Disclaimer: They are not mine. Could I ever make a finale up to the standard of Grave Danger? Christ no.
Rating: K+ or PG
Pairings: None at all
Spoilers: Spoiler heavy for Grave Danger.
Summary: Nick is kept under hospital observation for 5 nights following Grave Danger. With a different team member watching him each night, they can each find their own resolve. No pairings. Focused on each character. WIP.
Alright you brilliant readers, you – this is where you get all your thank-yous for the wonderful reviews that I found when I got back from my two weeks in Canada and America – both of which are lovely by the way. So here we go, thank you Kristen999 (one hella long review there, how I love you), KatKnits00, MissyJane, KASEY(KC, higherbeingfriendsfan, Meg, mellowyellow63, cherishedcrush, PRTFCSI, NothingButSarah, Review1234 (as ever), Reius Devirix, Kadyann, Mma63 and angie b as well as everyone who went through other fics of mine and reviewed them too. I'd love to add comments in brackets to you all because so many of these were really brilliant reviews but this final chapter is already pretty long and I don't want to drag you down with inane ramblings. So thanks once again for the fantastic support in writing this.
I very much hope this final chapter does not disappoint – I personally feel it's too disjointed but hey, concrit is always good. Coming next will be the Sara-centric/WarrickSara story Wake The Hope so if that sort thing floats your boat, please check it out! I'm shutting up now. Enjoy! Love LJ xXx
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Five Night Observation. Chapter Six. Nick Stokes
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Nick sways in the sunlight outside for a moment and blinks a couple of times as he stands in the Desert Palms parking lot. Warrick shoulders his bag and grins at him on his right-hand side along with Greg and Grissom while Sara and Catherine stand to his left. They all watch him closely. A smile breaks onto his face but whether it's relief, happiness or just for show, he isn't really sure.
"Ride home, Nicky?" Warrick offers, opening the door of his Tahoe. Nick looks at them all. Both Catherine and Grissom also came in their own cars, ready to taxi Nick back home again if he needed.
"If it's outta your way, man..." Nick begins almost shyly under the pressure of everyone staring at him, waiting for his reactions.
"No problem, Stokes – I'm trekking it out of my way to take these two home and they haven't even got a good excuse," Warrick jabs his thumb at Sara and Greg on either side of him. The pair of them shrug, smile and climb into the car. They all know that their good excuse is to be an excuse – an excuse for them all to chip in and help Nick out without him having to ask for it or feel he's being a burden.
Sara winds down the window. "Coming, Nicky?" she chirps, a whole lot brighter than a few nights back but then everything and everyone is different in this dawn light.
"We could get some take-out food on the way back and hang out or something." Greg suggests, clambering over Sara to poke his head out of the window. Nick chuckles as Sara irritably shoves Greg off.
"Looks like you're out-voted, Nicky." Catherine comments, heading over to her own car. She pauses and gives him a tight hug, murmuring into his ear quietly, "You know you can call me at any time if you need some company at all – you know that, right?"
"I know – thanks, Cath." He replies with a smile as she nods and jumps into her car.
"At least take the ride home, man." Warrick wheedles. Nick grins.
"Okay, fine," he relents with an exaggerated sigh. "Just the ride – you don't have to hang out or anything. I'm sure y'all busy with other stuff."
"Well you kids have fun," Grissom says, unlocking his car with the remote key. "Take care of yourself, Nicky. We'll need you back at the lab as soon as possible."
Nick waves a thanks at Grissom as both supervisors' cars slip out of the parking lot before he turns back to Warrick's Tahoe and climbs into the passenger seat.
"Just the ride, 'Rick." Nick warns him and, where Greg might've muttered a bitter 'Well you're no fun,' he was greeted only by an obliging silence. He knew what was running through all their heads – don't push him. It made him flinch to think of it: that they were cautiously stepping around him and going easy on him. And it made him ever-more determined not to be such a baby and to take it on the chin. If he was honest with himself at all, the thought of his first night alone terrified him but it looked like he'd just have to get through it.
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"You sure we can't convince you to come out for a beer with us?" Sara persists, hanging out of the window again as Nick jumps down from the Tahoe just by his front door.
"Just one?" echoes Greg in similarly pleading tones.
Nick shakes his head with a smile. "Sorry guys, count me out. I should really get some – sleep." He almost chokes that last word out but they all pretend they don't hear it. "Have fun though!" He adds cheerily, heading up to his front door and flashing one last overly-wide smile before disappearing alone into his house.
Warrick sighs at the wheel as he rolls the car slowly away. Sara sinks back into her seat with a similar sigh and Greg chews on his tongue.
"You think he'll be alright?" Greg voices quietly after a while.
"When?" Sara mutters. Greg glances at her. Not today that's for sure - maybe not this week – but some day. Soon, they hoped.
"Come on," Warrick broke the silence heavily. "I really could use a beer right now."
