Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI
I'd like to thank Huntress79 for giving me this idea! As always I hope I did the story justice!
Memories
"There are my new sandals." Jackie said out loud to herself as she spotted a shoebox in the corner of her bedroom closet.
She was attempting to straighten up the closet a bit.
She had bought a new pair of sandals a week or so ago and they seemed to have gotten lost in the clutter. She bent over and picked up the shoebox.
"Or not." She said as she opened the box and found a bunch of pictures.
She glanced at some of the photos, they were of Nick and the team. Jackie smiled sadly as she saw Warrick in one of the pictures.
Suddenly the baby started to cry so she gently put the photos back in the shoebox and quickly went to the baby's nursery.
"Hi there peanut." Jackie said to the fussy infant as she bent over and picked her up.
Jackie took the baby to the kitchen and quickly made her bottle and after it was ready she took Karlie into the living room so she could sit on the couch and feed her. A few minutes later Nick walked through the door.
"Hi hon." She greeted.
"Hi." He said sounding tired.
He put his field kit down by the door, took off his shoes and then sat down next to Jackie.
"It sure is quiet in here." He observed.
"Yeah, my parents took the kids to a movie, so Karlie and I are just hanging out." She told him.
He held out his hands to take the baby. Jackie gently handed her over to him.
"How was work?" She asked.
"It was a tough day." He told her.
"I'm sorry, why's that?" She asked.
"The case was in Warrick's old neighborhood, it just brought back a lot of memories."
"I'm sorry Nicky." Jackie said as she ran her hand down his shoulder in a comforting motion.
"I still miss him, a lot." He told her.
"I know." She said with a small smile.
"Hey, you know, speaking of Warrick, I was cleaning out the closet earlier and I found a shoe box full of old pictures of you and the team."
"Really?"
"Yeah, hold on, I'll go get it." Jackie said as she got up off of the couch and walked up the stairs. She came back down a minute or so later with the shoe box in her hand. She sat down next to Nick and opened the box.
Jackie picked up a handful of pictures, the first picture she came too was of Nick and Sara at the lab. Nick was giving her bunny ears in the picture and in turn Sara was giving Nick a dirty look.
"What in the world?" Jackie asked.
Nick laughed.
"Hey you have to make your own fun sometimes, especially when you have to work a double and are exhausted." He said with a grin.
The next picture was of Nick and Warrick, both of them were in tuxedo's. Nick and Warrick both had big smiles on their faces. Jackie recognized the tux Nick had on, the picture had been taken the day she and Nick got married. Nick looked at the picture and smiled.
"That was the fifth best day of my life. The first four best days of my life is each of the kid's birthdays." He quickly explained so Jackie wouldn't beam him upside his head.
Jackie laughed.
"Relax, I knew that." She told him.
"Hon, I'm going to go lay her down, I'll be right back." Nick told her, nodding at the now sleeping infant in his arms.
He slowly stood up and then left the room.
He came back a couple minutes later with two wine glasses full of white wine.
"Thank you." She said with a smile as he handed her one of the glasses.
He smiled as he sat down next to her on the couch. She took a sip of the wine and then gently set the glass down on the end table. She laid her head back against his chest and then picked up the shoe box again. The next picture they came too was a picture of the whole team.
"What's up with Cath's hair?" Jackie asked with a laugh.
Catherine rarely had a hair out of place but in this picture her hair was sticking up all over the place.
"Well she didn't want to get in the picture because she said her hair was messed up but it wasn't. Warrick literally had to pick her and carry her over to where the rest of us were standing. Since she was being stubborn I purposely messed up her hair, and boy was she mad at me." He said with a laugh.
She laughed and shook her head.
"Where was this picture taken?" Jackie asked as she looked at the next photo. In the picture was Nick, Warrick, Greg, Hodges, Doc Robbins, Grissom, Henry, Super Dave, and Brass and they were all sitting around a table.
"That was at my bachelor party at Warrick's house, we were playing poker, do you know Warrick won about $30 of my money that night? I mean, it was my bachelor party, I think he should have let me win." Nick said with a fake scowl.
Jackie laughed.
She was just about to pick up another picture when the doorbell rang.
"The kiddos are home, we'll go through the rest of the pictures another time." Jackie said with a smile as she gathered up all the pictures and put them back in the shoe box before getting up to answer the door.
"Hi guys, did you have fun?" Jackie asked her kids once she had opened the door.
"Yeah." Jasmine and Houston said at the same time while Johnna excitedly shook her head in agreement.
"That's good. What do you tell grandma and grandpa?"
"Tank ooh." All of them said at once.
"You're welcome." Jackie's mom said with a smile.
"Would you guys like to stay for lunch?" Jackie asked her parents.
"No thanks, we have to go grocery shopping and also run a couple other errands." Her mom replied.
"Ok." Jackie said.
"Here, take this bucket of popcorn so I don't eat all of it will you? It's so addicting." Her dad said as he shoved the bucket at Jackie.
Jackie laughed and grabbed a piece and munched on it.
"Alright, we have to get going, we'll see you guys tomorrow." Her mom told her.
"Ok bye, thanks again for taking the kids, they seemed to really have fun." Jackie said.
"Yes thank you." Nick added.
"I'm glad they had fun, and you're welcome." Jackie's dad said as he and his wife walked out the door.
"I'll make lunch." Jackie offered.
"Ok sounds good." Nick said with a smile as he picked up the shoebox full of pictures so he could put it away.
When he put it back into the closet for safe keeping he smiled. He had really enjoyed looking at those old pictures. It was nice to be reminded of some of the many wonderful times that he and Warrick had shared together. While looking at those old photos with Jackie, for a split second, Nick had forgotten Warrick was gone.
Nick looked up at the ceiling in his closet, as if he could see his best friend's face.
"Thanks for all the wonderful memories bro." He whispered.
He smiled one last time and then he went back downstairs so he could have lunch with his family.
The End!