Altered State
Disclaimer: Not mine no money
Setting: This is au so that means that the timelines most likely don't add up and all that jazz.
Summary: what if Nick had run away from home after the last minute babysitter had left? What if he had somehow wound up in Las Vegas? What would have happened to him?
The boy was huddled in the darkest corner possible in his room when he heard the car door slam and his parents walking, and talking loudly and happily, up the walkway. He heard them come in and talk happily to the babysitter.
He didn't hear what was said, he couldn't understand how his parents didn't know that there was something wrong, that something bad had happened. He heard them talk to the baby sitter. He heard her say 'No trouble at all'. His parents Laughed and said 'We'll call you next time.'
"No, nonononononono" He had to tell them, he had to let them know that it wasn't okay. He couldn't make himself move from the corner. His mom came up the stairs and opened his bedroom door.
"Nicky what's wrong? Did you have a bad dream?"
She put her arms around him, he flinched slightly. His mom looked at him in confusion.
"She hurt me mom."
"Nicholas Stokes, don't spread lies about people, especially honest decent people."
"I'm not lying Mom, she hurt me."
"I don't see any bruises or scratches so how did she hurt you."
"It wasn't that kind of hurt. Mom she-Touched me- In a bad way."
She looked at her son in horror. He thought that she believed him, and then she slapped him.
"How dare you say such horrible things?" It was then that his father came in.
"What's going on here Jillian?"
"Your son is lying about the babysitter. He says that she molested him."
His father looked at him in grave disappointment.
"You know that it is a sin to bear false witness Nick. You should know better than that. You are grounded for the next week. And I expect you to apologise to her, by the day after tomorrow. You will have a lot of time to think on it, as you are not to leave your room until then. And she will be babysitting you next weekend so you had better hope that she forgives you your lying."
With that the two people that the boy thought loved him more than anything left the room, closing and locking the door behind them. He could not stay here, not if they were going to let it happen again. He didn't know what to do. He had to leave. He didn't want to leave his things behind, he didn't want to leave his home but what else could he do. He couldn't let that person hurt him again. His parents didn't believe him and were going to make him apologise to her for telling them the truth. He didn't have any uncles or aunts that he felt would stand up for him.
He had to leave. He had to leave Texas, but where would he go? The Dallas airport wasn't that far away, he could go there, he was young enough to still fly for free. He just had to tell them that he had been separated from his parents and they would let him on. But where would he go? He heard his parents complain about a place called sin city that they would never go there even if their lives depended on it. He could go there. What was its name again, Las Vegas maybe? He could get a ride there; he could live off of his savings. He was sure that he could make the coins in his piggy bank last a while. He could get a job there, he was good at cleaning, and he was very good with people.
Nick took a deep breath. He was never good at lying, not even to himself. He could get the stewardesses to let him onto the plane for free, he might even make it to Las Vegas, but he really didn't believe that his life would be that easy, he knew that if he did survive that it would be an uphill battle. Still he would rather that than have to live with what his parents were going to do to him, both knowingly and unknowingly. He would rather live on the streets than have to live with the knowledge that his parents were oblivious to what they were doing.
Decision made and with all the care that he could give Nick Stokes made his bed, packed a few meagre possessions into his backpack collected all of the money that he could. He looked at the pad of paper and briefly considered writing a note, and decided that his parents wouldn't care to read. Then he it made it look like he was in bed with some well placed pillows, and slipped out of the second story window down the trellis that the honeysuckles grew on. They wouldn't even miss him until the day after tomorrow. He should be in Vegas by then.
Yesterday had been a worrisome day for Jillian Stokes. She had brought Nick his meals and tried to cajole him to say something at least to let her know that he wasn't angry at her for slapping him. But he never budged, for all she knew he had stayed curled up in bed and not moved the entire day. He hadn't even eaten anything. She was becoming more and more distressed something that her husband didn't seem to share.
As far as he was concerned Nick was just pouting, he would snap out of it in a day or so. What neither one of them could understand was why Nick would lie about something like that. He was normally honest but why would he make up such a dreadful tale about such a delightful woman. The babysitter that the company had sent was perfect beyond what they had hoped for. Well mannered, poised and intelligent she had an incredible sense of humour. She was, to put it mildly, every inch a perfect lady. She was the perfect southern belle and had been the answer to their prayers.
She had even brushed off the news about what Nick had said with grace and good humour, it was rare to find someone who could let such a horrible slander of their person slide with nothing more than a 'boys will be boys'. At around noon Jillian went into the room of her youngest child and made to get him out of bed. Imagine her surprise when all that came out of the bed was a pile of pillows.
