Chapter 14: Birthday

At four, Warrick and I drove into work, I went into the lab, and brought my evidence into a layout room, where I started working, Warrick went to the break room to meet up with Catherine. I needed trace results, and wasn't looking forward to going in there, as Tim was the new trace technician. Finally I couldn't wait any longer, "Tim, I need the results from the double murder at the Bellagio."

"They aren't ready yet, I'm backed up," Tim said.

"I gave them to you last night," I said, "Greg was the DNA tech, and he ran trace faster than you."

Tim cut a swab onto the counter, and I wasn't to happy about it, it was easy enough to cut it into the sample container, so it bothered me that he risked contaminating the evidence. "Have you even started running my evidence?" I looked over the counter at the work he was doing, and saw him doing day shift samples.

I turned to leave, and heard him mumble something under his breath, I knew I wasn't supposed to hear it, but I turned, and said, "I've been working at this lab for seven years, that's seven years longer than you, and this job, isn't just a paycheck for me, it's my life, the only thing I care about more than the victim, the families, and justice, is my daughter, so don't go calling me a breeder, breeders don't care about anyone, know this, I've never had a problem being true to myself."

I walked out of the room, and back to my layout room, after two minutes, I went into the locker room, and pulled my discman out of my locker, flipping through my CD's I found the one I wanted, and headed into the layout room.

Greg's POV

I got in to work twenty minutes early, as had become my habit, when I started doing field work, I wandered out of the locker room, and down the hall to DNA, I was still friends with the lab rats, to them, I still was one, the DNA tech for swing was still at the desk, doing some routine paperwork, "Hey Josie, what's up?" I asked.

"Not much, all the action has been in trace, I was talking to Tim, the new tech, and I guess he and Nick Stokes nearly got into it, at the beginning of shift, and Nick's been in a mood ever since, Tim wouldn't say what the argument was about, but I'm just glad I haven't got his results yet, that way Mia can bring them to him, or, tomorrow when he comes in, hopefully he'll be in a better mood."

Just then the machine beeped, and Josie groaned, then it was obvious she had an idea, in a sing song voice, she said, "Greg, will you bring him his results?" she spun back and forth in her chair, looking at me innocently.

"Depends, are they, bad, or good?" I asked.

"I'll be running the unknown through Codis, and the child is related to the victims," She said.

"I'll do it just this once, but next time I have something important on your table, you put a rush on it," I said.

"All right," Josie said, and handed me the print outs.

I walked out of DNA considering Nick's mood, and the argument he had supposedly been in. Layout room four was dead quiet, Nick sat over his evidence, headphones in his ears, his discman had a clear top, and I tried to read the label of the CD, but it was shiny on both sides, it was either burnt, or double sided. "Nick, I've got your DNA results."

Nick took them, but before he looked at them, he said, "Greg, never trust a man who thinks he saved your life, when you really saved his, he'll always stab you in the back later."

"Nick, are you dwelling on your argument with Tim?" I asked.

"He's no more than a lowly lab rat, that's the difference between you and him, you know that, Greg, you always had ambition to be more, but he just wanted the paycheck, never truly cared about the work, good work Greg, keep it up, this from Josie?" he asked finally looking at the paper in his hands.

"Yeah, she's kinda scared of you, Nick, you can't keep picking fights with the lab techs," I told him.

"He started it, he called me a breeder, and I just told him what I thought of that, then I walked out, he's the one who has the problem, I'm not trying to scare the other lab techs."

"Alright, Nicky, your shift is almost over, how about I help you pack up?" I asked.

"Thanks Greg, I'll wait for Warrick, he drove tonight," he told me.

"Alright, see you around, Nick," I said, and left.

Walking past the DNA lab on my way to Grissom's office, I poked my head in to see Josie sanitizing the equipment she had used on preparing some samples. "Josie, he was practically cheerful, smiling, and offering advice, I even got a compliment," I waved at her, and left.

Grissom gave me a case slip right away, and told me I would be working with Sara, as we walked out of the lab, we saw Tim, "Greg, can I talk to you?" he asked.

"Meet you at the truck?" I looked at Sara, she nodded.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"I saw you talking to Nick, don't listen to the stuff he says about me, he's the one who has a problem with me," Tim said.

"How about this, I'll make my own decisions, but you might want to refrain from using derogatory names for straight people around Nick, it seems to bother him a bit more than usual lately."

"He told you what I said?" Tim asked.

