Disclaimer: Nada, nothing, zip, nil…that's what I own people!

A/N: I'm going on holiday to my cousin's in London on Monday for a couple of weeks, so this will be the last post till late November.


Chapter Three

Nick stowed his stuff in his locker that night, still half-shocked that his 'little sister' as he though of her, had never told him the Griss and her had a child! Nether the less he was determined like Cath to give them a great present this year and hopefully create a happy memory on this anniversary rather than a sad one.

But would it bring more pain, seeing what their daughter would have looked like? Well they could still try, and it'd be on Catherine's head not his if they didn't like it.

He backed away from his locker to be able to shut the door, and slammed into someone behind him. Turning to apologize to whatever member of the current swing shift he'd bumped into he saw Greg standing behind him, rubbing his arm where Nick had crashed into him.

"Aren't you a few hours early?" Nick questioned

"I…ah…just wanted to see if I could watch you and Catherine make your picture" a red faced Greg replied nervously "And I guess I'm not the only one" he finished looking over Nicks shoulder.

Nick turned towards the door and saw Warrick had just entered also.

"Let me guess" Nick said "Come to play with pictures too?"

"Hell yeah" Warrick stated.

"Ok then, lets go meet up with Catherine and Archie" Nick said.

Archie and Catherine both looked up in surprise as all three guys entered.

"How may CSI's does it take to change a light bulb?" Archie smirked.

"Four and a detective apparently" Warrick replied as he saw Brass heading down the hall towards them.

"What do you mean detective?" Catherine asked confused as she could only see the three guys at the door.

Then Brass came thru the door and cracked up laughing at everyone else being there as well.

"Well I guess I'm not the only one who decided to invite myself to this party." He stated.

"Not by a long shot…I'm starting to fell a bit crowded in by you all" Archie said. "Sure one of you don't want to go and invite Doc Robbins, Bobby and Hodges to the party as well?"

"No way to the last one!" Greg exclaimed.

"And none of them know about the subject of this picture" Catherine added.

"Ok, so if we're all here, shall we get started?" Archie asked.

"Definitely" Nick said.

"Right then, lets see the photo, and find out what we can do with it" Archie stated.

"Here you go" Catherine said as she passed it to him.

"Hasn't Sara noticed that missing?" Greg questioned.

"I don't think she'll notice much today" Nick said "You saw yourself how she was this morning."

"True I suppose" Greg replied.

"And in answer to you original question Greg, thankfully not." Catherine answered, "I've been worried all day I was going to get a phone call from her asking for it back."

"Lucky she hasn't or our job tonight would have become seriously harder" Archie commented. "I still can't quite wrap my head around Grissom and Sara having a daughter, but this is a really nice photo."

"It is" Nick said, "however, we're hoping you can come up with just as good a picture."

"Of course!" Archie exclaimed. "Seen as your all here, I'll share with you the thought I had during the day."

"You managed to get through the whole day with just one thought? Man, I'm impressed" Warrick smirked.

"Ha-ha" was Archie's only comment to that.

"So what's this big idea" Catherine asked him.

"I was thinking, if you guys could come up with a current photo each of Grissom and Sara we could also make up a 'family picture' for them" Archie explained. "I could do them with the age recognition software as well, but it would take longer and I don't think the Sheriff will let me work on these for the whole of the next three days. So if you've got photo's we could cut and past and merge them all into one family photo."

Everyone was speechless for a moment with huge grins on their faces as the absorbed what Archie had said.

"Archie, you rock!" Nick exclaimed.

"Why thank you, thank you very much" Archie replied.

"So I take it, that like me, everyone else thinks that is a brilliant idea?" Catherine asked.

"Yes" Brass said

"Hell yes" Warrick replied

"Definitely" Greg added

"It's perfect" Nick commented.

"Well Archie, that's settled. How about we start on ageing Julie-Ann, then in our breaks from shift, or after shift in the morning, we'll try to track down some photo's of Gil and Sara. There must be some around from work functions if nothing else." Catherine stated.

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Earlier that day………

After Grissom and Sara had finished breakfast she decided she really didn't want to spend the day alone. She had to ask Griss if he'd stay. Sure, she knew he'd say no - she got used to that since she'd been in Vegas - because after all, 'he didn't know what to do about this' in other words, the fact that he still loved her as much as she loved him, but now he was her supervisor he didn't want to cross the 'professional boundaries'. Mind you, he hadn't argued when the Sheriff told them to spend some 'personal' time together over the next couple of days.

"What are you planning to do today, now that we have tonight off?" Grissom asked as he finished helping her with the dishes. Truth be told, he wanted her company today as much as she did his.

"Ah, I thought I'd try and get some sleep this morning, you know, seen as how we've been up all night" Sara replied with a smirk.

"Well, I'd better go home and do likewise then" Grissom replied.

That was definitely not what Sara was hoping for, even if her answer might have sounded like that was what she wanted. She decided she'd just have to bite the bullet and ask him outright to stay.

"Gris…Gil, please, can you stay here with me today?" She asked, eyes betraying how frightened she was of staying by herself - she knew she was going to have nightmares.

Grissom really wanted to stay also, but wasn't quite sure what Sara expected.

"Are you sure that's wise?" He asked slowly.

"Gil, I'm not asking you to sleep with me…don't worry about me compromising you professional boundaries" She snapped "You could sleep on the couch - or just go home for that matter. I only asked cause I really don't want to be alone"

And no matter how hard she tried to be strong and stay angry, even Grissom could see the tears in her eyes as she fought for control.

That made Grissom feel awful - the last thing he wanted to do was to upset her even more today, and they'd had such a good breakfast together, almost like old times - until he'd put his foot in it once again.

"Sara, honey…" He started

"Don't 'honey' me right now" Sara snapped cutting him off.

"Sara, hon…sorry" He amended when she glared at him.

"Sara, it's not that I don't want to stay, believe me I do - I don't want to be alone today either - I just wanted to be sure of where we both stand at the moment" Grissom said, "however, if you'd rather I just left now, I'll go home and come back this afternoon".

And there it was…the ball was back in her court…and she was ready to slap Grissom just for that alone. Reason being, she was a woman divided.

Her head wanted her to tell him to go, still mad that he'd brought them back to the 'now' rather than the 'then' when they'd been able to have a relationship without any "professional boundaries" in the way.

Her heart on the other hand wanted, no needed, him to stay. And of course her head was now saying how ridiculous that was that she needed someone else to take care of her today. 'Like you always did' her heart then reminded her.

Grissom must have seen her internal conflict playing out in the expressions on face, also that heart was now winning the struggle, and she now seemed less harsh and more vulnerable again.

Hence, he closed the gap between them and pulled her tightly into his embrace once more.

"So, can I stay?" He asked her softly, close to her ear.

Sara merely nodded, then relaxed against him, as the exhaustion from the emotional stress of the morning took hold.

TBC