The Beginning
Chapter 9: Meeting the Gang
Jackie's plane was about to land. There had been a two hour delay because of bad weather but finally the plane was able to take off. Now in just minutes she would get to see Nick again. The only bad thing was that like Nick, she could only stay in Vegas for 2 days.
She got off the plane and found Nick.
"Hi, sorry for the delay, I told you the weather where I'm from stinks."
Nick laughed "No problem, you are well worth the wait."
She smiled as he grabbed her suitcase with one hand and her hand with his other. He led her to his car and then drove to his apartment.
He showed her around the apartment, and where she would be staying and then he asked her "What do you want to do tonight?"
"I'm not sure, how about you?" She answered.
"Well I was thinking that we could go to dinner and then come back here and have a 500 rummy rematch." He said with a grin.
She laughed "That sounds like fun to me." She said.
"Good, and you should be worried, I have been practicing a lot with Warrick." He said.
Once again she laughed "I'm scared." she said with a smile.
The two left and headed to dinner.
When they got back Nick poured two glasses of wine and got out his playing cards. The couple played cards for over two hours and neither had gotten enough points to win. Finally both were getting very close to winning; Nick was only ten points ahead.
"You're turn to deal." Jackie said as she handed him the cards.
"This hand could decide who wins." Nick said as he looked at the notepad in front of him which had the score on it.
Jackie nodded.
When Nick had dealt the cards Jackie flipped hers over and she could hardly keep the smile off of her face. Since it was her turn to go first, she laid all her cards on the table.
"Rummy." She said with a grin as she discarded her one leftover card.
Nick's jaw dropped. "How did you, what, how." He stammered.
"You shouldn't have dealt me such good cards. Thanks for that by the way." She said still grinning at him.
Nick couldn't help himself, he had to smile too. "Well you won." He declared as he admitted defeat.
"Good game though." Jackie said.
"Yeah, it would have been better if I won though." Nick said with a laugh.
Jackie laughed too and then looked at her watch "It's two thirty in the morning." She said completely surprised.
"Wow I didn't realize it had gotten so late." Nick said.
"Me neither, but I am tired." Jackie said.
"Me too." Nick said with a yawn.
"Goodnight." Jackie said getting up from the table.
"Night Jackie." Nick said with a smile and then he remembered something "Oh wait Jackie I was going to ask you something."
"Yeah?" she asked.
"I was wondering how you would feel about going to a college football game tomorrow. Warrick has two tickets but now he has court tomorrow and so he can't go. He asked me if we would want them."
"What did he do?" Jackie asked surprised.
"What do ya mean?" Nick asked.
"Why does he have court, what did he do?" she asked again.
Nick laughed "Oh no, it's not for him, he's presenting evidence at a trial tomorrow that's all."
"Oh ok, good." Jackie said with a laugh.
Nick smiled.
"Well goodnight." Jackie said again.
"Hey wait, you never answered me, would you like to go to the game?"
"Oh sorry, yeah I'd love to go, that sounds like a lot of fun." She said.
"Really, you're not just saying that are you?" Nick asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, really, I think it would be fun." Jackie assured him with a laugh.
Nick was finally convinced and so both of them went to bed.
The next morning Nick got up and made breakfast for the two of them and then they got ready to go.
After they had gotten ready Nick and Jackie drove over to Warrick's house and got the tickets for the game and then the two of them headed to the stadium. They found their seats right as the game started.
"Are you having fun?" Nick shouted during the second quarter of the game.
He had to shout or she would not have been able to hear him, there was over fifty thousand people and they were all screaming and cheering.
"Yes, this is incredible." She shouted back.
Nick could tell by her body language and the smile on her face that she really meant it.
The home team won by a last second touchdown and everyone went bananas.
When they finally got back to Nick's car Jackie said "That was so much fun, I've never been in a crowd with so many people. I love to watch the games on T.V but it is so much better watching it in person."
"I'm glad you had fun, and you're right it is 10 times better watching it in person than on T.V." He said with a smile.
Next the two of them decided to go to dinner and after dinner Nick stopped and rented a movie, a comedy of course. When they got home Nick made popcorn and then the two of them snuggled on the couch to watch the movie. They both enjoyed the movie immensely.
After the movie was over they went to bed.
The next day Nick again got up and made breakfast, Jackie offered but Nick was stubborn and would have no part of it.
After breakfast Nick said to her "I have a little surprise for you, hold on a minute."
He left the table and wandered into the other room. He came back a couple minutes later holding a small rectangular box.
"Here, open it." He said handing it to her.
