A/N Sorry about the delay in posting as always life got in the way, plus there was so much I wanted to say in this chapter and wanted to get it right. Anyway happy reading and hopefully you guys will keep following the story.
They could tell as they walked down the hallway that the rumors had spread, Grissom was now officially the talk of the lab and this did not bode well for his reputation let alone the labs.
"I'll meet you in trace" Sara requested as she parted ways with Catherine. Opening Grissom's office she spied her intended target straight away, marching quickly over to the desk she grabbed the prescription bag of the mound of work it was perched on and placed it in her jacket pocket. Now it was time to join Catherine and hopefully get some answers.
As Sara walked into the trace lab, the look on Catherine's face said it all and by the looks of it, it wasn't good news.
"The acid on the face was run of the mill hydrochloric acid although it was a strong mixture most likely industrial, I picked up the tox screen on the way through to trace, seems like he had a drug in his system possibly a sedative, It really doesn't give us too much to go on" Catherine finished before her pager started to go off, looking down at it she cursed.
"We have to relate this case to Carvallo, he's waiting for us in his office". Catherine mentioned as she started to head towards the door
"What are we going to tell, him?" Sara asked as she walked in step with Catherine
"The truth, we're not sure who did it we'll just give him the evidence and that the case is still ongoing" Catherine replied as they reached the office door "Ready"
Grissom got up slowly out of bed, at least all he had now was a slight headache even though he was still physically drained from his little episode earlier, he had to get up to talk to his mother.
Long ago he got rid of is TTY phone and had everything hooked up to the computer so he sat down and started to dial. It took a few rings before it was answered with "Hello Gil" appearing on his computer screen.
"Hi mom, can you put on the camera I have something I need to tell you" Grissom typed on the keyboard.
"Sure honey, just give me a second"
His mothers face suddenly appeared on the screen, accompanied by a look of shock. Quickly she typed "What happened to you, are you ok?"
Damn, he'd forgotten about his black eye, well he couldn't just type this sort of news over the internet, he needed to do it at least with eye contact.
"Mom, there's no easy way to say this, Dad is dead, he came and saw me yesterday, he turned up dead a couple of hours later" He knew what he had just typed was harsh but there was no easy way to put it.
His mother started to cry, he hated even after all these years he could have this effect on her even from his grave.
"Don't cry, he doesn't deserve your tears" He requested
She stopped an sniffled typing back "I'm not crying for him, I'm crying for you, he was never a good father to you and I thought he might change, I gave him your address he came to see me a couple of weeks ago and asked for it, he said he was going to Vegas with a friend and while he was there wanted to make things right with you, I can see it's only made things worse, I'm guessing he's the one that gave you that black eye and now you're probably suspected of his murder, as you'd never ring me at this time of the day normally"
Always perceptive Grissom thought as he signed to her
"I'm sorry, mother , I love you so much, I just hoped he wouldn't hurt you even from the grave, you're right they suspect I killed him" Grissom sighed after this comment
"Oh, honey don't look so upset, you've always told me that you have a good team and that the evidence keeps innocent people out of jail, everything will be ok" she looked at son with such adoring eyes she still saw before her a little frightened boy never wanting to play with other kids his age just happy with his books.
"If it helps I have a phone number he gave me, just let me go look for it he said if I ever needed to get in touch with him to just call it" with that she got up from the computer and disappeared of screen, she returned a couple of minutes later and started to type.
"Here it is 555- 6789624, I don't know if it'll help any" She typed as she watched her son reach for a pad to write down the number.
After writing down the number Grissom placed his hands back on the keyboard.
"Mom, what was the real reason why dad left you never really told me?" Grissom inquired
"Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to ask those words again, The last time you asked me I believe you were ten" Grissom's mother thought back to a time so much simpler
"I believe your answer was, 'he left it doesn't matter why, just that he did', I gave up after that I thought maybe when you were ready you'd tell me and then after a while it didn't matter anymore" Grissom commented
"Your father and I were married very young, much younger than people in this day and age. He was handsome his wavy hair and such a charmer" his mother giggled as she remembered back all those years
" We talked about the future, where we'd live, if we wanted kids and that sort of thing, we wanted to travel the world so your father got a job as an apprentice at a shipping company, you see when we were young the only real way to travel was by ship, planes were expensive, so your father worked his way up the company so that we could go away together, he'd been working there for about a year and a half when I fell pregnant. We had decided we wouldn't have kids and if we did well it wouldn't be until we we're much older. He wanted me to get rid of you and when I refused he said fine but he still wanted to travel with or without me." She stopped typing then started again as if she'd just thought of something
"That was our first fight, seems silly now, anyway we made up he said his dream could wait and when you were born he was happy a little boy to carry on the name he could do all the things he didn't do with his father. The first few years went by fast and when you were four he was promoted, we could now afford and had the opportunity to travel like we had already dreamed of, unfortunately I found out I was going deaf the same year which stopped all his plans in a way. Funny thing is he didn't realize it was going until one day he came home to find you crying, you'd fallen over and scrapped your knee, wailing like a banshee you were in the back yard, I couldn't hear you and he realized." His mother stopped to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye
" Things started to go down hill, he'd never really had to do anything for you before Gil I was always there and when I suddenly wasn't able to do as much as he thought I should, he started to take it out on you making you do everything for yourself, pushing you harder than he should have at your age, punishing you for his problems, I don't know if you realized at the time the company was starting to go under, now not only was his wife going deaf but he was going to loose his job. The day we went to the doctor's and found out that it was ostreoscolosis was the day he treated us both differently me for being the less than perfect wife and you for not being a carbon copy of his himself, you see the doctor explained that you might of inherited my problem, plus the fact you were always more interested in playing with your bugs and science kit than football. Eventually he couldn't take it anymore well you know the rest he left and went to do the traveling he always wanted leaving us behind"
Grissom just sat there digesting everything his mother just relayed to him. He was about to type back but his mother stopped him. As she started to type again.
"It's not good to keep everything inside Gil, otherwise it'll just come out in one big explosion, just think about that over the next few days."
"I think I need to go now mom, I'll phone you tomorrow ok?" Gil replied then he signed 'I love you I promise to think about what you said'
'Love you too honey, talk to you soon' his mom signed back before turning off her camera.
Grissom needed to get out of here, he suddenly felt very closed in by his surroundings, talking with his mother had brought up some very dark feelings.
Grissom sighed and grabbed his jacket and keys to his car before exiting out the door.