Chapter Three - Long Wait

"Why is it that the smartest guy I've ever met, can't even label a couple of boxes correctly? How did you ever get by as a CSI lab manager for as long as you did?" Sara remarked, looking up as her family returned from the front room. Grissom was holding their daughter in his arms, holding her securely in his warm embrace. "Do you even know where my clothes are?" She pulled open the flaps of the last box in the kitchen, sighing in relief as she finally found her clothes.

"I already explained the box thing. I packed up all the boxes, taped them up, then the moving guys started to move them, before I could label them. They couldn't remember where they got half of them from, so I had to guess. I'm sorry." He apologised again, calling a truce with a kiss to her forehead. "I'm sorry about a lot of things lately. I can't seem to get anything right."

"It's okay." She wished that she could blame it all on him, but she couldn't. "I asked you to give a lot up to come here, giving you nothing in return. The only thing that's really changed about my life is this new place and the fact that my husband and daughter are finally in the same area code as me." Sara pushed herself to her feet, approaching her family in the doorway. "If it doesn't work out here, then I'll go with you to where ever you want to go next." She promised him, before she requested, "Can you just give it a try here?"

Grissom looked at his little girl resting her head against his chest, before he gave his wife a nod. "I'm willing to give it a try, but Sara, I never signed up to be a full time house husband or child carer." He reminded her, handing Rosa over to her mother. "I've got to find something to do, before I end up going stir crazy."

"I'm sure we can find Daddy something to do, can't we?" Sara smiled at her daughter, carefully lowering her to the floor. "You can start around the house, since it's a Sunday today. We've still got loads of boxes to unpack. Oh and the downstairs bathroom's light is flickering. I tried the bulb already, but it must be the wiring. I'm gonna get started on scrubbing these cupboards clean, if this grime doesn't come out, we're moving."

Grissom chuckled softly, ushering Rosa out the room with him. "I'll go and get her dressed first. She can help me out in the front room then. Did you manage to find the coffee maker?" He suddenly remembered that she had been complaining about it, right before she left for work the day before.

"No, not yet. There's more boxes in the front room, maybe it's out there. Let me know when you find it. Oh, can you take this box up with you?" She motioned towards the box full of her clothes. "Just leave it in our room, I'll unpack it later."

He knelt down to pick it up, before he made his way up the stairs, with his daughter in tow. He set the box down in their bedroom, hoping he'd actually have the chance to sleep in there tonight. The sofa really wasn't doing his back any good, and the room itself felt cold and empty.

"C'mon, Daddy," His daughter reached for his hand, leading him down the hall to her room. "Daddy, how old were you when you first met Mommy?"

"Me?" He grabbed one of her dresses from her wardrobe, before he knelt down beside her bed. "I must have been... in my forties. Your mother was in her twenties. Nearly two decades between us." He spoke softly, suddenly feeling very old again. "C'mere," He ushered her closer, giving her a hand with the sleeves of her pyjamas. "Why are you always so curious about our past?"

"Mommy says it's your fault for filling my head with stories. I have a impres-ible mind."

"Impressionable." He corrected her, chortling softly to himself. "We first met a long, long time before you were born. That story that I told you last night, that was just the beginning of your mother and I. There's lots more stories to tell. For another time." He quickly warned her, sensing she was going to ask him. "We have a busy day today."

"O-kay." Rosa sighed softly in disappointment, lifting her arms up as her father lifted her dress over her head. He swept her shoulder length brown hair out from under the collar, giving her a smile as she looked just like her mother.

He had selected a simple colour block summer dress for her to wear, with all of her favourite colours on it. Pink, yellow, blue and white, striped down to just above her knee. Even though his wife was much more of a tomboy, she bought much more girly clothes for her daughter, often joking that Rosa was the doll she never had as a child.

Rosa turned around so her father could button the back, before she grabbed her hair brush to take to her mother downstairs. She didn't dare let him try to brush her hair again. He always made a mess of it, even if he was just brushing her hair before bed.

"Mommy," Rosa hurried into the kitchen, crashing into her arms on the kitchen floor. "What's that for?" She pointed to something in one of the boxes nearby.

