug habitat. It was backlit and gave off an eerie glow. They were in quiet awe as the insects came into clear view from among the twigs and moss. It was the first time that evening he held their complete attention. Well, most of them. Trent was studiously avoiding the jar of crickets on the desk and Daniel was sticking the handle of a small net down his cast in an attempt to scratch an itch.
Finally, the doorbell rang. Within minutes they were all gone with the one exception.
He recognized Sara's slightly annoyed expression as Justin repeated for the fiftieth time that his mom wasn't coming because she was at work cutting someone's heart out.
She motioned to get his attention and signed to him 'It better be worth the wait!'
He raised his eyebrows at her and proceeded to sign to her all the things he had planned for the evening.
She cocked her head to the side and replied 'I can get the boys in bed within 10 minutes. Our play date is rescheduled in fifteen. You will need to be hydrated though. We'll be working up a sweat.'
His expression was absolutely priceless.
With a laugh, she tossed him a bottle of water.