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: Sorry about the wait... I had a little trouble getting things just like I wanted them.

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 43
15:00 – 2006.12.26
McCarran International Airport: Arrivals Deck

Under normal circumstances, Sara hated taking Grissom's Denali, but when it came to going to the airport, it would always be her first choice. With those fancy letters on the side, no airport cop would make her leave the curb on the deck, and if there was one thing Sara hated, it was driving around in circles, simply because she was always early and it took a while for someone to walk down from the concourse.

When Nick finally came through the doors near the American Airlines sign, Sara had already talked with three different officers who were curious as to why C.S.I. was parked at the airport. Sara gave them all the same story, she was there picking up a departmental VIP as a favor for her boss. Thankfully for her, Nick did not come back from Texas looking like a ranch hand. He was dressed in nice pair of slacks and a dark colored sweater underneath his sport coat. She had to assume that his parents had probably taken him out before they let him off the hook.

"Officer… Anything I can do fore ya?" Nick strolled up with his best Texas charm oozing from every pore.

When the officer looked back to see Nick approach the car, Sara had to laugh at the nervousness in the man. "Ah, no, Sir… Just making sure everything was on the up and up."

Sara was really glad that Nick knew all about her airport game. "Well, isn't that nice. I 'preciate y'all bein' so thorough. Especially seein' as how the young lady's in a departmental vehicle, with her badge showing, and I bet her I.D. matched it and everything, huh?" As Nick continued to ham it up, Sara had to fight the urge to laugh her ass off. They had played this game before, but Sara could not recall him ever playing the Southern card quite like that since she had known him.

"Ah, yes, Sir… It all checked out… I-I'll be going now." The officer tipped his hat and shuffled off to check on the next parked car behind them. Nick opened the back door and threw his carryon inside and then took the computer bag from his shoulder and left it on the floor before he slid into the passenger seat up front.

The moment he slammed the door shut, they both burst out laughing. "Oh MAN! I cain't believe that guy totally bought that whole thing!"

"He's gonna be scratching his head over that one ALL DAY!" Sara got her laughing under control and pulled away from the curb. "Where the HELL did you get that whole Southern Gentleman thing from?"

"Are you kiddin'? I've been watchin' my father and brother pullin' that crap on people fer years." The two continued laughing all the way out to the highway.

"Hey, thanks for doin' this, Sara. I really didn't want everyone knowin' I got home early."

"Are you kidding me? I would have chewed off my own arm to get out of that house today." Nick couldn't help but laugh at Sara's desperation.

"Wedding plans?"

"Not just wedding plans, but Grissom fighting with his mother and Beth and Stephanie and Catherine, and it's like I'm not even there… Until they want me to be the tie-breaker, and then they expect me to know what the hell they're even talking about!" Sara blurted it all out in a string and Nick had a hard time keeping up with the firestorm. "I mean, it's not like I have had ANYTHING to do with setting this stupid thing up! At this point, I want to tell everyone to just forget about it! If I knew getting married was going to be THIS much of a hassle I would've said no."

Nick chuffed at her conclusion, "Tsk… Whatever. It took you more than six years of chasin' the man around the lab to get him to ask the first time. I don't think you've got the patience to wait for another chance."

He enjoyed the silent victory for exactly two stop lights, before the tension became too much for him. "Sara-"

"So, how'd it go with the family?" Nick instantly recognized that he had gone too far.

"Ah, it went…" That was when the idea seized him. "Tell ya what… Buy me a cup of coffee and I'll give ya a full report?"

The corner of her mouth turned slightly up and she said, "Sure… Sounds like a deal."

They pulled in to the first coffee house they spotted on the drive, and settled in with their respective choices. When the silence became too much for them both, they tried to break the stalemate.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by that-"

"I'm sorry, I'm just really stressed out-"

Before either could finish, they looked at each other and then burst out laughing.

Sara was the first to concede. "Okay, obviously we both have a lot on our minds right now." She took a deep breath and said, "Actually, I was glad when you called this morning… I've been thinking that I owed you something, and I really need to get this off my chest."

Nick took his own deep breath and prepared for the worst.

"Look, I honestly had no idea that Reynolds put in for the first open slot on Graves. And then the whole thing with Ecklie getting appointed to I.D. came up. With everything happening so fast, I didn't even think about what it was going to mean for you. I hope you know I'd never do anything like that on purpose, and-" Sara's words were starting to run together and Nick simply could not listen to it any longer.

"Sara, stop…" Nick squared his shoulders and forged on, "I know you didn't do anything on purpose. Yer just livin' yer life. I can't fault you, or Grissom for that. And I know that I was bein' a real horse's ass before I left. None of that has anything to do with you guys. It's just one of the things that I've not exactly been real great at dealin' with lately. But I am workin' on it."

Her smile was the first indication his words had been well received, "Sounds like that trip home did you some good." As she brought the cup up to her lips, she smirked, "Sometimes, he surprises even me with how he knows just what somebody needs to get back on track."

Nick's mouth turned up in half of a grin and he asked, "Are you speakin' from experience?"

