Our Spot

The fluff fest continues.


Chapter 30

Gil sat talking to his daughter as she made sweet sounds in her swing, eyeing the envelope that sat on the coffee table. Sara had given him his letter a day before she was supposed to, and he hadn’t been able to resist. His letter to her still sat on the coffee table, and his wife gloated over her self control.

“So you aren’t going to read it?”

Sara smiled broadly. “Not until tomorrow.”

“So I am the only one going to be walking around mushy and starry eyed.”

Sara smiled again. “I knew you couldn’t resist. I wanted you to have a taste of your own medicine. I felt like that for years.”

“I did too.” He argued.

“Yeah, well, you weren’t as transparent. I am rather enjoying being the one with all the self control. I like it.”

He shook off the idea of the unopened letter and went back to his crossword.

“Claire, what is an eight letter word for pessimist?”

Claire offered him a serene blue eyed look.

“Naysayer. Well done. Now…”

The doorbell chimed something classical and peaceful.

“Sweetheart, who do you think that is?”

Claire stuck a fist in her mouth.

“Uncle Brass? Let’s see.”

Gil walked down the hall wearing pajamas bottoms and a decade old t-shirt from a London forensics conference.

Gil swung the door open. Nick took in his former boss’s attire.

“Big guy. You know they say that you should get dressed and take a shower even if you are a stay home parent.”

Gil took his former place on the couch. “Claire, for once you were wrong. I wasn’t Uncle Brass. It was overly critical Uncle Nick, who has no idea how much work it is to raise you. Wait till he has kids.”

Nick took the chair next to Claire and peered at the sweet tempered girl.

“So um…how are wedding plans going?”

Gil folded the crossword in half. “Mostly finished. Don’t forget your fitting next week.”

Nick nodded.

“What’s wrong?” Gil asked. “And why can’t you talk to Warrick about it?”

Nick shrugged and whipped his hands on dark jeans. “I don’t know. Just seemed like you would know about this kind of stuff.”

“What stuff is that?”

“I bought a ring.”

Gil knitted his brows together. Claire pivoted her head at the word “ring.” Gil wondered how Sara Sidle had birthed such an obvious princess. Already she knew how to con her father and uncles with a gummy smile and head full of curls. And just now her eyes lit up at mention of ring like Catherine’s did.

“For Audrey? An engagement ring, I take it?”

Nick swallowed and tugged and the looked the color of his shirt. “You think it’s too soon? I mean, we have only been dating a few months.”

“You love her?”

“Yes.”

“Do you wake up in the middle of the night just to look at her?”

“Yes.”

“If she said that she wanted hand dipped chocolates from Paris, would you take out a loan to fly her there? When you see other men looking at her, are you proud and pissed at the same time?”

“Oh yeah.” Nick replied quickly.

“Does she do things for you that she would never do otherwise?”

“She went to a rodeo with me.” He said proudly.

Gil shook his head. “Does she make you laugh so hard that you can’t breathe?”

“Yes.”

“After any physical encounter, no matter how small, do you feel the need to go to church and thank God?” Gris continued his questioning.

“Oh yeah.” Nick affirmed again.

“If she tells you something is a bad idea even though you are sure that it’s a good idea, does her opinion carry so much weight that you rethink the situation?”

Nick nodded quickly as he weighed the questions that Gil had asked him. “Maybe the ring’s too small.”

“Do you have it with you?” Gil asked gently.

The young man fished the dark velvet box out of his front pocket and handed to Gil reluctantly as he thought of Sara’s engagement ring.

Gil put his glasses back on and opened the box. Claire’s eyes danced as she the emerald cut diamond made small prisms on the window. Gil took the ring out of the box and held it up for his daughter to see.

“See, sweetheart, that’s what you want. A man that shows up with a quality piece of jewelry. What am I talking about? You aren’t getting married. Ever.”

Claire gave her father a sour look, and Gil replaced the ring and shut the box.

“This is very, very nice, Nicky. Any women would be proud to wear that ring.”

“It’s not even a carat.” Nick returned solemnly. “I mean Sara’s ring is huge.”

“Nicky, I am nearly fifteen years older than you are, and I didn’t have much of life before not to mention the fact I had a lot of making up to do. I had a decade worth of I am sorry. That diamond is nearly colorless, the cut is perfect and it had no visible flaws. She’ll be very pleased.”

Gil’s eyes were serious for a second.

“You’re ready. Have you talked to her farther?”

Nick frowned. “What…”

“I know. You think that you don’t need to talk to him. She’s a grown woman. A few months ago, I would have agreed with you but now...” Gil waved at his daughter who gave him her best daddy’s girl expression. “Now I don’t think anyone will be good enough for her. Whoever he is, he’s going to have to talk to me.”

“She doesn’t know where he is.”

“She doesn’t?” Gil was surprised as he watched Claire close her eyes. It almost time for her afternoon nap. Up until seven months ago, he didn’t know where his father was. As a new father of a little girl, it seemed incomprehensible that any father would willingly desert someone so precious.

“No, apparently he was a bit a shady.”

Gil leaned over and ran a finger over Claire’s pink cheek. “I am sorry to hear that.’


Audrey’s straight black hair was secured at the nape of her neck. Sara wished her hair could be as manageable.

“Sara, do you have a minute?” The younger woman asked nervously.

Sara chewed a slice of pizza she had just nabbed from Greg’s lunch order.

“Sure. Want me to steal some pizza from Greg?”

Audrey frowned at the greasy slice putting a hand over her nose. “Um, I don’t know if I should ask you this or not, but I don’t have many girlfriends especially with this kind of experience.”

Sara moved the pizza slice closer to her. “Shoot. In the last few months, I have picked up more women friends than I have ever had. I have become very good at this stuff.”

