DISCLAIMER:Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: T – Teen (language and adult issues)
PAIRINGS: GSR & Yo!Bling pre-established in previous fics of this timeline.
SPOILERS: Sequel to "Displacement" and "Transitions"
SUMMARY: Everything is changing around Nick Stokes. Can he deal with it, and how it will affect him in the end?

A/N: Between having an awful weekend and my beta deciding to have fun without me all weekend, it took a little while to get this one done. :p Hope you enoy it! Next stop: Vegas Baby!

REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

Chapter 42
11:45 – 2006.12.26
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport: Departure Deck

When his mother found him on the phone rearranging his flight earlier that morning, Nick had to do some quick explaining. In the end, he finally gave her the truth: his trip was more of a reprimand than a build up of time off, and that the only things he had left to do could not be accomplished in Dallas. Nick Stokes was going home; home to Las Vegas.

Initially, his mother tried her best to change his mind, but if she knew one thing, it was that her son stood firm with his choices once he made a decision. She only asked him one thing, and that was for him to let her and his father take him to brunch before dropping him at the airport. It had been awkwardly quiet through the entire meal. In fact, his father had not uttered a single word from the time they closed the front door of the house.

As they pulled up to the American Airlines door on the Departures Deck, Nick quietly exited the car and went around the back to the trunk for his luggage. With the speed of his departure, he asked his mother to just ship his big suitcase back to him, since he would be traveling with it empty as it was, and she promised to put a few things in it when she sent it off. As he was lifting the carryon bag out of the trunk, his father leaned against the side of the car to watch him. Nick smiled and then reached for his computer bag when his father finally spoke.

"Ya know, son…if ya ever need anything, all ya ever have ta do is ask, right?" Nick looked into his father's eyes, and for the first time in his life he saw a softness there that he had never seen.

"Yes, Sir." It was the only thing he could think to say, and he hoped it was enough.

"Well, then I guess I shouldn't keep you… Don't want ya ta be late fer yer flight." Nick nodded his head and realized that he was apparently not alone in the change department.

If his father was willing to take that step, then he decided he needed to do the same. As his father turned to head back to the front of the car, Nick called, "Hey, Dad?" The two men faced once again and Nick held out his hand to his father. "Thanks, Dad… For everything."

His father took the offered hand and nodded, but before he let go of his son's hand, he reached out and clapped him on the shoulder. "That's what I'm here for, Pancho."

When his father finally turned around and got back into the car, Nick felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted off his shoulders. His father was not a demonstrative man, and for him to show anything like that, out in the open, in public, was saying more to him than any touchy feely kind of father could ever express. Nick felt his father's confidence, his pride, his approval and most of all, his love in that simple gesture and those few careful words.

His mother found him staring at the empty space where his father had been when she placed a hand across the middle of his back. "Seein' spooks?"

Nick smiled, turned to his mother and said, "No, actually I think I'm just seein' things a little more clearly, right now."

"Well, I suppose that's a good thing." Nick reached out and wrapped his mother up in a big hug. Hugs were perfectly acceptable between a man and his mother, and even if they were frowned upon, it would never stop Jillian Stokes. What his father had always lacked in sentiment, his mother more than made up for it. "So, does this visit mean we might actually get ta see ya before the next decade?"

Nick held his mother at arms length and smirked at her obvious jibe. "Ya know what… I think it does, but that's just between you and me. I'd kinda like the next one ta be a little less crowded." He winked at his mother and brought her back into his arms for one last hug. "And ya know what else?"

He let go of her and picked up his bags. As he threw the computer bag strap over his shoulder, she responded. "What's that, son?"

"These planes…" He pointed at a plane that was just passing overhead. "They carry passengers both ways, ya know?"

She put her hands up on her hips and said, "Is that so?" She gave him a strangely similar wink and added, "Would that happen ta be an invitation?"

"Sure sounded like one ta me." They both chuckled at the exchange and his mother wrapped an arm around his waist as she walked him up to the door.

As they reached the door, Mrs. Stokes took a long last look at her youngest child and felt a need to leave him with one more thing. "Nicholas, I know yer tryin' ta get all this stuff worked out, but ya know that yer welcome ta come home anytime ya like, don't 'cha?"

Nick took on a very cryptic smile and leaned down to kiss his mother on the cheek when he said, "That's where I'm goin', Momma." She smiled, and for the first time since his arrival, he could tell that she felt infinitely better about what was happening with her baby boy.

As she turned to head back to her car, Nick called out. "Hey Momma?" He waited for her to turn before he asked, "Why don't you see about gettin' Neeley out to visit me in Vegas? I kinda got the impression she's feelin' a little lost right now, and I could show her around the lab, and make it a career plannin' trip or somethin'. And I thought maybe she could use the break from her folks before the semester starts up."

Nick had blurted it out in a hurry, hoping that his mother would understand what he was trying to do, but he should never have worried about his mother's undeniable ability to read a situation. "She starts back on the sixteenth, so I got her a ticket for the ninth; returnin' on the fifteenth… If that's okay with you?"

His face flooded with embarrassment as he realized that his mother had once again outsmarted him. "Yes, Ma'am… That'll be just fine."