Here's another story of mine, settled just a few weeks after 'Fallout'. This one concentrates a little more on Nick than usual but don't worry, there's still enough of Greg! Or can there ever be? :)

I hope you'll like it!

Big Love,

pikapikatchu


It was a big, luxurious house somewhere in Henderson. Nick walked through a corridor, finding his way to the crime scene.

"Ma'am, do you know about any enemies?" Greg was sitting at the kitchen table, talking to the decease's wife.

"No. He was such a nice man, everybody loved him. He..." the wife replied crying.

Nick watched Greg as he gently put his hand on the woman's arm, comforting her. He silently greeted his friend as he walked past him. He made his way into the bedroom, where the husband was lying in a pool of his own blood. He had been stabbed. The murderer then tried to cut up the body and failed. It looked like he was interrupted – probably by the wife coming home. Nick greeted Russell and David and proceeded to walk straight up to the latter. "Hey. Time of death?"

"Around midnight." David looked a bit stressed out.

"Anything else?"
"I just got here, I need more time until I can tell you anything else."

"Alright," Nick said as he walked over to Russell. "Did you find anything useful?"

"Well, I..." Russell was interrupted by noise coming out of the kitchen. "Did you hear that?"

Russell and Nick walked over there to check it out.


When the two CSIs walked in, they found Greg trying to calm down the wife. A man they didn't know was standing next to them, too.

"Get him out of here!" she yelled furiously.

"Mrs. Douglas, please calm down. I'll..." Greg stopped talking as Mrs. Douglas tried to attack the stranger. He had to use a lot of strength to hold her back.

"I just wanted to see him!" the man yelled, not helping the situation at all.

"Sir, please! Go down the corridor in the living room, I'll be with you in a minute..." Greg tried anything he could to diffuse the situation, but it didn't help at all.

"No way is he staying! I want him out of my home!" She kicked and yelled.

"Hey, what's going on?" Nick walked over, calming her down a bit. "Mrs. Douglas, we'll escort him out, alright?"

While Nick was talking to her, the stranger pulled out a gun, pointing it at the woman.

"Gun!" Russell yelled, quickly drawing his. He shot at the man, but it was already too late. He had fired his gun.


Greg sat in the hospital waiting room, nervously tapping his right foot up and down. He read every magazine the waiting room had to offer as he waited what felt like an eternity. He jumped off his seat as she saw Nick walking out of the examination room. "Finally! How are you?"

"I'll be fine," Nick replied in a quiet voice. He'd been shot in the arm as he stood in front of Mrs. Douglas, protecting her from the shooting, but he only got winged. It was a harmless graze wound. His left arm was in a sling, his right hand was carrying the painkillers the doctor prescribed him. "...But I'm hungry."

Greg smiled at him. "You did good today."

"Yeah but why do the good deeds always hurt like hell?"

"Come on, you probably saved that woman's life. Without the heroic scratch on your arm it wouldn't be half as courageous. And not as good a pickup line," he replied jokingly.

"Anything from the shooter?"

"Still in surgery. Russell's looking into his files as we speak."


A week later, Nick and Greg were out at another crime scene. They were investigating a supermarket robbery as Greg noticed someone standing outside. "Don't we know her from somewhere?" he said to his friend as he pointed to Mrs. Douglas, looking through the window.

Nick walked out to greet her. "Mrs. Douglas, what are you doing here?" he asked smiling.

"Mr. Stokes, I haven't heard from you since..." She looked at his wounded arm. "How are you?"

"Fine. How are you holding up?"

She nodded with a sad look. "There's always something good coming from tragedy." Mrs. Douglas an attractive woman in her late 50ies. She had brown hair with a golden glow, ending at her shoulder blades. Her brown eyes always looked rather seductive, as well as her full lips. She was that kind of woman you would call a cougar. But despite this confident, sensual demeanor, there was something fragile about her, and it wasn't only her petite figure.

Nick nodded without knowing what she meant. "Well, it was nice seeing you again. Take care." As he tried to walk away, she grabbed his jacket.

"Mr. Stokes." She took a note out of her purse. "I want you to have this." She put it in his hand and walked away.

Walking back inside the supermarket, he had a strange look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Greg asked.

"Does this look like a phone number to you?"

Greg nodded. "Looks like it. Why?"

"Because Mrs. Douglas just gave it to me."

"Oooh, someone made a good impression," Greg teased.


Over the next few days, Nick thought he'd lost his mind. He thought he'd seen Mrs. Douglas on several occasions somewhere in the crowds he passed by. "At least three times. Yeah. She was just there, sometimes even watching me."

"Nick, I think you should take it easy with the pain killers. They seem to be getting to your head," Greg said worried as the two sat down in the break room.

"I'm not taking any. I know it sounds crazy, but I'm pretty sure it was her."

" 'Pretty' sure?"

"There's a lot of women looking like her, I can't be absolutely sure. I never talked to her when I saw her."

"So what if it was her? It's a strange coincidence."

Nick nodded thoughtful. He got startled by the ring of his cell phone. "Stokes? Oh, uh... Hi. No. No, I don't think that's a... Yes, I can't I... Mhm... But... Thanks for your call... Bye." He hung up, giving Greg a strange look. "That was her."

"...What?"

"She just called me and asked me out for dinner."

"So, what did you say?"

Charlotte Knotts, the new ballistics tech, walked in with a big smile. "We all could come with you!"

Greg laughed. "Yeah, wouldn't that be fun, Nick?"

With her big smile only getting bigger, Charlotte sat down at the table closely to Greg. She was a beautiful woman in her late 30ies, 5'8'' tall, shoulder length blonde hair, gorgeous hazel eyes, slender, but rather muscular built and a cute smile. She knew she was beautiful and wasn't too shy to show off her good looks, either.

"No, Charlotte, you don't get it. She's a victim's widow. It would be highly inappropriate to go out with her."

"Yeah well, then..." She turned to face Greg. "Just you and me, huh?"

Greg laughed, not getting the hint. "It just wouldn't be the same without Nick and the crazy widow."

Disappointed by the rejection, Charlotte got off her seat to fix herself a cup of coffee.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Nick asked rather desperate.

"Nothing. You told her you didn't want to go on a date and that's it. Why are you so worried about this?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, I just have a bad feeling about it."

"Don't worry. She's probably just feeling lonely and thought she could try her luck. I'm sure you won't be hearing from her again."