AN: Thanks for the reviews and continued support, here is the next chapter.

Chapter 4: A surprise visit

February 12, 2010

Once classes were done for that Friday, Grissom left the school and headed for Abigail's place to pick up Hank, then they headed home, where he changed and dropped his briefcase off before he put Hank on a leash, and they headed out for their walk.

About 20 minutes later when they arrived back to the apartment and walked in, Hank immediately sensed a presence, so he started barking and pulling at the leash, wanting to go towards the bedroom while Grissom kept trying to calm him down. "Hank boy, what's wrong?"

A moment later that presences came into the main room from the bedroom and spoke with a smile on her face. "I think he senses it's me."

Seeing Sara standing there surprised Grissom so much that he let go of the leash and Hank wasted no time getting to his 'mommy', playfully barking and wagging his tail so hard it was sure to fall off, so to say he was one happy dog, was an understatement.

When Hank finally got enough attention, he headed for his water bowl, and while Sara and Grissom were looking at one another, she stood up with Hank's leash in her hands. She then hands it to him once she was standing and he spoke after clearing his throat. "What are you doing here?"

Even though it was long overdue on their supposedly 'planned' visit, they didn't talk about her visiting this weekend, which was Valentine's Day weekend, a holiday they don't really celebrate, so yeah, he was still a little surprised to see her standing there.

She took a breath and whispered. "Does it really matter?"

He shook his head with a smile, tossed the leash on the back of the couch and walked right up to her, brought her into his arms and whispered. "No, I'm glad you're here, I've missed you."

"I've missed you too."

They kissed a moment later, pouring everything they had into that kiss and many more that followed.

Eventually, when they finally pulled apart long enough to get proper air, they place their foreheads together and closed their eyes before he whispered again. "God Sara."

Both feeling how nice this felt, she ran her hands up and down his back. "I know, Griss."

When they pulled back again, they kissed again, but this time it was more like pecks before they just hugged, not ready to let one another go yet.

"Can I just stay in your arms all weekend and not move a muscle?"

Grissom smiled as he ran his hand up and down her back. "I would love that, but we might have a problem when we have to use the restroom, get thirsty or hungry."

She took a breath with a short nod. "Right."

They held one another a few more minutes in silence before he spoke again while they pulled back. "So, that's how long you are staying?"

"Yep and a few days after."

"And how did you pull that off?" She gave him a look that said 'you know how' before she heads to the kitchen to get something to drink while he followed her. "You maxed out on overtime."

"Well, our planned schedule visits weren't going our way, so I had to do something. I needed to see you in person and not over a computer screen." She took a breath and turned to him as she asked. "You're not upset, are you?"

He shook his head with a smile as he walked up to her then cupped her cheek with a concerned look on his face. "No, I just don't want you overworking yourself."

She smiled in return while placing her hand on his. "I'm fine, it's not like it's the first time I've maxed out on overtime, and least it's for a good cause, four and a half days with you, I'll take it."

He moved his head towards her, whispering. "Sounds good to me too."

After a few more kisses, they pull back and he finally asks while she continues on to the refrigerator. "And how come you didn't tell me you were coming, I could have picked you up at the airport?"

"I wanted to surprise my husband, is that ok with you?"

Not able to stay away from her, he walked up to her again and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and whispered once again. "That's fine with me."

For pretty much the rest of the evening they didn't go very far from one another, only to use the bathroom really, and a piece of their body part was always touching the other, whether it was a hand or a foot/leg, they just needed to feel that touch from one another.

And when they finally made it into the bedroom for the night, while they were quick shedding the top layer of their clothing, there wasn't a needy feeling to progress any further, especially from her perspective, it was all kissing and running their hands up and down their bodies, so eventually, Grissom did pull back enough to ask her, sensing she was just content on doing what they were doing. "Are you ok?"

She nodded with a smile as she moved her hand up his body so she could cup his cheek. "Yeah, believe me, I've missed everything about us, but tonight, can you just hold me?"

