Disclaimer:I do not own CSI but I love to borrow them but I will give them back when I am done =)
A/N: I hope you like this chapter, I enjoyed writing it, all mistakes are my own. Please review let me know if you like it or hate it or just want to add suggestions or anything like that thank you.
Chapter 8:
Another Phone Call-
Sofia and Nick walk out of the interrogation room while a young officer escorts the B&E suspect back to the holding cell to wait for a more long term cell to open up. Nick turns to Sofia has they continue to walk.
"I love it when they make it easy for us!" Sofia looks at him with a big smile.
"Yea, less we have to do."
Just then her phone rings. She stops walking and waves bye to Nick, but he is still in earshot rang to hear while Sofia starts to head the opposite way they were walking.
"Hey Gil, Good morning, how was your night?" Nick stopped dead in his tracks, he felt like he had 1,000 pounds of brick strapped to his feet as he continued to listen.
"Sorry your night didn't go so well, my morning was kinda the same, I felt a little lonely when you didn't call.... Well no worries, you are calling now..." She turned the corner and was out of rang of Nick to hear anything else. He felt like he was in a foot race to get to Catherine's office. Once he got there he slammed the door shut causing Catherine to jump out of her seat and place her hand over her heart to make sure she wasn't having a heart attack.
"Jeez. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Nick now realizing he slammed the door, felt a little guilty.
"Sorry Cath I didn't mean too."
"It's okay, did you talk to Grissom?"
"No but he's busy right now!"
"Spill it, how do you know he is busy if you haven't talk to him yet?"
"Don't have to Sofia got a call from him, I kinda overheard a little of the conversation...." Nick stops and gives Catherine his big, juicy, Texan smile, Catherine hated playing this game with him, especially when he had valuable information to share.
"So are you going to share what you overheard?" Nick's smile just got bigger (if you can imagine that) until he noticed her frustration beaming at him through her eyes, he thought it would be in his best interest to stop playing his game, unless he wanted to be working decomp. scenes for a week or more.
"Well you know the usual, Grissom was on the other end of the phone, he had a bad night, and her morning was bad because she felt lonely when he didn't call her, and by calling now he was forgiven..Did Sara write down the names of who the two women the fight was about?" Catherine sat there in complete shock and anger. 'How could Gil do this to her? After all they have gone through, that Asshole! I thought that maybe Sara might be over reacting to a couple of phone calls, but the way it's looking, I think she maybe right, what a Jackass!'
Nick asked again, this time louder, which drew her attention back to him.
"Sorry Nick, um..yea the names where Sofia and Lady Heather." Nick sighed and gritted his teeth while putting his hands into each other. Nick wasn't playing games now, he was pissed he thought that maybe Sofia was just flirting with Grissom like she always did, he never would have thought that it would be, or could be true. 'Why would he cheat on her, she's the best thing to ever happen to him, my sister, she can't be doing to good not after all of this, she going to need me, I need to be there for her.'
"Hey Catherine do you have his address, and I'm also going to need to take some personal time off, but I might not be coming back." Catherine jumps up from her seat behind her desk with worry.
"Come on Nick, you can't be serious?"
"I am, Sara is a sister to me, I'm going to kill him, he broke her heart, she is hurt badly and it's all his fault!" He stood up and now his face was beaming red, and full of anger and rage.
"Nick, Grissom is your mentor, I understand your anger, I am angry to but..." Nick cuts her off.
"No Catherine, I'm not going to stand by and do nothing, while this..this asshole uses her and breaks her heart," Nick starts to cry. "If she breaks, I'm..I'm not sure she could ever be re..repaired..I..I can't..No I won't watch that happen to her, she's gone through way..way too much in her life already." he sat back down and berried his face in his hands, Catherine moves next to him and gives him a hug.
"Don't worry, we'll figure it out, maybe nothing is going on at all." She tried to give a face reassuring smile to convince him as he looked up at her.
"It didn't sound innocent to me."
"Well your personally close to her Nick, nothing would sound innocent, We're all to close. To both of them."
"Your right, I'm sorry, next time I will try not to over react." Catherine looks at her watch, they have been in there for over half and hour.
