An: Once again thank you to my fans for reviewing. I'd like to take a brief moment and address you. I've noticed that a lot of people would like Nick to be able to keep the kids. This puts a slight damper in my plans of world domination, but I might think about it.

Chapter 6:

The next morning Nick woke up and got the girls, and himself, ready. He followed the directions Catherine gave him and they arrived at quarter after nine. The girls waited by the front desk while Nick went into Jeremy's office. "I appreciate you meeting with me on such short notice, Mr. Turner." Nick said shaking his hand.

"Please call me Jeremy. Now," He said pulling out a file. "Tell me what's going on."

"For the past month Katie Austin and April Howard have been in my custody."

"How did they come into your custody?" He asked taking notes.

"I was working a case that involved Katie and Todd Howard. It was then that their mother had informed me that I was Katie's biological father. She then told me to take them, and she kicked them out of her house."

"So you have been with the children since then." He said clarifying.

"Correct."

"This case involving the child, what did it involve?"

"We had gotten a call abut a fight breaking out in the house. April had called 911, and we found out that Katie was defending herself against Todd." He had made a copy of the report and handed it to Jeremy. "He was physically abusing her."

"I'm assuming that since you are just finding out about Katie, that your name is not on the birth certificate?"

"I don't know."

"Ok, we need to have proof that you are her biological father. So we need to have a paternity test taken." Nick nodded. "If we can show that you can support the children and prove that you are the father, I don't see how we can loose."

"There's one thing. I'm not April's father, Todd is."

Jeremy took a breath in thought. "You say that Katie was abused, correct?" Nick nodded. "This will be slightly more difficult. Do you think there is a chance that the mother will let you legally adopt the children?"

"I'm not sure."

"Alright, let me see what I can do. There is a possibility that Katie will need to testify in court about the physical abuse, and if we could get," He looked at the case file Nick had given him. "Gil Grissom, and yourself to talk about the evidence at the scene." He paused. "I can tell you right now Katie will not be a problem, but April might." He closed the files. "I suggest we meet in one week. That way I can go over your case and figure out the best way to approach it." He said as the two stood up and shook hands again.

"Thank you so much." Nick said before leaving. He walked out of the office and to the reception area where the kids were. "You two want some breakfast?" He asked.

"I do." April said excitedly. He picked her up and they exited the building.

After breakfast Nick took the girls home. When he reached the front door he found it unlocked. He handed his keys to Katie. "Go wait in the car and lock the doors. Don't come out until I come get you ok?" She was scared but she nodded and took April to the car.

Nick took his gun from his hip and pushed the door open with his sleeve. The whole living room was trashed along with the kitchen. He made his way down the hall listening for any noise. She looked in his bedroom, trashed. He looked in the girl's bedrooms, trashed. He went into Katie's room. The wall that was her favorite thing in the house, the wall that took her and Warrick a week to do, was trashed. The intruder took the black paint and wrote 'I'll be back' across the wall. He didn't need any more clues on who did this. As he walked out of the house he called Brass to report the breaking and entry. He hung up and walked to the car door. Katie unlocked the doors and he climbed in, moving April over who was 'driving'. Nick picked up his phone and called Warrick.

There was a muffled, "Hello?"

"Hey, I'm sorry to wake you up man, but could watch Katie and April for a few hours?" Katie and he looked at each other as he said it.

"Is everything ok?" He asked sitting up in bed.

"Yeah, I just have something to do." He said looking at the wheel.

"No problem, you gonna swing by now?"

"Yeah."

"Alright see you in a few." He said hanging up.

"What do you need to do?" Katie asked.

"I just need to talk to Brass. Someone broke into our house." He saw the scared look on her face. "Nothing's missing, I just need to make a report and this way you two won't be bored. Maybe Warrick could take you to the park." He said to April.

"Yeah!" She cried out. Katie however knew something else was going on, but she trusted him and if he was keeping it from her there was a good reason. April crawled in the back and sat in her seat as Nick got out and strapped her in. The ten minute ride to Warrick's house was silent with the exception of April's humming. Katie was still a child to him and he didn't want her to protect her, and that also meant he didn't want her to deal with adult problems, so he chose not to tell her about her wall.

As soon as Nick unbuckled her she ran up to Warrick's front door and rang the bell. He answered the door wearing jeans, a t shirt, and socks. "Warrick!" She yelled as he picked her up.

"Hey kiddo." He said as she wrapped her arms around his neck to give him a hug. He looked out and saw Nick talking to Katie.

"It's only for a few hours, ok?" He said to her. She nodded reluctantly. Nick didn't know what to say as she walked with her head down to Warrick;s house.

"I didn't think I was that bad." He joked.

"Hi Warrick." She said standing next to him.

"I'll be back in a couple hours." He said to Warrick.

"Take your time." He waved him off.

"Ok." He said with one look at Katie. "Gimme a kiss." He said as April leaned over and gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Bye daddy." She said waving.

"Bye sweetie." He waved back before getting into his car and driving off.

He pulled up to his house and saw Brass and another officer waiting in his driveway. "Thanks for coming." He said getting out of the car.

"No problem. What happened?" He asked.

"We all came home from breakfast and I found the door unlocked. I did a walk through and nothing seemed to be missing, but the place was trashed." He said as the three of them walked through the house. "Then I found this." He said leading them to Katie's room, showing them the wall.

"Hello?" Came a voice from the front of the hall.

Nick left the room and saw Sara standing by the open door. "Hey Sara." He greeted.

"Griss said there was a B&E, but wow." She said looking out of the room. "Are the kids ok?" She said concerned.

"Yeah, we weren't home when it happened." He said.

"Thank God." She said placing her kit on the ground. "You wanna get started?" She asked pulling out her camera.

