Disclaimer: Not mine no money
Authors note: I see a sequel in the future
"Nicky!"
Grissom heard Jillian Stokes shout just seconds before he felt her ram into him at full speed.
"Oh thank god he's all right"
Grissom instinctively tightened his arms around Daniel as he felt the woman who he had been getting along with only a few moments previously tried to hug his son. He tried to back away from her but it was no use, she followed him.
"What are you doing?"
"I just want to see my son, please. You don't know how out of my mind with worry i've been. And now he's safe. He's been safe all this time you don't know how happy i am to know that much."
Daniel looked at Grissom with fear and confusion. He didn't know who this lady was or why she was insisting that she was his mother. As far as he knew his parents were dead. They died shortly after they let the baby sitter hurt him.
"Dad what's going on?"
"Nicky its me, i'm your mother."
"My parents are dead. They died after they let the sitter hurt me."
"Nicky."
"My names Daniel."
"No your name is Nicky. Isn't it Bill, that's what we named him?"
Bill stokes was standing on the side watching as his wife terrorized the Grissom boy. He didn't know if he was their son or not but he could have been. He had his chin and Jillian's eyes. But he was scared of them. Why on earth if he was their son would he be scared of them?
Their son had always been respectful of them but he had never been scared. He couldn't picture Dr. Grissom hurting a child but why would his son, if he was indeed his son, be scared of him. It suddenly became clear to Bill. He was scared because something must have happened that night but they quickly dismissed it instead of trying to figure out what it was that happened.
He took a hesitant step forward just as Daniel lifted his eyes. Bill saw his youngest child looking back at him for the first time in five years. And his child didn't know him.
"Nicky"
Gil felt Daniel bury his face into his shoulder as he felt his son tremble with fear. Why were these people scaring his son? What purpose did they have in hurting his son? He made a frantic hand gesture to his mother.
'Get help'
'Who'
'Brass'
His mother began frantically looking for brass as Ecklie came forward and tried to make the Stokes move away from him and Daniel. He did not know their purpose but at that moment it didn't matter because they were scaring Daniel. Grissom backed them both into a corner and set Daniel down behind him, he kept himself between his son and Judge and Jillian stokes.
"Calm down, I don't know what's going on but I know that there must be a logical reason." Ecklie moved between Grissom and the stokes. He whispered to Gil out of the side of his mouth "Anything you can think of would be great right now."
"As soon as I can think of something I'll tell you."
Daniel buried his face in the back of his dad's jacket. He had never been so afraid in his life, apart from the time that his sitter had hurt him.
"Dr. Grissom that is our son that you were holding; how did you find him, and why did you adopt him since we are his parents?"
Grissom remained stubbornly silent as the Judge and his wife continued to try and coax Daniel out from behind his guardian. Daniel refused to move from his place of protection. Eventually Brass came into the lobby with Grissom's mother. He had his gun drawn and he was holding it steady. It was clear to him that the Stokes had tried to do something and that it involved Grissom and Danny.
"Judge and Mrs. Stokes, if you would please calm down and back away from Dr. Grissom and Daniel I won't have to put you in a cell to calm down." They turned around startled. They had been so focused on their son that they had not heard the detective arrive in the lobby.
"Why are y'all referring to my son as Daniel, his name is Nick. Nicholas Christian Isaac Stokes."
"Maybe you did have a son named that but until I see a paternity test that tells me so as far as I am concerned his name is Daniel Grissom and he is the legally adopted son of Dr. Gilbert Grissom." Brass put his gun away. They had partially come back to their senses. "Look, I don't know what's going on anymore than you Gil Ecklie or Daniel. If you want to take this down to the Pd fine but I don't think anyone here wants a scene. Let's go quietly." He waited until the stokes were out of hearing range before he whispered to Grissom "You might want to take Daniel to see the shrink, see if there might be a reason why he doesn't know what's going on."
"I think that that might be a good idea."
The psychologist's office had a friendly inviting atmosphere. It was a place where one could normally relax and not worry about what others thought of him or herself. Normally, though, Gil wouldn't be here to find out if it was at all possible for his son to just forget about his previous life and previous family.
