Board Rats Board

News: SMF - Just Installed!

Author Topic: A Few Days with the Grissoms  (Read 41239 times)

Offline sarapals

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 175
  • He's still wearing this shirt--2013!
    • View Profile
A Few Days with the Grissoms
« on: April 23, 2009, 12:01:17 AM »
Here's another one taking place near the end of "Fire, Death & Family" and before the arrival of another little Grissom. Enjoy!

An uncomfortable edge pressed against her temple bringing her from a light sleep. Wispy feathery cobwebs floated across her face lifting her from dreams of warm sunshine and ocean scented breezes. She brought a hand to her face and tried to open her eyes.

The silky strains were dark and curly, attached to the head resting against her own. The point at her temple was an elbow. Sara grinned.

This was her child, her flesh and blood, whose breath warmed her cheek and whose pointed elbow had brought her from sleep. Long lashes made two dark crescents across her oval face hiding the blue-eyed genes of the child?s father. Sara loved this little girl?it was something that Sara Sidle would not have comprehended a few years previously. Her first child?Elizabeth, Sara had named her?thinking she would call her Beth, was called Bizzy. Her father had given her the name before the baby was born; pressing his hand to Sara?s abdomen and talking to ?Bizzy Bee?.

Sara was fascinated with this child; people wrote of the miracle of childbirth, but actually the miracle was of beauty and growth and biological engineering that made one believe that humans were headed in the right direction. This unexpected role of parenthood had taken both by surprise. Everything about the process was new, different, and a first for them. Their daughter never failed to find the laughter, the kindness, the joy in life and having two parents devoted to her every breath was to much too for one small child. Sara asked her husband for another baby which had turned out to be twins?who arrived months after Eli came to live with them.

She smiled as her eyes moved to the others in the bed.

Eli snuggled against her husband whose large hand lay lightly across the boy?s chest; the other hand holding a children?s book. The little boy they had taken into their home at his mother?s request was Warrick Brown?s son. He had not one gene of either parent yet Eli belonged to them as much as Bizzy or the two babies asleep in the next room. Sara had taken this child as her own the night he arrived in her home. He was easy to love?while her own daughter was the center of laughter; Eli was the intelligent, soft-spoken foundation of imagination in her household. The loveable, good-natured personalities of Bizzy and Eli made parenting easy. 

A year ago, she noticed that Eli would pinch his nose as he thought?a familiar motion of Gil Grissom. He looked so much like his biological father, yet he was developing the habits of the man who took his place. Today, while at the beach, the two would bend in identical poses to examine some treasure.

Sara sighed, a deep, contented breathe of life.

Her husband?s hand came to rest on her shoulder. ?There?s an empty bed in the other room,? he whispered.

She nodded and both slipped from the bed and two sleeping children. She watched as both stretched and repositioned in warm spaces.

In the second room, she watched as Grissom dropped lightweight blankets over each sleeping child. They were safely caged in cribs wedged into a corner of the room and, in sleep, appeared as cherubs in a Raphael painting.

The two little girls, with blonde curls, blue eyes, chubby arms and legs, were so obviously the daughters of their father that Sara often asked how she gave birth to little female clones. Before they walked, each could mimic his raised eyebrow, present a scowl that mirrored his, or give an enigmatic smile. In one way, she knew the girls were hers?a quick temper, a stomp of a foot, a pout; a fury passion that would lead to trouble unless tamed. Grissom said they got a ?double dose of stubbornness? as he lifted his own brow with an expression of his self-satisfaction. The agreeable natures of the two older children were such contrasts to the two babies. She and Grissom had learned to laugh as the two older children attempted to lead and control the younger girls. 

Her husband stood from his bended crouch. ?They are down and out?all that fresh air.? Grissom grunted as he straightened and placed an arm around Sara. ?Are you sure you want another one?? He asked.

He knew her answer. She stepped out of her pants, a smile on her face. ?Get ready?I?ve decided today?s the day!? She whispered with a sensual smile. ?Everyone?s asleep so get naked!?

His hand reached to the elastic on her purple panties. ?I like these.?

In mid-afternoon, the sun high in a clear sky and the distant sounds of surf drifting in open windows, Sara and Gil made quiet love to each other. Sounds were almost whispers as hands found familiar places of pleasure, smiles became gasps of desire, and these two knew they belonged together. He could build hunger, desire, a strong wanting of pleasure with touches to her skin.

For Sara, having the one person she had loved with a scorched-earth intensity return her passion, made her love more?her husband, her children, everyone and everything that touched her?knew they were loved.

She whispered, ?Gil.?

