How I Met Your Mother
Sara/Nick
Romance/Drama/Family
Nick talks to his kids about how he first met Sara.
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.
Sara and Jana in Dallas
Las Vegas, Nevada, Summer 2030
Nick and Sara Stokes sat in the living room with their four children Bridget, 21, Vanessa, 18, and twins Nicholas and Stephen, 15. They were watching a forensics program on TV. Bridget, a double criminal justice biochemistry major who was home for the summer, and Vanessa, who just graduated from high school, were fascinated with the program. After all, it was what their parents did for a living. The concept was lost on the boys who could care less about forensics. Nicholas wanted to be an actor and Stephen wanted to be a lawyer like his paternal grandparents.
"Change the damn channel!" Stephen demanded.
"Shut up, Steve!" Vanessa snapped. "It is interesting! Go to your room if you don't like it!"
"Hey! Nobody's going anywhere yet!" Nick tried to keep the peace.
Sara had enough of the fighting between the kids and decided to shut off the television. Ten years earlier, she would have given them a lecture on respecting other people's opinions. Now, they were old enough to know better.
"Who wants to hear the story about how your mom and I met?" Nick asked hoping the kids wouldn't mind listening to it again.
"Dad, we know that you met mom after tossing those dummies off that hotel roof," Nicholas protested.
"Actually, we met years earlier than that," Sara interjected.
Dallas, Texas, October 1986
Fifteen year old Nick Stokes rode his favorite horse around the family ranch. Football practice ended and he didn't want to do his homework right away. His mother was rather annoyed that he prioritized horseback riding over his academics. She concluded that he was a teenager and that he would grow out of this phase and fast. Horseback riding seemed to calm him down after a grueling practice session and he wanted to be refreshed when he did his homework.
Today, he and Billy were left alone while their mother went to their next door neighbor's house and their father was still working late at the DA's office. She heard that they had just acquired two new foster kids. Her curiosity had piqued and wanted to meet them. Sometime later, Jillian returned home with two teenage girls so they could meet her two sons. Nick immediately got off his horse and returned her to the barn after seeing the girls.
"Who are these girls?" Billy was the first to ask.
"Boys, this is Sara Sidle and her younger sister Jana," Jillian introduced them to her sons. "Girls, these are my sons Billy and Nick."
"Nice to meet you," the kids said to each other as the sisters exchanged handshakes with brothers.
"Sara and Jana had just arrived at the Wilsons. They are their newest foster kids."
"We are actually from California," Jana said.
"Where in California are you from?" Nick asked.
"We were originally from Tamales Bay," Sara replied.
"Wasn't your father murdered by your mother?" Billy asked. "You and your 15 siblings were put in the foster care system. We read about it in the newspaper."
"Our mother killed our father two years ago. She is now serving a life sentence in a California prison. We were split up in the system. Sara and I don't know where our other siblings went. We hadn't seen them since the trial."
"How old are you?" Billy asked.
"I had just turned 15 last month," Sara answered. "Jana is 13. How old are you?"
"I had just turned 18 and Nick is 15, just like you, Sara!"
"Sara, are you going to enroll in Dallas North High School? That's where Billy and I go."
"Shut up, Nicky! Your hormones are acting up. You had just met Sara and Jana."
"We had actually arrived today so Mrs. Wilson has yet to enroll us in school."
Jillian caught Billy slapping Nick in the arm.
"Boys, is there something you would like to share with the girls before they return to the Wilsons?" she asked. "I just wanted to introduce these two wonderful girls to you."
"We have a horse farm with nine horses," Nick added. "If you girls would like to come riding with us, you let us know."
"Sara and I would really love that," Jana smiled. "Would we, Sara?"
"That would be totally awesome," Sara agreed. "Nice to meet you."
"The same here!"
After Jillian took the Sidle sisters back to their foster home, she asked her sons what they thought about the Wilsons' new charges. She knew that Nick was smitten with Sara, but Billy wasn't sure what to think of his new neighbors.
Sara was enrolled in Nick and Billy's high school while Jana was in Dallas West Middle School. Nick was in a few of Sara's classes, but while she took French, he studied Spanish. After school and the Stokes boys' football practice, the Sidle girls found themselves horseback riding with the Stokes brothers. They had fun and it helped Sara and Jana take their minds off of being somebody's foster kids. The two girls had eventually met Billy and Nick's five older sisters.
