Title: Nick and Sara: A Family Story
Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing
Rating: Teen
Authors Notes: Thanks to my beta readers Ashley and Ciara.
Nick smiled to himself thinking about Greg Sanders being someone's father as he headed home after helping Greg assemble nursery furniture for the baby that was due to arrive in a few weeks. Somehow it just did not fit the image of the guy he knew who had danced around the lab in a showgirl's headdress after processing it for hairs and fibers. This must be how older siblings feel about seeing their younger siblings grow up.
To an outsider or someone with more perspective, Nick knew that there was nothing odd about Greg and his wife Amy, who were professionals in their mid 30s and had been married for a couple of years starting a family. However, in a weird way, as much as Greg and now Amy were friends of Nick and his wife Sara, Greg had been kind of like their first child, in that he helped convince Sara that she did have maternal instincts.
Both Nick and Sara had helped train Greg to leave the lab and be a CSI. In spite of a few missteps, Greg was a quick learner and a talented scientist. Sara took particular pride in seeing him flourish. Nick could still remember the shocked and stunned look on Sara's face when Warrick made a joke about Sara's maternal pride in Greg.
What Warrick didn't know was that Nick and Sara were dating, casually at that time, but trying to decide if the relationship had long-term potential. They didn't want to let their co-workers (and some of their closest friends) in on their relationship if it wasn't going to go anywhere. One of stumbling blocks was the idea of marriage and children. Both, but especially parenthood, terrified Sara because of her background. She didn't think she was naturally maternal and it scared her.
The time that Greg was hurt by the group of teenagers out savagely beating up tourists held both very bad and very good memories for Nick. Bad because of what happened to Greg and the ugliness it revealed, but good because it allowed Sara to sort through some of her fears. She began to see that she could be protective of and nurturing to those she loved.
Of course things didn't go as smoothly as Nick might have hoped on the starting a family front. Since Sara was almost thirty-seven when they got married, they decided to start trying right away. Nick remembered how naive he had been then. He assumed Sara would stop taking the pill and in a few months, she would be pregnant. After all his mother had been almost forty when he was born. After six months of trying, they sought out advice from a specialist who was more that willing to do all sort of high tech procedures to help them conceive, but didn't really identify any problems other than the fact that Sara didn't necessarily produce viable eggs every month mostly likely due to age. Although he never admitted it to anyone, Nick spent some time kicking himself that he hadn't made a move to date Sara earlier. If he had, they might have gotten an earlier start.
Nick remembered making the decision to become foster parents and in the meantime let nature take its course. They both knew they wanted a baby that they could eventually adopt. Sara was the first one to suggest also taking in an older child who might not be available for or interested in being adopted, but need a permanent home. She told Nick that even if she had bonded with one family she wasn't sure she would have agreed to an adoption, but would have loved a family that considered her "theirs" even after she turned 18. Nick had never thought about the fact that Sara didn't have any parent like figures to call for advice or send her cookies her first year in college. That sold him on giving a home to an older child also. Nature never did do anything, but they had the family they wanted.
Lisa, now two, was their baby. The woman who gave birth to her was awaiting trial on manslaughter charges when Lisa was born. That woman named her, but Sara gave her first bottle and Nick changed her first diaper. Nick remembered how much that scared him even though he had been changing his nieces and nephews diapers since he was a teenager.
Lacey was fourteen. Nick and Sara brought her home from a crime scene. Her parents were both killed in a car jacking gone bad when she was eleven. Sara went with Lacey to the hospital, where a DCFS worker was supposed to meet them, because she needed to collect trace evidence from her parents. No caseworker showed up. Sara found out Lacey's only family was several great-aunts living in nursing homes. She found out that Lacey loved science. After the doctors confirmed that Lacey was fine, Sara called DCFS once more and informed them that she and her husband were licensed foster parents, had space, and she was taking Lacey home because had been through enough for one night. Almost three years later, she was still there. To make her great-aunts (who she did visit and always had) happy, they moved slowly on the adoption front. However, everyone knew Lacey wasn't going anywhere until she went to college.
Mike was fifteen. He came to live with Nick and Sara a little less than a year ago when his long-term foster parents had to relocate out of state for work. Since, he had lived not far from the Stokes house he was able to remain in the same school and made the transition with little problem. While Nick adored his daughters, he had to admit that he was enjoying having a sports loving, video game playing son. Mike tended to make sense to him, while his girls were sometimes a mystery, even after having grown up with five sisters.