Chapter Eight - Happy Family

Sweeping his daughter off the pavement, Grissom dusted down her chalk covered hands, transferring the rainbow colours to his own blue and white check shirt in the process. He looked down to take a look at what she had drawn, smiling proudly as it unmistakable as their new house. "Very nice. C'mon then messy, time for dinner." He gave his neighbour a wave as a thank you for watching out for his daughter, before he carried her inside the house. "I still can't remember that woman's name."

"Carol. Her name's Carol. And her son's name is Dexter. He's only a year older than Rosa." His wife giggled, taking their daughter off his hands, so she could wash her chalk covered hands before dinner. "We've been here for two months now, Gil. She introduced herself to us when we were moving in, the first day we were here. Surely her name should start to sink in now." She chuckled softly, sitting Rosa on the sink counter, while she fetched a towel from the cupboard.

"I haven't met her that many times." The man defended himself, grabbing the bottle opener from the drawer beside the sink. He popped open the bottle of wine he had bought, pouring the deep red coloured wine into two glasses. He took a sip as a taste test, before he handed the second glass to his wife. "Rich, full bodied and smooth."

"Sounds like a description of an ideal man." She giggled softly, taking a sip for herself. "Mm... much nicer than that bottle your colleagues brought with them the other night. It was bitter."

"Like the conversation." He smirked, lifting Rosa off the counter into his arms. "And they're ex-colleagues. I haven't worked with them since before this one was born." Grissom took a seat at the table, lifting his daughter onto the chair beside him. "It was my fault for bumping into them at the store. I hinted that we had moved back and they immediately wanted to catch up."

"It wasn't so bad." Sara set down the vegetable lasagne she had made, before she took her seat at the table with them. "It's a Mediterranean lasagne, you'll like it." She assured her daughter, spotting her turning her nose up at the sight of the food. "It's just tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes and peppers. You've had them all before."

"I don't like it." Rosa shook her head, leaning as far back in her seat as the wooden back would allow.

"You didn't even try it yet." Her father served up the meal, setting the smallest portion in front of his daughter. "C'mon, try some. You'll like it. Mommy always makes the best food." He gave his wife a smile, before he served her the second plate. "Thank you, my dear."

"You're welcome, but you haven't even tried it yet." Sara reached for her daughter's plate, cutting it into bite size segments for her, before she started to eat her own. "Oh, I think I over did it on the chilli powder." She reached for her wine glass to wash it down, surprised that neither of them could taste it.

"It tastes fine to me."

"What's that?" Rosa continued to pick at her food.

"It's an aubergine, try it." Grissom encouraged her, noticing something out the corner of his eye. It looked like an envelope of some sort, but he could only see one corner of it, sticking out from beneath the chest of drawers against the wall. He reached out for it, realising that it was a Polaroid of his wife and daughter. "When was this taken?" He set it down on the table, letting his wife take a look.

"Oh, a couple of weeks ago. I'll file it away later." Sara sighed softly with relief, glad it was one of just her and their daughter, and not one of the ones that had Nick in them. She still hadn't told her husband about the photos. She thought for sure that he would stop speaking to her altogether if he found that out. He was already feeling a little inferior since their move back, this would really tip the scale.

Once dinner was over, Grissom started on the washing up, while Sara hurried up the stairs to get ready for her shift at the lab. He handed the washed dishes to his daughter beside him, watching her as she carefully dried them with the towel in her hands. "Don't drop it."

"I won't." Rosa carefully set it on the opposite counter, before she returned for another one. "Daddy, I don't want you to go back to work. Do you have to go?"

"Mommy can't be the only one working. Besides, what am I gonna do all day by myself, when you start Kindergarten again?" He leant down to her level, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Daddy will get lonely all by himself." He had to admit that he used to like being alone with his thoughts, but now when he was alone, he missed his hyperactive little girl that he had grown accustomed to over the past few years.

"What if I don't want to go to Kindergarten? Will you stay home with me then?"

"You really enjoyed it in Atlanta. The finger painting, those little pen pots that you made. I still have them on my desk. Even the butterfly sculpture is still in my office." Her father reminded her, kneeling down beside her. "You'll still see me, even if you do go to Kindergarten. I'm only going to be working part time. I'm just teaching a couple of courses at the college. It won't take me all day to do that."

