After reading through the information that Mandy provided, Gil decides it's time to pay Nick Riley, no make that Nick Stokes, a visit. He hopes he isn't on a fool's errand and that the address the young man supplied is genuine.

In the midmorning traffic it only takes him about thirty minutes to reach his destination. On his arrival Gil is pleased to find not some cheap motel running to seed, but a pleasant apartment complex surrounded by immaculate grounds. A quick chat with the super reveals that Nick is an exemplary tenant who pays his rent on time and is never a bother to anyone. Gil learns that Nick also helps out with the upkeep of the grounds in exchange for a reduction on his rent.

'Guess that's explains how he can afford such a nice place,' Gil murmurs to himself as he negotiates the unfamiliar passageways. It isn't long before he's standing in front of Nick's door. After only a moment's hesitation, Gil raises his hand to knock.

XOXOXOXO

The sound of someone knocking at his door jerks Nick from a restless and unsatisfying slumber on his living room couch. Somehow, he never did make it into his bedroom. After hauling himself from his temporary and unsuitable bunk, Nick makes his way slowly and painfully to his door where he uses the security peephole to discover who his visitor is. He recognises Grissom immediately and he debates whether to open the door or simply slink back to his couch and ignore the man. However, something tells him that Grissom isn't the kind of guy who gives up easily.

'Better get this over with,' he thinks, and as he opens the door he steels himself for more unwelcome questions about the attack.

"Mr. Grissom," Nick says as he blocks the doorway with his body, effectively denying Grissom entry. "I'm sorry but really I don't have anything more to tell you about the men who attacked me. To be honest, I'd rather just forget about the whole thing. I'm sorry if I wasted your time."

While the young man speaks his piece, Gil allows himself to catalogue the sight before him. Nick looks tired and by the awkward way that he's holding his body, he's sore too. The facial injuries that Gil noted in the hospital seem all the more lurid in the harsh light of day. Gil can see a pattern of pale creases fading against the mottled skin of Nick's jaw. Combined with the glazed look in Nick's eyes and the serious case of bed head, Gil has to conclude that he awakened Nick from much needed sleep. Suddenly Gil doesn't want to be here.

"Mr. Riley," he says, raising his right hand in a gesture of surrender. "I'm sorry that you feel that way. The men who attacked you should be held accountable for their crimes, but of course the final decision is yours. However, I am here today on business unrelated to your recent assault. Perhaps it would be better if we discussed this inside?"

Gil's statement is couched as a request and for a second he fears that Nick will deny him entry, but after a moment's hesitation Nick moves aside so Gil can enter.

Feeling awkward and ill at ease, Gil makes his way into Nick's tidy home and then turns to wait for Nick to join him. Once Nick is reinstated on the couch, Gil settles himself in a nearby armchair and prepares to broach the difficult subject that has brought him here.

"Mr. Riley, I wasn't entirely truthful with you earlier when I said that this matter was unrelated to your assault case…" Reading frustration on Nick's face, the forerunner no doubt to more objections, Gil leans forward in his chair, raising his palms outwards in a gesture that asks for Nick's forbearance. "You see, in the course of our investigation we discovered something anomalous, something disturbing." From his briefcase he pulls the folder that Wendy brought him mere hours earlier, and with a steady hand holds it out towards Nick. "Tell me Mr. Riley, what do you remember about your childhood?"

XOXOXOXOXO

Gil is a man accustomed to silence; normally he finds it neither uncomfortable nor awkward. But as the minutes after his revelation slip away with no response from Nick his sense of unease and apprehension begins to mount. Things are not going the way that he expected. He expected Nick to openly scoff at his assertions. He expected him to laugh and tell Gil that this must all be one huge mistake. Either that or he expected Nick to break down, to rage at the world. He expected some kind of reaction. Instead, Nick sits dry eyed and composed his face an unreadable mask.

'He's in shock,' Gil thinks. 'It's too much for him to take in, almost too unbelievable to be true.' But it's a sad fact that Gil knows all too well; the world is rarely filled with good intentions. The only outward sign of Nick's emotional state is the white knuckles on fingers which are clenched tightly around the glossy eight by ten of his younger self.

"Nick." Gil breaks the silence, hoping to elicit a response, any response. However, he is unprepared for the pain and the sorrow that cloud Nick's eyes when finally he meets Gil's gaze.

