DISCLAIMER: Don't Own It. No Money Mad... Purely for fun and enjoyment
RATING: M for Mature. For language and mature situations in later chapters.
A/N: I was thoroughly corrected regarding one of my betas... She's in the EASTERN Time Zone :p Anyway, they are both pretty happy so far, and following my insomnia period, I am up to chapter 13 in my writing. Hope it's going over as well with the rest of my readers as it is w/ my betas.
REVIEWS: Thanks to all who have encouragement has been great and I think you all for the contributions.
Chapter 6
Grissom's black Denali was driving past the UNLV campus, on its way to make an unscheduled pickup from one of those quaint little townhomes, just east of the Desert Palms Hospital. When she had called and gave him the address, he was actually surprised to discover just how close she was going to be living to him in a few short weeks.
His goddaughter would be living within close proximity to the man who felt like he was mostly without family. And she was most definitely his family. He had known Stephanie since she was a toddler, barely out of diapers and already as smart as a whip.
When her father had first introduced him to his beloved daughter, he called him "Dr. Grissom." When she spoke her first words to him, he was unable to refrain from laughing at her obvious difficulty in saying his last name. Her lisp made it all but unintelligible, but her tiny little face was determined to get the word out. And when she scrunched up those emerald green eyes, to spit it out, one way or the other, Gil actually laughed out loud. The little girl, however, was not so amused. Her face was turning as red as her Shirley Templesque curly hair. That was when her mother came to the rescue, and proclaimed that seeing as he was the reason her father was absent most of the time, that she might as well call him "Uncle Gil."
The name had stuck, and before long, Gil actually felt like her uncle. It was no time before he was over for Sunday dinner every week, and was treated to the same questioning nature of this astoundingly inquisitive little girl. At her fourth birthday party, "Uncle Gil" got her a children's book on identifying the different kinds of bugs. He was surprised and delighted to discover the following Sunday that she had collected nearly every bug in the book and had them separated in little baggies and was, not so patiently, waiting for his arrival so that he could show her, as her father had promised, how to mount her new collection.
She was, in essence, his first pupil. Absorbing everything he told her like a sponge, he soon learned that those "age appropriate" books were simply not going to hold her attention any longer. By the time she had started first grade at the age of five, she was attempting to read some secondary school text books alongside her "Uncle Gil." By the second grade, she was learning high school biology, and had started reading poetry after "Uncle Gil" read to her from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for her bedtime story.
When she entered the ninth grade, about the time Gil was leaving for Las Vegas, she was already two grades ahead of the other children her age, having read nearly every piece of classic literature available, knowing more about biology and chemistry than the teachers at her high school and having a very observant eye, as well as a highly analytical mind.
She had taken to sitting in on her father's brainstorming sessions with Gil when they were working on particularly hard cases, and would run evidence with them, as well as working on theories. It was at that point that he and her father had started a bet about what her future career would be. Gil was convinced that she would be the head of surgery at a major hospital, and her father was sure she would be the first female Chief Inspector. And as usual, she was far exceeding both of their expectations.
When he pulled up in front of the address he had scribbled down on the piece of paper sitting on his dashboard, he took a moment to put a final note on his thoughts. Not only had she exceeded their expectations of her, but she had far exceeded their own lives. This girl had done everything she set out to do without fear and without regret. They had given her that ability, through their own bad examples. She grabbed life with both hands and fought for everything she wanted to do and be and was unapologetic for all of it. He did not think he would have given up everything to follow his heart as she had done with her planned move to Las Vegas. She made those plans without any certainty she would ever be able to work as a medical examiner again, purely because she had given her heart to that kid. That kid, he thought, was probably the luckiest man on the planet, because he had what Gil had never been brave enough to risk.
Just as his thoughts were threatening to take him to a place that he was usually afraid to go, there was a sudden knock on his passenger window that made him jump enough to hit his head and elicit a hearty laugh from the young woman on the other side of the glass he had just started to lower. "Sorry, Uncle Gil… I didn't realize you were so deep in thought." She opened the door to the car and tossed her garment and overnight bags into the backseat before hopping into the SUV and reaching for her buckle.
