Teens & Tribulations
Chapter 14
As usual Grissom went to work early and Sara arrived just before the start of shift. She walked into the break room and was greeted with huge smiles from everyone.
"Catherine."
"I'm sorry Sara. I couldn't help it, you know me."
"So, it's true. We're going to be uncles?" Greg asked enthusiastically.
She shifted her weight and smiled. "Yes Greg. You are all going to be uncles."
They were all gathered around her when Grissom walked in. "What's going on in here?"
"Hey, congratulations Dad." Warrick exclaimed.
Grissom smiled and stood up straight showing his pride. "Thank you."
After he handed out assignments, Grissom retreated to the confinesof his office. Sara followed.
"Gil?"
"Yeah."
She shut the door and closed the blinds. Grissom eyed her as she moved about.
"I forgot to have you give me my shot before you left. Can you give it to me now?"
"Sure." He replied with a smile.
Sara fished out a syringe and handed it to him. She undid the buttons on her jeans and slid them down on one side to expose her hip. His eye brows instantly rose. "I need it in the hip." She placed her hands on his desk and leaned over.
Grissom just smiled and took the cap off of the needle.
"Hey Sara..." the door opened. "...Oh. Am I interrupting something?" Catherine asked with a huge grin on her face.
Sara looked at Catherine, her face was beet red. "No, I just need to get my...Ow!"
"Sorry." Grissom said as he stuck her with the needle and injected the solution.
"I'll be waiting outside." Catherine said as she left.
Sara turned back to Grissom. "Damn, did you have to stick me that hard?"
"I wanted to make sure I injected it deep enough." He replied with a smirk.
"Right." She stood and redid her pants, and rubbed the point of injection through her jeans. "It's going to ache all night now."
"Glad I could be of service."
She smiled sarcastically at him and left.
The night went smoothly which relived Grissom. He suddenly had this profound desire to protect Sara in a way he had never felt before. He was deep in thought and barely heard Catherine's attempt to get his attention.
"Hey, Jack Handy. Penny for your thoughts?"
Grissom looked at her. "I was just thinking."
"And by the looks of your desk, that's all you have been doing."
He looked at the stack of files that had been there since shift started. "I guess I've had other things on my mind."
"Yeah. And I know what those other things are." She smiled, grabbed a file, and sat down. "Come on, Dad, I'll help you get through these."
"Thank you."
The two of them sat for two hours thumbing through the files, but with her help Grissom was able to get them all done. They chatted about little things while working. It was something he had not done with her for years. She used to join him after shift on several occasions for a nightcap and breakfast. He knew she was a true friend and would be there at a moment's notice to help him and his newly formed family, and he felt the same for her.
Sara was sitting on the couch in her pajamas reading when he arrived at home. Grissom looked around at his surroundings for a moment then moved to sit next to her, keeping his stare straight ahead.
He let out a sigh. "You know I was just thinking, our friends don't even know where we live. Well, I mean they know, but they are our extended family you could say, and they haven't even seen where we live."
Sara scooted over to snuggle next to him. Grissom turned his head and kissed her hair as she placed her head on his shoulder.
"Why are you having these deep thoughts all of a sudden?"
He let out another sigh. "I don't know. I guess it's something that Catherine said to me a long time ago. That people were making a family around me whether I like it or not. Now I'm making a family, and I'm shutting everyone else out."
"So, let's have a little get together one day. Invite the team over for a drink or something."
"I don't know if I like the idea of a bunch of people in the house."
"Gil..." She sat up straight and pulled him to look at her. "...You just admitted that they were like our family. You know these people better than they know themselves, but they hardly know you. It's not going to hurt to expose yourself a little to the people you care about."
She held his face but he adverted his eyes to the floor.
"I don't know what to think anymore." He said quietly.
Sara sat back for a second. "This isn't some kind of mid-life crisis is it? Cause if it is, you sure picked a hell of a time to have one."
"This isn't a mid-life crisis Sara."
"Sounds like it to me."
Grissom's eyes narrowed at her bluntness. "It's just that we are going through some big changes."
