A/N: This will be done by chapter 20. I promise you. Writing shorter stories is a goal of mine, but it's hard 'cause I get engrossed in the energy of the epic. This is a long chapter. The rest should be as well. Lots of loose ends to tie. I admire those of you with the fortitude to wade through this whole thing. You have been great at encouraging me, and I love to hear from you.

Marlou did a wonderful job as beta for a long chapter. As always, I express my gratitude.

Sheila

Chapter 17

Hope Springs

Grissom took his mother to the Vegas conservatory. Rich, vibrant orchids filled the air with a light perfume. Cool air that eluded the hot desert city flowed through the greenhouse like a glass of cold lemonade on a hot, sticky day. Arm in arm, they strolled the lush gardens, the sounds of a bubbling brook filling the room. Olivia spotted a stone bench and led her son to it. They sat and she arranged herself so that she had his visual attention. Her elegant hands went to work. "Sara is lovely."

Grissom responded. "She is."

"So what's next?"

He blinked. "I don't understand, Mom. What do you mean?"

"What is she to you? Your roommate, Gilbert? Your friend? Your girlfriend?"

"I'm not interested in labels."

"Honey, you have this beautiful woman camped in your apartment with no idea of what comes next. Your second bedroom is still filled with your equipment and books. You have the crib stuffed in a corner."

Grissom chuckled. "Don't worry about space. I have some storage space in the basement. I was going to move everything down this weekend."

"And your child will sleep in a bedroom with sage green walls and brown drapes. His toys will be textbooks and microscopes. Where will Sara's space be? What about her things?"

"She seems happy."

Olivia smiled at her brilliant son. "She's in love. You are too. Both of you are living day to day. It's wonderful to see you this happy, but it can't go on forever. One day, she's going to wake up and wonder what it's all about, and you're going to look at her with a blank stare on your face."

He signed furiously at her. "We don't have to know everything right away."

She grabbed his large hands and spoke, "You have to learn how to have those conversations. Love is not enough. Relationships take work. You can't just hope it all falls into place."

He mouthed the words at her, "I can't risk it."

"You have to. If she's worth having, then she's worth fighting for."

Exasperated, Grissom looked away. Olivia reached over and pulled his face back. "When you want something to grow, you need to nurture it. Do you understand?"

He avoided her gaze.

"I'm going home now so you can do this thinking. Once the baby is born, call me and I'm on my way back here."

"You don't need to leave."

"Yes I do. I don't just sit around the house, you know. I have a gallery to run."

"You'll come when I call?"

She smiled at her son. "When have I not?"

Grissom swallowed hard, "How did I spend so much of my life clueless about relationships with you as my mother?"

"You're very orderly, son. You never absorbed it before because you never thought you needed it."

…………………………………………………………………………………….

"Of course, you can adopt alone, Sara, but that's not the point," hissed Mary as she struggled not to raise her voice. Around them, the relative calm of the coffee shop remained undisturbed by the growing intensity of their conversation.

Sara leaned as much of her pregnant girth forward as she could. "It's working, Mary. For the first time, it's working. We don't fight. I don't want to disturb it."

"Can I tell you how beautifully you just illustrated my point? The two of you are in a relationship without definition. How would Lucy fit in? Where would she belong? It seems you have a lot of work to do before you start taking in a new child."

"But, I feel like this is the right thing. He will love her, he already does—"

Mary pointed a short, stubby finger at Sara. "Uh-uh-uh, I am right and you are wrong, and the sooner you come to terms with that, the better. The child needs stability. You can't guarantee that."

"How long will you wait?" Sara sat back heavily in her chair.

"I won't. This doesn't happen on your schedule. This is only about what is best for Lucy." Mary sniffed at her cooling coffee and pushed it away.

Sara stared down at the empty bottle of water in front of her. Absently, she began picking off its paper label. "Am I the only one looking at Lucy right now?

"No," Mary replied softly.

Still staring down at the table, Sara nodded. "Tell me about them."

"Well, it's a pretty amazing opportunity for Lucy. They are a bi-racial couple who are well prepared for cultural and identity issues that Lucy might face in adolescence. The husband has a good job as an engineer, and the wife is prepared to stay home and raise Lucy."

Sara raised her head reluctantly. "They sound perfect."

Mary shrugged. "Possibly. On paper, they look great, but I haven't had time to really watch them with Lucy."

"So that's it then." Sara slumped in her chair, staring at a point on the wall beyond Mary.

