Thanks for all my lovely reviewers! I am so sorry about the lack of little Kristy in the previous chapter :-(
For anyone who wants to know, that song was "In My Arms" by Dead By April. Tis an awesome song and it inspired this fic, in fact.
Okay, this plot is already more complex in my mind then most of them at this point and I know almost exactly where I'm going (though reviewing does influence the plot a lot in my case) so keep your eyes open for details – I would love to hear any theories!
So sorry for mistakes - once again quick update before bed = no time to proof read :-(
WARNING - THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS STRONG (NECESSARY) LANGUAGE :-( SORRY!
Read, Enjoy, Review.
Chapter Nine # Revelations and Bombs #
"Quit? You want to quit?"
"Yessir. I want to transfer to the FBI." Lisa Cooke crossed her fingers behind her back.
"And you want to do this, why?"
"I'm sick of living a lie. Sir."
"You want to go and live a happy life with your children?" Her cynical boss sneered.
"No. I would just hurt them more. But I want the possibility of a future. I want out."
"For fuck's sake. You weren't supposed to get pregnant, Cooke! You were just supposed to sleep with the guy! Get into a relationship for a few days."
The question that had been eating at her for over a year left her mouth for the first time. "Why?"
"Classified information." Was the smug reply.
"I led the guy on, I took advantage of him and he seems like a really nice guy. Why?"
"I'm not going to tell you that, Cooke so you may as well stop trying."
"Look, I feel bad for what I did, which is one of the reasons I'm leaving, I can't take it anymore."
It took her a while to convince her asshole of a boss to let her go but eventually a brand new identity was pressed into her hands.
Within days she dyed her hair dark brown and took out the green contacts she wore during her time in the CIA to reveal her bright blue eyes.
The next day she walked into the bright shiny building and felt her ID in her bag. She had chosen her childhood name along with the surname of an old friend and her friend Pete had come up with a past for her.
Her new, seemingly friendly boss, Kevin Butler, stood outside a door "So, this will be your partner, she'll teach you everything you need to know. She's also quite new but don't worry, she has a lot of experience with crime solving. She was an amazing CSI and once headed one of the best crime labs in the country, apart from ours. However, she's only been here about a year months. A damn fast learner though so you're in good hands, but coming from the CIA you must be quick too, right?"
She nodded. Her job details had been left out but the bureau knew where she had come from. Butler held open the door and a strawberry blonde woman smiled at her.
She outstretched her hand. "Alyssa Brown."
"Catherine Willows, welcome aboard."
"Thanks." She smiled. "I'm happy to be here."
"CIA, right?"
"Yeah. You were a CSI?" Catherine nodded, studying her for a moment. The new woman shifted. "Is that gonna be a problem."
"No. No..." Catherine grinned. "I'm sorry."
After working together for a week, the two women became firm friends. Alyssa, as she once again referred to herself as, was happy. She was acting like herself, her name was half right. She felt honest, and she loved it.
She also loved Catherine. The woman was witty, sassy, smart, dangerous... And she was fiercely loyal. She often spoke fondly of the CSIs, lab techs and coroners she had left behind and Alyssa knew all of their names. Nick, Sara, Greg, DB, Morgan, Al, David, Hodges, Mandy, Wendy, Henry, Bobby... Her new partner kept a couple of photographs on her desk but the only two Alyssa had seen were of Lindsey, Catherine's daughter, and a dark skinned man called Warrick, who had died years ago, according to Catherine.
When she heard that one of Catherine's former colleagues was called Greg, Alyssa worried, but though Catherine had mentioned that the man had children, she hadn't specified anything and besides, Greg wasn't that rare a name.
God, Alyssa felt so good to be sharing true stories of her childhood, her friends, her family...
She walked into their shared office on her third week and nodded at Catherine who was on the phone. "...that's great! Oh, congratulations kiddo! Give them hugs and kisses from me." Catherine laughed. "Yeah, yeah. I'm the favourite. Yeah, I'll speak to you soon and see you at Christmas. Yeah, love you too. Bye."
"Who was that?" Alyssa asked curiously.
