Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Love you all sooooo much! So, in this chapter Sara and Greg go back to work. Slight angst but not enough for me, lol. This should be one of the last build up chapters, I'm sorry, but please stick with me and I promise to try my hardest not to disappoint!
Read, Enjoy, Review!
Chapter Seven # Breakaway #
"Hey, Eli?"
The little boy looked up at Sara from his playing cards.
"I gotta go to work tonight, okay? Gil's gonna stay with you, but if you wake up and I'm not here it's because I'm at work. Is that okay?"
"Why do you work in da dark?" Eli frowned.
"Because I gotta put the bad guys away in the dark." Sara explained, coming to sit on the living room floor with the child.
Eli looked up at her. "I don't want you to go."
"Well, I gotta go." Sara sighed. Eli put a hand on her arm and she looped her arm over him. He snuggled into her side.
"Why?"
"So that the bad guys don't get away with being bad."
"Okay..." Eli sighed. "You gotta go an' save the world?"
Sara laughed. "Something like that, yeah."
Eli nodded contently and looked back at his solitaire hand. Suddenly his eyes widened and his hand flew back onto Sara's arm, gripping it with fear.
"What's wrong?" she asked quickly.
"Will the bad guys hurt you?" Eli whispered.
"Oh, sweetie, I don't think so."
"But what if they do?" Eli's eyes were filled with so much worry that it physically pained Sara.
"I'll be very careful, and there are people to protect me at my job." Sara tried to reassure him.
"Like who?"
"Uncle Jim, for one. There's Lou, do you remember Lou?" Eli nodded and Sara continued. "And I know how to fight the bad guys if I have to."
"Please don't go! I don't want you to get hurt." Eli begged.
Sara pulled him closer towards her. "I don't have to go until later."
He sighed. "Did my daddy ever get hurt at work?"
Sara thought for a moment. "Well...he did get punched in the face once."
"What happened?" Eli asked with wide eyes, his cards completely forgotten. "Did he punch back?"
Sara thought back. "No... He was very good and didn't. He had to help Uncle Nick though, when Uncle Nick punched someone a year later."
"Why did Uncle Nick punch da person?"
"Because the person hurt Uncle Greg very badly." Sara said softly.
"At work?" Eli cried.
"No, on the way to work. Uncle Greg saved a man's life and got very hurt in the process." Sara explained, trying not to scare the little boy any further and biting her tongue at every second word.
"Sara, please!" Eli pleaded. "Stay!"
CSIVCSIVCSIV
Sara entered the break room and rubbed her hands over her face.
"Tough for you too?" Greg asked from the corner. He was eating ice cream out of the pot, something Sara hadn't seen him do in years.
"Yeah. Eli didn't want me to come in. He thinks I'm going to get hurt." Sara shook her head to try and shake Eli's cries out of her ears.
"It took me half an hour to get out of the door." Greg admitted. "After I'd told Lindsey all the details about everything twice."
"Lindsey?"
"Oh, yeah. Catherine's daughter is my babysitter. Is that weird?"
"A little." Sara laughed lightly. "Isn't she studying to be a nurse?"
"Yeah, which means that she knows what to do if Reubs has a seizure." Greg shoved a massive scoop of ice cream down his throat.
"Greg, relax. They'll be fine." Sara put a hand on his hand.
"I just miss them already." Greg moaned. "I'm so jealous of Nick right now."
"They'll be fine." Sara smiled.
"Ah! Brain freeze!" Greg spluttered, setting down his ice cream.
"Right, assignments..." DB walked into the room.
Greg left the break room ten minutes later and walked towards the exit.
"Look, I want to talk to Stokes!" A man shouted at Judy, who was standing her ground.
"Sir, if you don't leave right now, I will have to call security."
"For God's sake, I need to talk to Nicholas Stokes!"
"Hey, what's going on?" Greg frowned, walking up.
Instantly the man turned on him, shoving a pointed finger in Greg's face. "I want to talk to Nick Stokes and I want to talk to him now!"
Despite being towered over by the man, Greg squared his shoulders. "Why do you want to talk to him?"
"That's none of your business you little punk-"
"Security!" Greg and Judy called as the man pushed Greg backwards.
"I'm warning you, there will be hell to pay if-"
"There is no way in hell that you are talking to Nick when you're acting like this. No. Way. In. Hell." Greg shook his head.
The man looked slightly shocked.
"Not unless you tell me exactly why you are here." Greg demanded
CSIVCSIVCSIV
"Hello?"
"Nick, its Russell. We gotta problem."
"What, what's wrong? Is everyone okay?"
"Greg's in hospital with a broken nose, but that's not the problem. John Adamson is out of prison."
"Based on what!?" Nick cried.
"Based on the fact that Cassie wasn't a minor when she got pregnant and Adamson claimed it was all a game until she got cold feet."
"Nobody would fall for-"
"And based on the fact that the judge who put him away in the first place was sleeping with his wife."
"Son of a bitch!" Nick swore.
"Tell me about it. We're trying to find stuff to put him back where he belongs but the DVD's gone."
"What?"
"There's been a break in at the evidence locker, no one else saw anything."
"Son of a bitch!" Nick repeated, massaging his forehead.
"That's not everything."
"Oh, great."
"Adamson's on the rampage looking for you. Greg got in his way, ended up getting his nose broken."
"Greg got in the way?"
"Wouldn't let him anywhere near you or your details."