She gave him a suspicious smile before opening it. Inside there were two concert tickets to her favorite singer for that evening.
"Nick, I can't believe you remembered who my favorite singer was."
He grinned at her.
"Do you remember how you were going to come next week instead of this one, but I told you this week would be better for me because I had a work commitment that I couldn't miss next week?"
"Yeah." She answered.
"Well I have a confession to make, that was a lie, I have no work commitment at all, I just wanted you here this week because I knew she'd be here on tour." He said with a grin as he nodded at the tickets. Then he laughed and added "And I'm really glad you bought the lie because I had already purchased the tickets and I think I would have had a hard time convincing Warrick to go to something like that with me."
Jackie laughed.
"Thank you so much." She said as she leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek.
"No problem." He said with a smile, it made him feel good to know that he had made her so happy.
Jackie glanced at the tickets, "We better get ready, the concert starts in two and a half hours." She said.
Nick nodded and so both of them hurried to get ready.
Jackie had a complete blast at the concert, she couldn't remember the last time she had so much fun and even though it wasn't Nick's favorite kind of music he also enjoyed himself, mostly because he loved seeing her have so much fun.
After the concert they went to a Chinese restaurant.
"Nick, I can't thank you enough for getting those tickets, that concert was amazing." She said for the one hundredth time.
"You're welcome." He said with a smile.
After they ordered Nick looked at her and said "Jackie, my coworkers really want to meet you, would you be willing to come to the lab with me and meet them tonight?"
"Sure, you talk so highly about them, I've been wanting to meet them."
"That's good, and it's a relief." He said with a laugh.
"Why?" She asked with a chuckle.
"Because Catherine has been nagging me nonstop to bring you down to the lab to meet everyone, I think if she found out that you were here again and I didn't introduce you to her I'm pretty sure she would strangle me."
Jackie laughed, "Um maybe I don't want to meet her." She said jokingly.
Nick laughed "She'll be nicer to you than she is to me I promise."
"Ok then." Jackie grinned.
The couple ate their dinner and then went back to Nick's apartment to play board games until it was time for the graveyard CSI team to start their shift.
Nick grabbed her hand as they walked into the lab. First Nick led her to the break room where a young brunette woman sat drinking coffee.
"Hey Nick." The woman said with a smile when Nick walked into the room.
"Hey Sara" Nick answered.
"Jackie this is Sara Sidle, Sara, this is Jackie." Sara immediately got up and shook her hand.
"Jackie I've heard so much about you, it's so good to finally meet you."
"Thank you Sara. I've also heard a lot about you, it's good to meet you too." Jackie said with a smile.
"Whatever Nick says about me is a lie, don't believe him." Sara said with a smile.
"Oh no, Nick has said nothing but good things about you." Jackie assured her.
"Oh well in that case believe everything he says."
Jackie laughed "Will do." Jackie promised.
The two women glanced at Nick who was grinning.
Nick went over and grabbed Jackie's hand "Come on, you have a lot more people to meet, and I'm afraid if we don't meet them soon, they'll all get assignments and we'll miss them." He said as he started to lead her out of the room.
"Bye Sara, it was nice meeting you." Jackie said before leaving the room.
"Likewise." Sara said with a smile.
Nick stopped at an office door but the light was off and the door was closed and so next he took her too another office. That door was open and a man was sitting at his desk, Jackie recognized the man, it was Gil Grissom.
"Hey Gris." Nick said as he knocked on the door.
"Hey Nick, I thought it was your night off." Grissom said as he looked up from his stack of papers.
"It is, I'm just introducing her to everyone." Nick said.
Grissom eyed Jackie closely and then he realized he recognized her.
"I remember you, you were one of the ladies in that hotel room with the spider."
Jackie smiled "Hi Mr. Grissom." She said politely.
"Hello, I am sorry but I don't remember your name
"Jackie." She said.
"Hi Jackie." Grissom said with a smile.
"I swear this man must not pay any attention to anything anyone says if it does not involve a crime scene or bugs. I've only been talking about Jackie for months now." Nick thought to himself but he would never say anything like that to Grissom's face.
"I still have that spider you know." Grissom said looking at Jackie.
"That's nice." Jackie said, she wanted to be polite but she didn't know what to say.
"Would you like to see it?" Grissom asked.
"No, that's ok, you look busy, I don't want to bother you." Jackie said, trying to think of anything she could to get out of seeing a spider but at the same time she didn't want to offend her boyfriend's boss.
"Well I do have a lot of paperwork to finish. Would it be alright if I showed you the next time you came by?"
