A New Addition

Pairing: Nick and Sara

During a conversation with his mother, Nick finally tells her what happened to him when he was nine.

Spoiler: Overload

Disclaimer: I don't own Nick, Sara or any other CSI character. I do own Nick and Sara's families and any other non-CSI character.

Mother and Son Talk

"Nick, I don't think your Aunt Barbara would go for that," Cynthia said after taking a little sip of her crème brulee coffee.

"Mom, it's a perfect way for her to get to know her new great-niece!" Nick protested.

"She is set in her ways," she replied. "She told me that she was born and raised in Texas and she will die there. Even though she has done a lot of traveling around the world, her roots are planted in the Lone Star State."

"Barbara is my favorite aunt," Nick whined. "I want her to move to Vegas and help us take care of Abigail when Sara returns to work."

"Why are you doing this, Nick?" she asked.

"Doing what?" he shot back.

"You've turned down every applicant you and Sara interviewed for the babysitting position," she said. "You even refused to call that nanny service your next door neighbor highly recommended!"

"So, I didn't care much for their answers to my questions," Nick said. "I refuse to have a complete stranger watching over my daughter. Some of them appeared to be incapable of looking after an infant. I also don't care much for a nanny service."

"So enrolling her in 'day care' offered by the Las Vegas Police Department is the only acceptable solution!" Cynthia hissed.

Nick calmly nodded, he didn't want to say anything more at the moment.

"Yesterday, Catherine Willows invited me to have lunch with her," she said. "I took up her offer and we talked about a lot of things. She told me that her daughter Lindsey is very interested in babysitting Abigail for few nights a week. She also told me that Lindsey considers you and Sara her uncle and aunt. I told her that you would think about it."

He took a deep breath and gave his mom a small smile. As much as he would love to have Lindsey babysit, he wasn't sure about it.

"I would have to speak to Sara about it when she wakes up," Nick said with a subtle shrug. "I don't think it's such a good idea to have a teenager babysit an infant. In fact, I still don't feel it's in Abigail's best interest to be babysat."

"Nick, what is going on with you?" Cynthia inquired.

He gave his mom the same look he gave Catherine when she threatened to take him off the case that greatly affected him. He felt like he was stuck in a corner and couldn't get out. He knew he had to tell his mother about what happened to him when he was nine. He took a very deep breath and looked at her.

"Do you remember that night you had to go to that monthly Public Defenders' meeting?" Nick asked as a tear slid down his cheek. "I think it was back in April of 1981 and I was nine at the time. Tricia, my regular babysitter was hospitalized with mono."

"Yes, I remember it," Cynthia said. "Your sisters had plans that night. I almost made Sabrina cancel her plans to go that Rush concert with Jake. I had to get a last minute babysitter for you. What does this have to do with you not wanting to hire someone to care for Abigail while you and Sara are at work?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you," Nick sighed and took another deep breath. "Veronica, the Abernathys' niece, seemed to be a nice girl. She appeared to be someone you can easily trust."

Cynthia felt her heart sink with what he was trying to tell her.

"Nick, just tell me," Cynthia insisted. "Did she hurt you in any way, shape or form?"

"She placed her hand on my lap in a sexual manner," Nick said as the tears were coming down his face. "She put her tongue in my mouth. I went to bed early hoping it would be the end of it. She came into my room, took off her clothes and mine and forced herself on top of me. After she left my room, I took a bath, put back on my clothes and sat on my bed in the dark waiting for you to come home."

Cynthia was in shock over what her son told her. She was speechless for a brief moment.

"I didn't know she would be capable of doing something like that to an innocent little boy," she shook her head in sorrow. "Especially when that little boy was you, Nick!"

"I am sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Nick sobbed. "I wasn't sure if you would believe me or told me I just wanted attention or sympathy."

"Nicholas Anthony Stokes, how could you even think that?" Cynthia asked. "I would have believed you. I know you aren't a sympathy junkie. I would have had some friends from the Texas Rangers personally go to Albuquerque and haul her ass back to Dallas to face child endangerment charges."

"The judge would have thrown it out," Nick shook his head. "She was barely an adult and I was almost ten at the time."

"I had friends that would have made sure that it would have made the charges stick like molasses and she would have been ordered to get professional help and possible jail sentence," Cynthia tried to reason with him.

