DISCLAIMER:Don't own it... No money made... Just for fun and enjoyment.
SUMMARY: Sequel to Displacement. The CSI team and their recently hired coroner Stephanie are back to work solving cases, sharing companionship and generally making their way through the dire world of criminal investigation with humor and friendship... This one will show the development of the relationship between Grissom and Sara and there should be some other surprises down the road as well. Romance/Drama/Angst/Mature Situations
RATING: M for Mature - I'm starting this one out at "M", since we won't be waiting quite so long for the smut this time out ;) Also, there is a sprinkling of language throughout the story.
A/N: Okay, I think you guys could use a little break... So, here it is... Sort of. ;)
REVIEWS: I am always looking for ways to improve my writing, and your reviews let me know if I am hitting my mark. Thank you in advance for the time you take to read & review this story.
Chapter 36
The garden, which once looked so alive, now laid in ruins, as the ravages of Fall had taken their toll. She always hated cutting away the chaff at the end of the season, but if she wanted the beauty to return in the spring, she had to do her duty.
Elizabeth MacInnerney had always been grateful for the hobby she shared with her daughter, and her green thumb was her gift to Stephanie. They had whiled away many an hour puttering around in the soil, and she cherished every minute of it. She thought of the first time her daughter learned about the magic of worms and gardening. She had combined her two great loves in that moment: flowers and bugs; her parents and her uncle.
With her daughter grown and off living her own life, the garden had remained, and Elizabeth tended it with great care. She had been entrusted with its safety when her daughter moved away, just as she had once been entrusted with that precious life.
As she cleared away the last remains of the sweet peas, she found their marker once again, and she smiled. Two precious lives. With her hand, she brushed away the soil and debris which had collected on the marker through another summer. And she felt the air catch in her throat as she was able to read the words once again.
Scientific Name: Lathyrus Odoratus - Blue Variety
Common Name: Michael's Whisperkiss Sweet Pea
Source: Bay Area Chapter – California Botanical Society
Progenitor: Stephanie Gayle MacInnerney, Berkeley, CA
Elizabeth remembered with great pride the day the botanical society presented Stephanie with the certificate signifying that her daughter had created a new, registered variety of Sweet Pea. She and Mac had been completely shocked as the president of the society read off the name Stephanie chose for her new creation. As the plaque was read during the ceremony in their garden, they both had cried.
Their children shared a special bond with each other from the very start. Stephanie had leaned over into the bassinet, holding her face less than an inch from her baby brother's, and then she jumped straight up into the air and began dancing around the room. When her Uncle Gil had asked what made her do that, she informed him that her little brother had smiled at her and gave her a "whisperkiss," and she was dancing, because she was happy that he liked her. It became their own little thing, and they would only share it with each other. When Michael started walking, he would find his sister sprawled out on the floor reading a book, or figuring out a puzzle, or whatever she was doing, and then flop down onto her. Before Elizabeth knew it, the giggles would seek out her ears, wherever she was in the house, and when she would find them, he would be holding his face close to Stephanie's and smiling, as he gave her his "whisperkisses."
None of them had any idea how Stephanie had come up with that term, but they all agreed it was a good name. So, when they first heard the name she had given to her deep blue flowers, they knew it was perfect and they cried. Their precious son would be remembered forever, because of a gift from their darling daughter.
When Stephanie made Elizabeth take her to the bank with the check from the Burpee Seed Company, her pride became unbound. The girl wanted to put it into her college fund, because she wanted to go to school when she grew up. When Elizabeth had asked her what she wanted to do by going to school, her daughter's answer made her heart swell. "I just want to make Michael smile down on me again, Mom."
As the memories flooded over her, she removed her gardening glove and brought her fingers to her lips, kissed them and then placed the kiss over the marker on the ground before her. To have been so blessed, twice in one lifetime, is more than any mother could have hoped for.
Elizabeth would have stayed, lost in time, for a good long while, but the sound of the phone ringing broke her reverie, and she cautiously rose from her knees to cross the ground to the solarium, where she had left the phone. Its insistent ring, urging her on, she spoke to the annoying sound, "Hold your horses… I'll get there, eventually."
She put her gloves down on the stone wall just outside the screen door and walked into the solarium. As she reached the phone, she almost thought she was too late, but she heard another's breath over the speaker, "Hello?" She smiled for a moment, recognizing the voice, at first. Then the voice took on a quality she was unfamiliar with and she was transported to another time and place, and then she was forced to ask a question for which she never wanted to know the answer. "Is she… I understand… The very next flight… What about T-… Yes, of course… As soon as I get there… If there is any cha-… Thank you, Sara…" The blaring of the dial tone shook her out of her stupor, and she quickly set about making her way to the airport. She was needed somewhere else. Her precious gift needed her somewhere else.