"Why can't I go with you?" She pouted her lip out at him.

Grissom smiled at her, trying not to give into her manipulation. "Because the courses that I'm teaching are for young adults, not young children. You're only five, way too young to go to college. You wouldn't find it very fun either. There's no painting or milk time at all."

"Never?" She furrowed her brow. "Why do you go?"

"Because I enjoy teaching. It's what I'm good at, and I get paid for it. Wouldn't you want to do something that you enjoy and get paid for it?" He smiled at her as she gave him a nod. "Well, that's why I go. You won't even notice that I'm gone when Kindergarten starts up. You got used to Mommy being away every night pretty quick. You don't even notice that she's gone anymore."

"I'll miss you both though."

"We'll miss you too. C'mon," He reached for the towel from her hands, swinging it over his shoulder, before he lifted her into his arms. "Let's leave the dishes till later. We'll spend some time with Mommy, before she has to leave for work." Grissom struggled to straighten up from the floor, feeling his back click as he adjusted his daughter in his arms. He took a moment to compose himself, before he carried her up the stairs to their room. "Sara?"

Sitting Rosa on their bed, Grissom made his way into the bathroom, finding his wife blow drying her hair next to the sink. She turned it off as soon as she spotted him, greeting him with a wide smile. "Hey, I'm almost ready." She assured him. "I can run her bath water for you if you want. Clean pyjamas are in the bottom of her dresser."

"I know, you remind me every time. I'm not that senile yet, Sara." He smirked, gently wrapping his arms around her waist, while she brushed out her hair. "We should go away for a weekend or something, before everything starts up again. We've barely spent any time together, since we moved here. Wasn't that why you wanted us to move closer in the first place?"

"Yeah." Sara set down her hair brush, placing her hands over her husband's around her waist. "That and I didn't want Rosa to start thinking that your mother was her mother. The amount of time they spent together, who could blame her."

When Sara returned to work at the lab last year, she left her daughter with her mother in law, knowing that she would be well looked after, while she returned to do what she loved. Sara had already taken four years out of her career to raise her little girl, but it all became too much for her when Grissom moved away on business, making her the sole caregiver again.

Grissom pressed a kiss to the side of his wife's head, giving her a smile in the mirror. "It wasn't easy being away from both of you for so long either. After the move to Atlanta, I didn't think you'd want to come with me again, especially with Rosa in Kindergarten."

"I don't regret any of it, don't worry." She turned in his arms, pressing a tender kiss to his lips. "But if you really don't like it here in Las Vegas, you'll tell me, right? We all have to be happy, otherwise it won't work."

"I like it so far. I'd like it even better with a weekend away, just the two of us." He grinned against her lips, tasting her minty breath already. "I'm sure Rosa would love to spend the weekend with my mother, and you know she loves having her."

"I'll check the schedule at the lab tonight. Maybe I can get someone to switch shifts with me, for some time off." Leaning closer, Sara sealed a romantic kiss to her husband's lips, lasting just a few seconds. "Do you wonna start running her bath? I'll get her ready as soon as I'm dressed."

"Yeah, sure." He turned for the bath.

Sara quickly gave her hair another brush, touching up her makeup, before she returned to their bedroom to get herself dressed. She grabbed a pair of her work jeans from her wardrobe, turning for the bed to set them down, where she spotted, Rosa, curled under their geometric print bed throw, with her thumb in her mouth.

"Aww, are you tired, baby girl?" Taking a seat beside her, Sara gently combed her fingers through her daughter's hair, giving her a smile as she looked really sleepy. "Gil, you better cancel that bath." She called out to her husband, looking towards the door as he appeared. "Somebody is a little too sleepy for her bath right now."

"Okay." Grissom sat with them, leaning down to his daughter's level to press a kiss to her forehead. "I'll go get your pj's. You can help Mommy pick out something to wear for work." He gave them both a smile, before he climbed to his feet to leave the room.

"Well," Sara reached for her tops from the bottom of their bed, holding them up, so her daughter could see them. "This red one, the black or the white?" The red top was a sleeveless v-neck top, with no pattern or detail on it at all. The black one was silky and long sleeved, almost see-through, apart from the black vest top that her mother always wore underneath.