His breath caught as he tumbled into her, helpless, end over end, physically and mentally, giving over to her, the feel, the emotion, the ultimate physical act of intimacy of being with the woman he loved. He kept her within his arms; her long legs wrapped around his as his foot caressed her calf.

?You are beautiful, Sara.?

He felt her smile against his shoulder. She named this time ?more intimate than sex? when they would lie together, skin-to-skin, legs and arms wrapped together, exposed and vulnerable, and talk. As Gil listened his finger touched a small scar on her abdomen. She was talking about their morning, watching as their children played in the sand, at the edge of the surf.

?I never thought I would enjoy watching kids play?seeing them have this experience. Is it because they belong to us? They are no different from hundreds of other kids I?ve seen.? Her brow wrinkled with a slight frown. ?It is different when they are our kids.? The frown disappeared as she smiled. ?They are almost perfect.?

Grissom?s hand continued tracing along her body as she talked. She?s too thin, he thought, as his finger curved along her hip and moved across her belly.

?I think they are perfect.? He kissed her neck. ?Just like their mother.? He heard a quiet laugh.

"Long long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroke..." (Longfellow & Sara Sidle, Ending Happy, 2007)

Billyjorja

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2009, 05:47:31 AM »
I'm always excited when I see another story coming from "the girls".

Keep it going.

Trish

Butterfly114

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2009, 07:19:58 AM »
Welcome back, this is another great start.
Look forward to the next update.

GSRLOVER34

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2009, 07:50:59 AM »
Welcome back! Very sweet chapter.

trishj

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2009, 09:31:41 AM »
Fantastic start, as always.  You never cease to amaze me at how you make your story's come to life.

gsrsbiggestfan

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2009, 10:09:33 AM »
Your story's are so real.  You are doing a great job, keep up the good work.

Offline sarapals

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 175
  • He's still wearing this shirt--2013!
    • View Profile
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2009, 02:09:53 PM »
?My life has changed,? she murmured.

His lips remained against her skin. ?For better.? He pulled her closer. ?You and I have changed. We needed to change.? He placed a kiss on her nose. ?You need to rest. I?ll check on dinner?make sure they know we want to eat early.?

?Stay here. It?s nice to hear the ocean. It?s nice to have your undivided attention.?

Grissom needed no further encouragement. He settled his head against her chin and in minutes he slept. Sara waited until he was asleep and reached for a stack of papers beside the bed. Her life had changed, taken a new direction in the years since she left Las Vegas. For months, she drifted in temporary research work which suited her at the time. After Grissom joined her, they volunteered for several projects until the pending arrival of a baby put them in one place. Grissom found it easy to become involved in entomology as a published author and local beekeeper; occasionally helping the local police department with a seminar or an insect-involved case. Sara found other interests.

The papers she read were her own?radiation physics?a topic so specialized that few people knew it existed. While teaching part-time at the local college, a publisher had sent her a list of subjects in development and when her eyes found this one, she remembered a term paper on a similar topic. This was the second draft of her work. She read and made notes and when finished, she remained in bed, content and relaxed and let her thoughts drift?

?Four months ago, in the midst of preparing dinner, intense pain in her abdomen caused Sara to stumble and fall in the kitchen. When her eyes focused, two faces were above hers.

?Eli, go get Daddy,? Sara said as she tried to move before pain in her side caused her to grab her abdomen.

?Mommy hurt,? Bizzy said as her small hand touched her mother?s face.

Sara tried again to roll to her side; the small voice of her child causing her to attempt to hide the pain. ?I?m okay. I just need Daddy.? She watched Eli run out the door. The sharp stabbing pain worsened as she made an attempt to sit up. Her stomach contents reached the back of her throat and she fought back the urge to vomit. She swallowed. ?Could you get me a towel, Bizzy?? The child ran to the cabinet and returned with a small kitchen towel. Sara pressed it to her mouth and slipped back to the floor. She heard her daughter?s footsteps running away and returning.

Small hands tried to lift her head. She opened her eyes to find Bizzy with a pillow. Sara smiled. ?Thank you, Sweetie.? The child folded legs underneath her and took her mother?s hand.

?Mommy is sick.? She leaned over and pressed her lips to Sara?s cheek. ?Be better soon.?

Another sharp pain shot through Sara?s abdomen. She suppressed a groan as she pulled her knees upward. After two uncomplicated pregnancies, Sara knew this was not supposed to happen. She was barely five weeks?nothing should hurt like this.

Noise invaded the house as a door slammed and confused voices came to her. Sara tried to lift her head as Bizzy ran to meet those coming in; her voice joining the others. Sara recognized the female voice of one of the neighboring nuns and the high-pitched voices of her children.