"Greg. His baby girl's started talking!"
"Oh, wow!" Alyssa grinned genuinely. "That's great."
"Come here, I'll show you a picture."
Alyssa walked round and Catherine pointed at her computer background.
Alyssa's heart stopped beating. A group of people were all laughing, trying to sit on a sofa. "This was taken a few weeks ago, on my vacation. That's Nick Stokes, his adopted daughter Kristy, Sara Sidle, Gil Grissom and Eli Brown, their adopted son...his dad was a good friend. Then that's Morgan Brody, DB Russell, me, obviously and Julie Finlay, who I never actually worked with. And that's Greg Sanders, the guy I was talking to, and his twins. Reuben and Loeila. They're my CSI family." She laughed softly.
"Reuben and Loeila...They're beautiful names." Alyssa murmured.
"I know. Their mom didn't name them, she didn't care at all. Ran away with some other guy, dumped Greg with a pair of gorgeous 3 month olds that he didn't know existed...I have no idea how she could have done it but..."
"Maybe she had a reason..."
"She was a junkie." Catherine shook her head. "Greg always falls for the bad ones."
Alyssa's heart sank even further. "Al...always?"
"Yeah. Fell for a woman named Ellen Whitebridge a few years back. She pretended to be interested in him and turned out to be a murderer trying to get access to his files. Nearly got him killed."
Alyssa stared at the laughing man frozen in time, a little girl on his hip and a baby boy balancing on his knee. "They're beautiful..."
"Yeah... I'm Reuben's godmother."
"Really? Good." Alyssa said before she could stop herself.
"What?" Catherine raised an eyebrow.
"Well, if he has no mom, he's lucky to have such an amazing godmother." She quickly said.
"I guess."
Something that had been eating at her for months had to escape from Alyssa's system. "So if he didn't know about them for the first three months they weren't abused or anything?"
"No, but Reuben was exposed to enough drugs to increase his risk of epilepsy by fifty percent. My daughter is actually their babysitter, she's training to be a nurse."
"What did Loeila say?"
"Dada." Catherine grinned. "According to Linds she's a real daddy's girl."
"I'll bet." Alyssa smiled sadly.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Alyssa Brown, I've been a trained observer since I left high school, I know when something is wrong."
"I thought you were a stripper straight out of high school?"
"When you're a dancer you have to observe people's behaviour to know how to get enough cash. It's not quite as simple as shaking your booty around. But don't avoid the question."
"It's nothing." Alyssa shook her head. "I just...I had twins once. They...they live with their dad. He didn't think they'd be safe if I kept them, because of my job, y'know."
Catherine looked horrified. "God, I'm so sorry. Me and my big mouth!"
"It's fine. You couldn't have known." Alyssa smiled.
"I just couldn't do it."
"It was really hard." Alyssa nodded, staring at Greg's face on the computer screen. "But I made the right choice."
CSIVCSIVCSIV
The whole team were severely pissed off when the case went officially cold a month later with Jose Martinez, Lennie Rodgers and both gang's involved were all in the wind. Even without Morgan being shot it had been an extremely personal case, and when one of their own got hit they all wanted to kill the guys that did it. Morgan was back to work in a couple of weeks, but everyone still kept an eye on her and despite her craving for independence, she was grateful.
One month after the case was officially declared cold they got a lead. A long scream followed by a peal of delighted laughter announced that Greg had brought his children to the lab.
"Dada!" Loeila laughed as he changed Reuben's diaper. Life as a single dad wasn't easy but he was coping, and well.
"What?"
"Ngy!"
"Hungry?"
"Da!"
"Well your gonna have to wait then." Picking up on the gist of what her father was saying Loeila pouted and immediately began crawling determinedly towards the kitchen.
As Greg had baby proofed his apartment he wasn't too fussed, he'd get her in a minute. When he was done with Reuben he left the little boy on his changing mat for a second before jogging into the kitchen.
His mouth dropped open when he entered the room. The apple juice and orange juice cartoons that had been sitting on the kitchen table weren't there anymore. A pool of orange covered most of the table and was dripping continuously onto the floor. That carton had been discarded by Loeila who was now using her two tiny hands to suck the apple juice out of the large 1 litre carton.
