Disclaimer: Tis wishful thinking that I own the characters or actors of CBS's CSI. But alas, I do not. Just have to go on fanfic fantasies to please my bleeding heart ;).
Warning: The first chapter is a very strong T for child abuse implications.
Author Note: Okay, your probably thinking…what the hell? After reading that summery but bare with me! This is my first CSI story, and I thought I'd do something a bit different then your traditional drama fanfic that I see on here, nothing wrong with them of course. I will admit this probably might be a snickers fanfic, mostly hinted moments. Honestly I have no idea going to let the story write itself lol.
Thanks go out to my girl Boscogirl (Jessie) for listening and reading this story for me. My muse died but some how you always spark it. ;) As to those who listen to me at Talk: CSI FanForum, complaining about every single detail, much appreciated. You guys ROCK!
Now enough of my inconsistent babbling, onto the story, enjoy!
The Shadows that Echo
Chapter 1
The click of handcuffs never sounded so loud to the CSI sitting in the interrogation room. His body began pounding out adrenaline, making his heart skip faster and beat in a rhythmic fashion within his eardrums. Fist clenching in order to keep himself secured to reality. He didn't want to lose control of his emotions that were ready to boil over at any minute and make Pompeii look like a little teapot steaming.
Every instinct was telling Nick Stokes to spring from his chair and pound the living shit out of the man who called himself a human being. But as much as he desired it, nothing would change the fact of their case. You can't change the past no matter how much you wished and prayed for it.
Finding himself glaring up at the man as he was led away by Detective Brass, Nick felt no satisfaction or a sense of closure. The man had no remorse, no guilt, nothing was evident on the arrested man's face. He didn't care what he had done, and pretty much figured why should anyone else be bothered that he had.
The door slammed shut and Nick took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Reopening them he studied the name in front of him for what felt like an eternity until the person next to him made Nick realize he wasn't alone on this.
Sara Sidle sat next to him. Both hadn't moved since the accused was taken into custody. Neither were ready to get up. For her she didn't want to see the man's face until court date. Not only that, she would have had to been an utter dense fool not to have realized Nick had taken this case very personally.
Though you are told constantly not to, it does happen more frequent then not. That was part of being a human being and speaking for the dead who had moved on from this world. The reasoning behind not wanting you to get attached, your judgment gets clouded. Mistakes start to begin and even though you solved a case a little piece of you goes into that folder as you close it. Keep doing the job like that and slowly it eats away at you till there's nothing left.
Sara almost winced physically; she had to lay off that kind of thinking. It truly got you nowhere but depressed. Looking over at Nick, she saw him staring intently at the victim's name. Letting out a forced cough hoping it would break his concentration on it. It had, for he glanced over at her with almost confusion in his eyes as though, for a split second, he had no idea where he was sitting.
"If you want to talk about it…." wetting her lips and leaving her sentence hanging. She was never good at things such as this. Sarah had time opening up herself, so asking that of somebody else to do the same was rather difficult for her.
"No, I don't think talking would help right now, but thanks."
Nick got up from the table but turned around. "You coming?" He watched as Sarah collected her belongings to follow him. As they made their way out to the parking lot to the dark car waiting for them, Nick's mind was all over the place. He knew talking wouldn't help him right now. Something like this had to be battled out in his own conscious thoughts so everything could come clear for him, to make sense of it all and to put it into words.
Though there was a big part of Nick Stokes that wanted nothing more then to confide to Sarah Sidle. She had this way of looking at him that really didn't compare to anybody else. It was as though she looked past his flesh and bones and stared right into his very soul.
Out of all his colleagues he felt at times he connected with her on a much deeper level. Not that he didn't think the world of Warrick, for all his the friends in his life that had come and gone he truly was a brother to him. Greg, Greggo, he was a little brother that Nick always felt he had to watch out for make sure Greg never got too far over his head. Then Catherine, well she was like a mother to him most of the time. Then Grissom, he still idolized him and still hoping on hope that he'd be just as good as him some day. God knew he had plenty of people to confide to. Just tonight he wanted to be alone.
Thus it was how Nick had ended up where he was at the moment. Driving ridiculously fast up into the mountains near Lake Mead. It was the one place he could go and feel at peace. No city lights to distract you from the beauty of Mother Nature and not to mention how clear the stars became when you got far enough away. It was as though he could pretend he was back in his home state of Texas and he was a kid again. With no worries only that of how he was going to fit in a full day of playing outside before nightfall fell upon the land.
He eased up on the gas knowing the roads were slick from a previous rainfall, and he didn't need to add bodily harm to the list, he had enough to think about. As he came around another turn his mind once again started to return to the young man Sara and he had found.
Nick unconsciously gripped the steering wheel tighter as the image of the naked boy's body sprawled out in the desert entered his mind. His foot pressed hard once more again on the gas pedal, pushing the engine of the vehicle once again. But a sudden blaring of a horn made him come out of his daze and Nick realized when he had taken the turn to sharply he had put his car on the other side of the road. Getting quickly back on his side just as the other car passed him, Nick knew the other driver of the vehicle was probably cursing him in every way possible. Taking that as a sure sign that his focus was not on driving but on other things, the next viewpoint on the side of the road, he pulled off and sat there.