Mary's eyebrows rose. "Really? Giving up just like that, huh?"

Sara snorted. "I can't compete with that. I don't know children. I am perfect for no child; not even the one I'm carrying."

"Then why did Lucy pick you?"

Sara's eyes watered and she rubbed at them. "What are you doing? Please tell me what you are doing. What do you want from me?"

"I'm not looking for perfect. I am looking for ferocious, selfless, pure love and devotion to this child. That, above else, will determine my next step."

Sara closed her tearing eyes. "Does it help you to know that she lives in my heart? Do you understand what I would be willing to sacrifice for her?"

Mary leaned over and grabbed her hands. "Sara, listen to what I am saying. Talk to Grissom. Have the hard conversations. Tell him what you feel. Find a future with or without this man, but find something so I can see you as a stable presence for Lucy. Do you understand?"

She nodded reluctantly. Before either of them could speak, a shriek sounded at the other end of the room. They turned their heads sharply to see a woman with a hand over her mouth wide eyed, watching the TV perched above the coffee bar. A yellow banner ran along the bottom of the screen. Sara couldn't read it from where she sat and so she slowly pulled herself to her feet. Other people also gathered around the TV, arms folded tightly, murmuring to one another. Sara squinted behind them and saw the ticker reporting another kidnapping of a child. It was the third in two months. Grissom had been double shifting almost every night for the last two weeks. Sara felt removed from it and helpless. This is what she knew how to do. Find criminals. But here she stood, swollen beyond comprehension, watching this horror unfold on a local news channel.

Beside her Mary whispered, "You don't have time to talk to him at all these days, do you?"

Sara wished she could say that this was the only thing holding her back. She chewed on her lower lip for a moment and responded, "Promise me that you won't take Lucy to the park until this is over. This guy, he goes to parks and snatches children in broad daylight. She's going to hate it, but she needs to stay indoors until this guy is caught."

"Do you have a profile on this guy?"

"Grissom won't tell me much, and no one else has much time to visit. We…they haven't found the children, and so his purpose isn't clear; although the purpose of stealing children is not often hard to guess. His pathology is beyond his control now. Grabbing children is becoming a compulsion." She gestured at the screen. "Here's a prime example; he took a child two weeks ago, and one another 6 weeks before that. The intervals between kidnappings is starting to close. He can't stop himself. Promise me that you'll keep her indoors, no public places."

"Yes," Mary said, her eyes glued to the screen.

"I should be there. It's where I belong. It's what I do." Sara chanted the words softly.

Mary saw the fever grow in Sara's eyes, and she felt like she was seeing her for the first time. Sara backed away from the TV, and went in search of her bag.

"You still up to seeing Lucy this week?"

Sara was digging for keys in her bag and looked up. "Please. Yes. I want to see her."

"Sara, take care, okay. I realize that you are almost due, but there's no reason to push yourself."

Sara nodded at Mary as she gathered up her things and hurried past her. Mary watched her go, shaking her head as she considered the staggering complexity of this woman. She cleared the table for both of them, and was getting ready to leave when her phone rang. She looked at the display and smirked, "Hi Grissom."

"Mary, I was calling to check on Lucy."

Mary rolled her eyes. "She's good. Do you want to see her?"

The other end of her cell was silent. Finally he spoke, "No, I don't think so. I was calling to make sure that you were taking precautions with her. There's been another kidnapping, another child about Lucy's age. Make sure the foster parent does not take Lucy to a public park. Understand?"

"Yes, I've already been given this warning."

Grissom sounded puzzled. "Oh, uh, okay."

"Everything's under control. She's fine."

Another silence and then, "Anyone interested in adopting her?"

Mary smiled. "Two possibilities, actually. A bi-racial couple is interested, and this is wonderful for obvious reasons, and then there is also a single woman who is interested."

"It doesn't seem like much of a choice, does it?"

"These things are complex, Grissom. Two parent families and cultural matches are always optimal, but there are other factors, more intangible ones. The single woman has many qualities that I like, and she seems quite connected to Lucy."

She could sense impatience in his tone. "Since when are two parent families not the best situation for raising children? Lucy deserves the best. What are you thinking?"

"Uh, right now, I'm thinking that I shouldn't have conversations about Lucy's adoption with you."

His voice softened. "I just want to make sure that she gets everything she should have."

"Good! Me too. Now let me do my job. I'm a lot better at it than you seem to think." She let him feel every bit of fury she held from working with abandoned and abused children for thirty years.

