A/N: Thank you for reading.

I Keep On Loving You

Chapter 21

For the next two days, Sara, Grissom and Eli rarely left each other's company. And more often than not, Catherine was there; Jim, Nick, and Greg arrived at meal time with food for a small army and at least one of them stayed for hours. What quickly became apparent to all of the adults was the maturity and intelligence of the little boy.

Obedient and trusting to a fault, Eli was precociously articulate in his conversations causing the adults to realize he had been watching and listening to everything around him for years. When told of his mother's death, he had asked who would he live with and accepted Grissom's response with a simple nod. The child asked about a funeral for his mother and suggested a grave side service since he nor his mother were regular church goers.

When Eli's eyes clouded with tears, Sara hugged and comforted him with an affection that surprised Catherine, but not the others. To a man, each one realized a long-held and well-hidden acceptance of life as it is had lifted from Sara's eyes. None could have named this revelation because Sara had always been beautiful, intelligent, meticulously hard-working, but now she radiated joy.

In a few short minutes, Eli decided he liked all of these adults when one place a glass of cold root beer with a scoop of vanilla ice cream floating in it in front of him. As he noisily sucked root beer and melting ice cream through a straw, the people around him talked, assuring him he was going to be taken care of; Grissom explained that in a few days they would meet with a lawyer and a judge who would look at a paper his mother had signed and make it official that he would live with the Grissoms. There was no yelling or swearing; everyone was smiling.

The child found it easy to accept their welcome and kindness; he had been exposed to his mother's friends, who never kept promises, who were scary, and took things from their home. Sometimes, he hid under his bed. These people were different, he decided, and his trust in Captain Jim easily passed to the others. In their company, Eli found their conversations to be unlike anything he knew from living with his mother.

Grissom and Greg disappeared for a while and Grissom returned driving a bright red mini-van. His explanation: "We need a vehicle we'll all fit in." As Sara stared at it, he added, "It's a rental for a month. I didn't want you to have to depend on a transport van."

For two hours, Jim, Grissom, and Eli worked on a ramp, deciding the best place to park the van so Sara could be rolled in and transferred to a seat. At the same time, Catherine helped turn a guest room into a boy's room as Sara served as "supervisor". Sara wasn't fooled—Catherine was doing the work and did not need a supervisor.

As she spread a new coverlet over the bed, Catherine said, "Every boy loves big trucks—next to dinosaurs according to the woman at the store." She smoothed the truck printed fabric and then sat on the bed. "I—I really am sad about Tina, but you and Gil will give him a much more stable life." Reaching for a pillow, she wrapped arms around it, and asked, "Did you and Gil ever consider—every think about having kids? I mean—well, you never said—I—I—well, I wondered…"

Sara, emotions already on edge, struggled a moment to put her thoughts into words. Softly, she said, "We could not have kids, Catherine. We waited too long." Pausing a few seconds, she continued, "When we thought we might be able to try—to try other routes, we were too old to adopt."

Catherine, suddenly realizing the cause of their long-distance marriage, asked, "Gil? He—he couldn't—he couldn't father children? That's why he left—why he stayed away."

Blinking away tears, Sara said, "I guess everyone thinks about having children at some point in life—most of the time, I was doing what I could to avoid pregnancy, and then we got so busy—so many things happened." Through tears, she softly laughed, "and then when we decided it was time—we couldn't—and thought it was me, you know—so I came back to Vegas to get checked out." She shrugged, "Only to learn it wasn't just me—both of us."

Catherine got up and walked over to the woman she had considered a friend for longer than she cared to remember. Her hand passed across Sara's shoulders in a gentle caress. "Oh, Sara! Why don't you ever speak up about your problems, honey! I know you don't want sympathy—but that doesn't mean you couldn't share what's bothering you."

She took Sara's face in her hands, smiled, and kissed the top of her head. "Eli's got a good home now," she said. "And at least once a week—at least—I want to hear all about him—and Gil—and you. This is going to be the best adventure you two have ever had."

Nick and Greg brought toys—remote control cars, building sets, a football, a basketball—and stayed to play. Nick had done as Sara asked and brought several bags of clothing, a few toys, and photographs from Eli's home.

"It's filthy, Sara," he whispered. "And not much there you want to bring into your house." He held up the bags of clothes, saying, "Laundry—all of this. I'll do it."

Around Catherine, Eli was dazzled which meant his tongue turned into a tangling looseness that lead to giggling conversations. Later, he admitted to Sara he thought Catherine must be some kind of magical fairy delivering packages like Santa Claus. He also thought Sara and Catherine were the cleanest, sweetest-smelling people he had ever been around.

