DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: M - Mature (language, sexual situations, adult subject matter)
PAIRINGS: GSR & Yo!Bling pre-established in previous fics of this timeline.
SPOILERS: Sequel to "Displacement", "Transitions" and "Vicissitudes" - Number 5 in the Discovery Series
SUMMARY: Sometimes, the best way the deal with the changes all around you is to stop fighting and evolve in response to them. GSR/Yo!Bling/Nick-OC
A/N: Just in case you thought the Doc might have gotten soft... This should definitely fix that notion.
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.
Chapter 26
16:15 – 2007.01.23
Clark County Courthouse: Grand Jury Room
Nick spent the day sitting at the ADA's table helping him to present the evidence in the case to the Grand Jury. If testifying was a nightmare, being at the table was a frightening hallucination. That was, until the Doc started to testify.
She answered Sinclair's questions as though she had written them herself, she presented her findings with such clarity he was sure even Hodges would have gotten it, and she engaged each jury member as they asked their own questions. When she was done, there was no doubt in anyone's mind as to the validity of their probable cause. She had done an amazing job of not only sealing their conviction, but she also charmed the entire jury with her demeanor and congeniality.
Halfway through her testimony Nick motioned for one of the court officers to come to the table in order to ask him to escort Dr. Desmaiseaux from the stand. He noticed that she had a little more of a limp than he remembered. He then realized her newly injured leg might have been the issue. Nick figured that she would be more upset if she faltered when she left, than to have been escorted by an officer, so he took the chance.
All in all, her testimony lasted more than an hour. During that whole time, Nick found that he was unable to take his eyes off of her. The way her hair swept down over the right side of her face, the way she kept the left side tucked behind her ear. He watched her put on and take off her glasses each time she had to refer to her notes, or the maps. He noticed that the chain she kept her glasses on was beaded with what looked like alternating beads of amber and bloodstone. He thought that the red contrasted sharply with the deep rich color of her dark hair. He found that she rarely moved her right hand, instead she left it in her lap, keeping it hidden from the jurors.
However, the thing that stood out most in his mind as he watched her walk past him on the arm of the officer, was the way her eyes appeared like dark mirrors. He had no idea what the color really was, because he could only see their dark, almost obsidian texture. His last thought as the doors closed behind her was that he felt like someone could get lost in those eyes.
Before his mind could drift any further into unknown territory, Sinclair drew his attention back to the task at hand. The ADA gave his last statements and thanked the jurors for their time. Nick helped the man pack up the evidence and hoped he managed to get back to the hall before everyone had left the waiting room.
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As she re-organized all of her notes, R.J. remarked to herself that she only wished congressional hearings were as easy as the grand jury process. She thought things would be so much easier if she could just go in, present her findings, answer a few questions and be back on her way, instead of wading through days of lunatic antics and inane repetitive questions designed to try and stall or crush her findings under the weight of their bureaucratic shenanigans.
Her other thought as she put her notes away was far less academic. She thought that those hearings would also be a lot more pleasant if she always had something like Nick Stokes to look at across the table. The instant the thought registered in her mind she shook her head and chastised herself for having taken such a low road. She had no idea why the thought made it into her conscious mind, but she knew a murder case was no place for such base thinking.
As she closed up her briefcase an officer came into the waiting room. "Doctor… They just released the jury for deliberation, so you can head out anytime you like."
She smiled at the man and said, "Thank you… Could you find an officer by the name of Don? He put my scooter away for me."
"Oh yeah, sure. I'll get it and bring it out to the corridor for you, if you like." The man was being genuinely kind and she had to admit that it was also a much nicer environment than Capitol Hill.
She gathered up the rest of her things and put them in the case before she slung it over her right shoulder. As she limped into the corridor she felt a twinge from the wound she sustained during her last ill-fated trip out to the research site. That was when she realized that her CSI rescuer must have noticed the added limp when he asked the officer to escort her from the stand. The thought made her chuckle, and she knew she should probably thank him for his efforts.
She had been preoccupied with maintaining her façade of complete control when the whole thing happened, and she was aware that she had probably been a little rude to him in the process. She also realized that with the grand jury thing complete, it was entirely likely she was no longer needed to provide a reason for their searches, so she decided to wait for him so she could make amends before she no longer had an excuse. It was bad enough that she had to thank him for the rescue without having to seek him out to do it.
Walking out into the corridor she was able to peek into the grand jury room and saw that he was busy packing up the case with that insipid man. Not wanting to have anything more to do with the ADA she decided to wait outside. Little did she know there was a far more frustrating excuse for a human being out in the hall.
"You academic types… You make all your theories and guesswork sound like facts whenever someone shines a camera light in your direction, don't you?" She turned toward the voice and found a slimy looking man in a three piece suit pointing a briefcase at her in accusation.
"Excuse me?" Others in her life had discovered over the years that those words, when used together, were the equivalent of hearing the following over a loud speaker; Let's get ready to RRRRUMMMMMMMBLE!
"You heard me…" The man pushed his jacket back with his free hand in an attempt to take on a posture of defiance. "You hired gun experts are all alike. You can twist anything around for your own purposes… For a price, that is." That was the nail that sealed the lawyer into his own coffin.
"Let me guess… You must be the drug runner's defense lawyer, aren't you?" The man snorted to show his dissatisfaction in her question of him. "Maybe if you didn't spend your life around scumbag, low-life death dealers you might be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction you scum sucking, worm ridden piece of shit." And so the battle began.
