Title: Unconditional Love

Author: innocent choir girl shannyfish (From Out of the Lab)

Summary: The Las Vegas Police Department and Crime Lab are pulled into a case that just seems like a disturbance, but turns up that the truth had been hidden for years…

Category: Ship Ahoy! Sara/Gil

Genres: Angst, Drama, Hurt Comfort, Established Relationship, Case

Characters: Jim Brass, Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows, Warrick Brown, Sara Sidle, Nick Stokes, Greg Sanders

Warnings: none

Rating: PG-13

Chapter: 4 "Damaged"

Author's Notes: I've decided to change this from CSI General to CSI Ship Ahoy! Sara/Grissom. Sometimes the story tells you which way to go…and this one in which I figured wouldn't be very shippy has made other plans…

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Paige's examination wasn't as easy as anyone hoped, but they managed to get through it just the same. Grissom and Brass had stayed during the whole examination, which just made Grissom more concerned about the girl's attachment to Sara. Currently he had Greg and Nick at the crime scene, but he knew that they'd have to process the whole house and for that he needed to return and he needed Sara. After the child was asleep, he looked at Sara, "We have a crime scene to process…"

"I can't just leave her," Sara said quietly as she lay next to the girl stroking her hair. "She needs to be bathed and a set of clothes that actually fit her…"

"Sara…that's not our job. The social worker—"

Sara looked over at Grissom, her eyes darkened, "She doesn't need a social worker…she needs someone who's going to take care of her…" Sara knew all too well that a social worker only put you into the system. The system wasn't a place for anyone. Foster care was never a home…you always moved. Paige would never get the love and care she needed there. "Doesn't she have other family? Grandparents? Aunts? Uncles?" Sara asked.

Brass spoke up, "We located two sets of grandparents, but they're both too old to care for a six year old child, Sara…"

"You're getting emotionally involved," Grissom told her a bit harshly. She knew better, he had told her not to get emotionally involved before. "We have to be unbiased, Sara… We look at the evidence."

Sitting up, Sara was about to go off, but quickly cooled herself as the doctor came in. She quickly reminded herself that they were there for Paige. "How is she?" Sara asked wanting to know if there was any permanent damage.

"Physically, she's got some problems," he spoke up. "She has a shoulder that's been dislocated for some time…we're going to fix that as delicately as we can… She has some sores and rashes over her body, but I believe that to the conditions you described earlier. Her body is much smaller than it should be…at least she wasn't chained to something as other children that have been isolated have been. I think that's kept her from being too small. But without the right nutrition, she is still very small." He looked around at the different people in the room before continuing, "Her mental state I can't really determine at the moment. Normally in these states, children who have been abused and isolated are most often very fearful of men… And since she attached to you, Miss Sidle, I'm thinking she's attaching to you because she can see you as her mother. But this also tells us that she's not severely mentally retarded. Time will only tell us that."

Sara frowned and stared down at Paige, she didn't think there was anything wrong with her other than the fact that she had been abused and locked into that room for who knew how long… Sending her to foster care, Sara knew, wouldn't help her…if anything, it would only make things worse. She watched as Brass dismissed the doctor and then waited…she knew Grissom would start back onto his lecture about being a good CSI meant to put your feelings aside…but she couldn't do that… And she couldn't let Paige go into the system…

"Sara—"

"I don't want to hear it," she whispered pulling Paige close. Bowing her head to look down at the sleeping girl, she wondered if Grissom would continue to push her or he'd listen… All her heart wanted to take care of the girl herself…in her time in Las Vegas over the last several years she's gone from being anti-social and a work-a-holic and butterflied into a woman who had faced her demons and softened into more of a people person… She could see herself happy with a life of working only eight hours a day and then going home to a family… She wasn't sure if that's where her life would lead, but she felt that mothering building up inside of her…

Grissom frowned and looked over at Brass. And then when the door opened and the woman Grissom suspected was the social worker let herself in. This wasn't good, he already knew that. Moving between Sara and the woman, he looked over at Brass for help, who just looked amused by the whole situation.

"Can I talk to you outside?" Jim asked the social worker and opened the door for her and waited for her to step out before following her. He pulled the door shut to give his friends some time alone while he stalled for time.

Tears were in her eyes when her face turned up towards him and it made his heart burn. He didn't want her to be so upset, but she had been so strong so far. He sat down in a chair next to the bed and just stared at her for a long couple of minutes in silence. "You smell," he said in a calm level tone.

Laughing, Sara shook her head, "Gee thanks…" She sniffled and wiped her tears, "Is that your tactic to get me away from her?" Sara had forgotten the smell, it had been so pungent before, but she had gotten used to it. "Paige needs to be scrubbed, too…"

"The social worker will make sure she's taken care of, Sara," he tried to assure gently. "Our job is to speak for the victim…to follow the evidence. The only way Terry Lemming is going to be convicted for anything more than child endangerment is if we show them exactly what she was exposed to and what she went through…"

"I've been in the system, Gil," she said letting her voice get serious and she could tell that using his first name had caught his attention. "Now, I'm not saying that taking care of her is going to be easy…but for now…I want to do it…" She made sure that she was looking directly at him so she knew just exactly how serious she was and how confident she was that she could actually do it. "You can process the scene without me… I can take some days off…or even work in the lab… I can use your office and work on paperwork…that way Paige could come with me."

He wasn't sure how that would all work out, but it really wasn't his decision. "You know I can't just tell the social worker to let you take her home…" Grissom almost wished he could. It was nice to see Sara caring so much for the child, and it made him long to see her with that side more often. He had to admit that Sara had come a long way and blossomed… Sighing, he wondered if she knew exactly how beautiful she was inside and out…and how much that had changed over the years. Gil could see in her eyes that she could do it, that she could care for Paige, and it hurt him to think that she had put it in his hands and he could fumble with that. "I'll see what I can do," he finally said.

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TBC…