How I Met Your Mother

Sara/Nick

Romance/Drama/Family

In Dallas, TX, Public Defender Jillian Stokes learns about the Sidle case through the newspaper. Her youngest child, Nick is also intrigued.

A/N: I don't own the characters of CSI. If I did, Sara would be married to Nick and have at least two kids. Grissom would marry Lady Heather Kessler. I only own my original characters, in this case, it would be many.

A/N2: This story contains mentions of physical abuse, sexual assault, rape and murder.

Prologue, Part II

Dallas, Texas, April 16, 1984

Jillian Stokes sat at the dining room table eating her breakfast. She was reading the newspaper. As she read, an article caught her attention almost immediately. It was a national story about a woman in Tamales Bay, California with 17 children who snapped and killed her husband for asking her for a divorce. She felt sorry for the children ranging in age from 2 to 21 who lost both their parents. One was in the morgue and the other was in a holding cell at a county jail.

"Jillian, what's wrong?" a male voice asked.

"Bill, don't ever sneak up like that," Jillian hissed. "Don't you have to eat your breakfast?"

"I am sorry, but you were in deep thought reading the paper. What are your reading about?"

"In California, there was a woman who murdered her husband. They had 17 kids and now the minors are in foster care all because this woman."

Bill read the article and felt bad for the Sidle children. He and Jillian were happily married and had seven kids. True, it wasn't always easy, but they wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. When he read the names and ages of the Sidles, he gasped. Some of them were around the same age as his kids. His youngest child, Nick, was the same age as the middle Sidle child.

The four Stokes children who were still living at home full time came downstairs to get ready for school. Alexis, Tara, Billy and Nick joined their parents at the table with their breakfast. Nick looked at his parents with concern. Typically, they would have some lively discussions about some local news situation. However, it was just perplexing silence.

"Mom, Cisco, what's the matter" Nick asked.

"Pancho, you are twelve going on thirteen, old enough to understand what the world is about," Bill said. "Read this and tell us what you think."

Nick read the article and was intrigued. He passed it around to his siblings for them to read. He couldn't believe the cruelty that one woman inflicted upon her husband and robbed their children of their parents. He wished he could do something to help the children who were now in the foster care system. He especially wanted to help the one that was his age.

"Why do these children have to pay for the sins of the mother?" Nick asked always concerned about the injustices of the world. "Their mother killed their father and they have to be punished."

"Nick, that is the unfortunate reality that these kids have to face," Jillian replied. "I have defended people that have killed their spouses and their children are forced into the foster care system. I wish I could change it, but I am only one person."

"My social studies class is having a weekly discussion about current events. Do you mind if I take this with me to school?"

"Nicky, you are welcome to take it with you," Tara said after she finished reading the Sidle article.

After they finished their breakfast, Bill and Jillian went their separate ways to work. Alexis took her three younger siblings to school. Nick sat shotgun in the car while Tara and Billy were in the backseat. Today at school, especially in social studies, promises to be an interesting day. While on the way, Nick thought about the 17 children that he didn't know and probably won't meet.

TBC