A few weeks later, it's back to business as usual at the Las Vegas crime lab, sans two people. The replacements feel temporary to Nick, like Sara and Grissom had coincidentally taken a holiday at the same time.
One evening, he is on his way to work when "Aqualung" comes on the radio and he is forced to pull over to the side of the road, crying. When the song ends, he wipes his eyes on his sleeve and changes the radio station—Showtunes. It doesn't matter, though—he just can't risk hearing "Aqualung" again.
He arrives at work five minutes late, but his puffy eyes tell stories and Catherine asks no questions, simply hands him his assignment, careful not to assign him to the suspected suicide. He isn't quite ready for that yet.
Work, for him, has become little more than a mind-numbing diversion, something to do other than watch ESPN and cry. Catherine had given him time off, of course, as much as he needed. He took two weeks and went back when he was convinced that he had no feelings for Sara other than concern and friendship, but the Nicky Stokes that found Sara Sidle on Gil Grissom's office floor that night was not the same Nicky Stokes that walked back in the door two weeks later. Catherine knew that, along with Sara, a part of him had died in that apartment that night.
Months pass, then years, and eventually, it is like Sara and Grissom were never part of the crime lab at all. Everyone adjusted to the new guys, redeveloped schedules. Everyone except Nick.
When he got a transfer nearly four years later, he accepted it without a moment's hesitation. That Wednesday, Greg and Warrick drove him to the airport to say goodbye. He was bound for Philadelphia. He could reinvent Nicky Stokes, maybe get married, have a few kids, settle down. Forget about the girl who left him behind. Forget about it all.
It worked for a while.
Five years after moving to Philadelphia, he his on his way home from work to see his fiancée and new baby boy when Aqualung comes on the radio and he realizes the date: ten years since Sara. He turns the car around and heads towards Las Vegas. He'll explain later. There's unfinished business to be completed.
A/N: By popular request.