Vacation Holiday
 

Emilia looked around their borrowed room, trying to see if they had missed anything.  She found her husband pouting and gave him a pat as she walked past him into the bathroom.  That stupid stomach cramp happened again.  "I am not in labor," she hissed.

Greg came in and held her through it.  "You're too early.  It's a reaction to the hot peppers you ate last night," he said in her ear, calming her down again.  "If it's labor, we're staying.  I won't have you flooing or portkeying with a newborn."

She turned to look at him.  "Greg, they're not abandoning us again," she said gently.  "Nick's in a stable place. Philip's in a stable place.  Even Methos can be found now.  You can always go visit."  He sighed and rested his head on her shoulder.  "I know, you got used to them being so close.  It's either finding a job over here or having them all move to Vegas," she reminded him.

"Alex and the boys could," he offered quietly.   More people would drop in to see them.  Or at least he felt they would.

She gave him a pat on the back.  "You suggest it to him.  Remember, we have the house everyone wants to come vacation at."  He looked up and grinned.  "You'll be seeing everyone again soon."

Xander stuck his head into the bathroom.  "Almost ready to go?"

"Anxious to have us gone?" Emilia teased with a grin.

"I can't have loud, noisy sex if you and the babies are here," he pointed out.  "It'd wake them up."

"Ooh, poor thing, having to have quiet sex," she soothed, giving him a pat on the cheek, which turned into a hair pull when that hot pepper reaction happened again.  "I think I may be in labor," she admitted.  "I don't want to be in labor yet."

Greg got her fingers free and led her back to the bed, laying her down in it.  "We've got a few days," he reminded her.  "If they don't stop soon, I'll write everyone and tell them we'll be late."  She grabbed his hand, squeezing it until he winced.  "Maybe we should get Methos up here?  And Tipsy?"

Emilia nodded.  "Yeah, might be a great idea, Greg."

Xander jogged out, leaning over the banister.  "Methos!  Molly!  Emilia's in labor!" he yelled.

"Yes!" Draco's voice floated down the halls.   "I can have messy, noisy sex again!"

Xander snickered and shook his head.  His mate was one of a kind.  Methos jogged up the stairs and he followed him in to help Greg.  He even put a waterproof sheet underneath her so they wouldn't have to change the bed as often.  He only had a few extra sets of sheets in the house.   Dawn seemed to rip a lot of them for some reason.

The twins came up and moved him out to the hallway, shutting the door in his face.  They made good coaches.  Tipsy had told them so.  They even pulled out the Big Book of Dark Curses when she stared to tell Greg what she was going to do to him for doing this to her.  It gave her some wonderful ideas and kept her mind off the pain.  They called Tipsy up to help when their voices gave out, letting her take the next shift.  They called their mother in, she was excellent at this baby stuff.  She'd even had them at home.

***

Catherine Willows opened up Grissom's emails to read them to him over the phone.  "Here's one from Greg, an update.  And it's got attachments," she announced.  His laughter came over the speaker phone so she opened it.  "It says he's going to be a bit later than he thought.  Oh, that's so cute," she cooed, touching the screen.  "He sent pictures of Gregette junior."

"Hopefully he named his daughter something else?" Sarah said from the doorway.

Catherine looked at her.  "He said he hasn't decided which name he likes best and Emilia's still asleep.  He stole baby Greg from all the doting aunts and uncles to take pictures of her and send them to us."

"Did he say when?"

"Maybe another week," Catherine told him.  "You can't fly with an infant under a month old.  I'd imagine they had similar restrictions on their kind of traveling."

"Good point," Grissom agreed.  "Anything else important?"

She saved that message down and scanned the rest.  "Ten from the sheriff, one from Warrick's kidnaper that you've had read to you.  One from Nick, he's in Hawaii already it looks like.  Oh, and here's another one just popping in from the sheriff.  The message line is "Where the fucking hell are you, Gil, and why won't you answer my g-d summons?"

He sighed.  "I'll call him.  Thank you, Catherine, keep looking and call me immediately if something else from the kidnaper comes up."  He hung up.

Catherine went back to the baby pictures and waved Sarah closer, showing her.  "I thought babies looked more normal at birth," Sarah said, grimacing.  "It's kinda red and squashed."

"All babies come out slimy, red, and squashed," Catherine told her.  "You'll find that out some day personally I'm sure."  A new message popped up and she answered it, telling the sheriff that Grissom had his messages and was still in the field looking for the kidnaper.  That he had promised to call as soon as he got near a phone.  Then she sent it to him with an eye roll.  "Maybe you should help Gil," Catherine suggested.

