Chapter one
Nick's POV
As I was driving home that night, I could feel all the various aches and pains that I usually get after a long day at work. I thought to myself… 'All I want is to relax on my couch with an ice cold beer and a Cowboy's football game playing on the T.V. in front of me.'
I got a weird feeling as I pulled into my driveway, but I brushed it off as nothing. I put the car in park and grabbed the mail on my way to the door. When I noticed the car seat sitting on my porch, I froze. I ran up to the door and peered inside cautiously, ready for just about anything. Anything except what I did find...
Nestled in a blanket was a tiny little girl. She looked to be about two weeks old, but really she could have been anywhere from one to four weeks old, depending on her genetics and health.
She started to cry as soon as the bitter, early-morning air hit her face. I noticed a diaper bag also in the car seat and took it out and began rummaging through it. I found a small pacifier and quickly put it into the girl's mouth.
She immediately became quiet and looked up at me with big, light blue eyes. I unlocked the door and picked up both the diaper bag and the car seat. I took her to the living room, where I set the bag on the table and the car seat on the couch. Gently unbuckling her, I pulled her out of the seat and tried to remember everything my sister had ever told me about holding infants. It was a little awkward, but she didn't seem to mind so, I thought that I must've been doing something right. One of the things I remembered was to support her head so, I cupped one hand around the back of her head and neck for support. She was dressed in a tiny blue one piece with little white kittens splashed all over it.
Carefully, I started to rock her in my arms, getting into an almost-familiar motion of swinging her from side to side while I walked around the room.
"Hi there... Where did you come from little one? Where's your mama?" I soothed in baby talk. When I glanced back down at her, I noticed she had fallen asleep. I pulled out my phone and called Grissom.
"Nicky? What's going on?" He asked.
"Look, I found a baby girl on my porch!" I say, whispering so I wouldn't wake her, although my tone clearly said 'urgent'. I had made up my mind to leave her asleep in my arms.
"Ok," He said and I could hear him relaying the information to someone else. "Catherine says she'll be right over."
"Ok, good." I sighed gratefully and hung up.
I began rummaging through the diaper bag again, while trying not to wake the girl in my arms, looking for a note. I didn't find one.
What I did find however, were diapers… lots of diapers. Along with that, I also found some wipes, a couple of bottles, some formula and a few sets of extra clothes.
Barely five minutes later I heard a car pull up outside. I Set down the clothes I was still holding in one hand, and the other I used to support the still-sleeping child, and I walked over to the door.
"Hi, Nicky!" Catherine said, sounding slightly out of breath, as I opened the door. "Oh my God, she's so cute!" She squealed, looking down at the baby in my arms after she stepped inside, and I had shut the door behind her. I was a little shocked. I had never heard Catherine squeal before. "Now why the heck do you have her?" Ah, now that sounded more like Catherine.
"I don't know! I came home from my shift and I found her on my doorstep!" I whisper-yelled, mindful of the sleeping infant...
"Ok, well, I can take a DNA sample and run it through the database, see if we can find her parents?" She suggested quietly, still not able to take her eyes off the adorable baby. She glanced up at me, and upon seeing my worried expression, she joked, "Hey, you never know Nicky, she might be yours. She does look a little like you." I was grateful for Catherine's sense of humor at this time, and laughed along with her for a moment. I Glanced down at the small frame in my arms, and I realized that she did actually look a bit like me. She had large eyes; only hers were blue, not brown, and a sprinkling of dark brown hair.
"Hey, didn't 'Rick have the same shift as you?" She asked, suddenly changing the subject. I snapped out of my thoughts and nodded in response. "Then where is he?" Before I had the chance to tease her about her sudden change of subject, I heard another car pull up.
I knew it was Warrick, I mean he's my roommate, and who else would be here? Greg was dead on his feet by the time shift was over, and I'd be surprised if he made it out of the locker room awake. Sara decided to pull a triple, even though I keep on telling her she has to get out of the lab sometime. Brass would still be chasing down the few leads we had gotten for him earlier today and Grissom? Well, he's Grissom.
"Speak of the devil." I said as he opened the front door.
He rolled his eyes at me and grinned when he saw Catherine. He was about to say something when he finally noticed the baby.
"Oh my God..." Warrick's eyes went wide as he took in the scene before him. "Nick, what the heck did you do?!" He cried, waking up the baby in the process. She started whimpering, so I rocked her for a bit to calm her down.
"Nothing… I came home from my shift and found her on the porch." I said, still slowly rocking the now calmer child.
Warrick looked to Catherine for confirmation, and she simply nodded once.
"Who is she?" He asked, now also visibly calmer. I shrugged my shoulders in response while Catherine ducked past us.