"Shit, Greg..."
"He's okay. Just be on the lookout, Nick."
"I gottcha." Nick walked into the living room and picked Kristy up out of her little Moses basket. Rosa stood up, a frown on her face. "Her dad's out of prison." Nick explained hoarsely.
A loud bang erupted on Nick's door. "Stokes!"
Nick's face hardened and he went into protective overdrive. He pressed Kristy into Rosa's arms. "Go upstairs, stay quiet."
"Nick-"
"Go!" Nick insisted. Rosa nodded and flew up the stairs. Nick walked slowly up to the door as it shook with a loud knock.
"STOKES!" Nick wrapped his hand around his gun. He slipped the chain across the door and opened it slightly.
"Who are you and what so you want?" Nick growled.
"I wanna talk to you." He man said, taking a step back. "You've got my daughter and I'd like to take her."
"I know what you did to Cassie, there's no way that you're going anyway near her."
"Stokes, I didn't do anything! It was all consensual! It was just a game!"
"A game?" Nick yelled.
"She wanted to do this!"
"You sick bastard!" Nick shoved the door shut but Adamson shoved his leg in the door.
"Just let me see the kid I'm gonna be fighting for."
"You're not going to ever go within a hundred feet of her!"
Upstairs, Kristy began crying and Adamson stared up at the ceiling longingly. Nick took the opportunity to shove the door closed. Adamson shouldered the door and rammed it open, the flimsy chain straining to the max.
"Are you crazy? You'll never even be allowed to see her if you do anything criminal!"
"Who says I'm gonna see her legally? My daughter is crying, let me in!" He crashed against the door again.
"Leave, right now! I'm warning you, I'm armed!" Nick warned.
"So am I!"
Nick jumped as a bullet shot through the door. He ducked and ran away from the door, heading upstairs and grabbing his radio. When he finished the door burst open and Nick raced into his bedroom. Rosa was standing behind the wardrobe, shaking.
"It's okay." Nick mouthed, shoving his bed against the door. Shots started firing through the wall. Nick dragged Rosa and Kristy into the cupboard. "Stay here, hide! You're gonna be okay." Rosa nodded.
Nick slipped into the en-suite, sneaking out of the last door and hitting him on the head with the butt of his gun. John grunted and elbowed him in the stomach. Nick cried out and doubled over, smashing Adamson in the head as he did so. They struggled for a minute before Nick managed to knock Adamson to the floor and the gun out of his hand.
Nick dragged the larger man's hands behind his back, wiping the blood out of his eye with his shoulder.
"Stay down, asshole!" Nick hissed. Adamson scowled.
"Well I'm glad you're all okay." Vartaan shook his head minutes later. "But this whole saving CSI and family thing is getting old."
Nick nodded absently, cradling Kristy in his arms and staring at her.
"Nick?" Rosa asked softly.
"I'm okay, Rosa." Nick said in an even softer tone.
"Nick, you may need to get checked out.
"I'm okay." Nick shook his head.
"Okay..." Vartaan shook his own head. "If you say so."
Catherine ran up to the house, fear in her eyes. "Nick? Lou?"
"Catherine." Lou nodded.
"What the hell happened?"
When Nick said nothing Lou explained, and Catherine's face clouded in anger. "Son of a bitch!"
"Well, there's no way that he's not going away for good now." Lou shook his head. "I'll catch you later."
Catherine nodded, and followed Nick and Rosa back into the house.
"Nick, you at least need a shower." Catherine insisted. "I can help clean up."
"I'll do that." Rosa insisted. "You look after Kristy."
"Are you sure?"
Rosa nodded. "I'm not leaving next week."
Catherine smiled and Nick had to shake his head at the incredible speed at which his surrogate mother and childhood nanny had formed a firm friendship. He reluctantly passed Kristy over to Catherine and moved into the bathroom. When he came out, the faint sound of singing filled his ears.
"Grew up in a small town
And when the rain would fall down
I'd just stare out my window
Dreaming of what could be,
and if I'd end up happy
I would pray (I would pray)
Trying hard to reach out
But when I tried to speak out
Felt like no one could hear me
Wanted to belong here
But something felt so wrong here
So I prayed I could break away
I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes til' I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget all the ones that I love
I'll take a risk, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
Wanna feel the warm breeze
Sleep under a palm tree
Feel the rush of the ocean
Get onboard a fast train
Travel on a jet plane, far away
And breakaway
I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes 'til I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
I won't forget all the ones that I love
I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change,
And breakaway
Buildings with a hundred floors
Swinging 'round revolving doors
Maybe I don't know where they'll take me but
Gotta keep moving on, moving on
Fly away, breakaway..."
Nick listened from the semi darkness as Catherine sang to his daughter.
"I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
Though it's not easy to tell you goodbye
I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change,
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget the place I come from
I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway, breakaway, breakaway..."
"So that's why you left Cath?"
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "I had to, Nicky."
"I know." His throat felt blocked so he swallowed and blinked. "Thanks for coming back, even for a holiday, Catherine."
She tried to smile. "I won't forget the place I come from."
Nick gave her a huge hug.
"Yeah. I'll remind you of that the next time you and your FBI goons come to steal one of our cases."
Building up. Nearly here I swear! (Also, sorry for lack of Reuben and Loeila here, they'll be back next chapter, if you want them ;))
Review! You know you want to (even if you hate this story with every atom of your being!)