Title: Marcus
Author: vampfire
Author's e-mail: semperfi_neversaydie@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Don't own CSI or its characters. Not making money off this.
Pairing: Warrick/Grissom
Archive: Yes to Taking Chances. Elsewhere, let me know first.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Summary: My take on the Warrick-and-Grissom-raising-a-kid challenge.
Feedback: Please

***

Gil Grissom wasn't sure what kind of reception he was expecting to get. He parked and let the seatbelt slide away and was at the doorstep before it hit him that he hadn't seen Warrick in two days. That he'd missed an entire weekend with him over this.

Warrick opened the door before Grissom could wonder whether the shorter, smaller version of Warrick might answer the doorbell instead. "Hey."

"Hey," Gris said back softly. Warrick looked good, which was nothing new. But the time apart and the sudden association in Grissom's mind of the fun-loving man he worked with being a serious and mature, protective parent figure made him seem even more attractive than usual.

Warrick took himself away from his position blocking the open doorframe and Grissom followed him inside. The living room looked much the same as always, but Grissom's mind catalogued the small differences.

Warrick turned and stopped them both in the middle of the room, looking like he'd made up his mind about something.

"Gris, listen, before you say anything, I've got something to tell you."

Grissom studied Warrick and just nodded.

"I don't agree with the plan to let Aunt Geraldine raise Marcus. She's old and she doesn't understand kids or the pressures kids face nowadays. I've talked to Grams and she supports me on this, as does everybody else in the family... I'm going to adopt Marc."

Grissom caught the challenge in Warrick's announcement and in the look he was now giving him, but answered honestly, "I don't have any problem with that."

"You don't," Warrick said flatly. "Well, you can see where I might have gotten the impression you did, considering the way you headed for the hills the second I told you I'd be keeping him for awhile."

"I didn't 'head for the hills.' I just had some thinking to do."

"Well, you coulda fooled me."

Grissom studied Warrick's rather unwelcoming posture, with his arms crossed over his chest and his guarded expression, and knew his actions had hurt Warrick.

Gris sighed and gave the man he loved a better explanation. "I don't deal well with change. I needed to think about how this would change things between us. And about whether I still wanted to ask you to move in with me."

Warrick's eyebrows shot up. "You were going to ask me that?"

"I am asking you that. Marc can have the guest bedroom. We can paint it, or put up wallpaper, however he'd like."

Now Warrick was smiling, and Grissom felt himself relax.

"That would be good," Warrick agreed, his eyes firmly on Gil in that way that made Grissom warm all over. "My lease is up at the end of the month. But you probably remembered that, huh?"

Grissom nodded. He was surprised at how good it felt to know Warrick wanted to live together.

"Gil, I don't know what to say, man. You never cease to surprise me. You're okay with not just me being in your space, but a five-year-old?"

"Yeah, I am. That's what I needed to be sure about. I'm - I apologize for disappearing all weekend. I missed you."

"Forget about it," Warrick told him. "It's not that I didn't miss you too, but it was probably good to give me some time alone with Marc. He's missing his mom. I think he understood last week, you know, at the funeral. But he's still so young..."

Grissom nodded slightly, knowing this wouldn't be easy for any of them. "You're right, Warrick. You are the best one out of your immediate relatives to take him in. You'll be good for him."

"Why don't you go upstairs and say hi?" Warrick suggested. "I've got to finish dinner."

"You're cooking?" Grissom asked, the corner of his mouth quirking up.

"And you'd better like it," Warrick told him. "Feel free to cook tomorrow night. Aunt Geraldine will be over. When I told her I wanted to take care of Marc on a permanent basis, she volunteered to babysit. The plan is for me to drop him off at her house before work so he can sleep there, and she'll take him into kindergarten in the mornings. They only go until one, so I'll just have to wake up by 12:30 to run over and pick him up."

Grissom took in a deep breath. So this was really going to happen. Okay, he'd better at least go meet the little guy. Gris paused before taking the stairs and turned around to face Warrick. "Warrick, who am I supposed to tell him I am?"

"He already knows who you are." Warrick's hand curled around the back of Gris' neck, and Gris automatically let his hands fall to rest at Warrick's hips as the tall man stepped closer. "You're over-thinking things, Gil. Maybe when he gets a little older, we'll have a talk with him. But right now, it's not an issue. Kids are way more accepting than adults, you know."

Gris was smiling at him. "You want me to still be around when he gets older?"

Warrick let out an exasperated sigh at Grissom's observant nature. "Why do you have to analyze every word I say? Yeah, Gris, I want you to be around. What, did you think this was some kinda office fling to me?"

And now Grissom was fully smiling. "No," he answered, and kissed him.

It was the first time he'd gotten to touch Warrick in two days, and his body let him know how much the contact had been missed. Warrick felt great wrapped around him, and Gris loved the way he could make Warrick melt into his arms.

Warrick ended the kiss with a low, "If I don't turn the stove off, nobody's going to be eating tonight."

"Gotcha," Gil told him, squeezing his arms around Warrick's warm torso in a final hug before letting him go. He turned resolutely to the steps and stopped yet again.

"Warrick, I don't know if I would be any good as a parent."

Warrick finished moving a pot to a different burner and tossed Gil a look over his shoulder. "I'm not asking you to be a parent, Gris. Just a role model. You're already great at it. Trust me, Gil, he's gonna love you."

And with that ringing in his head, Grissom made it up the stairs.

At the top, he found the spare bedroom door wide open and a string of small cars, trucks, and airplanes stretched from the doorway to the twin bed. On the bed was Marc, stretched out on his stomach so he could lean precariously off the edge of the bed, swooping the objects in his hands down towards the line of toy cars and scattering them.

The boy's destructive sound effects stopped, as did his hands. Gris stepped carefully over the line of toys and met the boy's eyes with a cautious smile. "Hi there," he ventured.

Marc squirmed up into a sitting position and said brightly, "Hi."

Gris made himself sit on the edge of the bed next to him and was searching for something to say when he realized that the objects in Marc's hands were a large plastic dragonfly and ladybug. "Nice bugs," he told the boy.

"Thanks. Warrick bought them for me. He said you'd like them. You're Gil, right?"

Gris smiled. "Yes, I'm Gil. And Warrick was right: I do like them."

"I'm Marc. Do you want to play with me?" The boy slid from the bed and got down on hands and knees to rearrange the cars at the front of the line. "The cars are all leaving the city 'cause the giant bugs are attacking."

"Do I get to be the bugs or the cars?" Gris asked, smiling as he sat on the floor with his back against the bed.

Marc considered and grinned at him in a way Grissom found adorable. "You can be the bugs."

***