Disclaimer: I own none of the characters (except a mysterious man and a couple of dead bodies). Everything belongs to the wonderful people of CSI and CBS. I just realized I hadn't mentioned that the Title is from the song "One More Day" by Diamond Rio, as are the chapter titles.

Spoilers: Major Spoilers for "Overload" and slightly for "Stalker" in this chapter. Slight reference to "Who Are You?" and "Butterflied" and "Bloodlines" and "Pilot." Anything until Ep. 5.11- "Who Shot Sherlock Holmes?" is fair game. However as most of the story was written before "Mea Culpa", so lets say they are still on the same team.

Archive: Only here, if you wish to use it somewhere just let me know.

Timeline: I'd say somewhere around mid season 5 (close to Christmas and the New Year).

Feedback: It'd be wonderful

Warnings: Possible Character Death and mentions of past abuse.

Pairings: Alright, I think I finally have at least one pairing (and there might only be one) set and it should become obvious who it is in this chapter.

Previously on One More Day:

Catherine noticeably stiffened when Sara spoke. Grissom called her on it, "Catherine, do you know something?"

"I… yeah I do."

And now, Chapter 4: Baby, I'd be satisfied

Catherine looked down to study her hands. She knew that she had been the first, and from what she gathered, the last person he had told about his childhood experience. While he had never straight out told her not to tell anyone, he did not say she could not. Suddenly finding her throat dry Catherine cleared it before she began to speak, "A couple of years ago Nick and I were working a case together. It was about a fourteen-year-old boy who died while at his Psychiatrist."

Grissom nodded, "Yeah I remember the case. Didn't the Psychiatrist and mother try some sort of re-birthing ritual to bring the mother and son closer?"

"That was the idea. It didn't work out so well and the boy ended up suffocating and having extensive head wounds. Well when we arrived at the scene the Psychiatrist informed us that he had had a seizure and had been suffering from epilepsy since age three. While processing the evidence we found consistent angora fibers on the shrink's sweater and on Dylan Buckley's body and underwear but not on his clothes. Once we considered that she might have sexually abused him, Nick started running with the case. He was confronting suspects and jumping to conclusions. So I called him on it. He was kind of reluctant at first to tell me what happened. But, uh, he eventually got it out. When he was nine years old his parents had to hire a last minute babysitter." Catherine paused in her story and looked at the faces of the other CSI's. She knew Grissom had put together the ending from the disgust on his face, but if Sara, Warrick, or Greg knew they were not giving anything away.

"He was… raped." She let the sentence speak for itself knowing she didn't need to say anything more.

Sara choked on the coffee Greg had recently brought to her. Whipping her mouth with the sleeve of her t-shirt she chose to speak, "When he was nine?" With Catherine's nod Sara continued, "And he… he never told anyone else? Never filed a report or anything?"

"He must not have. It wasn't in any of his files. If he had filed a report or pressed charges we would have known about it." Grissom explained.

"After he told me he said, 'That's what makes a person I guess.' I'll never understand how someone could go through something like that, hold it in for at least twenty years, and still be as strong as Nick is." Catherine said.

"How could someone do something like that to a nine year old boy?" Greg voiced his thoughts out loud. Logically he knew that he and the CSI's handled cases such as Nick's everyday. However the part of him that wasn't thinking logically, which was most everything at this point, couldn't seem to grasp that it had happened to their friend, to Nick.

"Nick's been through a hell of a lot." Warrick said suddenly. "I mean think about it, he was rapped," Warrick choked on the word and had a disgusted look on his face, but continued, "when he was nine and never told anyone. He slept with a hooker, she was killed the same night, and he was a suspect. He was also held at gun point not too long before that. Then there was that whole thing with Nigel Crane, which I'm still not sure he's gotten through. And now this, now he's been shot. Damn, I hope this isn't the straw that breaks the camels back."

Sara who hadn't spoken in a while replied, "It won't be. He's strong, probably stronger than anyone I know, and no matter what it takes I'm going to make sure he's okay. I'm going to make sure he goes to therapy, physical and otherwise. I'm going to be there for him as much as I can to make sure he makes it through this."

Silence followed Sara's words and she wasn't sure if it was because they were agreeing with her or just processing everything they had learned in the last few minutes. The silence lingered until Grissom got up and announced he was going to go get some coffee for everyone. Greg got up and followed him out to help him carry the coffees.

The fact hospital waiting room wasn't lacking in noise made it hard for the three remaining CSI's to focus on anything. Resting his arm on the back of Catherine's chair, Warrick leaned back into the plastic chair. For someone as tall as he was, the small orange chairs were far from comfortable. Glancing at his watch he noticed it was near six in the morning. "Hey Cath, does Lindsey have school today?"

Startled Catherine raised her gaze from the coffee table to meet Warrick's. "No, winter break started yesterday and she's spending the night with Natalie, I'll have to pick her up later this afternoon. Thank goodness, I don't think she could handle being here, and I don't think I could handle being any where else." Satisfied, Warrick nodded.

Sara sat in silence, not comprehending the small talk her two co-workers were trying to make. Since moving to Las Vegas there was only one person she could really count on. She'd never had been able to strike up a friendship with another female. The cattiness that most other women held was not found within her, and she didn't have much tolerance for it. She and Catherine had always been on shaky ground, and Sara investigating Eddie's death had not solidified anything. They had come to a mutual truce, regarding each other with only the slightest hint of coolness.

