A/N Thanks to Michelle F., Michelle (Gabesaunt), Joan and Cybro for all the great beta work and advice as I slogged through all of this. It started with a few lines and ended up with this.
There were rumors. Little tickles of evil over every shoulder, taunting Sara for the fool she had played.
There was a girl. A very beautiful girl, apparently. She was younger. Younger than Sara, who had silently stalked after him for nearly a decade. Lab techs and dayshift talked over microscopes and as they passed reports back and forth. No one close to Grissom or Sara, the "field guys", joined in the gossip. But they didn't have to.
They whispered about Grissom and his lady love in the hallways and locker room. People that didn't know Grissom and Sara well, save for what seemed to be an unrequited love, relished the nasty bits of talk that snaked around the lab:
"She doesn't look a day over twenty-five."
"No."
"Yes."
"What's she look like?"
"Sun kissed and breath-taking and smells of patchouli. "
"What is she? She looks exotic."
"I have no idea. Could be anything? Brown though. More brown than the sun would allow."
"Dark ringlets down to her waist and sometimes tacked atop her head in a haphazard bundle."
"And him having strung Sara along for all those years. Wasn't she young enough?"
"Apparently not."
"Look at him grinning and walking around with his chest stuck out like an old fool. Handsome old fool but a fool nonetheless. Men. They have all the luck don't they. Thirty wasn't young enough for him, was it? No he had to go and get him someone young enough to be his daughter. Men. He is a handsome one though. Can't argue that."
"Well you know why he got one that new one?"
"Why?"
"Didn't you hear the other?"
"No…"
"They have a baby."
"What?"
"Yes. A little brown chunky thing with bowed legs and blue eyes and head full of curls.
"He couldn't do it with the thirty year old?"
"She's nearly thirty-five. Half her eggs are dead."
"There is that."
OOOOOOOOO
Sara stood at the door clutching the manila envelope. The rain was washing away her precise penmanship. She watched the ink stained rain run along the sloping sidewalk. It was cold or maybe it wasn't. For Sara everything was numb and cold and dark inside and out.
Terri.
Heather.
Now this child he paraded around town. This child who had given birth to his child. No, that wasn't fair. Who would star in her fairytale? Nick? Maybe Greg. Cowpoke science Geek or the weirdo hair science geek. Lovely choices really to replace repressed science geek. She had to get a life before there was none left to have.
The envelope was soaked now and the paper could not be read. She looked at her car, then back at the red stained door of the townhouse.
She knocked.
Immediately the girl-woman answered the door. Everything on her body rose where it was supposed to rise and disappeared where it was supposed to be. She was perfection. Just like how Grissom liked them. Full B cup, maybe a C cup. Flared hips and well-muscled legs.
Spicy aromas broke through Sara's cold. Sara inhaled. She was so hungry and tired and weak. So tired and weak. God, she was cold.
The woman peered down at Sara and smiled, chubby boy on her hip. She cooked. She had a baby. She did not work odd hours. She had not put off home and hearth for career. She stayed here in this cozy home, cooking dinner and having babies. The weariness of her drive pressed into Sara's bones. She had nothing. No baby. No man. A dark, bare apartment. Nicky. Warrick. Sometimes Cath. Grissom. Never again.
The boy mocked Sara with gentle grin and blue-black curls. You are no woman. No woman for this man.
Sara shoved the wet paper into the woman's hand and ran for her car. For her life.
She didn't hear the little boy call out a farewell, "Pretty lady."
OOOOOOOO
Thandie padded into the kitchen. She had tried to be a wake at the same time he came in. The house was silent.
Too quiet for a house with a small child.
She walked quietly through the house. He was sitting at the table with the boy. "You can't keep not waking me."
He smiled at her pleasantly. "We were talking man to man."
He looked at her eyes. There were four women he knew best in the world. They all had an angry look.
His mother shook her head slowly from side to side.
Catherine thrust her chest forward and narrowed her eyes.
Sara's full mouth pouted and her eyes squinted.
Thandie went blank.
"What did I do?" He asked, handing her the heavy boy. He was hungry. Grissom was tired. He couldn't resist a few minutes alone with the child.
"Sara was here." She nodded to the wet envelope that sat on the counter.
"She was?" Grissom darted to the counter and carefully opened the half dry envelope.
The boy watched Grissom intently. He mimicked Grissom constantly. Grissom made out a word here and there. He held the heavy stationary to the light.
Dearest Grissom,
The time has come that I have always known would come. It is time for me to leave the lab. It is time that I left Vegas. I know this is not a formal resignation. But then again, there is rarely anything formal about us. Thank you for everything. I don't want to talk to you, so please don't try. If you care for me in anyway, please don't try and talk to me. Thank you for helping me find a career that I love and people to call friends forever.
Sara
"What did she say?"
Thandie rolled deep set eyes and kissed silky curls. "What do you think she said? I tried to talk to her, but she just shoved this in my hand and left. You need to fix this. Don't come back until you do."
The boy nodded, laid his head on his mother's shoulder and waved at Grissom as she stalked from the room.
TBC