"Listen, I know you were friends when you were kids, but Nick's grown up, I don't know the specifics, but part of it has to do with something that happened about ten years ago, in Texas," I stopped talking, "I shouldn't say anything, sorry, I have to go, got a case."

Warrick's POV

Charlie and I got back from our scene about one, Grissom pulled me aside, "Warrick, Nick's in some sort of mood, he got in an argument with one of the lab techs on your shift, he came to me, because Catherine had already left, when he decided that he should say something, I don't know what happened between them in the past, but help Nick deal with it, so at least he can move on."

"He's tried to make peace, Tim doesn't want to hear it, I'll talk to Nick again, and get him to go home, if Charlie doesn't mind starting without me?"

"You go on home too, Warrick as you were just off sick," Charlie said, "I'd rather you not get sick again."

I nodded, and turned to go to layout room four, it was Nick's usual room, unless it was occupied, he was sitting hunched over the table headphones on, bobbing his head to whatever music he had on. I hit the stop button, "Come on, it's time to go home," I told him.

Nick and I packed up the evidence as we had before, and headed home. Nick stood at the bottom of the stairs, for me to shut my light off, then I could hear him walking around the house, locking up. Once Nick had checked on Nilde, and gone into his own room, I got up, and walked down the hall to his room as well, his light was off, but I knocked, "yeah?" Nick asked, I could hear him moving around.

"Can I come in?" I asked.

He voiced the affirmative, and I opened the door, the room was pitch black, Nick could be heard, and I could feel him moving to my right, I sat on the bed, and waited for my eyes to adjust, once they had, I was able to see Nick, he pulled on some boxers, and sat on the bed next to me, "What's up?" Nick asked.

"Grissom asked me to talk to you, I guess Tim complained about you, so I'm talking, what do you think happened from his point of view?"

"His point of view, I'm not liking getting into his head, sorry, I'll tell it from my point of view. He said something, I probably wasn't supposed to hear it, but he said it, and I did hear, I turned around, and I commented on it, then I left, nothing I wouldn't have done to you, or Greg," Nick said, "I didn't even comment, that my samples were taking a particularly long time, or that there were better ways of preventing cross contamination, when working with trace swabs,"

Nick and I talked for a few hours, relaxing side by side on his bed, falling asleep just before dawn. 7 came way to early the next morning, Nick slipped out of bed, and I went back to sleep, I didn't wake up again until ten. The sound of rattling lids greeted me as I went down the stairs, nick had one pot on the stove, water boiling with the lid off, there were two frying pans, one had sausage, the other looked like it had two pieces of chicken. Sitting in some sort of sauce which was bubbling occasionally, Nick stood over the counter, rolling something on the counter, "Morning, Warrick, can you pull the sausages out, they're done, and I need to get the grease off of them, before I can wrap them," Nick said, without turning around. I pulled some paper towel off the roll, and put it on a plate, using the tongs next to the stove, I moved each one out of the greasy pan.

"So what are you making?" I asked.

"Pigs in a blanket, for breakfasts when we're running late," he replied.

I looked around the kitchen and saw the remains of Nick's breakfast on the counter, it looked like he had been picking at it, while he worked. I put some bread in the toaster, and opened the fridge, it was full of groceries, and containers.

Over the next hours, Nick continued to cook, package, and freeze all kinds of dishes, in threes and fours, "I always thought you cooked food in bulk, all the same thing, on your days off," I said, seeing him cooking three different dishes at a time.

At two, Nick pulled a glass bowl from the cupboard, up to that point, he had only used two frying pans, baking pans, pots, knives, and a cutting board. Nick mixed ingredients, I watched him, and it wasn't until he put parchment paper in the bottom of two cake pans, then he greased them. He looked at me and smiled, "Lindsey's birthday tomorrow, Cath planned a surprise party, which reminds me, could you wrap the presents in the front room, I'm supposed to go at eight to set up, Cath's house, she's taking Linds out for breakfast, at eight thirty the kids are showing up, and Cath said they should be back around nine, she's hoping to make a day of it, she's invited two of the girls who Linds says are her best friends to spend the night, given the Nanny some time off, she's got tickets for the four of them to go to a movie Lindsey's been talking about, so yeah, do you want to help me out?"

"Sure, it will be fun," I smiled.

At work, I noticed Nick and Catherine were talking a lot more than usual.

Nick's POV

No new cases came in, so I spent most of the night in Cath's office, we were both doing paperwork, and talking. "What do you think, do you think she'll like it?"

"I do, I always wanted a surprise party as a kid," I said.