Sara had fallen in love with Nick. However, deep in her mind, she wasn't sure how long she and Jana would stay in Dallas until they were sent off to another foster home. She decided to make the best of it while it lasted. She and Nick had reserved Saturdays and Sundays after church as their date days. Neither Nick's parents nor the Wilsons thought school nights and Friday night football during the season were appropriate for them to date. The two teenagers looked forward to date weekend. Jillian and Mrs. Wilson took turns chaperoning the young couple, but careful to give them some space.
Dallas, Texas, November 1987 – The Weekend Before Thanksgiving
Tonight's date, Sara noticed that Nick was staring out into space. She was filled with concern and she would have to talk to him.
"Nicky, what's the matter?" Sara asked.
"Can you keep a secret?" Nick answered with one of his own. "You cannot tell anyone what I am going to tell you. You have to promise me that you will take what you know about this with you to your grave."
"Nicky, I promise, but you are scaring me."
"When I was nine, I was left home alone with a last minute babysitter. My parents had a fancy dinner sponsored by the Texas Bar Association and my siblings hung out with their friends. I had no plans, just homework, so I was stuck with this babysitter. I was asleep since it was a school night. Without warning, I woke up feeling a cold hand feeling under my pajama bottom and underwear. She felt around my penis and it freaked me out. I screamed and begged her to stop touching me. She kept at it for some time until she got bored. I couldn't sleep after she played with me like that. I sat in the dark and stared at the bedroom door waiting for my parents to come home. I had never told anyone about what happened. You are the first one I told."
"Nicky, I am so sorry to hear about what happened to you. You are such a sweet and dependable guy. You didn't deserve to have some evil babysitter sexually molest you like that. I won't tell anyone, but I think you need to tell your parents. Your dad is the DA and your mom is a Public Defender. They would have done everything within their power to catch this monster."
"I can't! I am afraid that they wouldn't believe me and they'd hate me."
"They love you and care about you a lot. I have a feeling that your mom is concerned. Just think about it! I am glad that you at least told me."
"Okay, I will. Come on, let's not dwell on this. We are supposed to have fun today."
Dallas, Texas, July 1988
Sara Sidle rode her favorite horse at Stokes Ranch. She felt depressed ever since she got the news. She didn't know what she was going to tell Nick. They became so close and telling him what she found out was going to break his heart. It was just devastating.
"Hey Sara, what's wrong?" Nick asked as Sara dismounted her horse.
"Jana and I have been uprooted!" Sara angrily replied. "We are going to another foster home! I don't know where we are going, but we are leaving next week!"
Nick immediately pulled Sara into a hug. This was just heartbreaking. Sara and Jana were treated kindly by the Wilsons and they adored their foster parents. The Wilson family offered the Sidle sisters the loving stability they had craved ever since they entered the foster care system. Unfortunately, they couldn't be adopted due to the fact that Jana was already 15 and Sara was almost 17. Families were supposed to adopt infants and toddlers, not teenagers. It was just unfair!
"Nicky, my sister and I had made plenty of friends here," Sara wept. "Jana and I each have boyfriends. This fucking sucks!"
"I don't know what to tell you," Nick replied in a soothing voice. "The system sucks and I wish that the laws and policies would change to allow the Wilsons to adopt you and Jana. I am going to miss you a lot!"
"I'll miss you, too, Nick!"
Sara and Jana's final week in Dallas was filled with time with the Wilsons and the Stokes. Nick made sure that he and Sara had plenty of good times when they were together. When it came time for Sara and Jana to leave, Nick gave them his contact information. He wasn't sure if he would hear from them or not. Before a woman came to get the Sidle sisters, Nick had Sara in a tender embrace until it was time to say goodbye.
Once Sara and Jana left, Nick sat at the porch and he cried. Jillian comforted her youngest son as she persuaded him to go inside the house.
Las Vegas, Nevada, Summer 2030
"I can't believe the system is fucked up!" Bridget protested. "Why couldn't they have let you and Aunt Jana stay with that loving family in Texas instead of being shuttled off to that awful place in upstate New York?"
"Well, that's the system, sweetie," Sara said.
"Did you and dad keep in touch prior to the reunion?" Stephen asked.
"We made an effort," Nick replied. "Unfortunately, we had lost touch for many years until a woman named Holly Gribbs managed to bring us back together."
TBC
Post Chapter A/N: Reviews are very much appreciated!