A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, guys! Don't forget to check out 'Single Daddy', the companion piece to this. : ) Sorry for the shameless self-promotion. Please review!

Sara Sidle waited patiently outside the dressing room of Abercrombie and Fitch. Sara had never been the "popular" type that would wear these sort of clothes, and she felt a little out of place surrounded by all the beautiful young shoppers in the store. She examined some of the posters on the wall of food-deprived waifs looking sad and ravenous and realized she didn't care much for the images. But Mally was really into the clothes and she filled them out well as she emerged from the dressing room with a smile on her face.

"What do you think?" She was dressed in a pair of dark blue denim capris and a cute low-cut purple tank top, her hair swept up in a messy bun. Sara thought she looked beautiful, but knew if Nick was here, he'd veto the tank top.

"It looks great, Mal, but your dad said nothing too low, and that tank top doesn't leave much to the imagination." Sara admitted.

Mally smiled and threw her head back in frustration.

"But Sara, it's SO CUTE!" She begged.

"Mally, I don't have a problem with it, but you know your dad would have a fit and I doubt you want to be testing him right now."

Mally had a beautiful body, but Nick was a stickler about showing modesty at least until she got to college. He knew that she was already starting to turn heads with the boys, and he needed to keep her on a leash. Nick had raised her well, though, and he knew she'd never go about flaunting herself. It was the rest of the world he was worried about – that same world that had been so unfair to her so far.

"Can't we just buy it and then we can return it if he says no?" Mally suggested, her eyes pleading with Sara.

Sara thought for a few moments.

"Mally, he gave you $100 to spend. If you buy this and he says no, he probably won't let you spend the rest of it."

Mally gave a huge sigh and rolled her eyes, walking back into the dressing room. Sara knew she wasn't rolling her eyes at her, but at her dad. She ended up buying the capris and a more modest polo shirt.

"How about a break?" Sara suggested as they exited the teenage flesh-fest of a store.

"Sounds good." Mally agreed, but she also knew Sara was going to try to talk to her about 'important stuff'. The two women stopped at an ice cream store in the mall and then found a booth to sit at.

"Dad always takes me out for ice cream after dance recitals." She told Sara as they sat down. "Kind of a ritual. He would always let me wear my ballet slippers to the parlor too. He wouldn't let me any other time because he said it wore out the soles. But I would always sneak them on in the house when he wasn't home and pretend I was a real life ballerina." The young girl rattled off.

"And why did you give up ballet?" Sara asked, knowing she hadn't taken lessons since she was ten or so. She'd instead taken up jazz lessons. Her current instructor, though, was a college dance major and Nick hadn't been too happy at some of the dance moves that had been showing up in her routines. He'd told Sara multiple times that he wished Mally would go back to ballet.

"I don't know." She poked at her ice cream with her spoon, smiling.

Sara took a dare, remembering something Nick had told her a while ago. "Was it because of your mom?"

Mally's eyes shot up to look at Sara questioningly.

"What makes you think that?" She asked defensively.

"Well, your dad told me she was a ballet dancer. Did you always know that?"

Mally stabbed a little more at her snack. Her mother was a sensitive subject that she didn't talk with many people about. She really only talked about her with her dad, Catherine, and Natalie.

"You're right." Mally admitted, offering a half-smile. "I found out when I was ten she used to be a ballet dancer, and then I wanted nothing to do with it. I don't ever want to be anything like her." Mally shocked herself at how blatantly honest she was being with Sara. Wait, she was supposed to hate her.

"Have you ever met your mother?"

"No."

"Do you want to?"

"No. I mean, I don't know. I haven't decided."

There was silence for a few moments.

"My mother's been in prison most of my life." Sara admitted to the young girl. She was surprising herself also at how easy it was to open up to the female sitting across from her.

"How come?"

"She, uh….she murdered my father."

Mally's eyebrows shot up and her mouth gaped at the shocking news. Whenever stuff like that happened, kids tended to be really screwed up, but Sara had seemed relatively normal up to this point. How was this possible, she wondered. She decided it wouldn't be polite to push Sara into telling her more, but Mally really wanted to know the details. Not to gossip, but to understand Sara better. What the hell had gotten into her again?

Sara could tell she wanted to know more, but Nick had taught her well, not to push things that weren't her business.

"My dad was abusive and one night he came home drunk and started beating my mother." Sara said slowly. Mally noticed it was almost like she was in a trance, reliving that night that happened so long ago. "She finally had enough and she…stabbed him. I tried to stop her, but I…I was only nine."

"I'm so sorry, Sara." Mally said genuinely. She really admired how well Sara was doing coming from such a hard background. She must have amazing resilience and determination. Mally also realized her father probably knew all about this and about how much she had overcome. It must have been hurting him so much to see her be so cold and disrespectful towards such an amazing person. Mally really felt like an ass.

"Well, my point is," She began again, "Is that I made the mistake of basically shutting my mother out of my life. I was so angry with her for such a long time. We reconciled a while ago and I go visit her sometimes in jail, but there was a lot of time lost. I know you haven't really had a choice so far, but I just want you to know that if you want to find her….well…there are ways to get in touch with her."

