SLOW BURN

~ Chapter 10 ~

Easing the Murano to a stop in the garage, Grissom shoved the transmission into park, pulled his keys from the ignition and, following Jim's advice to the letter, sat patiently waiting as the large metal door slid back into place behind him.

The first thing he'd noticed as he'd turned into Ridgehaven Court had been the dumpster's disappearance from the driveway, a sign that not only would they now have full access to their previously blocked garage but also that the renovation work that had been going on both inside and out of their new home was nearing its long awaited completion. The security system had been slated for installation next Monday and that, coupled with contractor's assurance that the fencing and planting would be completed before the scheduled water delivery for the pool on the Tuesday meant that, in less than a week, they'd truly get to call the house their own.

"Mommy?"

The hopeful voice from the backseat pulled Grissom's attention back to the vehicle and, locking eyes with his small son in the rearview mirror, he smiled brightly.

"Just a minute, bud, okay?" Shucking off his seatbelt, he pushed open the driver's door and swung his legs out of the Nissan. "I'll get you out in a moment."

He stretched his legs out as much as the open door would allow, flexing first one and then the other as he tried to ease the bone-deep ache that had been plaguing him since lunchtime; as much as he loved working in the field, there were times, like today, when it clearly didn't like him and, as usual, it was his knees that were letting him know it. With one hand on top of the open door and the other braced against the side of the car, he pushed himself up and then limped his way around the vehicle to the rear passenger door and his waiting son.

"There you go." With practiced hands he freed Ben from his child seat and lowered him down to the ground before reaching in to grab the toddler's blue and white striped bag as well as his own backpack before pushing the door closed with his hip and looking around to see exactly where it was the little boy had gone.

The sound of quiet giggles drew his attention to the far side of the triple garage and, making his way across, he narrowed his eyes in mock anger as he approached the collection of furniture and belongings that had yet to find their way into the house itself. "What are you up to, Trouble?"

Standing on the belt of Sara's large electric treadmill, Ben laughed in delight as he reached up with both hands and began pressing his fingers over the array of control buttons.

"It's got to be plugged in for that to work, you know, and after eight hours running around at daycare, I really doubt you need the exercise," Grissom told him with a grin as he grasped one of the wandering hands and gently swung the boy off the machine and back onto the concrete floor. "Now, come on, let's go find Mommy."

Pushing open the access door on the garage's rear wall, he stepped into the mud room and then let Ben run ahead, watching as the toddler made a beeline for the kitchen; the house was quiet and still but the faint aroma of cooking wafting about the place told him that the little boy was probably heading in the right direction.

Leaving him to it, Grissom made his way first through the foyer and then along the main hallway to his office where he left his backpack before dropping Ben's bag off in his bedroom for later sorting. It was as he stepped back out that he heard the sound of running feet as they quickly approached from the other end of the long house.

"No Mommy." Coming to a halt in front of his father, Ben shook his head as if to emphasize his point.

"Did you look everywhere?" Ignoring the pain in his knees, Grissom automatically dropped into a squat to match his son's height. "We know she's here because we saw her car in the garage, remember?"

He bit back an amused smile as Ben nodded his solemn agreement. Hide and Seek was Sara and Ben's 'thing' whenever he returned from daycare and, while she always confined her hidey-holes to either the kitchen or living room to make finding her easier for the little boy, he was clearly having trouble with this one.

"So she can't be too far away, right?" Ruffling the toddler's wavy hair, he winked conspiratorially. "How about you go back and look around again and if you still haven't found her by the time I'm done here, we'll search for her together, okay?"

"Me go!" Enthusiasm renewed, Ben's face lit up with determination as he spun on his heel and took off back down the hallway again and Grissom pushed himself up with a smile as he kept a close eye on the still somewhat unsteady gait of his two-year-old son.

He'd never really imagined himself with a child and even the knowledge that both the Grissom name and line would invariably die with him hadn't warmed him to the prospect of fatherhood; in fact, he remembered, even now, the relief he'd felt when, on the one and only occasion that the subject had arisen, Sara had assured him that she felt exactly the same way. Now though, after having been thrust into the role the way that he had been, he couldn't begin to fathom a life without his son in it and the knowledge that, in just a few short months, Ben's little brother or sister would be joining them filled him with a mixture of excitement and happiness that he'd never even known was possible.

