Today had been a good day; work had kept him busy so he barely remembered his name, which was a good thing.
He rolled into bed, asleep before his head even hit the pillow.
He was on a beach, surrounded by hundreds of other people, there for the same reason, to get away from the heat. The rays soaking into his skin, warming him all over.
She seemed dressed in all of me, stretched across my shame.
All the torment and the pain
He felt the blanket beneath him as he pretended to sleep, conversations from people drifting into his head, his thoughts, his dreams.
Leaked through and covered me
I'd do anything to have her to myself
He heard giggling before he something plop down on him, wet and sandy. He opened his eyes, his sunglasses protecting his eyes. He took in the sight of his daughter who had now gotten off of him and playing in the sand beside him, attempting to make a sand castle.
Just to have her for myself
Now I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do
When she makes me sad
He sat up and started helping her clearing a space for the sand castle they were about to put down. Cool hands touched his shoulders, and a wet liquid touched his shoulders
She is everything to me
The unrequited dream
"Your going to burn if you're not careful" a voice said into his ear as the person kissed it. The woman's hands roaming over his back, the cool liquid reaching everywhere until her hands were his lower back, then came around to his stomach playing with the hair at the top of his swimming trunks.
A song that no one sings
The unattainable, Shes a myth that I have to believe in
His breath caught as her hands traveled lower to the sand below him, then disappeared, again then he felt the cool liquid over his chest trailed by soft finger tips. Slowly caressing his nipples as she rubbed in the lotion.
All I need to make it real is one more reason
I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do
when she makes me sad.
The liquid touched the back of his neck next. She slowly kneaded the kinks out as she rubbed it in. Down over his shoulders and down his arms. Sending goose bumps down where ever she touched.
But I won't let this build up inside of me
I won't let this build up inside of me
It was getting hard to concentrate on the task in front of him, but Lily didn't seem to mind as she filled her pail with sand.
A catch in my throat choke
Torn into pieces
"You're supposed to be helping" the woman whispered into his ear again, as she got up and sat down beside Lily. Soon Lily and the woman was having a giggle fit before they raced off to the water together. The dream slowly fading away.
I won't, NO!
I don't wanna be this...
She isn't real
I can't make her real
He got up and chased after them, the warm water doing it's task of cooling him down. For now at least. He saw Ashley one last time motioning him into the water before the dream completely faded away.
She isn't real
I can't make her real
He woke up in a cold sweat and to a ringing telephone.
"Hello?" his breathing still a little rugged
"I've found her" the voice on the other end replied.
Las Vegas
Greg was late, twenty minutes to be exact. Lily was getting restless and so was her mother. If he was going to be late, he would always call, saying can we meet for lunch instead. Glad that they made a rule that they would meet at her apartment before they went out, so neither one would look silly waiting for the other.
The door flew open to reveal a very shaggy Greg; he needed a shower and a shave pretty bad. He didn't seem tired though, just the opposite.
"Guess What!" he was back to the old Greg, loud and perky.
"What!" she said with the same enthusiastism he had just said, not really feeling it but she liked to make fun of him
"The lab's looking for night time help"
"What does this have to do with me?" she did not like how his mind was working
"You can train then we could work together!" he reminded her of a little boy, telling his mother how he caught his first toad or did something exciting.
"Are you off your med's?" she asked worriedly
"You know I haven't taken anything since high school" some of his enthusiastism lost
"Why'd you stop taking them?"
"I didn't need'em anymore" his perkiness almost gone, he thought he'd come here with great news and all she can talk about is if he was on his med's or not.
"What about the training? I'm sure people are more qualified who are already done their training"
"Ya but no one's applied!" he seriously needed a girlfriend, make him loose some of his energy, eww she did not want to think of Greg in that way. She'd seen him when he was a scrawny eight year old.
"Okay, what do I do about Lily? Huh hot shot?"
"What about that girl –what's her name? Liza?"
"Lisa"
"That's it what about her?"
"I can't ask her to do that, I barely know her"
"So get to know her I can get Brass to do a criminal check on her"
She walked over to him and placed her hand on his forehead, he felt normal. Her eyebrows drew together in confusion, he was talking crazy. She picked Lily up and the diaper bag along the way.
"Oh, won't be around for supper, Got A Date!"
"Does the girl know?" she asked seriously, Lily at the moment was playing with Ashley's ponytail
"Lily stop" she pulled her hair out of Lily's sticky grasp.
"Mommy, mommy" Lily clapped her hands together and laughed, to what she didn't know, then Lily wrapped her arms around Ashley's neck tightly, then laid her head on her shoulder. Her thumb went into mouth sucking quietly. Lily would be out cold by the time they got to the restaurant.
The moment the car stopped Lily woke up, like she always did. She couldn't wait to go eat already reaching for her mother as Ashley undid the buckles to the car seat. She grabbed Tutu along the way. Tutu was a black and white pig with a tutu on. Once Lily had seen it she had begun to stay Tutu and so it because known as Tutu. The little pig when everywhere that Lily had gone, always crying if it was out of sight. And stopping the moment it was in her arms. Tutu had seen better days every day Lily tried to see if Tutu would eat her pancakes which were smothered in syrup. Tutu came into contact with his enemy Mrs. Washing Machine about once a week, twice if it really needed it.