Snapping a quick picture on his phone, Greg shook his lead. "Lola!"
"Dood dirl!" She smiled sweetly.
"No, not good girl." He shook his head and took the apple juice off her.
"No! Ummy!"
"Not yummy, bad for you! You're eight months old."
She blinked innocently. "Dood dirl."
"Ah!" Greg pointed at the empty orange juice carton. "What happened to that one?"
"Yucky!" Loeila protested as he held it in front of her face. "No!" She pushed it away.
"How'd you get up their anyway? God, you're all sticky!" Greg sighed. "You're gonna have to have a bath now!"
He picked her up and went into the living room, plucking Reuben off the floor. He popped both babies on the rug in the bathroom and started to run that water in the rub, making sure that he was only running lukewarm water.
He walked into the other room to grab a pair of towels. When he walked back in, Loeila was gripping the side of the tub, standing on wobbly legs. He walked as she started to climb up the bathtub.
"Hold on, Lola!" He cried, picking her up before she tumbled in. "Phew."
He ran into the adjoining bedroom when the phone rang. "Hello?"
Splash!
"Hey Greg, its-"
"Reuben!" Greg cried, running into the room and dropping the phone on the bed. He scooped the other baby out of the bath and ran back into the bed room. Both babies were crying as he picked up the phone. "Sorry, hello?"
"Hi, its Morgan...Greg is everything okay?"
"Yeah, now, I think. They're both climbing. Loeila spilt orange juice all over the kitchen and Reuben fell in the bath and its a nightmare and-"
"Okay, okay!" Morgan laughed. "Do you wanna hand?"
"Please!" Greg laughed.
"I'll be there in five."
Loeila squealed in delight and ran around the corner as fast as her little legs could carry her in a little pink top Nick had got her which said 'Cowboy Princess' and it and a diaper.
Greg followed closely behind and groaned softly to himself as she bumped into the Sherriff's legs and fell promptly onto her backside.
"Uh oh."
"Hello." The Sherriff smiled. "What are you doing here?"
"Um ma ma ma..." Loeila put her hand in her mouth.
"I'm really sorry!" Greg insisted as he jogged up.
Loeila saw him and giggled again, pushing herself up and starting to run again.
"Loeila!"
She turned and grabbed the Sherriff's legs, hiding behind the woman.
"I am so sorry."
"It's okay..." The Sherriff shook her head at the adorable baby trying to play chase. Greg reached around and grabbed Loeila quickly. He swung her up onto his hip.
"What is she doing in a crime lab, Mr. Sanders?"
"Her babysitter is going on holiday to Hawaii and I've been pulling a double so she dropped Loeila and her brother off here. I'm sorry, about that she's just a bit of a handful."
"How old is she?"
"Nine months."
"And she can run?" The Sherriff's eyes widened.
"Oh yeah. Her brother's not far behind her."
"Dada Lola wan Odges!"
"She can talk?"
"Uh yeah." Greg shifted her on his hip.
"Well, I'll let you get on." The Sherriff nodded with a smile and Loeila hit her dad on the head.
"Oges!"
"Fine, fine. You bully me, you know!"
To everyone's shock, Loeila had formed a huge bond with Hodges, her godfather. No one expected it, including the lab tech himself but Loeila loved the man and he was always happy to see her.
"Hodges, your biggest fan is here!"
"Hey Lola!" Hodges smiled.
"Odges!" She squealed, reaching out to him. Hodges took her from Greg onto his own hip and continued to look down the microscope.
"I'm just gonna go get Reubs off of Henry, will you watch her for a minute please?" He asked Hodges.
"Of course."
Greg ran back through the lab. "Henry-"
"We got a match."
"What?"
"Reuben and I, we were running the blood from the Rodgers case through the database again and we got a match."
"Really?" Greg ran up to the screen.
"Yeah... Reuben thought of searching the bone marrow database."
"Wait, my nine month old son told you to run a drop of blood from a two month old crime scene through the bone marrow database?"
"Bow mawo." Reuben sang. "Bow mawo."