"Hey, I'm certainly not marrying him for his political aspirations." The smirk on her face made it impossible for Nick to not bust out laughing at the sheer idiocy of the statement.

"Oh man! You gotta stop doin' that ta me, you're makin' my sides hurt." Nick wiped his face with his napkin, because he was certain he had broken out in a sweat with that last round of laughter.

Sara sipped at her tea and casually asked, "So, anything earth shattering happen since I last talked to you?"

Nick scrunched up his face as he tried to figure out what Sara had meant. "You took me to the airport, so I already told about the arrest… Then I spent a week and a half with the Stokes Family Sideshow, so there really ain't much ta tell."

Sara shrugged, "Well, when you left, I noticed there was a certain individual left out of the arrest tale…" Nick cringed, because he was fairly sure he what she was going to ask. "Did you have any trouble with the Doc when you went out there?"

He winced and then let it all out, "You mean other than gettin' a little dumbstruck when I went in the cabin, and embarrassin' myself by bein' a jackass?" It was Sara's turn to wince at his admission.

"What happened this time?"

"Well, it wasn't totally my fault, but I think she was expectin' somebody else to be comin' in, and she was just gettin' up, so she only had on a tank top." Nick drew in a deep breath and forged ahead, "And I saw all the scars and stuff on her back and her arm and it was…it was really bad, Sara. I've never seen anything like that on somebody still alive, ya know."

"And she caught you staring?"

"Well, not at first… But when she heard my voice, she put on this big shirt real fast, and she took her hair down. Problem was, I'd already seen the scars. Even with her covered like that, I saw 'em…or at least, it felt like I did." He blew out a breath, as he tried to work through the event in his head. "At the time, I don't know that I realized what I was doin', but in hind sight, I was watching everything she did after that, just lookin' for all the stuff that was wrong. The way she walked, how she held her hand, that weird thing with her speech that I finally got after I saw the scars, and…" He was staring into nothing as he tried to replay the incident in his mind. "It was like I wasn't lookin' at a person anymore, but I was seein' a victim… Well, not really a victim, but like it was-…"

As he struggled for the words, Sara nodded her head and said, in a barely audible voice, "Damaged goods…"

Nick looked up and over at Sara in an instant, as though he had never seen her before. "Sara, I-"

"So, what happened when she caught you?" He nearly got whiplash from the way she deflected the attention.

"Um… Well, I didn't really know she had until I was leaving. It felt kinda like she was dismissing me and I got irritated, so I said something. That was when I realized she'd noticed that I'd been starin'." Nick thought back to the way she had told him off and it sent a shiver down his spine. "It was weird though, 'cause she was totally calm… No emotion at all. It was like she was…I don't know." He shook his head as he tried to put a name to the feeling he had gotten from her flat, but eloquent dismissal. "It just felt like there was something really sad about the whole thing."

Sara's face told him that she had not understood what he had said. "What did she say?"

"Somethin' about not havin' time to placate my ego with useless pleasantries, and that she didn't feel like wastin' any time on somebody who treated her like a freakshow attraction. At first…I was angry…dang ticked, really. But then it was like I felt like I'd just been punched in the gut with what she'd said. Like I was a serious toad for being freaked out by what happened to her, ya know." Nick was still working it out in his own mind as she retold the event to Sara.

When Nick finally looked over at Sara after a long silence between them, she was staring intently at the table. He swore he could feel the sadness pouring off of his friend as she sat across from him. Without looking up, she finally said, "How do you feel about it now?"

Nick exhaled sharply and leaned back in the booth. "Like my niece is the smartest person I know." Sara finally looked up at him and he could see her confusion. "She told me that I got the family curse. That I judge people based on first impressions, on what I can see, instead of what I can learn. She's pretty sure I need a swift kick in the rear before I'll finally wise up."

He had expected his friend to agree with Neeley's assessment, but instead he was met with her continued silence. "Look, I know I can be little dense sometimes, and I'm not always good at dealing with stuff out of the norm, but you gotta remember that until I came to Vegas, I never knew there was something outta the norm. This job has been an education, but not always for the good. We get to see everything that's wrong with the world, so I need a little slack on the learnin' curve for the good stuff. I mean, I see somebody who's mean as a snake on the surface, it takes me a while to figure out there could be a dang good reason behind it."

"And when you see a battered body, your first instinct is pity?" That question shocked Nick to his very core.

"God No! First thing that comes to my mind is what on earth could be the purpose of that kind of hell. Nobody deserves that. I don't care who they are, nobody should have to endure pain like that." Nick surprised himself with his answer. In fact, Nick was sure he had never even considered what he really thought about anything like that before. He was quickly coming to an understanding about himself; he seriously needed to take a long hard look at himself, because it was obvious he needed to understand himself before he could ever hope to understand anyone else.

As he finally returned his gaze to Sara, he thought she had relaxed a bit. "So, I take it, you're still working all this stuff out?" The subtle turn of her lip told him that things were okay between them.

He chuffed, "Yeah… I guess so." Nick gave her a sideways grin and said, "Apparently all of you girls are right."

"What about this time?" As she pursed her lips to hide a smile, Nick felt infinitely better about the whole conversation.

"I really am a slow learner."