Chapter Twenty-Four – Unrequited.

Harriet hadn't even bothered to ask Greg if it was all right for Rick to stay. She knew it was presumptuous of her but she decided she would treat it like it was her apartment as well for a change. She had spent a month living with Greg and treating it like she was a guest but she was paying rent just as much as he was. Besides, after the way he had spoken to her earlier, she didn't give a toss. Even if they spent the rest of their lives living in that apartment she wasn't going to give him the time of day. She supposed that was her stubbornness kicking in again but right now she had more important things to worry about.

She settled herself onto the sofa with Rick and Jake after getting Rick a stiff drink. She fixed herself one too for that matter. They had been lucky in that the apartment was no longer the primary crime scene and it had been released just in time for the end of the night shift. Grissom had pulled a few strings on their behalf and got clean up sorted for them too so they had nothing to worry about when they got back. Another bit of luck was that Greg had gone straight to bed without saying a word to anyone except to give Jake a quick hug.

'How's he doing?' Harriet asked, looking at Jake who was curled up on Rick's knee, as though he was about to drop off to sleep.

'I think he's fine, just very tired,' Rick laughed softly as Jake opened his eyes, aware that he was being talked about.

'No I'm not,' he said quietly.

'Yes you are,' Rick said, smiling.

'He's very stubborn,' Harriet said.

'Just like his mum,' Rick said and looked at her.

Harriet felt uncomfortable as their eyes met and was paranoid that he might kiss her. She laughed at herself and told herself not to be so vain although she knew that her paranoia wasn't totally unfounded. Rick had tried many times to get her to go back and for them to be a proper family but she had rejected him. He was a good guy and she didn't quite understand why he kept putting himself through that. Rick leaned over and placed his lips on hers. She closed her eyes for a moment, the kiss was reassuring but then she pulled away. The paranoia definitely wasn't unfounded.

'Don't,' she said, simply.

'I'm sorry,' he said 'But you know how I feel about you.'

Harriet sighed 'Why do you do it?'

'Why do I do what?'

'Why do you keep trying with me? I dumped you at the first sign of trouble and then left you holding the baby. I haven't done anything a normal human being would do, so why do you want to be with me?'

Rick smiled and then looked down to check that Jake was asleep. Despite his best efforts to stay awake, the little boy had succumbed to the need to recuperate almost instantly.

'Because I know you're a good person and you didn't do any of those things because you wanted to, you did them because you got scared, like any normal human being would do,' Rick said. 'Hell, I was terrified when you left Jake in my arms and just walked away. I might have been a grown man but I had no idea how to raise a child.'

'You've done a pretty good job so far from what I've seen,' Harriet said.

'I just got lucky; he's a great kid. He really is a lot like you, poor bastard,' Rick joked.

'Oi!' Harriet slapped him playfully on the arm but smiled anyway.

'That's something I haven't seen in a while,' he said. 'I always was a sucker for your smile.'

'How corny,' Harriet said. 'So when are you going back to England?'

'Trying to get rid of me already?' Rick asked, grinning.

'No, I just want to know how long it is before you're taking Jake back.' Harriet said, her mood dropping a little. She really wanted him to say never but she couldn't possibly expect him to give up his son for her.

'A couple of days I suppose, I don't know how long I can get away with being AWOL from the lab and besides I thought I'd stay long enough for Jake to go to this circus he's been going on about. What is that?'

'Oh, Greg said he'd take him to the circus to get Jake to look at a picture of Jenkins to identify him,' Harriet said.

'Smart move,' Rick said.

'If you say so, I asked him to stop pestering him and he didn't,' Harriet said with a frown.

Rick rolled his eyes at her and took a sip of his drink. Harriet frowned even harder at him, giving him a look that questioned what he was thinking. He smiled at her and shook his head amusedly before speaking.

'Greg's a CSI, he needs to get his case solved,' Rick said.

'At the expense of my son being more traumatised than he already was?' Harriet scoffed.

'It sounds like he did it very well, you can't honestly believe he cares more about his case than Jake? I saw how he was with him just now before he headed to bed, they've both bonded with each other,'

'I know, he has been very good with him but tonight he's been weird and I felt like he was pressuring Jake. I don't think he would have lost the case without the ID,' Harriet protested.

'Maybe not but he wanted to make sure didn't he?' Rick said.

'What do you mean?'

'I mean, Jake means a lot to him and he wanted to make sure there was no way that guy would ever be able to hurt him again.'

Harriet put a hand to her lips and looked at the floor. Perhaps she had been far too hard on Greg. Now she was thinking a bit more clearly, she could see Rick's interpretation made sense. But there had been no need for Greg to make a dig at her for not being a very good mother. She felt Rick lift her chin to look at him.

'Are you totally blind?' he asked.

'No, what are you talking about?'

'To say you could give me a run for my money on an investigation you're not very good at seeing what's right under your nose,' he said.

Harriet raised an eyebrow. She had absolutely no idea where Rick was going with this and she was totally confused. Maybe she was losing her touch and her investigator skills after all.

Greg sighed and turned over in his bed again before rolling over a second time and thumping the pillow. He couldn't sleep; he had so much going through his mind. Mikey Richardson on the floor covered in blood. Opening the cupboard door and a dead Jake falling out on him.

Even though that hadn't happened, the notion that that could have been the alternative was eating him up. And now Harriet and Rick were in the living room, probably making up for lost time for all he knew. He wished he didn't care but he did. He had totally blown anything with her after the comment he had made about her parenting skills. It was out of order but so was she and he had been angry at the time. Jake was alive and well and her mother's case was practically solved yet she had treated him like he was the bad guy.

He sat up and exhaled deeply. His head was pounding and he needed a drink. Quietly, he got up and tiptoed over to his bedroom door. He had been tossing and turning for ages, surely they must have fallen asleep by now.

Opening his door a crack, he glanced over at the sofa and saw Harriet leant against Rick; both of them were asleep whilst Jake was nestled in the crook of his father's arm also fast asleep. Greg walked quietly over to the kitchen and poured himself a drink of milk from the carton in the fridge. He walked quietly back towards his room with the glass of milk but stopped as he got near the end of the sofa.

As he watched her sleeping, curled up close to the father of her child, Greg felt defeated but wanted her more than ever much like a teenager that wants to be with someone they have been forbidden from seeing. The fact he couldn't have her was more difficult than if he'd had a chance. He sighed quietly and returned to his room. He supposed he would get over her eventually but he swore it was physically hurting him that he had lost her. As long as she was happy…who was he trying to kid? He'd much rather her be happy with him than anyone else.

Harriet lifted her head from Rick's shoulder and smiled. She was glad they had sat and talked. Things felt a lot clearer now. She was glad that Greg had thought she was asleep. She was also glad that he had stood briefly before going back into his room. It meant that she had hopefully made the first right decision in a long time. She kissed Rick on the cheek whilst he slept and then got up and went into her own room to sleep.

A/N - just thought we needed a bit of explanation about Harriet and Rick's relationship and what was going on with them. Not much else to report/explain or apologise for (other than the terrible writing but that's obvious!) Hee Hee