Daniel had not let go of him since the incident in the lobby, and Gil was having a difficult time convincing himself that he should especially since he was fast asleep in his arms.
Christ, if those people really were his biological parents what was he going to do? There was no way in hell he'd just let his son go, not after what they had allowed to happen before. But his father was a freaking judge, a Supreme Court judge, and his mother was an attorney. Ecklie had told him that they had numerous siblings on both sides and that they had all wound up in law enforcement in one way or another. He may not have a choice.
True the law was on his side, for the time being, but there were more of them, they all knew the law inside and out and a helluva lot of them were lawyers. He was screwed, but he'd be damned if he'd just let them waltz in here and take his son away from him. Who knows maybe they wouldn't want to uproot Daniel again. Maybe they'd be content with the knowledge that he was safe and taken care of. Maybe they'd be happy with visiting him.
Yeah and maybe he'd be crowned king of the universe and have lightening shooting out of his ass. The door opened rousing Grissom from his less than happy thoughts.
"Hey Gil, so what's this I hear about you needing a psychological assessment done for Daniel?"
"Tonight at the judges convention the Stokes saw my son and they say that he is their son who went missing five years ago. They say that he ran away. My son insists that his parents are dead, that they died shortly after the babysitter had hurt him when he was nine. I want to know why my son wouldn't remember his parents. Why, if the stokes are telling the truth, he doesn't recognize them and remembers them as being dead."
The psychologist sat back in his chair and thought for a while. Grissom was about ready to start cursing him for taking his sweet time while his son was in danger. Eventually the psychologist looked back at Gil.
"You say that the babysitter hurt him, I know that you took him to see a psychologist shortly after you adopted him. Now I know a psychologist can't talk to a child's parents but did Daniel ever tell you how she hurt him?"
"Yes"
"Would you say that it was a significantly traumatic experience?"
"Yes"
"Did you want to tell me what Daniel told you or would you rather it remains between the two of you?"
Grissom thought about it for a while. He needed answers, he had to know why his son would forget a whole part of his life but he wanted his son to know that he could trust him. He woke his son up gently.
"Daniel, I wanted to know if I could tell Dr. Andrews what you told me about the babysitter. It may shed some light on the situation."
"Sure dad, but why? I don't know who those people are. My parents died a while ago."
"I know Daniel. Go back to sleep." When he felt Daniel nod off once more he began to choose his words carefully. He didn't want to over do it but there was no way he was going to downplay it either.
"When Daniel was nine his parents had gone out for the night and the babysitter that they had arranged had cancelled at the last minute. So they called this company and had them send over a babysitter right away.
"When she arrived the parents talked to her for a while and introduced her to Daniel. They left her alone with their son. She started out by asking Daniel if he wanted to play a game. He had said sure, so she got out a deck of cards and started dealing. She told him that they were playing poker.
"Daniel had told her that he didn't have any money to play with and she had told him that it was okay that they could use clothes instead. So eventually she had all of his clothes and he didn't even have his underwear. She told him that she would give his clothes back if he did something for her.
"So he had agreed. She made him go to the fridge and get a bottle of beer for her. When he got back she told him to lie down on the couch. She drank the beer and then began touching him inappropriately. When he objected she-"
Grissom didn't want to go into the rest of what happened but he needed to know why his son would forget his early childhood. He lowered his voice "She object raped him with the beer bottle. Every time he said no she would do that to him.
"Eventually she gave him his clothes back and told him to dress and go to his room. She told him that if he told his parents they would not believe him and that next time she would do worse to him. He ran to his room and stayed there until his parents came back. When they did he told them that the baby sitter had hurt him. His mother slapped him and both of them told him to stop lying."
When he had finished the story Dr. Andrews appeared to be deep in thought. It took him a few moments before he began to speak again.
"From the sound of it his memory lapse may have more to do with his parent's reaction than the babysitter hurting him. He remembers being sexually molested and his parents reactions to him telling them but he remembers them dying.
