A/N: School's out for summer! And, once I'm back from my school trip at the end of the month, you can expect more regular updates. Thanks for your patience though this academic year.

Thanks for reading, reviewing, and for your prayers as I embark upon a 10 day trip with nine teenagers…

Enjoy!

March 2016

"Anna, did you clean your room?"

"Yes."

Sara eyes her critically. "Is it inspection-ready?"

Anna sighs and turns to go up the stairs without comment. Sara shakes her head, then turns to look at Jake.

"My room is clean," he says before she can ask.

"Good," she says. "Will you clean the windows downstairs? I have a feeling the dog has put his nose on as many as he can reach."

Jake nods without comment, and goes to retrieve the Windex. He knows better than to argue with Sara. Even if he wanted to, the look in her eyes is enough to stop him.

To say that she is stressed out is putting it mildly. Jake wishes he knew why.

When Grissom arrives home from work, his entire family is in the front yard. Jake is mowing, Anna is pulling weeds – both activities that Grissom has always found to be rather pointless in Las Vegas – and Sara is clipping hedges. Laura is supervising the operation from the safety of her activity walker.

"What's going on?" he asks as he joins them.

Sara puts down her hedge clippers and wipes the back of her hand and wrist across her forehead. "We're cleaning up the yard."

"So I see," Grissom said. "Dare I ask why?"

"Because the house is spotless," Jake mutters. Hoping that Sara did not hear him, he continues pushing the mower across the yard. The lack of reaction from both of his foster parents is enough to tell him that his comment went unnoticed.

"I want it to look nice," Sara says to Grissom.

Understanding dawning, Grissom smiles slightly. "Tell you what: I'll help Jake finish up here. You and the girls can get out of the sun for a little while."

Sara looks at him critically. "You're not doing yard work in those clothes."

"I'll change first."

She finally nods. "Okay."

"Okay," Grissom repeats. He lifts Laura out of her chair to carry her inside.

Sara picks up her clippers again. "Anna, push Laura's chair inside."

"We're going in?" she asks, confused by the turn of events.

"Daddy wants to work on the yard," Sara replies. "We can make a special dessert for dinner with Nana, if you'd like."

"Let's make brownies!"

Jake bites his cheeks to keep from laughing. Brownies are special?

"Okay. Let's go get started."

Within a few moments, Grissom joins him in the yard. He steps in front of Jake, and holds up his hand. Jake stops the mower, and looks at him questioningly.

"How long have you been working?"

"Out here, or in general?"

Grissom sighs. "You know that Sara isn't normally like this," he says. "It's just … She and my mother have a … I guess you could say, a somewhat tense relationship. They got off to a bad start, which was at least partially my fault. And, I know they've tried to become close over the years, but … neither of them is the type of person for whom that comes easily. I'd say they just need time, but …" He shrugs. "Their relationship is cordial, but it's not affectionate. I know that Sara always feels a need to impress my mother, which is why she gets like this when we have dinner together."

Jake nods slowly. "She said something to me before about them not being close."

"That's probably the best way to put it," Grissom says. "But, Mom and Anna adore one another, and I know that's the most important thing to Sara."

"Yeah, Anna's been excited all day."

Grissom smiles. "I hope that it's a nice evening … for all of us."

March 2004

"Are you ready?"

"For what?" Sara asked blankly.

Nick frowned. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, and until you can be more specific, you're going to be mad at me," Sara replied. "Am I ready for what?"

Nick rolled his eyes. "Our practice relay tomorrow!" he said as though there could not possibly be another topic for them to discuss. "Everyone's going to be there – even Grissom with his follow car."

"Really?" Sara asked. "I didn't think the follow car was a required part of practice."

"I told him that, but he said he wanted to come along," Nick said. "Something about what happens in practice happens in performance."

Sara laughed. "That sounds like Grissom."

"Are you busy now?" Nick asked.

"Not overly," Sara said, banging her locker shut. "I was just about to head home. Why? What's up?"

"I thought we could go for a run," he said. "I know that Warrick and Catherine are working over today, but Greg's done now, too, so I thought maybe the three of us could do a few miles."

"Sure," Sara said, opening her locker again. "Just let me change first."

"Great," Nick said, grinning at her. "I'll go talk to Greg, and we'll meet you in the parking lot."

"Okay," Sara replied.

Nick left the locker room and Sara took her gym bag from her locker. She looked at it for a moment and allowed a brief shiver of nervousness to pass through her.

She and Catherine had done plenty of training together for the marathon relay. However, they had yet to run with the men on their team. Though neither had said it aloud, both were a little nervous about keeping up with the guys. Sara had thought that she would be able to postpone finding out until the next day, and that Catherine would be there with her.

But, with this impromptu run with Nick and Greg only a few minutes away …

It was time to see if she and Catherine had worked hard enough.

