Disclaimer: I don't own 'em. Well, except for the kids.
A/N: This takes place five years after Greave Danger.
Nick woke to the sound of a baby crying. He was confused on where he was. 'Oh yeah. I remember now.' Nick thought as he smiled and tightened his grip on the sleeping figure beside him: his wife. He had been dreaming of the last five years since 'The Incident' or at least that's what the rest of the team called it around him. Nick knew they did it so as not to bring back all the memories of being stuck in that damned box. But after five years, he still shuddered at the thought of it.
"Nick, honey."
"Yeah?" Nick smiled again. He still couldn't believe that in the last five years he had married his best friend, moved into a house, and had two kids. 'Two. Wow.' Nick thought.
"Can you go see what he needs, please?" Sara asked sleepily as she rolled over to find a better position.
"Sure." Nick got out of bed and at once missed the comfort it provided. He walked out of their bedroom and across the hall to where the nursery was.
"Hey buddy. What's wrong?" Nick asked his son as he picked him up. It still amazed Nick how big his little man had gotten in just two months.
Once he felt his father pick him up, little Alexander Stokes stopped crying and smiled.
"You just wanted to be picked up, huh." Nick started making funny faces at Alex, successfully making him laugh. "Yeah Daddy, I just wanted some attention." Nick said in baby talk.
Nick walked over to the other side of the room and sat down in the rocking chair. 'Let's see if he'll go back to sleep' Nick thought to himself.
They just sat there looking at each other, while Nick rocked in the chair. After a few minutes, Nick realized Alex wasn't tired and didn't want to go back to sleep.
"Okay, little man. Let's go see Mommy." Nick said standing up, while grabbing the blanket draped over the chair with his free hand. He then proceeded back across the hall with Alex in his arms.
"What did he need?" Sara asked rolling over to look at Nick.
"Just some quality time with his mommy and daddy." He said to Sara before looking down to say, "Isn't that right?"
Alex started making baby noises as Nick set him in the middle of their bed and then crawled in himself, therefore putting Alex between him and Sara. "I figured he can lay there and we can get a few more minutes."
"Okay." Sara said giving one of her fingers to Alex as he could wrap his hand around it.
Nick and Sara fell back asleep with Alex just lying there wide-awake but content for now. It wasn't until their three-year-old daughter Maddie ran in and jumped onto the bed yelling "Mommy! Daddy!", which startled Alex and he started crying again, that Nick and Sara woke up again.
"Maddison Elizabeth Stokes!"
At the tone of her mother's voice and the fact that she had said her whole name, Maddie knew she was in trouble. "Sorwry Mommy." She pouted, sitting down on the bed with her legs crossed.
Sara picked Alex up and tried to calm his nerves. "Shhh. It's okay. Yeah, it's just your sissy." Sara then turned to her daughter saying, "What do you say to your brother Maddie?"
"Sorwry Awex." Maddie said letting him have one of her fingers.
Nick sat back and took this all in. It never ceased to amaze him what their three-year-old did and he started laughing.
"What's so funny, honey?" Sara asked.
"Yeah, what's so funny Daddy?" Maddie repeated.
"Y'all. Our little family. The Stokes Clan." Nick said with a smile, "Group hug!"
"Yay!" Maddie yelled.
Nick leaned to give his two favorite women a hug while being mindful of Alex still in Sara's arms. After a minute they all let go.
"I hungwy." Maddie said dramatically patting her stomach.
"Okay, munchkin." Nick said tosseling her hair, "Whatcha want?"
"Pancakes! Pancakes!" she yelled getting off the bed.
Nick and Sara laughed, as they watched her bounce toward the kitchen yelling "Pancakes, pancakes!" the whole way. Nick stood to follow her and then leaned back down kissing Sara and taking Alex form her arms.
"Why don't you go take a shower and I'll watch the kids?"
"Okay. Thanks, honey." Sara said as she got out of bed and headed toward the bathroom.
Nick walked in the kitchen grabbing Alex's bouncy chair from the living room on the way. He placed the chair on the floor between the kitchen and dining room so that he could keep an eye on Alex and still make breakfast.
Then he put Alex in the chair just before Maddie dropped something on the floor. The pan, or at least that's what Nick thought she dropped, made a big crashing noise, which made Alex and Maddie start to cry. Apparently it landed on her foot and it had just startled Alex. 'Oh, my. What have I gotten myself into.' Nick thought. Nick turned around to see if Maddie was alright. She was sitting on the floor with the skillet on her right foot. Nick picked up the pan, put it on the counter, and picked Maddie up, setting her next to the pan on the counter.
"It's okay honey." Nick said trying to comfort his little girl.
"I hurt my toes, Daddy." Maddie said in her child lingo through her tears.
"Do you want me to kiss 'em?" Nick asked looking at her toes to see if she really hurt them bad.
"Pwease." Maddie said sniffling.
"Okay." Nick bent over to kiss her toes but at the same time found her ticklish spot, which wasn't hard since it was the same spot on Sara, and started tickling her. What didn't expect was for Maddie to start thrashing around with his face still at her feet and she kicked him in the nose.
"Ow!" Nick said putting Maddie on the ground and then putting his hand up to his nose. Sure enough she had done the trick; his nose started bleeding.
"Sowry Daddy." Maddie said with a pout as Nick reached for a napkin.
"Ow. Oh, that hurts." Nick said holding the napkin to his nose. He looked down at Maddie to tell her it was okay, but he was too late. Her eyes were tearing up and her lip was quivering.
"Hey. It's okay you didn't hurt Daddy too bad." But it was no use she started crying again.
