Fic: Life Changes 3/29

[jayceepat.livejournal.com]

TITLE: LIFE CHANGES
RATING: PG-13 this chapter/NC-17 eventually
PAIRINGS: Nick and others
WARNINGS: Violence and brief mention of rape
SUMMARY: A casual remark can change a life
SPOILERS: None
DISCLAIMER: If you don’t recognize it, it’s mine. Otherwise, everything belongs to Bruckheimer, CBS and Zuicker.

A/N: This is not a new story. When I first wrote it, I couldn't find a home for it. No site seemed to want it. It is Nick and Greg but it's also Nick's journey to get to Greg. Greg is mentioned throughout the story but does not come into it completely until Chapter 13. If you wait till then, you will miss a lot. I still think this is good and I'm posting it now because I want to give it another chance and to show off the spectacular banner Bflyw created.

Previous chapters can be found here



That night, Nick Stokes CSI Level 3 entered the Las Vegas Crime Lab. He was back in the groove and ready to maintain the façade he had carefully built over the years he had worked in Sin City. He played his role so well, greeting Judy with a big smile, saying hello to Archie and Bobby as he passed them in the hall on the way to the conference room to join his team and get his assignments for the night. He stuck his head in the DNA lab and playfully sang ‘OH Mandy’ to their tech. She responded with the special smile she only gave to him. Suddenly, Nick caught the exotic smell of what ever hair products Greg had used that evening.

“Are you still mad at me about the other night?” Greg was part serious and part smiling and Nick realized that Greg was worried that he had gone too far, but he also loved to pull his chain if he could.

“Nah, I just consider the source and try really hard to ignore the insanity that comes from the source.”

Warrick came up behind them, slid in between them and draped an arm around Greg's shoulders. He bumped Nick's shoulder with his but knowing Nick's reluctance for personal touching was careful not to get too close. As always, he mourned the loss of contact with his best friend. One of the after effects of the Walter Gordon case. Nick, who used to be Mr. Touchy-feely himself, didn't like casual contact anymore. He ruffled Greg's hair (which he knew he hated) while grinning his 'Cool Brown' smile at Nick. Nick told him to stop riling up the CSI 1. If they had to work with him that night, they didn’t want him to be worrying about whether his hair was just right. Greg was just a little huffy when he told them, he would not be stressing about his hair at a crime scene, which, of course, is when Grissom showed up and told them to get into the break room so he could give them their jobs for the evening. Nick was with Catherine on a nasty home invasion. Warrick and Sara were on a hit and run at a hotel down town. Nick realized that the hotel was the same one he had taken the red head to and was thrilled that he didn’t get that assignment. Greg, much to his pleasure, was with Grissom on a body dump at one of the local parks.

Nick was pleased to be with Catherine. It had taken time and work to get past the hard feelings from the ‘reverse forensics’ fiasco but they had finally gotten back to the easy, comfortable link they had been forging as a working team ever since she had stopped working so much with Grissom. Catherine had the perfect match of formal training and street instincts. He always felt that working with her or Warrick automatically gave them an edge on the bad guys. And it didn’t hurt that they were both so easy on the eyes that it gave him a safe place to look when the scene was too far over the edge. WHOA…where did that come from? Catherine was for sure easy on the eyes but when did he put Warrick in that equation?
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It really was a nasty case. The home owners had come home unexpectedly from a night out at the casino’s and the guys cleaning them out had been so angry, they had tied the husband to a chair and forced him to watch while they all had a go at his wife. If he tried to look away, they pistol whipped him and forced him to watch.

It was obvious the burglars had inside info. They knew the couple would be out, how long they were going to be out and they knew exactly how much time they had at the house without interference. The only thing the thugs didn’t know was that the couple was celebrating the wife’s pregnancy. She had just passed the first trimester, everything was going well and they were going to see the show at the Bellagio. She had become nauseated from the rich meal and they had to leave early.

A neighbor had gone outside to get something she left on her patio, heard some noise from their house and saw lights. She knew they were expecting to be out until quite late and called the police. When the responding officers entered the house, they found the husband still tied to the chair; his face had been so severely beaten it was hard to tell what he looked like. His wife was lying on the floor in a pool of blood moaning and incoherent. The blood was only partly from the rape; most of it was from the miscarriage she had suffered.

Nick and Cath were in the kitchen when the young cop came in to fill them in on the news from the neighbor and the hospital. They had completed their sketches and photos and were about to start the room by room collection process. When the officer said the wife had lost her child, both of them stiffened. It took a moment to realize the cop was asking if they wanted him to stay in the house or remain outside guarding the entrance. They sent him out and then instinctively moved closer together. No hugs, they were professionals but they put their hands on each other’s forearms and just held on for a moment while they mourned for the little life that would never be. Then they split up with Nick taking the kitchen and Cath starting in the library where the safe was standing open.

In the end, they found very few actual clues; no fingerprints at all but a couple of footprints that looked promising and a smear of blood in the downstairs bathroom sink so faint they could hardly see it without the ALS lamp. The guys had been real pro’s. They returned to the lab, tired, angry and aching in every joint. They had processed the house practically on their hands and knees trying to find something to lead them to the vermin who had ruined two lives and terminated an innocent third. Catherine had instigated the habit of all of them meeting at the end of the shift and exchanging info on their cases. They never spent more than 30 minutes at the most but it was going a long way to rebuilding the team feeling that had almost disappeared at one point. They had no or almost no evidence, the two victims were unable to talk and might never be able to help and they were trying to cope with the idea that this one might go in the ‘unsolved file’ when a comment from Greg pointed them in the right direction. He asked how they thought the robbers knew where the couple would be and how long they had for the heist.

Nick looked up at Catherine and saw the same flush of enthusiasm he was feeling. He told her he would head to the hospital to get their clothes; he knew Catherine would want to get home to Lindsey.

Cath said, “Oh no you don’t Stokes. Lindsey is going on a field trip today with her class so she spent the night with her best friend Amber. WE are going to the hospital and I’m driving”. They went out the door with new vigor and a determination to get justice for a small life that would never even start its journey on this earth.

Comments

[donnab810.livejournal.com]

Ahh another good chapter.... Aww he's been doing a lot of thinking eh? Good for him!