For a few seconds, when she first emerges from sleep, she can't remember if it's true. Or if it's a dream, a fantasy. This happens often, whenever she's feeling that she doesn't deserve this life that she has. This wonderful freedom she's found.

She remembers it's true, of course, when she detects the weight of his arm holding her to him possessively. She relaxes and luxuriates in the comfort of his embrace. In this wonderful freedom she has found.

"Cath. Are you feeling okay, do you need to throw up honey?"

"You're trying to sweet talk me again Mr Grissom." she turned in his arms to steal her first glance of the day into his magnificent eyes.

"If we'd stopped at talking we wouldn't be here would we? We would be alone." Grissom whispers this in his wives ear as he moves to stroke her swollen belly, as he silently wishes his soon to be born child good morning.

"Yeah. When you do that it makes Gil jnr go crazy, I think he's gonna be an athlete - soccer from the way he kicks."

"'Gil jnr', we don't know if our childs a boy. Or did you make them tell you last time?"

"No, this is just instinct. No woman would treat me like this, Linds never did, therefore this is your son dancing in there." She's smiling as she says this, content never to move from this cocoon of love and early morning banter. She could hide from the world forever with Gil.

"Okay, I have to get up Cath. Linds has been moving about out there for a while. I need to go limit the damage. You heard what she was talking about last night, she's decorating the house with christmas lights in honour of dinner tonight. Thats not a tradition on the 4th of July in the Willows house is it?"

"No, but we could make it a tradition in the Grissom house. Honey she's just happy and wants to make tonight special. Plus she is so excited that Warwick is coming over. Major crush."

"Maybe I should call him and tell him I've locked my girls up in a tower and that he should go hussle elsewhere." He says this as they slip into their morning routine, the one they follow if Grissom has had a night off and they can wake up together. Catherine lies facing the ceiling, while Grissom lays his head on her belly to try to keep his new family safe in his protective embrace. He can't stop staring at his beautiful new wife, swollen with his child and content in his arms.

"What's Warrick done to annoy you this time, I thought you were depending on him, with me out of the office to have Jnr?"

"Mmm. I was, but thanks to my trusted snitch, I find out he's been annoying my wife for help on a case he couldn't crack."

"Busted. It was such a cool case. It's not often you need to analyse the stomach lining of a dove, and two white rabbits to crack a case. Magicians rule!"

"Quite. Anyway sweetie I have to get up, to be honest I'm taking our first family fourth of July celebration as seriously as Linds and there is much womanly kitchen work waiting for me." The quip earned him a swift nip in the side, but her gentle laughter reassured him that all was well, for now.

"I don't need a fancy dinner. A kilo of macadamia nuts and I'm happy!"

"Okay, honey I wish you would switch to a more affordable craving. Dry bread for example.Anyway, we have guests coming, Linds and I are out to impress them, so I need to go get ready."

"Can you stay for a minute, I need to talk. Last night I couldn't sleep again and I got to thinking, and I wanted to talk to you about it and you have to come up here cause I want to look in your eyes when I say it."

"Is everything okay Cath, that sounds serious." He kisses her belly before repositioning himself on the pillow next to his wife, anxious to hear what she has to say. Catherine pulls him close and lays her head on his chest so that she can hear his heart beating beneath her.

"You've made me so happy Gil, and my daughter so happy, and this new baby we are about to have - I know that for the rest of my life I you will make our family happy. Anyway I was thinking about 4th of July I spent a few years ago, the year before Linds was born. I was with Eddie at the house of these guys that he was hanging out with. We were all getting high, drinking champagne and congratulating ourselves on the fabulous life we were living. You know, we thought we were so cool, so independent. We had not real ties, we could jump on a plane for a weekend trip to Haiwai if we chose to. We got high and lived our lives on our terms. And, Gil, I have to say that I believed that for a while, I really did." He has his hands on her back, chronicalling the curve of her spine, silently reassuring her that she can tell him anything. "And then Lindsey happened, and I changed. I had this gorgeous little baby that needed me to get my life together so she could live. So I did, I did it on my own - but that was okay. I didn't mind going it alone, not for my baby. But Eddie tried so hard to be a good dad that I took him back and our years together continued. I was remembering one of our last Independence Days together, he promised us a family day but we didn't see him. I'd never felt so alone as I did that day, that's when I finally decided to leave him for good. So my baby and I were free, once again I was free. I had my daughter, my job, and then as a surprise I get you - my sweet, sweet man." She presses tiny kisses to his chest to remind him that she loves him.

"And I take away your independence again?"

"No, how can you think. Never think that. You gave me my indepence, you let me be me. For the first time in my life I know who I am, who I love and who loves me. I know my place in the world because of you Gil. I've never had so many ties and responsibilities in my life at the one time, and I've never been so happy, so free. I'm a wife, I'm a mom, about to be a mom all over again, I'm my job, and all of these people make up me. You let me be me, and you let me know I'm okay everytime you tell me you love me and you allow me to say I love you. It's can be that simple, that's what came to me last night. That loving someone, and being loved back, that loving you and being loved back gave me my indepedence. Gave me the freedom to be Catherine, and not to be ashamed of who Catherine is."

"You always do this much thinking at night sweetheart? I like it, I like what you think, I like that I have an independent woman that chooses to make her life with me. I like it so much that I'm afraid I'll never be able to leave this bed. I want to commit every part of this day to memory, I want our family to only ever build happy memories for you Catherine."

"I know, it will Gil. You do every day." She pulls him closer to her once more reveling in the wonderful freedom they have found.

THE END