"Thanks for coming on such short notice, Nick," Catherine greeted him as she opened the door to her house.

She was called for a conference to Maine fro three days, and her mom couldn't watch Lindsay until late that night. Luckily for Catherine, Nick was available.

"No problem. Where's Lindsay?" he asked as he shrugged off his sweater and hung it up the oat rack.

"Up in her room. I think she's having guy problems." She led him to the kitchen. She turned to him, "Either that or popularity problems."

"Guy problems? So it's genetic then," he smirked.

"If I didn't owe you, I would've hit you," she barbed back, though she knew he wasn't completely kidding, she was okay with it. "Okay…Emergency numbers: you know them, right?"

"Yes ma'am. Posted on the fridge and by the phone."

"Good." Nick had babysat for Lindsay for quite a number of times.

He took a deep breath and told her what he already knew so she won't have to tell him for the umpteenth time. "Curfew's at ten, take vitamins right after dinner, spray bug spray before heading out, highest movie rating is PG-13, no running in the house, no drinks by the computer, no sweets until after dinner, always get within 400 feet of her, except in the house. Did I get it all?" He tried to catch his breath.

"No." He sent her a confused look.

"Make yourself at home."

"Right."

"Lindsay!" Catherine bellowed from her spot.

Within seconds, Lindsay descended from the stairs and into the kitchen. She walked over to Nick and gave him a bear hug. He's always been her favorite "uncle". "Hey, Uncle Nick. Thanks for coming."

He hugged her back and ruffled her hair a little. "Hey, kiddo. How you doing?" He pulled back to look at her, remembering Catherine's observation earlier.

"Umm… okay, I guess."

Catherine, though she would've loved to watch her daughter's and her best friend's interaction, interrupted them because she had to catch an early flight. "Okay, Linds. Don't give your uncle a hard time, all right?" she smiled. "All right, honey, come give me a hug." She did so, and kissed her mom on the cheek.

"I love you, mom."

"Love you too." She turned and hugged Nick. "Thanks for doing this, Nicky. Take care of her, okay?"

"No problem. I will."

Catherine hesitated as she reached the door to take one last look at Lindsay, who rolled her eyes playfully.

"Mom, it's only three days."

"Well, try being a mom someday." She laughed and waved goodbye and then closed the door, her suitcase in tow.

"Well, Ms. Willows, looks like you're stuck with me until your grandma shows up."

"So…anything fun to do?"

"How about a walk in the park?"

"Sure. Hold on, I'll go change," she regarded her old T-shirt and pajamas.

Half an hour later, they were walking through the walkways in the park. They had quickly stopped by Nick's townhouse to get Maverick. Lindsay had been particularly quiet throughout the whole ride, except when she answers Nick's questions.

With Maverick pulling him forward, Nick looked at Lindsay, who was staring ahead.

"So, what's really bothering you, Linds?"

She smiled at him softly. "Nothing. It's just a stupid little thing. Stupid little girl issue."

"Try me," Nick offered.

She sighed. "I feel like a ghost."

Nick grinned as he remembered Grissom once told him he was a ghost in high school.

"I think you're gonna turn out just fine. Trust me."

"Well, sure, I guess. But what about now? I can't just put up with this."

"I know. It's rough. But come to think of it; they won't bother you, they won't care if you made a mistake, and you can just shrug them off."

Lindsay thought about it for a second and smiled at Nick and hugged him as they were walking. "You're the best, Uncle Nick."

"That's what they say." He chuckled and then she joined him.

As they silently walked, Nick could've sworn he heard a camera shutter click. When he heard it for a second time, he turned around and found no one with a camera. He turned back around and propelled Lindsay faster, now Maverick in tow.

"What's wrong, Uncle Nick?" Lindsay asked as she picked up her pace.

"Nothing. I just—I just missed my workout this morning. He heard a faint camera shutter click again. Finding no one suspicious, he turned back again and turned to Lindsay. "You up for a jog?"

"Sure. Thank God I wore track pants." With that, they both started to jog behind Maverick.

Nick started to worry, since he'd already been stalked, but part of him thought he was just paranoid. Who could really hear a camera shutter click in a park? And so the paranoia theory won.

After about half a mile of jogging, they finally slowed their pace to walking.

Lindsay looked ahead and her eyes widened as she realized what she saw. "Oh, crap."

"What's wrong?" Nick asked concernedly. He stopped walking and so did she.

"Um…snobs' clique," she nodded to the side, and about 40 yards away, Nick saw what she was talking about. Six girls were standing in a circle, giggling and occasionally shrieking.

"So let's pass by them. Just ignore them—nothing pisses them off more."

