Waiting chapter one

disclaimer: I don't own csi or it's characthers.

May 19, 2005 and Warrick are sitting on a loveseat at desert palm hospital across from Nick's parents, it's been nearly 3 hours since they and the team rescued Nick. Warrick gets up walks over to a there in the waiting room and just stares out at the Vegas skyline not really looking at anything at all, Just thinking about how it could have or should have been him in that box . He feels a hand on his shoulder, he turns and looks straight into the most amazing blue eyes he's ever seen they belong to one person Catherine Willows the woman he been secretly in love with for years but has been to afraid to tell her."Rick you've got to stop beating yourself up over this. Nick's going to be alright."She tells him trying to get him to open up about whatever has been bothering him since they rescued Nick."I just can't help but think it should have been me in that box not Nicky know we flipped for it." He tells her."Of course I did, but you wouldn't have fit in that box." she says trying to make him laugh but it doesn't work."This whole thing got me thinking life's so short you never know what people really mean to you until something happens to someone close to you. Just before all this happened I was telling Nick about this girl I've been seeing Tina, but now all of this has made me realize you can't always tell someone how much they mean to you till it's too late. I've realized that all the girls I've been going out with have meant nothing to me even Tina means nothing to me, all those girls I was with I was trying to find something in them that already found in someone else. I guess what I'm trying to say is I found that special something in you, I love you Catherine Willows." he tells her. She speechless she had waited so long for Warrick to say those words to her that instead of saying anything she just kissed him. He was surprised by her reaction but he gave in to her kiss. When Catherine pulled she looked right into Warrick's eyes see could see the love in he had for her in his eyes."I love you too."When he heard those words he just pulled her close just as close as he could without hurting her.

Nick's parents watched their son's two best friends closely they know times have changed but they still don't like the idea of a black man and a white woman having a relationship especially their son's two best friends. Nick often spoke to his mother about his friends especially Warrick and Catherine but he never told her about their pasts Catherine's stripping, her cocaine addiction or Rick's gambling he's proud of his friends they got out of that stuff and really made something of themselves.

"Roger will you please sit down." Nick's mother told her husband."Jillian I will not sit down till I see our son." his father answered. As Warrick and Catherine moved back to the loveseat from the window Catherine notices Mrs. Stokes watching them but doesn't think anything of it. It's only been a few hours since they met for the first time in the seven years they've known Nick. She turns to Warrick."Rick how about after we see Nick we continue our conversation at my house Lindsay's at my mothers. "She asks."Sure, but can we stop and get something to eat I'm starved." he asked rubbing his stomach."When was the last time you ate." she asks."Before all this happened."He gets a little choked up cause he can still see Nick in that box so he looks away from Catherine.

"Rick look at me" he looks back at her with a tear in his eye" you and I both know Nick is going to be alright. Nick's a fighter we both know that. Remember Nigel Crane, Nick didn't let that get to him or stop him from doing his job a job he loves. We're CSI's we know there's some danger involved every time we cross the tape we deal with rapists, murderers and psychopaths we're always in some kind of danger that's why we carry Sid Goggle he almost killed Grissom."She told him."Yeah, but you saved Gris's life, you shot Goggle before he could shoot Grissom. But I still remember the night you were attacked at a scene by the killer and how I was close to punching out the officer that left you alone at the scene until you said you sent him out. All I could think of was the fact that I could've lost you that night." he tells her."Why didn't you tell me how you felt that night, why did you wait till now." she asks him.

"Because I was too afraid you wouldn't feel the same way about me. I've loved you for years, I think the moment I realized I was in love with was the night you were attacked at the scene and then last year when we were in that sewer together when you slipped and we almost kissed." he tells her about just how long he's loved her."I remember I was hoping after we closed that case we got from that sewer worker we'd pick up where we left off, but you never said anything about that day again so I figured you forgot about it." she say with disappointment in her voice."I could never forget about that day I dreamed about it for weeks. But you were just out of a relationship." he tries to explain."Chris was a big mistake. I've had two relationships since Eddie if you could even call them that, Paul just thought I was using him and Chris just cheated." she had never told him about her breakup with Paul so to hear her say that shocked him."They didn't know what they had. Your gorgeous, intelligent, funny and you have the most amazing blue eyes. Did I mention extremely sexy." he told what he saw in her."Boy you really know how to flatter a girl." she tells him trying to sexy about as sexy as you can be in a hospital waiting room."You're not a girl Cath; you're a woman an amazing woman." before Catherine could respond the doctor treating Nick came out to talk to them.

"Mr. and Mrs. Stokes, I'm doctor Stevens. I've been treating your son since he was brought in. Your son is going to be just fine, his recovery will take a few weeks but after that he'll be as good as new. I'll be keeping him for the next seventy two hours then he'll be released. Any questions." He asks as he looks at the four people in front of him."Yes can we see our boy?"Mr. Stokes asks."Yes follow me." the doctor answers."What about his friends."Mrs. Stokes asks the doctor."I don't see why not." with that Catherine and Warrick along with Nick's parents followed the doctor to Nick's room where they found Nick awake and talking.

