They had to wait another hour before a doctor could be found. The man who stepped into the room had silvering hair and glasses that reminded Nick of Grissom, as did the weary lines around his eyes. He looked like the kind of person who had seen and known it all, and was as a result utterly exhausted, but for whatever reason still continued to fight.
"Hey there," he said kindly, kneeling in front of Jacob. "I'm Dr. DeTamble. Are you Jacob?"
"Yup." Jacob had gone shy. He ducked his chin against his chest and looked up at the doctor with red cheeks.
"You've probably been waiting here a long time, huh?"
"Yeah, I'm real tired."
"I bet you are." Dr. DeTamble smiled and looked up at Nick. "And who's this guy? Is he your bodyguard?"
"No, that's Nick. He's a scientist!"
The doctor chuckled. "Oh, really! And has Nick been behaving himself tonight?"
Jacob grinned. "Yeah! He's real nice."
Nick gave an embarrassed smile. The doctor winked at Jacob and straightened up to wash his hands in the sink.
"Okay, Jacob. You're almost done here. We just need to draw some blood and then we're going to get you some dinner."
"Will it hurt?"
"Nah." Nick interjected, shaking his head nonchalantly. "Just a pinch. I do it all the time."
"Really? Why?"
"Oh, lots of reasons."
"Like what?" The doctor gently rolled up Jacob's sleeve and swabbed his elbow.
"Well, sometimes I give my blood to the hospital so that sick people can use it."
"People who don't have enough blood?"
"Yup. And sometimes my boss asks for some of my blood so he can do experiments on it."
"Is he a scientist too?" The needle went in, but Jacob hardly flinched. He seemed much more interested in the idea of a mad scientist performing experiments with blood.
"Yup." Nick smiled fondly. "He's a very good scientist."
The doctor was applying a bright green band-aid to Jacob's elbow when a knock sounded on the door and an older blonde woman stepped into the room.
"I'm Jennifer Walters, from child services. You must be Nick? And Jacob?" She stooped in front of the examination table and held out her hand for Jacob. "Hey there. My name's Jennifer." Jacob nodded silently and kicked his feet against the exam table. "Are you hungry? I was thinking of getting a hamburger."
Jacob frowned. "Can Nick come too?"
Jennifer smiled patiently. "No, I don't think so, Jacob. Nick's got to go back to work."
"No!" Jacob jumped down from the examination table and flung his arms around Nick's waist, burying his face into his shirt. Nick felt something wrenching in his chest as he awkwardly patted the boy's trembling back. He looked helplessly at the caseworker, who stepped forward and gently pried Jacob away.
"Hey, buddy." Nick knelt in front of Jacob and brushed the tears off his cheek. "It's going to be okay. You're going to be fine! You're the bravest kid I've ever met."
"But I don't want you to go," Jacob whimpered.
"I know. But you've got to get some dinner and some sleep. I bet you're tired, huh?" Jacob shook his head fiercely. "Jennifer is a very nice lady. She's going to take good care of you."
"But I like you!"
Jennifer placed a firm hand on Jacob's shoulder. "Okay, it's time to go. Say goodbye to Nick."
"No!" He began sobbing again in earnest. The caseworker pressed her lips together and shook her head at Nick, and he took that as his cue to leave. Jacob's piteous sobs followed him down the hall, tugging at him, turning his stomach. By the time he managed to get outside phantom tears had built up behind his eyes. His cell phone rang, startling him in the dark hush of the nearly empty lot.
"Stokes," he snapped, his voice thick.
"Hey, it's Sara…you okay?"
"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Yeah, I'm all right, thanks."
"I'm done at the scene. Want to get something to eat?"
Damn, he needed coffee. "Yeah, okay. Where?"
"Diner?"
"Sure. See you in 10."
Nick met Sara in front of the diner and followed her silently inside. They took a booth in the back, away from the crowd that showed up even at one o'clock in the morning. Only in Vegas. Sara avoided asking about his night until they had both downed about three cups of coffee.
"So you had a rough time with the kid?" She smiled sympathetically over her mug.
"Yeah." Nick stared blankly at the table. He couldn't get Jacob's face out of his mind, his small hands reaching for him, his frightened pleas. "It just…ripped me up, you know? That poor kid." He shook his head and took a swallow of coffee. "I just can't stop thinking, what's going to happen to him? Where's he going to end up? I mean, he's got no one now. Who's going to look out for him? Poor kid probably never…" Nick's voice cracked. "He was so upset, when I had to leave him. I've never seen a kid freak out like that before. And he'd never even seen me before in his life."
"It doesn't matter," Sara said quietly, fiddling with a sugar packet. "I remember when I - when we were working that quadruple murder out in the suburbs a few years back, the girl who had her boyfriend kill her family?"
Nick nodded mutely. It was one of those cases that he knew he would never forget.
"I had to take the little girl to the hospital. Brenda. At first, she wouldn't even talk to me. It was scary. I had no idea what to do...And then suddenly, something changed. I don't know what it was. She just wouldn't let go of my hand." Sara stared into the depths of her coffee, and for a moment she seemed to be elsewhere, but the waitress arrived with their food before the conversation could go any further. Sara filled him in on the details of the crime scene as they ate. The evidence was scant, and it didn't look promising. Nick couldn't help thinking that it didn't really matter if they caught the guy. It wouldn't really change anything.
Sara sighed. "Crappy night, huh?"
"Yeah." Nick stared out the window, into the lurid Vegas night. "I hate Saturdays."