"Mary, I apologize. You have been a tremendous advocate for her."

"Yes, well, I'm doing everything I can to make the right choices for her. And, believe me, you have no idea how complex it has become. Tell me, Grissom, how do you feel about impeding fatherhood? You are only days away."

He chuckled. "Overwhelmed is the only word that comes to mind."

"Okay, Grissom, that's as good a place as any to start. Things are about to get a whole lot more confusing for you. My advice is that you consider new opportunities as blessings rather than burdens."

"I'm afraid you lost me there," he said and she could imagine the confused look on his face.

"It'll become clear to you soon enough I expect. I gotta go. Lucy is not the only foster kid I have and I need to make sure everyone is taking precautions." She clicked off her phone before he could ask any more questions.

…………………………………………………………………………….

Grissom looked up when Catherine leaned against his door. She smiled at him and walked in, not waiting for an invitation. She stretched out in a chair and narrowed her eyes at him. "This is not a good time for you to be working double shifts. She needs you at home."

He sighed and pulled his glasses off his face. "And if I don't work on this, another child might disappear."

She chuckled. "Gil, you are not the only one around here that can handle a crime scene. At least give us credit for the fact that you trained us, and, thus, we should know something."

He let out a puff of air. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like I think I do this alone or that I am the only one who can…"

She waved a hand at him. "Forget it. Let's return to the topic of Sara. That child is ready to burst forth, and as far as I can see, you're acting like nothing is going on."

Color rose in his cheeks and he tensed. "I am getting all sorts of advice these days about Sara, and it's getting a little tired. She and I will figure out what our relationship is when we are damn good and ready."

"Okay," Catherine appeared unmoved by the passion of his words, "but you are not very good at this, you know? If I were you, I would welcome the help."

He dropped his head into his chest and she waited until his face shot up again. "Okay then, what about a house? My mother says the condo is too small, and though I'm not aware of how much space a baby takes, I'm sure she is right. What do you think? Should I go out and buy a house?"

"For whom?" She seemed to enjoy his discomfort.

"For Sara…and me if she'll have me."

Catherine licked her lips. "Sounds like a commitment to me."

"So you think it's a good idea?" He leaned forward.

"Not particularly. Look Gil, the trick here is to learn how to work together with her and make decisions as a team; tell her what you feel. That is going to show much more about what this relationship is about than showing up with a key to a new house. Do you understand?"

He sighed. "The house idea seemed like a good one."

"No, it seems like the easy one. You do need a new place, but it's something that the two of you should do together, you know? You have to stretch some of these new relationship skills we've been dying to see. Sara doesn't care if she gets a house now or in six months, she just wants to know your heart. I think she's earned it, don't you?"

Grissom seemed poised to respond when Greg appeared in his doorway. "So I just saw Sara, but she went into Ecklie's office. When she gets out can you tell her that I'm in the garage processing the car we impounded, and would love to see her."

Greg disappeared again before Grissom could say anything. Catherine blinked her eyes in response. "Do you think he saw someone who looked like her?"

"Ah, Sara's pretty easy to identify these days." Grissom grabbed his glasses, got out of his chair, and headed down the hall with Catherine at his heels.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

Sara strode down the hallway of the lab as unobtrusively as possible, but her presence and size prompted whispers and looks. She waved at friends, but kept moving until she was in Ecklie's office. He looked up as she marched in, considered the available chairs, and settled for leaning against the back of one of them. She cleared her throat and said, "Ah, Ecklie, let me just say thank you for coming to my shower."

He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "You didn't much look like you were enjoying it."

She grinned. "Well, looks can be deceiving, and, actually, that's why I am here today. You got a big case: kidnapper, probable pedophile, and I'm not doing anything until this baby comes, and so I thought you might need some help."

He creased his brow. "What kind? Field work and lab work is out. Can't risk the liability with you at this stage in the pregnancy."

"There are lots of other things. I can process and tag evidence. Do research. Whatever you need. And best of all, I am offering my services free of charge."

"What's up? Grissom's cable TV on the fritz?"

She took a deep breath. "No, Ecklie, I'm bored and I'm a highly skilled forensics investigator, and, unless I miss my guess, you could really use some help."

He narrowed his eyes at her. She could see that he was in no position to refuse her and so she waited patiently for his response. "Limited hours only and since you are no longer an employee of this department, we hire you on an hourly basis. You work only if—"

"What's going on, Sara?" A stern looking Grissom was standing in the doorway.

