Chapter Twenty Four

Epilogue

“You go,” Sara whined.

“I went last time,” mumbled Grissom as he rolled over and hid his head under the pillow.

“Gil, they’re your sons. I gave birth…on the floor…with Brass and Greg as my…”

“Don’t you think you’ve used that excuse enough?” he huffed.

“I breastfed them…even when…”

“I’m up,” he whined.

Sara’s mouth curled into a smile.

She watched as Grissom padded down the hall.

He jerked open the bedroom door and caught David about to slug Matthew with a pillow.

“Boys, go to sleep!” he bellowed.

Matthew dropped the pillow he was holding and began to wail.

His brother Ethan joined in.

David looked guiltily at Grissom. “I’m sorry, daddy.”

Sara scrambled out of the bed and hurried into the room.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Daddy yelled at us,” said Matthew.

“I did not!” scoffed Grissom.

Matthew and Ethan ran to Sara wrapping their arms around her legs.

She glared at Grissom as she protectively hugged the boys.

“David, go to your room,” she said softly as her hand reached out and cupped his small face.

“Night Mommy,” he said as he kissed her before scurrying out of the room.

Grissom watched as Sara tucked the boys into their beds.

Grissom had spent hours decorating the room to resemble a jungle.

There different shapes and colors of every insect imaginable.

He’d been proud of his accomplishment.

Sara had said nothing about the lifelike creatures.

David had stared at the walls and announced, “It’s scary.”

“Your room is like…”

“My room has nice bugs,” interjected David.

Grissom had ignored his young son’s opinion; that is until the twins became toddlers and they too objected to the creepy crawly critters.

“I don’t like it in here,” whined Matthew.

“Why not?” asked Grissom.

“I don’t like bugs,” the young boy whined.

“He takes after you,” whispered Grissom.

One look and Grissom cowered from Sara.

Ethan grabbed Sara’s hand. “Love you Mommy.”

She scooped the smallest of her boys into her arms and kissed him.

“Love you too,” she whispered.

They shut the door and stepped back into their room.

“Sara, they’re getting out of hand,” warned Grissom.

“No they’re not,” she replied.

“They need more discipline,” he said.

His head snapped around when she scoffed at him.

“Boys need a firm hand,” he warned.

“Like you’ve ever laid a finger on any of them,” she huffed.

He threw back the covers and patted the side beside him.

“Do you see what time it is?” she asked.

“We’re awake. We might as well make used of…”

“I want to go back to sleep,” she whined.

“You’ve seemed tired these days,” he said as he pulled her into his arms.

“You chase three boys and a dog around all day and…” she stopped suddenly.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she mumbled.

He rolled over to face her. “Sara…”

“I’m late…again.”

The meaning behind her words bowled him over.

“You mean…you could be pregnant?” he asked.

She nodded.

They both slid down into the covers.

The room was silent.

Minutes passed.

They finally glanced at one another.

“How bad could it get?” he whispered.

“Right,” she replied nervously. “We already have three boys.”

“It could be a girl this time,” he said hopefully.

“Right.”

Silence returned.

“So uhm…does this mean you could be eight weeks pregnant?” he asked.

“I’ve been skipping every other month so when I didn’t have my period last month I didn’t think anything about it…until now.”

“There was that uhm night when we sort of got carried away,” he grinned.

“We do have that extra bedroom. Besides, the boys won’t sleep without each other,” she said.

Grissom nodded.

“Sara?”

“Hmmm?”

“You don’t think we would have twins again. Do you?”

She shook her head viciously.

Six months later, they welcomed their new additions.

Sara and Grissom looked shell shocked as they held their newborn daughters.

Sara’s hand slipped into Grissom’s.

“You think Catherine is going to let me hold my daughter any time soon?” asked Sara.

“No.”

“Griss?”

“Hmmm?”

“We’re going to need a bigger house,” she said.

“I think you’re right,” he said as he leaned back and closed his eyes.

Sara did the same.

“Gil?”

“Hmmm?”

“You think Greg and Nick can handle the boys?” asked Sara.

“Jim gave them handcuffs to play with,” chuckled Grissom.

“The guys or the kids?” she asked suddenly.

“The guys.”

“You don’t think they would handcuff my boys do you?”

“Of course….they would…self preservation.”

“Gilbert!”

He patted her hand as his eyes remained closed.

“Get some sleep,” he murmured.

“I want to hold one of my daughters,” she whined.

“Jim is not about to hand over that baby yet…neither is Catherine,” he yawned.

“But…we’re the parents!” she protested.

“Very tired parents,” he reminded her. “You should rest. I imagine when Greg and Nick get out of those handcuffs; they’ll be calling for reinforcements.”

“You should discipline them more,” huffed Sara.

“You’d never let me harm a hair on their head. Why just the other day when I caught David throwing a box of crayons into the dryer, you lectured me about raising my voice.”

“You did,” she said as she yawned.

“My white shirts were in there. I’m still trying to get melted crayon out of the dryer,” he grumbled.

Sara smiled. “He wanted to see what a rainbow looked like.”

“It’s not funny, Sara.”

She tried not to grin. “He caught a grasshopper the other day and showed it the boys.”

“Really?” asked Grissom.

“He said not to be afraid because his daddy told him grasshoppers would not harm you and his daddy would never do anything to hurt them.”

Grissom smiled. “That’s my boy.”

"Discipline, huh?" she smirked.

"We should sit them down and give them a firm talk...maybe in a few days...after we've recovered from this...delivery," he said.

"Delivery? Who gave birth?" she countered.

"I don't know who Greg and Jim did it," he muttered. "One minute you're cursing at me and the next you're screaming...I still can't feel my hand."

“Gil?”

"Hmmm?"

“The girls…are going to have us wrapped around their fingers…just like the boys.”

“We’ll hire Catherine and Jim to discipline them.”

“Right,” chuckled Sara. “Jim was conned into building the boys a tree house outback.”

“A treehouse? No one told me about a…”

“The boys thought you needed a tree house…so you could be closer to bugs.”

Grissom smiled. “I had a tree house when I was growing up. It was…Sara, are you listening?”

She was sound asleep.

He slid down further into the hospital bed wrapping his arms around her and slept also.

The End….

Really….

That’s it…

Note from author:

Thanks to everyone who has left a review for every chapter. After much thought and consideration, I am going to stop posting for awhile. I will try to finish the remaining stories I’ve started and then eventually get them onto fanfiction. I think many have stopped visiting fanfiction anyway since the characters are no longer on CSI. For those who have remained loyal and do leave a review after reading, thank you. There are some who never leave a review but read along…or at least you tag the story to be notified when a new chapter is released. Some have even sent private messages and griped about leaving a review. Imagine that…It takes them perhaps 5 or more minutes to read something that I took an hour or so to write....now multiply that by the number of chapters in each story...

Anyway, I really appreciate every reader and I truly enjoy your comments. I've gotten a few emails thanking me for writing the story. It was my pleasure...at least it used to. Somehow the joy is no more so I'm going to stop for awhile. I enjoyed listening to your comments. It was the reason I spent hours on top of hours coming up with ideas and then writing the story. It is a long process as some of you may already know but I share them with those who share my passion for GSR.

Take care,

Penny