"How are ya Nicky?" Jack asked.
"I'm fine, how are you?"
Jack shrugged. "Can't complain. I've been all over the damn country though. I wish I could be like you and stay in one nice, warm place forever. You got a girl yet?"
Nick shook his head, still smiling. "No."
Jack nodded in approval. "Smart man. No one's good enough for you."
The waitress brought Nick's coffee over and he took a few sips of it as Jack did the same with his. They were silent for a few moments, looking out the window and glancing at the few others in the diner. Nick knew why jaxk had called him and asked to see him, other than the fact that he was in Vegas and they met up everytime he was. Nick had been expecting a call after his shift last night, and he was hoping that Jack would have some good news for him and maybe a few answers.
"You know why I called you," Jack said, reading Nick's mind.
Nick nodded slightly. "Yeah, I got the results from the blood last night. I never knew I had a real brother."
Jack leaned back against the cushioned booth seat. He ran his hand over his stubbly beard that was spotted with gray and matched his hair. It seemed that it got grayer more and more everytime Nick saw him. He looked at Nick for a long time with his dark eyes, analyzing the other man for quite some time before he finally spoke.
"I never told you because I know you too well," Jack said. "I know you would have tried to find him and talk to him or whatever. I know you would have, so I never told you about him."
"That's fair enough," Nick agreed. "So how about you tell me about him now?"
Jack sighed. "His name's Mike. He's a good kid, but he's been corrupted."
"By my father."
Jack held up his index finger. "Not entirely. He never hung around with a great crowd and made a lot of stupid decisions. He never applied himself to anything other than the jobs your dad gave him. But hell, was he good at them. He can't tell ya the capital of Michigan, but he can sell drugs there or set up a betting agency if he wanted to. He's learned too much from your old man."
Nick noted eveything Jack had told him. "Did he kill that guy?" he asked.
"I don't know," Jack answered honestly. "I can't see him doing that kind of dirty work, but he rolls with the crowd that usually does. I don't know if that guy even had anything to do with your dad in the first place."
"So what does all of this have to do with me? Why, after thirty years, does my dad have some guy killed and leave Mike's blood there so I'll know I have a brother?"
Jack sat upright. "That's not his plan. He doesn't know you already know. He doesn't know you know he's your real dad. He thinks you're clueless to everything and wanted it to be this big revelation when they brought Jason in."
"I told Grissom and Brass everything," Nick said. "I didn't want Jason to be brought in because he doesn't know I'm adopted. I don't want him to know."
"Okay," Jack said, nodding slightly. "That's fine. Just pretend they did. You already know, who cares how you found out."
Nick was silent for a few moments before he asked, "What does he want with me?"
"He just wants to talk to you," Jack said.
Nick shook his head. "You don't believe that. If he just wanted to talk to me, he could have just talked to me instead of putting on this whole big production."
Jack's smile returned. "I love how bright you are Nicky," he said. "That's what makes you such a great CSI."
"That, and because you taught me all the criminals tricks."
"I taught you those with good intentions. I'm not proud of the things I've done, but God himself would not have been able to keep me from getting you away from all of that. Mikey was doomed from the start, but I tried. But I wouldn't let you become that."
"I'm just scared that I am that."
Jack frowned. "Scared that you're what?"
"That I might not be who I'm supposed to be."
Jack leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table and looked Nick dead in the eye. "Listen to me very closely. You are who you're supposed to be. You're not what your father is, or what your brother is, or what I was. You're better than that. You're who you're supposed to be, and nothing can change that. Don't let anything change that Nicky."
"My dad's gonne try to change that, isn't he?" Nick asked.
"I don't know kid," Jack said. "I don't know what he wants or how he plans on getting it. But don't worry about him, you're gonna be fine. Don't let him get to you."
"The only thing I can remember about him is that he wasn't home a lot and when he was, him and my mom would yell at each other the whole time. I remember all of my friends always saying how their parents hated my dad and thought I was a bad kid because of it."
"You're not your dad," Jack said firmly. "You never will be, even if he wants you to be."
"I can't see him taking no for an answer though," Nick said, his voice giving away his fear.
Jack kept his eyes locked with Nick's as he said, "Your dad has done a lot of bad things in his life. He's a criminal, no doubt about it, and I didn't do anything to stop it. I know he loves you, you're his son. I know you don't know what to do or think about all of this, but if for whatever reason something happens, I promise you I am not going to let anything bad happen to you. I kept you from all of this for thirty years. If there's one thing I do right in my life, you're gonna be it kid."