"That's okay… But let's say we avoid trying to give the old man his first heart-attack before the age of fifty, shall we?" Gil put the Denali back into gear and backed out of the parking space with the young woman shaking her head at him.
"Please! You are not even close to old yet." She turned back to face him as he navigated the SUV onto the street and pulled away from the townhouse. "Mom still calls you 'The Kid.' So you must be doing something right."
"She got that from your father… Elizabeth is barely older than I am." Gil was finding their banter very familiar and terribly comfortable.
"Not true… Mom had her sixtieth last year, so she's got what; twelve or thirteen years on you?" She had her face scrunched up into that childlike expression Gil remembered from all those years ago as she tried to wriggle the answer from him.
"You might be like your father in a lot of ways, but you do not have his interrogation skills, kiddo." They both laughed her attempt to get his age out of him.
"Hey, you can't blame a girl for trying…" She reached behind her to retrieve an envelope from her bag, "I'm flying out on United. And thanks again for helping out on such short notice. Thomas got called in to surgery after some kind of gang shooting broke out and the hospital got hit with six en route."
"Anytime, Princess…" Gil just realized that he had called her by the pet name they had for her when she was just a little girl, and he prepared for the berating he was sure would follow. However, when he dared to look over at her, she had a very contented expression on her face, but her stare seemed to be a million miles away. "You okay?"
"Yeah, just haven't heard that one in a long time… Not since the last weekend I spent with Mom and Pop." Gil was sorry that he had brought up the memory with his slip of the tongue, "Pop did the same thing you did… Slipped and called me 'Princess,' and for the first time since I had 'grown up' I wasn't mad about it. It felt pretty good actually." She just leaned her head against the glass and continued to look out the window into the nothingness. After a few minutes of silent driving, she turned to him and a smile spread across her face, "But if you use that name at work, I'm going to have to kill you… You know that, right?"
Then it was Gil's turn to smile, "Oh yeah… You do have your father's temper, and I never tempted that fate, so there's no sense in starting to live dangerously now." The two enjoyed the private joke they shared and the rest of the trip to the airport was uneventful.
He stopped out in front of the United door and took her bags out of the SUV before he pulled her into his arms for a departing hug. As she pulled away, she placed a kiss upon his cheek and tugged at his beard a little, "Mom was right, Uncle Gil… The beard does make you look like a professor."
"Is that a clever way of saying 'older?'"
"Not at all… Smarter." They both laughed again. She bent down to grab her bags, "Hey Uncle Gil… Do you think it would be okay if we kept the whole relationship thing quiet at first?"
He raised his eyebrow at her with that sly questioning look, "And the purpose of this would be?"
She shifted a little uneasily before she answered, "Well, I don't want anyone treating me differently because of who I am to you… I have this thing about standing on my own two feet, ya know."
He smirked at her answer, "Oh yeah… I know all about that one… Your father was furious when you turned down the admission to Stanford. If it wasn't for your mother intervening, you'd have been in a lot of trouble, young lady."
"Hey, how could I expect to get a fair break getting a science degree at a school where your mother is a tenured department head?"
He just nodded his head, "I understand… And I will keep it under my hat until you give me the high sign. Fair enough?"
She dropped her bags again and gave him a big hug this time, "Thanks, Uncle Gil… It really means a lot to me. I mean, it's bad enough Dr. Robbins already knows. I've already got some high expectations to live up to as it is."
"You'll be fine… And remember, if you change your mind, the offer to help you drive back still stands. It's a long boring drive and it is best done as a team." He gave her what he assumed was a fatherly glance, and hoped it would be well received.
"Not a problem… Thomas is flying out to help me pack and drive back to Vegas. It's all under control." Her smile was infectious and he flashed his own back at her before she grabbed her bags again and waved at him as she started for the terminal.
Now all he had left to do was wait two weeks… He was good at waiting…
