TITLE: Princesses
AUTHOR: jenbachand
PAIRING: Grissom/Sara
RATING: General
SUMMARY: Halloween fluffiness.
DISCLAIMER: I made no money from the writing of this fic.
NOTES: Geek kidlet fluffy Halloween goodness. Thanks so much to mingsmommy for the speedy beta. Set as toddler, so sometime after Unplanned, but before Soft Glow

"Trick-a-Treat. Smell my feets. Gimme sumthin' good to eat."

"Where did you learn that little girl?" Sara looked in her mirror at Betsy who was kicking her feet as she sang the Halloween ditty from the backseat.

"Uncle Greg," the toddler replied before launching into another round of the song.

Making her way to the lab on Halloween night was not exactly what Sara had originally planned for her night off. But Greg had called her whining about not getting to see his girl on her night, and that he had something extra special planned for Betsy, so could Sara please, please, please bring Betsy to the lab for a quick round of trick-or-treating.

Betsy Grissom was a princess for her third Halloween on the planet .Her costume was complete with tiara, scepter, billowy pink gown, and sparkly shoes. All in pretty princess pink. With sparkles.

They had been shopping one afternoon for costumes when Betsy turned curious eyes to her mother and asked, "Mommy costume too?"

And she had bought a matching costume in lovely lady lilac. Grissom had secretly been pleased at Sara's holiday purchase, and when mother and daughter dressed up for him before he left for work, he proclaimed he had the two most beautiful princesses in all the land. Which pleased Betsy to no end.

So after trick-or-treating the neighbors, who all cooed over the mommy & daughter costumes, the Grissom women headed to the lab for what Sara was sure to be a "Princess Betsy" festival. It wasn't that that she didn't want people to proclaim her daughter the most fantastically wonderful little girl, because she was, it was just that Greg never did anything by half when it came to Betsy. Her first Christmas, when she had barely been able to sit up to open presents, the sheer volume of packages from Greg made Santa look like a Scrooge.

Greg was waiting for them in the parking lot and proceeded to whisk Betsy up into his arms and carried her into the lab. Sara toting two plastic pumpkins, nearly full of candy already, followed along, smiling at her daughters delighted giggles.

The day before, when Sara went home, there were a few decorations up at the lab, but nothing like what greeted her upon entering the building. Every station in the lab was decorated with more stuff than Sara had seen at two Halloween stores combined. Judy's desk was probably the most elaborate. Cobwebs, jack-o-lanterns, a cauldron that was bubbling, a fake cat, and Judy herself dressed as a witch. When Greg set Betsy down she scampered to Sara for her pumpkin and then back to Judy's desk.

"Trick-a-Treat," said Betsy holding out her candy bucket. Judy gave the little girl a huge smile and a handful of candy. Judy then looked over at Sara who shook her head no, thinking she'd need the extra room in her pumpkin for Betsy's overflow.

Archie had It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown playing on the big screen and gave Betsy a cellophane wrapped popcorn ball. Hodges had bags of gummy bugs (sucking up to the bossman as always), Wendy had bags of candy corn, Mandy had assorted chocolates, Bobby presented the princesses with caramel apples (wrapped in adorable Halloween bags), and when they entered the break room, was the piece-de-resistance. The team had turned it into some sort of mini fall festival. There was a tub with apples, an actual hay bale, a skeleton dressed in feather boas sat next to Dr. Robbins, while Nick and Warrick were debating the merits of pumpkin bread versus pumpkin pie as a dessert.

"Where Daddy?" Betsy asked the assembled group. The men as one descended on the little girl, first telling her that her dad would be back soon, and then taking her around the various attractions in the room.

"You did good Greg." Sara gave him a hug. "This is all great."

"Well, you know, we all love the little geek baby. And it's been a pretty slow evening. Cath and Griss offered to take the one call we've gotten tonight," Greg explained. Betsy called out to him once she reached the skeleton and he headed over to listen to her ask questions and giggle at the costume decorating the bones.

Sara took a seat at the table and was promptly served pumpkin goodies by Nick and Warrick. She smiled at the two men, but wouldn't give them a definitive answer on what was better (she secretly thought Gil's pumpkin soup had the desserts beat by a mile). After an hour or so, Betsy crawled up into her mother's lap and cuddled up to her chest. The men all had drifted away to other parts of the lab by then, but Sara hated to leave without seeing her husband. She didn't have to wait long though, after another half hour Catherine walked by and gave Sara an amused smile while gesturing towards the trace lab with her kit. Gil followed a few minutes later and gave her a soft smile.

"How long has she been out?" he whispered. Sara went to stand up, but he stopped her and gently lifted their daughter into his arms. Betsy instinctively wrapped her arms around her dad's neck and snuffled back to sleep.

"About thirty minutes. We should probably get going but I wanted to see you before we left," Sara whispered back as she stood up and kissed his cheek. They made their way down the hall and out the front door. After he strapped Betsy into her car seat he quietly closed the door on the car.

"You really do make a beautiful princess Sara. Your name has always suited you. I'm the luckiest man in the kingdom," Gil raised a hand to her hair. He twirled a stray curl around his finger and leaned in for a kiss. Sara stood there in the parking lot, with both hands full of candy laden plastic pumpkins, being kissed by her wonderful husband and thought she was perhaps the luckiest princess in the land and no matter what anyone said, there really was a happily ever after.