"Yeah, I probably should.  Thanks, Catherine."

"Not a problem."  Sarah ran out the door, heading to get one of the cops heading to the search site to take her.  She emailed the pictures to Brass, smiling when he came down the hall.  "Didn't you get them?"

"I did.  How long do you think it'll take?  We could really use him.  We just found a few samples and Grissom's sending them back ASAP."

"Let me call," she said, picking up the phone.  She dialed the number hidden under Grissom's desk protector, hearing a tired voice on the other end.  "Hey, Fred.  Okay, George.  It's Catherine.  Can we borrow Greg for a few minutes?  No, we've had one of our coworkers kidnaped and we're getting samples.  We trust him to not make mistakes, not like the others.  I got his email and have spread it around the unit.  Yeah, hopefully by today.  I know, and I'd hate to do it, but we *really* need him.  Thanks, George.  Yeah, that's fine, I'll wait."  She looked at Brass and shrugged, then smiled at the yawning on the other end.  "Hi, Emilia.  It's Catherine.  I wouldn't normally call like this but Warrick's been kidnaped and our fill-in is an idiot.  Sure."  She waited until she heard the sleepy grunt.  "Greg, we need you badly.  We need you to do samples to help us find Warrick before his air runs out."  She straightened up.  "You're sure?  Yeah, even just for a day.  He's only got another ten hours of air and the day-shift guy screwed it up.  He even got into a shouting match with Hodges."  She laughed.  "I've seen them and I've spread them around.  Thanks.  Yeah, within an hour would be fine.  Gil's halfway to Lake Mead at the moment.  Love you too, and kiss them both for us."  She hung up.  "Within an hour.  We woke him up from a nap."

"Thanks."  Brass hurried back to his office, he could hear his phone ringing.

Catherine checked the email again and sighed when an answer to her message came up from the Sheriff.  She opened it and shook her head, writing a reply that Gil was trying to find a missing CSI, that took precedent over information gathering and handing out.

***

Greg appeared and waved as he walked into his lab.  He found two boxes waiting on him and sat down to start working.  So what if he was wearing flannel pajama pants and a t- shirt, they wouldn't complain too much.  He got the first answer within a few minutes and cross-checked with the earlier logged results.  "How did he screw that up?" he muttered, finding the serum sample and rerunning it, this time as the appropriate type of sample.  The answer gave them a broad area, but not that broad. "Catherine!" he called, holding up the paper.  He started on the second sample as soon as she had grabbed it.  "How did he mess that up?"

"He and Hodges were fighting over the rights to run it," she said as she read.  "This only overlaps with our present search area by a mile."  She kissed him on the cheek.  "I wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important."

"I understand," he promised, smiling up at her as soon as the sample had started.  "I'd want to call me back too if someone had run a soil composite as a cleaning chemical."  The printer spit out another answer and he picked it up to look at it, then at the other results.  "That's definitely the shoreline nearer to the power plant.  It's got a funny spew off from the generators whenever they break down."  He handed it over with a flourish.

"You are the best piece of cheese on the block," she swore, going to call Grissom.  She heard the phone ringing and jogged to catch it.  "Gil," she said when she answered it.  "Sarah, put him on.  Greg found something and had a clue."  She sat down, catching her breath.  "Greg had a clue.  The test results say it's on the shores of the lake, where you get some machine oil spitting.  There wasn't a high concentration but it wasn't motor oil.  He said it's machine oil and sometimes the generators spew a bit when they get cranky.  Yeah, he thinks it's downwind of the dam.  All right.  No, I was down the hall with him.  Let me check."  She checked the email and found a message from an unusual source.  She coughed and smiled.  "And I quote, the magnet found the trouble with the big nose and he's in the ER at Desert Palms.  Jim and Vecchio went after the sucker.  Sandburg."  She laughed.  "Probably.  It also says he's about a half-mile from the edge of the dam, up one of the hiking trails.  Good job," she congratulated when she heard Sarah scream that she was falling.   She smiled and hung up, going to hug Greg.  "Sandburg and Vecchio found him," she told him.  He snorted, shaking his head.  "What?"

"Those five together are one dangerous team," he told her.  "Both Rays, Benny, Blair, and Jim would about make the world shake in fear.  Did you know Ray K managed to hitch a ride with Blair during our battle?"

"No, I hadn't," she said, sitting next to him.  "Did he help?"

"He shot the Prof, but otherwise he helped a lot.  They weren't expecting bullets."

"We knew he came back smelling like gunpowder.  Brass found him first then he and Vecchio got into it in the hallway over what he had been doing.  He finally said he had been helping Blair with some ugly suckers wearing masks and left it there as he stomped out and went to shower."