March 2016

Sara starts as the oven timer goes off. Grissom covers her hands with his before she has time to jump out of her seat.

"The brownies –" she begins.

"Everything looks great, Sara," he says. "Calm down."

"I'm very calm," she says.

Grissom smiles and releases her hand, letting her go to the kitchen to get the brownies from the oven. He follows her to check the sauce he has simmering on the stove.

"What are the kids up to?" Grissom asks as Sara takes the brownies from the oven.

"Laura still napping – thank goodness – and Anna and Jake are playing a video game."

"I'm not so sure that Wii was a good idea," Grissom says as he stirs his sauce.

Sara laughs. "It does keep them occupied. I need Anna to get in here, though. She needs to pick her icing and décor for these."

Grissom chuckles at her word choice. Since they first let her help decorate a cake, Anna has insisted upon large amounts of sprinkles on every baked good in the house.

"Anna!" Sara calls. "The brownies are done!"

"Yay!"

They can hear Anna running toward them, then a squeal and a crash. The sound of Anna's crying screams soon mingles with Laura's cries.

"Mommy!" Anna cries as she enters the kitchen.

"Did you fall, baby?" Sara asks.

Anna nods. "And, my gum fell out of my mouth and … look!"

She holds up a handful of hair that is tangled with chewed gum. Sara sighs and looks at Grissom.

"Pick your battle," she says.

"I've got the baby," he replies.

"Oh, sure," Sara says sarcastically. "The one time I need you to be Mr. Wizard, you take the easy job."

Grissom laughs. "I'm sure you two will be fine."

Sara shoots him a murderous look that has him continuing to laugh as he leaves the room.

Grissom arrives in the baby's room to see that Jake has gotten there ahead of him. He is standing over the crib, staring at its small occupant with something akin to horror on his face.

"What's wrong?" Grissom asks.

"She's … a mess," Jake says, stepping back from the crib as Grissom joins him.

Grissom looks down at the baby and nods. "Diaper blow-out," he says.

Jake looks at him. "What?"

"Diaper blow-out," he repeats. "It happens. Let's get her cleaned up."

"Um … I'll just …"

"Stay," Grissom says. "As I recall, you have yet to learn the fine art of diaper changing."

"Right," Jake says. "I was sort of hoping to start with something less gross, though."

Grissom chuckles as he lifts Laura out of her crib. "Might as well start here. The next one you change will seem easy by comparison."

Jake exhales, realizing he's not going to get out of this. "Okay."

"Besides," Grissom says, stripping off the baby's clothes and tossing them into her hamper, "Sara's downstairs dealing with the gum that Anna got stuck in her hair. Would you rather be there?"

"So, how does this diaper thing work?"

Grissom laughs. "Thought so."

Jake looks down at the baby again. "Seriously … this is disgusting."

Grissom smiles. "Well, I do think that a bath may be in order …" He glances at the clock. "And, we'll have to hurry. Can you run the water for me?"

"Sure," Jake says, going to the bathroom and leaving Grissom to gather up the baby and her fluffy bathrobe.

When Grissom arrives in the bathroom, Jake is shutting off the water. Jake stands back to watch Grissom give the baby a quick bath.

"She's going to be disappointed," Jake says.

"Who?"

"Laura. She won't have time to play with her toys."

Grissom chuckles. "She'll deal with it."

He takes the baby out of her bath and dries her off while Jake drains the tub. They go back to her room, where Grissom puts her on her changing table.

"Now, I realize we're not starting from the very beginning with this one, but, for future reference, I've found that it's always a good idea to make sure that you have all your diaper changing supplies on hand before getting the baby onto the table."

Jake nods, doing his best to look the part of a good student.

"Sara is extremely organized by nature, so you'll usually find everything in exactly the same, convenient places." He began indicating each item's home as he lifted it to the table. "Wipes, cream, and, of course, diapers."

"That's all we need?"

"Technically, since we just gave her a bath, we don't really need the wipes –"

Grissom's statement is cut off as Laura urinates on him. A look of horror crosses Jake's face.

"She's peeing on you!"

"So she is," Grissom agrees. He takes a wipe from the box and cleans off his hands, then grabs another to clean Laura. "I was wrong. We did need the wipes this time." He tosses the used wipes in the trash. "So, next is the cream, and, then, of course the diaper. Are you watching?"

"Yeah, I'm watching."

Grissom narrates the process as he fastens the diaper in place. "And, there you have it: a clean baby," he says, picking her up. "Now, she just needs some clothes … Sara would want her in a dress, right?"

"I guess," Jake says.

"What's wrong?" Grissom asks, passing him the baby so he can choose Laura's new dress.

Jake shakes his head. "I don't get it. Can't anything gross you out?"

Grissom thinks for a moment. "Not that I've seen so far. Not since I was about thirty, at least."

"You're serious?"

