Trigger warning: Child abuse

Avery 9 years old

Grissom walked into the house, the smell of blood and alcohol immediately assaulted his senses. There were two male bodies in the middle of the living room floor both of them in piles of blood. Numerous drug paraphenilia and alcohol bottles laid around the room.

He looked at the couch and stopped short as he saw a small child sitting there. She was stick thin and completely covered in bruises. It was clear that she had been starved and beaten. She looked shocked as she stared at the bodies on the floor, her knees pulled up to her chest.

"What is that kid doing here?"

An LVPD officer glanced at him before looking at Avery also. "Social services hasn't arrived yet to pick her up."

Grissom gave him a look. "So, you left her in here to stare at dead bodies?"

"She isn't my job."

Grissom stared at him for a moment before he lightly shook his head and headed over to the kid on the couch.

"Hi, my name is Gil," Grissom told her as he kneeled in front of her. "What's your name?" The girl didn't answer him and just pulled her knees tighter to her small body. "Is one of those men your father?"

She shook her head. The girl finally looked at him and Grissom saw the fear and sadness reflected in her sapphire eyes. He also very distinctly heard her stomach growl with hunger.

"Would you like to go and get a burger or something to eat?"

He held his hand out to her but instead of her taking his hand she shrunk more in on herself. He pulled his hand back and gave her a friendly smile.

"We don't have to. I just thought that you might be hungry. I won't hurt you, dear."

Grissom could see the indecision in her eyes. She briefly glanced at the door sperating that room and the kitchen before she started to untangle her lanky legs. Grissom stood and took a step back as she slid off of the couch and offered him her hand. Anger swirled inside of him as he noticed the burn marks on the back of her hand.

When he had Avery settled into the car, he walked over to the lead officer as well as his boss to tell them his plan to take the child for food before dropping her off at social services.

The girl looked at him as he climbed into the car and took a steadying breath.

"Avery."

Grissom looked over at her. "Well, that's a very pretty name, Avery."

Avery 19 years old

"We're going to be late!"

"No, we aren't," Avery said as she came out of her bedroom of the shared dorm apartment. "The lecture doesn't start for ten minutes."

"We won't get a good seat."

Avery leaned against the counter as she pulled on her shoes. "You don't need a front row seat, Sara."

"Avery, let me say this really slow. This is Gilbert Grissom. He is one of the best forensic criminalist there has ever been. Gilbert. Grissom." Sara left the dorm.

"Yeah, yeah, Gilbert Grissom." Avery grabbed her bag from the floor and heaved it onto her shoulder, jogging to catch up with her speedy friend.

Grissom knocked on the door to Avery's dorm apartment. His face turned to a huge smile as he saw his daughter when she opened the door. Avery melted against him as soon as his arms were around her.

"Oh, I've missed you," she whispered against his chest.

"Missed you too," he answered as Avery ushered him inside the apartment.

Grissom cocked his hip against the kitchen counter as Avery stirred some pasta in a pot. He watched her silently for a few moments as she busied herself with cooking dinner. It was hard to believe that 10 years had passed since he had pulled her out of that house. He had learned later that the two men were her mom's boyfriend and ex boyfriend in a murder-suicide. Her mother had also been shot but survived. She was still serving a 15 year sentence for her drugs and the child abuse towards Avery which includes mental, physical, and sexual.

His heart broke as he watched the child devour the hamburger he had bought for her. As well as his burger that he offered her. Grissom had sat across from her at the diner and used the time when she was eating to examine her. Every bruise or scar he saw made him a little more angry until he had to calm himself before he went into a full blown rage.

Grissom hadn't wanted to drop her at social services that night so he had called and talked them into letting Avery spend the night at his house before taking her there in the morning. The range of emotions he felt as he say the absolute terror in her eyes when he led her into his bedroom. It took him a while to get her to understand that he didn't intend to hurt her and would be sleeping on the couch so she could be comfortable in the bed. Halfway through that night he had awoken to discover Avery sleeping on the floor beside the couch.

That was the point in time that he knew he wouldn't be able to let this child go. The next day he signed up to be a foster parent before eventually adopting her.

At times he didn't believe that the woman in front of him was that frail and sickly child. Avery had grown up to be a beautiful and confident woman who never let her past stop her from achieving her dreams.

"How has everything been going here? I saw you at the lecture next to that woman who kept asking all those questions."

Avery shrugged. "It's been okay. I'm still adjusting to not having you around all the time when I need you." She had lived at home for her first year of college before moving to the dorm apartments when Grissom moved to Las Vegas.

"I'm only a phone call or short plane trip away."

"I know that," Avery reassured him as she walked over for another hug.

"Please tell me that dinner is almost done. I'm starving!" Sara rounded the corner to the kitchen wearing nothing but a towel from being in the shower.