Mally had really never considered looking for her mother. She hadn't heard from her since she left when Mally was two. Not one phone call, one letter, one card, to her knowledge. Caroline seemed to want nothing to do with her or her father. But now she wondered if Caroline was too afraid to make contact. And what kind of person was she, really?

"Thanks, Sara. I'll think about it." Mally said seriously. It was all a lot to digest and she would have to think about it a lot.

"No problem." Sara cleared her throat. "Now about that talk we were gonna have about Jordan…"

Mally giggled. "I was wondering if you were going to remember."

"Oh, I didn't forget!" Sara smiled back. "Mally, you are not going to believe this, but for a long time I had the hugest crush on the one and only Gil Grissom."

Mally nearly choked on her ice cream and had to cough a little bit to get it down.

"Uncle Gil!" She shrieked incredulously.

Sara nodded and smiled in amusement of herself.

"Yep. I had it bad, Mal. I just thought he was the coolest entomologist ever."

"You thought Uncle Gil was cool? Are you serious?"

"Stupid, I know." Sara admitted. "I don't know what I was thinking. But, you see, for years while I was crushing on your Uncle Gil, I missed what was right in front of me…your dad."

"You worked together for years before you started dating, didn't you?"

"Four." She cleared up.

"Your dad is the most patient, caring, loving people I have ever met. He knew he loved me for years but knew I liked Grissom, so he never made a move. Didn't want to butt in where he wasn't wanted. It took me a while, but I finally saw how much he really cared for me and how much I really cared for him back. And luckily, he was still there before it was too late and before I missed out on another good thing in my life."

"Wow." Was all Mally could say. Mally was a sucker for romance and whoever knew her dad was the king of it? How sweet! She'd have to tell her dad how great he was later.

"Now, I know you have this huge crush on Jordan, but is he treating you right?" Sara finished off the last of her ice cream and leaned back in the booth, looking at Mally.

Mally saw where this was headed. She knew Jordan didn't treat her right – he'd left her to fend for herself when the cops busted that party. But something in her warped teenage mind still made her want him. He was still so cute, and he just probably wasn't thinking straight. Maybe it was her fault and she was just being dumb. Mally sighed.

"I know he's not been great, but I still really like him, you know?"

Sara nodded knowingly. "Oh yeah. Do you know how many times I threw my feelings out there at Grissom? I was always giving, giving, giving, and he never gave me anything back. He just didn't want to take the risk with me, but for some reason I was okay with the way he was treating me."

Okay, Mally really thought her Uncle Gil was an ass right now.

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to bash your Uncle. I mean, obviously he was in love with Catherine all along. And it's all good now. He's got Catherine and I have your dad. And I couldn't be happier." Sara seemed to be glowing, and for the first time Mally could see that Sara really did love her dad and she was okay with it. And Sara loved her.

Natalie was sprawled out on the living room couch that Sunday evening, bored out of her mind and watching TV. Her parents were already at work for the night, and unfortunately, Lindsey had just joined her. Natalie stared straight ahead at the TV, not wanting to have any sort of conversation with Lindsey. After a few minutes of silence, Lindsey finally had to open her big fat mouth.

"Do we have to watch this?" She complained, commenting on the old "Full House" rerun.

"I was here first, so yes." Natalie tried to remain calm. "You have your own TV in your bedroom. Go watch something there."

"Natalie, I am not home very often. I don't want to be locked in my room. And I'm older, I think that trumps your elementary corny-ass show."

"Why are you being such a bitch!" Natalie finally sat up and glared at her older sister. She hated that perfectly blonde hair that all the guys seemed to go for. But Natalie had darker hair like Gil's – another reminder that she was his only real daughter.

"Ugh! Natalie, you're so immature, I can't stand it! Any normal person would not be watching 'Full House' of all shows on a Sunday night!" A/N: Full House rocks by the way, despite its overwhelming corniness

"Well, dad still watches it with me!"

"And, what? You think he likes it? He just has to put up with all your childish crap." Though most teenage girls wouldn't want to admit they still liked spending time with their dads, Natalie wasn't. She still thought her dad was some type of Superman who could fix anything, even if he did hate him a little sometimes. The comment stabbed Natalie in the heart.

"At least he wants to spend time with me. He couldn't wait until you were out of the house since you were so damn selfish!"

Natalie's comment hurt Lindsey just as equally. She was always so angry growing up without Eddie, her real father. She was angry until Gil came along. He was like a savior in her life, though she didn't act like it in high school. The anger came back then, and she took it all out on her parents with Gil in the hotseat. Lindsey was ashamed of the way she'd treated her step dad, and any reminder of that set her off.

With both girls' feelings hurt, emotions were stirring in the room and it was finally too much. Natalie threw the remote at her sister in anger and started to storm out of the room. Lindsey ran after her sister, grabbing her by that dark hair that reminded her once more she was Gil's real daughter. She spun her around and threw her on the ground, hitting and pulling at her hair.

"I hate you!" She screamed. "I HATE YOU! I wish you were never born!"

Natalie didn't say anything but fought back the best she could, tears streaming down her face. For the next few minutes, the two Grissom girls were a ball of hitting, screaming, crying emotion on the living room floor with no one to stop them.