This was how Sara walked in on them. Alex was crying in his chair, Maddie was crying harder at Nick's feet, and Nick was trying to comfort her while trying to keep his nose pinched with a napkin. She bent down and picked up Alex, who stopped crying once he was in her arms.
"Nick, uh, what's going on in here?"
"Uh, well, Maddie dropped the pan on her foot, I kissed her toes, started tickling her and she accidentally kicked me in the nose." Nick said.
Sara walked over to where Maddie was on the floor and picked her up too. Somehow Sara managed to hold both of them, how Nick did not know, but Maddie kept crying.
"Hey, honey. What's wrong?" Sara asked her.
"I hurt Daddy." Maddie said through her tears.
"Hey, hey. I'm okay. Look." Nick's nose had finally stopped bleeding and this seemed to cheer the little girl up.
Maddie leaned over and planted a big wet one right on the top of his nose. "Aw betwer." She said.
"Yep." Nick said taking her from Sara's arms, "Let's get breakfast started. What ya say?"
"Yeah." She squealed as Nick set her back on her feet.
"Nick, I'm going to go feed Alex in the other room. I'll be back when he's done." Sara said kissing Nick on the cheek.
"Okay. We'll being waiting for you."
About thirty minutes later Sara walked back into the kitchen without Alex. Nick was flipping some pancakes in the skillet while Maddie was sitting next to him on the counter kicking the cabinets with her feet.
"Your toes must be feeling better." Nick said looking over at her.
"Yup, yup daddy. Toes hurt no more." Maddie said with a big smile.
"Hey guys." Sara picked Maddie up off the counter, "Why don't you go and dress yourself today. Can you be a big girl and do that for Mommy?" Her and Nick had been talking about gradually letting her do more things on her own. They figured if they started now, then by the time Alex was crawling around she wouldn't need as much help. And if Alex was anything like his big sister when she started crawling, then they were going to need as many hands as possible.
"Biwg gurl!" Maddie said pointing to herself before prancing off like some princess, which made Nick and Sara laugh.
Sara walked over to her husband and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Finally, we're alone."
"Yeah, well not for long." Nick took the pancakes out of the pan and turned off the stove.
"Then you better kiss me."
Nick readily replied, putting his lips to hers. After a few moments the kiss lingered off but the still held onto each other.
"Did Alex decide he was tired?" Nick asked.
"Yeah. He fell asleep before he finished eating."
"That's my guy. Well, at least he'll be rested for today." Nick said squeezing Sara a bit tighter. He loved these moments when they got to send time together, without the kids. Just him and her, like it had been three years ago. Not that he didn't love his kids he did, but sometimes they just needed breaks for sanity reasons.
"Ewww. Mommy. Daddy." Maddie said coming back in to the kitchen after having dressed herself.
Nick and Sara burst out laughing yet again. Maddie was wearing her favorite Texas t-shirt that Nick had bought her on their last trip to Texas; a pink and yellow polka dotted skirt; one black lacy sock and red sneaker; and one solid brown sock and blue sneaker. On her head sat a miniaturized version of the CSI hat that Nick and Sara wore to the crime scenes.
"What? I weady"
"Okay, okay. I'll finish breakfast; honey, you go help her sort that out." Sara said.
"Come on sweety. Let's go." Nick said taking Maddie's hand and leading her down the hallway toward her room.
Sara put butter on all the pancakes, pulled the syrup out, and got everyone something to drink. She carried everything to the table and made a second trip for the plates and silverware. By the time she was finished setting the table, Nick and Maddie came back.
Maddie was still wearing the same shirt and hat, but had on blue jean shorts and matching white socks and shoes.
"That's a lot better. Thanks Nick."
"I guess it might take a little time 'til she's putting on matching clothes." Nick whispered into Sara's ear.
"Well, you didn't expect her to just some how match her clothes perfectly the first time."
"Well, she is her mother's daughter."
They all sat down and started eating. There was light laughter at some of Maddie's comments and a discussion of the day's plans.
Maddie had dubbed today "Awex's Bwig Day". It was his official 'introduction' into the LVPD family, although everyone had already met him and he had been to the lab a couple of times. There was going to be a party and it would be an excuse to stop working for an hour or so and shoot the breeze. Not to mention the last party they had had was the year before when Greg had finally gotten married and before that was when Maddie was born. It was all Catherine's idea and it was her job to get Ecklie to agree to it, which he did after some coaxing.
The family's breakfast was interrupted when Alex woke up. Nick being the only one done decided to go and get him ready.
"Hey, little guy. You ready for your big day?" Nick cooed at his son. In response, Alex stopped crying and smiled at his dad.
Nick took him to the changing table, took his pajamas off and changed his diaper. Then he walked to the dresser to pick out an outfit. He finally choose a little blue one piece that said, "CSI in training" that Nick's mother had bought for him. Nick walked back to the table and put the outfit on Alex. Grabbing some extra diapers off the self and Alex's favorite blanket, Nick took him back into the dining room where Sara and Maddie were just finishing up.
"Nick go get dressed, we are going to be late again." Sara said when she noticed him walk back in.
"Okay" Nick handed Alex to her and turned to head toward their bedroom. Ten minutes later he walked back out. "Alright I'm ready. Let's go."
"Do we have everything?" Sara looked around and grabbed a few things she knew they would need.
"Yup." Nick grabbed Maddie's hand and took the car keys off the end table.
Sara walked out to the car to put Alex in his car seat, while Nick locked the front door. Then, he walked with Maddie to the car the buckled her in too. They drove to the lab with Maddie's version of the Barney song as the only thing being said.