"I've been waiting for this day since I was 16 years old," Nick says, "And now that's it's finally here, it's almost a relief. Almost…" He swallows hard then, his eyes dropping once more to the picture now sitting in his lap. "So how does this work, Mr. Grissom? Can't we just bury this report? Can't we pretend that this never happened? I don't want them to know that you found me."

There's something in the tone of Nick's voice that been raises Gil's hackles. It's not surprise or shock or confusion…its resignation.

"You knew." Now it's Gil who feels shock and disbelief. "You knew and you did nothing? Never even let them know that you were alive?" Gil waits a beat, hoping, praying that Nick will have some kind of explanation to offer, but once again there is only dead air between them. Angry now, Gil can't restrain himself, he has to ask. "You're not even going to deny it? How could you be so selfish?"

Nick won't meet his eyes and in that avoidance Gil has all the answer he needs. He stands preparing to leave, and Nick struggles to his feet, for some reason reaching out to stop him, but Gil waves him away after only a few steps. He can't believe that he allowed his emotions to overcome him; it is unusual in the extreme. He turns his back on Nick, angry with himself and his loss of control and with Nick for not being the person that Gil though him to be. His hand is already on the door handle when a quiet sob breaks the air behind him. He has no intention of turning around, but Nick's words whispered almost beneath his range of hearing stop him.

"Please, don't be mad at me. I never meant to disappoint them."

There is such pain, such despair in those simple words that walking away now seems like an unconscionable act of cowardice, and while he may be many things, Gil is no coward. As he turns from his aborted escape and approaches Nick, he doesn't really know what to say or how to be, so he falls back on what he knows best, what he does best; asking questions and seeking answers.

"How did you disappoint them, Nick?"

Nick's bowed head rises as the gentle tone of Gil's question washes over him, reassuring him. His velvet eyes finally seek out Gil's and in their tumultuous depths, Gil can read a lifetime of pain, regret and need. As he reaches to place a hand on Nick's shoulder, Nick jerks away from his touch, wincing. Gil guides him back to the couch and says, "Sit down, Nick, before you fall down."

Once Nick is settled as comfortably as possible, Gil asks if there is anything he needs…water, pain meds, food? Nick declines and they sink back into another uncomfortable silence.

Deciding that he needs to understand what is going on here; Gil gathers his resolve and speaks again. "Nick, I'm sorry if this is painful for you, but I need to understand what's happening here. If you knew--" at the word 'knew', Nick flinches as if struck, but Gil perseveres. "If you knew who your family is, why didn't you ever contact them? Why didn't you ever go home?"

Again the silence stretches out between them, a seemingly impenetrable barrier, and just when Gil thinks that he has pushed too hard, Nick swallows thickly; squirming under Gil's curious gaze, he begins to speak.

"It was such a little thing, just a small act of rebellion, the baby of the family wanting to make his mark on the world; but it cost me everything, I can see that now."

Nick's eyes are on Gil but there is no awareness in them; his focus is turned inward, reviewing the past, reliving it.

"Nick, I'm sorry, I don't understand. Please, help me to understand," Gil says softly.

Nick rouses a little then, his mind returning to the here and now. "It seems silly when I think about it now, but that day—the day that she took me away, I missed my bus and had to walk home. That's when she came for me. I…I was already in trouble with my folks for writing my name on the wall of the garage and I was grounded for two weeks. All I could think was that now I was going to be late getting home and they would be mad and ground me again."

Nick's eyes slide away again, and pain past and present roils in their depths. Gil feels his heart stutter in his chest at the open display of such anguish. It takes him a moment to realise that Nick is speaking again and he fights down his own unruly emotions and returns his attention to his companion.

"…Allisa said that my folks told her that they didn't want me any more. She said that they had enough good kids that they didn't have to put up with a failure like me. She said that from then on I had to go live with her."

"Nick, who's Alissa?" Gil asks softly. There's no mention of anyone named Allisa in the file that Mandy provided and Gil feels his stomach twist in anticipation, for in his heart he already knows what she is to Nick, if not who.

Unaware of Gil's unease, Nick carries on.

"She's my mom."

Before Nick can explain further a huge yawn escapes him and Gil feels suddenly guilty for forcing someone just recovering from assault into revealing what are obviously very painful memories. With regret he suggests that Nick should go to bed for the time being and get some rest. As he closes Nick's apartment door behind him and finally heads home to his solitary bed, he wonders what other secrets Nick's past holds and what horrors he has yet to learn. His imagination torments him with possible scenarios and when sleep eventually claims him his last thought is a prayer; he prays that he will not dream.