Disclaimer: I don't own.

A/N: Soo, after I finished this chapter, I got so excited that I couldn't wait to post it. :) Lol, so we'll call it an early birthday present. My birthday, not yours. :P So I think that means I should get extra long reviews, yes? Because ...I'm getting old now. :(

Anyway, I want to say thanks to gsrmania, whose last review gave me the idea to do the prologue this way. It makes me happy.

I hope everyone has enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it--it feels so good to be able to have such a happy ending to the LoA storyline, because even with the happy ending on that one, it wasn't... like this. :) Thanks for all the wonderful reviews you've given me, they've meant the world to me. I'm just so glad I can interest so many people with my writing. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I don't know when I started calling Sara 'Mom' and Griss 'Dad'. It seemed like Sara had been a big sister to me for as long as I'd known her, and when they adopted us, it was a natural progression to see her as mother. And Griss was older… acted like a dad… seemed like he wanted to be a dad. So that was natural too. It… slipped out, here and there, in the beginning—I would refer to them as my parents to kids at school, or say 'My mom thinks this…' and 'My dad says this…' I don't even remember the first moment I called them 'Mom' or 'Dad' to their faces. Like I said, it wasn't significant, because it was just so obvious.

On the other hand, I remember in far too much detail every time I overheard them having sex.

When I was twelve and we'd just moved to Vegas, I was torn between thinking that maybe they didn't and thinking they were really quiet. I mean, we never heard them, no matter how often we giggled to each other that we thought that's what they were doing. In fact, the first time wasn't even at night… it was in the middle of the freaking day.

Which answered my previous question—they were doing it, they just waited 'til we were at school. Well, I mean… I guess that's courteous.

It was a weekend though… Kait and Alex and I had walked over to the park to meet some friends in the neighborhood. Kait had seen some guy she liked, however, and changed her plans… and Alexis was nothing if not loyal. And… I was loyal too, but… not willing to listen to her high-pitched and utterly fake giggle for forty minutes straight while they both beat around the bush. So I headed home. I figured that Dad would be asleep, but Mom would probably read with me. …That was one of my favorite things. They both loved to read, so anytime I got sick of spending all my time with Kait and Alex, I could find one or both of them, and we would take turns reading aloud.

I slid in through the garage door and typed in the alarm code to make sure that Dad's friends wouldn't be over here in five minutes freaking out. They were kind of alarmists, if you know what I mean. I walked from room to room and figured that maybe Mom was taking a nap. I knew she didn't always sleep really well. So I changed my mind, thinking I'd head up to our room, excited at the thought of having it alone for once, and listen to the CD Greg had borrowed me.

Kaitlin said Greg wanted Mom, and Alexis said that he wanted anything with boobs, but Dad didn't see Greg as a threat… so neither did I. They were just mad that, after the wedding fiasco in which they'd tried to convince him to get us a drink, he didn't trust them anymore. But Greg and I, we got along. He was like the big brother I always wished I'd had.

I headed up the stairs and stopped… because it sounded like Mom was getting hurt. …I had a moment in which years of less than pleasant memories flashed back to me, and while I couldn't see Dad hitting anyone, ever… the sounds were unmistakable. I moved down their hallway, instead of heading further up to my room… and when I was close enough to hear clearly, it hit me like a punch in the face.

Oh, for gross!

And if the 'uh' noises Sara was making weren't enough… before I could make it back to the stairs to run for it, her voice came again, breathy and desperate, informing him she was 'close.' Now, at the time, I had no freaking idea what that meant. I mean, I understood that sex or S-E-X made people feel good… but I wasn't necessarily acquainted with the orgasm yet. I mean, I'd heard the word but… the meaning was vague, you know? Anyway, I was running to the stairs at this point, but again, not before I could hear my dad grind out in a voice I had never, ever heard him use, "Oh, fuck, honey… You feel so fucking good!"

My dad doesn't swear, as a rule… but apparently, balls deep in my mom, he turns into a sailor.

I hurried out of the house, intent upon finding Alexis and Kaitlin and sharing my horror story… but when I found them, they were still with others, and that wasn't something I would tell strangers. …By the time we'd separated from the group and were heading home for supper… the need to tell was not so pressing. I mean, could I really trust them to keep their mouths shut about it?

After everything they'd done for us, I figured they should be able to have sex in peace, especially if they only did it when we weren't home.

I didn't hear them again until I was fourteen… I was up late reading, because I'd just gotten this book called Harry Potter and I couldn't put it down, no matter how many tests I had the next morning (three… I remember), and then I heard them.

They were trying to be quiet. I mean, really, they were. I think, if I hadn't be so unfortunate to have a bed beside a vent, I probably wouldn't have heard them at all. …And while it was all kinds of creepy and I dropped the book immediately to bury my head under my pillow to block it out… years later, I think I can look back on it as not so bad. I mean… I think I have a healthy attitude, about sex, in part because my parents were freaking rabbits, apparently.