He was fascinated with Sara's arm, covered in its mesh cast, and with the wheelchair, watching with intense eyes as she removed the armrest and placed a board so she could slide from wheelchair to sofa. She let him inspect the mesh cast as she explained how she'd gotten hurt—which he thought of as an adventure.

"I'll push you around," he said as he sat in the wheelchair and played with moving parts.

Jim Brass was treated as a favorite uncle. Sara and Grissom learned he had been going by Tina's house for months with bags of hamburgers and breakfast foods, eating with Eli on the porch or at the curb, talking quietly to Eli about his father. Tina never knew and, while Brass had never suggested his visits be kept secret, the boy realized his mother would not approve, so he had remained silent.

Doc Robbins called Grissom with results of Tina's autopsy. Drugs had been found in her system, but not enough to cause death. Searching for a cause, he had found an aortic dissection in the upper aorta.

"Death within minutes," Doc Robbins explained. "She had pain but it was probably masked by the drugs. The investigator said those with her said she had been asleep, woke up, and walked around before she 'fainted'. Cocaine use contributed, but she may have had a weakness in the aorta or an aneurysm. That's what killed her—not the drugs."

Eli, with the resilience and spirit of youth, accepted the situation as it was. Independence has been developed through necessity—he could do many things but he also knew he needed adults. In his short life, with the loss of a father he never knew, the isolation imposed by his mother, and now her death, he had been forced to survive. Yet the child had hope and in this circle of adults—friends of his father—he recognized goodness.

Instinctively, Eli knew he had met the people who would change the direction of his life, and he would change forever and for the better. With the absence of his mother, who was usually good to him, he wrapped his mind around the change in his circumstances and accepted it.

After dinner, after everyone had left, Grissom showed Eli how to work the shower controls and where to find towels and toothpaste.

"This will be your bathroom," Grissom said as he handed a fresh bar of soap to the child.

"This is very nice of you—of you and Sara—to give me a place to sleep."

Grissom smiled. "Our home is your home now, Eli. You've brought us what we need." His eyes sparkled; he cleared his throat as he added, "When you finish, come back to the living room. Sara wants to tell you good night."

Eli nodded. "She's going to get well, isn't she? I mean—she won't be in a wheelchair forever, will she?"

"No," Grissom assured him. "She goes to therapy where they will help her walk again. In a month or so, she'll be chasing you and Sally Sue and Bexar all the way to the park."

When Eli grinned, Grissom became almost breathless at the resemblance to the child's father. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Get your shower—towels, pajamas—anything else you need?"

The boy shook his head. "I can take a fast shower," he said.

Grissom chuckled, "Well, you can take a long one or a short one, but clean all the necessary parts." He pointed his finger at Eli, laughing as he said, "And I'm going to check behind your ears afterwards!"

Giggling, Eli pulled his shirt over his head.

After his shower, Sara let Eli select a Netflix movie, explaining he could watch it from their bed while Grissom helped her take a shower. He was fascinated by the structure over the bed, asking a dozen questions about it.

"This is pretty cool," he said. "I could swing from that triangle."

Sara laughed, "But you won't—you can't. I need it—but if you want a real swing, I think there's a place in the backyard where you can have one."

Ignoring the movie, Eli said, "At my house, I have a fort—it's not really a fort—but I pretend it is. A girl outgrew her playhouse so she gave it to me to have a fort."

"Watch your movie," Sara said. "We'll work on getting you a fort in this yard too."

It took longer for Sara to shower than it had taken Eli; when she and Grissom returned to the bedroom, Eli was curled between two dogs; boy and dogs were asleep.

"He didn't even finish his movie," whispered Sara.

Grissom gently lifted the sleeping boy into his arm. "I'll be right back." The dogs woke and followed Grissom. Minutes later, he returned. "The dogs appear to have a new place to sleep."

"Did he wake up?"

Grissom pushed the wheelchair to the bed and when Sara reached for the trapeze bar over the bed, he said, "You've had a long day—I'll move you."

"You have to be exhausted," she whispered as he lifted her out of the chair and placed her on the bed. The wedge pillow came next.

He lifted her leg and placed in on the pillow. Laughing, he said, "We'd better do as ordered tonight—don't want your foot swelling."

Sara adjusted the wedge and patted the bed for him to join her.

"Stay awake—quick shower. We need to talk."

By the time Grissom returned, Sara had managed to start a list. As he crawled into bed, she said, "You smell nice."

Leaning over, he kissed her. "So do you. Now, what's on that list of yours?"

A/N: Now, leave us a comment! A few more chapters to go...