Nick sighed, but smiled nontheless. He was sitting beside Alex on the plane that was taking them to Texas. It had taken Nick a little longer than he would have liked to tell his family about him having a kid now and everything. He kept getting distracted from doing so by countless things. His older brother Colin had been the only one he had told right away because Nick was closest with him and trusted him. But he knew he had put it off too long and his family was eager to meet the new addition. And to yell at Nick either for his decision or for waiting so long to tell them.
"Once you meet everyone, you'll understand why this couldn't wait." Nick replied.
"That means they're gonna hate me, doesn't it?" Alex asked. He was extremely nervous about meeting his new family. He had never had a family before, and now he was going to meet a very, very large one.
"They're not gonna hate you. No one's gonna hate you. They're gonna be mad at me, not you."
"Why are they mad at you?"
"Because I waited so long to tell them about you. They like to know everything right away...and I didn't exactly do that."
Alex shrugged. "Well, you could have never told them about me. Then we wouldn't have to go back to Texas like you said I would never have to if I didn't want to and I don't."
Nick turned slightly at looked at Alex. "This is for a completely different reason. I'm not sending you back to live with your mom. I'm taking you to meet your family."
"What if it's a trick to get me to go back?" Alex asked.
"You don't trust me?"
Alex dropped his eyes to his hands, then brought them back up to Nick's eyes. "I trust you. But it's not like it hasn't happened to me before."
"You have a good point. But believe me Alex, I don't really want to go back either. I love my family, but there's a reason why I left Texas and moved to Vegas. And anyway, if I was sending you back to your mom, I wouldn't have come with you and left Maverick with Warrick."
Alex laughed. "Warrick loves Mav. But Mav loves Warrick more."
Nick nodded. "Yeah he does. Now will you relax? Everything's gonna be fine."
Colin picked Nick and Alex up at the airport. After a short time of walking around looking for each other, Nick finally spotted his older brother.
"There he is." Nick said, pointing Colin out to Alex.
"He looks like us." Alex observed.
"Well he is my brother." Nick commented. Alex just rolled his eyes playfully and followed his dad over to his new uncle.
Colin Stokes was a little taller than Nick and had tanner skin. His eyes were green, not brown like Nick's. His hair was a shade lighter and a lot shorter than Nick's. He was also more muscular and looked like he spent a lot of time in the gym. As they drew nearer, Alex noticed that he had a scar on his left arm that ran from his wrist to his elbow and ended just before the tan skin disappeared under the black button up shirt Colin was wearing with the sleeves rolled up.
"Woah." Colin greeted his brother and new nephew.
Nick laughed. "That seems to be the general reaction I keep getting."
"Well he just...he is definitely your son." Colin said.
"We already know that." Alex said matter of factly.
"Alex, this is your uncle Colin."
"Nice to meet ya kid." Colin said as he smiled down at Alex.
Alex returned the smile. "Hi." He said shyly and stood close to his dad.
Alex didn't pay attention to what the brothers were saying as they walked to Colin's car. He was looking around him at the large airport and then at all the people and cars once they got out into the parking lot. Last time he had been here he hadn't gotten the chance to look around. Even if he had, he had been too scared to care. But now he was anything but scared and took in his surroundings. Before he knew it they had reached the car and Colin had already helped Nick put the bags in the trunk.
Alex rode silently in the back seat and stared out his window the entire hour long ride back to the ranch. He was mesmerized by all the buildings and people they passed. It was a very hot day out, but in the air conditioned car everything looked perfect. The sky was bright blue with just the right amount of clouds dotting it white. Alex became aware of the swealtering heat again when they got out of the car and back into the sun when they arrived at the ranch.
The buildings and people had been amazing to look at, but the house in front of him was something entirely different. Alex couldn't believe people lived here. When they had turned onto the driveway, Alex thought it was a street until they came up to the house. It was the biggest house Alex had ever seen. The front porch was seperated from the driveway by about fifty feet of perfect green grass. The porch ran all along the front of the house and wrapped around the sides, leading to the back. The dark blue paint looked like it had just been painted on yesterday.