He looked at her with nothing but love. "Of course, honey. We don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

Feeling up with emotion, Sara started to have tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I just..."

He cuts her off with a reassuring tone. "And you don't need to explain anything. It's ok."

He leans down and kisses her forehead first before moving down to her nose, then cheek before kissing her on the lips, which she deepened for a few moments before he pulls back and moves to lay on his side, taking her with him so they were so close nothing could fit in between them.

They slipped their legs through one another a second later and held each other close until they fell asleep, and it was the most sound of sleep they had since the last time they were in each other's arms.

The next morning

Grissom, who was in his robe with only his boxers on, was at the stove cooking breakfast when he felt two arms wrap around him from behind and lips against his cheek. "Morning babe."

He smiled. "Morning, honey."

She sighed before replying softly. "Thank you for last night, I think I needed that more than anything else."

He placed his hand on hers as he replied. "Me too."

Once again, she was feeling emotional as she asked. "Really, you're not just saying that?"

He turns around so he was looking at her, then cupped her cheek with love in his eyes. "Sara, I love everything about our relationship, EVERYTHING that we do is special to me." She smiled shyly at what he was implying before he continued. "But one of the things I love the most about it, is when I get to hold you in my arms, that's when I feel the greatest connection with you. Besides, you had a long flight, you were tired, I didn't expect anything."

She nodded. "I really was." When she spoke again, it was filled with passion as she took his hand from her cheek. "But you know I'm not tired right now, and I believe there is a certain list I promised I would show you."

He smirked as he turned towards the stove to turn it off. "Should I be concerned you keep skipping my breakfasts?"

When he turned back towards her, she smiled brightly. "Just think of it as I found something better than breakfast."

He cups her cheek and brings her closer to while whispering. "I love you, so much."

"I love you too."

Then their lips touched passionately, their hands each going to the ties of their robes while they were walking towards the door of the bedroom, closing it the minute they got inside of the room.

Hours later, when they finally did decide to get out of bed, Grissom made them lunch so they could pack it for a trip to the park, which Hank was expecting since he could sense it was that time of the day.

After putting the leash on him, Grissom asked while standing up. "You want to drive or walk, honey?"

"Uhh, how about walk, it's not too far."

He nodded as he grabs the apartment keys while Sara grabbed the bag that had a few dog toys then the packed lunch before they headed out of the door.

As they were walking towards the park, their conversations carried on with ease, just enjoying the time together. Then when they got there, they took Hank off the leash and started playing fetch with him.

About fifteen minutes later, they and Hank hear a little girl's voice behind them. "Hank!"

Sara and Grissom turned around while Hank dropped his frisbee and started running towards her, who happened to be Sadie.

Sara was just about to shout to Hank to be careful, but Grissom placed his hand on her arm and spoke softly. "Watch this."

They see Hank slow down at the right time before he sits down in front of the little girl and wags his tail, being completely calm as he was getting his pets by her, causing Sara to look surprised. "Wow, he's so gentle/calm with her."

"And that happened pretty much from the moment they met, which is very surprising considering he wasn't use to being around kids very often before that moment."

She nodded in agreement, then asked while she placed some hair behind her ear as she saw, who she assumed was the little girl's mother, now greeting Hank. "So, how many times have he seen her?"

Grissom shook his head with a curious look. "I don't know, a couple times a week." He then raises an eyebrow at her. "It's not like I coordinate my schedule to match theirs. Is there a problem?"

Before Sara could speak, the little girl and her mother with Hank trotting right next to them, was walking up to them and the woman spoke with a smile as she held out her hand towards Sara. "You must be Mrs. Grissom, I'm Hailey Tucker, and this is my daughter, Sadie."

Sara smiled politely while shaking the younger woman's hand. "Nice to meet you, Hailey." She then looked at the little girl. "And you too, Sadie. I see Hank is very gentle with you, you like playing with him?"

Sadie nodded with a bright smile before looking at what Grissom had in his hand and pointed at it. "What's that?"

