Kismet
AN: Thank you so much for the reviews. Since it was asked, Peggy 47 is right: Kismet: fate, or meant to be. Still no comment about the pairing.
Chapter Two
Nick watched as the mother of his unborn child leaned back into her seat. She remained resting until they pulled up to the restaurant. Nick was out of the car in a flash, still worried about the reservation. Tossing the keys to a valet, he made his way to the passenger side and opened the door. His wife gratefully taking his hand. "I'm not sure which is more of a pain in the ass: Climbing up into your truck, or hoisting myself out of my car."
Chuckling, "I thought you'd be more comfortable in your car tonight."
"I probably am, but not by much." She patted his shoulder as a thank you for his help.
The hostess opened the door for the couple, and once inside, Nicks arm was protectively wrapped around his wife's waist. "Reservation for Stokes."
The blonde dressed entirely in black scanned the book in front of her before finding what she was looking for. "Yes, Mr. Stokes, right this way." She pulled a couple menus from the side table before leading the couple to their table. Setting the menus in front of the diners, she spoke. "The chef's specials tonight are the grilled salmon with asparagus and herb roasted potatoes, the filet mignon with mushrooms and your choice of vegetable, and the chicken cordon bleu with a creamy risotto." She clasped her hands in front of her, "Thalia, your server for tonight, will be with you shortly." With that she was gone.
As if on cue, a brunette dressed in black slacks and vest with a white dress shirt and a deep emerald tie appeared. "Can I get you started with some drinks?" Politely the waitress's eyes went to the woman in the couple first.
"Club soda, please." As an afterthought, she added, "With lime." To which Thalia nodded once, and then turned her attention to Nick.
"I'll have the same, and could we also get an order of the crab stuffed mushrooms?" He raised his eyebrows as if to ask his date if she agreed with his appetizer choice. She nodded the affirmative.
"I will get that right in for you." Thalia turned and left the two alone.
Mr. and Mrs. Stokes went on perusing their menus. Nick quickly decided on his dinner choice, folded up his menu, and watched as his wife twirled a strand of hair between her fingers as she read through the menu. He got a kick out of watching her. Whereas he would know what he wanted almost immediately, she would always read through every item on the menu before coming to a decision, even if she had been at the restaurant a hundred times before. It was just one of the many quirks that made him fall in love with her.
"Hey Nick, you're back?" Sara went directly to the coffee pot. "Have fun?"
"Yes, I did, but now it's back to reality." He held out the assignment slip Grissom had given him earlier, "We have a jewelry store robbery, one vic in critical care. You ready?"
Sara quickly gulped down about a third of her coffee, "Yeah." She followed him out the door before turning to go back to the locker room to retrieve her kit, but paused to call over her shoulder, "Uh, Nick?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm driving." She smiled, resuming her path to the locker room.
"Only if you get there first." Nick made his way to the parking lot and had just hit the mild air when Mandy came running up. "Webster, you're late." He spoke sternly.
"Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Stokes, It'll never happen again." She played along briefly. "So, how was your trip?"
"Great, thanks for your suggestions. Cindy loved the dinner cruise."
"Good, I've always liked it." She paused, "Well, I've gotta clock in before Ecklie realizes how late I am."
Nick noticed something about her tone. "Mandy you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Nick wasn't sure if she was trying to convince him or herself of that.
"Mandy?" He chanced reaching out and placing a supportive hand on her upper arm.
"No, I'm fine, just got into it a little with my parents." She shook her head, "We never seem to see eye to eye, and of course it's right when I'm supposed to be at work. So, yeah, I'll be fine." Mandy was rambling, but Nick just let her go, knowing she needed to get it out.
When she stopped, he offered, "I'm here if you need anything."
"Thanks Nick," she knew he meant it, but at the same time, she didn't want to burden him with her problems.
"Ah-ha!" Sara called out as she passed by the two. "Guess I'm driving Nick!"
"Well I should go, but I'll see you later." He gave her arm a final squeeze before joining Sara in the car.
Mandy nodded and walked through the doors to the lab.
"So, when do we get to meet this Cindy?" Sara popped the car into reverse and pulled out of the parking space.
"Oh, I'm not ready for that." He put his hands up in defense.
"But it is serious?" She questioned.