Alex followed Nick and Colin up the front steps and into the house through the big, white front door. They entered the small foyer with a sitting room with chairs and a fireplace to their right, the staircase to the second floor in front of them and a doorway leading off into the dining room. Alex followed Nick into the dining room and then into the kitchen while Colin went upstairs with their bags. From the kitchen they went into the extremely large living room that had windows on three sides and two large glass doors on the far wall that lead onto the back deck. Alex looked out the door and into the vast backyard filled with trees and plants. At the edge of the yard, just before it ended and became woods was a large red barn.
The young boy hadn't even noticed the other people in the living room because he was so occupied with look at everything around him. When he finally noticed that they were there, his nervousness returned and he forgot about all the great things he had just seen. He stood as close as possible to his dad and looked down at the floor.
Colin returned and stood next to his brother for a second before the went over and sat down on the small couch facing everyone else on the leather wrap around couch that was next to an oak door in the corner and stretched across two walls of the living room and surrounded the plasma screen TV and stereo. Everyone was silent for a long time until all five of Nick's sisters spoke at once.
"Woah." They said in unison.
Alex turned and looked up at his dad. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"
Nick laughed and shook his head. "I don't know buddy."
Colin nudged his younger brother. "Introduce everyone so this isn't so awakward."
"Oh...okay." Nick took a deep breath and started at the left of the couch. "Alex, this is my dad, my mom, and my sisters Jen, Kristin, Lauryn, Jill, and Abbey." He said as he pointed each one out.
"Hi." Alex said shyly.
"Hi." Everyone said with big smiles.
Nick's mother, Jillian Stokes, put her hand to her heart and sighed. "He looks exactly like Nicky did when he was young. That is so adorable."
Jen nodded in agreement. "Yeah he does. He could pass off as our little brother."
Bill Stokes seemed less amused as everyone else. "Poncho, can your mother and I speak to you in the other room, please?"
Nick nodded silently and stood from the couch. He followed his parents through the oak door on the other side of the room, which Alex guessed was a study by the desk and large bookcase he saw when the door opened. Then the door closed and the three occupents were out of sight, but could still be heard through the door.
Nick sat down on the big leather chair in the corner of the room that was used for reading. He knew the drill by now. Whenever he or one of his siblings had gotten in trouble, they were brought into the study for a chat with their parents. Nick sat there silently and waited for his father to start.
"Okay...why don't you just give us your side of the story and explain how all this happened." Bill said.
Nick took another deep breath. "Well, when Colin got married, I met Steph because she was friends with Chelsea in high school. We danced a couple times at the wedding and then after...you get the idea."
"You slept with her when you barely knew her." Jillian finished.
"Yeah. But I was pretty drunk and so was she."
Bill shook his head. "That's not a good excuse Nicholas."
Nick knew his father was mad because he called him by his birthname and not the nickname he had gone by since before he could remember. "Look, I know I screwed up."
Jillian nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you did. And now you're taking full responsibility of another life?"
"Yeah, I am. I know you guys think it's a bad idea, but I don't. I know what I did may be looked at as a mistake, but if I could go back I wouldn't change what I did. I'd only change that I didn't know my son was alive until eight years after he was born. Would you have rathered me send him back to live with his mom, who didn't even care about him or take care of him?"
Bill shook his head. "Of course not. But how do you think you can raise a child by yourself?"
A smile formed on Nick's lips. "I had great parents raise me, so I know what to do. And it's not like I'm completely alone. I have Catherine, Warrick, Greg, Sara and even Grissom helping me. I have a good job and make plenty of money and have great friends and family to make sure I don't screw up."
Bill wasn't convinced. "What if you can't handle it, or after a little while don't want to do it anymore?"
"That's not gonna happen. He's my son, I love that kid."
"Your fathers right Nick. It's a lot harder than you think it is." Jillian said.
"I know that. It's gonna be the hardest thing I'm ever gonna have to do. But I know it's gonna be worth it. I respect your opinion and concern, but I'm an adult now and there's nothing you or anyone else can say that will make me change my mind about this."
Next chapter should be up soon. Sorry for any confusion, but this is going to be a long story that covers Alex growing up with Nick.
Thanks for the reviews, and any suggestions are welcomed.