Audrey lowered her precise voice. “Um… How did you know that you were pregnant?”

Sara stared for several seconds. “Are you?”

Audrey glanced at the pizza again. The grease seemed to have multiplied. Sara saw her shudder a little and covered it with a napkin.

“Maybe. Probably. I don’t know how this happened.” She said as she dropped her voice to light whisper. “We have been very careful.”

“Does Nick know?”

Audrey chewed on her wet pink lip. “No. We haven’t talked about a future or anything.”

“Have you taken a test?”

“No.”

“Maybe you should do that first before you jump to conclusions. It could be anything.” Sara rationalized, not quite believing it herself.

Audrey’s dark blue eyes filled with worry. “I love cheesy, greasy pizza more than any other food in the entire world. I don’t need a test.”

Sara sighed. “How many periods have you missed.”

Audrey looked guilty. “Next week will be my third one.”

Sara blanched. “Your third. Who am I to talk? I could barely fit into my clothes by the time I went to the doctor.”

“My bras don’t fit anymore.” Audrey said.

“You have to tell Nick, and you have got to stay away from hazardous crime scenes. Weren’t you at that bleach truck crash this morning?”

Audrey shook her head. “I got Warrick to go.”

“So you are planning on keeping the baby?” Sara prodded gently.

“Yes, even if it means I’ll lose Nick.” Audrey said sadly. “Catholic guilt and all that.”

Sara put her hand over hers. “You aren’t going to lose Nick. It’s going to be fine.”

Just then Audrey’s cell range. Audrey made no move to answer it.

“That would be Nick. Warrick has told him about the bleach thing. He’ll call another few times. If you still don’t answer, he’s coming up here on his day off to create a scene.”

“Nick would never create a scene.”

“I used to think that about Grissom too. If Nick thinks you are sick or hurt, he’s going to drag you out of here and make you go home.”

“I am not one to be dragged.” Audrey huffed.

Sara stared at the napkin that covered her soon to be cold pizza. Maybe she could convince Gil to make her a pie for dinner. “I used to think that too until Gil found out that Nick stopped at a crime scene with me in the car. It was a fire. Nick needed look at one last thing. It was an arson case. I did not get out the car. It took Nick all of five minutes. By the time we got back to the office, Grissom knew. I don’t know how he knew, but he did. It was not pretty. He yelled at Nick, and he yelled at me and then he started talking to Claire via my belly. ‘Daddy will protect you. Your Mommy thinks its okay for Daddy’s little girl to be exposed to smoke and asbestos and standing water.”

“No…” Gil Grissom had always struck Audrey as very reliable and steady not one prone to any extremes. Recently, she had heard rumblings about his legendary temper, and his near obsession with Sara before they were a couple.

Sara edged towards the microwave hoping to salvage her lunch. “Yes. I have learned recently that our men appear different on the outside, but mostly, they are all alike. It just comes in different packaging.”

The phone started to ring again.


Brass stood next to the bed. Heather could not tell if he was furious or scared. Mostly, he looked scared, but the anger was just below the surface.

He started pacing again, keeping on eye on the instruments that monitored Heather’s vital signs.

“You forgot to eat. You FORGOT to eat. How does a life long diabetic forget to eat?”

He leaned back against the clean antiseptic smelling sheets. She did not have the energy to argue with Jim Brass.

“I buy you all the stuff your doctor says you can eat. We have a pantry full of diabetic friendly foodstuffs. I read the books. I special order. I have lost 10 pounds because I haven’t had refined sugar in weeks, but YOU forgot to eat.”

He went on like that for several minutes. Heather knew that finding her nearly passed out on the couch had scared him.

“Jim, I…”

“You what, Heather? You are going to kill me. You know that right? You are going to send me to an early grave. What if I hadn’t come home? Forget a diabetic specialist. You need a shrink because you can’t be thinking straight.”

Heather fell silent. Jim was right. It was a serious situation. The last time she had done something like that had been when she was a teenager blacking out at school after she hadn’t eaten breakfast and skipped lunch.

“I am sorry” she finally mumbled not know what else to say.

Jim stopped. “What were you so involved in that you forgot to eat?”

“I was talking on the phone with a contractor, I talked to several decorators, and then I felt woozy. I remembered that I hadn’t eaten, and I was on my way to kitchen, but I don’t guess I made it.”

Jim narrowed his eyes together. Heather was taking this trial cohabitation seriously.

“Why were you on the phone with contractors?” Brass wanted to know.

“I am considering renovating the theater room. You know if we...” Dark eyes met dark eyes. “If it becomes permanent. It was going to be a guy’s room. Big refrigerator full of beer. Beer on tap too. Regulation poker table. A pizza oven. “

She watched as his face clouded with something.

“I am sorry, Jim. I overstepped. It was presumptuous of me…”

He walked to where she was and sat on the edge of the bed careful not to disturb her IV. “You did not overstep. You can gut the place for all I care.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Honey, it’s your house now. I am old school.. You do whatever you want in the house. I’ll sign the checks. I know you get nervous when I talk about the future and start making plans, but you were making plans too.”

“Yeah, I guess I was. I am not used to all this Jim. I know you are tired of me saying it, but I don’t know what to do about all of this. The last people who took care of me were my Mom and Dad.”

He kissed her softly. “I know that you aren’t used to depending on anyone except Zoe, but I am telling you that can trust me. You can let your guard down. I’ll take care of you. I just need you to do your part. You remember when you made me promise not to take chances on the job, that I’d be more than careful than I had ever been? This is no different, sweetie. You have got to take care of yourself. Promise me?”

Heather was mortified as tears ran down her face. Jim pulled her close glad that she felt safe enough to cry in front of him.