Greg didn't know he could love someone as much as he loved Sara…
Number 20 in the 'Ducks in a Row' series…
(after they move in… not done with that one yet).
…………
Greg truly had begun to treasure his nights off. Work in the lab and out in the field wasn't the same without Sara, and she wouldn't return from maternity leave for another three weeks. Work felt, well, lonely. He had gotten used to working cases with his wife, they had been partnered since the beginning of his training. He could honestly say, that he had only worked 4 scenes without her in his entire career, prior to her leave with Nora.
That was the other thing. His heart ached to be home with his new baby daughter, not out here trying to catch criminal scum. At first he tried to rationalize going back to work… Sara was more qualified than him, and she was home with the baby… Nora was fine. Besides, it became his mission in life to protect his precious child from the evils on the streets of Las Vegas by listening to their evidence and locking them up, one by one.
Yeah. That worked on the first shift.
Now, however, all he wanted to do was go home and hold his baby girl and kiss his wife. Stupid criminals leaving dead bodies all over Vegas. On his shift. The good thing about having to pair up with Nick, like tonight, was that Nick let him drive. But even manning the wheel of the sleek department issue Denali wasn't cheering him up tonight. Greg felt like whining and stamping his feet, all he wanted to do was go home and be with his family.
His family. He glanced down at the gold band on his left hand, and, despite his inner temper-tantrum mood, couldn't help but grin childishly. He had a family. They had a family. He had a wife, and a baby, and a little house in Henderson, and they didn't have a puppy, but they had a fence, and it wasn't painted, and it was only around the backyard, but they had it. Never had he thought that they would have gotten this far. And he certainly never fantasized anything as amazing as how his life had actually turned out.
He pulled into the lab parking lot, and he and Nick climbed out, gathering their kits and vests from the backseat, and shuffling in to toss their stuff in their respective lockers, and head home. He handed Nick the mountain of paperwork they had organized at the station with Brass.
"You out?" Nick took the file, ready to hand in to Grissom.
"Yeah. Can't wait to get home. Sara sounded tired when I called her waiting for Hodges to get over himself and process the damn paint chips." Greg shrugged on his jacket, and glanced at the window of the locker room, squinting at the first few rays of sunshine peeking over the ledge. Nick laughed softly, grabbing the keys to the drying room.
"How's my little Nora Rose?"
"Sara said she was really good, went right to sleep only a few minutes before I called." Nick smiled at his friend, finding the well-known fact that the man could not go more than four hours without talking to his wife ridiculously funny.
"Well, give her a kiss for me."
"I will. You heading out?" Greg bent and lifted his bag of paperwork over his shoulder.
"Nah. Got some cold files to sift through. Have a good night off, Greg. You need it."
…………
A half hour later, Greg opened the front door at 27 Harris Street quietly, in case Nora was sleeping. He stripped off his jacket, and tossed his keys into the bowl beside the door, pushing his bag off his shoulder and dropping it with a thud on the floor beside his feet. He wandered through the living room, kicking off his shoes, and leaving them there.
Sara had obviously made good use of Nora's nap, and had hung up most of the photos that had once stood on the makeshift 'mantle' at her apartment. The boxes that were marked 'Lindsay's Room' in Catherine's script were gone too, he assumed she had finished unpacking some of the hand me downs from Catherine.
"Sara?"
"Here." He heard her soft voice from the dining room down the hall. He turned toward the doorway to the dining room, and smiled broadly when he saw her step out into the hallway. "Hi! How was work-" Greg pulled her into his arms, and held her tightly, cutting off her greeting. When he let his grip loosen, she pulled back from him with concerned eyes. She placed a palm lightly against the side of his unshaven face, and frowned. "What's the matter, Greg?"
"Nothing, nothing. I'm just tired. I missed you. I hate working without you. I missed Nora." He smiled tiredly at her, and kissed her forehead. "Nick said he'd stop by Thursday night to see Nora, Catherine said that Lindsay is psyched to baby sit when we are ready for dinner and a movie, and Grissom said he'd call you tomorrow." Greg ticked off the list of messages to his wife in a concentrated manner.
"Thanks."
