July 2016

Grissom looked down at the little bundle squirming in his arms, wrapped tightly in a soft pink blanket. He rocked it back and forth slowly, cooing. Then her eyes opened, blue meeting blue, and Grissom's heart began to flutter.

"My god." He spoke through a whisper as he took a seat on the hospital bed next to Sara, "She's beautiful." Sara looked over Grissom's arms to see their daughter held safely in his hold. Pale white skin, rosy cheeks and lips, strands of brown hair and bright blue eyes.

"We probably should have discussed names." Sara spoke ever so softly, watching Grissom watching their daughter. Their daughter who was a mere hours old.

"Aurora." He spoke just as softly, not taking his eyes off the child in his arms, his child.

"Aurora?" She questioned.

"Aurora Borealis. She's breathtaking, like the northern lights." He finally lifted his eyes from the child in his arms to look at Sara as he spoke now, "What do you think?"

"I love it." She smiled widely. "Aurora Grissom." She looked at the little bundle in Grissom's arms once more as he rocked her back and forth now. "Aurora." She whispered to her daughter.

Grissom leaned down and planted a soft kiss on Sara's lips. "Thank you."

Just then there was a soft knock on the door, followed by Betty peaking in.

"Come in." Sara signed to better with a bright smile. Sara had taken more of an effort to better her sign language after learning she was pregnant. Knowing that it would be important for her to help Grissom teach it to the child.

Sara watched as betty's face glowed with excitement. Grissom stood and walked toward his mother, the baby in his arms was awake but quiet, taking in the world around her. Betty covered her mouth with her hands at the sight of her, tears falling down her cheeks.

Carefully, Grissom handed the child to his mother and watched as Betty took in every inch of the child's face. She then looked up at her son with awestruck eyes.

"Her name is Aurora." Grissom signed to his mother. Betty rocked the child in her arms, watching as her ice blue eyes slowly fluttered closed, drifting to sleep.

November 2018

"Daddy." A little girl ran down the hallway to the bedroom. "Look, daddy." Grissom spun around in his office chair to see the child standing in front of him. She was a spitting image of Sara. Long brown hair, growing like a weed. Except her eyes, those were his, deep blue orbs.

"Hey sweetie." Grissom lifted her up and set her down on his lap, "What do we have here?" The little girl shoved a paper his way, "Wow, did you draw this butterfly for me?" She nodded enthusiastically.

"Gil?" He heard Sara call from the kitchen.

"Yes, Dear?" He called back but after a moment no replay came.

"Let's go see what mommy wants." He spoke as he lifted the girl in his arms and spun her around. Her high pitched laugh was like a sweet symphony. He walked down the hall to the kitchen. "Sara?"

"Gil." Her breath was labored causing Grissom to pick up his pace and find his way to her.

"Sara." He spoke sharply at the sight of her steadying herself against the counter, one hand pushing to her abdomen, "What's wrong?"

"My water broke."

"I thought we had another month." Grissom spoke through raised brows as he quickly put Aurora down and rushed to Sara's side, putting a hand on her stomach. "How far apart are the contractions?"

"Four minutes I think." At the end of her sentence she went rigid, squeezing his hand so hard he though it would fall out.

"Mama!?" Aurora stood there looking up at her parents.

Grissom looked back down at his daughter and turned to her, crouching down to get eye level with her, "Hey sweetie. Remember how we were talking about getting you a little baby brother or sister?" He watched as Aurora nodded enthusiastically, "Well, what if we go do that today?"

"Yay!" She exclaimed while dancing in a circle.

"But you're going to have to be a very good girl for that to happen. What do you say?" Aurora nodded silently. "Good."

Grissom quickly whipped out his phone and then looked up at Sara, "I just texted my mother, she'll meet us at the hospital to look after Aurora." Sara nodded through clenched teeth and slowly made her way to the front door. Grissom quickly put on Aurora's jacket and shoes, and grabbed Sara's overnight bag. He strapped Aurora in to her car seat and then ran back to the house to help sara make her way to the car.

"I'm fine." Sara insisted causing Grissom to laugh silently. Old habits die hard. Once everyone was strapped in Grissom peeled the car out of the driveway and speed safely to the hospital.

"Hi, Mom." Grissom quickly signed seeing Betty in the waiting area. He kissed her hello and then quickly knelt down to get eye level with Aurora, and signed while he spoke, "Will you be good for Grandma while mommy and I go get you a baby sister or brother?" He watched as she signed "I will." I smiled proudly. Aurora hugged Betty and climbed up to a seat to sit next to her.

"Do you want your crayons?" Grissom asked Aurora, who nodded enthusiastically. He handed her the sketchbook and crayons, "Maybe you can draw grandma a butterfly." He signed once more as he spoke.

"Okay, Daddy."

Grissom kissed the top of her head, signed "Thank you." to his mother and then rushed back through the double doors, out of the waiting room.

"Push." He heard the nurse say as he jogged into the delivery room.

"I'm here, I'm here." He took his place by her side and held her hand tightly.

Grissom kissed the top of her head as they sounds of crying rang out. "You did it." He spoke softly as she breathed raggedly.

"I think we're good at two." She said smiling up at him. He nodded silently.

"Congratulations." The doctor walked over and placed the small bundle in his arms, "It's a boy." Grissom sat down next to sara so she could see him. He looked so much like his sister already, pale white skin, rosy cheeks and lips, bright blue eyes. But he had a think mop of dirty blonde hair sitting atop his head, just like Grissom had when he was a boy.

