"Hi Lauryn," Nick finally said. "I'm Nick, your dad's brother."
Lauryn smiled. "Oh yeah, he's told me about you before. You live in Las Vegas, right?"
Nick nodded. "Yeah."
"So what are you doing all the way out here?" Lauryn asked.
"I came to see you," Nick replied. Lauryn frowned slightly in confusion. "I'm afraid I have some bad news."
Lauryn's smile faded. "I'm my dad, isn't it?"
Nick nodded again. "He uh...passed away."
Lauryn nodded once and looked down at her floor. A few tears fell from her eyes, but she brushed them away before looking back up at Nick. "Did he get to meet you before that happened?"
"Yeah, I got to know him pretty well actually."
Lauryn smiled slightly. "Good. He talked about you all the time ya know. He was really excited to meet you and everything."
Nick smiled slightly as well. Lauryn reminded him a lot of Cassie McBride, except Lauryn was his niece. It was the first time he had ever talked to her and had only seen her once before in a photo, but Nick already knew he cared about this little girl and what was going to happen now that Mike was gone.
"How did he die?" Lauryn asked. "And I'm eleven don't forget. I'm smart and know when people are lying. My dad taught me."
Nick smiled a little wider before it faded. "What happened is kind of complicated..." Nick said, unsure of how to go about this.
"He was murdered," Lauryn said instead of asked. Nick nodded reluctantly. "Where you there with him?"
Sitting there, looking into Lauryn's eyes, Nick decided he wasn't going to lie to her. Yeah, she was a little young to know the details, but she deserved to know the truth. Nick had been lied to and hadn't known the truth of his own life until he was thirty-six years old. He didn't want that to happen to Lauryn. She needed to know what really happened so she wouldn't go the rest of her life wondering what was real and what wasn't.
"Yeah, I was," Nick answered. "I was there."
"So what happened?"
NIck swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat. "I was drugged, and when I woke up I was in the middle of the desert next to your dad. He was beat up really bad, and he was dying. There wasn't enough time to go get help. He wasn't going to make it, and we both knew it."
"Was he in a lot of pain?"
Nick couldn't take his eyes away from Lauryn's. "Yes, he was. So I...there was a gun next to him, and he told me he wanted to get it over with. So I shot him."
Nick understood that there were few other people in the world that would have done what he just did. He told the truth to an eleven-year-old girl. He told her that he had shot her dad because he was dying anyway. Nick had done something most people wouldn't have; he did the right thing. He had thought with his heart, and couldn't lie to Lauryn about it, so he didn't.
"You killed him?" Lauryn asked in disbelief.
Nick nodded slowly. "I didn't want him to suffer anymore."
"Who beat him up in the first place?"
"James," Nick said with a sigh. Lauryn looked very confused. "Ya know Jack?"
Lauryn nodded. "Yeah."
"Well, he was my dad, and your dad's dad too. We thought it was James, but it's not. James is a bad guy and is in jail for what he did."
"So Jack is my grandfather?" Lauryn asked. Nick nodded with a sad look on his face. "Did you kill him too?"
Nick felt like someone had stabbed him in the heart. He shook his head slowly. "No, I didn't."
"But he's dead," Lauryn said. "You said he was your dad."
A small smile spread on Nick's lips. "Your dad taught you a lot, didn't he?" Lauryn nodded. "James killed him. Jack had something James' wanted, but he wouldn't give it to him."
Lauryn nodded very slowly. She looked away from Nick and was quiet for several moments before looking back at him. "I'm not mad at you. And I won't tell anyone about what happened, you wouldn't have killed him if you didn't have to."
"I wish I could have helped him," Nick said honestly.
Lauryn smiled. "I believe you," she said. "You remind me a lot of my dad. You look a lot like him."
"I get that a lot," Nick said, his smile returning as well.
"So do you have any kids?" Lauryn asked. Nick shook his head. "Are you married?" Nick shook his head again. "You seem like you would be."
"Why's that?" Nick asked.
Lauryn shrugged. "I don't know, just the way my dad talked about you made you seem like the coolest guy ever, and he hadn't even met you yet. Not that you can't still be cool and single. I'm single."
Nick laughed. "You better be, you're only eleven."
Lauryn rolled her eyes. "You sound like my dad. He was always asking me if I had a boyfriend and told me if I did he would make him disappear."
"It was because he loved you so much," Nick said.
Tears returned to Lauryn's eyes. "What's gonna happen to me now?"
"What do you mean?" Nick asked, not fully understanding.
"My aunt didn't tell you," she said, sadness creeping into her voice. "My aunt is dying from cancer, like my mom. I guess it runs in the family. She doesn't look that sick because she wears a wig and a lot of makeup. She told me last week that she doesn't have a lot of time left and that I would be living with my dad for good because she's getting too sick to take care of me and wants to make sure I'm in good hands. Am I going to have to go into a foster home?"
Nick had no idea what to say at the moment, so he didn't say anything. He just stared at the little girl in front of him, who looked so scared and lost that it reminded him of how he felt when this whole thing had started. What was he supposed to do?
"I don't know," he said quietly.
"I don't want to live in a foster home," Lauryn said. "I saw a show on TV before and sometimes they're really mean to the kids and hurt them and stuff."
"No one's going to hurt you," Nick said. "Do you have any other relative?"
Lauryn shook her head. "All I have left is you."
And she was right. Nick was the only family she had, and she was the only family he had. Other than his mom, but she was going back to live in Italy in the house Jack had left for Nick. He had no use for it, and she loved Italy so much, so Nick had signed it over to her before he came to Chicago. Now, he was sitting in front of his niece, who he had just met, who was scared to death that she was going to end up in an abusive foster home.
Nick felt like someone was hitting him in the head with a hammer. "Did your dad know about your aunt?"
Lauryn nodded. "He said we could move to Vegas. He wanted me to meet you and be near family, but that was before. He obviously didn't know I was going to have to meet you like this."
Nick was lost in thought, trying to figure out what to do. Of all the things he had been faced with recently, this seemed like the hardest of them all because it involved the life of someone who was truly helpless and didn't have much say in what was going to happen. Not unlike other times, Nick had no idea what to do.
"I don't want to live with strangers," Lauryn said, her voice barely above a whisper. The tears were starting to fall from her dark brown eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you, okay?" Lauryn nodded weakly. "We'll figure this out, I promise."
Lauryn smiled sadly. "You sound like my dad too," she said, glancing over at the picture on her desk of the two of them. "He was a bad guy, wasn't he?"
Nick shook his head, but Lauryn wasn't looking at him. He got up and sat down on the bed next to her so she had to look up at him. His eyes reminded her of her dad's, and more tears began falling from her eyes.
"No, he wasn't," Nick said. "He was involved with some bad people, but your dad was a great guy. He loved you very much. Some people may try to tell you he was a bad guy and stuff like that, but don't listen to them okay?"
Lauryn nodded. "He never told me anything that he did because he was afraid I would do it too. That's why he had me stay here in Chicago, so I wouldn't get hurt." She wiped her tears before adding, "I didn't get to see him all the time, but I miss him as much as I would have if I got to see him everyday."
And with that, the tears and soft sobs took over her body. She leaned forward until her face was buried against Nick's chest and wrapped her small arms around him. He didn't hesitate in returning the gesture, trying his best to console her, but after a few minutes his own tears began to fall as well. But neither one of them had to speak anymore. All they had to do was sit there, together, because they were all each other had at the moment.