"Well it's a good thing no one's holding a gun to your head." Warrick said with a smile. "Although, I'm sure Ecklie would to get you to finish that paperwork you've put off for the last month."
Nick sighed again. "I didn't put it off. Grissom didn't have time to do it because one of his cockroaches had a heart attack during a race or something ridiculous like that. Not my fault."
Warrick drank the rest of his coffee and shook his head at his friend. "Suck it up Nicky. Grown ups have responsibilities."
Nick picked his pen back up and forced back a smile. "I wish I was five years old again and didn't know what the hell COD stood for."
"Don't we all." Warrick said as he stood up and threw his cup in the trash can. He glanced out the breakroom window and what he saw made him thing his tired mind was playing tricks on him. "Nick, do you have a twin brother?"
Nick looked up and frowned in confusion. "I have a brother...but he's not my twin. Why?"
"Because there's this guy at the front desk who looks an awful lot like you, except he's wearing a suit and is a little taller than you."
Nick dropped his pen again and quickly went over and stood next to Warrick. "Shit...that's Jeremy...that's my brother."
"Why is that a bad thing?"
Nick tore his eyes away from the man signing in at the front desk and looked at Warrick. "Huh? It isn't...I'm just surprised to see him." Nick said before walking out of the break room. Warrick just shook his head at Nick before heading to the locker room to change before leaving.
"What are you doing here?" Nick asked as he walked up next to his older brother.
Jeremy turned and faced Nick with a smile. "Nice to see you too Nick." He said sarcastically. "I just came to visit my little brother for a few days. Is that okay?"
Nick rolled his eyes. "Of course it is...is everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah everything's fine...but I gotta talk to you about something."
Nick nodded. "I figured. Follow me." He lead Jeremy to the empty breakroom and waited until the door was closed before asking Jeremy, "What's going on?"
Jeremy shook his head and held up his hands. "Calm down. Everything's fine. I just need you to hold on to something for me for a little while."
"Okay...what is it?"
"That's not important." Jeremy reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a tan envelope and handed it to Nick. Whatever was in it caused the package to bulge a little and was fairly heavy. "What is imporant is what's inside there. Don't let anyone know you have it and keep it safe for me, okay?"
"Why can't you tell me what thi-"
Jeremy cut Nick off. "Hey, I would never put you in danger, you know that. It's just some paper and files for work."
"Which work?" Nick asked skeptically.
Jeremy shook his head. "You trust me, don't you?"
Nick sighed. "Yeah, yeah I do. Don't worry...I got this."
It wasn't until then that the Stokes' brothers realized they weren't alone. Warrick had come back in to get his jacket, and had heard pretty much the entire conversation. "Excuse me guys...hope I didn't inturrupt." He said with a sideways glance at Nick.
"No, not at all." Jeremy said with a smile.
After staring back at Warrick, Nick introduced the two men to each other. "Warrick, this is my older brother Jeremy. Jere, this is Warrick."
"Nice to meet you." They both said with smiles as they shook hands.
"Well I gotta run Nicky, I'll see ya later kid." Jeremy said before he left the breakroom, then the lab itself.
Nick ran his hand through is dark hair and collapsed into his chair. He dropped the package on the table and pretended to go back to his paperwork.
Warrick took the seat across from Nick and leaned back casually. "What was that about?" He asked.
Nick shook his head and didn't look up from the paperwork. "Nothing, he just needs me to hang on to something for him."
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine."
"Then why won't you look at me? Cuz you know I'll be able to tell you're lying?"
Nick smiled slightly and looked up at Warrick. "It's complicated...about stuff that happend a very long time ago. No big deal though."
Warrick knew Nick was lying about it not being a big deal, but decided not to call him on it again. He knew his best friend would come to him if he ever needed anything.
"Alright. If you ever wanna tell me what's really going on, I'm all ears." Warrick said before he stood up and walked over to the door. Before he left, he turned back to Nick, who was having a staring contest with the table. "We still on for the Suns game tonight?"
Nick turned around and smiled at Warrick. "For sure. I wanna be there when my Mavs beat them. I can't wait to see your face man."
Warrick shook his head. "Whatever Texas." He said before walking out of the breakroom and down the hall.
Nick took a deep breath and let it out slowly after Warrick had left. He reached to pick up the package Jeremy had given him, but pulled his hand back. He trusted his brother. He knew he wouldn't put his life in danger with something of extreme importance. Again.
Warrick still couldn't help but wonder what Nick and Jeremy had been talking about. Whatever it was, it seemed to scare Nick. Now that he thought about it, he didn't know much about Nick's past other than he had obviously grown up in Texas and had five sisters and a brother. Whatever was going on had to do with something that happened some years ago, and he had a feeling it was worse than Nick was gonna let him know.
But thoughts of that soon disappeared as the two best friends started watching the basketball game. They argued back and forth over who was gonna win and gloated when their team scored or made a great play. Warrick didn't necessarily love the Suns like Nick loves the Mavericks, but it was just fun to compete and argue like they always did. And when the Suns pulled it out after two over times, Warrick couldn't help but rub it in a little.
"And that's why they're going all the way my friend." He said with a smile.
Nick shook his head and sighed. "Well they do have the best point guard ever. You just can't stop Nash."
"Damn straight." Warrick nodded in agreement.
Nick took another sip of his beer and leaned back against the couch. "You still don't believe UNLV's gonna make it to the Final Four, do you?" He asked with a grin.
"I have faith." Warrick answered. "They'll go farther than A&M."
"That's how I know you're full of it."
Warrick didn't have time for a rebuttle because Nick's cell phone started ringing, and before he could say anything back Nick had answered it.
"Hello?" Nick answered. His smile soon faded and was replaced with a worried expression. "Are you okay?" He listened to whoever was on the other end to say something for a few minutes before he spoke again. "You said you were done..." Nick shook his head at whatever was being said. "Okay...yeah, I can take care of it. Bye." He snapped his cell phone shut and stood up.
"Everything okay?" Warrick asked.
"Yeah, that was just Jeremy. I gotta go over to his hotel to help him with something for work."
"Alright, I'll see ya tonight right?"
Nick nodded. "Yeah, I'm working. See ya." And with that Nick was gone.
Warrick just shook his head and tried not to think about it too much. But Nick was acting really weird about his brother being in town, and something didn't feel right. Warrick sighed and tried to focus on the highlights of the game he had just watched. He realized that ever since Nick had been kidnapped he had worried about him a lot more than he should have because Nick was doing a lot better than he had been. He was just over reacting. He hoped.
Next chapter should be up soon. Hope you like it so far, I know it's kind of a slow start and a little confusing, but it gets better.