She turned and regarded him for a moment. "I'm coming back to work."

"No you're not. You need to go home and rest until this baby comes."

She rolled her eyes at him. "First off, I have not been on bed rest since the 36th week, and second of all, I am not resting at home. I'm bored and I'm going to go crazy unless I find something to do."

"There are books to read, things to prepare." He moved toward her as if ready to take her by the arm and direct her out of the lab. Ecklie looked on with the intensity of a kid with a new video game.

She glared at him. "I have read 42 books on pregnancy, birthing, and parenting. The nursery is as good as it is going to get, and I can't even fit all the baby clothes in the closet. Ecklie hired me only for part time, doing nothing but processing evidence and research. I will not work more than six hours a day and it might help stimulate this baby to come out already."

He stopped moving when he saw the look on her face. "It's too stressful."

"You want to know stressful? Stressful is sitting in your condo, day after day, watching my body mushroom, saying little more than hello and good-bye to you, and feeling like that I have no purpose."

He closed his eyes. "I don't want you in the middle of this. I know you. It is one of those cases."

Ecklie raised an eyebrow. "If this is going to distract Grissom from his work, then I am going to have to turn down your offer, Sara."

"Please Gil." It felt odd using his name publicly like this. "I want to be a part of something. And the baby can come anytime now so it won't be for long."

"She can do it. It'll be okay. Nothing wrong with pregnant women working. If you remember, Gil, I worked until the day before I delivered." Grissom whirled around to find Catherine in the doorway, arms folded tightly across her chest.

"Catherine, if I wanted your advice—"

"You'd be too stupid to ask for it," she said.

"Can I throw in my two cents?" Ecklie ventured.

"No!" Catherine barked.

Ignoring her, Ecklie took a deep breath. "You know, Gil, if you want to make this work, you are going to need to give Sara some space to be who she is."

They all turned to stare at him. Ecklie sat there with a smug smile and his hands neatly folded on his desk.

"Conrad, please stay out of this," Grissom said.

"Why? He's making sense." Sara challenged, hands on her hips.

"Yeah, tell us why." Catherine added.

"My private life is not for public consumption!"

To her credit, Sara didn't blink an eye when he blustered. Calmly she entered the fray, "This is not your private life. It's ours."

"I know that. I'm just getting frustrated with all of this." He threw his hands out wide.

"Ecklie is right, Gris. You have to give me space. Let me be who I am. I'm not some recent acquisition to your collection. I'm not going to just sit around waiting for you to make decisions for me. You have to learn to negotiate."

"That's not how I view…I'm not trying to come off…" A frustrated Grissom trailed off.

"Nevertheless, the only thing standing in the way of my working here is you. You have no logic to back you up."

Grissom looked down for a moment as if in thought, and then he looked up and nodded. "Okay then, I'm going to leave in six hours and you are coming home with me. Tomorrow, you can come for six hours only. Do you understand? This is not negotiable."

She grinned and shook her head. "Of course it is. That's the beauty of it. It's all negotiable. But, for the record, I agree to these conditions, and will go home every day like a good girl so I can spend lazy afternoons in bed."

"Come on, girl. We have bags of things that need sorting." Catherine gestured at her.

Sara wrinkled her nose and smiled at Grissom as she passed. "You're not the boss of me, you know. No matter what happens between us, I will always be me."

Ecklie cleared his throat when they left. "Let me know if there is anything else I can do. I have years of marital therapy under my belt."

Grissom grimaced at his boss, fighting the urge to remind Ecklie that he was now divorced. Without another word, he headed out the doorway almost bumping into Nicky and Warrick walking toward him. They parted to let him by, turning to watch him go.

"Did you see Sara leave just before this? I wonder what's going on." Nick creased his dark brows.

Warrick leaned over to his friend. "I believe they call this Baby Mama Drama."

Nick screwed up his face. "Baby mama drama?"

Warrick shook his head. "Not like that. You gotta say it fast and hard like this, Baby Mama Drama!"

Nick arched a brow at Warrick. "You must really miss the 'hood."

Warrick rolled his eyes and started to walk off, turning his head to say, "Yeah Nick, I get all misty eyed when I remember the drive-bys and the drug deals on the corner."

Nicky let a grin grow out of one side of his mouth and trotted after him.