"And you don't think you can handle these changes?" She interrupted.
He paused not knowing if she was right. Not knowing what was right.
"Look Gil, I love you. Jason and Kassie adore you. You have been more of a father to them then they ever had." She took his hand and placed it on her stomach. "And this baby will love you too. I'm happy. Are you?"
The question hung in the air as his hand remained on her. He looked at his hand as it rested on her stomach, and struggled to swallow the knot in his throat. His brain told him that it was just a cluster of cells dividing over and over. But his heart told him that it was his child. It was a part of him and Sara that came together to create a new life. He raised his head and looked at her.
"Yes. I'm happy."
"Then why are you questioning your place in life now?" Sara inquired.
"I guess it's just that things are happening so fast. I just need a little time to sort through it all." He looked into her eyes and saw concern. "Sara, just please give me some time to absorb everything." She smiled and nodded her acceptance of his confusion. After all, he still was Grissom. "Oh, and before I forget, we have a court date in a week."
She gave a puzzled look. "For what?"
"We are petitioning the judge for the adoption of Jason and Kassie."
Sara looked surprised. "You sent that in?"
He nodded. "A while ago. It was something that I needed to do."
"Thank you." She said as she moved to embrace him.
They slept peacefully until that dreaded clock struck three thirty, then like clockwork, the front door opened. Both of them tried to ignore the offending noise but it soon escalated to a point where one of them needed to intervene.
"Shut up Kassie!" Jason screamed.
"No, you shut up. Jason and Lindsey sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g." Kassie chanted.
"Shut it!"
Sara rolled over and pulled the blanket over her head, indicating to Grissom the she wanted him to deal with it. He grunted his thanks as he climbed out of bed and slipped into his robe. It was the last thing that Grissom wanted to deal with right now, but he was afraid that there would soon be blood shed.
"Jason loves Lindsey, Jason loves Lindsey!" Kassie repeated as she ran around the living room trying to escape Jason as he chased her.
But he was quicker than her, and with a skilled leap over the couch he had her in his grasp. She screamed as if a predator had pounced on her, as he pulled her back into the couch. Kassie continued to scream as Jason was yelling at her to shut up.
"Why don't you both shut up!" Grissom yelled over the screams.
Jason rose off of Kassie and they both fell silent. She struggled off the couch and began her chant as she ran for the stairs. Jason started chasing her again as Grissom caught her by the arm halting her escape. He held out his arm stopping Jason in his tracks.
"Kassie, stop." Grissom said sternly. "Go to your room." He let her go and she continued chanting quietly with each step.
"Aren't you going to make her stop?" Jason protested.
"Sit down." Grissom pointed to the couch.
Jason stood firm in front of Grissom, crosssing his arms showing his demand for justice.
"NOW!"
At the escalation of the older man's voice, Jason suddenly felt as if he was four inches tall and quickly moved over to sit down. Grissom sat on the coffee table in front of him.
"Jason, you need to learn to ignore your sister. I understand that before you guys never had this much freedom. I'm sorry for that, but I don't see the harm in having a little fun."
"She's been chanting that on the bus the whole way home, just because I sit with my girlfriend." Jason let his voice rise with his anger.
Grissom's eyebrows rose with this newfound information. "Girlfriend?"
Jason let his head drop as he realized he might have said too much.
"Jason, Kassie's five, she's just trying to get a rise out of you and it's obviously working. You need to just ignore her. And as for this thing with Lindsey. We need to talk." Jason looked up. "Man to man."
Jason spoke quietly, "The towels?" Grissom nodded. "I'm sorry."
Grissom took a deep breath. How in the hell was he going to explain that masturbating was a normal thing? He couldn't count how many times in his life, let alone the years leading up to his and Sara's relationship that he jerked off, and he was a grown man.
"It's nothing to apologize for. It's a normal male response to stimulus. Because of your age the stimulus only has to be minor, like..." He paused trying to think of a way to word it. "...when you wake up in the morning and you realize that your bed is...ah...wet. Right?"
Jason could only nod.