Since her initial move to Vegas she and Warrick had become closer. The transition has been rocky as she was sent there to investigate him. Understandably, he was wary of her for quite sometime, and she of him. She had reported to Grissom that he should have been fired, yet it was ignored. Thinking her boss was playing favorites, it was a while until she realized that Warrick truly deserved to be where he was today. He was hard working and hardly ever let anything get in the way of his objectiveness. After their rough start, the two slowly became closer. Now they regarded each other like siblings- they cared about each other, but sometimes they couldn't stand to be in the same room.

Her boss was another story. She had been called to Las Vegas by Gil Grissom, to investigate the death of his colleague, Holly Gribbs. It was probably one of the easiest decisions of her life. Ever since being in one of the classes Grissom had lectured she had been enamored with Grissom. He was incredibly smart, smarter than anyone she'd ever met. He had been the reason she had gone into forensics, and it was a dream come true to work with the man who had inspired her. She had been foolish enough, however, to believe that Grissom would choose her over his career. She had even asked him on a date, and was rejected. She had told him that when he came around, he might be too late. After receiving her DUI and having Grissom pick her up, she had forced herself to move on. To what, she was not sure.

Greg was, well he was Greg. There weren't many ways to describe him. He could always put a smile on Sara's face, yet she had never had a deeper connection with him than that. And that brought her to the final member of the night shift, Nick Stokes.

Nick, who was the kindest man she had ever met. Nick, who was currently lying in some hospital bed, with cracked ribs and a gun shot wound. Even when she had first join the team, to investigate Warrick, he had treated her with nothing but respect. And until finding out about his frat days, she had done the same. It was obvious though, that he had changed a great deal since then. She wasn't entirely sure how he dealt with everything that he saw on a daily basis. Warrick had gambling, Catherine had Lindsey, and even for a while she had turned to alcohol for comfort. Nick didn't seem to have anything that he leaned on. Even though no one would ever admit it, he was kind of a pillar to the nightshift. Always there for comfort or to hold you up, or even to bare the bunt of your bad day.

Grissom and Greg arrived back, carrying multitudes of candy bars, sodas, and coffee. Reaching quickly for a Snickers bar, Sara settled herself back into her seat, waiting for anymore news about Nick. They all set in silence, either sipping on a beverage or slowly chewing on a candy bar. Sara new it wasn't good for them all to be gorging on the junk food, but she had a feeling none of them were going to leave the hospital anytime soon, even for real food. Grabbing the current Newsweek from the coffee table to their right, she flipped through the pages without really grasping anything.

After nearly a half hour of silence Brass and a couple of officers entered the waiting room. Grissom stood up and walked halfway across the room to meet Brass. Jim looked around the room, at the night shift team in particular, and noticed how drained each member looked. Knowing that he was only being the bringer of bad news, he was not looking forward to his visit.

"Any news about Nicky?" He asked as a way of greeting.

Grissom sighed, "Only that he's made it through surgery, Jim. You have any news for us?"

"Well we might know what Nicky found that would have made him stay at the scene longer. Behind a painting on the staircase was an empty safe, but according to the family lawyer it had family valuables dating back to the 1700's, and a lot of cash. Father died in a car crash, three years ago, so we can eliminate him from the picture," by now the rest of the team had joined Grissom and Brass. "And the back door was ajar, any idea how it got that way?" He asked everyone, particularly Sara.

"It was closed and locked when I left. Who ever got in there either new how to pick a lock, or had a key."

Brass nodded, that was what they had expected. "I've got dayshift over there working on it now." Before anyone had the chance to interject he continued, "I know you're upset about it. Hell, I'd rather have you all working on it, too. But what the sheriff says goes. And Ecklie knows if he lets us down, he's going to have a lot to deal with. Not just you guys, I've got about seven cops down there guarding the scene. Nicky was a nice guy, one of their own too. 'Lot of people upset he got shot."

Warrick nodded. As much contempt as he had, had for Brass, the man was a good guy. "We've got some coffee, sodas, and a crap load of candy if you want any," he said indicating the officers and Brass. The night shift went back to the spot they had been occupying while Brass sent the officers to stand outside the emergency doors explaining, 'we don't know what we're dealing with, and we want to be on guard in case someone comes back to finish the job.'

Again silence engulfed the group as they awaited news about Nick.

A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait guys, but between Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years it's been a busy couple of months. I realize that was an incredibly dull chapter, but I'm having some severe writers block. But now that this chapter is done, I'm thinking it's going to get more into the plot. And I know I said this chap was going to be about Cath… but that that didn't pan out like I thought it would. So from now on I'm not even going to try to predict what's going to happen next. But just know that within the next chapter or so, Nick will wake up and the plot will advance.

And a major thanks to everyone who reviewed: Cass, Renee, mudhousejunkie, NickSara4eva, Andy, Peggy, AimeeStokes, Addy, fool, Jenna, A.Remains, John and a BIG BIG thanks to CSICowboy and groban who each review 3 times! Y'all really don't know how much they mean to me! Y'all are awesome

Next Chapter should be up soon (as soon as I can get it typed up I'll post it ASAP)

Happy New Year!

-Amy