Two months later
One Gilbert Grissom, newly transferred to Las Vegas from San Francisco and just made csi level 3 not to mention still working on his PhD in entomology, was working on gathering trace evidence for a homicide that had taken place at the local airport.
Apparently someone had decided to give someone a swirly in the public restroom, which should be a class a felony in and of itself considering the state of the average public washroom, and had accidentally drowned him. The person had then anonymously called 911 and had taken off, literally, in a passenger plane, which explained the presence of the free range feds lurking around, unlovely and unwashed, in the equally unlovely and unwashed washroom. So Grissom was collecting the trace for the feds so that they could go and get someone and charge them with something as of yet to be determined.
Grissom had never been a huge fan of feds and having them lurking around his crime scene did not do anything to endear them to him any. He needed a break. Fortunately he was partnered with his boss, some guy named brass who had even less patience and fondness for the FBI than he did. He let him know that he was going to the cafeteria for some coffee for a few minutes, Brass grunted and waved him away. He was an odd one to figure out, Smart, but not in an academic way, more street smarts than anything.
Gil stopped pondering the complexities of his boss when he heard something that sounded like a sob coming from the restroom. He groaned inwardly. He had been told that the crime scene had been cleared.
"Hey brass" Brass looked at him. Gil cocked his head in the direction of the stall that he had heard the muffled sob come from. Brass, getting the message brought his gun out of its holster and made his way to the indicated stall.
"LVPD Come out with your hands up." There was a gasp and a thud as someone fell off of the toilet. Gil looked at Brass; he knew what the other had to be thinking. The cops had only looked under the doors instead of actually looking inside the stalls.
"Idiots" Grissom heard Brass mutter as the door was hesitantly opened. Brass held his gun steady as the person opened the door slowly, one could never be too careful. The door opened the rest of the way and a small boy, maybe only nine years old, hesitantly stepped forward with his hands up. Brass put the gun away as the kid came forward. He was filthy, his clothes were a mess and he had a small backpack that had clearly seen better days around his shoulders. He clearly had been on his own for a while.
Why, Gil had no idea, he should have been in a foster home at that age. Gil knelt down to make himself eye level with the boy. If he had been here when the death occurred they might have someone who could tell them if this really had been an accident or not.
"Hey little guy, what's your name?" The kid looked at him in surprise but quickly narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"My names Gilbert Grissom, what's yours?" The kid looked less suspicious but he was still upset about something.
"You do have a name don't you kid?" The kid turned startled towards brass. Jim sat down near the kid "My names Jim Brass. Its okay kid you can talk to us we're cops." Gil was about to insert that he was actually a crime scene investigator but Brass gave him his 'don't get technical now' look. The boy looked down at his feet and mumbled something incoherently.
"What was that kid?"
"I don't know."
"How come?"
"I just don't know. I don't think my parents cared about me very much."
Grissom winced when the kid said that. Why anyone would abandon a child was beyond him.
"What do your friends call you?"
"I don't have friends."
"Well what does everyone else call you?"
"Boy"
"Well we can't just call you boy now can we? How about I call you Daniel, would that be okay by you, you do look like a Daniel."
"Okay."
"Did you see what happened here Daniel?" As Brass questioned him Grissom finally realised what was bugging him about the boys' voice. It was like he was trying to cover up an accent and was purposely making his voice flat.
"I heard; I was in the stall going to the washroom when some guys came in. There was a lot of yelling, that's when I decided to keep quiet and out of sight."
"Smart kid"
"Then there was shoving and someone fell. I heard this guy yell 'you'll pay for that' I heard someone dragging something and the toilet being flushed, over and over again. Then I heard a door slam. I was too scared to move. I stayed right here, and then I heard several people come in and walk around the place and then you guys came in. I didn't know what was going on so I didn't move." Grissom noticed it there near the end of the story. The kid had a bit of a Texan twang, but what was a kid from Texas doing out here in sin city without his parents.
"Okay, Daniel, we believe you. I'm going to have my friend here, Gil, take you back to a hospital and have you looked over for injuries. We will also be getting a children's aid worker to see if we can't get you back home."
"I don't have a home."
"Why not"
"I don't have parents."
So either his parents were dead or he disowned them because of their treatment of him. Of course from the sound of it if they were dead they weren't that great while alive anyway. Grissom stood and took the little boys hand and lead him to his car. He hoped that things would turn out all right for the boy.