Grissom handed her their child carefully and watched as Sara looked into his eyes.

"So what did we decided on?" Grissom spoke in almost a whisper, realizing the baby had already fallen asleep in the safety of his mother's arms, "Last I remember we were between Benjamin and Isaac for a boy."

"What about Warrick?" Sara looked up at Grissom with bright eyes.

"Really?" He almost chocked on the words, emotion rising within him.

"Warrick Benjamin Grissom. We can call him Rick for short."

"Okay." He smiled widely looking down at his son, "Warrick."

A little while later, once they were transferred to their private room, Betty brought Aurora in. She pressed her finger to her lips in a "shhhing" manner before opening the door.

"Mommy!" Aurora whispered as she tried to climb up the hospital.

"Whoa there." Grissom scooped her up and planted kisses all over her face causing the girl to giggle. Grissom's favorite sound. He swirled her around in an airplane gesture and landed her gently next to Sara, who had scooted over to make room for her.

"Hi, honey." Sara kissed her daughter's head softly. "Did you have fun with Grandma today?"

Aurora nodded, "I drew flying butter."

"Butterflies." Grissom corrected her with a smile as he picked up his newborn son from the little hospital crib and walked him over to Betty.

"Oh my." Betty mouthed as she took the bundle from her son and looked down at the boy.

"Warrick." He signed to his mother. No explanation was needed, she'd known all about Warrick.

"Is that my sister?"

Sara smiled down at her daughter, "We got you a brother instead. What do you think of that?"

Aurora shrugged, "Will he like bugs?"

"Maybe." She looked up at Grissom with a small, playful shake of the head in a what are you teaching our child kind of way.

"Cool." Aurora nodded, deciding she was fine with having a brother instead. "I want to see him."

Sara signed to Betty, asking her to bring him over to them and watched as Betty held Warrick low enough for Aurora to see. "But we have to be quiet. See? He's sleeping." Aurora nodded obediently, "That's Warrick. Your baby brother."

"Shhhh." Aurora mimicked with her finger to her mouth.

"Very good." Sara hugged Aurora, "You're going to be a great big sister." Then Warrick stirred awake in Betty's arms, opening his mouth wide and crying.

"Did I do something?" Aurora looked up at her mom terrified.

"No sweetie, I think he's hungry." Betty handed the baby to Sara and left the room to give them some privacy. Grissom scooped up his daughter and held her in his arms as Sara adjusted herself to feed the newborn.

"Now, what are the most import roles of being a big sister?" Grissom said in his quizzing voice, telling Sara he'd already coached Aurora on this some time beforehand.

"Share my toys, be nice, and save him."

"Keep him safe. Close enough." He kissed her forehead as he bounced her around in his arms. "Your brother is named after someone very special to us." He said as he readjusted his daughter on his hip, "In fact, without Warrick, it's very possible that mommy and daddy may have never gotten together."

Sara smiled softly looking up at Grissom. It was true, if Warrick hadn't been going through that hard time in the early 2000's, Grissom may have never found a good enough excuse to bring her down to Vegas.

"Will he know the aha! game?"

"No, but we can teach him it."

"Okay!" Aurora seemed excited by this.

October 2022

"Gil? Can you get that?" Sara called out after hearing the phone ring for the third time without him answering. Her hands were full with balancing Warrick on her hip and helping Aurora with her homework. The phone stopped ringing, signaling he'd picked up.

A few moments later, Grissom emerged, the cordless phone held to his chest, showing her it was muted, "It's for you."

"Who is it?"

"Catherine."

Sara looked up. "Really?" He simply nodded in return and extended his hand out to her. As she took the phone he reached out to grab Warrick from her. Sara quickly stepped outside to take the call.

Grissom looked at his son in his arms now. It was hard to believe he was already four years old, and Aurora, sitting patiently while doodling in the margins of her homework was six—already in 1st grade. She looked more and more like Sara with every passing day.

Sara walked back inside and placed the phone on the counter.

"What was that all about?"

"They need me to come back and testify on a case from 2012. It's on appeal."

"I see. When do they need you?"

"Tomorrow." She paused briefly. "I told her I'd do it."

"Of course. Why not." Grissom put Warrick down on the ground and watched as he climbed up onto a chair next to his sister, peering over at what she was drawing in awe.

"You know... we haven't really done a great job at keep in touch with the team. I don't think we even told them about the kids."

Grissom's brows raised, "I just assumed you did." She shook her head.

"This may be a good opportunity."

Grissom nodded in agreement and turned back to the kids, "Alright! Who wants to go see where Mommy and Daddy used to work?"

Silence.

"It involves going on a plane." Instantly Aurora's hand shot up. And whatever Aurora did, Warrick had to follow, so his hand quickly raised too. "Alright then, it's settled. We're going to Vegas." Soft cheers expelled from the children as they danced in their chairs. Grissom shot a look back at Sara knowingly.

"You'll have to review the case."

"Yeah. She's faxing over the documents I need now."

"Okay. I'll take care of the kids and dinner for tonight and see what we can do about flights." He kissed her lips softly. She watched as he returned to the table to sit next to Aurora and help her with her homework. Sara let a smile dance across her face at the beautiful sight in front of her.