Grissom took another deep breath. Damn this was hard. He hoped Sara was going to have a girl, because if he had to do this twice he would surely go insane. "Well that's normal too, for a male your age. You're not the only one that it happens to."
Jason looked up. "Did it happen to you?"
Grissom suddenly felt hot, yet he was barely dressed. He could only nod. "Again, it's caused by stimulus. It will pass, as you get older. As for the...uh... towels, that's normal too. For any male, regardless of age, it's normal, and not something that should be condemned." He paused wondering if he had said enough to get his point across, 'cause God knows if this was going to go into details, Grissom didn't know what to tell the teen. "Are you getting what I'm saying?"
"I think so."
He eyed Jason's facial expression thinking that he had not conveyed the point across very clearly, but enough to where it made sense to him.
Jason looked up at Grissom. "Have you ever...you know?"
Grissom looked at him knowing exactly what he was asking, but he didn't want to disclose that kind of information to him. So he decided to play stupid. "Have I what?"
"You know?" Jason moved his head slightly side to side to indicate his nervousness at the question.
"I guess I'm not sure what you are asking?"
"Yes, you do." They both looked over to see Sara standing at the edge of where the hall connected with the living room. "Stop playing dumb. He wants to know if you ever..." She paused looking for the appropriate slang term. "...choked the chicken?"
Jason smiled knowing that Sara got it.
Grissom looked at her stunned. "Choked the chicken?"
"It's a slang term for masturbate. You know, like jerk off, spank the monkey, jerkin' the gherkin..."
Grissom raised his hand interrupting her. "I get it."
"So answer the poor boy's question." She finished with a smile and remained at her post. She had to hear this.
Grissom turned back to Jason, but the feeling of Sara's eye's boring into his back was too much. "Are you going to stand there and eavesdrop?"
"If I was eavesdropping I would be unseen. I'm just waiting to hear your answer."
Grissom looked at his feet. Maybe the answer was down there. Not that far down, but in the same direction. He released the air he was holding and looked up at Jason.
"It's a normal action for any male."
"Yes or no?"Sara pushed.
"Why don't you tell him?" Grissom shot back.
"Fine." Sara said plainly and moved to sit next to Grissom. She put her hand on his leg as she continued. "I'll let you in on a little secret. Well, it's not much of a secret. Every woman knows that men masturbate. It's normal from puberty to the time you die."
Grissom turned red in the face and refused to look at either of them.
"Yes, Gil has masturbated before, and I'm sure he will in the future."
Now he was feeling like he had been dropped straight into hell as his body temperature continued to rise. Yet somehow he couldn't form words to stop this embarrassing conversation that Sara was exposing.
"In fact, I would be concerned if he didn't. On a biological sense, it's the body's way of expelling old mature sperm cells so that newer mature ones are first in line to be expelled to fertilize the egg."
Grissom couldn't believe he was hearing what he was. 'Please God, take away my hearing for the next day only.'
"And in your case, you are still developing these cells and it's just your body's way of getting ready for full maturity."
Jason was listening to Sara while Grissom was silently praying he could be struck down by lighting. It was 'the' most embarrassing situation he had been in, in his entire life. She was talking about his sex life with a thirteen year old.
"So, do you understand now?"
Jason nodded.
"Ok. But just remember; keep your distance when it comes to Lindsey. Catherine can and will kill you. Little stuff like holding hands, and kisses on the cheek is fine. Just don't think you need to have sex to grow up."
Again Jason nodded.
"Now, homework?"
He smiled and headed up to his room. Sara looked over at Grissom, who was still beet red and staring at the floor.
"I think that went well, don't you?" she asked.
He looked up at her. "At my expense."
"Well now he understands that he's not the only man in the world that does it, or even in this house." She gave him a quick kiss and left him sitting there as she headed for the shower.
I got lots of happy reviews last chapter because Sara was finally pregnant. And I know you are smiling after trying to picture Grissom talking to Jason. So, review and let me know if it made you smile or even laugh. I'm not the comedian thegreatbluespoon is, but I can be funny too.