Nick, no his name was Daniel now, walked with the tall man called gruesome? No Grissom to the large car parked in front of the airport. He pretended to not be worried but he was scared, he was scared that Grissom was going to find out who he was and send him back home. The last two months had been rough but he didn't want to go back home. He wanted to stay here. He hadn't been hurt here yet. And people didn't yell at him if he got a b instead of an a. When they got into the car Nick, no Daniel, began to worry. What if the doctors found out who he was? What if he was sent back home? Would his parents listen to him or would they not care like they did last time. He began hyperventilating, he tried to stop it but he was unsuccessful.
Grissom noticed the Child's erratic breathing and became concerned.
"Are you okay Daniel?"
"I'll be fine, I just hate hospitals."
Grissom made an odd hmm noise. He then picked up the radio.
"Hey Brass, Daniel is having a slight panic attack. He apparently hates hospitals. Would it be all right if we got the children's aid worker to meet us at the lab and have Doc Robins look him over? Sure I'll tell her, find anything interesting in the stalls yet? Okay I'll see you at the lab." Grissom put the radio back in its cradle and looked over at the boy. He was still breathing erratically. So what was a Texas boy with a fear of hospitals and no family that he'd admit to doing in Las Vegas in the airport men's room hiding in a stall and covering up his accent?
"So why are you covering your accent Daniel. You know that there are a lot worse accents than a Texas accent right?" Gil looked over at the boy. He had gone white, even with all of the layers of grime on the boys' face Grissom could see that it had completely drained of colour. "So what are you doing so far from home?"
"I don't have a home."
Well at least he had stopped trying to hide his accent. Now what to do about the sudden hostility that he could feel coming off the kid.
"Everyone has a home. But what happened at yours, why aren't you at your home with your mother and father?"
"They didn't care about me." Past tense, maybe his family really was dead.
"What makes you say that?"
"Some bad things happened and they didn't care."
"What kind of bad things?"
"The bad kind"
"There are a lot of bad things, could you be more specific?"
"Someone hurt me. And they didn't care."
"How did they hurt you?"
"They touched me in a bad way."
"And your parents didn't care?"
"No"
"Did they know?"
"I told them. They didn't care."
"Are they still alive?"
"I don't care." So not a yes or a no, the kid definitely did not want to go back.
"This person who hurt you is he or she still alive?"
"Probably"
"Do you know their name?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell me?"
"No"
"Can't or won't"
"Both" Not a good sign, the boy was clamming up.
"It's okay I just want to see if this person has a file."
"File?"
"If this person has been arrested before and for what"
"Anne Cuthbert"
A woman molesting a child? That was unusual; it did happen but not often.
"When you told your parents that this Anne had hurt you what did they do?"
"Mom slapped me and Dad told me to stop lying. They said that I had to apologise to her and that she'd be babysitting me again. "
Grissom was beginning to hope that the boy's parents were dead. If they were alive Gil didn't know if he'd be able to let him go back to that. He swore under his breath to himself. He just did not understand some people. If a child says that someone molested them you did not automatically discount what they told you.
Christ, it was people like that that allowed their children to be harmed by others while they turned a blind eye and then acted surprised when their child wound up dead or worse because of it and then blamed it all on shoddy police work. Then they went and formed some awareness group dedicated to bringing the horror of such things to light. He just did not get some people.
As far as he was concerned willingly oblivious parents were as bad as the bastards that molested children, sure they didn't hurt their child but they had allowed some monster to do just that out of their own stupidity. He pulled into the labs parking lot and helped the boy get out of the car. He escorted the boy to the lobby where he saw the children's welfare worker standing with a file in her hands. She smiled at the boy and Grissom felt the child's grip on his hand tighten.
"Hello I am Irene; I will be accompanying you to your exam to ensure that your rights are respected." Daniel buried his face against Grissom's side. Irene looked at Grissom who could only shrug in explanation. He mouthed the word later to her and she nodded in understanding. They made their way to the morgue where Doc Robins was working. He had been a medical doctor before but now he was a coroner. When they arrived at the morgue he was just finishing cleaning the room and making it passable for a medical examination of a live human. Grissom felt Daniel peek out at the room as they were entering. He tentatively took a few steps forward. Doc Robins smiled at him encouragingly. When the night corner had lead the boy behind the screen he turned to the case worker.
"I couldn't get a lot out of him. I still have no idea if his parents are alive or not but I did find out why he left home. His last minute babysitter, Anne Cuthbert, molested him and when he told his parents his mother slapped him and his father told him to quite lying. They even said that they were going to get her to baby sit him again."