"Yeah, it's serious." He admitted.
"Marriage serious?" She wasn't giving up.
Nick thought for a second, "Maybe." There it was; he had opened himself up.
"Oh, Nick, I'm happy for you!" Nick couldn't remember ever hearing Sara squeal like that.
Thankfully for Nick, the subject was dropped, and they went on to process their scene. Once returning to the lab they divvied up their findings. Nick entered the DNA lab with more than a few swabs. "Hey Wendy."
"You got something for me cowboy?"
Nick smiled at the term of endearment, "Yes, eight samples, probably all our victim, but do what you can with it."
"Of course," she smiled, "So how was the weekend?"
"Does everybody know what I do on my time off?"
"Uh-huh." She deadpanned.
"It was good." He conceded.
"That's it, just good?" She feigned disappointment, but continued, "Hey some of us were going to grab breakfast after shift, wanna join in?"
"Sure, I'll catch you after shift." Nick was back in the hallway when his cell phone began to vibrate on his hip. When he saw the name on the Caller ID, he quickly glanced around him to be sure no one was in ear shot, "Morning Sunshine." His Texan drawl was on fire.
A sleepy, yet sweet voice on the other end responded, "Morning. I thought I'd call and see if you were interested in meeting for breakfast before I have to be at work?"
"Funny you should ask…" Nick continued down the hall while explaining to Cindy that he wanted to see her, but had just made plans with some coworkers. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he figured that now would be as good of a time as any and asked. "Why don't you join us?"
"Are you sure they wouldn't mind?" Cindy didn't want to intrude.
"Actually some are eager to meet you, so they'll be thrilled." Suddenly the enormity of what he was about to do hit Nick, and the nerves began to attack, but it was too late, he's already asked, and she'd already accepted.
"I'll be there."
An hour later he walked into the diner to find almost every member of the night shift gathered around a group of tables shoved together to create one large surface. "Boy, I don't think this many people have ever shown up for breakfast after shift before." Nick said as he took a seat between an empty seat and Greg.
"Well, some people were curious to meet the allusive Cindy," Greg poured a packet of sugar into his coffee and began o stir. "Once word spread that she would be here, well the RSVPs came pouring in."
"What do you mean word spread? I only told Warrick." Nick looked to his friend for an explanation, but was only greeted with an apologetic shrug.
"You can't blame Warrick," Catherine wrapped her arm around the tall dark man, "Some of us know the combination to that lock."
"Catherine you're not helping," Warrick wished the subject would drop before it went too far.
"Ooh, poor baby," Catherine mocked, but started a conversation with Mandy before Warrick could reply.
Wendy rushed through the door, "Am I too late? Is she here?"
"No, not yet," Sara scooted over making more room at the table.
"Why is everyone so anxious to meet Cindy?" Nick was starting to worry that this might have been a bad idea.
"Simple," Catherine started, "You've never talked about another girl the way to talk about her."
"You've never asked for advice on where to take another girl," Mandy added.
Sara chimed I with, "You've never been nervous about introducing a girl to any of us before,"
"Yeah Nick, apparently this is serious." Wendy summed it all up, "Now we want to make sure she's good enough.
Touched at the responses, Nick relaxed just as an elegant hand draped over his shoulder, "Nicky."
"Cindy," he nearly beamed, as he stood and made a quick round of introductions around the table. The group fell into casual conversation as orders were placed, meals were served, and eventually good-byes and see you liters were said.
After a private moment with a slightly overwhelmed Cindy in the parking lot, Nick went home feeling pretty good about how the morning went.
The sound of her breath catching brought him out of his thoughts. "Honey?" He reached over the table out of concern.
She waved off his concern. "Kick," her head bobbed a couple of times. "A good one." Shifting uncomfortably in her chair, she looked up to see him watching with worry. "Really, I'm fine." This time she was rewarded with a dimpled smile.
A few minutes later the appetizer was placed between them and their dinner orders were placed. "So how did you manage to get tonight off? I figured with the week you're taking when the baby's born, I wouldn't be able to spend the night with you again until my water breaks." She was only half joking.
"Catherine was nice enough to volunteer when I told her I didn't want to miss our last chance for a quiet night out." He was about to take a sip of his club soda when he saw her raise her eyebrows in question. "Well that and the fact that I covered for her last week when Lindsey had a ballet recital."
