AN: Time to find out what Catherine was being all cryptic about! Hope you like it… and thanks for the feedback on the last chapter, I love hearing from you guys!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything relating to CSI
Chapter 15
Catherine's on the couch with Lindsey when they get to her place, both of them apparently engrossed in what looks like an episode of The Bachelor. Shelby, who was getting a little grumpy in the car, brightens immediately.
"Lindsey!" she exclaims, making the teenager look up.
"Hey, kiddo," she says with a big smile. "You have a good day?"
"Uh-huh." Shelby nods, climbing onto the couch next to Lindsey. "I played legos with Milly, and I went on the slide, and for lunch we had…"
"Hey, kiddo," Lindsey interrupts her gently. "Why don't we go hang out in my room and you can tell me all about it, OK? And let the grown-ups do boring grown-up stuff."
"OK," Shelby agrees easily, taking Lindsey's hand when she offers it.
Sara sits down next to Catherine on the couch but waits until she hears the door to Lindsey's room close behind the girls before she speaks. "I take it you orchestrated that?" She hasn't forgotten Grissom's comment about Catherine being 'cryptic'.
"Yup," she agrees freely. "We need to talk about work."
Grissom claims an armchair and frowns. "What about work?"
"I know both of you prefer keeping your private life, well, private, but you're going to be working together starting Monday," Catherine says. "Are you planning on keeping Shelby a secret from everyone at the lab?"
Sara's been thinking about it, of course. It's true that she's not one for sharing too much of her personal life, especially at work, but everyone on days in San Francisco knew about Shelby, even the people she wasn't very close to. It just wasn't possible to keep her out of any part of everyday life. And here… she doesn't want to. She doesn't want to keep her daughter from her friends. They're her family. Besides, she did promise Shelby more uncles.
"I don't think that would last very long, even if we tried," Grissom says, arriving at the same conclusion. "And I don't want to. Unless you think it's better?"
She realizes he's looking at her and quickly shakes her head. "No, I don't want that either."
"In that case, I think we should let the cat out of the bag before Sara's first shift back on Monday," Catherine tells them. "And before one of us slips up, because God knows, it's been close a couple of times this past week."
"I assume you have something in mind," Grissom says. "Since you're the one who called this little meeting."
"It's been a while since all of us got together outside the lab," she replies with a shrug. "We can tell them we're doing some sort of… welcome back party for Sara."
"You really think they'd believe I would agree to that?" Sara asks amusedly.
"Not some huge kegger," Catherine argues. "Just the gang back together, outside of work. I think I can sell that. Or I can just tell them it's a surprise."
Grissom snorts. "Then they would expect to find your dead body when they get here."
"Hey!" Sara objects, but her indignation is lessened substantially by the smile she can't hide.
"They also know you do not do well with surprises," he says with a shrug.
"I guess," she admits. "You can tell them I want to see everyone before we get sucked back into work."
"OK, so tomorrow?" Catherine suggests. "Early dinner. We can get the grill going, maybe trick Nick into handling it."
"Sounds good to me," Grissom agrees.
"Yeah, count me in."
"OK, a quiet night so far," Grissom starts as he enters the break room. Nick groans.
"Damn it, Griss, now you've jinxed us!"
"Yeah, don't you know better by now, boss?" Warrick adds. "You never say it's quiet. Now all hell is going to break loose, and we'll all be working through the whole weekend."
"I doubt I have that much power over the low lives of Las Vegas," Grissom notes drily. "But if there's a spike in crime, I will take full blame. Nick, Greg – a sexual assault on the UNLV campus in Paradise."
Greg starts humming Another Day in Paradise under his breath.
"Warrick, B&E in Summerlin, there should be a uniform on site. Cath, you're with me, possible jumper at The Tangiers."
He hands out the assignment slips, nodding at Catherine's raised eyebrow.
"And one more thing," he says. "As everyone knows, Sara will be back on Monday."
Greg and Nick whoop and he has to smile.