Greg's eyes widened. "You taught my baby how to say bone marrow?"
"He's a smart kid, I was talking to Mandy about Leukaemia the other day and he was listening. That child is just like a parrot. Anyway, we got a hit!"
"Who?"
"The unidentified blood at the crime scene belongs to Calliope Martinez."
"Jose Martinez's four year old was a bone marrow donor?"
"No, she was on the list for a transplant. She had leukaemia."
"Poor kid." Greg shook his head, stroking his son's hair. He couldn't imagine what he'd do if either of his kids got cancer.
The little boy was talking even more than Loeila, hence the "bow mawo", but he could still only toddle a few steps as oppose to her running. The doctors had assured him that it was completely normal, that it probably had nothing to do with the drugs and that Reuben was very advanced for his age anyway.
"I'll tell Russell."
"How would her blood get there anyway?" Henry frowned.
"According to O'Conner Calliope was (a) dead and (b) five years old at the time."
"Maybe a calling card? I don't know." Greg scooped up his son and ran down the corridor, yelling 'Russell'.
"Ba ba Hewy!" Reuben sang, bouncing on his father's hip. Henry waved back. As soon as Greg had delivered the news to Russell he headed back towards Hodge's lab.
He picked up Loeila and went to the exit. Strapping the twins into the car, Greg went around to the front seat.
"Excuse me! Hey, you!"
He turned to see a large, burly man jogging up to him.
"You work in there?"
"Yes. Can I help you?" Greg asked.
"I wanna find someone. Morgan Brody, you might know her?"
Instantly Greg was on the defensive. "I know her. What do you want with her?"
"I need to see her."
"About what?"
"Why is it your business?"
"Because she got hurt a couple of months ago and I don't want that to happen again so either tell me who the hell you are or I get security!"
The man's eyes narrowed, but not with the emotion Greg would have expected them two. "Cute kids. Is that Reuben and...was it Loeila?" Greg stood in front of the window. "Oh shit, I'm sorry for freaking you out, man, you must be Greg, right? I'm Joey Brody, I'm Morgan's little brother."
"Oh..." Greg relaxed a fraction. "Little?"
The guy laughed good naturedly. "Yeah. I got the growth gene."
"Okay."
"Look, I know you're a CSI so it's your job to be suspicious so here-" he pulled out his phone and showed Greg a bunch of pictures of a family Christmas with what seemed to be four siblings, including Joey and Morgan. "I just wanted to know when she's off work."
"Couldn't you have gone into the lab?"
Joey made a face. "Technically I'm Morgan's half brother. And mom might have got pregnant with me before the divorce."
"Ah."
"Conrad's never actually been cold to me, in fact he's always been real nice but I know he feels uncomfortable around me so when I saw to leave the lab I thought I'd grab you instead. You fit the description Mo gave of Greg Sanders."
"She gave you a description?" Greg grinned slightly.
"Oh yeah."
The doors opened and Morgan herself walked out she stopped short at the sight of the man. "Joey!"
"Hey, Mo." He hugged her tightly. "I just came to ask Greg when you were getting off. Shift, I mean."
She smacked him lightly. "As it happens, right now. What are you doing here?"
"Watching my little girl at her dance contest. Mia's eight." He added for Greg's benefit.
"Yeah. This is my younger brother who advises me about having safe sex and who gets his sixteen year old girlfriend pregnant."
"Hey, I did marry her."
"Three years later."
Greg laughed and Reuben's hand hit the window. "I think they want me to go. I'll see you tomorrow, Mo."
"Stop it! Now look what you've done. My name's Morgan."
Greg shook his head and looked at his two in the backseat. He pulled out of the parking lot.
"Beep!" Reuben sang. "Beep, beep, beep, beep!"
"What are you doing, huh?" Greg turned to look at his son who pointed at a flashing light beneath the passenger seat.
"Beep! Goes beep daddy!"
Beep, beep, beep...
A very unmistakeable beep. Greg slowed the car and peered under the seat.
Wires. Flashing lights. Beep. Beep. Beep. Bomb?
Bomb!
