Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from CSI, I do own Brandi, Kaitlin, and I don't own the story behind Nick having that many Brothers and Sisters, but I did make up their names and ages.
A/N: Okay, so I have finally decided that there isn't really a timeline at all to this story. I kinda am just gonna post them whenever I feel like it. I try to have the next chapter ready before posting any chapter, so I have chapter 5 written and will be posting it once I get chapter 6 written or whenever I get enough reviews to make me feel in good spirits ::hint hint:: So please enjoy this chapter…Thanks to people who review, you spark up my day.
She awoke to the smell of bacon. She instinctively rolled over and ran her hand over the spot next to her. She immediately knew she wasn't in her bed. The sheets felt different and since when had Brandi learned to cook? She slowly opened her eyes and looked around the room. She knew she was in a guy's room judging by the decorating scheme or lack thereof. She steadily sat up in the bed and tried to remember whose room this was. She couldn't remember much of last night. She tried to think of what she could remember, but it was hard because her head felt like a jackhammer and a chainsaw were fighting.
Where am I? She tried to concentrate on what she remembered. She remembered coming home and talking to Brandi. She remembered going out to the bar.
Who did I meet there? She tried to put a face in her mind and like lightening, Nick's face came up. She remembered now. This was Nick's bedroom, but how she had ended up here, she couldn't remember. She turned to look at the spot next to her in bed. That part of the bed was still made. So, she hadn't slept with him last night. She was half disappointed and half relieved. She guessed that he must be in the kitchen right now making bacon.
She hated when she got this drunk. She always felt like she might have done something to embarrass herself. She could only hope that she hadn't done anything embarrassing last night.
She pulled back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She was still dressed; only more proof that she hadn't slept with Nick last night. She stood back and began to make the bed. When she was finished she walked into his bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was a little disheveled, nothing she couldn't fix with some finger combing. She thanked herself for not having worn lots of makeup the night before, because it hadn't gotten all over her face. She laughed as she thought of a time she had fallen asleep right after a shift at work. She hadn't showered or removed her makeup, and when she awoke her eye makeup was everywhere, including her pillow.
Nick woke up early. He hadn't slept that much the night before. He sauntered into his guest bathroom and turned on the shower. He could feel the grimy bar feeling on himself. After he got out, he walked into his laundry room and pulled out a pair of pants and a shirt as well as some underwear. He was thankful that he hadn't put those clothes away yet, or else he would have to spend most of the morning in his underwear from the day before.
He walked into his kitchen and opened the fridge. He saw that he had eggs and bacon. He pulled them out and set them on the counter. He walked over to his pantry and pulled out a box of pancake mix. He walked back over to the fridge and pulled out the milk. He thought about Kaitlin, asleep in his room. He knew she would probably be hung over this morning and he wanted to make her something good for breakfast. He always used to go get pancakes with his buddies back in his frat days. He pulled out the skillet and reached under his counter to pull out the griddle. He began to heat both up and started to cook.
It was about ten minutes after he had started to cook, that he heard a toilet flush. He laughed as he thought that bacon was an excellent alarm clock.
His mind wandered to the night before. He was nervous, and he hoped that she wouldn't still be angry that he had stopped whatever that was last night. He sighed and flipped the pancakes on the griddle over.
Kaitlin walked out of the room and down the hall. She turned the corner and found him with his back to her in his kitchen. She stood there and watched him for a second as he flipped a pancake. She had a strange memory of when she was little. She was in a kitchen with a man. He was older, around 30 or so. He was standing in the kitchen and he was looking at her as he flipped a pancake, or what looked like a pancake. He was speaking to her, but it wasn't English. It was strange, but she understood what he was telling her. He was telling her how much he loved her. She shook her head, trying to escape the memory she was in. She found that after she had had an extremely tiring night or an alcohol influenced night, she would have random memories she couldn't place. Now that she knew she had been kidnapped, she figured that these must be memories from her old life. She didn't want to think about that right now. Her head still hurt and she didn't want to muddle it anymore with thoughts from something she couldn't place.
