Thanks to all who are reading and leaving wonderful reviews. Humongous thanks to Just Thinking, damn girl you got skills. This chapter is so much better after she kicked my ass. And thanks to thegreatbluespoon, just wait, because of her this story is going to go into orbit. She's got ideas for everyone but herself, but we're working on that.

Teens & Tribulations

Chapter 28

The vacation progressed without another incident. Of course that may have had to do with the fact that anytime Jason expressed interest in spending time with a teenage girl, Sara quickly shot the idea down making an excuse about already having plans for the family. Grissom was still floored by the fact that Jason had had sex with a girl while they were on vacation. He figured after getting caught the first time, Jason would've been more careful. It was still bothering him that Jason was only fourteen and was having sex. The worst part was the fact that he was dating Catherine's daughter and seemed to show no concern about cheating on her.

It was late in the afternoon by the time they got on the road. Kassie was reliving all of the things they had done while in San Diego. Jason was enthralled in his iPod, and Sydney fell asleep in no time.

Darkness soon enveloped them, which was fine because the desert didn't provide much for driving scenery. When both Jason and Kassie had dozed off in the back seat, Sara decided it would be safe to have a private conversation with her husband.

"Gil," Sara said in a soft voice as she turned in her seat to face him.

"Hmm." He was casual, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.

"You need to talk to him." Her voice was still soft, yet insistent as she lovingly placed a hand on his forearm

"Who?" He looked at her slightly confused.

"Who do you think?" She pointed to the back seat. "He's heading down a bad path, next thing you know Lindsey will wind up pregnant."

"Sara, I've never been put in this situation before, just give me some time to think about it." He was beginning to get edgy, and keeping his voice down was getting to be a challenge.

"I'm just saying…" She was doing much better at keeping her voice down than Grissom.

He just gripped the steering wheel tighter and kept his focus straight ahead, indicating that the conversation was over.

All three kids were still sound asleep in the back seat as they approached the Vegas lights. Lights of another kind had Grissom exiting off of the interstate prematurely.

Sara was dozing herself, but when she felt the truck slow, she opened her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I just want to check this out." Grissom spoke without looking at her.

She raised her head to see the familiar flashing red and blue lights. "Are you kidding? Technically you are still on vacation," she softly admonished.

Grissom put the truck in park. "I'll be just a minute," he whispered as he climbed out and gently closed the door to avoid waking the sleeping brood in the backseat.

Sara sighed as she pulled the keys out of the ignition, and then it was her turn to quickly climb out of the truck and carefully close and lock the door. When she reached the familiar yellow crime scene tape, she was stopped by an officer she had never met before.

"I'm sorry ma'am; I can't let you cross the tape." The officer smiled, but his voice was firm.

"It's okay, I'm a CSI with the Las Vegas Crime Lab." She gave him a polite smile.

"Ma'am without proper identification I can't let you through."

"She's with me." A voice called out from beyond the tape.

As the officer turned around to look at Grissom, Sara dipped under the tape to join him. He took her arm and they walked towards the commotion.

"Gil, Sara, what are you guys doing here?"

"Ask him." Sara poked his side, still slightly annoyed.

"I saw the lights."

"And you just couldn't stay away from dead bodies any longer?"

"Nice to see you too Jim. Wanna fill me in?" Grissom pointed in the direction of Warrick and Catherine, who were processing the area surrounding a lifeless body that was sprawled out at the bottom of a ravine.

"A hiker found the body, called it in. So far she's a Jane Doe." Brass stepped away as an officer called for his attention.

Sara stood next to Grissom and watched the others work. "Did you see that?" She whispered so only he could hear.

"See what?"

"That!" Sara pointed down towards Catherine and Warrick.

Grissom watched intently as when Warrick moved around Catherine, his hand would rest on the small of her back as he passed her. With a slightly amused look on his face, Grissom glanced back at Sara.

"Come on, they've got it under control, and I'm tired. Let's go home." Sara stepped back and pulled his arm encouraging him to follow along.

The three younger occupants were still asleep when they got back to the truck. Careful not to suddenly wake anyone they climbed in before completing their drive home. Their exhaustion prevented them from bothering to unload the truck, well except for the sleeping bodies, before going to bed.

The next morning Grissom woke up to find an empty bed. He lifted his head and noticed a note on Sara's pillow.

Gil,

Went grocery shopping, I have Sydney but Kassie and Jason are still asleep. Maybe you can "talk" with him. I'll bring back breakfast.