"He never did go into detail about how his parents had died, which would be normal for a young child who had lost both of his parents but he does not recognize them and if they are his biological parents it may be that the only way he could cope was to begin telling himself that they weren't his parents.
"If they were his parents they would have believed him. Maybe he still remembered his previous life when you found him, but was actively rejecting it. When you took him in he may have decided that it was safe to assume an entirely different identity altogether. So he made himself forget his old life and assumed the new identity of Daniel Grissom."
"So you're saying 'selective amnesia'?"
"It's not just for soap operas anymore. It happens when something traumatic occurs in the person's life. They reject their old life, maybe keeping certain bits of it, like in Daniel's case the babysitter, and forgetting everything else. Sometimes they fabricate something unconsciously that is easier to live with. Like having his parents dead rather than alive and not believing him. At any rate he probably wasn't lying to you when he said that his parents were dead, in his mind they were and that was the truth as far as he was concerned."
"Okay, thank you Dr."
"Anytime Gil"
Judge Bill Stokes was pacing the interrogation room. He didn't know how it had happened but his youngest son was alive and well. The paternity test had confirmed that Nick was indeed his son.
And his son was alive and He was thankful for that much, and when they got Nicky home and started helping him remember his life they would have their family back completely.
He was glad that Dr. Grissom had looked out for his son but he wanted him back home and safe. He paused by the table in the middle of the interrogation room. Where were they? They had kept Jillian and him waiting for long enough.
It was time they got this settled once and for all so that they could all go home and have their family reunited. The door to the room opened and the detective who had introduced himself as brass came in.
"Can we have our boy back so that we can go home?" Jillian asked from her seated position at the end of the table.
"I'm afraid that it's not that easy. Daniel- I mean Nick- ran away when he was nine and was adopted shortly afterwards. He has been living as Daniel Grissom for the past five years. He is now fourteen and is legally old enough to choose which adult guardian he wants to live with. He has chosen to remain with Dr. Grissom."
"But he is our son! We can not just leave him with that stranger!" Bill was beside himself with anger.
"Watch your tone." Brass said carefully neutral voice "You may not have a choice. Besides I have known Gil long enough to know that he is a good person, and he has been good to Daniel - I mean Nick. And Nick has been good for Gil, before he spent way too much time with his bugs. At any rate there are a lot worse things that could have happened to your son than being adopted by an entomologist."
"Pardon me Brass but do you have any children?"
"Yes I have a little girl, Ellie, just turned one."
"And how would you feel if your Ellie ran off, disappeared for five years and then you find her. And then you find out that she has been adopted and that the authorities will not do anything about it and that your own flesh and blood would rather stay with a complete stranger than go back to the safety of your home. How would you feel?"
"I think I'd be glad that she was safe and being looked after. I think that I'd be grateful to the person or persons that took her in. I think that I'd be happy to visit her and her guardians in the future since she obviously feels safer with them than me."
Bill ground his teeth together. This was frustrating as hell. He wanted his son back. Jillian had had to live with the pain of not knowing what had happened to their youngest for so long he did not want her to have the joy of finding out that their son was alive and well to be ripped away because their son did not want to come back home.
"Can we talk to him?"
"I will ask him, but if Dr. Grissom or Dani- I mean Nick objects then please don't make a scene. If Nick does agree you will be staying in the interrogation room to talk."
"Fine"
Brass could feel for the guy, Bill Stokes, his son had left when he was nine and they hadn't seen hide nor hair of him for five years and now he was alive and well but they couldn't have him back.
He could empathize with him but he sure as hell wasn't going to encourage Danny- Nick to go back to those people. Not only would he miss having the kid around he did not want to think what that would do to Grissom.
He had changed a great deal thanks to Dan- Ni- screw it Daniel. He had been too withdrawn into his own world, basically had no clue about people. True he still had no clue about people in general and he was still very protective of his own life but he wasn't so withdrawn anymore.
And he wasn't spending all of his time with his damned bugs. Adopting Daniel was the best thing that could have happened to Grissom. If the kid left or was forced to leave it would kill the younger csi. That would not be a good thing. That would be a decidedly bad thing. Brass was just on his way to the shrink's office looking for them when he found them just walking out.
