The Beginning
Chapter 12: Questions
"Hello." Jackie said as she picked up the phone.
She was in her office at her apartment working on some things for work. She had been home from meeting Nick's family for a couple of weeks now but she still felt somewhat behind at work although she wasn't really
"Hi Jackie."
Jackie's face broke out into a huge smile.
"Hi Nick." She said.
"Jackie listen, I know it's my turn to come up and see you but I just heard that your favorite singer is coming back to Vegas on tour in about a month and a half, do you want to come here instead so we can go to her concert again? If not I understand but if that's the case I'm afraid I'll have to postpone my visit to come see you. Catherine just signed the entire team up for a cancer walk during the time I was suppose to come see you and I don't want to seem like a jerk and not do the walk because it helps raise money for cancer research. Then the week after that I have court for a high profile case I worked on and I absolutely can not get out of it, I'm sorry."
"No problem, yeah, I'd like to go to her concert again, and more importantly I just want to see you."
"Great" Nick said.
Jackie could picture his amazing smile.
"One question though?" Jackie said.
"What's that?" He asked.
"Is the walk around the same time the concert is?" She asked.
"Yeah, it's the day before."
"Ok great, could I do the walk with you guys then?" She asked.
"Oh you'd want to?"
"Sure, it's for a great cause and since I'll be there anyways why not?"
"That's awesome, sure, that would be great, it's open to the public anyway, it's just that the graveyard shift is going as a team, I'll tell Cath to get a shirt for you."
"Ok great thanks Nick." She said happily.
"Sure no problem, I'm sorry but I have to go for now, Grissom is calling me. I'll talk to you soon." He said before hanging up.
Jackie was elated, the only problem was that she now was having a very hard time concentrating on the work she needed to get done.
Time flew by and before she knew it she was meeting Nick at the Vegas airport. The cancer walk was that very night, and then the next night was the concert.
"Hi." He said as he gave her a hug.
"Hi yourself." She said as she hugged him back.
"We better head to my apartment and drop your things off and then we'll head straight to the walk, we'll meet everyone else there, sorry it's so rushed."
"That's ok." She assured him.
They dropped her things off at his apartment and then met Catherine and the rest of the team at the walk. Catherine handed both of them their team shirts.
"There is a bathroom over there that you can go change in." She said nodding her head towards the restrooms.
"Ok, we'll be back in a minute." Nick said.
The couple walked to the bathroom, changed into their shirts, took their other shirts back to Nick's truck and then went and rejoined the others.
"This is a very neat event." Jackie said as looked around at thousands of people while she and the team walked around the track.
"They don't have a walk to raise money for cancer research where you're from?" Catherine asked somewhat surprised.
"Oh yes, we do, it's just nothing like this. All we do at home is walk around the track and they have small trinkets and things that you can buy to help raise money, or if people prefer they can just make donations instead. This though is a full blown carnival, which is a really cool idea, with this many people here they have to be making tons of money, plus all the kids are having a lot of fun." She said as she watched a kid send someone plummeting in water at a dunking booth.
"Hey by the way Nick, I volunteered you to do the dunking booth." Greg said with a smirk.
Nick squinted at Greg "You better hope you're kidding Sanders." Nick said threateningly.
"I am, but boy you should have seen your face." Greg said with a laugh.
"Haha, very funny." Nick said sarcastically.
Everyone besides Nick got a good chuckle.
Everyone had a blast hanging out together for the entire day and more importantly the walk was a huge success, Nick and Jackie heard on the news that night that the walk had raised over $800,000 for cancer research.
"What do you want to do this afternoon since the concert isn't until tonight?" Nick asked breaking through Jackie's thoughts the following morning as she sat at the kitchen table reading the newspaper.
"I don't care, it's up to you." Jackie said.
"Alright, how about we go to breakfast and then head to the strip for some sightseeing?" Nick suggested.
"Sounds good to me." Jackie said.
They had a nice time at breakfast and they enjoyed themselves at the strip. The concert that evening though was Jackie's favorite part, she didn't know if she would enjoy it as much as she had the first time but she actually enjoyed it more the second time around.
The following evening was Jackie's last night in town. Nick took her to a seafood restaurant because seafood is her favorite. Then he took her to a park.
"Do you remember this place?" He asked her as they walked along the pretty landscaped park.
"Sure, you took me here for our first date." She said with a smile as they came upon the fountain that she thought was so pretty.
Nick smiled back, he was happy she remembered. Nick motioned for her to sit down on the edge of the fountain and after she had taken a seat he sat down next to her.
"Jackie we need to talk." He said.
"Ok, what is it?" She asked.
"I've been thinking an awful lot about us and as much as I love you, this long distance relationship is just too hard. I'm sorry but I think we need to end this."
Jackie felt a knot form in her stomach and tears stung her eyes. She had no idea this was coming, she thought everything was going so well.
"I understand." She said quietly as she tried to desperately hold back her tears, but despite her best effort a tear slid down her cheek.
Nick brushed away her tear and said "there is only one way I can think of to do that without us both getting hurt."
Jackie's mouth flew open as he dropped to one knee.
"Jackie, will you marry me?" he asked as he fished a ring box out of his jacket pocket.
Jackie jumped up and threw her arms around him but she didn't say anything.
"Is that a yes?" Nick asked quietly.
"Yes, sorry, that's a yes."
Nick gave her the biggest smile she had ever seen as he slipped the ring on her finger.
Suddenly all of her friends and family as well as Nick's parents and all his friends from the lab jumped out from behind the fountain and the trees. They all clapped and cheered wildly.
Jackie was stunned "What…how…why?" she stuttered.
Nick grinned at her "Surprise." He whispered in her ear.
Happy tears started tumbling down her face.
"Nick, thank you so much. Every little girl dreams about the moment when she gets proposed to and this is better than I could have ever imagined. This is by far the best day of my life."
She looked around at everyone and then added "And the fact that I got to share it with all of you made it that much more special, thank you all for being here."
Everyone just smiled at her.
After a couple of minutes Jackie had finally regained her composure although she was still shaking. For the first time she looked at her new ring.
"Do you like it?" Nick asked.
"It's beautiful, I love it." She said sincerely.
"Good, I'm glad you like it. You can thank Catherine, she helped me pick it out." Nick said with a grin.
Jackie looked over at Catherine who was grinning from ear to ear.
"Good work Catherine." Jackie said with a smile.
"Thank you." Catherine replied with a laugh.
The ring truly was gorgeous; it had a big diamond in the center and then it had two sections of begets on either side of the big diamond.
Everyone crowded around the happy couple to wish them congratulations and to look at the ring.
Later that evening as Jackie lay in bed she stared at her new ring.
"Mrs. Stokes." She said to herself quietly, it had a nice ring to it and she couldn't be anymore thrilled.