A/N: Sorry for the delay with this - Damn Real life interfered with FF life this week and its been rather hectic. I shall TRY to update again on Sunday to make up for it but please don't hold me to it! I'm actually attempting to write it right now so fingers crossed I get it done (please ask my muse to behave!) Love Charli xxx
Mrs Parish glanced up at them momentarily as they tried to creep through the door of Robyn's home. The cab ride had passed without too much discussion, she had settled in his arms and fought off the Sandman the whole way while he ran through every scrap of information he had on her and on Sara.
"Joel's in bed" She explained, bundling the knitting on her lap into a bag "Did you have a good time?"
Mrs Parish was a kindly old woman, her soft white candyfloss hair framed a small smiling face. She slowly shuffled across the floor towards them in her pink slippers as they froze there like naughty teenagers.
"We had a lovely time" Robyn finally stated, taking the elderly womans hands in her own "Thank you for minding Joel"
"He's a good boy. Keeps me company - I'm knitting him a scarf for his dinosaur" She explained.
Mrs Parish grinned at them both and shrugged off their thanks before disappearing out of the door. Robyn walked along the hall to Joel's room, she stood at the door to gaze on the sleeping child with his dinosaur firmly tucked under his arm. Greg moved to stand beside her, his hand resting gently on the small of her back.
"I remember feeling so upset when I found out about him - The thought of being a mother, a single mother, terrified me" She muttered quietly, nodding her head towards her son "He's the best thing that ever happened to me."
"Don't you ever think about your mother? Your birth mother?" Greg whispered as though afraid to raise the subject with her.
Robyn crossed the room to tuck Joel's blanket around him and press a kiss on his cheek. When she returned to his side her hand stroked his cheek and her lips found his softly dancing across him with feather like softness.
"Sometimes I do. But then I remember that she made her choice" Robyn laced her fingers through his and led him to her bedroom.
"What if she had no choice?" He wondered out loud as she sat on the edge of the bed and unhooked the button holding her dress together. It peeled from her shoulders and fell to her waist like a flower blossoming.
With a sigh she stood, letting the dress fall to her feet and stepping out of it. She crossed to the huge wardrobe and pulled out a small wooden box hidden among the teddy bear collection. Robyn placed it gently on the bed, opening the lid carefully and closing her eyes when a melody filled the air.
"My Dad bought this for me on my 10th birthday" She explained sadly watching the tiny ballerina dance around before taking a crumpled letter from the pink satin interior. "I kept her letter"
She handed it to Greg with a shrug. He held it there in front of his eyes for a few long moments until it felt heavy between his fingers. Greg carefully unfolded it from the envelope, swallowing the lump that had built in his throat. Casting his eyes over the words he began to understand why Robyn had detached. The resentment shone through in every word and even though he had no personal connection to it at all he found himself feeling the hurt and confusion that she probably did.
On reaching the end the scrawled signature of her birth mother danced across the page and burned into his brain. Her name was Sandra. Greg was beginning to realise the connections he kept drawing between Robyn and Sara were not mere coincidence. Grissom was right.
"Who's 'we'?" He mumbled when he finished reading. Robyn frowned so he read aloud from the letter "We don't want to hear from you again, we have moved on, we don't need this pressure"
Robyn shrugged "I never thought about it"
"What if she had other children?" He asked casually. He had to find out how she would feel about the prospect before he could even think about telling her his suspicions.
"What if she did?" Robyn muttered, tying her hair into a knot on the back of her head.
"Well... they would be your brothers... your sisters? What if they're looking for you?"
He sat down on the bed, glancing at her momentarily before folding the letter back into its envelope and placing it on the bedside cabinet with his watch.
"Then they'll find me" She finally admitted "I'm not exactly hiding"
She slipped under the covers and leaned on her elbow to watch him undress. He was secretly pleased with her reaction. She hadn't dismissed the idea of siblings finding her and hadn't judged them to be the same as her mother.
"Why are you so interested in all this anyway?" She asked, eyeing him with fake suspicion as he settled into the bed and gathered her body close to his chest. He could feel her muscles relaxing immediately, her breathing slowed and he could feel her heartbeat thudding against his chest slowly slow down as she let go of all the tension of the day.
"I dunno... I'm intrigued. Families fascinate me and yours especially seems very interesting"
She rolled her eyes, obviously not agreeing with his synopsis of her family. He drew gentle patterns up and down her arm, relishing the feeling of her soft breath on his bare chest and her warm skin against him. He could feel his eyes getting heavy as he sunk further into the pillows but shook himself awake until he was sure she was deeply asleep.
Carefully, he raised her head from the crook of his arm and settled her on the pillows. She turned over with a sigh, pulling the covers around her and curling her legs up. Greg brushed an errant strand of hair from her face and watched her sleep for a few long moments wondering if uncovering her past would change the beautiful relationship they shared.
He slipped out of bed and headed directly for the wooden box in the wardrobe - it obviously held her most precious things. If he was going to find something personal from her childhood it was there. He crept into the living room with it held firmly under his arm. Scanning the vast living area he tried to think of the places he had seen her put papers and photographs. A large display cabinet stood against one wall with an array of tiny drawers covering the lower portion. In the top stood photographs in silver frames and awards and trinkets of all descriptions.
Greg crouched to his knee's opening drawer after drawer as he looked for a birth or adoption certificate. In one drawer he found an old photograph of Robyn. She must have been three years old, smiling out at him with the same smile that turned his heart over in his chest. He stared at the image for a long time, searching for an epiphany that would tell him the truth.