Grissom was beside her in seconds. Concern and alarm etched across his face. His arms lifted her. She knew she would be fine?until pain hit her again.

?Sharp stabbing pain. I think I fainted.?

He got her to bed, followed by two small children who crawled onto the bed beside her, their eyes wide with fear.

?Eli,? said Grissom, ?would you get a wet washcloth for Mom.? Both children scrambled from the bed heading to the bathroom. ?I?ll call the doctor?thank you.? He wiped Sara?s face with a cold cloth. ?You are white as a sheet.?

She nodded. ?I?I know I?m bleeding. Early miscarriage, I think.?

In minutes he had Eli and Bizzy in the kitchen with promises of ice cream and cookies, returning to the bedroom with a phone to his ear. ?Sister Marie is taking care of things?she?s called the others.? Sara curled into a ball as pain stabbed across her belly. After a brief conversation with a nurse, he said, ?Hospital?ER. She thinks it may be an ectopic pregnancy.? He began to wrap a sheet around her before she stopped him.

?I can walk, Gil. Just help me get to the bathroom first.?

?Sara?we need to go?now?she stressed the need for speed.?

?I?ll walk. I don?t want my kids to see me being carried to the car. Help me to the bathroom; let me change my clothes?clean underwear, that kind of thing.?

Grissom knew not to argue. He did not add other details of the nurse?s directions, snatches of ?internal bleeding? and ?impaired fertility? and ?hysterectomy?.  He helped her change and held her up as she walked through the house.

Sara hugged each child, explaining to Eli and Bizzy that she needed some medicine to feel better, to help Sister Marie, to be very good. She collapsed in the car as Grissom latched her seatbelt.

?Childbirth is nothing compared to this,? she whispered. They met the neighbors arriving who quickly understood the nature of the emergency and waved them on.

Hours later, Sara shivered trying to pull a blanket around her.

?You?re awake.? The reassuring voice of Grissom came to her as his hands tucked a blanket around her. ?You are fine?you will be fine.? She felt a moist cloth touch her lips. ?You had surgery?laparoscopy?that removed the?the??

She nodded, understanding his difficulty in completing his sentence. ?Wrong place,? she whispered, sounding raspy and realizing her throat hurt.

?Yeah.? His hand brushed her face. ?You are fine now?rest.?

?Gil,? she struggled to ask another question. ?He didn?t?I didn?t have anything else removed??

?No, no, Honey.? He smiled. ?Everything is fine. We can go home as soon as you feel better.? She talked the doctor into discharging her that day.

It had taken weeks to recover; her strength ebbed away as low tide. For several days, her children sensed a need for quiet and talked in hushed voices until an afternoon nap turned into giggling play that spilled onto their parent?s bed. When they saw their mother?s smile, their subdued play erupted into the familiar sounds of their usual life.

Grissom worried and cared and hovered over his wife for days. Her neighbors brought food and bathed, fed, and played with the four children. Their housekeeper stayed longer than usual as a pale and shaken Sara slowly recuperated. Gradually, when she began to complain, those around her hoped she was recovering.

?It?s worse than having twins,? she told their housekeeper, Lilly.

She said to the neighbors, ?I feel like I?ve been hit by a truck.?

?Stop hovering, Gil. I can do this,? she snapped at her husband as he attempted to help her one night. Seeing the expression on his face made her stop. ?I?m sorry.? She turned to him, and for the first time in days, she let him take care of her as she cried.

?It?s grief, Sara. It?s okay to feel this way,? he told her in the darkness.

That night Sara resolved to step back from the dark edge of this void of melancholy that draped her thoughts and actions. In the days that followed, she ate more, napped with her children, laughed at their playful silliness, and made herself feel excitement in whatever they did. She joined Grissom as he worked in the garden and in his office. Days passed until one afternoon she realized she no longer felt the depression or sadness or sorrow of losing a baby that wasn?t really a baby, just a part of her, a part of her husband, that would never be. The next day, she wished for a trip to the beach?


"Long long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroke..." (Longfellow & Sara Sidle, Ending Happy, 2007)

Butterfly114

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2009, 05:07:19 PM »
Beautifully written, I could picture Bizzy helping her Mom. Look forward to the next update.

gsrsbiggestfan

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2009, 05:18:25 PM »
I loved it, so sorry for Sara.

trishj

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2009, 05:20:18 PM »
Will she be able to have another one?  I hope so.  Beautifully done.