"That... that is your old bottle steriliser, from when you were just a baby. Your Auntie Catherine bought that for us at my baby shower, when I was still pregnant with you. We didn't know the first thing about taking care of a baby then. She practically gave us how to lessons on how to do everything for you."

"Did you keep it because you want another baby?" Rosa had often wondered if she could have a baby brother or sister like some of her friends, but her parents never brought it up. "Will you have another baby, Mommy? Now that you and Daddy are together, will you?"

"No, we can't have another baby. You were a very special gift. The only baby that we could have." Reaching for the brush from her daughter's little hand, Sara gently combed her chocolate brown hair out, until it was evenly divided around her head.

Rosa hadn't inherited her mother's wavy hair, but the colour was very similar to her own. She had very similar facial features to her mother too, but there was just a hint of the donor father in her.

Using one of the ties from around her wrist, Sara tied her daughter's hair into equal pigtails either side of her head. She pressed a kiss to the middle of her forehead once she was done, giving her a smile as she looked up at her.

Rosaline's big brown eyes definitely resembled the donor father's, making Sara doubt her choice to ever ask one of her close friends to be a donor for her baby, even though she wouldn't give up her little girl for anything in the world.

They went through a hell of a journey to get here, there was no going back on it, not now or ever.

Betty Grissom often wondered if she was ever going to get a grandchild from her only son. When he announced that he had married, Sara, to her, some years after the actual marriage, she had hope that children might be in their future. It wasn't until she actually met Sara, that she realised that this woman had no intention of having children, leaving her as another grandchild-less woman.

Shortly after Grissom and Sara's departure from Las Vegas, and reunion after their separation across seas, they returned to Betty's house for Thanksgiving, telling her that they had decided to start a family. Betty wasn't sure what to expect at first, with all these modern day family's nowadays, consisting of adopted children from all over the world or just a family pet to complete the family. But when Sara said that they were trying to get pregnant, she knew that her dream of grandchildren would be in the not too distant future.

Her son and daughter in law were in the stage of 'actively trying' for a baby for two years, before they started to lose hope.

Sara had her fertility checked, worried that it might be her advanced age giving them problems, but she was told by several doctors that she was very fertile. Instead of seeking any more medical help, they started researching online for ways to guarantee a pregnancy. She read more facts on sperm and ovaries than her brain could take, worrying about one that said a woman would probably release four hundred eggs during her fertile years.

What if all the good ones had already been used up?

Sara documented every little detail about her cycles, from her temperature, right down to the squicky stuff, she really didn't want to discuss with her mother in law. She timed sex with her husband, kept a record of his temperature and stopped him from drinking or eating anything that could lower his sperm count in hopes of conceiving a baby, but it still didn't happen.

After two years of this, Sara became exhausted, feeling as though it was never going to happen for her. Grissom finally decided to get himself tested in hopes of putting her mind at ease, but it only confirmed that the two of them had no hope of conceiving a baby.

To take her mind off the ordeal, Grissom decided to take his wife on a second honeymoon, touring Europe. Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Rome, Barcelona; it didn't matter where they went, the simple fact that they would never be able to have a baby together, was still on their minds.

When they returned home, Sara brought up the subject of adopting. As she herself had grown up in foster care, she was willing to give a loving home to any child that they could. Her husband wasn't too sure about it as he wanted his own flesh and blood, but he agreed to look into it with her.

The process was long and painful, giving them even more disappointment as their characters and life style came into question. Sara felt as though she was being put on the stand, only to find out that she wasn't good enough to become a mother.

Quickly giving up on that idea, they turned to the donor sperm field, which only seemed even more daunting. They knew better than anybody that it didn't matter if this guy, donor number one twenty seven, was physically fit, blue eyes, blonde hair, great personality and a PhD, he wasn't going to be around to raise his biological child.

That would be all up to them.

After looking through files upon files of men willing to donate their sperm, Sara gave up on the strangers, turning to her own friends instead. After all, this baby was going to be growing inside of her body, she at least wanted to know what the guy was like, before she impregnated herself with his sperm. She told her male friends from the lab that it was a crazy idea, but if any of them were willing to help her out, she'd be eternally grateful.

It took another two years to come to a final decision, but their little girl was well worth the wait. And now they were back in Las Vegas, it would be the first time in years, that they would see the man that made it all possible.

Thank you for reading, please review :D

~ Holly