"Well, I believe 'you' still have a phone call to make." Nick wipes his tear stained eyes.
"Your right, I'll just put myself into his shoes and try to bite my tongue about how I really feel." He put a face smile and looked at Catherine.
"Good idea, good luck." She gave him a pat on the back and smiled at him. Then she sat herself back behind her desk and resumed doing her paperwork.
Nick then left to the break room with the fake file folder and sat at the table, he opened it and wrote down the date and time after looking at his watch, he then rubbed his eyes again and left one hand on the left side of his head, while the other hand opened his phone, closing his eyes he tried to calm himself. 'I can do this!' After he had given himself some confidence he pushed the talk button, he opened his eyes and looked at the cell phone screen making sure that he was calling Grissom. After the 4th ring he shut his phone and slammed it down on the table, cursing under his breath at how stupid his mentor was being. He stood up and got himself a cup of coffee, then sat back down at the table and wrote down the call Sofia got, and how 45 minutes later Grissom didn't pick up the phone. As soon as he done writing down the information, he looked at his phone then at his watch. 'It's only been 7 minutes since I attempted to call him, dam, time is going by so slow.' He then sighed and put his head down on the table attempting to get a little bit of rest. A few minutes later his phone vibrated on the table, he looked at his phone. 'Grissom, now he decides to call back, could he have been any worse with timing, I almost got some rest.' he looked at his watch it now had been 15 minutes since he attempted to call Grissom. He then picked up his phone and flipped it open.
"Stokes"
"Hey sorry I missed you call, what's up?"
"Oh, Hey Griss, I've got a personal problem that I need help with."
"Shouldn't you be talking to Catherine or Sara about it, if it is personal?"
"Well I would but I need another man's point of view, women can get a little emotional when it comes to cheating, and I really don't feel like having my ass kicked by the women I work with, if you know what I mean?" Grissom let out a little chuckle.
"True they can get a little emotional about relationships. So you need to talk about cheating? One question, did Catherine or Sara, talk you into calling me to see if I would tell you if I was being unfaithful?" Nick rolled his eyes, knowing he wasn't going to get much out of this talk with Grissom. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves do so that Grissom wouldn't suspect that what he was about to say was a lie.
"No, I haven't seen either of them since Sara got back, tonight is my night off, so why would they ask me to find out if your cheating? I really doubt that, that would be something you would confide in me about." Grissom laughs again.
"I don't know, just thought that Sara convinced Catherine to be on her side...." He stops and sighs realizing it was to late. 'Dammit, if Nick hasn't talk to Sara or Catherine then he doesn't know that we're fighting. Way to go, why don't you just tell the whole world, jackass!'
"So why would there be sides between you and Sara? Are you two fighting?" Nick could hear Grissom sigh and knew that he was at least going to get 'something' but didn't get his hopes up to high.
"Yea we're fighting, so what did you need to talk about?" Nick noticed that he changed the subject so he thought to leave the old subject alone..for now.
"Well, nobody know but I've asked my girlfriend to marry me, I love her," Nick now sighs.
"I hear a but in that sentence Nick, so what's the problem if you love her?"
"Well this is where the cheating comes in, see a week ago I ran into the newest CSI on day shift and we ended up going out for drinks and got drunk, really drunk and ended up having sex, but now I'm torn, I love my fiancee' but I really want this other women, and she wants me, you see my problem?" The other end of the phone was quiet.
"Hey Griss, you there?"
"Yea, sorry I was just...processing what you've told me."
"Oh, so are you going to help me?"
"Well I will try but I can't and won't promise anything."
"Okay...So what do you think I should do?"
"Do you love this other women?"
"I barely know her, but I want to get to know her more."
"Do you love your fiancee'?"
"Yes very much so."
"Then why did you cheat on her in the first place, and you can't blame it on being drunk, I don't want to hear your excuses, I want to hear your reasons." This made Nick quite he wasn't prepared for this kind of question, so he tried to remember why he cheated on all of his ex-girlfriends.
"Nicky, you there?"