Brandon Miller. That was the name that had been plaguing Nick for what felt like an eternity but was only for a few days. When they had found the young child, he had been without his clothes and sexually abused in every sense of the word. The bruise marks that littered the kid's body had made Nick want to punch something right at that moment, particularly the one who had done this. To have a child's last thoughts are of fear and to be suffering from physical abuse, it was enough to make Nick, or anyone for that matter, sick. Getting the flash of the young innocent soul that had left this world in his mind once more, Nick got out of his vehicle.
What had made the case twisted and made him think the world could be possibly be ending in the near future was that the father had been the one that had done these horrendous crimes. To his own flesh and blood he had done this. A parent's job was to protect his or her own at all costs, and teach them to be a good grounded morally standard human being. Nick just couldn't understand or begin to comprehend what it would take to do that to a child, especially if it was his. He'd rather die a million painful deaths, than ever bestow that onto his own.
For Nick Stokes and Sara Sidle, it didn't take them long to find out what had gone so terribly wrong to Brandon Miller. The mother had died of lung cancer and had been really nothing but a town drunk. But she had been the one that taken the hits, and when that punching bag died, he moved onto the next target, his son.
Taking a deep breath, and letting it out Nick had to let this go no matter how painful it might be. He didn't know Brandon, but still didn't make it any easier. 'No' he demanded within himself. They did their job and they had put the man who was responsible on the right track to be sent to prison. No jury was going to allow him to get away once they laid down the evidence in front of them. If the man didn't get the needle, if there was one thing to be thankful for was prisoners were relentless on those who sexually abuse kids. At least the man wouldn't have it easy, and why should he? He hadn't shown mercy on his wife or his kid.
Closing his eyes and taking a good breath of fresh air, Nick could literally feel a weight being lifted off his very soul. He felt better, content. Besides it would only be a matter of time before another case showed up that would send him up here into the mountains. But that is why he became a CSI in the first place. To speak for those who could no longer. To tell their story to the world, or to anyone who would listen long enough.
His eyes traveled down to see a rock, and he brought his foot down on it and let it sail down the steep incline. He could faintly hear it as it smashed up against the mountainside, falling on deaf ears at the bottom. Taking in one last good view, Nick then hoped into his dark Tahoe.
As he started his way down, he realized a headache was starting to put pressure behind his eyes. It was like a freight train had hit him and Nick suddenly realized how exhausted he truly was. 'Damn', he thought 'his bed sounded so good right now too.'
Up ahead he saw the lights of another car coming around the turn. Flicking his high beams off he took his foot off the gas so he could take the sharp right turn that was coming up ahead. But before he could even reach it the other vehicle made its presence known. To Nick's complete horror the other car was in his lane, coming up fast like a freight train. Time started slowing down, as though he had become a deer transfixed on the unearthly glow of the high beams coming straight at him.
Suddenly instinctively Nick snapped out of it quickly. Knowing where the car was positioned on the road, there would be no way he could eat the side of the mountain without still being in a head on collision. Everything in driving classes, to your own parents teaching you on the lawn mower when you were old enough to sit in their laps. At all costs, you avoid that head on.
It seemed to take forever, but it was only a matter of seconds as Nick decided what to do and try and save him and his car. Jerking the wheel to the left, he got into the other lane but quick reflexes could not prevent the other car from side swiping behind his rear wheel. If the other person had been a cop, it would have been a very effective PIT maneuver.
The whole idea behind a tactic such as a PIT maneuver were to stop a fleeing suspect and cause his or her vehicle to lose traction and control so they would ultimately crash. Which is exactly what the other car had done to Nick's Tahoe.
Nick had something over most fleeing criminals, he had training. When the other motorist made contact with his SUV, he tried correcting his path by then turning them quickly to the left. But the turn up ahead had him quickly reverse his tactics and turn his wheels to the right. But the pavement was still slick from the rain and at the speeds he had been previously going, Nick knew with a sudden sick of dread, he wasn't going to make this turn.
Time started slowing down once again for the CSI. He saw that he had missed the guardrail, the one thing that could have prevented him possibly from going over. Slamming on the breaks would do no good his car had to much momentum and he tightened his hands on the wheel as though this would prevent his ultimate doom.
Nick felt his stomach drop as though he was on a roller coaster, which in a lot of ways he was, but not one he wanted to be on and wanted nothing more to just get off. The first thing to hit rock was the front left side of his bumper and with the force of this, sent the back of his car up and sending the car into a deadly spiral spin.
For the most part Nick didn't hear much or feel anything. When his car hit the first rock, his head had smashed into his wheel. Then when it pivoted and started its spin, his head had smashed into the window, causing him to mostly black out through the deadly dance down the mountain. This continued only for a few seconds, as objects were flung out and Nick stayed restrained in for the journey. Then suddenly as it all had begun it stopped. The car had slammed into a large tree trunk, halting it from going further on down the mountain. It took a full fledge minute for the car to stop making sounds, as though itself was crying out for help, pained by the tumble off the cliff.
Nick opened his eyes and began looking around. Everything felt so heavy, his body, his eyelids and darkness was whispering sweet oblivion of no pain and sweetness of sleep. The only thing he could tell at the moment, the car was lying on its driver's side. As conscious slowly began to slip, Nick could only think was, 'damn, and I just washed this car.'
TBC….
So hopefully I got you interested, tell me what you think ;).
