Title: Watching Nemo
Author: Maggienhawk
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, obviously because Grissom and Sara are not together on the show, and I definitely don't own Disney or Finding Nemo obviously because I am not rolling in piles of money.
Summary: Grissom comes home and watches a movie. GSR, totally AU.
A/N: Yeah…this is the result of some odd motivation I had to write something fluffy a few weeks ago. I've been debating whether or not to publish, but I thought, "what the hell?" WARNING: Pure, unadulterated, fluff. This is what happens when you watch Finding Nemo and are a CSI addict.
He stood in the doorway and watched the two beauties sleeping peacefully on the couch. His daughter's favorite movie was playing on the television, but apparently they had a busy day and had both fallen asleep in the middle of it. Just watching them together made him forget how rough the past few months had been. Not being able to see his family very often was the worst torture any man could possibly go through.
Unfortunately, the torture was deserved. It was his fault that he remained in Las Vegas when Sara wanted to move to San Francisco. Amelia was getting older, getting ready to start school soon, and Sara didn't want her to grow up in Vegas. He agreed, but he couldn't just give up his job at the lab as easily as Sara did. They went ahead and moved, and he stayed behind until they could find a decent replacement.
However, things had been taking longer than he had planned, and he was being forced to stay in Vegas for longer periods of time. This meant that he saw the two most important women in his life less and less. He had also been worried that Sara and Amelia were moving on with their lives fine without him, and that Sara would soon realize that she didn't need him around to be happy. His biggest fear when he and Sara had first begun dating had been pushed to the back of his mind, but it was slowly moving its way to the front, consuming more and more of his thoughts as the days he was in Vegas passed.
Standing in the doorway, examining the room as he would do if it were a crime scene, he noticed that the house had become a home to his family, but not yet to him. He felt like an intruder in his own house, and the thought made him uncomfortable.
His thoughts were quickly interrupted by a small voice coming from the couch. "Daddy?"
He smiled reflexively at the hopefulness in his little girl's voice. "Shh, honey. Mommy's sleeping."
Amelia slowly untangled herself from her mother's arms, and once she was free, she scampered over to where he was standing in the doorway. Kneeling down, he gave her the opportunity to wrap her arms around his neck, and give him a kiss. He picked her up and carried her over to the recliner on the other side of the room. Once they were comfortable, he spoke softly, "What are we watching?" even though he knew the answer to his own question.
"Nemo. Me and Mommy love to watch this movie after we go to the beach."
Her response to his question explained why Sara was sound asleep on the couch. "Where did you go to the beach?"
"We went up and visited Grandma and Grandpa this morning."
"Oh, I see."
"Daddy?"
"What Amelia?"
"I miss you when you're not here."
He pulled her tighter against him, "You have no idea how much I miss you and Mommy when I'm not here. I love you, honey."
"I love you too, Daddy."
The two of them were silent for the rest of the movie, with the exception of Amelia's lighthearted giggles at key parts in the movie.
At the very end of the movie, Amelia burst out laughing when the squid 'inked' itself because it was scared by a shark, and her outburst startled Sara out of her sleep. Not quite awake, she began feeling around the couch, looking for her daughter. "Amelia?"
"Over here, Mommy. I'm sitting with Daddy."
Opening her eyes at the name, she smiled. "Griss."
Amelia jumped off of him to go sit in front of the television for the end of the movie and Grissom got up from the chair and walked over to the couch. He gently lifted up Sara's legs, slid underneath them, and then placed her legs across his lap.
However, she quickly removed her legs from his lap, and nearly knocked the wind out of him as she lunged for a hug. "God, I missed you," she whispered in his ear, and then proceeded to capture his lips with her own.
After their tender kiss, he leaned over and whispered in her ear the same thing. She gave him a bright smile, and turned her attention back to their daughter, who was standing in front of the shelf holding all of their movies. "Amelia, what did I tell you earlier?"
The little girl hung her head and answered softly, "That when Nemo was over I had to go pick up my toys."
"Right. Now is Nemo over?"
"Yes, Mommy, but I wanted to watch another movie with Daddy." She lifted her eyes to her father, and gave him the sweetest, most innocent smile. The same smile he had so much trouble denying. Her mother's smile.
"Amelia, I'm going to be home for a few days this time. We have plenty of time to watch movies, honey, but you need to do what Mommy told you to do."
"Okay," she said quietly and hung her head again as she trudged up the stairs to her room.
Grissom and Sara began laughing, and he pulled her close to him, just revealing in her closeness. He cupped her face and turned it to face him, silencing her soft laughter with a small kiss. Pulling back, he tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear, and stared at her seriously, as if trying to read her mind through her eyes.
Sara, slightly uncomfortable under his scrutiny, asked if everything was alright, and he merely shrugged.
"Griss, what's going on? You're acting really weird right now."
He sighed and looked around their house. "It's just that every single time I come home, you and Amelia have made this place more and more into a home, and sometimes I wonder if you even need or want me around anymore."
Sara was stunned. "How could you even think that? Look, I know that your biggest fear is that one day I'm just going to up and leave. But Grissom, listen to me, that's never going to happen. I love you, and Amelia loves you. And as long as you love us, that's the only thing we need to survive. We could lose everything and as long as we had you, we would still be fine. As far as I know, Amelia loves having you home, and I know that I want you to be here twenty-four seven. But I know it's not possible right now. I'm not going to hold it against you that the idiots running the Vegas crime lab can't get their asses in gear to find you a replacement."
He chuckled at her last statement, and she smiled at him. Sliding her hand behind his neck, she tangled her fingers into his curls and gave him a small kiss. When they broke apart again, she spoke, "And as for making this house into a home, it may look like it, but I know that isn't one unless you're here. When I look at you, I'm home."
He pulled back and looked at her strangely, trying to place where he had heard the last sentence she had said, but couldn't figure it out.
All of a sudden, a small voice piped up from the edge of the couch where Amelia was standing. "Mommy! That's what Dory said to Marlin!"
Grissom started laughing as Sara dropped her head into her hands, "Oh man, I have watched Finding Nemo way too many times. Griss, you've got to get out of Vegas soon so that I'm not the only one watching movies with her."
He looked at her with a smirk on his face, "And start quoting Disney characters? I don't think so honey, I don't need people looking at me like I'm weird."
Sara began to laugh as she said, "People already look at you weird when you quote anything. It's unnatural to know that many quotations."
"It is not. I'm well read, and people know it. You keep quoting Disney, people will look at you weird, not me."
"Oh they'll look at you strangely, because you're married to me."
Grissom smiled, watching his wife laugh and his daughter playing with her Nemo and Dory stuffed animals. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."