"Yes, we're all excited, I know. She would like to get together with everyone before work gets in the way, though, so Catherine has kindly offered to invite all of us over for dinner tomorrow."
"Just to be clear," Catherine pipes in. "I am not cooking. Nick, you're on grill duty, I'll make sure there's stuff for you to cook. Everyone else can bring something."
Grissom manages to fall asleep when he gets home, but wakes up just after noon and knows there's no point in trying to go back to sleep. Instead, he grabs some breakfast and gets started on the office – the furniture he ordered won't arrive for at least a few days, but there's no harm in getting the room cleared out before that. Maybe he can get Nick or Warrick to help him move the desk early next week.
When he's done what he can for now, it's a quarter past three and he figures it should be fine to head over to Catherine's. Even if she's still asleep, Sara and Shelby will be there.
He stops at the store on the way to pick up the sodas and potato salad he was tasked with bringing, and knocks on Catherine's door a few minutes before four.
Sara opens after a moment, a smile appearing on her face when she sees him, sending the warm waves he's gotten used to by now through him.
"Hi. You know you're, like, an hour early, right?"
He shrugs. "I figured I could help with something. Better than sitting around at home waiting."
"I guess you have a point. Come on in."
There's no sign of Catherine or Lindsey, but Shelby's at the kitchen island, drawing something. She looks up, a smile identical to Sara's on her face. "Hi, Daddy."
It's the first time she's called him that since the other night, and she was half-asleep then. Though she did crawl into his lap and fell asleep there when they were watching a movie last night. He feels the warmth settle in his stomach.
"Hi, sweetheart. What are you drawing?"
"Ladybugs," she informs him before returning her attention to the paper where there are, indeed, several red blobs with black dots.
Sara's opened the fridge, and he hands over the sodas and potato salad before sitting down next to Shelby. "No butterflies today?"
"Nuh-uh."
"We found some ladybugs in the backyard earlier," Sara explains. "So there's been a temporary shift in focus."
"I see. Do you need help with anything?"
She shakes her head. "No, this is perfect – you keep her company, and I can finish getting everything set up."
"Where's Catherine? Still asleep?"
"No, she had to run to the store, it turns out the gas for the grill was out, so she had to get it refilled."
"OK. Let me know if you need me to do anything else."
"Will do."
But she seems to have everything under control – the dining table has been moved so more people will fit around it, since it's too hot to eat outside, and she's just finding extra chairs and setting the table. Before long, she joins them in the kitchen, leaning against the opposite side of the island.
A few minutes later, Catherine appears, propane tank in hand.
"You need help with that?" he offers, but she just snorts.
"You know how to hook up a propane tank to a grill?"
"Well, no."
"That's what I figured."
She disappears out the sliding doors to the backyard, and by the time she returns, it's closing in on five, which is when everyone else is supposed to arrive.
"Hey, baby, why don't we go hang out in the bedroom for a while, OK?" Sara tells Shelby. They agreed that it would be best if he and Catherine explained the situation before the gang meets Shelby.
"Why?" she asks, not unreasonably.
"We need to get that big grill going," Catherine explains. "And it gets really hot and sometimes there's sparks, so it's better to stay out of the way for a while."
"OK."
She grabs her drawing, careful not to crease it, Sara takes the bag of crayons, and they disappear down the hallway.
"You ready for this?" Catherine asks when they're gone.
"I'm not sure I can be," he replies. "I have no idea how any of them will react."
"I think Greg'll mostly be confused," she predicts. "Nick always took on a sort of big brother role with Sara, but he's also the mediator of the group, so I think he'll keep a level head and maybe give you a talking to at a later point."
"And Warrick's…"
"Yeah," she agrees, even though he doesn't actually say anything.
They all know about Warrick's struggles over the last year or so, even though he kept most of it to himself for a long time – the child he wasn't sure was his to start with, the custody battle, the tentative agreement.