Love, Sara.

Talk with Jason; she wanted him to bring up the incident in San Diego. Grissom rolled onto his back and put his hands over his face dreading the impending conversation. Sex, he was going to have to talk about sex again. Not his favorite subject of the past few months, especially when it involved his teenage son.

He climbed out of bed, pulled on his robe, and ventured out into the kitchen. Not surprising to him, Jason was sitting at the breakfast bar drinking a glass of water.

"Good morning." His son cheerily greeted him.

"Morning." Grissom said through a yawn as he pulled open the refrigerator door only to be greeted by nothing. "Good thing your mom went shopping."

Jason nodded before taking another swig of his water.

Grissom moved to sit next to Jason. He took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and begun. "What's her name?"

Jason only lifted his head. "Who?"

"The girl from San Diego."

"Oh, the one I was always hanging out with?"

"If that is what you're calling it." He looked at Jason and raised an eyebrow.

"Ashley."

"Ashley what?"

"I don't know her last name. She was digging me though, she thought I was sixteen." He didn't even try to hide his pride at the fact that he was able to fool the girl.

"How old is she?"

"I think she said she was seventeen."

Grissom closed his eyes and rubbed his hands over his face, the morning whiskers scratching the palms of his hands. "What are you going to do about Lindsey?"

"What does Lindsey have to do with this?"

"She has just as much to do with this as the other girl."

Jason couldn't look at Grissom, so he just stared down into his water.

Grissom sighed, "Look, I gave those to you for just in case, not as an excuse to have sex, especially with a girl you hardly know."

"What should I do?"

"Jason, I've been Catherine's friend since before Lindsey was born. She calls me her Uncle and I see her as my niece. I don't want to see her hurt anymore than you do." After several awkward seconds of silence, Grissom stood. "Come help me unload the truck."

They went out into the garage and removed all of the luggage from the backend of the truck. By the time they had the bags in the house, Kassie was up rummaging through the empty fridge.

"I'm hungry."

"I know, Mom is getting groceries and breakfast. She should be back shortly." Grissom explained as he carried his and Sara's bags to their room.

Jason took his luggage and helped Kassie with hers as they climbed the stairs. After he had his bags stowed away, Jason returned to the kitchen only to be escorted by Grissom to the basement. He helped feed the many specimens as Grissom attempted to figure out what to say.

"Look Jason, school will be starting again soon, baseball, girls…they all take up time and energy, and there are only so many hours in a day." He moved over to drop a cricket into the scorpion's terrarium, and continued with his back to Jason. "I can't make any choices for you, but I can tell you that if your grades fall, the first thing to go will be baseball." He then turned to face Jason. "The choice is yours to make. I hope you make the right one." Grissom gave him an encouraging smile.

Jason responded with a slight nod. "Does Mom know?"

Grissom stopped; confused for a moment before realizing the subject had been changed. "Yeah, she knows."

"What do you think Lindsey would do if she found out?"

With a smile Grissom replied, "Well, if she's anything like her mother, she'll kill you. Lindsey cares a great deal for you, break her heart and Catherine will break you in half."

"Guys, I'm home." Sara's voice called down into the basement.

They both headed up to help with unloading the groceries so they could uncover the doughnuts Sara had purchased.

"Kassie." She hollered up the stairs.

Grissom set up Sydney in her high chair as Jason dove into the box of doughnuts. Sara sat down, and very shortly Kassie could be heard bounding down the stairs.

"Here..." Sara stopped mid sentence.

Grissom and Jason looked up to see what had rendered Sara speechless.

Kassie had somehow during the luggage unloading got into one of Sara's bags, the one that contained her toiletries and makeup. She had a combination of blue and pink eye shadow that was streaked nearly to her ears, and blush; her cheeks were beyond rosy. Thankfully she didn't know what to do with the mascara.

Jason snickered in his attempt to hide his all out laughter as he pulled apart his doughnut. Grissom mirrored Sara, still staring in shock, wondering what on earth had possessed her to put on makeup.

"Thank you." Kassie said taking the extended paper plate from Sara and sat down next to Jason.

The breakfast conversation was awkward, as Sara tried not to broach the subject of the makeup. Kassie helped Sara clean up and lay Sydney down for the remainder of the morning.

Grissom went back into the bedroom closed the drapes, and attempted to catch up on sleep as he was to return to work that night.