"Yeah." They needed to gather evidence even though he already had a pretty good idea who did this. She took pictures moving from room to room and ran into Brass as she entered Katie's room. She took pictures of the wall and the paint can and brush before bringing them to the living room. Nick dusted the handle and found a few prints. He would have to eliminate Katie, Warrick, and himself but he hoped Todd's prints were on it. He bagged the brush as Sara came back from the room.

"That's all I could get." She said.

"Thanks." He said.

"I'll bring all this back to the lab." She offered.

"Alright. If you don't need anything else, I'm going to try and clean up a bit." He said.

"I think that should be it." She said. "I'll come back and help you out." She said before she left for the lab. Nick sighed as he was left alone in the tossed house. His main concern for now was cleaning up that wall, he knew she would be heart broken.

Twenty minutes later Catherine and Sara showed up. Nick had already cleaned up April's room and the two girls started in the living room. Two and a half hours later they had the whole house clean, except for one thing. "The wall." Nick said as the three of them said looking at it.

"Paint remover?" Catherine suggested.

"It would wipe it off, and then she could just paint it on again." Sara said.

"I guess it's better then her seeing this." He sighed. He went to the garage and got a tin of paint remover. He put some on a cloth and wiped the black paint off as the girls left. It said on the can that it would take forty minutes to dry so he went to fridge, took out a bottle of water and sat on the couch with his phone in hand. Twenty minutes into the current football game his phone rang out loudly. "Stokes?"

"Nick, it's Sara. One of the prints from the brush matches Todd." She said.

"Ok, keep that on file, I'll need to use it." He said before they disconnected. Forty minutes had passed since he wiped down her wall and so he stood up and walked to her room to see if it worked. There were two long strips where the paint use to be but he couldn't see the words. He picked up his phone and dialed Warrick's number.

"Brown."

"Hey man, where are ya?" He said hearing laughter in the background.

"Hey, we're at the park. I'm pushing April on the swings." He said.

"How's Katie doing?" He asked.

"I don't know. She's been really quite all day. Right now she's sitting against the tree reading." He said looking over at her.

"Alright, well we got the place cleaned up so I'll come join you guys." He said.

"Ok, what happened?" He asked using his free hand to make her go higher.

"Todd broke in and trashed the place. Left his fingerprints though. I swear that man is dumb as a box of rocks." Nick said getting into his car.

"Why did he break in?" He asked.

"He wants the girls back and I told him he'd have to fight me for them." Nick said, standing by his word.

"You're taking it to court?" Warrick asked, more out of curiosity then unbelievably.

"Yeah, I have to prove I'm a good father and show them that Todd would hurt them."

"Well you have those photos of Katie from the scene that night." He reminded.

"Yeah and Griss might have to testify since he collected evidence on the case." He sighed as he stopped for a light. "They might have someone come around to observe us all." He said referring to him and the girls. "They might even ask some of you questions."

"No problem man. We all know you're a great father." He said.

"Warrick, I want to go on the monkey bars." April yelled to him.

"Ok." He said. "Hey I gotta go, you're coming?"

"Yeah I'll be there in about five minutes." He said before hanging up.

Five minutes later he pulled into a space and parked the car. He got out and walked across the street to the small park. He noticed Warrick holding her up so she could go back and forth on the monkey bars. He then saw Warrick whisper something and she looked towards Nick. "Daddy!" She yelled as she ran to him.

"Hey sweetie." He said picking her up and placing a kiss on her cheek. He looked around and saw Katie by the tree. "Go play with Warrick for a little longer ok?" He told her.

"Are you leaving?" She said with a sad look on her face.

"No honey." He said giving her a smile and rubbing her belly. "I just need to talk to Katie for a minute." He said putting her down.

"Ok daddy." She said running back to Warrick.

Nick walked over and leaned back on his hand as he sat down next to Katie. "Hi."

"Hi." She said not looking up from her book.

"I hear you've been reading all day." He said to her as she continued to read.

"It's a good book." She replied still not looking up.

"C'mon Katie." He said not buying it.

"What?" She said finally looking up.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked trying to figure out why she was in a mood.

"Nothing." She sighed returning to her book.

"Tell me." He nudged her.

"I just want to know what's going on." She looked at him. "Everything was fine this morning, then all the sudden we get shipped of to Warrick. And don't get me wrong I like the guy, but I want you around." She began to tear up. "I've missed you for seventeen years. We have one week together and now we might get taken away. It's not fair." She said leaning into him as he held out his arms for her to cry in.

"Hey. No matter what happens I'm never leaving you. You're stuck with me for life kiddo." He chuckled, causing her to let out a small chuckle herself. "I told you I'm going to do everything I possibly can to let you two stay with me." He said seriously.

"But April's not yours. If she goes I'm going with her. I can't let her be alone there." She said.

"I'm not letting her go either. Whatever it takes, I will do." He said. Katie sighed and nodded her head. She had felt a little better now that she had gotten that out. His phone rang, and if he wasn't obligated to answer it, he would have turned it off. "Stokes." He said as he kept his arm around Katie.

"Nice and shady, hunh?" He asked. Nick knew by his voice who it was. He turned his head looking everywhere for him. "You won't find me." He said with a snicker.

"What do you want?" He said standing up.

"I want them back. I'd sleep with one eye open tonight." He said before hanging up.

Nick closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'Don't let him get to you Stokes.' He thought to himself.

"It was him wasn't it." Katie said, breaking his train of thought.

"He smiled down at her, "It was but it's ok. Let's just go home." He said.

She nodded as he pulled her up. No matter what her head told her she was going to believe him. He wasn't going to let them go. Nick took April's hand as they crossed the street and got into the car.