A/N: So I'm tweaking tonight's episode just a bit, only saw the last maybe 15-20 minutes of it to the point where they showed the cop dead and Nick laying there unconscious and I started freaking just a bit. Then got excited again and this well I've been thinking about how I wanted to do this and this little accident that I could work from will get everyone going. Something that's really long over due with doing estimation, who are we kidding I figured it out Mackenzie Stokes is 22 months. I'm trying really hard to remember what was said in the hospital but my memory isn't what it used to be. I only own Katie and Mackenzie no one or nothing else.

Just have to say this but I REFUSE to think of Sara and Grissom as married it's just weird and wrong on so many levels.

Katie was juggling her squirmy daughter, the diaper bag and her briefcase but somehow like every other day she managed to get through the door everything still intact. Putting her daughter down who ran off to the toys scattered in the living room she took off the light jacket she was wearing and slipped out of her shoes trying to be quiet Nick was still sleeping. He usually parked his truck in the garage going on over it was his precious baby to Katie a car was a car and didn't mind parking hers in the drive-way.

Seeing there were no messages on the answering machine she checked on Mackenzie and quickly went to change into jeans and long sleeved shirt and finally began the task of making supper. She was raiding the contents of fridge making a mental list of things she could do when the sound of the phone ringing made her jump.

Nick lay in the hospital bed surrounded by his friends and co-workers the people who were his extended family. He looked up at them all.

"There's no need to worry Katie about this" he told them all, it was Greg who deemed to be the voice of reason.

"You don't think she's gonna wonder why you're arms in a sling? Or why you have to spend the night in the hospital?"

"I'm not spending the night in the hospital, I feel fine"

"We're just glad you're okay"

"Hello?" Katie walked back into the living room to keep an eye on Mackenzie who at the moment was putting balls into her machine thankfully Katie had removed the batteries yesterday the noise the machine made was annoying.

"Mrs. Stokes?" the person on the other line asked

"Yes"

"This is St. Michaels Hospital calling, your husband was rushed here earlier with a gun shot to the left shoulder and blood loss" Katie sank down to the couch behind her, noticing her mother sat down near her Mackenzie walked over to her patting her legs.

"He's alright though isn't he?" her stomach churned and she glanced down at her daughter correction their daughter who looked more like him every day. She couldn't loose him not when she needed him. When they all needed him.

"Yes he's stable and conscious and wanting to sign out AMA, he needs someone to look after him tonight wake him up every few hours that kind of thing" it was Mackenzie's turn to speak the only few words she knew

"Dad-dy?"

"I'll be right there. Thank you" she hung up the phone, grabbing Mackenzie the abandoned diaper bag and a quick dash to the bedroom to grab an extra set of clothes for Nick not knowing if he'd need them or not she was on her way.

"We'll see you soon" Catherine spoke giving him a little comfort touching his good shoulder.

"I'll be back later to drive you home" Sara told him as they were leaving the nurse had been only minutes before to warn them that Nick needed his rest and visit him again tomorrow.

"No you won't your driving scares me" he threw the blankets off him ready to stand to get dressed.

"I'm good at playing dead" he told Ray the last remaining visitor.

"You should have become an actor" they both smiled before Ray left.

On the verge of loosing it, her stomach nauseous and tears threatening to fall down her cheeks she walked calmly into the hospital carrying her now sleeping daughter in her arms she'd been warned that Mackenzie didn't have her usual nap thankful that her daughter was now asleep and had one less thing to fight with. Seeing the reception desk ahead she started walking towards it, the elevator dinged releasing the three occupants all laughing about something that was being said. Katie stopped mid-stride she knew those laughs.

"Sara" her voice urgent and the almost non-existent, the three turned both Greg smiled, Catherine looked apologetic and Sara looked relieved to see her.

"We'll take you too him"

"Nick's in trouble!" Greg couldn't help but add in, his friend was about to get it for sure and so would he if they knew he gave a nurse Katie's number to call saying Nick wanted a ride home. He didn't think it was right for Nick to lie like that.

"That's my cue to leave goodnight guys" Catherine made her exit and the new three waited for the elevator to arrive. It was Greg who broke the silence while they waited.

"Can I hold her?" referred to the sleeping child in Katie's arms.

"Sure she needs to be woken up anyways or she won't go to bed tonight" she shifted the sleeping child from her to Greg who woke up briefly only to snuggle into Greg's neck.

Sara watched how her boyfriend held the sleeping child gently brushing the stray away hairs from the child's face and whispering words into her ear that only Mackenzie could hear. On the ride up Katie glanced from Sara to Greg and Mackenzie back to Sara keeping quiet in the back, it wouldn't be long before those to decided to have children.

"His room's at the end of the hall" Sara pointed her in the direction they just came from, Greg distracted playing tickle monster with a now awake Mackenzie who giggled oblivious to her surroundings.

Nick had managed to get his pants halfway up before quitting, getting dressed with only one arm was not a one person job it was two and he'd have to wait till a nurse came back to check on him. He heard someone walk into his room, the occupant remained quiet, and a nurse would have spoken.

"Sara I told you I wasn't driving home with you" he turned to be met with his wife. Uh-oh.

"Guess again" her voice quiet she silently walked over to him helping with his pants. She reached behind him to undo the strings of the hospital gown she came face to face with his battle wounds or the rather gauze that covered them for now. Her hands froze in mid-task. She stared at the gauze for a full minute before she snapped out of her trance and grabbed the shirt from the diaper bag she'd dropped by the bed when she went to help him with his pants. She lasted until his shirt was on and the sling back on, his shirt still unbuttoned before she broke down in tears with his good arm he pulled her to him and the sobs started. She held on to him as the sobs wracked throughout her body her emotions finally catching up to her.

"I'm alright" he told her over and over as he held her placing kisses to her hair as she cried.

"I couldn't handle it if you died" was the only thing she got out half way coherently, he had to make her see that he was alright minus the dozen stitches or so he had in his shoulder from the gunshot. He tilted her head up with his good arm to make her look at him, he saw the puffy eyes with the tears still running down them and her flushed cheeks and he didn't like knowing he was the reason she was like this. He was the cause of it.

"You won't ever have to go through that look at me I'm still alive" he kissed her forehead pulling her into another hug resting his cheek on her head. The pain meds were starting to wear off and his arm was being strained and pulled in a way it didn't want to be but for know his wife was all that mattered.

"Where's Kenzie?" he asked a hug from his wife and daughter would cure just about anything in his opinion.

"With Greg and Sara in the waiting room, I'll go get her" she pulled away from him wiping her tears going in search of their daughter. He sat down on the edge of the bed attempting to do up the buttons on his shirt that he couldn't help but smile too, she had thought to bring him clothes what other person in that position of having just been told their husband was at the hospital could think that clearly to grab a change of clothes? His wife and he thanked god he had her.

"Dad-dy!" the two year old squirmed in her mothers arms reaching out to her father who struggled to hold her in his one good arm and Katie took her and shifted on her hip.

"Greg and Sara will be over in the morning to check on you and they said goodbye again" his wife smiled despite having the urge to cry once again.

"Don't you ever think about doing something like that again. I need you. Mackenzie needs you" she took his good hand and placed it on her stomach hoping he got what she'd been informed earlier this morning. "We all need you" she waited until she saw the light go off in his head before smiling. "I found out this morning" he pulled the most important women in his life into a bone crushing hug his arm protesting like crazy but for now he dint care, his wife just told him she was pregnant again.

What could be better than this?

"How far along?" he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face despite the pain he felt shooting up and down his arm.

"Seven weeks"

He did the quick math.

8 ½ months until a new Stokes arrived.