Grissom held up the frisbee that was in his hand and replied with a smile. "It's called a frisbee, it's one of the things that Hank loves when he's not playing with the ball, you want to learn how to throw it?"

Sadie really wanted to, but she looked at her mother for permission, and Hailey nodded with a smile. "It's ok sweetie."

Sara and Grissom share a look before Grissom called Hank to follow, then him and Sadie walked a few steps away from the women before he kneeled down and showed Sadie how to hold the frisbee and throw it.

He stood up a moment later. "I'll throw it first so you can see how it works."

"Ok."

The minute the frisbee was out of Grissom's hand, Hank ran for it, catching it while it was still in the air, causing the little girl to clap with a smile while Hank was rushing back to them with the frisbee in his mouth. "That was cool, can I try?"

Grissom nodded as he took the frisbee from Hank's mouth then handed it to her.

She concentrated really hard, remembered how Grissom showed her and threw it, but sighed when it didn't go very far and Hank had to pick it up from the ground instead of catching it in the air like he did when Grissom threw it.

"I'm not good at that like you are."

Grissom kneeled down next to the girl and spoke warmly to her while Hank brought the frisbee back to them. "It takes practice, which a lot of things in life will, but the important thing is to keep trying, so you want to keep trying?"

The little girl nodded with a smile. "Yes please."

So, for the next 20 minutes or so Grissom was patiently helping Sadie out, and all Sara could do was stand there in complete awe while watching the pure joy on his face while he was doing it. Now she's seen joy in his eyes before but this one looked different and one she's never seen before.

While she continued watching her husband, Hailey looked at Sara and started to speak. "He's great with her."

She nodded with a small smile. "I can see that."

Hailey paused for minute before replying. "You sound a little surprised."

A little taken aback by the comment, and that the younger woman could 'read' that from her, Sara cleared her throat before speaking again. "I guess I'm just not use to seeing him around kids all the time."

There was obviously Catherine's daughter Lindsay, but by the time they had gotten together and out in the open Lindsay was already a teenager, and was hardly in their presence, so she never really got a chance to see how he was with her one on one, and while some of their victims' families had kids, very rarely did he interact with them, so really this was the first true time seeing him in this kind of light.

Hailey's voice brings Sara back from her thoughts. "Does it ever make you wonder?"

Sara turns to Hailey with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"How it could be if you two ever had kids."

Once again Sara was a little taken aback by the comment, so it made her pause, and as she trying to formulate a response, Sadie came rushing to her mom with a bright smile. "I did it mommy, did you see?"

Hailey kneeled down with a bright smile. "I did sweetie, good job."

"Thank you, mommy." She took a breath before she replied like she was exhausted. "I just practiced like Mr. Grissom said."

They all chuckled before Grissom spoke with a smile. "And just because you eventually got it, doesn't mean you stop practicing, right."

Sadie turned around to look up at Grissom with a nod. "Right."

After Hailey looked down at her watch she sighed before speaking to her daughter. "Well, I'm sorry sweetie but we are going to have to cut this visit short."

Sadie turned around now looking sad as she replied in more of a statement form than question. "Work, mommy."

Hailey nodded with another sigh. "Yeah, I'm sorry."

They both knew it was something she had to do, but it still made them a little sad.

While mother and daughter were having their moment, Grissom cleared his throat before speaking softly. "I'm sorry we took up your time with her."

Hailey shook her head with a smile. "It's ok, if Sadie had fun."

"And I did mommy."

"Then that's all that matters to me."

Of course, she wants to spend as much time with her as possible when she's not in school or working, but she also didn't want to deny her daughter interacting with other people, and she seemed to have fun with Hank and Grissom, so she didn't mind too much.

While Grissom nodded in understanding, Hailey told her daughter to say goodbye, and once she did, Hailey turned to Sara with a smile. "Nice to meet you."

Still thinking about that last comment Hailey had said to her, she was a little distracted, but then she cleared her throat and nodded with a polite smile in return. "You too."