"Yeah, he helped us a lot," he admitted.  He leaned on her shoulder and yawned. "When do they sleep through the night?"

"By four months."

"Good.  I'll remember that for the next one."

"Trust me, don't mention that to her yet.  She's still sore and achy from the last one."

"She mentioned it last night," he admitted, yawning again.  His eyes slowly closed and he fell asleep right there.

She very nicely stayed still until someone came back to help her move him to a more comfortable spot.  Her daughter was amused.  "His daughter was just born today," she explained, showing her the picture Greg had brought with him for his desk.

"Babies are funny looking," her daughter decided.  But she covered him and left him on his couch.

***

Greg looked up from his desk six days after they had gotten back as his wife wandered in and handed off the baby and carrier.  "Good morning, Cassandra," he murmured, putting her on.   "Let's run some blood.   You'll learn all about DNA before you can even speak."  He grinned as he ran the next sample.  His daughter was sleeping, it was a miracle.  He heard a cleared throat and didn't have to look up.  "What's wrong now, Hodges?"

"She's drooling."

"On my back.  I doubt it'll transfer.  That's why I don't have her on my stomach."

"You know, the others would watch her if you let them."

Greg halted his water transfer, looking at him. "Did you just offer to babysit?"  Hodges shook his head and hurried off.  "Didn't think so," he said as he went back to his latest sample.  "See, sweetie, you add the water to give it more area to scan," he told her.  "That's the simple explanation, the longer one comes once you can walk.  Then we'll get into double helixes and all that good stuff."  His daughter snored on, liking the sound of his voice.  Someone else chuckled from the doorway.  "Sarah, in my regular jacket pocket is a card for the wonderful baby toys and the fingerprinting and DNA kits.  I'll get it during lunch break."

"That's fine, Greg.  Want me to take her?  I'm lifting fingerprints and I'm sure she'd find it instructive."

"Nah, let's leave her here for now.  Fingerprinting is for when she starts leaving them."  He grinned at her and winked, then went back to what he had been doing.  He had added a little too much water but it would be fine with this sample.  He reminded himself to be more careful as he got back to work.  "This is yours."

"Fine, I'll wander down the hall and come back again," she agreed, knowing that her lurking upset the baby and made it howl, then her samples would never get done.  As Nick had found out last night.  He had to wait a very long time on his blood typing until Greg had gotten poor Cassandra calmed down again.  And Catherine had backed him up on that.  She wondered what Emilia was doing but it was probably top secret so she couldn't know.  She had learned her lesson when her ISP account had been put on hold for a week pending the outcome of a security check.  She knew better than to bug Greg or Emilia about what they had done in Britain.  She heard the detectives coming down the hall and groaned.  When was that case and trial going to be over with?  She looked up and silently prayed for the jury to finally go and deliberate quickly.  Vecchio scared her.  He was either some super being or just really odd.  The man only yelled at slow traffic.   Kowalski irritated her with his usually sunny nature and candy addiction and the Mountie drove her nuts.  What had she done to deserve this?  Then she heard the dreaded whistling.  Vecchio was in a *good* and *humorous* mood.  Wonderful.  She went to get herself a soda and lock herself in her lab.  Her samples could wait.  They really could.  With her luck, Sandburg would be with them.  Now she knew why her friend Cassie wanted to leave Cascade so bad.

Both Rays and the Mountie came in to visit Greg.  They liked Greg a lot, wished they had more of him at home.  They also liked little Cassandra.  "Ah, there's the baby," Ray said happily, stealing her to sit on Greg's couch.  "Yes, you're a sweet one for Uncle Ray, aren't you?" he asked.

She woke up and yawned at him, blinking a bit before falling back asleep.  She was too full to deal with big people.  She burped but the big guy in red had something to clean her up so it was all good to her.

"Man, she's gained more weight," Ray K said quietly, staring at her.  "You are adorable.  If I ever get around ta havin' kids, I want one just like you."  He brushed some of her hair down."

"I doubt it.  This is the first time she's slept more than twenty minutes all day," Greg said, yawning himself.  "Damn it."  He restarted his sampling, doing it more carefully this time.

"Sorry, kiddo."

"Not a big," he said absently.  He nearly jumped when his daughter wailed. He did remember to put everything down so he couldn't botch anything up again.  "What happened?"

"I think she woke up and decided Kowalski was scary," Vecchio said dryly, handing her over.  "Either that or her time's up."

"Greg, take her home," Grissom called.  "I'll run those."