"Geeze, that would explain his hesitancy to go anywhere with me. It might be a good idea if we got one of the men to work this case."
"I don't know, it sounds like he is not too thrilled with either one of his parents at the moment."
"Are you going to be looking into this Anne Cuthbert's history?"
"As soon as I find out what's going to happen to him."
"That might be problematic."
"Yeah considering that he won't give us his name, I might be able to get his fingerprints from him, maybe his dental records. I do know that he's from somewhere in Texas but that's it."
They waited in silence for the good doctor to finish his exam.
Nick, no his name was Daniel now, was fascinated by the room that the man Grissom had lead him to. He was less than thrilled by the lady who had met them in the lobby. She was tall and bony with brown hair like the babysitter. She even had the same eye colour. They were different people but she looked too much like her for him to feel comfortable around her. The other guy, Doc Robins was who he introduced himself as, was examining him with a stethoscope. It was cold and it felt weird on his back. Eventually the doctor made a satisfied hm noise in his throat.
"Well young man, you are filthy and in desperate need of a decent meal but otherwise completely healthy. Jump down, that's a good boy." The doctor rumpled his hair as he hobbled over to a nearby drawer. He pulled out something in a wrapper. "Don't tell Gil or Brass this but I do keep my own private stash for just such an emergency." He handed a couple of suckers to Daniel. Daniel smiled and hugged the older man. He had never been allowed sweets before. He held the doctors hand as they made their way to the other side of the partition. Daniel was too caught up in enjoying his sucker to notice when the Doctor handed him to the aid worker. He did look up when he felt someone take his hand though.
Grissom had always known that humans, especially human children, could get loud when upset, but it was more than just the sheer volume that caught his attention when the boy Daniel dropped his sucker on the floor and began screaming. It was the desperate sound in his voice, like he was trapped and was afraid for his life.
Grissom had never considered himself to be a very parental type of person. To be honest he was sure that he would never be a father because he was so incapable of connecting emotionally with others. Still when he heard the child's scream that didn't stop him from going straight to the child and holding him, trying desperately to calm him down. He couldn't help feeling somewhat pleased when the child curled up into his arms and grabbed onto his shirt front.
He had to stop this; he had no room for the responsibility of a child in his life. Just as he resolved that he would only escort the boy over to the children's aid society and then be done with it the aid worker apparently decided something else.
"It might be a good idea if you were to keep him for a little while. Obviously he can not stand to be around me. I will find another worker that he might respond to better to take over."
She and Doc Robins walked out the door in order to discuss his findings with her. As curious as he was to know what Albert had found he found himself placing the still trembling child in his arms at a higher priority. He had no clue what he was doing but since the child appeared to be calming down somewhat he figured that whatever he was doing it was the right thing to do. He continued to hold the child as he stood up and made his way to his office. What was he going to do with him?
Daniel woke up someplace warm and soft. He snuggled deeper into the warmth. His bed had never felt this comfortable. He heard a steady rhythmic thumping noise and something that sounded like a chuckle. He warily opened one eye and noticed that he was sitting on someone's lap.
The last thing he remembered was being in that strange room with the nice doctor who gave him suckers and then he remembered the bony lady that looked like his babysitter. So who was he sitting on? They felt comfortable. They didn't smell though. That was odd, his dad had always smelled strongly of aftershave, and his mom always wore Chanel, but this person didn't smell. It must be a man though, because he was fairly certain that he was leaning on the person's chest but there were no rounded curves like his mom had.
He opened his other eye. Yup he was sitting on a man's lap and said man was looking at something on the desk. It looked like a file folder. He turned his head around to get a better look but the man, Grissom was his name, closed the file.
"Glad to see that you're awake Daniel."
"Morning"
"Actually it's still evening. You had quite a fright back there."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt the ladies feelings."
"Her name is Irene and all things considered you have nothing to be sorry for."
"You don't smell"
"Pardon"
"You don't smell. My dad used to wear aftershave and mom always had perfume, but you don't smell."
"No, I suppose not. I don't wear anything scented because it interferes with smell, and it is very important that I can use all of my senses in this job."
"What is your job?"
"I am a crime scene investigator. I look for evidence that will explain what happened at a crime scene and who might have done what. It's like solving a giant puzzle."
"Really? Sounds cool, so you smell things for evidence?"
"Sometimes, sometimes I taste them, mostly I just look and touch and listen."
"Listen?"
"Yeah, on a recording it's possible to hear more than just the voice of the person speaking."
"Cool, so what are you reading?"