GSRLOVER34

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2009, 05:49:06 PM »
I feel so bad for Sara and Grissom, hope she can have another one.

dyneemo

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2009, 09:38:36 PM »
Ahhhh..I love you, Sarapals...

This is great. And darn you for making me late for work. What is it about your stories that always make me late for work???

Can't wait for more

Billyjorja

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2009, 05:44:59 AM »
Wonderful, got me crying again.

Trish

Offline sarapals

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 175
  • He's still wearing this shirt--2013!
    • View Profile
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2009, 11:59:55 AM »
?Movement and a tiny grunt from the corner brought Sara from daydreams to reality. She found her shirt, her underwear, and pants, and was almost dressed before the sound became a whimper. She lifted the baby from the crib.

?Hi, Annie,? she whispered. The baby was warm and wiggly and instantly smiled at the sound of her mother?s voice. Her tiny fist rubbed an eye as she put her head against Sara?s shoulder. With her free hand, Sara covered the second sleeping child, picked up a juice box and a new diaper, and whispering into the baby?s ear, opened the door to a small enclosed patio.

This was the child who worried Sara more than any of the others. At birth she weighed less than her sister, Ava. She was slow to crawl, last to walk. Grissom and the pediatrician insisted she was gradually catching up; a battery of testing showed she was ?within normal range??whatever that meant, Sara thought.

Annie was delighted to have her mother?s full attention. A quick diaper change, a few sips of juice, and she was snuggled into the crook of Sara?s arm as they walked in the enclosed garden patio filled with flowers. Sara said the color of each flower as she pointed to purple and pink and white blooms. Annie would bury her nose into each flower and gurgle and babble attempting to form a word.

This beachside motel had looked the same for over a decade, its doorways, windows, and patios overgrown with red bougainvillea, yellow jasmine, pink fuchsia, and geraniums in a rainbow of colors. It was the first place Gil Grissom had loved Sara Sidle; if she remembered correctly, it was a blue room that faced this same patio.

When she laughed, the baby looked at her with wide-eyed surprise. Sara explained, knowing none of what she said would be comprehended but getting a certain joy from telling the story of how she had ended up in this place for one long afternoon.

?I knew I loved your daddy that day,? she explained. ?And for days and weeks, even years, that passed, I would always think of that afternoon when he showed me that love was more than a song on a radio.? Sara hummed an old song and slow danced around the patio holding the baby who giggled with her as they danced.

The two did not hear the door slide open as they were joined by Grissom and Annie?s twin sister. ?May we join this dance?? He said as an arm went around Sara. The toddlers played as their parents moved together. ?You are happy.?

As an answer, she kissed him. Annie and Ave giggled and ran back and forth across the white patio stones; within minutes Eli joined them and Sara and Gil braded yellow star jasmine and geraniums into wreaths to wear in their hair.

?Do boys wear flowers?? Eli asked as Sara wove flowers and leaves together.

She laughed. ?Yes, they do. And we?ll put purple clematis in yours.? He grinned as she placed the wreath atop his head. She got to her feet. ?I?ll wake Bizzy?she?s slept long enough.?

Grissom nodded as he worked with stems and flowers trying to figure out how Sara had completed three little circles while he worked on one.

Inside the room, Sara found an empty bed where her daughter should have been sleeping. She checked the bathroom, finding it empty as well. The second bed, each crib, the second bathroom?all empty. She knew the child had to be in the two rooms. She glanced at the patio seeing three children and Grissom. No Bizzy.

?Bizzy, where are you?? She called, keeping her voice low, but an uneasiness creeping into her mind. She checked the door?locked with a deadbolt and returned to the beds again, looking underneath each. She opened the small closet, finding nothing but their clothes. The kitchen cabinets were filled with pans and plates, but no child.

How could a child disappear from a locked room? Her thoughts did not want to go there. Bizzy had to be in the two rooms. She stood at the foot of the bed before impulse made her pull covers back and smooth them across the bed. She found a crumpled gum wrapper and smiled at the recollection of a shopping spree with four children in a convenience store.

Again, she checked outside seeing only three children. One more quick look before she called Grissom, she thought. This time, slower, she searched the cabinets, the bathrooms, underneath each bed?knowing she would find nothing. She would not panic?the child had to be here.

Her hand touched the door separating the two rooms as she realized the open door made a small triangle of space behind it. She pulled and had found her sleeping daughter.


"Long long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroke..." (Longfellow & Sara Sidle, Ending Happy, 2007)

GSRLOVER34

  • Guest
Re: A Few Days with the Grissoms
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2009, 12:52:24 PM »
Great chapter! Good to know that Bizzy is safe.