Finding none, he slipped the photograph in his suit jacket hanging over the back of the chair hoping Sara may find her familiar.
He didn't find a birth certificate in the drawers, instead turning his attention back to the box. he hunted the surface for an off switch, knowing the melody would echo off the walls of the silent house and wake her up.
He found none, no off switch or mechanism to prevent the song giving the game away. He moved to the sofa, wondering if he was going to have to go outside in his underwear again and scare all the neighbours. Using one of the overstuffed cushions he opened the lid and muffled the sound before taking the bundle of papers out.
At first it seemed like run of the mill things. Joel's scan photo's, an old black and white image of a couple being married that he assumed was her parents, some letters from a woman named 'Kara' in Germany and an old love letter from her ex husband he was incredibly tempted to read. As he was about to give up he finally found what he was looking for - Her birth certificate proudly displaying the names of her adoptive parents and the date she came into this world.
It was enough for him to start digging with, he may even have solved this mystery by morning.
The sound of footsteps forced him to freeze in place, his brain desperately trying to think up an explanation for his rooting through her most private possessions but he needn't have worried. A very sleepy Joel padded into the room rubbing his eyes.
"I had a nightmare" He explained with a quiver in his lip.
Greg stood from the sofa and raised him into his arms, holding him tight against his body as he moved back into the bedroom. Joel rested his head heavily on Greg's shoulder.
"What was your nightmare about?" He asked, rubbing his back before laying him on the bed and tucking the sheets close around him.
"A monster" He muttered, his eyes scanning the room quickly.
"A monster?" Greg exclaimed "Did you know... I am a fully qualified monster hunter?!"
Joel smiled and shook his head, his hair splaying across the pillow. Greg got up from the bed and began sniffing the air as he wandered around. he twirled around the curtains, searched under the bed and dramatically opened the closet while Joel giggled at his over exaggerated efforts.
"There's no monsters here" Greg stated as he perched back down again. "And they are all scared of me anyway so as long as I'm here - you're totally safe"
Joel nodded and sat up to throw his arms around his neck. Greg took a deep breath and gently laid him back down, stroking his long hair away from his face.
"You get some sleep now ok? And we won't tell your mom ok? She doesnt like Monster Hunters" He pressed a finger to his lips to emphasise that before walking across the room and stopping at the door and whispering. "Goodnight Joel"
Joel turned in his bed, satisfied with Greg's handle of the situation as he settled back to sleep and as Greg closed the door he was almost certain he hear him mumble 'goodnight daddy' into his pillow.
Greg paused in the hallway wondering what he should do about that. Robyn said Joel's real dad, her ex husband, had never been around. She never delved into detail but he got the impression their parting was less than amicable, he was deployed to Iraq before Joel was born and never made it home. The poor kid never knew his father.
Shaking off the feelings of guilt and responsibility he now found himself feeling he trudged back into the living room and switched on Robyn's laptop. He could run a search on her Birth details and hopefully find the original document and therefore her orignal name.
It didn't take long to complete the trail, the name Amy Clark blinking on the screen somehow terrified him. He had a strange feeling of foreboding as he thought about what this could mean. with a sigh he switched off the computer, almost wishing he hadn't looked at all. He placed the birth certificate in beside the photograph already planning how he was going to go about telling Sara this when she had already told him to back off.
He replaced the box as quietly as he could, glancing at her sleeping soundly in the bed. This little bit of information would change so much of her life. She had a family, a real life living and breathing family she was genetically linked to. A family she was about to learn a whole lot about. He slipped into bed beside her once more, staring at the ceiling until slumber gripped his body and turned the night into day.
Robyn was gone by the time he woke up. with a groan he searched for his watch, the letter she had shown him falling to the floor like autumn leaves. It only served to remind him of the duty he had to Sara today, he had to tell her. She deserved to know.
He wandered around the house feeling a little bewildered by it all. He wondered if his attraction to Robyn had been based on his relationship with Sara, he had spend a large portion of his time hung up on Sara Sidle it made sense that her sister would be the next best thing. That being said, personality wise they were two very different people. Robyn didnt have that shadow in her eyes he often saw in Sara, she didn't harbour the same ghosts and he worried that when she found out her story that maybe she would inherit those ghosts. He had seen Sara break down and self destruct, he had seen her run from everything she held dear. He had suffered his own sorrow as a result of that and he wasn't sure he could deal with it again. Truth be told, he didn't want to lose the Robyn the way he had lost Sara those years ago.
He lazily fixed himself some breakfast and watched daytime TV curled up on the sofa, eventually heaving himself into the shower and forcing himself to tidy up. He wasn't alone in her house very often - he usually didn't stay on school nights when they had to leave early and he was working at night. It seemed surreal wandering around unsupervised but he realised there was more of him in her home than he had thought.
He had a toothbrush placed in the bathroom beside hers and Joel's. His toiletries lined a shelf in the shower just like hers did. He had a drawer full of spare clothes he had worn or brought here that she had washed and pressed before storing them lovingly in a lavender lined drawer. His Beers sat in the fridge, his ever increasing pile of DVD's stood beside the TV. A photograph of the three of them smiling together at deep sea world sat on the dining table beside his keys and ID. He had made himself at home without even realising it.
On his way out the door he pressed his phone to his ear and waited for Sara to pick up. It was time to come clean and face the consequences. Whatever they may be.