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Nick wanders dazedly through his house. It's late evening now and he's been wandering about like this since he got in – like some troubled spirit – he won't rest. And how can he? There's no guarantee of him waking up beside someone who'll look after him and assure him that everything's okay anymore. Even if it had lost all meaning by now, it was still some kind of comfort to hear it when he woke up screaming in the night. It was just reassuring to hear that someone was there for him.
But that's the thing – they are there for him, he knows that and they'll tell him again if he ever gave them half the chance. He just can't bring himself to call them up again and ask more of them. How could he ask for more? They've each spent their own long and upsetting night keeping vigil at his bedside, being the Loyal Friends and Trusted Companions that he always knew they were. He just couldn't call them up again and ask them to come back just because he couldn't handle a night alone. He'd have to get over it one day, he tells himself firmly. And the sooner he confronts this, he's sure, the sooner he'll get better. Hopefully.
He sinks onto his couch and sighs. So sleep then, he challenges himself. But he can't. He knows he can't. He's just not ready yet. He yawns widely and stares up at the ceiling in despair. Just what the hell is he going to do now?
Like a celestial response to his angry, silent prayer, the doorbell rings and he drags himself to his feet.
"So we were heading out to the Strip just now when we thought – what are we doing?" Warrick launches as soon as Nick opens the door. He looks amused and surprised to see Sara, Greg and Warrick back again and standing on his doorstep. "Or more importantly – what are you doing?"
"Your first night home in – what? – a week? – and there's no homecoming party, no drinks, nothing?" Sara takes over as Warrick walks past Nick, into his house. "I mean, that's just rude, Nicky." Sara shakes her head and follows Warrick in.
"But don't worry," Greg finishes up, heading in after Sara. "We've got it covered with six-packs and movies." He waves a handful of DVDs at Nick and gestures to the six-packs in Warrick and Sara's hands. "You really should think these things through, Nick."
Nick says nothing for a while. He stares, open-mouthed at the trio that have trooped into his living room and are already making themselves comfortable, turning lights on, fighting over the TV remote and uncapping beers with his bottle opener. A big grin spreads across his face as his sleep-deprived mind registers exactly what they've done.
"Just chick-flicks I'm afraid," Greg calls back from where he kneels at the DVD player. He shoots at glance back at Nick. "That's what you get when you ask a girl to rent some movies."
"I resent that." Sara mutters from the couch and chucks a cushion at Greg's head but gives up the fight shortly afterwards. Now that wasn't like Sara at all – a notorious chick-flick-hater, she wouldn't have let a comment like that from Greg go that easily but again, Nick recognises, they're acting the excuses for him now. He realises only now that he didn't really feel up for sitting through their usual crime thrillers with big-budget explosions and tense hostage situations. Far too close to home.
"Here ya go, man." Warrick presses a cold beer into his hand and grins. "Welcome home." He knocks his own glass bottle against his as Sara and Greg repeat his words, raising their drinks in the air in a half-assed toast. It makes all the difference.
"So hey, what're you putting on there, Greggo?" Warrick changes the subject sharply as he senses Nick about to tell them he knows what they're all doing – he doesn't need to do that.
"Bridget Jones' Diary." Greg reads off the rental box. He raises his eyebrows at Sara. "So you like British guys, huh, Sar? Why didn't you tell me? I would've offered to take you out for tea and crumpets." He puts on a melodramatic British accent for his last offer and Sara only shoots him a threatening look as the doorbell goes again.
"I'll get that." Nick says, backing out of the room.
"You know you're lucky I've used up all these cushions on you already, Sanders." Sara tells him darkly and Nick opens up the front door for the second time in the last half hour, he finds Catherine and Lindsey on the steps.
"Hey," Catherine begins with a smile. "Sorry about this, Nicky, but could we crash at your place tonight? We're having the house fumigated. I'd stay at Gil's but if he found out my reasons he'd be running over there to save those damn bugs."
"Yep." Lindsey chips in with a big grin and she holds up a few boxes. "And we brought pizza."
Catherine squeezes her daughter's shoulder gently and adjusts the rucksack on her back. "Just for one night."
"Stay as long as you like," Nick assures her, standing aside to let her in though he knows that if he asked Catherine about the fumigation again next week she wouldn't have a clue what he was on about.
"Thanks, Nicky." Catherine says gratefully, heading into the living room.
"Hey! Catherine and Lindsey made it!" Greg cheers from the armchair on the other side of the room and both Sara and Warrick looked up. Catherine beams around the room – she should've known that they'd have the same idea as her.
"And we brought pizzas!" Lindsey pipes up, holding the boxes up. Nick lifts the lid on the top one and hands it over to Sara.
"Veggie." he says and she takes it with a grin.
"Oh wow, I love you," she chirps happily at Catherine and Lindsey as the pair of them join her on the couch. Nick sinks into the comfortable space between them and sits back, beer in hand and listening with a smile to Catherine tentatively querying Sara's movie choice.