"Hey Daniel, Gil the Judge wants to talk to Daniel. I told him that if the two of you agreed they would have to stay in the interrogation room for the talk."
Brass saw Gil's arm tighten protectively around Daniel. Daniel actually inched closer to Grissom. The kid did not want to be alone in the same room as those people obviously.
"Look if you do this Danny it will be in an interrogation room, we'll be just on the other side of the one way glass okay?"
"'Kay"
"Does the Judge know that?"
"I think I may have forgotten to mention that bit."
"Danny, what do you want to do?"
"We'll be staying in the interrogation room?"
"Yes"
"And you and Brass will just be on the other side of the mirror?"
"Promise"
"And I won't have to go back with them?"
"That is your choice to make Daniel"
"I don't want to go back with them"
"Then you don't have to."
Daniel took a deep breath.
"Okay then, I just want to get back to my life."
Gil escorted Daniel to the interrogation room where the Stokes were waiting for their chance to talk to his son. Gil smiled ruefully, if you had asked him if it was possible to become territorially possessive about your children before he had adopted Daniel he would have stared blankly without knowing how to answer.
Now he knew, and the answer was yes, as in neon sign in all capitol letters with a mariachi band as back up. He hugged Daniel and promised him once more that he would be just in the observation room watching him. He followed Brass into the other room.
When they got there they saw Daniel enter into the main part. He had waited until he knew that they were in there watching him; Smart boy. He hadn't been in there even two seconds when the woman, Jillian, rushed up to him and began hugging and kissing him, completely oblivious to the discomfort that she was causing Daniel.
Gil had to hold himself back; he hated seeing a complete stranger acting that way to his son. He knew that technically she wasn't a complete stranger but as far as he was concerned she was. He mentally slapped himself; the same could be said about him from their point of view. The only difference was that Daniel remembered him and trusted him.
He tried to shut off the emotions that were telling him to run in there with a baseball bat and do something drastic. He managed to get it down to a tiny nagging feeling of anger, well a largish tiny feeling. He focused on what was happening. He didn't kid himself, odds were that the Stokes wanted him back and he'd likely wind up having to give him up in the end. He wanted to know what kind of people they were, other than unusually oblivious. He waited and watched as they interacted with his son.
"Oh thank god and hallelujah, Nicky it's so good to have you back."
"I'm glad you're glad to see me ma'am but my name is Daniel."
"No we named you Nick. We always called you nick don't you remember?"
"No, I remember my dad, Dr. Grissom finding me in the airport. I didn't have a name so Brass asked if I liked the name Daniel and I did. I don't know you or why you are calling me Nicky. And I don't know why you wanted to talk to me."
The man who had been standing to the side spoke up then.
"We're your parents, and it would be good for you to be a tad more respectful of your mother. She has been so worried about you."
"My parents are dead. They died when I was nine. It was shortly after they let my babysitter hurt me. So I am sorry for your loss but I'm not your son and I would like to go back home to bed so that I can be up and ready for studying at warrick's tomorrow."
The man looked very disappointed.
"Nick"
"Daniel"
"Fine, Daniel then, I am your father, Jillian is your mother. While we are glad that you were found and taken care of by Dr. Grissom I think that it may be time to leave him be. He has done more than anyone had a right to ask of him and he has done well by you but it's time for you to come back home with us and stop imposing on him."
"I am not imposing on him. He chose to adopt me of his own free will. It's not like anyone held a gun to him and made him adopt me. Of course Brass might have if he had thought of it. And I am home. This is my home. And I would appreciate it if you didn't assume that you could guilt trip me into going anywhere with you. I find it rather insulting to my intelligence."
"Don't back talk to me young man, I am your father and what I say goes. And I say-"
"I don't care what you say. You are not my father. My father has been dead for five years. And from what I can remember he was a piss poor father anyway."
Judge stokes looked at Daniel in shock.
"Where did you learn such language? Did that Dr. Grissom tell you it was all right to swear like that?"
