Chapter 3

"Wow," Greg exhaled, sitting on the couch between Alex and Ed. They had just finished telling him all that they had learned while he was out of the room. "You guys are kidding, right?"

Alex shook her head and pointed at the picture Greg held in his hands. "That's definitely my mom."

"And that's definitely you," Ed added.

Greg shook his head in disbelief. "This is so weird."

"Tell me about it," Alex concurred.

"So, why didn't we see each other again after mom's funeral?" Greg asked.

Alex shrugged her shoulders. She was wondering the same thing.

"I can answer that," Ed stated. "Your grandmother was busy being a single parent. I was busy being a single parent. We had both lost important loved ones and, unfortunately, the other person just reminded us of those we lost. So we just lost contact."

"So, we left from the funeral and you and my grandmother never had any other contact?" Alex was trying to understand. She was also wondering if Ed knew of her teenage troubles. They were something she still hadn't been able to bring herself to tell Greg. Especially after everything else that happened.

"Not totally," Ed replied. "We still occasionally wrote each other, but the letters were few and far between until they just stopped."

Alex nodded. She was hopeful her grandmother had omitted her troubles. She figured Ed would have probably brought them up by now if he knew about them.

"Oh," Ed suddenly exclaimed. "How rude of me! Here am I am going on about your grandmother and I haven't even asked about her. How is Elizabeth?"

Alex was a little taken back by the question. Through all of their conversation, it never occurred to Alex that Ed didn't know Elizabeth was dead. Since he had known about the FBI and being a CPA, Alex was sure Greg had told Ed about her grandmother as well.

"Didn't Greg tell you?" she asked.

Greg put his hand to his forehead. "I'm so sorry, Alex. It never occurred to me to tell him. I didn't know they knew each other."

"Tell me what?" Now Ed felt out of the loop.

"My grandmother is dead," Alex told him.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Ed responded. "After meeting you, I was kind of hoping I'd get to see her again." After a brief pause he added, "Can I ask how?"

Alex took a deep breath. Even after all this time, it was still hard to say the words, especially when she was the cause. "She was murdered."

"That's awful!" Ed replied. "Did they get the person responsible?"

"That's a long story, Dad," Greg told him, seeing the pain in Alex's face.

"But the short answer is yes," Alex added. Apparently, there was a lot Greg had left out.

"Maybe you can tell him after dinner," Greg said. "I've got to go into the lab."

Alex gave him the evil eye. "What? I thought you had the day off."

"I know, I know," Greg replied. "But that was Catherine who called and she said the lab is swamped. I said I'd come in. Besides, Grissom's going in after dinner."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Like that's a surprise." She let out a sigh. "Ok, that's cool."

Greg gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "You're the greatest."

She playfully punched him. "And don't you forget it!"

Ed let out a laugh. "I can see why he likes you so much."

Alex smiled. Ed seemed extremely friendly. She couldn't understand why Greg hadn't seen his dad in so long. She was just glad that they would get to spend some time together. Finally something good had happened because of her.

After a couple more hours and some more conversation, the trio headed to the restaurant where they were meeting Grissom. The talking had done a lot to reassure Greg that Grissom and his dad might actually get along.

When they arrived, Grissom was waiting on them.

"Hi Gil," Alex greeted her father with a hug and peck on the cheek.

"Alex," he returned the hug, finally comfortable with her affection.

The four of them stood around awkwardly for a moment. Finally Greg introduced his dad, "Grissom, this is my dad, Ed Sanders. Dad, this is Gil Grissom."

Ed shook Grissom's extended hand. "It's nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you," Ed stated.

"Nice to meet you too," Grissom responded, not sure of what else to say. He really hadn't heard much about Ed.

"You have a wonderful daughter," Ed smiled.

"I think so," Grissom concurred. "Greg's very astute."

Alex smiled and rolled her eyes. That's a Gil Grissom compliment for you, she thought.

To the relief of all of them, before anyone else could add to the conversation, the hostess came up to the quartet to seat them. Alex was starting to have doubts about the dinner plans. Had she known Greg hadn't seen his dad in so long she might have moved meeting Gil to another night. It might have also given her a little more prep time for Gil. He looked almost as uncomfortable as Greg did. Ed seemed to be the only one not really worried about anything.

"So, we found out that Mr. Sanders met my grandmother," Alex informed Gil of their earlier conversation.

"Really?" Gil sounded truly interested.

Ed jumped in. "Yes. In fact, Alex's grandfather is the one who delivered Greg."

Gil raised an eyebrow. "What a small world," he mused. "I never had the privilege of meeting Elizabeth."

"Oh?" Ed responded. He really didn't know much about Gil and Olivia's relationship, only the obvious; they had conceived a child.

"I met Olivia in L.A. I never got to meet any of her family." Gil stated. Then, out of curiosity he asked, "Did you ever meet Olivia?"

Alex smiled a little bit. Gil rarely talked about Olivia. It was kind of nice just to hear him mention her name.

Ed nodded. "Once, but that was enough to recognize the resemblance between her and Alex."

Gil nodded once in agreement. He had always seen Olivia in Alex. "When did you meet her?"

"At her grandfather's funeral," Ed answered.

Alex jumped in, "You know that picture I have of mom on a beach holding a baby?"

Gil nodded.

"The baby is me," Greg interjected. He was feeling a little left out of the conversation.

Gil looked at Greg, who nodded. Then he looked at Alex. "So, I take that that the Sanders did more than just meet your grandparents?"

"Yeah," Alex responded. "They've met a few times, including mom's funeral."

"And Alex and I met at my mom's funeral," Greg added.

A smile crossed Alex's lips as another memory of the funeral crossed her mind. Greg noticed the smile and wondered what about the funeral would make her smile.

"Why the smile?" he asked.

She let out a little laugh. "I remembered something else about your mom's funeral."

The look on his face revealed his still present confusion.

Alex realized that her reaction was a little out of place and so explained, "At the dinner after the funeral, we were sitting in a corner and you kissed me."

A light bulb went on in Greg's mind. "I had totally forgotten!" Then, remembering the child kiss, a smile spread across his lips. "It was my first."

Her smile widened. "Mine too."