Nightmare

Summary: The child of a CSI is kidnapped.

Disclaimer: not mine, I only own the girl and the kidnappers.

A/N: Please Review ! Keep them comming thanks to those who reviewed last time.

A/N: Italics are the flashbacks/Nick's memories.

Chapter 2

"Hey Nick, when was the last time you talked to Marguerite?" Sara asked as she poured cups of coffee for Nick, Brass, and herself.

"Who's Marguerite?" Jim Brass asked cocking his head at Nick and Sara with his pen poised over his pad of paper.

Nick sighed, his mind going back to when Marguerite had told him that he had a daughter, and she was giving him full custody. "Marguerite is Emily's biological mother," he said shifting in his chair. "Marguerite Goudge, but she wouldn't have done this. Marguerite's not like that."

"Nick, you do know that often when a child of separated parents does go missing it is other parent who has the child and for some spiteful unknown reason decide that the other parent doesn't deserve the child," Brass reminded them.

"Marguerite wouldn't have done that, she's too much a free spirit to be tied down with a child, " Nick said. " She'd rather being doing tricks or trying something new than staying in one place to raise a kid." He took a drink of his coffee as he thought more about his past.

"Marg come on, don't tell me that you've had your fun and now you're moving on…" Nick begged standing in his bedroom looking at his girlfriend of five months.

"Nicky," she said as she folded up her clothes and put them into a suitcase. "You know I'm not one to stay in one place for long, I told you that when we started sleeping together…"

"So what I'm not exciting enough for you any more?" he said. "Marg come on, tell me what I did wrong?"

"You didn't do anything wrong," Marguerite Goudge told him as she moved over to stand in front of him and do her best to look him in the eyes. "I'm an adrenaline junkie Nick…"

"Like hell Marguerite!" he said. "Don't you care about what I want? Hell you are probably getting a high off of this argument."

"Don't make me the bad guy here Nicky," she said picking up her suite case. "There is no bad guy here…you were the closest thing to a cop that I ever dated Texan, I'll never forget you."

"Where are you going?" he asked finding his voice getting horse.

"I'm not sure," she told him with a shrug. "But that is the excitement of life…" She kissed him and then had left his apartment.

"Nick," Sara said looking at her fiancée, who was staring into his coffee cup lost in thought.

"Huh?" he said, his head jerking upward as he bobbled the coffee, the hot coffee splashed onto his hand jarring him from his memories. "Sorry could you repeat what you just said?"

"I said, tell us about Marguerite," Sara replied as she sat down next to him.

"She was beautiful, smart, intelligent, and an adrenaline junkie…" he replied as his mind drifted back to his memories.

"Adrenaline Junkie?" Sara said. "Sounds like a real classy girl Nick."

He had been in a rush trying to get ready for work, as was, he was already running late; the power outage the night before had occurred while he had been sleeping and he had only awoken in time to glance at his watch to realize what time it was. As he quickly moved through his apartment, he heard the incessant knocking on the door and assumed it that of his next-door neighbors. Grabbing his backpack he had swung open the door and nearly steamrolled her.

"Marguerite!" he had said in surprise. "Um what are you doing here? I'm kind of running late for work."

"You need to take her," Marguerite had said thrusting the four-month-old baby girl into his arms.

"Whoa there Marg," he said, "What's going on? Who is she?"

"Your daughter," she said as she shoved a baby bag and baby carrier at him as well. It had been close to a year since he had last seen her, and if his math was correct there was a possibility that the four month he held awkwardly in his arms was his. The baby had creamy healthy pink skin and color, with the same dark hair and eyes that he had.

"You sure Marg?" He had asked still looking at the baby.

"There's been no one else Nick," she said. "I need you to take Emily, I'm not cut out to be a mother, Nick." She ran a hand over the baby's head and soft silky hair. "All the proper legal documents are in the baby bag. You have full custody."

"Now Marguerite…" he had started.

"My plane leaves in an hour Nicky," she had interrupted. "I'll send you the checks and money to help raise her. But I don't have the time or need to have a daughter."

"If you are in trouble, let me help you?" he said. "Tell me what your trouble is?"

"You are holding her," She said. "I can't be a mother; she needs to be raised by someone who loves her. You can do that Nick…" she turned and ran down the steps of the complex and out to the taxi that was waiting.

"Marguerite!" He had yelled after her. "What am I supposed to do about…" he looked down at the baby in his arms. The baby blinked her big brown eyes up at him. "…Emily…" the four-month-old gurgled and cooed.

"Hey there Emily," he said to the little princess in his arms. "Ready to go with…Daddy? To work?" he knelt, strapped her carefully into the carrier, and then carried her and the diaper bag down to his SUV.

"You are late Nick," Grissom had called out to him as he entered the facility carrying the carrier and diaper bag along with his backpack.

"I know," he said looking at his boss and then down at the baby. "Had a domestic dispute…"

Grissom had merely raised his eyes and said, "This isn't a place for a baby."

He walked into the break room and placed the baby carrier on the table, his daughter looking around with big dark eyes.

"Um when did you become a daddy Nick?" Sara had asked as she looked up from a magazine.

"Oh you know maybe half and hour ago…" he had drawled as he fiddled with the buckle on the carrier. Catherine came over and easily popped the release and lifted the baby out and settled her in her arms.

"So who is this little girl?" Catherine asked as she smiled down at the baby girl dressed in a pink-footed romper.

"My daughter apparently," he had replied. Warrick raised his eyebrows.

"You mean you don't know?" Warrick countered with a mischievous grin.

"Of course I know," he said back, then after a minute said, "Well no…not really, it's complicated." He reached into the diaper bag and pulled out the envelope containing the legal documents. "According to these, she is my daughter, Emily Marguerite Stokes."

"Marguerite, didn't want anything to do with being a mother," Nick replied slowly. "She said it herself to me when she dropped off Emily."

Sara sighed and gave his hand a light squeeze, "I'm sorry Nick," she said.

Meanwhile at the Stokes's ranch style house on the outskirts of Vegas, Warrick and Greg were going over the house gathering evidence and seeing if they could discover more of what had happened in the abduction of Emily.

"Now, according to Nick, Emily's room was in the back of the house and outside her window was a lush lawn," Greg Sanders said to Warrick as they walked through the house.

"Which is correct, so what does that tell us?" Warrick asked Greg.

"That the evidence of the abductors will be on the lawn," said Greg as he followed Warrick out the back door to the patio and set down his field kit.

"Doesn't it feel weird that we are looking for evidence in Nick's backyard?" Greg asked a moment later as he moved around the perimeter of the backyard.

Warrick didn't answer at first then he said, "Bingo, Greg I've got a print."

"Of what?" Greg asked looking over at Warrick who was crouched down in the middle of the lawn about six feet from the window.

"Full body print," came Warrick's reply, "Seems like Nick's daughter is going to be a CSI herself."

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