Fourteen hours later, Nick sat in the locker room, trying his best not to fall asleep on the spot. He hadn't gotten any sleep after his breakfast with Jack, and although Jack had eased some of Nick's nerves, not all of them could be. He still had no idea what was going to happen and what he was going to do. As much as he wanted to hate his dad for everything he knows he's done, he just couldn't. He was too afraid of him to hate him. From what he could remember combined with what he knew, his dad wasn't the nicest guy. But at the same time, Jack had always spoken somewhat highly of him when they spoke about him, and Nick knew he could trust Jack if not anyone else.
The hardest part of all of this was keeping it to himself. Nick had wanted to tell Warrick about his secret ever since the two had become close friends, but he didn't want to involve Warrick and potentially risk getting him hurt or anything. Nick didn't know what his knowledge of his real father was going to bring him, but whatever it was, he wanted to keep his friends out of it for as long as he could. Grissom and Brass had needed to know, and Nick had felt relief after finally telling someone. But he still wished that he could let his best friend know that he wasn't exactly who he thought he was.
Nick hated living a lie, even if it was better than living the truth. He wished that he could just be who he really was, but that was far too dangerous and too many people had worked too hard to change who he was for his own good. Grissom and Brass had been the first people Nick had ever told his secret to. Jack had been the only other person he could talk to about it. Nick really just wanted to be normal and not have to lie about who he was to his best friends.
Nick's thoughts were interrupted by Brass coming into the locker room. "We have Mike Sparazza in interrogation," the police captain reported. "Grissom wants you to watch with him. Not the best way to meet your brother, but we wanna give you something."
Nick followed Brass to where they had his brother and went in the second door where Grissom was waiting for him in front of the glass window looking into the interrogation room. Nick stood next to his supervisor and took a deep breath before he looked through the glass at the man sitting at the table across from Brass.
Miek Sparazza was roughly an inch taller than Nick with tanner skin and jet black hair. His hair was shorter than Nick's and cut perfectly, matching his perfectly trimmed sideburns. He was wearing a very expensive looking suit with a gold Rolex on his left wrist. His eyes were dark brown, the same as Nick's. His facial features' resemblance to Nick's was uncanny. One look at these two and anyone could tell that they were brothers.
"Okay Mr. Sparazza-" Brass started, but was cut-off politely.
"Please, call me Mike. Mr. Sparazza makes me feel old," Mike said with a small laugh.
Brass faked a smile. "Okay, Mike, can you explain to me why your blood was found at a murder scene?"
Mike frowned. "No, I can't. Where was it found?" Brass slid a picture across to Mike. He looked at it for a moment before smiling. "Oh yeah. I was chasing my girlfriend's kid. I slipped on some gravel and cut my leg the other day."
Brass looked at him skeptically. "Oh, really?"
Mike nodded. "Yeah." He put his left leg up on the table and pulled up his dark blue pant leg to reveal a scrape. "See?"
"Alright, thanks," Brass said. "Have you ever seen this guy before?"
Mike looked at the picture of the vic and shook his head. "No sir, I haven't."
Brass nodded. "And where were you last night at around eleven?"
"I was at dinner with my girlfriend. We gambled a bit then caught a late bite. I have the receipt right here." Mike pulled a folde dup receipt from his wallet and slid it across to Brass, who looked at it quickly and verified that it indeed provided an allibi.
"Okay Mike, thank you for your cooperation. You're free to go."
"No problem officer," Mike said pleasantly as he stood and left.
"He's lying," Nick said as the door shut behind Mike.
Grissom looked at Nick. "Can you prove it?" Nick shook his head. "Well, we have nothing else to tie him to the murder, and he has an allibi."
"I know," Nick said. "That's the worst part."
Nick left the observation room and headed back to the locker room to grab his vest before going to assignments. He entered the locker room and went over to his locker, but didn't get a chance to open it before he heard the door close and the lock snap in place. He quickly looked over and saw Mike turning back away from the door and facing him, a smile on his face.
"Nice to meet you Nick," he said, walking over with his hand extended.
Nick shook it reluctantly. "Nice to meet you too..." he said, playing dumb.
"Come on, I know you were behind that glass. I know you know who I am."
"Wasn't that the whole point of this?"
Mike was still smiling. "No. You'll find out the whole point of this soon enough, don't worry."