"How's the cake coming?"

"Good, I'll decorate it in the morning, I was thinking a dome shape, in pink, with flowers," I replied.

"Pink, how about blue, with pink flowers, she likes pink and all, but," Catherine kinda trailed off.

"Alright, you're the mother, you know best," I smiled.

"So how's the plan going?" Cath asked.

"Well, I think Warrick's planning on staying, and he was planning before his family got killed, I overheard him, though I was in a bit of a haze of panic at the time, so I think it's going good, if all this crap would quit getting in the way, I'd know better." I said.

"I'm sorry, Nick, Archie was going to go to a conference next week, but he's just got word, his grandmother is sick, he's flying out to stay with her, and now I need to send someone else to attend, and speak, Warrick is the next best candidate, I know you wanted some time to see what would happen between you, but..."

"I understand, one day I'll get it right, if he sticks around my place long enough, maybe I'll even work up the nerve to ask him one day,"

"But you were hoping for a gradual thing, not a sudden decision, I know that, how's this, when Warrick gets back, I'll 'accidentally schedule you another weekend off together, you may be able to convince him to do something."

"I've convinced him to let me take him flying, I was thinking maybe, something might happen then," I told Catherine.

"Warrick, you know he's iffy with heights."

"But he agreed, which is enough for me, we'll deal with the heights later, besides, my family has some things, that if Warrick and I get together, When, sorry, think positive, I'll have to help him with the heights anyway."

Catherine looked over my shoulder, and I turned to look where she was, WArrick and Charlie were standing outside the closed door, peeking in the widows. I rolled back, on the chair and caught the door knob, opening the door. "I thought you were better CSI's than that, peeking in windows, to spy on your boss, and colleague," Catherine said.

"But you were talking about us," Warrick said.

"We were discussing something, while we did paperwork, what it was has no bearing on you two." Catherine said.

Warrick gave us both looks, and said, "Well, we just came to give cath an update,"

"So?"

"Brass is bringing in our suspect, we're just waiting for our interview," Charlie said.

"Alright, good job guys," Catherine said.

Warrick and Charlie turned to leave, "Charlie, I'll meet up with you in a minute, I just want to talk to Nick about something," Warrick said.

Charlie nodded, and Warrick turned back, "I'll just go get some coffee," Catherine said, and got up from her chair.

Once Catherine was out of the room, Warrick shut the door, and sat in one of the chairs beside the desk. "Nicky, I was wondering if you would mind me sticking around your place from now on, my house was lonely before, but, now, with all that's happened, I think it would be even more lonely, I'd pay you rent, of course, at least until I can find a place, that's not to big."

"You're welcome for as long as you want, Warrick, by the way, rent's three hundred," I smiled, as he got up.

Cath came back, and Warrick left the room, at the end of shift, There was a knock on the door to the office, Grissom came in, "uh, Cath, have you told Warrick that he's going to the conference yet?"

"No, I've barely seen him tonight, why?"

"They filled in the A/V speaker spot, but they want someone to speak on ..." Grissom kept talking for awhile, and I blocked him out until my name popped up, "Right Nick?"

"Oh, sorry, I thought you were talking to Catherine," I said, looking at Grissom.

"Never stopped you listening before, the conference wants someone to speak about interviewing rape victims, and they want them from our lab, I was thinking of either Sara or you, because you both have a knack for calming victims down, Warrick will still be going, but he won't have to speak, ... what do you think?"

"I think Sara should go, or swing shift will be short two people," I told him.

"Nick?" Catherine asked.

"It's better that I stay here, I've got more than just me to think about now, Sara can do just as good a job at the conference, but Tara can't do anywhere near as good a job as me, in my own home," I said.

"You don't even trust her?" Cath asked.

"I trust her, but, I always feel that family should take care of each other, I pay her for while I'm at work, the only problem is, I'm working odd hours, if we were working days, then I wouldn't have needed to hire Tara."

"You would have put Nilde into daycare?" Catherine asked.

"Yeah, I don't leave her with Tara anymore than necessary, it just seems wrong, I'm the parent, why should someone else raise her?"

"You can still leave, go to the conference, if you want," Grissom said, "Catherine does,"

"When she has to, but Sara is available, it's better, having me gone right now, would mess up Nilde's routine," I said.

Warrick came into the room again, "Nick, you ready to blow this popsicle stand?"

"If you two are done dissecting my personal life, would you mind if I went and worked on taking care of my family?" I asked.

"Go, take care of your daughter," Catherine said.