………………………………………………………………………………………

The drive home was silent. She wasn't intimidated by that. In fact, he had done a nice job of stepping back into the role of work colleague, and had let her work unhindered for her entire shift. She had gotten a taste of just how difficult this case was, and sympathized with his frustration. But she was distracted. Uppermost in her mind was the conversation they needed to have.

They got back to his place, and she still struggled for the right words. It was his routine to wash up quickly and go straight to bed, and so she was surprised when he made coffee and settled into the sofa. She lowered herself down beside him. He reached up and stroked her face. "I'm sorry for how I acted. I still have a lot to learn."

She leaned into his touch. "This is not going to be an easy transition for either of us."

"Sort of begs the question of where we are transitioning to."

His soft voice enveloped her, but she stopped the conversation she was so desperate to have. Her deception had gone far enough. "I, um…I saw Lucy Bell."

A confused look etched into his face. "I don't understand. Lucy Bell? You saw a picture of her? Did Brass give you one?"

"No, Gil, I saw her. I've been seeing her on a regular basis for the last 8 weeks."

He blinked. "I don't understand."

"I see her twice a week. I meet Mary Revoy somewhere and we talk and then I play with Lucy Bell."

"Why?"

"I forced you into this sacrifice and I needed to understand what I had done to you." She had trouble keeping eye contact with him.

He edged away from her.

"She's beautiful and sweet and I love her."

He launched himself off the couch and started pacing. "Uh, Sara, how did we miss having this conversation for 8 weeks?"

She licked her lips. "Well, I wanted to see her for myself. I…didn't want to put you through any more, and once I saw her, I realized that she was special and then I didn't know what to say…I still don't."

"You understand that it's impossible, right? You said so yourself."

She watched him pace. "I was wrong."

"Sara, she's already got a family lined up, and there's a single mother who is interested."

"Gil, I'm the single mother."

He stopped and stared at her, color rising in his face. "So that's what it's going to be. That's what you want!"

She realized that he wasn't reacting to Lucy anymore. "No, I do not want to be the single mother, but I didn't know how to have this conversation with you."

"Okay, Sara, what do you want?"

She spoke slowly. "I want you. And I want this baby. And I want Lucy. I want everything."

He stared at her, frozen.

"This is what always makes me afraid to have this conversation with you. The stone face. I can't read you when you're like this." She could feel the tears well up in her eyes.

"How can we do this, Sara? Already, we struggle so much, and we haven't even had one child." His voice grew soft and he collapsed into a chair across from her.

"Struggle is born of intention, Gil. It's a good thing. It means we want this very much." She searched desperately for the right words. "I don't know if we can make this work, but I want to try. You and me together is worth every ounce of strength that I have."

He swallowed hard. "Is it really hard for you to know what I feel? I try to show it every moment I am with you."

She shrugged. "You're not used to sharing yourself with others. I know you care and I think you love me, but beyond that…I really don't know."

"I worry, and I want to do all of this correctly. I realize that I sit on my emotions sometimes, but it doesn't mean I don't care."

She attempted to pull herself up off the couch, but one grunt later, she had fallen back into its depths. He smiled and came over to her. He grabbed her hands to hoist her up, but she jerked him down into the couch beside her. She reached for his face with both hands, and searched his eyes. "Let's do it, Gil. Let's fight for her. We're strong enough, smart enough, and we would love her so completely. I know it. Imagine what it would be like if we did this together. We could protect her from anything."

He stared at her quietly.

She licked her lips and tried again. "What do you want, Gil?"

He traced his fingers along her jaw line. "You make me believe that I can do this."

"You can."

Then he burst out with, "Sara, would you marry me?"

Her breath caught in her throat. "Are you really asking me that?"

He smiled. "I am.

"Why?"

"Huh?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Why Grissom? Tell me why."

"Because you are beautiful and brilliant and brave. I like your long legs and the freckles on your arms. I like your smile. Actually, I adore everything about your mouth even how you frown when you're concentrating on evidence. I like that your hair stays the same chestnut brown it was when I first met you." He took a breath. "I get lost in your eyes."

She started to respond, but he pressed fingers against her mouth. "You are so fierce. Such a fighter. You amaze me with your strength and your spirit. You make me laugh, and you make my heart ache. I don't know what else to say except that I can't seem to function when you're not here."

"Maybe you should see a therapist," she whispered, a tiny grin pulling at the edges of her mouth.

"I love you, Sara. I have never felt anything this strongly before, and, God help me, I don't know what I will do if you don't say yes."

She leaned in until her mouth was at his ear. "No."

