Sorry for the wait, my Granddad's been in hospital again and I completely forgot to update this story. Please let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter Twelve - Family
As soon as he climbed out of the car, Grissom immediately hurried round the other side of the car, opening the door for his wife. They were meeting some of their old friends for dinner, something he really didn't want to do right now, but his wife pretty much insisted on his attendance. He closed the door behind his wife, reaching for the back door of the car to let out his youngest little lady.
"We're supposed to be moving at the end of the week. We should have stayed home and packed." Grissom thought he'd get one last compliant in, but Sara wasn't listening anymore. "Who exactly are we expecting to see here?"
"Brass, Catherine, Vartann, Doc Robbins... the usual suspects. I doubt Hodges is going to be there, so you can relax." Sara smiled at him, lifting Rosa out of her car seat. Her husband was wearing a casual dress shirt and pants, but she opted to dress herself and her daughter a little more formal for the occasion. "C'mon, it'll be fun. Besides, I'm supposed to be the anti social one here."
"My mother was joking when she said that." Grissom defended her comment, quickly locking up the car, before he hurried after them towards the entrance of the restaurant. "Is Nick going to be in there?"
"I don't know, I didn't ask." Sara lowered her daughter to the floor as soon as they were inside, keeping hold of her hand at her side. "Why, is it going to be a problem?"
Grissom shook his head, greeting the hostess with a smile. "Eh... party of Jim Brass."
"Right this way." The tall blonde grabbed a couple of menus, leading the three of them through the restaurant. It didn't seem that crowded yet, but it was still early. They passed by the doors to the kitchen on the way, invading their nostrils with the delicious scent of sizzling steaks.
"Gil, Sara." Brass climbed to his feet, greeting Grissom with a handshake, before he stepped closer to hug, Sara. "Hey, littlen." He gently shook the little girl's hand. "Lou and Catherine are on their way. Take a seat." He called over their waiter, ordering them drinks, while they waited for the others to arrive.
"Is it just Catherine and Vartann that we're waiting on?" Grissom queried, wondering who they were expecting to see.
"I invited most of the night shift crew from the lab." Brass took a sip of his tall glass of water, looking towards the door to see if he could see any of them yet. "How goes the move to the new place then?"
"We're still in the process of packing at the moment." Sara removed her daughter's jacket for her, getting her set up with her colouring book and crayons. "We're moving in at the end of the week."
"I never thought I'd see you two like this." The man admitted, smiling towards the happy married couple sat opposite him. "To be honest, Sara, I would have laughed at the idea of you becoming a parent when I first met you. You used to complain when this one gave you an assignment that involved kids."
"Well, things change." She shrugged, glad that they had changed, as things in her life were so much better than they were back then. "When I first met you, I would never of pegged you as a divorcee with a grown up daughter. Guess that just proves that you can't judge a book by its cover." Sara gave him a smug smile, before she spotted, Catherine making her way through the restaurant.
"Hello." She cheerily announced, hugging Sara as she climbed to her feet. "Oh, I have something for you." Kneeling down beside Rosa's chair, Catherine reached into her over sized handbag, pulling out a large stuffed spider. It was purple and fuzzy, with large googly eyes, making it look a little less threatening than a tarantula. "Do you like it? Lindsey helped me to pick it out."
Rosa looked at her mother beside her, giving out a soft sigh, before she accepted the gift from her Aunt Catherine. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Catherine sighed in relief, glad that she wasn't holding grudges. She took a seat beside Brass, ordering herself a drink, before she caught her friends up on the latest gossip from the lab.
"Mommy." Rosa interrupted their conversation, pointing her attention towards the man coming their way. She slid off her chair before her father had time to look up, hurrying towards the man.
"Hey, hey." He slid his hands beneath her arms, sweeping her off her feet into his arms. "Hey, Jim... Catherine." The Texan returned the child to her seat, so he could greet her parents. Sara seemed happy to see him again, but Grissom seemed a little more distant, again. "What's with the spider?" Nick asked, taking a seat beside, Rosa on the end of the table.
"Oh you didn't hear?" Brass gave his colleague beside him a smug smile. "Catherine here decided to off the family pet when she was babysitting the other day."
"I didn't..." Catherine stopped herself from saying it out loud, as Rosa looked up at them. "I offered to replace it. And I never actually... it's still alive in the house somewhere."
"You can't just replace, George with any old spider, Catherine." Grissom finally spoke up. "George is a Chaco golden knee, technical name Grammostola pulchripes. They're the most docile and calm species of tarantula."
"I'm sorry." She said it for the hundredth time. "I'll pay you back by never babysitting for you again." Catherine climbed to her feet, relieved that Lou had finally arrived. She threw her arms around his neck to greet him, before they took their seats and ordered their meals.
"We'll find her." Sara gave her daughter a reassuring look, hoping that they would, otherwise they might lose their deposit. "So, where's Greg? Or Doc Robbins? They're coming, right?"
"Doc's got a prior engagement with his band." Brass answered her. "And I think Sanders is still out of town. Looks like this is it gang, shall we order?" He motioned towards their menus, feeling his stomach starting to painfully grumble with hunger. "Sorry, they don't have a kids menu, but I'm sure you can ask for a smaller portion."
"Doesn't matter what we order for her. She won't eat it." Grissom pierced a straw through the foil of her juice box for her, handing it over the table to her. "I've never seen a fussier eater, than my daughter. She'll eat toast with just peanut butter on it, cut into triangles with the crusts taken off. She likes pasta, but no sauce or cheese on it. She likes cheese by itself."
"I blame her father, he lets her get away with it and tends to her every little need." Sara grinned at her husband, before she looked over her menu in front of her. "There's a vegetarian pasta meal here that she might eat."
"You're raising your daughter vegetarian?" Brass looked at the woman surprised.
"No, just because I don't eat meat, doesn't mean that I stop her from eating meat. I'm not one of those crazy women that forces her own beliefs on her kids. I let her eat meat, I just don't prepare it." The woman motioned to her husband beside her. "He does that for her."
"I thought you would have been against raising her as a meat eater." Catherine thought that most people who chose to become a vegetarian after a nasty pig experiment, wouldn't then try and get their child to eat meat. She hadn't let any of Grissom's weird experiments bother her over the years, but after the first one, Sara immediately swore off eating any kind of meat.
"I wasn't going to, but Gil eats meat. I want her to make up her own mind, when she's old enough. For now, she can just eat whatever either one of us make for her. Speaking of, I'm starving. Can we order?" She looked round the table to check everyone else was ready, before she called over their waitress to order some food for their table.
Nearing the end of their meal, Brass decided to make a toast to Grissom and Sara, returning to the city they belonged. "It's good to have you two back." He raised his glass to them. "To Gil and Sara."
"To Family." Grissom changed it, raising his glass as he looked towards, Nick beside his daughter. He was starting to accept that he couldn't change the fact he was his daughter's biological father. It wasn't an easy thing to accept, but he knew that he had to do it for the sake of his wife and daughter.
"To Family." The others raised their glasses, giving one another smiles as their glasses clinked together.
"On the subject of family," Catherine spoke up, as soon as the noise of glasses clinking died down. "Lou and I have something to tell you." She slid her hands into his beside her, weaving their fingers together as she announced, "We're getting married."