"My dad tells me not swear at school or unless I really mean it, and believe me I meant it. And hello, I am fourteen. A fourteen year old that doesn't know any swears or use them is like a skunk that doesn't spray. It doesn't happen naturally."
"…"
"Nicholas Christian Isaac Stokes that was a horribly rude thing to say to your father"
"And for those of you just tuning in" Daniel mumbled as he turned to address the woman who was berating him "as I have said before I am sorry for your loss but both of my parents are dead. And he was rude to me first."
"How dare you speak like that to us?"
"Well how dare you try and guilt trip me into going anywhere with you. I am sorry but I think that we're just going around in circles now. So unless you can think of something else to badger me about I am going home and I am going to bed." He turned toward the door and was about to leave when the man, judge stokes cleared his throat.
"What did you say about your babysitter again son- I mean Daniel?"
"She hurt me when I was nine years old."
"How did she hurt you?"
"Why the heck do you care? It's not like it concerns you anyway."
"Just tell us how please."
"She took all of my clothes and raped me with a beer bottle. Glad you asked and brought up that delightful experience."
"Did you tell your parents?"
"Yes and they called me a liar and slapped me. Funny thing, when I told dad he believed me and helped me. And I wasn't even his biological son."
"Our little boy told us that his sitter had hurt him, I am afraid that we reacted the same way. But there was no way that that nice young woman could have hurt him. She was too good. She was almost a saint, but something must have happened to him and instead of trying to find out what really happened we called our son a liar. So now we won't know what really happened."
"Or maybe your son told you what happened and you are just too dense to realise it."
"You don't know the woman that was looking after him. She would never do such a thing."
"And you don't know people as well as someone in law enforcement or forensics does. My dad always tells me the same thing, people lie the evidence doesn't."
"What do you mean?"
"Well was there any sign of anyone else being in the house?"
"No"
"Your son wasn't a compulsive liar was he?"
"No he was completely honest."
"And you only met the babysitter what ten minutes before you left?"
"Yes"
"And your son ran off, when?"
"Shortly after we grounded him"
"And you believe that your son was lying?"
The judge looked as if he was keeping his temper on a short leash.
"Look boy, I don't expect you to understand. If you had ever met this lady you would know that she would never hurt a child."
"And if you had ever met John Wayne Gacey you would believe that he was a wonderful person who would never hurt a fly."
The judge grabbed Daniel and shook him.
"Don't you be disrespectful of me"
Daniel twisted out of the man's grip and ran for the door. The man Judge stokes grabbed his wrist and slapped him. That was when the door was quickly opened and Gil Grissom stepped in and grabbed the judge's wrist and squeezed. Daniel ran out the door and found Brass and Ecklie just outside. Brass was being restrained by Ecklie who looked as if he hadn't a clue about what had set Brass off.
"Judge Stokes sit down. Now." Grissom was in a decidedly foul mood. It had been hard enough watching as two strangers tried to convince his son to come home with them. He had been extremely pissed off when the judge had tried to guilt Daniel into going back by telling him that he was an imposition. He was just glad that he had raised Daniel to not respond to guilt trips, except where his own mother was concerned. The last straw had been when the judge had grabbed his son. He hadn't seen the judge slap him but from the looks of the red mark on his face when he had run out it must have happened. No, he didn't care what he had to do he was not going to allow his son to go anywhere with these people. And the woman had just stood there and let that man hurt her son. No, them getting custody of his son was not an option.
"Unless you want me to press charges I would advise the two of you to still be sitting here when I get back."
He left the interrogation room and headed back to his office. If Judge stokes got to fight dirty by attempting to guilt his son then he got to fight dirty too. And he knew just how to do it. He found just what he was looking for on top of his desk. It didn't matter that he was showing the file to a judge who was not involved in the case; her lawyer hadn't even tried to bargain. He had somehow managed to convince her to plead guilty and get a lesser sentence. He grabbed it and headed back to the room.
When he got to the interrogation room the Stokes were still there, exactly how he had left them. Good, maybe the little wake up call he had for them would get them to leave his son alone. He tossed the file on the table in front of judge stokes.
