A/N: I apologize for the late update of this story. It is posted on my site as well as all of my other stories. I will continue to update the chapters of this story here, however, for my other stories, Nights of Jasmine and A Time for Love, look for updates only at my website listed in my bio.
Reviews may be left for this story, here at ff.net, but please don't hold back from emailing me on my site for the other stories. I always like to hear what you think of them, whether good or bad.
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The video started rolling and it showed people leaving from what appeared to have been a baby shower. She and Shannon said goodbye to the last of the guests and then with Shannon still filming Sara, they walked into the kitchen.
Sara turned a couple of times to Shannon and told her to stop filming. Shannon could be heard behind the camera saying that it was a new tape and she wanted to get more on it before she stopped. Sara chose at that moment to get a piece of pie out of the fridge, but immediately dropped it as a spasm of pain coursed through her. "Shannon! I'm having a contraction again. Oh God that hurts." Sara then, slowly, in pain, leaned against the counter and ran her hand over her stomach.
Shannon still held the camera as she said, "Don't hold your breath, Sara, do your breathing. I think we better get you to the hospital. I'll get the car." She walked back down the hallway and you could hear in the background Sara yell out through gritted teeth, "Turn that damn camera off first."
The screen went blank.
When the picture came back, it showed Sara in a hospital room and a flash going off as she looked at the door. She had a grim face and sweat had drenched her hair. "Aunt Sophie, please no more pictures, the video is bad enough." She cried out as another contraction wracked her body.
Aunt Sophie sat on the bed next to her and rubbed her hand. "Breathe Sara, do your breathing, like we practiced. When did the doctor see you last?"
"I don't remember. It's been awhile, but the nurse keeps coming in to check on how far I've dilated. The last time it was only seven. He wants me at ten before we go into the delivery room. It's been what, seventeen hours, Shannon?
"A little more than that, but close enough. I'm going to go find the doctor and get him in here." Shannon and the camera had turned and you could only see a blank wall.
"No, you stay with Sara, I'll go find him." Aunt Sophie quietly stated, and then she could be seen leaving the room as Shannon had swung around to watch her.
Sara lay back against the bed and closed her eyes. "Shannon I don't know how much more of this I can take. It's too long. I'm so tired."
"Hey, Sara, it's okay, if the doctor isn't worried about it then you shouldn't. Just keep breathing and Sophie will get the doctor. Okay? It's all right. You're going to do just fine." Shannon soothed Sara as much as she could, but she was worried too. She just hoped it didn't show through.
"Promise me something, Shannon? If this goes all wrong, I need you to take the baby to Grissom. He needs to knowwwww, aaahhhhhh." The pain intensified and Sara had to concentrate on her breathing.
Aunt Sophie and the doctor walked in at that moment and he quickly walked over to check Sara's dilation. "Well, you're just about there. We'll get you moved to the delivery room. Ms. Hamilton, will you be accompanying Sara?"
"Yes, I was going to coach her and Sophie was going to finish the filming." Shannon could be heard saying.
A nurse came in at that time and the doctor instructed her to get Sara moved into Delivery. He then walked out, presumably to get ready to deliver the baby.
Shannon handed the camera off to Sophie as the picture went out. It came back on and now showed Sara in the stirrups and she was drenched again in sweat and was doing her breathing as she had practiced while Shannon supported her back as she bore down. Afterwards, Sara, through gritted teeth swore up and down about the man who put her in this position. "I swear to God that bastard is going to watch that damn video, uuuuhh, son of a bitch, for putting me in this much pain." Shannon grinned down at Sara, but then grimaced with pain as Sara gripped Shannon's hand harder as another contraction rippled through her.
"Okay, Sara, don't push, when you feel like pushing, hold it in." The doctor was watching as the head crowned. The camera then moved to show the head as it started to come out. "Okay, Sara, push, push now honey."
"Don't be calling me honey, you mother fucker." But Sara did so and let out another scream as she pushed hard and then she fell back against Shannon almost in relief and the baby made herself be heard. "Waaaa, wa wa waaaaa." The doctor quickly cut the umbilical cord and then held her up for Sara to see. Sara smiled tearily and watched them move away to clean her off.
"Well, she certainly has a set of lungs on her don't she? I wonder where she gets that from." Aunt Sophie was heard to say as she moved the camera to show the doctor holding the little red bundle and placed her on a table nearby to clean her up.
He firmly wrapped her in a pink blanket and then laid her in Sara's arms as Sara weakly held onto her. A moment later, Sara passed out. The doctor took the baby and passed her to a nurse and then checked Sara's pulse and her breathing. "She's okay, her heartbeat is strong. We'll keep a close eye on her in any case. She's just worn out. Why don't you and Sophie wait in the Waiting Room until we get her settled into her own room?"
"Are you sure she's okay? You promise me nothing is wrong?" Aunt Sophie gripped his arm. She needed reassurance that she wasn't being brushed off.
"She's fine, Ms. Sidle. She's been in labor for almost twenty hours. She's worn out. We'll get her to her room so she can rest. As soon as she is settled you can go in and sit with her." The doctor soothed Sophie as much as he could and then turned back to the baby.
Sophie and Shannon walked out of the room and the video went dark. It came back on and showed Sara waking up in her room with balloons and flowers and gifts strewn all over. "Hey, where's Laredo?" She caught sight of Shannon and asked weakly.