Sara cleaned the excessive make-up off of Kassie before helping her unpack and put her things away. Of course after a week the laundry was in a mountain. Jason had already started his, so while she waited, Sara quietly unpacked her and Grissom's luggage.

As she was returning items to the medicine cabinet, Sara found an unopened box of condoms in his shaving kit. She took a deep breath, what was the point of buying them if they weren't going to use them, but getting pregnant again was not an option, at least not right now.

As she worked her thoughts began to wander; she thought about her family, and how to her it is perfect A slight grin crossed her face. She continued to stow away their things when she saw his field kit out of the corner of her eye. She missed work, missed the sarcasm from the guys, missed the science of it. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy being at home, but the lack of civil adult conversation was something she also missed. Sara looked through the bathroom door at Grissom as he slept, recharging his body for the night. In a way she envied him, he was able to work, do his little experiments, and spend some time with the kids. She wanted the same

Sara sat on the back porch watching Jason throw pitches at the back fence. The boy had spirit, and seemed to know exactly what he wanted. After his first time pitching to the fence, Grissom had purchased a foam box that was normally used for target practice by bow hunters. At least this way he wouldn't break the fence. Kassie was more than willing to help, as she would try to throw back the ball once it had been pitched.

She knew that other brothers and sisters with this much of an age gap didn't get along like these two do, then again, they weren't your average everyday siblings. Jason would protect Kassie if it meant giving his own life. As she watched her children, Sara thought about what she could say to Grissom to convince him that her returning to the lab was a good idea. Part time would more than suffice right now; the kids would be starting school again soon, so Jason would always be home at night. She was thinking over all of the possible scenarios when she heard happy gurgles approaching from behind her.

"You're up early."

"I'm getting too much sleep." He sat down beside her and bounced Sydney on his leg. "How long has he been throwing like that?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "I have no clue."

"Jason." Grissom called out waiting for the teen to face him before he continued. "How many have you thrown?"

He thought briefly, "Around fifty. I think."

"Don't you think that's enough, you haven't thrown in a week, keep it up and you'll ruin that arm..."

Now was the time to strike. "I want to go back to work."

"Go put on some ice and...what?" He turned to Sara.

"I want to go back to the lab, just part time at first, until Sydney is older. Jason can watch them at night, and when they start school I'll make sure I'm home first thing in the morning."

"You know that is impossible sometimes."

"We can make it work," Sara said directly with confidence.

He turned to look back at the other kids as they picked up their things. "I guess I thought you were happy here."

"I am, I just need...I don't know what I need. Maybe I need to go back to the lab, have it wear me out again, and then I'll be more than willing to stay home full time."

The last time he had pushed to get his way, he spent a day on Catherine's couch. Deep down he wanted to say no, make up some sort excuse as to why she couldn't return, but in the end he gave up. "Fine, but not tonight."

Sara wrapped her arms around him and placed a sloppy kiss on his cheek. "Thank you so much."

"Sure."

She was happy, he wasn't. He thought for a moment about telling her that he wanted her to remain in the lab, but knew that was not a negotiable subject. The power this woman had over him was unreal.

After being gone a week, Grissom walked through the doors to the crime lab. Sara's request was playing in his head over and over, that was until the one man he did not want to deal with approached him.

"Gil, I need to talk to you."

"Now?"

"Well, that was the idea."

Grissom ground his teeth as he walked to his office with Conrad close behind. Before he could even prepare himself for Ecklie's speech, it was just blurted out into the air.

"I want you to find a replacement for your wife."

His eyes grew significantly. "Excuse me?"

"The lab's become short staffed, she's been on leave, and we need to get more people in here. So, you need to hire replacement."

"Isn't it against the law to fire a woman who's on maternity leave?"

"I don't want you to fire her, just find a suitable replacement for the field. Sara can stay in the lab."

Grissom shook his head, "That won't work. She and I just discussed tonight about her coming back part time."

Ecklie nodded, "Sure, until her replacement arrives. Look Gil, we need more people in the field. Day and swing are constantly understaffed, you..." Conrad scoffed to himself, "...you've had the only consistency in staffing for years."

Feeling sarcastic, "Gee I wonder why that is?"

"Quit being a smart ass Gil, it doesn't suit you." Ecklie turned and left.

Grissom gritted his teeth so hard it began to fester up a migraine.

Yeah, just had to bring that ass Ecklie into it didn't I. Well, just wait until you see what thespoon and I are concocting. Please keep reviewing, they have been great.

TDCSI