"I want you to have a look at that and tell me if you see anything familiar."
The judge opened the file. As soon as he saw the picture of the defendant on top of the file there was an audible gasp from him. Jillian looked over his shoulder and just managed to stifle a gasp herself.
"What does this mean?"
"It means that the person whose file you are looking at killed a young boy. He died by positional asphyxia, this is when someone is in such a position that they smother by having a heavy object placed on them in such a way that they can not remove it or themselves. Or else they are positioned so that they smother naturally. Typically what happens is that the heavy object is placed on the upper torso where the weight will prevent the lungs from functioning normally. In this case the object was placed on the boys face. This was so that his lungs would continue to function but little to no air got to them. This draws the length of time it takes to die out long and it is more torturous, which I imagine was what this person wanted. You see this little boy was left alone with this woman three times before this happened. The first time he told his parents what had happened, and they didn't believe him. So he didn't tell them anymore. But instead of running away like your son did the little boy stayed. Running away saved your sons life. If he hadn't he would have died five years ago. I would appreciate it if you would leave my son alone now. If you doubt that this woman is capable of such things I'd advise you to look at the evidence complied against her. Even her lawyer advised her to plead guilty. She is currently serving her time in a woman's prison. The only reason she didn't get the death penalty for this is because she pleaded guilty."
"I don't see the object used to smother the boy."
"That would be because she sat on his face, Mrs Stokes. Would you like to know why she sat on his face instead of using a pillow? She enjoyed killing him more that way."
Jillian had turned several shades whiter when Grissom told her that.
"Maybe you have some idea now why Daniel would rather not return home with you."
Jillian shakily nodded. Judge stokes was still angry.
"I don't know what your purpose is in showing us this but I will not allow my boy to stay with you any longer Dr. Grissom."
"You don't have a choice Judge Stokes. I adopted him. I have been looking after him for the last five years. And I am less likely to leave him in the care of pedophile babysitters."
"I am a judge I will find a way-"
"Bill, please. I would rather have my son happy and safe than unhappy, afraid, and unsure of his safety."
"Well he will be when I get him back."
"No he won't be. He is happy and safe right now. And what did we do? We left him with a complete stranger and when he needed us the most we took the side of a person that we had hardly known for ten minutes against his word. Why? Because she seemed to be perfect. I don't blame him for not wanting to go back with us. I don't want him to come back with us. I want him to be safe."
"But we are his family."
"And if we were his family we should have listened to him from the start. Bill, he is happy and safe, that's all I need to know to be satisfied. To be able to talk to him sometimes and see what's going on in his life would make me ecstatic. But I can not honestly expect him to want to come back with us considering what we did to him to drive him away in the first place."
"Jillian"
"Bill"
"Fine, but you will regret not trying to get him back."
"Christ Bill, we lost our son five years ago. I regret not believing him back then, but I won't regret leaving him with someone who will care for him."
Jillian got up to leave.
"Dr. Grissom, if that old fool or anyone else tries to take Nicky, yes I am going to insist on calling him Nick, away I will represent you in court pro bono. I would appreciate it if we could come and visit him on occasion, maybe celebrate his birthday. I know that his siblings would love to see him again. I also know that once Bill manages to remove his head from its current residence in his ass he will be sorry he acted like this. Here is our home phone number. If Nicky or you ever want to call us up please do. Bill stop pouting." Jillian Stokes led the way out of the interrogation room. Gil had no idea how long he stood there before Brass came in.
"Hey Gil, you still here?"
"Yeah Brass, Danny is he"
"He's with Ecklie."
"Oh good"
"So I hear that the wife, Jillian, used some common sense and decided that Daniel is better off her with us then."
"Yeah she did." A thought from earlier struck grissom, He quickly glanced over his shoulder.
"What're you doing Grissom?"
"Checking to see if I have suddenly started shitting lightening bolts"
Brass gave him a weird look.
"You get stranger every year. Thank god Daniel has some normal role models around."
The End?
Well until i get the sequel started :)