"Of course. You were busy." He opened his arms, and she snuggled into his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist as his lay across her shoulders. "You dismantled our mantle." Her soft chuckle into his sweater, and he smiled, pressing a kiss to her curly hair. He could never get tired of the sound of her laugh, no matter how tired he was from everything else.
"Did not. It's just creatively reorganized. I believe you were the one who did the actual dismantling of the mantle…you packed that box, if I remember correctly."
"Mmm."
"I finished Nora's room, as well. Warrick was here earlier, with Tina. She hadn't seen the baby yet. He helped me move your couch into the baby's room. There is no way that ugly thing was going in the living room. D'you want tea?" She smiled up at him, brushing curls out of his eyes.
"Yeah, sounds good. I'm just going to say hello to Nora." He smiled at her, and she brushed past him, back down the hall to the kitchen.
"Don't wake her up." He rolled his eyes at her back, and made his way further down the hall in the opposite direction from her. He silently opened the next door, and quietly entered Nora's room. He glanced back up the hall toward the muffled noises of the kettle being filled in the kitchen before entering his daughter's room and clicking the door shut behind him. Sunshine had started to filter in through the window, clothed in pale yellow curtains from his sister. Movement and soft baby noises from the little crib caught his attention, and he smiled broadly, quickly closing the distance between himself and Nora.
"Good morning sunshine." He leaned on the side of the crib, resting his head on an arm, dangling his fingers a few inches before hers. He grinned childishly at his daughter, stunned at how beautiful she had become, in the twelve hours he had been away from her. "Momma thinks you're asleep. Yeah. You're not asleep." He laughed quietly as she brushed his finger, latching onto it with her own tiny hand. "Uncle Nicky says hello." Nora gurgled pleasantly, wiggling, and cooing at her father. Greg straightened, leaning over the side of the crib to lift her from the bedding. "Momma's gonna scold me, say you have me wrapped around your finger." He cradled the baby in his arms gently, placing a kiss to her head of curly blonde hair. She kicked her feet a few times, and he watched as her eyes darted around the ceiling before making eye contact with him.
"How 'bout you and I catch up on the last half a day while Momma makes tea, huh?" He patted her diapered bottom, and made his way to his couch, settling down on it. He held her securely with one arm, as he moved a throw pillow to the armrest, laying back, propping his head up on the pillow. He laid Nora on his chest, holding her steady with his clasped hands loosely over her back. He kissed her head one more time, and grinned at the agreeable baby softly kicking his stomach.
"So I had a long night, lots of bad guys, but I put them in jail for you, so you can be safe." He closed his eyes, intent on resting for only a minute. He had to place his little Rosebud back in her crib before Sara was finished with the tea. "Oh Nora Rose. How I love you." He rubbed his thumb along her tiny back, in a soothing motion. "Eleanora Rosalind Sanders. That's an awful long name for such a little baby. I think you'll handle it well, though. You come from solid stock." He kissed her curly hair one last time, and settled into the couch, drifting off to sleep, exhausted from shift.
"Gregory." Greg felt a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him out of sleep. He winced; the sunshine had made its way to his eyes. He looked up to see Sara standing over him, an amused smirk across her features.
"Mmm. Sorry, I fell asleep." He shifted to sit upright on the couch, making room for her to sit beside him. He cradled Nora in one arm, accepting a mug of herbal tea from Sara. She curled up to his side, pressing a kiss to his shoulder, taking a sip from her own mug, and slipping her arm into his.
"I told you not to wake her up."
"I found her like that, I promise. It's like she knows when I come home." Greg grinned at Sara before taking a sip of the warm tea and turning his attention to their baby. Sara watched him as he became completely enamored with her every movement, her every gurgle. She sighed, rolling her eyes at him.
"Fathers and daughters." She whispered, and he tore his gaze away from the little baby in his arm for a moment to grin at her, and drop a chaste kiss to her lips.
"She fascinates me, Sara. She's you, and she's me, and she's both of us together, and out of that, she's her own little person. She's perfect."
"She's perfect because she's everything both of us could ever want, more than either of us could ever wish for, and she's ours."
………
A/N: thank you so very much for all the flattering praise in the forums and the plugs… your kind words have propelled the posting of this little segment, even when I probably should have been completing my screenwriting assignments for tomorrow… lol. A thousand thank yous all around. Definitely more to come, before the studies become too heavy…