"Mom, Dad when did you get here. I see you've already met Warrick and Catherine."Nick asked his folks." Yes we did. We came right after Miss Willows called us and told us you'd been kidnapped." his mother answered."Yeah, Nick the guy who took you wanted a million dollars but Ecklie told us the sheriff wouldn't pay the ransom. So well this didn't happen until after your parents arrived your father said they twenty thousand dollars but it would take time to get the rest, but Catherine really came though she want to Braun and got the million dollars. You should have seen her face when she came out of Gris's office because she wanted to deliver the ransom money herself but because she got it from Braun she wasn't allowed anywhere near the money. Then when we found out the guy blew himself along with the money all she could say was 'what I had to do to get that money' more like what she had to say to get the money."Warrick explained to Nick."Rick you have no idea what I had to do to get that money." Catherine was a little unhappy about having to explain how she got the million dollars."Catherine what did you have to do." Nick asks wanting to know how much she cares about him, he knows she's in love with Rick."I had to ask him like I was his daughter not a cop and I had to agree to let him have Lindsay one weekend a month, you know she'll love that. She's been bugging me to see him ever since she was picked up for hitchhiking to see him, all I get from her is 'why can't I see grandpa' believe me if it weren't anybody but you, Rick or Grissom I wouldn't have done it." she explains."Not even for Greg or Sara." Nick asks."Well maybe, but right now you need to get better it's gonna be kind of quiet without you around remember there's only three of us on swing." she tells him."And there's usually only two of in the field." He complains."Well when you and Rick are in the field I'm in the lab with paperwork or Ecklie." she complains back.

"Who is Ecklie?" Nick's mother asks."Assistant lab director Conrad Ecklie or as us on swing and grave call him the scum of the earth, and poor swing shift leader Catherine Willows has the miss fortune of having to see him every shift."Rick answers."Will you stop saying that? Mrs. Stokes, Conrad Ecklie and the graveyard shift all though Nick, Rick and myself are no longer on grave we still feel the same. Grave and Ecklie are enemies we loathe Ecklie. Oh Nick do you remember the dinner for Ecklie when Grissom was suppose to give a speech when he got a page about a 419 said he was the back up and left me with his one line on a napkin speech 'what can I say about Conrad Ecklie' when the sheriff looked at me I got up then and gave one hell of a lie of a speech." Catherine explained.

" Hey Nick you remember the last case the three of us worked on grave."Rick asked." The one where Grissom called the evidence into question and the three of us had to rework the case that all of us were on in the first place. We talked about how you two were late getting to the scene. Rick you were with a girl and Cath you were semi-lying about Eddie and that you couldn't find a sitter and if we hadn't reopened that case Rick and I wouldn't have known about you and Eddie remind us again was that before or after you kicked him out." Nick questions her."It was a couple months after I kicked him out and a few weeks before Holly."Catherine responds to Nick's question." Cath why did you see Eddie that night?" Rick asks."He seemed like he wanted to try and make our marriage work, he even said he'd given up the girls, the drugs and the booze. I believed him for two hours until he was getting dressed and the bag of coke fell out of his coat pocket I realized he hadn't changed I should have known he'd never change. Nick remember the case of dusns when I keep getting calls from Eddie but it turned out to be Lindsay calling me from Eddie's phone."Catherine said while thinking back to the night she almost lost Lindsay."Yeah that was the night Eddie was killed. You had to save Lindsay from his sinking car. It's been what two and half years now." Nick questioned." Yeah. Nick, I think Rick and I are gonna get going you know we've been up for over twenty-four hours and unlike some of us we have to work later. We'll see you later Nicky."Catherine said trying to get Rick out the door." Hey ya know I'd love to stay but the boss lady says I gotta go. See ya later bro." Rick said as he and Catherine walked out the door.

" Nick, I what to know about your friends." Nick's mother asks him knowing he knows more then he's told them." Who Catherine and Warrick?" nick asked a little confused. "Yes you know more than what your telling us." she tells him." What do you want to know first?" he asks." How about we start with Catherine and I want to know everything." she tells him she want to know what kind of people he's been keeping company with since he left Texas.

