Chapter 5

It was foggy, and he was walking through a field, trying to find something…but what? "Nick!" Came a voice through the haze, and he laughed out loud as he recognized the voice and saw his love standing not that far away, waving and beckoning to him. "Come on!"

So he started to run towards her, but he couldn't get close. Every time she was within a few feet of his grasp, she'd suddenly be ages away, but he continued on, even as his legs began to ache, and he tried to call, but his voice seemed to die as soon as it left his mouth.

Suddenly she was right in front of him, smiling, and one hand held out to take his hand. He smiled gratefully, reaching to grab her and pull her into his arms and never let go. However, just as he made contact, she faded into the mist, and he was holding onto nothing.

"No!" He yelled angrily, and started to run through the mist, searching for her. Where was she? She wasn't gone, it must have been a trick of the light, and she was just hiding from him, somewhere in this mist.

Suddenly his feet went over the edge and he went head over heels into darkness, only to…

…Jerk awake as he made contact with the floor of the hospital, where he'd fallen from the couch he'd been lying on. He had been sleeping, which he had only agreed to do as long as the couch was put in Dani's room. The 'box of memories' was still sitting on the table, a few more items sitting around it, each one having been cherished, the moment remembered, and then carefully placed aside. He had only been taking out one thing every few days and it had been three weeks. He had only left the hospital once the entire time, to get a supply of clean clothes, so that he wouldn't have to leave again.

He was breathing heavily, as if he'd just run a marathon, and looked instinctively towards the bed, listening to the heart monitors which reassured him that she was still there, that she hadn't faded away, like in the dream. He moved over to the bed, giving the still form a soft kiss on the forehead before sitting down at the table again, pulling the box down onto his lap and rummaging again, coming up with a book. Curious as to why Dani had put the book in there, he opened it and jumped as out fell a rose, carefully pressed inside the book. He immediately knew where it came from, and he smiled as he picked up the delicate flower, remembering…

It was September 3rd, the day before Danielle's birthday. Well, actually, it was technically the 4th, since it was nearly eleven in the morning .She and Nick had been officially in a relationship for about five or six months, not that either of them were counting. All the time they stayed together felt like an eternity, and it was wonderful.

She was absolutely exhausted, having just worked a triple shift, and Nick drove her to his house, leaving her blue Toyota parked at the crime lab. She managed to stay awake, and they rode in the comfortable silence that only people in love could manage. When they arrived, they both walked into his house, and he climbed into bed in just his jeans, while she changed into a pair of his sweatpants and a loose T-shirt. She climbed into bed next to him, and he wrapped his arms around her, with her head resting in the crook of his neck.

"I love you…" She whispered before closing her eyes, and he said the same into her ear. They said the same thing to each other every night, but it was just as heartfelt each time. They fell asleep like that, snuggled up with each other, each keeping the other warm. Well, Dani had anyway. As soon as he was sure she was asleep, he had carefully extricated himself, being careful not to wake her, and slipped out of bed, walking around to the other side and snapping off his alarm. Dani had the next night off, because of some weird rules about overtime that he didn't really understand. It was time to get ready.

It was nearly ten hours later before Dani finally awoke on her own, sighing sleepily and opening her eyes. She rolled over; finding that the usual warmth she woke up with wasn't there and sat up, rubbing her eyes and blinking blearily at the clock, which read 9:30. After that triple shift, Grissom had told her that she had today off, so she assumed Nick was out of the house and at work already. Yawning, she climbed out of bed and towards the hallway, only to stop and stare down at the floor, which had two lines of small tea candles making a pathway down the hall.

They were all lit up, and she started to walk along the man-made pathway, smiling at the atmosphere the candles created. The candles led down the main hallway and towards the living room, leading to the table in the center of the room, which had a small package with a rose lying on the top. She put one hand over her mouth, totally shocked.

She then moved over to the table, carefully picking up the rose and smelling it, inhaling the fragrance before placing it carefully to one side and picking up the package, which had been carefully wrapped in red wrapping paper that matched the rose. Opening it, she found a velvet jewelry box, on which was attached a note. She carefully took out the note, reading it and smiling at the simple but romantic message.

Happy Birthday

To my one and only shining star,

I love you more than anything in the whole world

Love, Nick

Carefully opening the box, she found a silver necklace, which was a silver chain, attached to a diamond-rimmed star at the very end. She started crying with a strong surge of emotions. As soon as she'd admired the necklace from every angle, she put it on carefully, as much as it obviously didn't go with the T-shirt and sweatpants she was wearing. She then picked up the rose, and started towards the kitchen, searching for a vase to put it in.

Just then, the phone rang, and she picked it up, saying, "Hello?" She smiled into the phone as she recognized the voice on the other end who was singing softly, a verse from a song from her favourite movie, Singing in the Rain.

"You are my lucky star…

I saw you from afar…

Your eyes at me they were beaming…

Gleaming…

I'm all starstruck…"

After a few seconds of silence, he spoke into the phone, sounding a bit choked up. "Happy Birthday, Danielle…I love you…" She started to cry into the phone, but choked out an answer. "I love you too, Nick Stokes, thank you…" After a few more seconds of talking, in which she told him how much she had loved the present, he said he had to go, because Grissom was about to give him an assignment. She smiled and said goodbye, with one more whispered "I love you" exchanged. She left the candles out, but blew them out for safety reasons…and that morning when he came home, they had breakfast together, her still wearing the necklace, then fallen asleep together, content.

As he broke out of his reverie, he looked down at the rose. He hadn't realized she'd kept the rose, just assumed it had eventually wilted and died. The rose as it appeared in his hand was barely wilted, so Dani had obviously pressed it the moment it started to die. She'd wanted to preserve the memory of that night in physical form. The necklace was merely the present; the candles and the rose signified the love and thought that had been put into it. The candles were still somewhere in his basement, carefully packed away until the next time they were needed.

He sighed, carefully replacing the rose inside the book, memorizing the page number, and placing the book on the table, but didn't continue to rummage through the box, placing it on the table. His heart was hurting, and he couldn't bear to look through any more things at the moment. He pulled his chair right up to the side of Dani's bed; his eyes wet with tears as he gently clasped her hand and started to talk again.

"Dani? You gotta wake up, Dani…you can't leave me…you can't…you just…you can't…I love you…please don't leave me alone…" His voice cracked and he started to sob, putting his face in his hand, still clasping Dani's hand with the other.

((Hope that's a long enough chapter…I don't want too much to happen at once, but there will be another chapter in not too long…in fact, I'm almost done writing it as I write this…))