Nick finally noticed that Kaitlin was standing behind him. He turned around and smiled at her. She smiled back and began to walk over to him. She didn't look very angry, but it was hard to tell with women; they were always so cryptic.
"Hey there, sleepy head." Nick smiled at her again as she took a seat at his dining table.
"Hey." She croaked.
"How are you feeling?"
"Like an M80 just exploded in my brain."
He laughed as he knew all too well what she was going through. He walked over to his cabinet above his microwave and pulled out a bottle of aspirin. He walked over to his fridge and pulled out a bottle of water and put both down on the table she was sitting at.
"Thanks." She said. She opened the bottle and poured four aspirins into her hand and put them into her mouth. She uncapped the water bottle and downed the pills. She continued to sip her water and then turned her attention back to Nick, who was putting pancakes and some bacon onto a plate.
"So, can I ask you a question?" She looked at him hopefully.
Nick suddenly stopped what he was doing and looked at her. Here it was, she was going to talk about what happened last night. He wasn't sure if he was ready to talk just yet. While he had enjoyed kissing her, he also knew that it wasn't such a good idea.
"Sure." He looked into her eyes and saw that she looked concerned.
"I can't really remember too much from last night. The last thing I remember is running into you at the bar. In fact, it took me about five minutes this morning before I remembered where I was. I'm just wondering if I did anything last night to embarrass myself."
He thought about it. He felt glad that she couldn't remember last night, but he wasn't sure if he should fill her in on all the details.
"No, you didn't. You were defiantly very drunk, but you didn't do anything embarrassing."
"Really? Like, I didn't try to make a move on you or anything last night, cause when I get drunk, I tend to get a little flirtatious."
"No. Nothing happened." Nick felt bad about lying to her, but he supposed it was all for the best.
"Ok, good. I can't even fathom putting you through that."
Nick laughed. It was a fake laugh, but he wanted his lie to sound as believable as possible.
"You did put on a nice show for me in my car last night." He smirked and looked back up at her.
"Oh, God. I did? What do you mean?" She groaned
"Well as soon as you hopped into my car, you insisted that we listen to 97.5 so you could dance." He genuinely laughed now, remembering her in his car.
"Oh no. That is something embarrassing. I'm so sorry you had to sit through that." She was laughing now out of embarrassment.
"No, it's okay. You looked really cute."
She looked back up at him and smiled while shaking her head.
Did he just call me cute? No, he was just trying to make you feel better. He's really good at that after all.
Nick walked over to the table and set the plate of food in front of Kaitlin. He also set a place for himself. He took his seat and began to eat.
"You didn't have to do this. I could've just gone home and passed out."
"No, it's alright. I was raised better than that. Plus, I always make pancakes for women who dance for me." He laughed as she scrunched up her face.
"Hey, do you have peanut butter? I love peanut butter on my pancakes."
Now it was his turn to scrunch up his face. "No. I hate peanut butter. Never carry the stuff."
"You hate peanut butter? What planet were you raised on?"
He laughed. "Well I don't know about planet, but I'm from Texas."
"So people from Texas don't eat peanut butter?" She looked at him incredulously.
"No. In fact my sisters used to hold me down when I was little and force feed me peanut butter. They thought it was funny I guess."
"That's cute. How many siblings do you have?"
Nick took a deep breath. "Well, I have five sisters and a brother."
"Wow, that's a big family. What are their names?"
"Well there's Michael who's 51, there's Linda who's 49, there's Theresa who's 47, then there's Amy who's 45, there's Patricia who's 43, and then there's Lily who's 42."
"Wow, I bet your house was never quiet." She laughed. She had only ever been an only child. Suddenly a lump rose in her throat as she wondered if her real parents had any other children.