" Well she grow up in Vegas her mother was a showgirl and her father well she didn't know her father is Sam Braun until two years ago. At 18 she got a job as waitress then at 19 she got a job as a dancer at a club called the French palace where she worked for eight years she saved up some money so she could go back to school in 86, then in 87 she met Grissom they've been best friends ever since, he helped get into rehab in 89 for a cocaine addiction she's been clean since then. Months before she went into rehab in Jan 89 she married Eddie Willows her boyfriend of three years he with the one that got her hooked on drugs in the first place, she was both high and drunk at the time they both were the marriage was a mistake from the start but after Lindsay was born in Nov 91. When I met her in 98 I quickly learned about her past from coworkers but no one but Grissom knew about her drug past until about a year ago during a game of I never at her house when Greg said I never did drugs the only one to take a shot was Catherine she told us the whole story. In 99 she and Eddie's fighting about his drinking and his drug use got worse to the point where he was hitting her almost every day then in 2000 she caught in their bed with another woman she kicked him out, during their separation he came to lab with their daughter Rick took Lindsay so her parents could talk. Their talk turned into a fight when Eddie pinned Cath to a glass wall Grissom saw this and rush to get Eddie off of her before he could hurt her we all there was abuse but we didn't know how bad it was till after he died Grissom know how bad it was because she would go to him with Lindsay in toe to stay at his when things got really bad. Catherine finally got the nerve to divorce him in 01, and then Eddie was killed in Jan 03 Lindsay nearly died that night too. Then two years ago the lab blew up when Catherine and Warrick were finding out what caused the lab to blow up Catherine discovered she blew up the lab, know one blamed her for it she was having a hard time it had only been four months since Eddie died and the day before Lindsay had been caught in her fifth fight at school Catherine was very worried about Lindsay, she wasn't listening to her mother they were fighting all the time Rick and I tried to help but it was of no use, a few months later Sam Braun gave her a check know one knows for how much but it was enough to put Lindsay in to a school with tighter reigns. I admire her, she's had a tough life but she overcame all of it to get where she is today one of the best CSI's in the country." He tells them with pride in his voice.

" Do you love her Nick?" she asks." I love her as a friend but I'll leave the being in love with her to Rick he's been in love with her for years. I know she loves him too, they'd make a cute couple." He answered, he knew he gave her the answer she was looking for if there one thing about his parents he knew they would not like it if was to marry Catherine even if he was in love with her. "You really care about them don't you." his father asked the first time he'd spoken since they came into Nick's room."Their my second family all seven of us in a way, Grissom is the father Catherine in a weird way is the mother they look out for us. Rick, Greg and myself are the sons, Sara's the daughter, Brass and doc Robbins are the uncles and Lindsay is the niece to all of us even though she calls us all aunt or uncle but the only one who really has that title of uncle is Grissom he was there the day she was born Eddie was out of town so Gris took his place after her mother he was the second person to hold her, but we all love Lindsay she is her mother's daughter." He says.

"What about Warrick?"He asked." Rick like Catherine grew up in Vegas raised by his grandmother. He was a runner for gamblers that bet on football games he use to bet on games himself, he went to school got a job at the lab that's where I met him on my first night on the job in Vegas. He beat his gambling addiction for in 01 with the help of Grissom. I remember the night Holly Gribbs came to lab Rick and I had been in the locker room making a little bet on who would make his hundredth case first me or Rick those are the only bets Rick makes these days. He got pulled off his case with Catherine and had to shadow Holly, he dropped Holly at the scene then went to place a bet for a corrupt judge. The suspect came back shot Holly, Rick was in the lab with me, Gris and Cath I had just solved my hundredth case I was a level three Csi before Rick when Brass who was our Supervisor at the time came and told us Holly been shot Rick was suspended and Sara was brought into investigate it. But that's all over now Rick is one of the best Csi's in the business and the best friend a guy could ever have." he says with smile it true Rick is the best friend he's ever had.

" Son we realize how much you care about these people but your mother and I feel you should came back home with us." his father tells him." No Dad I am home, my home is here in Vegas with my friends." He tells them sternly."Nick what your father is trying to say is we want you to come live we us where we know your safe." She tells him trying to get him to come back to Texas." No I'm gonna stay right here in Las Vegas with the people that care enough about me to come and sit at a hospital when they should be home in bed because they've up for nearly two days straight. Not my family who never come and visit me no I have to go to them. You may not like my friends but I do. I know Rick or Cath would take a bullet for me and I'd do the same for them, we care about each other. A few weeks ago Catherine invited Rick and I to join her for a drink after shift her treat but we turned her down because we both had plans, so she went out alone got hit on by some guy who became a suspect in a murder then he showed up at her house and was talking to her mother and Lindsay she told them to go inside because she knew he was not there for a social visit. He was violent when she turned him down in the parking lot of the bar she met him at twenty four hours earlier. He put his hand on her car door so she couldn't get in then as she pulled on the door he let go so it hit her in the face. She had a cut just below her right eye for days. If only one of us had gone with her none of that would've happened. You see I care about them and they care about me, Cath always brings me soup when at home sick but I always ask her ' did you make this yourself' and she'd say' no it came from a can' because we all know Catherine can't cook to save her life but she keeps on trying. If I hadn't of come here I wouldn't of known them they make life and work fun. This is my home." He said trying to them to realize that this was his home now not Texas but right here in Vegas." Alright son your mother and I are leaving in the morning so goodbye son." Mr. Stokes said while hugging his son goodbye." Take care Nick, I love you." She as she gave he a hug and a kiss." I love you too mom, dad goodbye." With that they left the hospital and Las Vegas leaving their son where he wanted to be. Now that they know the backgrounds of the two people closest to him they didn't want him to stay in Las Vegas but they weren't going to fight him on it so they just left.