Let's me fair—I didn't know they were sex fiends until I was closer to sixteen. By that time, they must have thought they had a good idea what we could or couldn't sleep through… and if I'd been asleep, I probably wouldn't have woken up to it. But I was often up reading… and they got loud. I would pull out my Discman, put in a CD of Greg's, and blast it… and then I was able to push aside the heebie-jeebies. Still, it as creepy enough that I was always aware of it. I tried to rearrange my room so that the dresser was in front of the vent, but it didn't help.

If I went to bed early, I would sleep with headphones in, just to make sure I didn't wake up to anything… but to this day, I swear I heard them conceive Eva. Dad had been working almost constantly, and mom was worried he was burning out… she told him to take some time, go teach a seminar on the east coast… and the night before he left, they were freaking loud. …It had been weeks though, and that was a long time, for them. I put on my loudest CD and pushed it from my mind… but when a month after Dad came back, Mom said she was two months pregnant… I knew.

It was disgusting, really… but I think it helps that even though I call them Mom and Dad, they aren't my parents. I never had that period of time as a young child in which I was aware of sex and yet unable to see my parents as sexual beings. …I had always seen Sara as a sister… she'd always told us about her dates… and Griss had been a boyfriend. So it was easier, when they became Mom and Dad, to wrap my head around it.

I was even the one who suggested the name—kind of a combination of Laura and Evelyn, our grandmothers.

I never told Kait or Alex, or either of my parents that I spent years unintentionally listening to them get to know each other in the biblical sense... and there was a crazy, creepy part of myself that wondered, when I started having sex, if we sounded so god-awfully-disgusting as they had… but I was sure we didn't. Ugh.

So when Kaitlin commented on it, years and years later… I just had to laugh. …If I'd told them now, they'd never, ever believe me.

We were all back in Vegas for Eva's high school graduation and our parents had broken out the liquor after Eva had headed off to her graduation party—though they'd stayed up with us for a while, they'd gone to bed a little while ago, and it was just the three of us again. Kaitlin was a wife and mother of one and had designed her own line of designer handbags. Eva was the envy of all the girls at school when she had the newest handbag, a month before they were available in stores. Alexis was not married, despite her two children… the youngest by a long-term boyfriend. She was some executive at a music label… but I couldn't tell you exactly what she did. As far as I knew, she did not find nor sign the talent, nor did she plan their tours, manage the company, or influence the music industry at all…

But she had signed pictures of herself with just about every star I'd ever heard of up in her house, and she was happy, so… I figured it worked. She had never been overly concerned with the music itself.

And I… was working at the Las Vegas Crime Lab, following in my dad's footsteps, although it seemed like everyone and their dog wanted to do the same. When he'd retired early to stay home and take care of his mother—Grandma Grissom had come to live with them a few years after we'd graduated from high school—Catherine had stepped up to fill his shoes, and Nick had learned everything he could about bugs. …Catherine had retired now, too, and Nick was running dayshift… Warrick had gone to teaching at UNLV so he could have more regular hours with Tina and Greg was in my dad's old office, which still contained Miss Piggy and an assortment of mounted butterflies.

I mean, I would never admit it to my mom or dad, because they'd be horrified… he'd been like a brother growing up… but I was thirty five now, and he was only forty three. That was half the age difference between them! …Not that it mattered anyway. I mean, I'd known the man for years… worked under him for at least four years, now… and he didn't notice me. I mean, besides the random, off-handed comment about beauty or sex that would leave me reeling for days at a time…

Still, a girl can't help but dream.

Kaitlin had lifted her glass and we'd all toasted to Eva, feeling content just to be sitting together again after all the time apart. …You share a room with two girls for six years, and you get used to that constant closeness. "…I was waiting for them to tell us Mom was pregnant when Evey turned sixteen." She snickered, and Alexis laughed.

"Do you remember that first night, in San Francisco? …We were so certain they were doing it all the time."

Kaitlin snorted. "I can't believe we didn't hear them even once, all those years…"

I fought back my laughter, blowing it off as slight amusement at her words, and then made my excuses to head to bed.

"What? It's early!"

"I thought you worked nights!"

I laughed. "Exactly. I've been up all day when I should have been sleeping!"

They grumbled and teased me as I headed up the stairs to our old bedroom—it no longer looked the same, of course, but there was a guest bed up there now, and I had certainly had too much to drive home. Unlike the other two, I did not have a significant other to come pick me up…

Well, I mean, I could call Greg. He'd probably be at work… But for me, I knew, he'd make the trip.

I settled into the bed, closing my eyes. No, I was way too tired to call him. Besides, I would almost certainly say something I'd regret tonight, after all I'd had to drink… it was better if I just drifted to sleep.

My eyes fluttered open a moment later, when I realized that this bed was positioned right in front of the vent, where my other bed had resided for six years. …And there were some definitely squeaky springs, if not the loud exclamations I got used to as a teenager.

…For a moment I sat in pure bewilderment. I mean, my mom was only forty six, but my dad was… sixty two. I mean, that was impressive… and god, so freaking disgusting! …Didn't they ever stop or… get tired?! …I knew I was drunk because I burst out laughing at my own thoughts before grabbing the spare pillow and slamming it down over my head.

…Maybe I would call Greg after all. …Nothing I could say would be worse than having to listen to this again.