"Okay."

When they were about5 feet away, Nick started to talk to Lindsay as if they were talking about that subject for quite a while now. "So Greg was standing there, nervous as heck, waiting for Grissom to tell him if he's gonna be a CSI or not, and then the chair swished around, and the gel man…" Nick was cut off.

"Lindsay Willows?" a perky voice called.

"Uh…yeah?" she turned around to look as she went past her.

"Hey! What's up?"

"Hey, Courtney," she said, a little questioning in her voice.

"So I heard you were gonna work on the mural in the main hall this year, too," she smiled.

Nick, meanwhile, was standing behind Lindsay, and Maverick was sitting beside him.

Lindsay nodded and smiled. "Yeah. Mrs. Trent said you were too."

Nick figured Lindsay could take this conversation on without having him, so he decided to sit under the tree nearby. He politely cut in the conversation and excused himself. "See you, ladies." He waved to the group.

"A chorus of perky voices answered, "see ya!" and some giggled and waved madly.

Sometime later, precisely two hours, Nick and Lindsay lay stretched out on their stomachs on the floor in Catherine's living room watching a teen flick. In between them was a huge bowl of popcorn, which scattered some on the floor because they were reaching for it blindly.

The phone rang in the middle of the movie, and Lindsay picked it up, resuming to her old position on the floor as soon as she recognized who the caller was.

"Hey! What's up?"

Nick, hardly engrossed in the teen movie, couldn't help but overhear the conversation.

"Yeah…Uh-huh…Well, okay…Sure, I'll be there." Lindsay continued. "What? Oh, him? Nick. Nick Stokes…Oh, that? It's Texan…What? You're kidding…Actually, I'm not surprised now. I mean, a lot of women would agree with you…He's 34! No…He's my uncle!" Lindsay laughed. "Well, technically, he's not. He's one of my mom's best friends, and he works with her, too….A CSI…CSI—crime scene investigator. But anyways, I've known him for a long time, and somehow, I decided to call him uncle…Yeah…Um, oooookay….? All right. Bye," Lindsay was about to hang up when she heard a lot of voices yell from the other end. "What? Yeah…He's beside me. We're watching a movie…Uh-huh. All righty. Sure. Bye," Lindsay finally hung up.

Nick was chuckling at their seemingly girly conversation. Lindsay had been rolling her eyes from the get-go.

"That was Courtney, Trixie, and Jen. Although a lot more girls could've been there, though. She just called to tell me about another mural after-school meeting."

"Hmm. And how did my name get into the mix?"

"Well, she thinks you're delish."

"Delish? What's delish?"

"Delicious…hot…yummy…"

Nick just laughed at the whole situation.

"And then she said no uncle should be that hot. Now she wants me top go to her sleepover on Tuesday. Probably to pepper me questions about you," she rolled her eyes.

Nick laughed, "Well, looks like you're not a ghost after all."

"Well, yeah, but it's because of you."

"As flattering as that sounds, you're wrong. How do you think they knew your first and last name?"

"Good point," she finally gave up, leaning her small blonde head on Nick's bicep. Thanks, Uncle Nick."

Nick kissed the top of her head. Lindsay pulled away and kissed Nick on the cheek. "Courtney told me to kiss you for her." Nick laughed and shook his head. He was about to say something when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get that," he said, letting Lindsay ease off from him.

Nick approached the door and smiled as he opened it. "Evening, Vivian," he greeted the slightly shorter old woman with blonde and gray hair.

"Oh, Nick. How are you, sweetheart?" she asked as she hugged him tightly and patted his back. She knew about his kidnapping, as Catherine told her. Nick, having babysat for Lindsay for a lot of times, had had plenty of talk with Catherine's mother.

He hugged her back and smiled kindly as he pulled away. "I'm fine. I really am. Now worries."

"Good," she said sincerely s she closed the door after entering, not wanting to press on the issue further.

Lindsay walked to the foyer and grinned. "Hey Grandma," she hugged her.

"Hey, Linds. Did you eat dinner?"

"Nope. Uncle Nick thought you'd want to join me for dinner."

Vivian regarded Nick, "Smart man." She reached for her pant pocket for her keys. "Nick, can you please get the Pyrex in the passenger's seat? We're having ziti."

"Sure thing," he said as he took the keys from her.

"Thanks, dear."

Not two minutes later, Nick brought the ziti to the dinner table.

"Well, I'm gonna head home, ladies."

Vivian practically jogged to Nick and grabbed his arm. "Come join us for dinner," she offered.

"Oh, no you don't have to…"

"Nicholas, I insist."

"Um…okay. I guess I can't turn down a home cooked meal every now and then."