"You're a blessing, you're a Godparent," Greg called back, gathering his daughter together.  "Come over to the house later, you can watch us all nap."  He grinned and disapparated from the hallway.  He laid the baby in her cradle and she went back to sleep as he crawled in with his wife, laying on top of her.

"Smooshing the milk sacs," she complained into her pillow.

"I'll empty them later," he promised, blowing a kiss.

"Grissom?"

"Yeah.  He's a godparent."

"Deal," she agreed.  "I get Alex."

"Fine."

***

Back in Britain, Luna was having a sleepover with most of Hufflepuff and a few of her housemates who liked her. Her father had said it was good for her to associate with other girls.

One of the Hufflepuffs looked up at her. "Luna, is it hard to learn that slang you know?  I think it'd make a really neat code for us to use around the school so the boys don't know what we're saying."

Luna grinned.  "It's not hard at all, dawg, it's really easy.  We'll start with a musical lesson and then move on, all right?"  They nodded so Luna put Bob Marley cd so they could listen to it.  Then she grabbed a chalkboard and some chalk, sitting down again to write out the first few words, including diagraming them in a sentence for their edification.

"Maybe we should learn British," one of the Ravenclaws suggested.  "We are British after all."

"Yeah, but more people would know that," the asking Hufflepuff reminded her.

"I can teach you both, I've searched out our own part of the gang culture," Luna assured them.  "There's not much of it here in the UK, I'm not sure why.  It's really hard to find good rap music as well."  She shrugged.  "Anyway, this music is called Reggae.  When I was in the US, I stayed with some Jamaicans.  This is their native music."  All the girls nodded, listening intently.  Maybe then they'd understand what Luna was talking about half the time. "After this, I'll put on some rap.  It's street music in the US."  They all looked at her in awe.  "Don't worry, you'll understand.  Living the street life is like being at war and we've all just done that."  They relaxed, that was easy enough to understand.  "After that, we'll work on some language skills.  By tomorrow, not even Dawnie will be able to tell that you didn't grow up with her.  Though, she uses some surfer, not just street.  I'm sure she and Alex can teach you that."

"Wow," one younger Hufflepuff breathed.  "You're really cool, Luna.  Even for worshiping a demon and having sex with it."

"Yes, well, Ethan always wanted to be powerful," she said with a grin.  "Wesley's a whole 'nother matter entirely.  Oops, I should check on him.  I'm teaching him how to ride Western today," she said, happily going to check on her lover.  Wesley had protested a bit so she had tied him up in their spare room.  Her father seemed to understand and had their house elf feed him when Luna wasn't.  "Wesley," she called as she walked in.  She found Ethan on top of him stealing a kiss.  "Has he come around?" she asked, coming over to get some of her own.  Ethan hummed in the back of his throat, sounding like a purr.  "Are you a kitty instead of a stallion?" she teased.

"Do you want a tongue bath to find out?" he taunted.  "I can stop time for a second."  She beamed and tossed off her shirt, surrendering to him.

Wesley groaned behind his gag, trying to look away but the straps held his head in place.  That girl was all together too good at tying him up.

***

"Hidy-ho, neighbors," Blair called from downstairs.  "We're here to use the pool."

"Thanks for sitting," Tipsy agreed as she brought her twins in to lay in the cradle with Cassandra.  "We'll be outside when it's our turn."  She snuck out, running toward the water.  "Free at last!"

"Mum said she'd happily babysit," Ginny reminded her from her spot on the pool's edge.

"She'd nag," Tipsy told her.  She dove in, making her husbands grin and stalk her across the pool until they could pin her against the side for long kisses.

Xander came out of the house in a tiny speedo.  "Tipsy, not in the pool.  I don't want to know what they taste like."  Ginny and Harry both spluttered but he shrugged and grinned before diving in.

Draco came out in his own silver speedo and dove in after him to try and drown him for such comments.  "Naughty, Xander," he scolded.  "Bad you."  He pushed him under the water and pushed off, heading off as quickly as he could.

"Won't save you," Xander reminded him.  "I know how you sleep."

"Does it do it cutely?" Fred asked over his shoulder.  He was busy undoing her top while his twin got her lower half under the water.

"Not only that but he sleeps very deeply.  I could even tie him up and he'd never know," Xander said with a wicked grin.

"Do you need begging, pleading, or just pleasing sex to wipe that idea?" Draco asked as he swam back.  He pounced his mate, making all thoughts of handcuffs and ropes retreat to the back of his mind.  "Tonight's moon dark," he whispered against the damp lips.

"Hmm, so it is," Xander agreed wolfishly.  "We should do something about that, shouldn't we?"  He felt his husband up, making him writhe and wiggle against him.  "Not liking it?"