Greg screeched to a stop and flung open the door. He raced around and grabbed a Swiss army knife from his pocket, slicing through the car seat straps for Reuben, glancing at the timer.
30 seconds. He leaned over, sweating like a pig and ripped Loeila from her seat. He grabbed his kit and his kid in one motion and took one last glance. He wasn't overreacting.
Morgan and Joey froze, halfway towards his car. Greg kicked his bag under a nearby Buick, gathered his kids under his arms and ran towards them.
"There's a bomb! Get down!" He screamed, counting down in his head as they hit the deck.
Five, four, three, two, one...
Thrown by the force of the explosion, Greg Sanders hit the floor.
CSIVCSIVCSIV
"Bye, Rosa. Have fun!" Nick grinned and waved goodbye to his nanny, who was taking a trip to Texas to visit her friends and family.
He walked back inside the house and looked at Kristy. His daughter.
"We haven't spent any time together in a while, have we?" he asked rhetorically. She blinked and smiled slightly. Nick turned off his phone and unplugged the landline. "Today it's just you and me, beautiful."
She smiled as Nick walked over and lifted her into his arms, rocking her gently. He picked up a rattle and shook it slightly in front of her face. Her little hand reached up and held grabbed it. He laughed softly.
"Thatta girl. How about we go out today, a little trip to the park, maybe?"
Kristy smiled happily and Nick grabbed a coat for the both of them. Wrapping Kristy up in her warm pink coat and gently placing her into her pram, Nick left the house. He walked for hours with Kristy, talked to a few hot girls, a couple of younger families and then returned home, in a great mood. Arriving at his house he froze. His door was ajar. A loud crash sounded from inside the house.
"Hello?" Nick called, torn. He could charge in with Kristy and he couldn't leave her outside.
"Nick!" Sara ran out of his apartment, gloves on her hands. "Thank god!"
"What the hell is going on?" Nick asked as Sara hugged him and stroked the side of Kristy's face.
"Greg's in the hospital, Nick, he's been blown up." Her eyes were red and Nick could see the ghost of tears on her face.
"What?" Nick cried.
"Reuben and Loeila are in hospital too, the bomb was in his car."
"Oh my god..."
"He got them out and according to Morgan and her brother, whose visiting her right now, he was running towards them with his kids in his arms when the bomb went off. He's still in surgery."
"What about the twins?"
"Reuben's okay, a few small bruises and cuts. We haven't heard about Lola yet, Morgan's at the hospital with them."
"Oh, god! Why are you here, Sar? Why have you got gloves on?"
"We couldn't get hold of you. Nick, this all happened four hours ago! You weren't picking up your phones, Rosa was unreachable, I got here and your place was trashed."
"What?" Nick cried. Four hours...place trashed...
Kristy started to cry. Nick plucked her out of the pram at held her tightly.
"Unless you left stuff everywhere and broken glass on the floor and in Kristy's cot, then someone's been here. The door was open when I got here."
"I take it I can't go in there?" Nick ran a hand through his hair.
"Sorry." Sara shook her head.
"I'm gonna go to the hospital." Nick nodded.
"Okay. I'll be there as soon as I can. Don't forget to check in with Russell."
Nick nodded and did so as he got into his car. Driving to the hospital, all he could think of was how much of a little brother Greg had been to him over the years, and how grown up he was now.
If anything happened to him Nick would...would...
He had no idea.
He would curl up in a hole and cry for days, he would turn alcoholic, he would take in Greg's kids, he would tear the guys responsible limb from limb.
No option seemed attractive and Nick knew the exact singular reason why.
No Greg.
And he'd had his phone of for four hours. Greg had been in hospital for four hours whilst Nick was happily taking a walk in the park.
He raced to the hospital waiting room. Morgan, Grissom, Reuben and Eli were all already there.
"Hi Uncle Nicky. Uncle Greg's gotta owie." Eli said solemnly.
"Thank god you're okay." Morgan sighed, holding Reuben tightly.
"I am so sorry..." Nick shook his head.
A doctor walked into the room.
"Family of Greg and Loeila Sanders?"
Ooh, what do you think?