Avery pulled back from Grissom and smiled at the look of shock on Sara's face. "This is my roommate Sara," she told her father. "And this is my father, but I don't think introductions are needed."

"Your father? Your last name is Martin, I would know if it was Grissom."

"Which is why I am going by my non adopted name while in school. It's kind of hard to be treated fairly in the forensic world when you share a name with him." Avery lifted an eyebrow at her. "You might want to get dressed though."

Sara let out a small eep before she rushed back down the hallway embarrassed.

Dinner that night had been filled with Grissom and Sara talking about different forensic techniques, which is how much of the remaining years of college went. Avery had watched their attraction to each other grow as they met at various conferences and lectures as well as Grissom helping her with a few cases. That's how it stayed until he had called Sara to come and help the team.

Present day

Having the last name of Grissom was a huge thing in the world of forensics. A huge thing that also opened a world of doors. Unfortunately it also came with very high expectations, which is why Avery was studying a crime scene while eating dinner.

"How can you look at that and eat?"

Avery glanced sideways at Sara before she took another bite of the pasta dish they were having. "We see this every day. You know this would taste infinitely times better if there was some chicken in it."

"Gil's has chicken in it."

"Bitch," Avery muttered ignoring Sara's laugh as she looked back at the pictures in front of her. " What do you think would make this line here?"

Sara sat her food on the bed in front of her so she could lean over and look at the picture. "Maybe a weapon...pipe? What was the vic's COD?"

"Blunt force trauma to the head. A pipe was my first thought also, but I'm thinking maybe it's something else."

"Why?"

Avery shook her head. "Gut feeling?" She took another bite of her food, glancing up at the movie Sara had on the television. "Romance is not that easy."

"Truth."

"Seems to be going pretty well for you," she said pointedly looking at Grissom's shirt on Sara's body.

"After years of longing."

Avery shuddered and shook her head. "I don't think I'm ever going to get over my best friend and father dating."

"When are you going to start dating again?"

Avery gave Sara a hard look. "You know I don't have time to date." She flipped to another picture in the file still staring at the only spot on the floor that wasn't covered in blood.

"You have to make time," Sara told her as she continued eating.

Avery waved a hand at Sara signaling the end of the dating conversation. The next few minutes were spent in silence until the front door of the townhouse closed and Grissom's steps were heard coming down the hall.

Grissom walked into the room looking extremely tired. "I see I've lost my bed again."

"Sorry," Avery responded not looking away from her files. "Give me a minute and I'll go to my room."

"Are you staying here tonight?" Grissom asked as he hugged Sara and gave her a light kiss.

"I can, can't I?"

"Of course," he answered before he disappeared into the bathroom.

Avery started to pick up her papers and shove them into the file so she could go to her room and give the lovers some privacy.

"You don't have to leave this second," Grissom told her as he walked back out of the bathroom.

"Nope, it's okay." Avery gave him a smile as she stood up. "I have to get some sleep before work tonight anyways. Sara made this amazing vegetarian pasta dish. I can see you're really tired so you can have mine and I'll grab some more from the kitchen, that way you can rest." She handed him her bowl as she exited the room.

Grissom stared after her before looking at Sara. "She's acting weird."

"No, she's heading into the kitchen to get your dinner. That one has chicken in it." Sara was giggling as she watched his expression change.

"Oh no she isn't."

Sara's laughter increased as Grissom ran after his daughter, the girl's squeals echoing as they playfully fought over his dinner. Grissom returned minutes after the laughter had died down and grumbled as he grabbed Avery's bowl of dinner and dropped into the spot his daughter had abandoned.

"So, I'm guessing she won again."

Grissom smiled at his girlfriend. "Does she ever lose against me?"

Sara shook her head as she leaned over and gave him a kiss. "What was bugging you when you got home?"

"I got a call this morning that Avery's mother has a parole hearing tomorrow and for some reason she wants Avery there."

Sara mulled over his words. "Avery was what...9 when she last saw her mom?" Grissom nodded. "Does Avery even know?"

"I haven't told her yet. Her mom is a subject that we don't really discuss."

"Was the abuse really bad?" Sara asked gently seeing the distress on his face. Avery had told Sara the basics that led to Grissom adopting her but she never went into detail.

Grissom put his bowl on the table beside him. "Yes, it was bad. I don't know how much I can tell you without Avery's permission. She was barely 35lbs at 9 years old. She'd never been to school, couldn't read, couldn't write. The first night I had her she was terrified because she thought I was going to...touch her inappropriately. It was days before she said anything to me other than her name."

Sara rubbed his arm gently as a way to comfort him. "Are you going to tell her?"

"I have to," he told her. "I just hope that this doesn't break her."

The discussion died down as both started to get ready for bed though it wasn't a restful night of sleep for either of them.