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When Nick looked down at his watch for about the tenth time, Sinclair finally had enough. "Stokes… Just…get out of here. I've got the evidence voucher and I'll log this stuff back in."
Nick tried to hold back the grin threatening to fall over his face when he asked, "Are you sure?"
"Please… You're making me nervous with all that clock watching. Go!" Nick took the man at his word and bolted for the door. It was the first thing the man had ever done to make Nick think he might still be a human being.
Before he realized what he was doing Nick found himself practically trotting to the doors leading into the corridor. He forced himself to calm down as he reached for the handles on the doors, but that thought ended when he heard the raised voices assaulting his ears the moment the doors were breached.
"I suggest you back right the fuck off me, you sick son of a bitch."
"Not until you admit your findings are total crap, you elitist cow!"
That was all Nick needed to hear before he burst out of the grand jury room and headed straight for the ruckus. He was not the only one, as two of the court officers also arrived on the scene at the same time. Nick immediately positioned himself between the Doc and the lawyer in the hopes of dampening the fire that had obviously been kicked off.
However, his efforts were thwarted when the Doc moved around him as she said, "If you think these guys could keep me from kicking your scrawny ass up and down this courthouse, you got another thing coming you pathetic excuse for a man!"
"You heard her!? She threatened me! I want her arrested." The lawyer immediately tried to convince them of her wrong doing, but the officers had other ideas.
"I might… If I wasn't checking with the doctor about whether or not she was gonna press charges against you for assault." The sheriff's deputy was dead serious and Nick's face went white with the possibilities.
"What?! What happened?!" Nick looked back at the Doc to make sure she was okay while he waited for the officer to explain.
"Pretty much shows a man's character when he tries to knock a crutch out from under a woman like that." He turned to the Doc and asked, "How about it, Ma'am? You wanna press charges?" He then stared back at the lawyer when he added, "Or would you like us to turn around while you smack him in the head a few times with that crutch?"
"It's a conspiracy! When I tell the judge exactly what you pe-"
"Headley, give it up you moron." Sinclair appeared behind them. As the other lawyer turned to face Sinclair he finished. "You can try all the histrionics you want, but we both know the judge is sooner to believe two court officers, a highly respected CSI and an assistant director of the EPA over a second rate, bottomed out, once disbarred hack of a lawyer."
"Not to mention the fact that if you come at me with your ex parte crap again, I'll have your bar license mounted on my fucking mantle, you little reptile!" Nick found that he had to restrain the Doc as she actually got physical with her last exclamation. It was made even harder by the fact that he was trying not laugh.
The sheriff's deputies led the man away from the group as Sinclair turned back to them, while Nick attempted to calm the Doc down. "Well, I think this has made me realize one thing… If I ever come close to ticking you off that bad, will you please warn me so I can try to fix it before I end up dead?"
"You came close last week… If it weren't for this guy intervening, you might have found out just how real those threats were." She was deadly serious, but Nick still had to struggle to refrain from smiling at the humor of it all.
Sinclair pinched his face and nodded his head. "Good to know… Stokes, thank you for the save and thank you both for the testimony. I'm pretty sure this one is a slam dunk, and the judge won't have a choice but to accept your findings as justification for the warrants."
Nick nodded his head, but the Doc simply stared him down. Sinclair took the hint and slinked away back into the shadows. Nick was just glad he was no longer on the receiving end of one of those looks.
"So, you've had a big day… You got all dressed up, charmed a jury, and destroyed two lawyers' egos without even breaking a sweat. Nicely done." Nick decided humor was his best course of action, since it had become impossible for him to hide his smile any longer.
When she turned to him she was still filled with the same bluster she once directed at the attorneys, but it quickly faded, and in its place Nick thought he saw a bit of delight in those impossibly dark eyes. "Yeah, well, you should see me in a congressional hearing when I really get going."
"That would be somethin' to see, I imagine." Just as he predicted earlier, he found himself a little lost in her eyes as they spoke. He shook himself from the reverie and spoke to clear the rest of the cobwebs. "So, seriously… Are you okay?"
"I'm fine… But that guy was about two seconds away from having a nasty lump on his pointed head." She took in a deep breath, and leaned on her crutch a little more than usual.
"Hey, let me get your scooter from the bailiff's office." Nick was about to head off to get the item in question, but he found that Don had already retrieved it. "Or somebody else could've already done that."
"Looks like you don't have the market cornered on manners, Stokes." She turned to the deputy and said, "Thanks, Don. You've been a huge help the last couple days."
"Hey, anytime, Doc." He gave her a playful bow and said, "It's been a pleasure. And thanks for explaining that whole drainage thing for me. I'd hate to get ripped off with something like that."
"No problem, and remember, it's your right to ask for their EPA compliance documentation. If they can't produce it, just call your local field office. With the enforcement of the Storm Water Management Practices fines, no builder can afford to have the EPA breathing down their necks." The Doc held out her left hand and the deputy gladly shook it. "If you have any trouble at all, call my office at the campus and one of my people will be happy to walk you through the process."
"Thanks again, Doc. You've been great." Nick watched as the deputy walked away.
He was about to say something when she beat him to the punch. "Stokes… You and me have some unfinished business."
Nick was confused, so he tried to figure it out. "I can't imagine what that might be, but I'll tell ya what… I was really impressed with your testimony today. I don't think I've ever seen a better expert witness in my life, and I really wanted to thank you for stickin' with this thing, so would you care to join me for a little dinner?"