~Epilogue~
The trip to Texas went far better than Nick could have imagined. He was right, his family did love Sara, and while they were disappointed that they hadn't been able to be there when they'd gotten married, when they found out that Sara was pregnant, they were ecstatic. Nick had a difficult time telling his family about the earthquake and how he and Sara had been trapped under the rubble. Both he and Sara were in tears as he told them he had feared he'd never get the chance to see them again, and never get to tell them how much he loved each and every one of them, but that he had been afraid to tell them about it because he hadn't wanted them to worry about him and that he hadn't been quite ready to deal with it himself.
Nick's family assured him and Sara that regardless of the fact that they didn't quite understand why they got married so quickly and why Nick felt the need to keep the situation about the earthquake to himself, that they were there for both of them and with another Stokes on the way, they wanted to be as supportive as possible.
Sara felt so welcomed by all of the Stokes that she felt a little overwhelmed. Nick's sisters made sure that she knew that they expected her to call them if she had any questions about what she might need for the baby and if what she was experiencing was normal, they even bought her a book called 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' so she would feel more comfortable about the changes that her body was going to go through and so Nick would have some sort of clue of what to expect.
Nick and Sara called her parents from Texas and when they told them that they were going to be grandparents, they did indeed freak out as Sara had thought they would.
Two weeks went by faster than either Nick or Sara had anticipated and by the time they got back to Vegas, they were much more relaxed and felt a bit more comfortable with parenthood looming off in the not too distant future.
When they returned to work, Grissom had sat down with them and suggested that they continue with the counselor for at least a couple of months and that he would make sure that their days off would coincide. Having the people around them being supportive of them while they worked through the transitions and the trauma helped considerably.
Finally, seven months after they returned from Texas the Vegas police finally picked up the prime suspect in the murder of Candice Matthews. Raymond Martin was pulled over for a minor traffic violation and the officer who stopped him ran his name through the law enforcement database to see if he had any outstanding warrants. When the officer realized Raymond Martin was wanted on suspicion of murder, the he had called for backup and made an arrest. Once they had him in custody and obtained a warrant for his DNA, they were able to make a comparison to the mystery donor from the murder weapon.
It was a match. They could conclusively put him at the scene of the murder even though the scene itself had been destroyed in the earthquake. When confronted with the evidence, Raymond Martin confessed to the crime in hopes that he would escape the death penalty, and indeed did get a plea agreement with the district attorney.
Finally, almost nine months after the earthquake, they closed the book on the case that had produced near tragedy for the all of the CSIs. While this event brought the CSIs a great deal of satisfaction, another event which happened shortly after Raymond Martin was arrested brought an even greater deal of satisfaction.
Sara went into labor early, and after sixteen and a half hours, little Hannah Joy Stokes was born.
~ The End ~
A/N: Many thanks to my reviewers. I appreciate you taking the time to tell me what you think of the story. Your time is valuable and I hope that you enjoyed the story. If you want to learn more about earthquakes, please go to www.usgs.gov for some interesting facts and a real time earthquake map. I also want to thank several of my engineer friends who specialize in soils and earthquake engineering for the knowledge I've gleaned from working with them. And finally thanks to my beta Brianna for her great input.
The trip to Texas went far better than Nick could have imagined. He was right, his family did love Sara, and while they were disappointed that they hadn't been able to be there when they'd gotten married, when they found out that Sara was pregnant, they were ecstatic. Nick had a difficult time telling his family about the earthquake and how he and Sara had been trapped under the rubble. Both he and Sara were in tears as he told them he had feared he'd never get the chance to see them again, and never get to tell them how much he loved each and every one of them, but that he had been afraid to tell them about it because he hadn't wanted them to worry about him and that he hadn't been quite ready to deal with it himself.
Nick's family assured him and Sara that regardless of the fact that they didn't quite understand why they got married so quickly and why Nick felt the need to keep the situation about the earthquake to himself, that they were there for both of them and with another Stokes on the way, they wanted to be as supportive as possible.
Sara felt so welcomed by all of the Stokes that she felt a little overwhelmed. Nick's sisters made sure that she knew that they expected her to call them if she had any questions about what she might need for the baby and if what she was experiencing was normal, they even bought her a book called 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' so she would feel more comfortable about the changes that her body was going to go through and so Nick would have some sort of clue of what to expect.
Nick and Sara called her parents from Texas and when they told them that they were going to be grandparents, they did indeed freak out as Sara had thought they would.
Two weeks went by faster than either Nick or Sara had anticipated and by the time they got back to Vegas, they were much more relaxed and felt a bit more comfortable with parenthood looming off in the not too distant future.
When they returned to work, Grissom had sat down with them and suggested that they continue with the counselor for at least a couple of months and that he would make sure that their days off would coincide. Having the people around them being supportive of them while they worked through the transitions and the trauma helped considerably.
Finally, seven months after they returned from Texas the Vegas police finally picked up the prime suspect in the murder of Candice Matthews. Raymond Martin was pulled over for a minor traffic violation and the officer who stopped him ran his name through the law enforcement database to see if he had any outstanding warrants. When the officer realized Raymond Martin was wanted on suspicion of murder, the he had called for backup and made an arrest. Once they had him in custody and obtained a warrant for his DNA, they were able to make a comparison to the mystery donor from the murder weapon.
It was a match. They could conclusively put him at the scene of the murder even though the scene itself had been destroyed in the earthquake. When confronted with the evidence, Raymond Martin confessed to the crime in hopes that he would escape the death penalty, and indeed did get a plea agreement with the district attorney.
Finally, almost nine months after the earthquake, they closed the book on the case that had produced near tragedy for the all of the CSIs. While this event brought the CSIs a great deal of satisfaction, another event which happened shortly after Raymond Martin was arrested brought an even greater deal of satisfaction.
Sara went into labor early, and after sixteen and a half hours, little Hannah Joy Stokes was born.
~ The End ~
A/N: Many thanks to my reviewers. I appreciate you taking the time to tell me what you think of the story. Your time is valuable and I hope that you enjoyed the story. If you want to learn more about earthquakes, please go to www.usgs.gov for some interesting facts and a real time earthquake map. I also want to thank several of my engineer friends who specialize in soils and earthquake engineering for the knowledge I've gleaned from working with them. And finally thanks to my beta Brianna for her great input.