Nick felt his mom pull him into a hug and gently stroking his back to comfort him. She also had tears streaming down her face.

"Are you mad at me?" He asked giving her a look of childish guilt.

"No, I am not mad at you," she replied solemnly. "I am mad at Veronica for doing this to you. However, I am a little disappointed with you for waiting nearly 25 years to tell me this."

"I know," he sulked.

"Did you tell anyone before?" she inquired.

"The first person I told, though not in many words, was Catherine," he said calmly. "We were investigating a case of a 14 year old boy that was killed in his shrink's office. There was evidence that told me that he was sexually abused by that woman, but it was proven otherwise. Catherine threatened to take me off the case for jumping to conclusions and confronting suspects. I had to tell her what happened and apologized to her for it. I told Grissom, but I forgot the circumstances that occurred. I finally told Sara when we first started dating, but she was the first person I told the full story."

"Aren't you going to tell your daughter when she gets older?" she asked.

"I will," he said. "I owe it to her."

"It seems to me that ever since Abigail was born," Cynthia said. "She gave you the extra push needed to tell me about Veronica."

"I think she did," Nick smiled for the first time since the conversation began.

"Nick, you really amaze me," Cynthia sighed. "After that happened, you had female friends and dated plenty of girls and women since high school. Then you fell in love with Sara Sidle and married her. You are now the proud father of a baby daughter. How did you manage to do it?"

"I guess I tried to forget about what happened that night," Nick shrugged. "I wanted to put it behind me. I had the occasional nightmare, but I had woken up from it before Veronica was on top of me. If you asked me if I saw a counselor, yes I have with Catherine's coaxing. I was very reluctant to go, but I am glad I did. I suffered a minor setback when Sara and I were picking out names for the baby, but I got through it."

Sara appeared in the dining room cradling Abigail in her arms.

"Speaking of Sara," Cynthia beamed.

Nick turned around and saw Sara and their daughter. Sara saw Nick's tear stained face and grew concerned.

"Nicky, are you okay?" Sara asked.

"I am okay, now," Nick said. "I just had a heart to heart talk with mom."

He looked at his daughter and gingerly took her off of Sara's arms. He cradled the now two and a half week old infant. She was squirming about, smiling and making little gurgling noises at her father. Nick couldn't resist smiling back at his daughter and gently kissed her on the forehead. She raised her tiny hand and touched his nose with it.

"Princess Abby, you are so cute," he chuckled.

"Nick, why do you call her Princess Abby?" Cynthia asked.

"When Sara was pregnant with her," Nick said. "We wanted to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. We call the baby Tadpole, then Mini-Baby and when we found out we were having a little girl, we called her Little Princess until we came up a name for her. Princess Abby is a mixture of Little Princess and Abigail. We sometimes call her Munchkin, but it is rare."

It was that moment Abigail started to fuss and cry. Nick gently rocked her to soothe her, but it failed.

"I just fed her a few minutes ago," Sara insisted. "She couldn't be that hungry again."

"I think she needs to be changed," Nick said. "Let me take care of Abby."

"No, I'll take care of her," Sara smiled. "You continue talking to your mom."

Nick nodded and handed Abigail over to Sara.

"I love you and Abigail," Nick smirked.

"We love you, too, Nick," Sara said as she took Abigail to her room, but not before she and Nick gently kissed.

"When I call Sabrina in the near future," Cynthia said when Sara was already in Abigail's room. "I will tell her about what happened to you with that last minute babysitter."

"Mom, we had no way of knowing that something like that would happen," Nick said heavily. "Don't be so hard on Sabrina. It wasn't really her fault, and I never blamed her for not wanting to babysit me that night. I definitely don't blame Rush coming to Dallas that day either. I want to tell Sabrina about Veronica, but only when I am ready do so."

"You are right," Cynthia smiled. "Nick, I am proud of you although you should have told me immediately after it happened. That was very courageous, but you shouldn't have suffered all those years. I hated to see any of my children suffer like that."

"Thanks, mom," Nick said breathing a happier sigh of relief. "I just felt a big weight lifted off my chest."

Cynthia silently nodded her head and gave Nick another hug. She started to softly cry and he rubbed her back to comfort her. A few moments later, she composed herself and washed the coffee mugs and placed them in the drying rack. She then followed Nick to Abigail's room to spend some time with Sara and Abigail.

TBC