She Lied!

Grissom and Dr. Robbins were standing over Katie's naked body laid out on the table. Her body was covered in bruises. Her face was the only part of her body that lacked signs of violence. It was more then just the bruises. There were cuts and burn marks on her arms and chest. Katie looked so peaceful, her red hair laid around her like a halo.

Robbins: Well, the cause of death was most likely blunt force trauma to the back of the head. Something very hard, probably metal. Too small to be a baseball bat. Tire iron or pipe maybe. I'll know for certain once I shave the hair away. Preliminary x-rays shows a freshly healed fracture on her wrist...not from falling either. She also had healed broken ribs, a few months old, and obviously extensive bruising all over her body. There were some healed cuts and cigarette burns on her arms as well. These injuries were consistent with steady abuse, going back at least eight months.

Grissom was disgusted. He rarely got personally involved in a case, but this was different. This woman had a child, with Nick Stokes of all people. He couldn't help but be emotional over this.

"What kind of sick son-of-a-bitch beats a pregnant woman?" he spat.

Robbins seemed surprised at the outrage in Grissom's voice. But he knew Grissom couldn't tolerate abuse.

"Oh! So you know that she just gave birth? It was about two months ago."

"Yeah, and it gets even worse. Nick Stokes is the father." Grissom cringed as the words came out of his mouth. He was never one to participate in office gossip, and he certainly didn't want the information to come out like that. But he also knew word would spread fast that Nick was the father of the missing baby, it's better that Robbins hear the truth from him.

"Oh, come on! You don't mean to tell me that Nick. caused this..."

"No...no..." Grissom retorted. "He just found out about the baby. She was living with some other guy."

Robbins shook his head, "I'm sorry, I should have known better than that. So that's the missing baby?"

Grissom just nodded.

Robbins felt a little foolish that he even thought for a moment that Nick could inflict this kind of damage on another human being, let alone the mother of his child. So Nick was a father. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Nick's exploits were legendary, even in the coroner's office.

Suddenly the autopsy room door opened with a bang. Grissom and Robbins jumped at the noise. Nick stormed into the room and over to the body. Grissom could see that Nick was on the edge and it worried him. He approached Nick with caution.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with Brass."

"Grissom, I had to, I had to see her. Did he beat her?"

Nick looked at Katie's battered body. He didn't have to wait for an answer. He couldn't believe the amount of bruises that covered her body. He had seen some bad stuff in all his years on the job, but this made Nick lose it.

"She lied to me! Dammit, she lied! I asked her if she was afraid of Roger and she said no, he was a decent guy. Does this look like something a decent guy would ever do?"

"Nick, calm down..." urged Grissom.

Nick paced around the room, rubbing his head and face. His blood was boiling. How could Grissom even say that? Could he even conceive of what Nick was going through?

"Stop it, Grissom!" Nick yelled. "Stop telling me to calm down! Three hours ago I was the happiest guy....I was meeting my daughter for the first time, and now I may never see her again."

Nick sunk into a chair in the corner. Tears streamed down his face. He didn't even try to hide his emotions. Robbins and Grissom just stared at Nick, they had never seen him lose it like that before.

Nick sobbed, "It's all my fault...I wasn't there for her...I should have tried harder."

Grissom normally wouldn't have tolerated this kind of behavior, but as he watched Nick cry in the corner, his heart felt for him. As a mentor, he had grown very fond of Nick. Grissom walked over and patted the him on the shoulder. He had seen Nick go through some rough stuff before, hell, he was almost killed a few times on the job. This was so much worse. He was trying to help Nick, he just didn't know how.

"Nick, come on..." he said in a quiet, soothing voice. "You have to pull yourself together. You can't help your daughter by blaming yourself. Let's go see what the others have found out."

Nick nodded and wiped his face. Normally he would have been ashamed by his breakdown, his tears, but he was too numb to care.

Robbin's looked at Nick. "Hey, Nick, good luck finding your daughter." Nick nodded appreciatively. He followed Grissom out the door. Robbins turned back to the body and let out a dismal sigh.