"Yea, I guess I just wanted to know what it would be like to be with this other woman."
"If you want to be with other women, then why are you getting married? Your just going to end up hurting the woman you love." Nick could hear the sadness and guilt in Grissom's voice, so he decided to keep the conversation going on before Grissom could change the subject again.
"I want to marry her because I can't imagine my life without her and I..I don't want to hurt her, I love her so much. Griss, I'm so confused, should I tell her about the other woman and let her make her own decision on weather or not to marry me?"
"No don't tell her, if anything she already suspects that there is another woman, and you don't want to hurt her anymore, so just try and get the other woman out of you mind, if you don't you'll never be happy and your fiancee' will probably never trust you again." Nick decide he better start writing all this down so he wouldn't forget it, it seemed like this was going to be a long conversation. 'Seems like he is talking from personal experience, maybe I should see if he can tell me more about his personal experience.'
"Hey Gil?" Gil was surprised that he used his first name but figured it was only because it seemed like they were bonding.
"Yes Nicky?"
"I can't help but notice that it seems like your talking from a personal experience, how did your situation work out for you?" Nick could hear Grissom shifting in his seat.
"Well you can't tell a soul, you got that? I will come to Vegas and kick your ass if I ever find out that you told anybody. Do you understand me?" Nick was a little scared by this threat knowing that Grissom always makes good on his promises and threats, but he had a job to do.
"I understand, I won't tell a single soul, I promise." Luckily he was crossing his fingers.
"Well, I know that your like a brother to Sara, and she is like a sister to you, are you sure that you really want to know about this?" While shaking his head no he had to talk to himself. 'Come on Nick, cowboy up, this is the info we need, we need this, so we can help them, it would be very hard but at least I can be here to give support to Sara, God knows she's going to need it.'
"Well, to tell you the truth I don't want to hear it but I think I need to, I'm positive it will help me in my situation, so I will disconnect my brotherly feelings for Sara and listen, I need to know, and it helps me to know that I'm not the only one, who is hurting the person I love, the only person I could ever love, you know what I mean?"
"Yea I know what you mean."
"So give me the details, I'm ready to hear it."
"Okay, I guess I will start at the beginning...You know about Heather we're just friends but we do have a past together, and Sara knows about all of it and she does trust that nothing is going on between us and nothing is going on between us but then there is Sofia...." Nick is writing all of this down as fast as he could and is very thankful that Gil had paused so that he could catch up.
"Gil, what's wrong?"
"It's just...How do women always know when there man cheats? I don't get it."
"Your asking the wrong man, I sure in hell don't know." They both laugh at the commonality they seem to share. Grissom goes on to tell him about Sofia and how it was nothing physical it just happened one day, that everything was over the phone but Sofia took it upon herself to invite herself next month to come and visit him and how he doesn't want her, that he wants Sara, and how Sara is accusing him of cheating, how he wants to make everything right but he doesn't know how if she wont talk to him, and much more.
"Hey Gil, thank you for everything, trust me it helped and I think I now know what I'm going to do."
"What's that Nick?"
"Well I'm going to be honest with her, she deserves to know the truth, and you and I both know that I can't lie, and there is a lot of evidence against me, then with whatever happens, I know that I'm going to have to regain her trust and I also know that it's going to take a lot of time to do so, but I am going to do my best and make it up to her and I won't give up because I love her and I don't want to live my life without her."
"Just be prepared that she might not be able to ever trust you again and she may not want you in her life." Nick sighs 'Why the hell does he always have to be so dam negative?'
"Yea but I choose to stay positive about this situation and I'm prepared to give her whatever she may or may not need, and whatever she wants or doesn't want."
"Good for you Nick, can I ask you one last favor?"
"What is it?"
"Can you please let me know how your situation turns out?"
"Yea no problem, if it goes good are you going to be truthful with Sara?" Gil sighs and Nick can hear him put his glasses on a table.
"I might but for that I'm going to need a lot of liquid courage if you know what I mean." Nick laughs knowing what he means.
"Yea with her temper your going to need a lot of it." They both laugh knowing that, that was the truth but understated. They both stop laughing and say their good byes.