Speaking of which Tutu sat on the table between Ashley and Lily in her high chair.
"Tutu. Tutu" Lily reached out for Tutu there was no way, Ashley was going to give it her, she was covered in syrup.
"Tutu doesn't want any, Mommy fed him before we left because pancakes gives Tutu a stomachache" Ashley picked Tutu up so it was right in her face.
"Tutu, would you like some pancakes?" Ashley made the pig shake no and Lily continued eating, every so often offering a piece to Ashley or Greg told her no, that she eat it.
"Is it really so bad to become a CSI?" Greg asked before shoveling eggs into his mouth.
"It seems a little weird, I mean I was a cop for over six years and now I'm changing that to become a CSI? It's just a little weird you know?"
He put piece of sausage into his mouth before answering.
"Ya but this way I get to see you"
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you have a crush on me" Ashley picked up Tutu and moved it out of Lily's grasp as the same time Lily reached for it.
"He's sleeping" and laid him down on the other side of her. Ashley slid her fork into a strawberry and caught Lily's attention with it, she zoomed it around until she let Lily take it off her fork and shoved it into her mouth.
"Yes Ashley I do" he was teasing her
"Why did you become a CSI? Hmm? Could it be a certain somebody?" leaving out the name of girl he really did have a crush on.
"No" he cut up a piece of sausage and put it on Lily's tray. Lily picked that up and shoved it in her mouth also. She had an appetite like her father.
"Well not the main reason maybe only forty percent" she glared at him
"Okay fifty percent but I love it"
"Because you get to work with her more often that not" she said matter of factly. Greg had never been able to lie to her, no matter how hard he tried, he either started smiling through it or had just given up after the glares she gave him that she didn't buy it.
"So what if I like her?" he'd given up and just admitted it after over five years of 'denying' it he said he liked her. Ashley always knew it so it wasn't really a secret or a lie.
"I'm just saying that you well, your hair for one, I liked it Spiky and two your clothes what happened to the" she had a hard time coming up with a word to describe his shirts. She'd settle with weird
"Weird… shirts you used to wear? Love changing you?"
"I just thought it was time that I grew up"
"You grow up, now that's funny" He was always trying to make people laugh, she didn't mean to be mean, ok well sometimes she did, but she never saw him growing up.
"I'm deeply hurt that you wouldsay that" she knew he was kidding, he was smiling the whole time he was saying it.
"Dun mommy dun" looked like she wore half of what she ate. Ashley had learned quickly if you're taking Lily anywhere; always bring at least two sets of extra clothes. Messes were attracted to her.
"Let's get you all pretty again" Lily was already reaching up for her mother to pick her up.
"I don't think so Mommy doesn't want to get messy too"
They walked off to the bathroom hand in hand.
It still surprised him somewhat that she was a mother, and in his opinion doing a great job. He could still see the look on his face when she told him she was pregnant thanks to the picture she took as she told him. A picture says a thousand words, he was feeling a thousand different emotions at that time.
He always pictured himself with kids first, don't ask why he thought that, it was just that Ashley wasn't the easiest person to get along with, you wouldn't know it if the way she acted around the lab had anything to do with it but he knew different, she was putting on a show, letting everyone believe that she was letting them in when in truth she was really barricading herself from them all. He didn't see why she had to do that, the people at the lab were, he wouldn't exactly use great but Sara, Warrick, Catherine and the majority of the time Grissom, which needed to let loose once and a while, up until recently Nick too, he thought they were good friends to have. But when Nick had hurt his best friend, he'd over stepped the boundary of friends and dropped down to a person he could tolerate if he didn't see him all the time. Which most of the time he didn't.
Nick and him had met twice since the little accident in the break room coincidently in the break room while they both were on break. Nick had greeted him both times, and he had completely ignored him. But had smiled when Nick had thought Greg had made his special coffee, the look on his face was priceless when he took a big gulp and realized it was the stuff the lab provided. Greg had walked away then, grinning to himself, he'd brought a thermos full of his special blend not risking the chance that the 'know it all' would get any.
He set about his task of cleaning the tray connected to the high chair, he always let on that the waitress had brought a new one after they left, but she knew and had thanked him more than once. He'd never raised a child so he couldn't tell if he understood what she was going though, he helped in any way he could, cause well raising a child on your own was hard.
He couldn't wait till Lily was grown up so he could teach her the fundamentals of music, teach her what was good and what wasn't, make her listen to good music not some popy music like Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson, although they had body's that make your mouth water they really couldn't get the point across of what they were singing, they were just started at.
He was of course going to take Lily out for her first drink at the legal age, and make sure that she didn't date until she was thirty. What was he saying? He wasn't Lily's father but had already stepped into the role, which he kinda liked.
He also couldn't wait to convince Ashley to get the training to become a CSI, it would be weird at first working together but, now that she was here, he wanted to actually see her and not for less than three hours a day. Sure he'd gotten past it before; when she had lived in New York and he here in Vegas but somehow this was different, he felt like she needed protecting and not just from the outside world but from Nick too.