"Yes that would be just fine." Jackie said somewhat relieved.
"Good." Grissom said.
"Hey Gris, you wouldn't happen to know where Brass is would you?" Nick asked quickly changing the subject, he knew that Jackie was not all that comfortable talking about a spider.
"I don't know, maybe he got a call out." Grissom answered.
"Alright, see you tomorrow." Nick said grabbing Jackie's hand as he turned to leave, but then he turned back to face Grissom again.
"Do you know where Catherine is?" He asked his boss.
"No, but I didn't give her an assignment yet so she should be around her somewhere."
"Alright thanks, see you later." Nick said as he once again turned to leave.
"Bye Nick." Grissom answered. "Goodbye Jackie." He added.
"Goodbye Mr. Grissom." Jackie said as she followed Nick out the door.
They walked a little ways down the hallway and reached a door before Nick stopped and turned to face her.
"Alright, now be prepared, the next guy that you are going to meet is crazy, but he's really nice."
Jackie laughed "Alright" She said.
When they walked into the room a younger man had headphones on and he was bopping his head up and down with the music.
Nick shook his head. "Greg" he said but the guy didn't hear him.
"Greggo." Nick said a little louder but still the young man didn't look up.
Nick let go of Jackie's hand and went over to him and lifted the headphones off his head "Sanders." He said rather loudly which finally got his attention.
"Hey Nick." Greg said.
When he noticed Jackie standing in the room he got a big grin on his face.
"Hi" He said as he stood up and walked over to her.
"Greg, this is Jackie, Jackie this is Greg Sanders." Nick said.
"Hi Jackie I've heard a lot about you." He said still smiling.
Jackie was about to say it was nice to you too but Greg cut her off "I've heard about how pretty you are and that you are an exceptional kisser." He said with a smirk.
Jackie looked over at Nick and his face was beat red.
"Oh shut up Sanders, you have not." Nick growled.
Greg noticed his friend's face and his grin got even bigger
"I really like to embarrass him." He told Jackie.
"I see that." Jackie couldn't help herself, she had to laugh
"Jackie have you ever seen a human skin cell under a microscope before?" Greg asked her.
"No I can't say that I have."
"Would you like to?" Greg asked.
"Yeah, sure." Jackie said.
"Alright then, you're in luck, come right this way." Greg said.
Jackie followed him across the room and sitting on a little table there was a microscope.
"Just look in there." Greg instructed.
Jackie did, it looked pretty cool, a lot different then she expected.
"Neat." She said.
"Yeah, it is pretty cool, I scraped a skin cell off of my date last night and I am now analyzing it, she's so pretty, our children are going to be gorgeous."
Jackie immediately looked up from the microscope and looked at Greg as if he had grown a third eye right in front of her. Greg saw the look on Jackie's face and started laughing.
"I'm just kidding." He said with a smile.
Jackie smiled back and then she glanced over at Nick. Nick was rubbing his temples as if he had a terrible headache.
"Would you like to see some more fun science stuff?" Greg asked.
"Sure." Jackie said.
He showed her a couple of machines and then he started going through drawers, he opened one and then immediately shut it.
"You don't want to see what's in there, that's where I keep all my porn." He said with a grin.
"Sanders." Nick growled.
"Once again, just kidding." Greg said with a smirk.
Nick immediately went over and grabbed Jackie's hand. "I think we better go." He said as he tugged on Jackie's hand.
"Bye Greg, it was nice meeting you. Thanks for showing me all that stuff." Jackie said as her and Nick left.
"You're welcome, it was nice to meet you too." She heard Greg say even though she and Nick were already back out in the hallway.
"I'm so sorry about that, I told you he was crazy." Nick said.
Jackie laughed "It's alright, he was just messing with you, if you didn't let it get to you he probably wouldn't do it." Jackie said.
"You're right, but I am sorry."
"Don't worry about it." She assured him as she gave his hand a squeeze.
Then Jackie grinned at Nick "So I take it Greg is the class clown of the group?" She asked.
Nick laughed "Yeah, you could say that." He said.
Jackie smiled at him "I don't have a problem with class clowns, they make things fun." She said.
"Then I bet you liked Greg." Nick said with a laugh.
"I did, he was funny. Actually everyone that I have met so far have been really nice.
Nick smiled "I told you they were a great bunch of people."
They walked a little further down the hallway before stopping in front of a door labeled morgue.
"Come on. I'll introduce you to our head coroner next." Nick said as he started to open the door but Jackie hesitated.