"An old case file. It's maybe a couple of years old. Someone had been accused of hurting a child, but this person had gotten away with it because of a technicality. She's still at large and her where abouts are unknown. I tried to find your fingerprints in the database but it came up empty and you have just recently lost quite a few baby teeth so your dental records are not going to be much help. I was hoping that you could tell me your name."
"No." Daniel buried his face in the man's shirt "I don't want to go back."
"But we can't do anything until we find out if your parents are alive or not."
"They're not" At least as far as Daniel was concerned they weren't. Nick may have had parents but he wasn't Nick anymore. He was Daniel and he had no parents.
"Okay then, do you have any family or guardians that we can contact?"
"No."
"All right, I really should stand up now. My legs are falling asleep."
"Sorry." Daniel got up off of the man's lap and wandered around the office. There were bugs everywhere. He stopped by a large aquarium that held what looked like a giant spider.
"Do you like bugs Daniel?"
"Sometimes, depends on if they hurt or not."
"I suppose that would make a big difference. I'm working on a doctorate in entomology."
"What's entomology?"
"It's the study of 'bugs' and other 'creepy crawlies'."
"So you're goona be a bug doctor?"
"Yeah I guess that's one way of putting it."
"Cool. I used to watch bugs and birds in the garden back home for hours but mom told me that it was a waste of time and that bugs were disgusting so I stopped."
"Well did you learn anything from watching them?"
"Some things yeah"
"Then it wasn't a waste of time." Daniel smiled a bit at that.
"What's that? It looks like a big spider?"
"Well that's because it is a big spider, it is a rose haired tarantula. Would you like to hold her?"
"Aren't spiders poisonous?"
"Not all of them. You just have to know how to handle them." Grissom opened the aquarium and reached in for the large spider. It walked onto his hand and proceeded up his forearm. He withdrew his hand gently and held it out for Daniel to look at. He cautiously reached out and gently stroked the barbed fur on its back.
"Whoa cool"
"All you have to do is be as non-threatening as possible, move slowly and carefully don't do anything sudden and it won't be afraid of you. That's the main reason that a spider or any wild animal will attack a human, they feel scared. Either that or else they're hungry."
The Tarantula moved onto Grissom's hand again and Grissom put it back into its habitat. He didn't think that it would be a good idea to try getting the boy to hold the tarantula right away. Besides child services would be along soon and would place him in a foster home, hopefully a good one. He knew that he wasn't supposed to care about what happened to someone after they left the crime lab but he couldn't help but care about this boy. Like all children He needed someone to care about him, but unlike most children he had suffered a betrayal from his parents. That was not what parents were supposed to do. A parent's job description was short and to the point; they provide unconditional love and support for their offspring. It was difficult as hell to do sometimes but nothing worthwhile was ever easy.
Grissom smiled to himself, he had just made an argument that put this whole situation into perspective. He may not believe that he had room for more responsibility in his life but he could make room for it. He could not help the thousands of children out there that needed a parent, but he could help this child. Thanks to his impending doctorate which he had almost earned he could earn a decent enough living to look after a child's needs, he would have to do extra work though, some lectures and research as well as other things. He was also going to be made supervisor of nightshift, even though brass was still working there, which would also help financially. He would be able to look after a child. He would need some help from his mom, he didn't really know what being a single parent involved or what dads normally did with their sons but she'd be able to help him. He looked at the clock; shift was over for the night. He took Daniel's hand and led him to his car parked out front. He had an appointment with children's aid.
"Are you sure about this Mr. Grissom? It is unusual for a single adult to adopt a child, but not unheard of."
"Yes I am positive."
"I have to warn you though that the adoption process is very long, it could be a while before you will be allowed to officially adopt him."
"Yes I know"
"You will also be visited by social workers a great deal; they will want to make sure that the home atmosphere is appropriate and healthy for a youngster."
"Yes I know all of this already; I do work in law enforcement."
"Very well, if you are certain"
"Yes I am certain."
"May I ask why?"
"Because I know that I can take care of him, and teach him. I know that it won't be easy but I want to be his dad."
"All right, I suppose that it is appropriate since you are the only one that he has trusted enough to feel safe with so far. I suppose we should put Daniel Grissom down on the documents, since he won't tell us his name."
"I'd be fine with that if he is"
"I'm fine with it; does that mean that you're my dad now?"
"Unofficially yes"
"Can I call you dad?"
"Of course."
So what do you think? If i continue this story the other chapters will be shorter. If i do continue this story When should Nicks parents find out about him? how will they react?