"No, it wasn't." Nick looked at Kaitlin. He didn't know what she was thinking, but she looked like she was somewhere else.
"What are you thinking about?" He questioned her.
Kaitlin snapped out of her thoughts and turned her attention back to Nick.
"I was just thinking about my real family, you know? Like, I was wondering if they had any other children, besides me. I've always been an only child."
Nick felt an instant pang of guilt. He had been so stupid, sitting here talking about family.
"Katie, I am so sorry for talking about, you know, this."
"No, don't be sorry. It kinda helps to talk about it."
"So, are you alright?" He looked at her apprehensively.
"I don't know. Part of me wants to go lock myself up in my bedroom and just never come out again. Then there's another part of me that is telling me to be stronger. I guess maybe I should kinda listen to both."
There was a long pause of silence as both of them ate. Nick thought back to when he had been buried alive. He thought back to how he had felt the day he was released from the hospital. He had come home and just locked himself in his bedroom. It was about a week later that he realized that he needed to get his self-pitying-ass out of bed and go on with his life.
"You know what's weird? All my life, I have understood German. Some mornings, I would wake up and just start speaking it. Those occurrences became less and less as I got older, but I can still understand it. I also have these memories sometimes, that I can't place. Like this morning when you were in the kitchen, I got this random memory in my head or a man making something that looked like a pancake. I never used to think much of 'em. I just figured they were from a dream I had had. Now, though, I don't know. You wanna hear something really horrible?"
Nick looked at her. He defiantly knew what talking about the situation could do, and he was glad that she trusted him enough to talk to him about it.
"What?"
"I was just thinking about the name you told me was my real name. Angelika. I was just kinda thinking, I hope that this is just cause to keep my name Kaitlin because the name Angelika is horrible. How selfish is that?"
"It's not selfish at all. You're just focusing on the positive side, which is good. It's what I did after I was…" He cut himself off. He had almost revealed to her that he had been buried alive. It wasn't like he didn't trust her; it was more that he just didn't tell anyone anymore. Nobody at work talked about it either. He just chose to ignore it, but every morning when he woke up, he knew he was lucky to be alive. He didn't feel like dumping that burden on her.
"After you were what?" He had been about to tell her something, but had stopped. She was confused.
"It's nothing. Just a family death." He hoped that she would drop it. She did.
Kaitlin got up and walked into the kitchen with her dish. She began to do the dishes.
"You don't need to do that you know?" Nick felt bad that she felt the need to clean up everything.
"No, you made breakfast and this is the least I can do. You go watch TV or something."
After all the dishes were complete and in the dishwasher, Kaitlin decided that she needed to get home. It was only then that she remembered that she didn't remember how she had gotten to Nick's house.
"Uh, Nick? How did I get here last night?"
"I drove you. Why are you ready to go?" He turned off the TV and walked over to her. He had forgotten all about that little issue. It had just felt so natural having her in his house.
"No, don't worry about it; I'll just call my roommate to come get me."
As she reached for his phone, he put his hand out to get it first.
"I'll drive you, no matter what you say."
Outside the bar, Nick and Kaitlin stood outside of her car. She was standing with her back to her car with Nick right in front of her. Neither one of them really wanted to say goodbye to the other, but both knew that they needed to.
"Well, I guess I should let you get home." Nick looked at her straight on and waited for whatever she was going to do.
"Yeah. Thanks for everything, Nick."
"Your welcome. I'll see you later."
As Nick turned to make his leave, Kaitlin called out for him to hold on. She reached into her purse and wrote down her cell phone number and her name. She handed the paper to Nick and hugged him.
"Call me sometime, ok?" Kaitlin didn't wait for an answer. She turned and opened her car door, sat down, and closed it again. Nick stood by, watching, as she sped off to go home.
Nick sighed and turned to head back to his truck. Once inside, he looked down at her number and smiled. He supposed it wouldn't be a bad idea to be friends with her. After all, he had finally met someone who was probably more messed up than he was.