"Um Nick, I'm not sure I feel comfortable going into the morgue, it's kind of creepy." She said.
Nick hadn't even considered the morgue might freak her out. "Oh I'm sorry about that, you wait out here and I'll go get him." He said.
She smiled "Thank you." She said.
Nick just nodded as he opened the door and disappeared inside.
Soon after, Jackie felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see a guy she didn't know.
"You must be Mrs. Morris, I'm so sorry for your loss."
Jackie was just about to tell this man that she was not Mrs. Morris when Nick and an older gentleman on crutches walked out of the morgue.
"Hi Super Dave, I see you've met my girlfriend Jackie. Jackie this is the assistant coroner David Philips" Nick said to the man that had tapped Jackie on the shoulder.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I thought you were someone else." Super Dave said.
"That's alright, it's nice to meet you." Jackie said with a smile.
"Likewise." Dave said.
"And Jackie this is Doc Robbins." Nick said motioning to the older man.
"Hi." Jackie said shaking his hand.
"Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you." Doc Robbins said with a warm smile on his face.
The four of them stood and talked for a few minutes before Nick decided that he and Jackie should go find Catherine.
"Nice meeting both of you." Jackie said once more before following Nick down the hallway.
"Hey Nicky." A voice called so Nick and Jackie turned around and saw Warrick jogging to catch up to them.
"Hey Rick." Nick said.
"Warrick, thank you so much for the football tickets." Jackie said.
"No problem, did you guys have fun?" He asked.
"Yeah it was awesome, thanks again."
"I saw the highlights on T.V, it looked like a good game." Warrick said.
"It was." Jackie responded.
"How did court go yesterday?" Nick asked his friend.
Warrick shook his head in disgust "Not good, the lady got off, and I thought the case against her was so strong." He said.
"Tough break man, I guess you can never predict what a jury is going to do." Nick said.
"You're right, on to the next case I guess huh? Warrick said.
"That's about how you have to look at it." Nick agreed.
Warrick wanted to change the subject "So Jackie, why on earth are you still putting up with this guy?" He asked as he smirked at his best friend.
Jackie laughed but Nick gave his friend a dirty look.
"Why is everyone a comedian around here tonight?" Nick mumbled.
Warrick laughed "Just kidding man." he assured him and then he added "I don't mean to be rude but I have someone waiting for me in interrogation so I have to run, but it was nice to see you again Jackie."
"Nice to see you again to Warrick." Jackie said.
"Later man." Nick said to his best friend."
"Later" Warrick said with a wave as he started down the hallway.
"Hey Rick wait, do you happen to know where Catherine is?" Nick called down the hallway.
"I haven't seen her, sorry." Warrick called back before he disappeared around the corner.
Nick sighed, "I wonder where she is." He said as he once again grabbed Jackie's hand.
Nick could only think of one more place to look.
"Cath." He called as he stuck his head in the locker room.
"In here Nicky." A voice called back.
"Finally." Nick said with a smile as he led Jackie into the locker room.
Catherine was sitting on a bench in front of a row of lockers but as soon as she saw Jackie she jumped up.
"Hi, you must be Jackie, it is so good to finally meet you." She said as she wrapped Jackie in a hug.
"Hi Catherine, it is good to finally meet you too." Jackie said, hugging her back.
"Nick's right, you are very pretty." Catherine told Jackie.
"Thank you. I have heard nothing but great things about you Catherine." Jackie said, she could feel herself start to blush.
Catherine glanced at Nick, "That's good to know." She said with a grin.
Jackie laughed.
"Let me tell you this Jackie, Nick is a great guy, but if he gives you any grief just let me know and I will set him straight.
Jackie chuckled "Alright I will." She said.
They talked for a few more minutes before saying their goodbyes.
After they had said goodbye to Catherine, Nick and Jackie left the lab.
"You're coworkers are all so friendly and so very nice." Jackie said as they were driving back to Nick's apartment.
She was amazed at how well everyone seemed to get along, that's rare among coworkers.
"Yeah they are, I am really lucky to work with such a fantastic bunch of people." Nick said.
Jackie had an early flight out of town the next morning so when they got back to Nick's apartment they decided to go to bed. The next morning Jackie packed her suitcase while Nick made breakfast.
After breakfast Nick took her to the airport. She put off going through security for as long as she could.
"I'll see you in a couple months." Nick told her.
"I can't wait." She said quietly.
She leaned over and gave him a kiss and then she turned and headed for security.
After she had got on the plane she thought about this trip to Vegas, it was easily the best vacation she had ever been on.