"Uh-huh," she knew there was more to it than Catherine volunteering out of the blue.
"Hey, we parents have to stick together," he raised a glass, which she gladly clanged with her own.
The night after the breakfast meeting everything changed for Nick. The phone rang as he was getting dressed. Hoping to share a meal with his girlfriend, he impatiently opened the phone when he saw it was her calling. "Hi."
The voice that greeted him was not anywhere near as excited, "Nick, we need to talk."
"What's wrong?" Concern etched in his voice.
The pause told him this wouldn't be good, "I don't think this is going to work out."
"What?" How had everything changed while he'd been asleep. "What's changed?"
"It's not you…It's your friends…well that's not true, it's your job."
"I never hid what I do for a living."
"I know, but today I heard story after story filled with gory details, and not only did it not bother you, but you told some yourself." She took a breath, and he could hear the tears starting. "I…I can't live the rest of my life hearing those stories…I mean we were at breakfast…It made me wonder what stories you would tell if there was no food around."
"I see." They were the only words he could muster.
"It's too bad, I really could have fallen in love with you." She spoke from her heart.
"Me too." He wasn't angry, just hurt, "I have to go to work now."
"Of course. Goodbye Nick."
"Goodbye Cindy." The line went silent until a click indicated she had hung up.
That night, Nick went to work a little numb inside, and as a result, had a hard time focusing. Sara called his name twice before he finally responded. "What?"
"I said it was fun meeting Cindy." Sara said as she began laying the crime scene photos on the table. It never got easy seeing pictures of children with bruises.
"I'm glad you thought so." Nick was focusing on the circular bruise on the six-year-old's body.
"Didn't you have fun? You sure looked like you were." She thought twice before adding, "Especially in the parking lot."
A frown flashed across Nick's face, "Well, I did, but apparently we are too gory for Cindy. She didn't appreciate the breakfast conversation, and called to break it off a few hours ago."
Sara stopped what she was doing, "Nick, I'm so sorry. I think sometimes we forget that what we do doesn't always make for appropriate conversation."
"I know. I guess I'm the same way, because she was just as offended that I joined in the conversation."
Sara offered a half smile and gently tapped his shoulder before walking away. Nick spent much of the shift in a funk that no one enjoyed being around. They were all so used to Nick being the upbeat and positive guy, that none of them really knew how to deal with depressed Nick.
He was counting the minutes until he could go home and have some peace. He knew his friends were only trying to help, but he wasn't ready to be cheered up yet. Deciding that a good day's sleep would be the best medicine, he hoped that nothing new would come up on any of his open cases and that he might actually leave on time. When only a half hour was left on the shift, his pager went off, summoning him to the DNA lab.
In a huff, he stomped off to DNA and pushed the door open harder than he should have, causing Wendy to jump slightly. "Steady Cowboy," she teased, her smile dropping when she saw he was not amused. "I was running DNA from the Stevens case. McIntire from days is the lead CSI, but anyway a match came up to your unknown sample from the Stephanopolis case."
"The Stephanopolis case ran cold three months ago." He shook his head, thinking about the odds that a case that had run out of leads so long ago would turn hot on the one day he needed to get out of here. "Are you sure? I don't want to waste time today if it's nothing."
"I wouldn't have paged you if I weren't sure." Her tone slightly annoyed at the underlying accusation.
"Right. I'm sorry," but his voice didn't sound too sorry.
"Nick, don't get pissy with me because I did my job and you don't want to do yours." She was on the defense.
"Wendy, it's not you. Yes, I'm thrilled we finally have a lead, the family needs to know what happened to their daughter…" He took a deep breath, treading lightly. "I just really need some down time, and if this proves to run hot…well you know what that means."
Wendy nodded her understanding, "It will get better, you know?"
"What?"
Wendy shrugged, "Greg was in here earlier, he mentioned something about you and Cindy."
"Great, I've been reduced to office gossip."
"Nick, it's nothing like that. Look you're the guy around here that everyone likes, everyone looks forward to working with, and when you have an off day…well it throws the people around you off a little too."
"Great," he repeated before walking off.
"Nick," Wendy called after him, but he was already halfway down the hall.
TBC…