After Hailey nodded, she looked at Grissom. "Bye, Professor Grissom."

"Bye, Ms. Tucker."

A moment later mother and daughter started walking away, then Grissom looked over at his wife and asked. "You ready for that lunch we packed then head out?"

Sara nodded. "Sure."

Grissom nodded while grabbing the picnic basket they had brought with them before they went in search for a spot to sit, and while they did enjoy their simple but good meal once they found their spot, Grissom couldn't help but notice his wife seemed a little quieter than usual, so he asked. "Sara, you ok?"

Sara nodded and cleared her throat. "Yeah, everything is good."

He raised an eyebrow as he asked. "You sure? Hailey didn't say anything to upset you, did she? She can be a little..."

Sara cuts her husband off with a smirk. "Straightforward."

Grissom chuckled with a nod. "Yeah."

Sara waved off his concern. "No, it's nothing, like I said everything is ok."

Not seeing anything wrong, Grissom just nodded and dropped it before turning his attention to Hank. "Hey buddy, you want to play for a few more minutes before we head home."

Hank gets up and grabs the ball this time while Grissom gets up before they go a little ways so they could play fetch as Sara watched him, still thinking about what Hailey said.

Honestly when they first started getting serious she had thought of them having kids, she even went as far as agreeing to have them one day the night he had proposed (the first time), and she did mean it, but then the fallout on what happened to her got worse and things between them got even more unstable so obviously everything they had agreed to do got pushed out of the way.

But now that their lives were back on the right track, well excluding their living situation that is, was it time to bring up the baby conversation again? Was she really ready to talk about it again, let alone be a mother?

Her thoughts get interrupted when she hears Grissom's voice. "Honey, you ready?"

She cleared her throat and nodded with a smile as she started to get up from the dry grass. "Yeah, let's go home."

He nodded with a smile before packing up then calling Hank over to them so they could leave and go home.

Next Day

February 14, 2010

After breakfast and the dishes were done, Grissom had to start grading papers, so Sara grabbed a book she had started reading in Vegas, but after about 30 minutes, not fully concentrating on the words, she gave up on reading and placed her book on the coffee table before looking at her husband and speaking. "I think I'm going to take Hank to the park."

Grissom stopped what he was doing and looked at her with nod and smile. "Ok, honey." He then goes back to doing his grading while Sara gets up and heads to the room so she could change clothes.

5 minutes later she walks out of the room with her shoes in her hands and heads to the couch to sit down and puts them on, then she gets up and walks towards the other end of the couch to give Grissom a kiss, and once they pulled back, he takes her hand and looks at her in concern. "Sara, I can't help but feel something is off with you and has been since yesterday, no matter how much you are trying to hide it from me." She was about to open her mouth, but he continued with a sigh before she could. "And as much as I want you to talk about it so we can deal with it, I know you'll only share when you're fully ready to. But please tell me if it's me, if I somehow did..."

She cuts him off with a loving smile. "Babe, I promise it's not you, you have done nothing wrong. In fact, everything you have done since I've been here, only makes me love you even more."

He didn't exactly know what he had done recently to make her feel that way, but he was happy to hear it, and in fact not seeing any doubt there either, so he replied with a smile as he cupped her cheek. "And you know there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you."

She nodded with tears in her eyes. "I know that, and that's why I need a little time to think."

Once again not sure what his wife is talking about, but respecting her decision without interrogating her, he just nodded in understanding. "Ok, then go think away, and whenever you're ready to share whatever you needed to think on, I'm here to listen, always."

She nodded as she leaned down so they could share another kiss.

"I love you."

"I love you too, I'll see you in a bit."

"Yeah, you will."

After one more kiss, he squeezed her hand before she pulled back from him, then called Hank. "Hank, come on boy, let's go to the park."

Hank ran to Sara the minute she said park, and after grabbing his hanging leash by the door, Sara and her husband share a smile before she walked out of the apartment with Hank.

AN: Thanks for reading, and please review. I hope you all are having a good, safe weekend. More to come.