Tia POV

The constant beeping woke me up. I looked around to see where I was, only to find I was in an unfamiliar place. I turned my head all around trying to move my head so that it would stop. I saw my Uncle Nick looking at me with tears in his eyes. He still had his badge on: Nick Stokes.

"Tia? Oh, thank god, you're okay." Nick said, smiling at me.

"Where's my dad? Can I see him?" I asked. Nick looked away, causing me to say, "Nick? Where is he?" He sighed, and looked down.

"He... didn't make it. I'm sorry." He said, hugging me. I began to sob loudly, hitting his chest. "No! NO! No! Get off me! Leave me alone!" I screamed. "You could've helped him! You could've saved him!"

"Don't say that. I know you're upset, honey, but it's going to be okay. I promise," he said, hugging me tighter into him, and this time, I hugged him back.

I leaned out of the hug when I heard a door closing. I looked toward the door, seeing Captain Brass standing there with a small, tentative smile on his face.

"Oh, good," he said to me, "you're awake. I called your uncle, Billy Black, and he said that he would try to pick you up sometime in the near future. Until then, you can stay with Nick."

"I have an uncle?" I asked him. Dad never brought up any uncle.

"You apparently have an uncle, half uncle really, down in Washington. He was on your dad's emergency contact list and is the next of kin."

Brass finished there but I heard the silent, 'that we will let you be within one hundred miles of.' But what I really heard is that I was going to be sent away from all the family that I had down here. I was going to be taken away from Grissom, Catherine, Sara and most importantly, my Uncle Nick.

"Please don't leave me," I whimpered into Nick, who had not released me from his arms as Brass was talking to me.

"You did a background check on this Billy guy, right?" I heard whispered over my shoulder.

"Of course," I heard Brass state from behind me. "from what I found he is an upstanding citizen. He literally has a clean record. Not even a parking ticket to his name. When he gets down here I'll have a talk with him to see if what his record doesn't say actually fits the guy. I would never want to put her in that type of situation again."

I felt Uncle Nick nod against me. "You won't leave me, will you?" I whisper to him.

"I won't ever leave you, baby girl," he replied. "I promise I won't."

A nurse walks in.

"Yes"? I ask

"Miss Brown, were you raped honey?"

"No, why would you think that." I lied.

"When they brought you were, um not dress"

"Oh, I um I was not raped" I lied

With the reassurance, I nodded back off to sleep, hoping that this nightmarish situation would not get any worse.

I later woke with Nick still sitting beside me.

"Hi Princess," he said to me. "I checked you out of here. We're going to get your stuff and then you are staying with me."

I nodded to him. I slowly slid out of the bed to my feet. Uncle Nick was already walking toward the door to hold it open for me, allowing me to walk out of the door with him following. We walked down the hospital with nurses looking at me with empathetic looks on their faces. I tried to raise my arms to keep our eyes from meeting but the pain in my arm kept me from doing so. So instead I kept my head down from the looks of people that knew what had happened to me. I felt Uncle Nick put his hand on the small of my back, ushering us out of the hallway to the elevator which was luckily already on the floor.

Getting down the ground floor, I felt some of my panic slip away. We walked toward Nick's car which was toward the back of the parking garage. Nick got out his car keys, the car blinking as he electronically unlocked it before he opened the passenger side door for me. Once I slipped into the seat, he closed the door and walked to the driver's side to get in.

Once he started the car, I decided to ask him the question that had been on my mind since I found out about this mystery Uncle.

"Do you know when this...um...Billy guy is supposed to come down here?"

"Apparently in the next five days. He called while you were out. He's coming with his son so...yeah."

"Am I going to have to spend time with him... alone?"

"No, at least I hope not."

I turned toward him to ask, "What do you mean by that?"

"I put in a request for a leave of absence. I have plenty of vacation time stored up so hopefully I'll be able to spend some time with you and help you move in and everything."

Nick was interrupted by his phone starting to ring, "Stokes" He answered after picking it up. "I can? Thank you Grissom," he said before hanging up the phone. "I can go with you to Washington." He said, looking at me.

"That's great!" I said, smiling.

We then arrived at the apartment that I had shared with my father. As we got out and started walking, it hit me that I'm never going to live here again; this is the last time I will ever be home.

"I can't believe I'm not going to live here any longer," I sigh as I started packing up my belongings.

"It's okay, honey, everything will be okay, and if you need me, I'm only a call or text away. Don't worry about your phone either; I will take care of the bill." Uncle Nicky says as he helps me pack.

"Thank you, Uncle Nicky." I said, hugging him.

I finished packing, and we stopped at my school to let them know I would be moving and would need my Individualized Education Plan transferred to another school. This is where we lived, where I grew up. That thought hurt, my chest constricted and my stomach twisted at the prospect of being anywhere else.

Two days later

Today was the day of the funeral. I couldn't believe it. Nick was taking me to lay my father to rest. I had been hesitant all morning; I had refused to get out of bed refusing to move. Nick had tried everything, but I still refused to go. He had finally called Catherine over, and she coaxed me out of bed.

Getting me up, she had picked out a simple black dress from the clothes I had collected from the apartment. She told me to shower and that she would do my hair once I was finished. I showered and dressed quickly. Catherine straightened my hair, we ate, and then were off.

Sitting in the service, I held onto Catherine and Nick tightly. I didn't want to let either of them go as one by one people spoke for my father. Somebody they all had loved…lost in the most horrible way…a piece of their heart gone, never to be replaced…and on and on it went. Many people spoke, including Nick who spoke for me. I didn't have the strength to get up and stand in front of all those people who had gathered to say goodbye. Most people commented on how he was the most caring, loyal, and bravest of them all, and that those who knew him could never imagine life without him. We would all miss him.

Yes, we all would. I would the most. I would miss my father for the rest of my life. I was fourteen, I shouldn't be sitting at my father's funeral, I should be sitting at home Saturday morning while my father made me pancakes for breakfast. But it would never be that way again, that was all gone now. This was it.

5 days later

As I sat in Brass's office waiting I was holding my iPhone and my cat is on my lap, two men come into the office with the detective. I don't know them, but they approached me.

"Hi, my name is Billy and this is my son Jacob," the man introduces themselves to me.

I whisper, "Hi. I am Tia Brown, but I like Tia better."

They both look a little surprised that I spoke at all, but it was Jacob that asks, "that is a pretty name and I like your locket. So what do you like to do for fun, Tia?"

"Well, umm, I love to watch the Nostalgia Critic. He's funny, I love listening to Eminem, Big Time Rush, Pink and I love motorcycles and wolves. I want to be a CSI agent like my dad is... was," I correct myself, my voice gaining some volume, though there is no strength to it.

"You must be Billy. I have paperwork for you to fill out." Brass says as he and Ecklie walked over.

"I have a few questions. Have you been in trouble by hurting someone?" Brass asked.

"No of course not." Billy replied.

Nick then walked in. He looked at Billy as if judging to see if he was trustworthy.

I sighed and put my phone away, looking out of the window as the desert disappears from my view. All of the casinos, filled with fools and dreamers; the place that my dad called home, the place that I had once called home. Now, it's just Las Vegas for me… home is gone.