Grissom deflated and pulled away from her. She reached for him, but he got to his feet and walked away.

"Not fair, Grissom. I'm trapped here on the couch; can't even chase you around."

"This is amusing to you, is it?" He began walking out of the room.

"Stop!" she ordered. He halted at the door, but kept his back to her while she spoke. "I can't marry you…now. It's too…stilted like we have to quickly get to the courthouse before I deliver. Or let's get married so we can have Lucy. I don't want that. Let's get married because we can't imagine any other kind of future or when we think it will make the relationship something more than it already is."

He whirled around and threw his arms up in the air. "Then what are we doing? You said you wanted this."

She shook her head. "I said I wanted you. There's a difference."

"Are we speaking the same language?" He pulled off his glasses in frustration and stood there.

"Ask me again when there's no pressure to do it. Ask me when you want to do it only because it's time. I will marry you, but let's wait until it's right."

"Really?"

"Hell, yes." She shifted so she could curl her legs under her bloated form. "Do me a favor and stop jumping around. Just come here and sit down with me. Please!"

He shook his head and allowed a chuckle to escape. He walked over and slipped down onto the couch with her. She searched his eyes. "Will you ask me to marry you again?"

"Guess you won't know 'til I do."

She raised a hand to hit him and he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into him. She allowed herself to rest her head on his broad chest. He held her tightly, stroking her hair while she listened to his heartbeat. "Sara," he whispered. "It doesn't matter if I ask you today or six months from now. The question's going to be the same. I'm not going anywhere. You see, I've got this crazy woman in my life, and a baby on the way. Plus there's this little girl that needs a family. So there's no way I'm getting away. And I'm pretty sure that if I tried, this beautiful…crazy woman of mine would track me down like a rabid dog."

"You bet your ass she would," she murmured into his shirt.

"So tomorrow, I'm going to call Mary and tell her that Lucy belongs with us."

She smiled and closed her eyes, content to stay in his warm embrace. "Thanks Grissom."

"Sara," he murmured, "we talked about the name."

"Get over it," she growled. "You're always going to be Grissom to me."

…………………………………………………………………..

Her back ached, and shifting about on the high backed chair did nothing to alleviate her discomfort. On the table in front of her lay the debris from the latest crime scene. Candy wrappers, napkins, and other litter were spread out in front of her. Sara turned to Warrick who was working at the other end of the table. "The scene was this dirty? What kind of radius did you use?"

He looked up. "Just the requisite; twenty meters in all directions from the point the child was taken."

"Doesn't this seem like a lot of litter?"

He leaned both hands on the table and considered her question. "There was an excess of litter at the other spots as well. Catherine thought that maybe the perp left it while waiting for the victim, but all of the scenes are out in the open, and I can't imagine that a man eating junk food out in the open among young children for any extended period of time would go unnoticed."

She shook her head. "I don't get it. Any prints on these wrappers?"

"Nope. Everything was dusted, and there are a variety of prints, all of them run down, but nothing ties one scene to another. Random. Kids. Mothers. Almost no adult men."

"Does it mean something?"

He turned his palms up. "I wish I knew. We're all operating on little sleep and gallons of coffee. I'm having a hell of a time concentrating."

She shrugged. "Could be a coincidence. Busy park. Maybe something is going on with maintenance. Who knows? Lots of parks are dirty these days." She winced and let out an 'oomph!"

His eyebrows shot up, but she shook her head. "No such luck. I have been having contractions on and off all week, but nothing serious. They time about an hour apart."

"When was your due date?"

"Yesterday," she groaned, one hand on her belly, the other bracing her back.

"Okay so what's the holdup?"

She chuckled. "This isn't on a schedule. He's coming when he is good and ready. Doc says if I don't deliver in the next week, he's going to induce me, and if my child waits that long, I'm going to hold it over his head for the next 30 years."

He gave her one of his lazy, warm smiles. "You're going to be a good mom, Sara."

She worried her lower lip with her teeth. "So let's not tell Grissom about the contraction. He drags me to the ER whenever I have one, and then we sit around for hours until they see me and then all they do is counsel me on not being so trigger happy and I cannot convince them that I'm not the one with the problem, but nobody listens to the moody, hormonal pregnant woman."

"Ah, okay, I guess. You do know what you're doing, right?"

"Yeah, it's going to be okay. You're going to be Uncle 'Rick any day now." She slowly straightened up and willed her focus back on the litter in front of her.

TBC