Warrick and I left the lab, "So you know you're scheduled to go to a conference next week?" I asked, as we got into the Tahoe.

"Really?" Warrick asked.

"The registration was originally Archie's but something happened, actually, he was scheduled to speak, they found a replacement, but you're still going, or so Cath says, you and probably Sara, don't know why she couldn't just go, since originally they were just sending one person anyway," I said.

"Is that what you guys were talking about?" Warrick asked.

"Somewhat, though there were some other things we were talking about as well," I told him.

"Will you tell me?" Warrick asked.

"Maybe another time," I said, looking out the window, as Warrick drove.

"Nick, is there something you should tell me?" Warrick asked after a bit.

"It's not a good time, Warrick, maybe later," I said, without looking at him.

My conversation with Cath kept running through my head, she had been encouraging me to tell Warrick for months, but I was scared to tell him, then he had practically moved into my house, and the fear came back, now it was at the forefront once more. It seemed almost natural, to wait for Warrick to head up to bed, before making sure the house was locked up I went to my room, got undressed, and climbed into bed. I hadn't even closed my eyes, when the soft footsteps padded down the hall, and my door opened a crack, "Nick?"

"Yes Warrick?"

"Can I come in?" He asked.

"I'm not talking about it, but sure, come on in," I said, and rolled over.

Warrick shut the door, I listened to him cross the room, and felt the bed shift under his weight as he crawled in. Warrick reminded me of myself, when I was a kid, and I'd have a nightmare, I'd crawl in with one of my sisters, or my brother, if he wasn't to grumpy. I woke up in the morning, and Warrick had curled around me, I slipped out of bed, and went downstairs, Tara was up, sitting on the couch, Nilde was in the swing, sucking on a toy. "Good morning," I said with a smile.

"Did you sleep good?" Tara asked.

"Yeah, what time is it?" I asked.

"Seven thirty, she's only been up half an hour," Tara replied.

I immediately got to work decorating the cake, I only had half an hour, I mixed up the icing, and a filling, then got started on the actual cake, I had it planned in my head, and ran up the stairs to wake Warrick up, when I finished the Cake, I was running even later, I put the cake in the box, while Warrick wrapped the presents, the oven dinged, and I pulled out the pan of breakfast sausages, stuffing them into a container, Warrick and I were nearly ready to go, we just had to get Nilde ready, while Warrick was putting stuff in the car, I went to get Nilde's things, "I already did that," Tara said, "I knew you were running late," she said.

I smiled, "Thank you."

I brought Nilde and her bag out to the truck, the Warrick was putting the play pen into the back of the truck. "That was fast," He said.

"Tara had her ready to go," I replied, buckling my daughter into the car.

We got to Cath's at five minutes after eight, and I unlocked the door, Warrick brought all the things in from the car, while I went to the neighbour's house, and rang the doorbell. "Yes?" she was an older lady.

"My Name is Nick Stokes, I'm a friend of Catherine Willow's I'm supposed to pick up the decorations from you, for her daughter's surprise birthday party."

"Right, right, come in, I had my grandson bring it into the kitchen before it rained last night," she said, there were several bags of decorations, on the kitchen table, "Tell Lindsey that I say happy birthday, and that I'm sorry I couldn't come, I've got my youngest grandson's first birthday party today," she had a big smile on her face.

I thanked her, as I left, and went back to Catherine's house, Warrick had the playpen set up in one corner, and Nilde was playing under the Einstein in it. By eight thirty we had all the decorations up, and the first of Lindsey's friends began to arrive. The first parent looked at me, and said, "So are you Lindsey's father?"

"No, I'm just a friend of Catherine's Lindsey's dad died a few years back, in a car accident," I told her.

"Oh, I didn't know," she said.

"It's not something Catherine or Lindsey talk about," I said, Warrick had already taken the friend into the living room, I could hear him getting her to help with the last of the balloons. Warrick purposely let one go, and she laughed.

"Well, I have to go, party ends at three, right?"

"Yeah," I replied. I was kept busy answering the door, while Warrick entertained the girls with games or something. In the end there were ten girls, when Catherine called, Nilde was in one of the bedrooms, sleeping again. "We've got nine party guests," I told her.

"Good, we're on our way home," Catherine said.

I moved the Truck down the street, before going back into the house, and locking the door, "They're on their way, Catherine just called."

Lindsey seemed to enjoy the party, and begged Warrick and I not to leave, "We have to go, Linds, someone has to work at the lab,"