"The nurse is about to bring her in. I'm glad you decided on her name before the delivery." Shannon spoke while continuing to film.
Sara smiled faintly. She was visibly tired and weak. "Where is Aunt Sophie?"
"I sent her home to get some rest. She'll be here in about a half hour. So, how are you feeling?"
"I'm tired." Sara grimaced as she tried to change her position on the bed. "And sore." Once she was settled in her new position, she stated firmly, "I, uh, want you to keep that promise you know, the one about telling Grissom if anything happens. It may not have happened during the birth, but if in the future anything does, I want you to take Laredo to him."
"Do you think he'll want her?" Shannon asked.
"I don't know. But he will need to be told some time and he does hold some responsibility in this even though I made the choice to keep her." Sara said as she looked past Shannon and smiled. The nurse was walking in with the baby.
Sara had turned on her side slightly and the nurse placed the baby in her right arm and on the bed. Sara looked down at her daughter with the greatest look of love showing in her eyes.
During all of this, Grissom watched enthralled. Sara however watched his face like before and saw the shimmer of tears in his eyes as he watched his baby girl being born. The tape ended and Grissom drew in a deep breath to keep the tears from falling. Sara leaned forward and looked into his eyes as he did the same to her. "Bastard? Son of a bitch?"
Sara smiled. "Well at that moment you were." Grissom drew her into a big hug. "I wish I had been there to help you, but I would have been scared to death. I probably would have pissed the doctor off with my worrying."
"I think you would've done fine, Gil. It's different seeing it from a distance than actually being there." Sara grinned up at him and ran her fingers through his hair.
"You were really scared you weren't going to make it, weren't you?" Grissom asked, himself scared to get the answer.
"I was more scared at that moment for the baby. I'm surprised they didn't have a monitor on me to watch her heartbeat and pressure." Sara's eyes stared off into open space as Grissom could see her recalling the memory. "But I wanted to make sure that if I didn't make it that you would be told."
"Sara, I don't want to pry too much into Shannon's background, but why and how was she be able to stay with you and take care of Laredo while you've been in Vegas?" Grissom asked as Sara pulled herself up to face him. This was going to be a deep conversation.
Sara glanced away for a moment before speaking. "Shannon is my best friend and has been since kindergarten. We were always on the phone or seeing each other even through college and then when I moved back here we got to together often." Sara paused in thought, and then continued. "She and I were very similar, same studies in school and then when we graduated she took a different route than me. She went in the family direction while I went on to school and then into a career."
Sara stood up because she knew that the rest of the story was going to be hard to talk about especially to Grissom. "The day I called you ended up being the worst day of my life." She turned to look at him and then turned away again. "After you said what you did about kids and we hung up, I called Shannon to talk. Just as I was about to tell her about my conversation with you and tell her I was pregnant, her husband Jack came in and started yelling at her for being on the phone and then started hitting her. I could hear it and knew if I didn't get over there it would be bad, really bad. You see, Shannon was six months pregnant. Jack, well, he didn't want the baby. I knew that and so I also knew he wouldn't care what he did to her while she was pregnant so I grabbed my gun and rushed over there. She lived about two miles away so it didn't take too long to get there. I ran inside and found her hunched over on the kitchen floor holding her stomach and she was bleeding profusely down her legs. I knew it was bad. I didn't see him until he had thrown me down onto the coffee table and it broke."
Grissom felt the bile rise up in his throat at the thought of what she went through. He wanted to hold her but her movements around the room suggested that she needed to move and not be interrupted so he stayed still on the sofa.
"I immediately reached for my gun and told him to stop and back off, but he came at me again and I hadn't noticed until he got closer that he had a knife in his hand and had positioned it in the air to strike down at me. So I," Sara hesitated. She stopped her pacing and stared at the wall facing away from Grissom. "I shot him. Dead. It was a clean shot between the eyes. He just, he just fell, face down on me. I had to push him off."
Grissom stood as he watched Sara rigidly stand facing the wall. He gathered her in his arms, encouraging her to continue as he comforted her through the memory. "I went over to Shannon and checked on her. She wasn't good so I called an ambulance and then I called the station and told them what happened. The ambulance arrived first and took Shannon away as I waited for the police to show up. When they did, they questioned me and then let me go to the hospital to be checked out. Later, they questioned me some more, but they saw that the evidence fit what I said and they closed the case."
"Shannon lost the baby, didn't she?" Grissom knew from the bleeding that she would have miscarried.
"Yes." Sara whispered in response. "And at that moment, I feared for my own child and that was when I also decided not to tell you until after she was born. My mind wouldn't allow me to take that chance. You know? But then after she was born I couldn't tell you either. It was too hard, too much time had gone by for me to just call you up and tell you."
Grissom couldn't say anything. He read between the lines of what she didn't say. That she was scared he would've reacted in the same way. That he would have hurt her. He knew, in his heart, that she didn't really believe it. Grissom was sure that at the moment of seeing Shannon losing her baby she couldn't think of anything else. What could he say? "Sara, I'm here now and I do want her and even more so, I want you in my life. Always." He gently turned her around to face him. "Let's get you both back to Vegas and start that life."
Through her tears, she looked up into his beautiful blue eyes and smiled as she realized just how much she loved this man. "Yes," she simply answered. They then both walked with arms around each other down to the bedroom and slept the most peaceful sleep either of them had ever had.