A/N: And now for a little bit of an announcement that will surprise the crap out of everyone except Leslie, who got the news over the phone almost as soon as I found out, and a few other select people, who got the news in a mass email:
I'M PREGNANT!
I found out Tuesday morning, and I grinned like an idiot all day long. Mark and I are so excited! So far I'm not sick, but I'm extremely exhausted. Check out the author's note for the last chapter—notice how I talked about how incredibly tired I was? Turns out that wasn't just from teaching!
Just thought y'all would want to know. And because the way I found out was so surreal, I'm going to make Sara find out in exactly the same way. :)
PS—This chapter truly DOES suck, and there will probably be a maximum of five more chapters on this thing before I wrap it up. It's really jumped the shark, and besides that, I have a feeling that quite soon, I'll have neither the time nor the energy for a long-running story!
Newlywed life was good. Very good.
Grissom and Sara had returned from their honeymoon, taken Lindsey skiing, and settled into the married life without a hitch. The ski trip had been a vacation to remember, with Lindsey proving to be a fantastic companion. On top of it all, Grissom had knocked Sara's socks off by proving that he could ski. It wasn't pretty, but he did it adequately. No bones were broken, everyone had a great time, and the three returned to Nevada with a newfound closeness that Sara hoped they would never lose.
No one was more surprised than Sara at the heartfelt joy she took in the simplest little things that happened as a result of being married. Answering "Grissom" instead of "Sidle" when her cell phone rang became a real treat, and every time she caught a glimpse of the shiny band adorning Grissom's left ring finger, her heart jumped a little.
She went off the pill, and the couple began to try in earnest to start a family. The only problem is that Sara never kept very careful track of her period, so she was never sure exactly when she was late for one. Her second month off the pill, around the time she thought she was supposed to start her period, she began displaying some odd symptoms. Her first clue was some unusually heavy cramping. 'Strange…' she thought to herself. She rarely cramped, and when she did, it was generally light.
"Gil?" she asked, walking into his office one morning. "When did we work the Anderson case?"
"Huh?" He looked up from his paperwork, his mind clearly turned to mush.
"The Anderson case. That simple B and E. When did we work that one?"
"Uhh…" He looked confused. "I think it was the 3rd. Why?"
"No reason," she lied, unwilling to get his hopes up. "I just needed to know when to expect my period again. Remember, I started it there at the scene?"
He wrinkled his eyebrows. "Yeah. Is that it?"
Sara rolled her eyes. "Yeah, thanks."
-
Sara sat on the bench in the locker room, mentally calculating. 'The third. That was four weeks ago today. I'm due to start today. Okay, I'm cramping, so I'll probably start anytime.'
She stood up, yawned, and smoothed her pants down, ready to go home and crash.
-
Crashing. That was Weird Symptom 2. While her husband stayed late at the lab to finish up that massive mound of paperwork, Sara went home and collapsed into bed—unheard of! When Grissom shook her awake ten hours later and she was still exhausted, her suspicion grew.
"Honey? Are you okay? Do you have any idea how long you've been sleeping?"
She swiped at her eyes with her fists, a habit that her husband thought was adorably child-like and angelic.
"Yeah, it's just been a rough few days," she lied again. "I'm fine."
She headed into the bathroom. No period. 'Whoa.'
She started counting symptoms on her fingers. 'Late for my period, unusual cramping, and extreme fatigue…yikes.'
Half an hour later she was showered, dressed, and ready to go. She poked her head into the bathroom and called out over the sound of running water, "Sweetie, I'm going to head on into work a little early. I have a few things I need to finish up. I'll meet you there, okay?"
"Sure thing, Honey," Grissom answered from behind the shower door. "Be careful. I love you."
"Love you, too."
-
Sara stood in the family planning aisle of the drugstore, overwhelmed by the choices before her. One-packs, two-packs, brand name, store brand—she had no idea what she needed.
After looking them over for a few minutes, she decided that the store brand tests were just as good as the brand names, and she selected a relatively inexpensive two-pack. She paid for her purchase, ducked her head in embarrassment as the clerk's gushed "Good luck!" and hightailed it out of there.
Twenty minutes later, she was safely locked into one of the stalls in the lab's locker room. She read the directions for the third time, ran the stick through her urine stream, recapped it, and placed it face down on top of the toilet paper dispenser while she finished her business. She stepped out of the stall and walked to the counter, hands shaking. She placed the test face down once again while she washed her hands.
"Positive results can be seen in as early as one minute. Negative results are confirmed in three minutes."
She looked at her watch. One minute. She couldn't stand it any longer. With trembling fingers, she turned the test over…
And was immediately confused.
The "control" window had a strong pink line, indicating that she had performed the test correctly. But the "test" window was…unclear. At first it looked blank, but upon closer inspection, there seemed to be an incredibly faint pink line there. She grabbed the instructions again.
"The presence of a pink line in the test window is a positive result, even if the line is very faint."
But this was too faint. This was so faint that she wasn't actually sure if she was even really seeing it. All at once, her entire body was shaking. She was breathing hard and pouring sweat.
'I need help. Catherine!'
She grabbed the test, stuck it up under the hem of her sleeve, and went in search of Catherine. She found her—alone, thank God—in the layout room.
"I need your help," she said in a trembling voice.
Catherine looked up in alarm, and blurted the first thing that came to mind.
"Are you injured?"
"No," Sara replied, and thrust the test into Catherine's face. "It's so faint," she said, dazedly. "I can't tell."
Catherine broke into a sly grin and grabbed the test. She looked at the line in the test window and then back up at Sara, her grin growing wider. "Yeah, sweetie. I think it's positive. You're pregnant."
Sara gasped and covered her mouth with her hands, her entire body trembling. Everything went a little fuzzy for a moment, and she leaned against the table for support. "I feel like I'm gonna throw up," she whispered, panting.
Catherine laughed lightly and began to rub circles on her back. "Just breathe deeply for a second—it'll pass."
Sara complied, and after a moment, the nausea passed, although the shakes remained. She was beyond dazed. "I have to go tell Gil," she said, almost absently. "Thanks, Cath."
"Wait, let me be the first to congratulate you!" she said, pulling Sara into a warm hug. "Now go tell the man he's going to be a daddy!"
-
Sara made her way from the layout room to her husband's office, although later, she wouldn't remember the short walk from one place to the other. By the time she got there, the gravity of the situation was beginning to hit her, and she had large tears brimming in her eyes. She pushed open his office door and he looked up from his laptop.
He was confused at her obviously emotional state, and he said, "Honey, what is it?"
Sara was unable to form coherent words, so she simply walked to him and handed him the test as she perched on the edge of his desk.
He took it from her and looked at it. He glanced up at her, back down to the test, back up at her, and down to the test once more as reality sank in. As she watched his eyes fill with tears, she finally mustered up the strength to say, "You're going to be a daddy…"
He had no words. None. So he simply dropped the test on his desk and opened his arms to her as he slid his chair back to make room for her. She moved from her perch on his desk to sit in his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried herself in him. As he smoothed her hair, his tears finally fell, hitting the side of her neck and slipping down to her shoulders. As he whispered, "I love you so much," Sara finally let go and allowed a single sob to escape. She pulled back and stared into his eyes, crying and smiling.
"We're having a baby!"