Grissom smiles. "Once you've dealt with a body that has decomposed the point of being completely liquefied, you're pretty much immune to what everyone else thinks is 'gross.' At least, I was. I don't know that Sara feels the same way."

"But, stuff like this … changing diapers, babies covered in poop … that's not gross to either one of you?"

Grissom laughs. "The first time it happened with Anna was … shocking. Sara and I had to work together on that one. Neither one of us realized anything like that would happen with our sweet, little baby. But, after it happened a second time – while we were visiting Greg, no less – we were pretty much over it."

"Huh."

"We all bring different experiences to our present lives," Grissom says, holding out his hands for the baby so he can dress her. "My dad died when I was so little, and I had so many questions that went unanswered, that I became very interested in death at a very young age." He shakes his head. "It sounds morbid, and, to be honest, it was, but I was autopsying dead animals from childhood just to see what made them work … and stop working."

"What?"

Grissom nods at the look on Jake's face. "That was a pretty standard reaction. It sort of led me down a path of solitude until I got older, and fell in with a group of people who understood scientific curiosity for what it is. Even in high school, being a brainy loner wasn't a good thing, socially speaking."

"No, I guess not."

Grissom finishes dressing Laura and looks at Jake fully. "How are you doing at school, Jake? Do you still talk to that girl? Molly, right?"

"Yeah," Jake says, blushing. "We have lunch together sometimes."

Grissom raises an eyebrow. "Lunch sometimes?" he repeats. "At school?"

Jake nods. "She can't sit with me every day," he explains. "Her friends don't like me."

"Why not?"

He shrugs. "I'm not like them."

Grissom nods. "But, that's why Molly likes you."

Jake stares at him. "I never thought of it like that."

Grissom smiles slightly. "Come on. Let's go downstairs and make sure that Sara hasn't resorted to cutting off Anna's hair."

Jake follows him out of the nursery, slightly dazed by their conversation.

March 2004

"This is so unfair," Warrick whined as he watched Sara, Nick and Greg walking toward the door, all dressed in their running clothes.

"Hey, it's not our fault we got done on time," Nick teased. "You're the lucky one who caught a break in his case, right?"

"Yeah, you would bring that up."

Nick laughed almost gleefully. "You were the one who was so proud of himself for his new lead. I believe you may have even laughed at me for letting my case go cold."

"Cold?" Sara said. "Please. We've only been working on it for two days. And, Grissom told us to go home and get some sleep, so we can look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow."

"No fair," Warrick whined again. "Catherine is never going to let me go home!"

"Not if you don't accomplish something, she won't," Catherine said, coming up behind him in time to hear his comment. She looked at the other three. "Are you guys going for a run?"

"Yeah," Nick said. "I'm thinking … two, two and a half miles."

"Well, have fun," she said. "Sara, can I talk to you for a second before you go?"

"Sure," Sara said. She nodded to the guys. "I'll meet you outside."

Once Nick and Greg had gone outside and Warrick had gone back to work, Catherine stepped closer to Sara.

"Are you ready for this?"

Sara nodded, not even asking what she meant. "I think so."

Catherine nodded. "We've trained hard, Sara. We can keep up with the guys."

Sara smiled slightly. "I hope so."

Catherine gave her a wink. "Kick their asses."

"You've got it."

Sara turned to join the guys, a smile lighting up her face.

They reached the park and climbed out of Nick's car – he had volunteered to drive – and surveyed the scene. The park was mostly deserted, with the exception of a few joggers.

"We're too early for the moms with kids," Greg commented as they stretched out. "Probably a good thing." He glanced at Nick, who laughed.

"That was Warrick who ran down the little kid, not me," he said. "I'm good at dodging them."

Sara raised an eyebrow.

"My mom's house on holidays is kid-heaven," he explained. "If you're not careful, you're going to trample one of them – and have a very angry sister to deal with."

Greg shook his head. "I am so glad I'm an only child."

"Okay," Sara said. "So, we'll try not to run over little kids or their parents. Can we get started?"

"Let's go!"

Nick set a brisk pace – almost a sprint – immediately. Sara was pleased to see that she could keep up – her long strides certainly helped – but wasn't sure how long she'd be able to keep up the pace.

"Are we doing hurdles, too, Nick?" Greg asked.

"Sorry," Nick said, slowing down.

Greg shook his head. "Nick always starts off crazy-fast, but he's limping by the end."

"Not limping," Nick argued.

"Well, moving slowly," Greg said.

Sara laughed. "You know, Catherine and I don't have these issues. We set a pace and keep it the whole way through."

Greg rolled his eyes. "You run like girls."

"Hey!"

Greg laughed.

"Come on, guys," Nick said. "Half a mile down! Less talking and more running!"

He picked up the pace again. Greg and Sara glanced at each other, then began running faster to catch up.