A high pitched squeal of what he took to be victory sounded from the vicinity of the kitchen and, guessing Ben had finally located his quarry, Grissom turned to his left and continued on to the master bedroom. Rounding the king-sized bed and pausing only long enough in the doorway of the walk-in closet to toe off his hiking boots, he headed straight for the en suite bathroom and the large mirror-fronted cabinet situated above the double vanity.

Pulling it open, he stared for a moment at the full vial of Caduet that sat at eye level on the glass shelve before him, remembering instantly the message he'd briefly glanced at – and promptly forgotten – from the pharmacy that morning and made a mental note to thank Sara for picking it up; although they both got the automatic texts when his refills were ready, it was almost always her that made a point of stopping by and collecting them for him.

Sliding the small bottle to one side, he reached for the box of Motrin at the back and, popping two of the caplets out into the palm of his hand, quickly swallowed them down with a mouthful of cold water from the tap before making his way back out of the bedroom and heading down to the kitchen in search of his wife and child.

The kitchen was empty but he could hear the soft sound of voices coming from the living room and, after a brief stop at the refrigerator for a bottle of ice-cold water, he made his way around the large granite countertop and across the dark hardwood floor to the large fabric sofa.

"I see you found Mommy."

Straddling his mother's lap, Ben grinned happily around the chocolate chip cookie he was so clearly enjoying and Grissom returned the smile with one of his own as he ran his finger lightly across the back of his wife's neck and along her shoulder as he passed by. Rounding the end of the sectional, he dropped down onto the cushion next to hers before leaning in and pressing a quick kiss to her lips. "So, where were you hiding?"

"In the pantry." The corners of Sara's mouth quirked up in amusement as she watched him settle back and open the bottle of water. "I'd just gone in there to put some things away when I heard you pull into the garage so I figured it was as good a place as any." She stroked a hand over her son's hair as he munched the final remnants of his cookie. "He ran right by me four times before he noticed the door was ajar and came to investigate."

Finished with his treat, Ben pushed backwards in an effort to get down and, almost reluctantly, Sara let him slip off her lap and onto the floor before watching his every move as he headed over to his toy box.

Eyeing her closely, Grissom frowned. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Of course." Turning her attention back to her husband, Sara offered him a reassuring smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know," Grissom admitted. "You just look…" One shoulder rose in a slight shrug. "… worried I guess."

"There's nothing I'm worried about." Sara gave her head a quick shake. "Well, not really." She sighed and then smiled. "You know the feeling you get when you know you've forgotten something but can't put your finger on what it is? I've had that feeling ever since I got up," she frowned. "No, a little before that actually; I think it first kicked in when I was almost asleep."

"When that's happened to me, I've found the best way to deal with it is to simply stop trying to remember." Reaching out, he ran his finger lightly back and forth across her thigh. "The mind's a funny thing and you can drive yourself nuts trying to bring whatever you've forgotten back to the surface but the odds are you won't be able to..." He smiled and winked. "Well, not before two in the morning anyway."

"I just can't shake the feeling that it's something important though." Raising her hand to her face, Sara rubbed her fingertips over her temple. "Something that I need to tell you, I just…" She shook her head in frustration. "I just can't get it."

"Like I said, if it's going to come to you, it'll happen at two a.m. but if it doesn't, I'm betting that it's nowhere near as important as you think it is." Tipping his head, he studied her closely. "Did you get any sleep today?"

"A little," she conceded with a small smile. "Not as much as I'd hoped for but considering I had to contend with a couple of workmen who talk more than most women I know, putting in the posts for the pool fence plus the truck turning up to haul away the dumpster, I'm probably lucky to have got any at all." She held up a restraining hand when she saw him about to speak. "But that just means that I'll sleep even better tonight so maybe it's not such a bad thing after all." Deciding a change of subject was in order, she nodded in Ben's direction. "How was his day?"

"Good by all accounts," Grissom nodded approvingly. "No tears, no tantrums, he played well with the other kids and was helping to put away the toys when I got there so Michelle was really pleased with him." He sucked in a breath. "She does want us to keep an eye on him though; the little Fletcher girl, Paige I think it is, had to be picked up early because she became ill and someone…" He cocked his head towards their son. "… spent part of the morning playing in the sandbox with her."

"Oh great, just what we need." Sara rolled her eyes in dismay.

"Yeah," he agreed. "It came on quite suddenly apparently and they were waiting to hear back from her mother for a diagnosis but it sounds like a virus to me; vomiting, diarrhea, fever." He shrugged helplessly. "You know the drill."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now." Sara heaved a sigh of resignation. "That's probably screwed up our plan for a trip to the car dealership on Saturday though."