"There are virgins watching, I don't want to corrupt her," Draco said softly.  "Then she couldn't do her chosen work."

"Good point.  Ginny, watch the twins instead of us."

"Sure, Xander, I'm not watching how those tiny swim trunks are exposing him at all," she agreed.  Xander looked back at her.  "I have to be pure in deed, not thought."

"Good point," Draco agreed.  "Never mind, I withdraw my objections."  He latched back onto the firm mouth, enjoying the hell out of this.  Now if only they had some oil....

Most of the rest of the Banes came out to celebrate the holidays with Greg, Emilia, and Cassandra as well, clapping for the excellent floor show.  They hadn't gotten to see much of this with the new babies and one of the couples being in school.

Ron gallantly led Dawn into the water and kissed her.  "Swim laps or knock them over?"

"I don't want to see that much of Draco's bum," she retorted.  "I've seen more than enough of it already, thank you muchly."

"The proper phrase is thank you kindly," Ray Vecchio said from the doorway.  "Just ask the blushing Mountie."

Xander pulled away long enough to wave, then went back to molesting his mate in the pool.

"Not in the water.  Some of us want to swim without risk of getting stuffed up," Dawn complained. "Hide under a sheet on a lounger like decent people!"

"It is scientifically proven that one cannot get pregnant from swimming in sperm-infested water," Benny told her as he joined them, sitting on the edge of the pool.  "But it is not very polite either."

"Yeah, in some cultures if they were doing that in front of others it means that they'd want to share," Blair told them.  Both groups got out of the pool, taking it to a lounger and covering themselves for a while.

"Thank you.  We all know people from Sunnydale beat all the odds and scientific proof.  I'd hate to have one of the twins' kids," Dawn called.

Ron nodded. "I'd hate to kill them for that too," he agreed.  One of the twins uncovered his head to look at him.  "If she got knocked up from the pool, I'd blame you.  She's only swimming, you're the one fouling the water."

"Weasley genes are spread far enough all ready," that twin agreed.

"I can't wait until he has his own," Tipsy said loudly.

"I can," Dawn shot back.  "Unless you want to bear one for him, 'cause I'm not even thinking about being open that wide for a very long time."

Emilia came out in a robe.  "Don't worry, it unstretches again. Trust me on that.  Why are you all here?"

"Break," they said in unison.

"Good," she decided.  Free babysitters!  Xander moaned and Draco nearly screamed.  "Hey, no sex on the patio.  There's fifteen rooms upstairs, use one of them.  If you get bodily fluid on those, you lick it off."

"Yes, dear," Draco called, standing up, unconscious in his nudity.  Or his mate's as he pulled him along behind him.  The twins tried their best to cover their mate's assets up as they ran her inside as well. "Hey, our room!" Draco called.  "We always use that room!"

"Remind me not to sleep in that room," Ray K said as he walked out, wearing a nice pair of print trunks.  "You said we could come over," he said with a grin, holding up a basket.  "I even remembered to bring a gift."

She kissed him on the cheek.  "You're not noisy, you can stay.  The first one who wakes up Cass babysits her."  She went back to her nap, enjoying the peace.  Fortunately, someone was thoughtful enough to cast silencing charms.  She saw her husband's wand in his hand and grinned, kissing him on the ear.

"Only do that if you want us to make noise too," he moaned, giving her a faint smile, his eyes still closed.  "Break?"

"Break.  I've already shooed the shagging couples away from the pool.  Luna's not here so we don't have to worry about demonic visitors as well."

"I heard.  Draco giggles.  Still."

"But he's in love.  I know how he feels."  She kissed him again and he opened his eyes this time.  "I'm feeling better."

"I'm glad," he agreed, dropping his wand so he could take the better magical being in his hand.  "I like it when you're feeling good.  I like it a lot."

She chuckled and gave him a real kiss.  "I know you do."  Someone knocked on the door.  "You're interrupting."

Ray Vechcio stuck his head inside.  "I was going to relieve you of babycare so you couldn't be interrupted rudely by a loud wail.  May I?"

"Sure, have them all," Greg agreed, going back to what he had been doing.  He loved his wife. He loved every inch of her and proved it often by kissing, licking, nibbling, and sucking on them.  Too bad she wasn't taller, more of her to love.  But the little pregnancy belly was very cute so he spent a lot of time on that once the cradle had been taken out of the room. She pushed his head down further and he gladly had his favorite bedtime snack.

She was all his!

Down the hall, Draco had to have the last word.  "MORE!" he screamed, breaking the silencing charm.   From downstairs, people clapped politely.  It was like dinner theater to them now.

The End.