"Hey guys?" Catherine called from the couch, where she'd begun looking through the bag. "Diaper bag has the name Tia written on the inside." She stood up and walked over as both Warrick and I looked down at the baby, who was now lying rather contentedly. At least, until my neighbor's dog started barking. The small girl, now 'Tia', was visibly startled by the loud noise and tears began to steam down her cheeks.
"Shh, shh… it's okay Tia. It's okay," I cooed softly, as I started to rock her again. Then, I looked back to Warrick and Catherine, still trying to calm the little girl. "I want her to stay with me, at least for now. But I don't think she has much to sleep in." I said, hoping they weren't wanting to call child services. This little baby was too precious to be handed over to child services, and tossed around from foster home to foster home. I don't have experience with foster homes myself, but from what I've heard from Sara, they're not the least bit good.
"That's no problem Nick, we can take her shopping sometime soon, and I might even be able to dig out some of Lindsey's old stuff." Catherine said.
I was relieved when she had agreed to letting me keep her for now. "Thanks Cath." I smiled at her, before frowning down at the tiny child. Tia was still crying. Maybe she's hungry? "Hey, Catherine would you mind making her up a bottle?" She nodded and turned to leave the room. "Oh, there's bottles and formula in the bag. Do you know how to make it?" I added.
She turned back around in the doorway. "Of course I do Nick. Are you forgetting that I have a daughter?" She smirked, and went to get the bottle ready. Warrick watched her until she was out of his line of sight, and then turned back to me. The look on his face told me he was about to say something, probably more questions about Tia, but Catherine interrupted before the words could come out.
"Hey, Warrick, can you give me a hand in here?" She called from the kitchen.
He looked at me one more time before calling out a "sure," and heading into the kitchen as well.
'Thank you Catherine!' I thought as I looked into the pale blue eyes that were staring up at me.
A few minutes later, I was sat on my couch, playing with Tia, when Cath and 'Rick walked back in, the former carrying a newly made bottle and the latter with a hand on the small of her back.
"Right, here you go Nicky. One bottle of baby formula." She handed me the bottle and I started to feed Tia.
"Thanks guys," I said, looking up while Tia hungrily downed a third of the bottle.
"Well, 'Rick looks like we have ourselves a new roommate looks like we don't have to ask Greggo to move in." I said to Warrick.
"Yeah great, a two week old roommate…" He replied sarcastically. "But, you gotta admit, she is pretty cute." I gently removed the now empty bottle from Tia's mouth and handed it to Catherine as I lifted the girl to my shoulder and began to gently pat her back. Something about having to burp babies that young, floated across my memory. When I finished, the baby girl reached out and began to play with Warrick's hand. He grinned as she wrapped small fingers around his long ones.
"Ok, I've got her DNA." Catherine said as she removed the nipple from the top of the bottle. "We can run this when we get back to the lab. Who knows, we might get a hit." She dropped the rubber top into one of those little evidence bags that we all seem to habitually carry around these days, and took a seat on the couch, next to the now seated Warrick. "Nick, what if she IS yours?
"I don't know Cath. I mean, I'll be happy but it's kinda unexpected." The two both nodded their heads in understanding and I continued. "Whoever left her here must have somehow discovered where I live, if it was intended that I find her. I want to find whoever it was that left her. I want to know why they gave her to me. If she is mine, why didn't I know?" I rambled on until I felt Warrick's hand on my arm and two pairs of concerned eyes trained on mine. I sighed.
"So, who'll watch her when we have to work? The lab isn't exactly child friendly and Gris would have a field day knowing that there was a two week old baby just sitting around." Warrick said, and to be honest, I was glad at the change of subject. "And we have the same shifts…" He paused to lift his hand in a small motion between us. "So that won't be much help."
"Well, I could always take her? And I'm sure my mother wouldn't mind when we're all at work, she already watches Lindsey for me," Catherine offered.
"Thanks Catherine, but I don't want to cause her any more trouble," I replied.
"What about Greggo?" Warrick suggested. I widened my eyes.
"Rick, think about that one, and whether you want this child to live and remain uninjured...or get lost or covered in mysterious substances..." I trailed off, hoping he'd get my point. His eyes also widened and he opened his mouth to retract his statement, when Catherine interrupted.
"Hey, give the kid a chance. I think he could do this, if we get him to cut down on the Marilyn Manson... Besides, he met some LA girl at a conference last week and he's pretty much head-over-heels. It'll give the kid some practice for the future."
Warrick and I looked at each other and sighed. With Catherine, there was no argument you could win. I looked down to see Tia, who had released Warrick's hand, grab mine and put my finger in her tiny mouth. I just smiled and watched her. I still had no idea who she was, or where she came from, but at that moment I made a promise to myself to take care of her, and to protect her. That's a promise I knew I wouldn't be breaking.
A/n this story setting in 2 season of csi i will update soon