"We might get lucky," Grissom reasoned. "I mean, just because he played with her doesn't automatically mean he's going to get sick." He brightened. "And, if we do get to go, I thought we could maybe stop by that baby store over on Valley View." Moving his hand from her leg to her stomach, he caressed the gentle swell. 'Now that everything else around here is done, I though it might be time to start focusing on this one; so far, the only things he or she has got are a stark white, undercoated bedroom and Ben's old crib."

"I guess it is time we did something about a nursery, isn't it?' Sara conceded with a small smile. "Okay, we can at least have a look around and see what it is we're going to need." She elbowed him lightly in the side. "Of course, if you hadn't given all of Ben's baby things away we could have saved ourselves a small fortune."

"Hey, I had no idea I'd be going through this again, remember?" Grissom reminded her. "As far as I was concerned, Ben was a one-off so, the minute he grew out of something I found it a good home." He shrugged. "But, to tell you the truth, I'm glad that I did; this is our baby, honey, yours and mine, and it deserves to have both of its parents making decisions on what to buy, when to buy it and even what colors to paint the nursery."

She smiled, knowing all too well how important it was to him to share as many aspects of this pregnancy with her as possible. Having found out about Ben's impending arrival just a few weeks before his birth, he'd missed out on most of the things that expectant fathers got to experience and she'd promised herself, almost as soon as she knew that their child was on the way, that she'd do everything in her power to make up for that now.

"Well then, if we do get to go out, we could stop by Home Depot on our way back and pick up a couple of paint charts." Putting her hand over the top of his, she pressed it firmly against her belly, her smile widening as the additional pressure was answered by a tiny kick. "Then we'll see if we can agree on a color."

"You're on." Glancing at his watch, Grissom reluctantly pulled his hand away before cocking his thumb in the direction of the toy box. "You want bath duty or dinner duty?"

"I've already made dinner," Sara informed him with a self-satisfied grin. "I whipped up a zucchini slice plus a small salad to go with it and, if someone's a good boy and eats it all up, I might just be able to rustle up some ice cream for dessert."

"You hear that, Ben? Ice cream." He laughed as his son's head shot up at the words. "But, bath time first so put your train away for now and we'll go and grab your pajamas."

"Oh, before I forget," Sara called out as he headed towards the hallway. "Jim called this afternoon; apparently he tried getting you on your cell phone but it just kept ringing out."

"That doesn't surprise me; reception where I was today is usually hit and miss." He bent as Ben ran to him and lifted the toddler up, settling him securely in the crook of his arm. "Did he say what he wanted?"

"All he'd tell me was that he had some paperwork for you to sign." She narrowed her eyes semi-suspiciously as she watched him. "I tried pressing him for more but he was being kind of cagey."

"Jim and his secrets, huh?" Having decided to present his imminent firearms purchase as a fait accompli, Grissom opted to downplay his friend's comment. "It's okay, I know what it's about and it's nothing, really." He shrugged nonchalantly. "I'll give him a call after dinner."

"There's no need, I've invited him and Helen over for lunch tomorrow so he said he'd bring it with him then." She cocked her chin in Ben's direction. "Although that'll all depend on how someone feels in the morning, I guess."

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Pushing the little boy's hair back off his forehead, he felt for any sign of a temperature and smiled when he felt none. "Perfectly normal and it's going to stay that way too, isn't it, bud, after all, we've got a busy couple of days ahead of us; Jim and Helen tomorrow and then shopping for new cars and your baby brother or sister on Saturday." Turning towards the back of the house, he used his free hand to tickle Ben's tummy. "There's no way we're going to let some silly virus keep us away from all of that."

Sara watched them go, listening as her husband's voice became fainter the further along the hallway they went and hoped that what he said was true; she'd been determined to make sure that this time off of hers was as relaxing as possible – car and nursery shopping notwithstanding – but the thought of Ben being ill was something that she simply couldn't countenance at the moment, not when she had so much else on her mind.

Her inability to remember whatever it was that she'd been struggling to was disconcerting enough but the thing that was truly occupying her thoughts – and the thing that she was almost unreasonably afraid to admit to her husband - was the fact that she had absolutely no memory of her journey home from the moment she'd exited the pharmacy's parking lot until she'd found herself sitting in her idling Toyota parked in the driveway outside.

A/N: Thanks, as always, goes to SylvieT for the beta of this chapter... oh, and you got your way, my friend, there really wasn't anywhere else to put it. ;)