"He could lash out at her," Grissom concludes. Which is part of why he wanted both Shelby and Sara out of the room for the initial reveal, and not just Shelby.
"Sara's a big girl, I think she can handle him," Catherine reasons. "But, yeah, it's probably a good idea to let him cool down a little. What about Jim? I know he's one of your closest friends, but he and Sara had a special relationship before she left."
It's true that Jim had taken an almost fatherly interest in Sara – which Grissom tries not to dwell on too closely, considering the man is only a few years older than himself.
"Yeah, I'm not sure," he says. "He does know what happened before she left, so he might be the first to connect the dots."
"You told him?"
He shrugs. "There was alcohol involved."
He can tell she wants to pry, but at that moment, there's a knock on the door. "Saved by the bell."
She goes to open the door, and he grabs a six pack of beer and two bottles of soda from the fridge to bring out to the patio. It's too hot to spend too much time out there, but the canopy will keep them shaded from the sun, at least, and they'll move inside to eat later.
Nick's the first through the sliding doors, accepting the beer he offers. "I knew it was a good idea to talk Greggo into driving."
They share a laugh as Warrick joins them, grabbing another of the beers and settling down in one of the lounge chairs. "So, where's the lady of the hour?" he asks.
"She'll be here soon," Grissom replies, earning a piercing look.
"And how long have you been here?"
He always knew Warrick was perceptive. "About an hour."
The other man doesn't say anything else, just takes a drag of his beer and nods thoughtfully.
"Hey, where's the party at?"
Grissom looks up at an over-excited Greg. "I thought you were driving?"
"Caffeine," Nick explains.
"Of course."
"Where's Sara?" Greg asks, but before he has to explain again, Catherine and Jim appear, completing the party.
Once everyone's seated and have something to drink in their hand, he glances at Catherine.
"OK," she starts, getting everyone's attention. "As I assume some of you have probably figured out, this is not just a welcome back party for Sara."
"She's not even here," Greg pipes in.
"She'll be here soon, we just agreed this would be better."
"You know you're not making much sense, right, Cath?" Warrick notes.
It's hard to look at the situation from their perspective, but Grissom can understand that it must be confusing.
"I know," Catherine agrees, glancing over at him. "So, I guess we'll just go with the band aid approach and then answer any questions after?"
He nods his agreement.
"Seriously, what is going on here?" Nick asks, starting to sound frustrated.
"There's someone Sara wants all of you to meet before she's back at work," Catherine says.
Everyone's quiet for a moment, considering the statement, he assumes.
"Great, don't tell me she brought back some scruffy, tanned surfer dude from San Francisco," Greg finally groans, breaking the silence.
"Not exactly," Catherine replies. "Her name is Shelby and she's three."
Her words bring frowns to the faces around the table. Grissom can feel Jim's eyes on him and looks up to meet them.
"I take it you didn't know?"
He shakes his head. "Not until last weekend, no."
Greg has found his voice again. "Sara has a kid?"
"That's messed up, man," Warrick exclaims, voice hard, shaking his head.
"Warrick!" Grissom says, a warning.
"What, you're trying to say you're not pissed she didn't tell you?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he can see realization dawn on Greg, but he keeps his focus on Warrick.
"I'm saying it's none of your business. This is between me and Sara."
It looks like Warrick's about to say something else, but Nick puts a hand on his arm.
"Hey, now, let's all calm down."
Warrick closes his mouth and leans back in his chair, turning his gaze to his beer.
"Anyone else want to get something off their chest that's not suitable for a three-year-old to hear?" Catherine asks pointedly, seemingly addressing everyone at the table but looking at Warrick.
He looks up at Grissom. "As long as you're fine with all of this I guess I am too."
He doesn't completely trust the younger man, but he's not planning on leaving him and Sara alone anytime soon, and he doubts Warrick will cause a scene with Shelby around.
"OK then." Catherine gets up, giving Warrick one last, pointed look. "If everyone promises to be on their best behavior, I'll go get them."