Sara, however, took it remarkably well considering the amount Greg took advantage of teasing her throughout the movie. Nick knew she was only doing it to uphold the false pretences that brought them all here and thought that perhaps Greg deserved a little revenge after the whole tomato ketchup thing. Sitting beside her, he could actually hear her sigh a sigh of relief when the credits rolled and Greg ran out of opportunities to provoke her.
On Nick's other side on the couch, Catherine picks a half-asleep Lindsey to her feet and strokes back her hair.
"Time for bed, I think, Linds," Catherine tells her gently.
"You can crash in the spare room," Nick offers, pointing down the hall. "Second door on the left." Catherine smiles and nods.
"Say goodnight then, Linds." Catherine prompts and leads the little girl off to Nick's spare room after she mumbles a sleepy goodnight, trailing away backed by goodnight calls from the rest of the room.
"So what else have you got for us, Sara?" Nick turns to her with a slight grin spreading across his face as he begins to get back into his usual self. Sara groans and buries her face in the sofa cushions.
"You don't even want to know." she answers as the doorbell buzzes again. Nick peels himself off the couch, stumbling off to get the door for the third time that night and greets Grissom with a smile when he finds up on the doorstep.
"Hey Griss," Nick slaps the guy on the back and immediately puts a beer in his hand. "Come in – we were wondering if you'd turn up." Grissom isn't surprised to see the three other CSIs lounging on Nick's various chairs and couches just as they aren't surprised to see him; it had almost become a sort of unspoken joke, their own individually creative and highly constructed reasons for ending up at Nick's – all of which didn't involve his need for them to be there.
"The lecture slides," Grissom indicates, shrugging his shoulder on which the slide projector hangs.
"The what?" Warrick looks up, confused.
"Aha – the fruit fly larvae lecture," Nick jumps in explaining and grins at the three of them. "Man, you guys are in for a treat – I'll just go grab Cath, she's putting Lindsey to bed."
"Fruit fly larvae, huh?" Greg comments. "Well that's my favourite type of larvae."
Sara snickers quietly on the couch and Grissom just shakes his head. He'd braced himself for some of their gentle mocking ever since he'd spotted the two extra cars parked out front. It was expected and, he reasoned, probably entirely justified.
"Hey Cath – Grissom's turned up with some slides," Nick pokes his head around the bedroom door as Catherine shuts off the lights and slips out.
"Oh really?" she peers over Nick's shoulder before turning back to him and asking in a knowing whisper, "Fruit fly larvae?"
Nick nods. "Yeah – how did you know?"
"Jesus, I don't know how many times I've heard the fruit fly larvae lecture but I swear I could recite it for you right here and now," answers Catherine, rolling her eyes.
Nick chuckles and heads back to the living room with Catherine close behind.
"And hey," she adds quietly. "Don't tell him about the fuming, will ya? You know what he's like." Nick grins – it was sweet of her to keep up the pretence when they all knew exactly why they'd turned up tonight.
"Sure thing, Cath." he promises as they all settle down to joke their way through Grissom's slides which he keeps on rolling, good-humouredly despite their persistent teasing.
"You may laugh now," Grissom warns them, mid-way. "But if someone happens to set this topic as an evaluation test, you won't be laughing then."
"What is there to know?" Greg returns. "The larvae got into a load of peppers and some Texans got sick."
"As well as people in at least six additional states," Catherine adds automatically before cringing at herself. "This is your fault." she accuses Grissom with a pointed finger.
"Shall I apologise for educating you?" he asks her calmly.
"Hey guys," Sara cuts in softly. "You wanna keep it down a little?" She gestures at Nick who, stretched out across the couch, has long-since fallen into a peaceful sleep. With a slight smile, Grissom shuts off the projector as the others quietly clear away pizza boxes and beer bottles to uncover sleeping space in the living room for Greg, Sara and Warrick.
"You really think that lecture can literally send people to sleep?" Grissom asks dubiously as he takes the mattress on the floor in the guest room while Catherine climbs under the covers of the guest bed.
"Well let's see," she says and clears her throat importantly. "In 8 May 2003. Fruit fly-infested hot peppers were found at two retail locations in Pinellas County..." She cuts herself off when she feigns a collapse into deep sleep on the pillow. She laughs slightly when she raises her head to see him looking at her in all seriousness.
"I'm kidding! It's a good lecture, Gil," Catherine assures him. "We're just messing with ya."
"Hm." Grissom sounds out doubtfully, shifting comfortably on the mattress.
Whether it was the lecture or not, either way, within the next fifteen minutes, everyone in Nick Stokes' house, from Nick himself to every uninvited guest that had turned up during the evening had fallen fast asleep and, for the first time in five long and painful nights, Nick Stokes slept all the way through the night.
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