He sighed and sat down in the chair behind him and closed his eyes. He put his elbow on the armrest and rested his head in his hand. He tried to focus on the case, but that wasn't working too well. That was probably why he couldn't find something that was most likely the most obvious thing in the world. He knew it didn't help much that he had only taken 5 days off work. Or that their vic's name just so happened to be Greg.
Nick sighed heavily in defeat when Warrick walked into the layout room.
"Need some help?" He asked.
"Please." Nick said as he handed the pictures to Warrick.
"Hey man...you should go home and get some rest. You're too rundown to work."
Nick didn't have time to argue. Judy's voice came over the loudspeaker and asked for Nick Stokes to please come down to reception because he had a visitor. He frowned. The last person who had visited him at work had been Kelly Gordon. "Who the hell could that be?"
Warrick shrugged. "Go find out."
Nick didn't waste anymore time. He was glad for the distraction. He made his way to the lobby and walked up to the only person sitting in the chairs and smiled as best he could. "Hi, I'm Nick...can I help you?"
The young girl, who Nick guessed couldn't have been in her twenties yet, looked up and smiled sadly. She stood and shook his hand weakly, but didn't meet his eyes. "I'm...Renee LaRande."
"Nice to meet you Renee...what can I do for you?"
Nick was surprised when he saw a few tears fall from her dark green eyes. "I'm the one...who was in the accident...with Greg." She said softly.
"Oh." Nick said, for lack of a better word.
More tears started to fall from her eyes. "I'm so sorry...I really didn't mean to...I should have been paying more attention to what I was doing..."
Nick shook his head. "It wasn't your fault, calm down. It's okay." He led her to the break room and got her a cup of coffee and handed it to her. She smiled slightly and sat down next to Nick at the table. "Don't blame yourself for what happened, okay?"
"But it was my fault. I just went to change the station and I didn't even see him coming..."
Nick put his hand on her arm. "That's probably what he was doing too." He said with a small smile.
She laughed slightly, but then her smile was gone. "You can call my lawyer after you press charges, my dad said-"
Nick cut her off. "I'm not pressing charges."
"Why? It was my fault, not his."
Nick shrugged. "Even if it was, it doesn't matter. I know you didn't mean to hurt anyone. Besides, Greg wouldn't want that. He'd want you to stop feeling guilty for something you didn't do on purpose."
Renee shook her head slowly. "I don't understand how you're being so nice. I know that you two were...together...you lost someone you love...and you're not even mad at me."
Nick smiled. "Making you feel anymore guitly wouldn't be right. Accidents happen. I'm just glad you weren't hurt too."
Renee smiled slightly. "He must have been one great guy to have snagged someone like you...I'm so sorry."
Nick nodded. "Yeah, he was. But I'm the lucky one, not him."
Sorry this chapter was so short, but I promise that the next one will be much longer.