Baby talk

By Dany

Summary: The insect house reveals some very interesting truths.

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The enclosures between the rodent world and the insect house were outer areas and all of them were constructed so that even small children could see inside.

Amelia remained patiently in her stroller, admiring the animals. Grissom tried not to let it show that his mind was wandering a different path by talking to the girl, explaining everything he knew about the animal at hand. A lot of adults would have been bored, but Amelia obviously liked to listen to Grissom's smooth voice, a trait she had in common with Sara.

They listened without interrupting him once until they reached the insect house.

Amelia began to squirm again, but this time it was not out of excitement. Sara noticed her restlessness and called out for Grissom. "I think Amelia needs something to drink. And maybe some crackers, too."

"Maybe there's a bench in there like in the other house." When Sara agreed with a nod they entered and started looking for one. In front of the mantis' terrarium they found a quiet spot to nourish the child. Her mother had packed a bag for her daughter and they found a bottle of tea and some butter crackers.

The girl reached for the offered goods and bit into the cracker before pushing the bottle on her mouth. The bottle stayed in her mouth until Sara was sure the cracker was already dissolving.

After she had made sure the girl wouldn't choke on her cracker, Sara took the chance and turned to Grissom, seeing an opportunity to finally talk to him away from everything. "Why don't we talk anymore?" Her voice was low and full of emotion.

At first, he kept looking straight ahead, showing no response, but after a minute of silence he answered. "We do talk," he insisted, but when there was no reaction from Sara he knew he had to be honest – with her and himself. "Because I made it uncomfortable."

And he realized he had. Sara had always been there, willing to take what he gave and he had let his own feelings, his fears, take a hold of them both.

He could feel her gaze on him, but he wasn't sure if she wanted him to explain or if she was about to say something.

She did. "We made it uncomfortable. I'm as much to blame. Maybe even more." She kept looking at him and wondered for the millionth time why he was making things so hard.

"I shouldn't have expected so much. I didn't want to be satisfied with what we had…" She wanted to continue, but her vocal cords locked and she couldn't speak anymore. The onset of tears was choking her up, which she fought of course.

Their silence spoke volumes as both tried to figure out how to apologize and fix it.

Sara was thinking about how to go back to where they had been, thinking Grissom was not ready and might never be, while Grissom wanted to show her that it was not only she who wanted to move forward.

It was Sara who broke the silence, although she hadn't come up with a solution yet. "So…we're both to blame. And if we want to talk to each other again, we both need to work on 'this'."

When they looked in each other's eyes, they were able to see the determination obvious in their opponent. A silent pact was made to do what Sara had proposed: 'work on this'.

The sound of Amelia's bottle hitting the floor made them break the gaze and focus on her again. She was showing a renewed interest in the animals that surrounded her and was squirming, wanting to get closer to see the preying mantis in front of them.

"So," Sara said while standing up to lift Amelia out of her seat, "do you want to tell me about all of your little friends or just the ones we can find in the vicinity of a dead body?"

Grissom picked up the baby bottle that had rolled to his side and put it back into the bag. Smiling he looked up at Sara who was now holding the child so that Amelia could look through the windows.

He was always surprised that she was always willing to listen to his verbal excursions. And her attention never wavered, whether it was relevant or not.

"We can look at the terraria and you can ask me when you want to know something." He was a bit disappointed when she shook her head, fearing that she already had enough of his company.

But he was wrong in his assessment, because Sara was not the least bit tired of him. On the contrary, she wanted to hear him speak. "No, I want you to tell me about them. I…"

She debated with herself if this was a wise idea to step over the line of friendship that they had just reclaimed. "When you share your knowledge with me, I feel…special, because you're giving me a gift. A part of you."

She blushed heavily, thinking about how stupid that sounded. But for her, him teaching her meant spending time together and getting to know him through the only way he let anyone get close to him. That was why she always to be his prize student; to be closer to him than anyone else.

She turned back to another cage, pointing out the insect to Amelia, while waiting for a reaction.

TBC

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