Rosa immediately pointed to the white one, preferring it over the others. The white one was a draped jersey top, with a single pocket on the left side. She always preferred her mother in bright colours, she thought that they made her look like a princess.

"Okay." Sara climbed to her feet, switching the top she had on for the white one. She changed herself into her jeans, then grabbed her jewellery box off her dressing table, taking it over to her daughter on the bed. "Which necklace should I wear with it?"

Her daughter removed her thumb from her mouth, taking a look through all the necklaces that her mother had. She eventually selected one that had a ruby red rose hanging from a simple silver chain.

"Your father bought me that, the day that you were born." Sara pressed a kiss to her daughter's cheek, before she climbed to her feet to put it on. "Hey, did you find them alright?"

"Yeah." Grissom held up the patterned pink pyjama shirt and pants set. He took a seat on the bed, playfully pulling Rosa out from under the bed throw, so he could dress her in her pj's. "You look nice. I thought you're just going to work?"

"I can't look nice for work?" Sara smirked, pulling on her jacket. "Okay, I gotta go." She leant down to her daughter's level, pressing a kiss to her little forehead. "I love you. Look after Daddy for me, okay. Don't forget to brush her hair and teeth, before bed." She warned her husband, leaning closer to him to give him a kiss goodbye. "I love you too. I'll see you both in the morning. Bye."

"Bye."

"Bye, Mommy." Rosa waved to her mother, returning her thumb to her mouth as soon as she was gone.

Her father continued to dress her in her pyjamas, leaving her to sleep on their bed, while he caught up on some of his reading. He wanted to refresh his mind on a few of the texts that he was going to be discussing with his new students. He was a little nervous about his first day back, but he was excited at the same time as he was getting back to doing something he loved.

When the phone rang the next morning, Grissom quickly removed his reading glasses that he had fallen asleep wearing, before he stretched his arm out for the phone. "Hello?" He croaked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "No, I... I've been asleep."

Crawling towards the end of his bed, he grabbed the TV remote off the chest of drawers, switching the television on across the room. He clicked over to the right channel, spotting his wife stood behind the police tape in the distance, while the news reporter spoke to the camera.

"Oh yes... I see her. Thanks, Aunt Patti." He smiled into his phone, as the woman always got so excited when she saw anyone that she knew on TV.

His Aunt Patti used to contact his own mother every time he appeared on the news, almost scaring the poor woman half to death a few times, as she thought something horrible had happened, when she was told to switch on the TV in the middle of the night.

"Well, I'm not actually on the case. I gave all that up." Grissom reminded his mother's younger sister. "So I don't know what they're doing there. Sara looks fine though. She should be finishing up soon, her shift finishes at eight." He nodded into the receiver, smiling as he listened to the woman bragging about who else she had seen on TV. "No, I'm out of the lime light now. A college professor doesn't really tangle with the news crews. It was different when I was a CSI."

He laughed softly, shaking his head as she asked another question,

"No, I don't miss it . . . Yes, I'm fine thank you . . . Yes, Rosa's here with me." He gently brushed a tendril of hair out of his daughter's face, watching her softly snoozing beside him on the bed. "Yes, I'll see you at my mother's this weekend." He remembered that they had arranged a family get together over the weekend. He wasn't really looking forward to it at first, but with his Aunt Patti there, he knew the evening would be entertaining. "Yes, I'll send Sara your love... and Rose, yes. Bye, Aunt Patti."

Setting the phone down beside him, the man brushed the sleep from his eyes, before he climbed out of bed. He quickly freshened up in the bathroom, desperately needing a caffeine fix to wake himself up properly. As he preparing a cup in the kitchen, he spotted the photo of his wife and daughter on the side. He took it through to the front room, grabbing the photo albums from the top shelf, so he could file it away before it got lost.

Some loose photos immediately slipped out of the book, revealing some photos of the donor father with his child that he never even knew about. He knelt down to pick them up, feeling his heart aching, as though a piece of his life had been stolen from him.

Just from the simple image of his wife, child and the other man pictured together.

Don't freak on, more chapters on the way soon. Thank you for reading and your reviews, everyone.

~ Holly