The next morning (deciding to take on her shift after all and not call for another personal night, despite being hung over a little), Maggie went in search of Nick. She had not seen him all night around the hallways and was worried that he didn't come in for their nightly shift or was avoiding her completely (or Grissom could have had him on another case in another direction and had done it on purpose again). Either way, she knew that she needed to talk to him or walk away from everything forever: her home, her job and even her life once more.

And Maggie knew that she didn't want to give up most of those, but if she had to, she could do it again. And one of those she wasn't too regretful about leaving again, leaving a note to go to Ecklie on her office desk, to be sent to him later.

Exhausting all places of interest within the building, Maggie was about to give up and go home to her son and some sleep (hopefully). Shoulders hunched with defeat, she walked slowly to the locker room, intent on grabbing her things and going home. But, as soon as she grabbed her things out of her locker and went towards the exit, she saw Nick as his locker, also getting ready to go.

"Hey," Maggie said as she came to his locker, facing him as soon as he noticed her, closing his own door and smiling: a smile that Maggie remembered him having the first day the two had met.

"Oh, hey…"

Nick sounded almost let down to see her almost and it showed in his voice. Maggie heard it and almost walked away from that moment of disillusionment – that moment of disappointment and sadness – but decided to stay anyway. She wanted to be with him…needed to be with him…and she had to tell him. The indirect offer was there – offered to him the day before even! – but now, she realized that she needed to tell him directly. She needed to be with him and knew that Nick was the one. Eric had been the person who made her realize that she was worth something more, worth something much more than what she thought she was, without knowing about it until coming back to the one place where she knew was her home.

Before leaving Las Vegas, Maggie saw that she had broken up a rocky relationship with Nick. They had argued about everything: the new baby that came from a rape, the unique events that surrounded their relationship, Jason Napolitano, living together so suddenly, knowing that they both nearly died a few times and even the smallest things that probably shouldn't have mattered. They never communicated with each other and left it to the other to make the first move, to make the first words stick before the other unstuck it with something else.

However, neither had made that first move.

Each had past problems that were never solved, never coming out in words, and yet, they kept coming up with emotion, body language and reason. They knew that something had to be done about it, but that matter would come up eventually and that confrontation was always put off for another day. They would work it out their own way and come to know about the consequences of being together again…and yet, they kept putting it off.

There had to be an equal reaction to each action. And finally, Maggie had realized that, after all of the reactions of her life – coming back to Las Vegas after being threatened, solving her parents' murder with the help of her friends, killing the murderer and having his child after being kidnapped, raped and left for dead and finally leaving, tolerating the horrible mental and physical torment of her next boyfriend and coming back to a deceased co-worker and a backstabbing friend – she found out that it was worth it. Every twist and turn in her life was worth it, despite the hardship and despair.

And all she had to do was change it, to make it better, with the hope that Nick would think the same thing.

"Listen, I know that –" Maggie began at long last.

"Things have been pushing us together again and again and again and we can't stop it," Nick finished in a neutral tone, turning his attention back to his locker and getting his things together to go home. He managed to get his backpack packed up and zippered up, but he didn't bring it out and leave.

"We seem to be good friends now," she pointed out, trying to get Nick to talk to her.

Nick slammed his locker shut: an angry motion that made Maggie flinch with fear. She sensed another argument coming on and hoped that nobody was nearby, especially Grissom. She didn't need to be reminded of what the two needed to do: be civil and work together cordially.

"And what do you want me to do about it?" Nick asked her. "It's good that we can work together and be friends again. We have to or Grissom and/or Catherine will notice something and separate us or one or both of us will lose our job. We seem to keep hitting it off perfectly, but there never seems to be a time in which we can make plans together. You seem to want to go off with your son into the sunset once more, buy a home, run off and settle down. And it's good for you. But, I had other plans. For us."

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, Maggie? You don't know? You don't notice much, do you?"

"Know what?" Maggie showed genuine confusion. "Notice what?"

Nick sighed, frustrated, and opened his locker again. Taking something out and shutting it again, he thrust a small, velvet box into her surprised hands.

"I know it's not the best time to ask, nor is it the best way to ask you, but I wanted you to have it and I hope you accept my offer before you decide to run off from everyone again," Nick said softly, taking her into his arms gently, and then deciding to let her go so that she could open the box. "We don't need you to run away and never come back, especially me. I love you, Maggie, and I don't ever want to lose you ever again. Stay with me…please."

Maggie opened the box, expecting the worse (like she has with everything), but saw the best offer that she's seen so far, forgetting all that she had thought she'd decided to do.

And all she could do was jump into Nick's arms with a graceful acceptance.

~00~

The hot, Las Vegas sun bore down on Maggie later on in the day. She walked into the T.J. Maxx Department Store (her son safely taking an afternoon nap and Chris watching him), almost half-expecting – with little hope – to find something to wear for her wedding (whenever it was, if the two decided on a date for it), but instead, found Nick behind her as she walked down through the women's section of clothes. Nibbling in her neck as she tried to go through dresses in an aisle, she smiled and laughed. But, when she turned her head to face him, she saw baby clothes within her line of vision. Pulling it fully within sight, she missed what Nick was trying to say.

"I thought wedding dresses were supposed to be white," Nick commented, trying to get her attention again, seeing where Maggie was keeping her eyes on and sighing about it. He never saw that longing in her eyes before, but was ready to accept it.

"Huh?" Maggie shook her head and faced Nick. "Oh. Well, I thought that you were supposed to be leaving me alone so that I could find something."

"No white dresses are here, future Mrs. Nick Stokes."

"Wedding dresses don't need to be white. Don't be bias and stereotypical about them."

"I prefer that yours was. I would like to see you in a white dress and walking down an aisle, but maybe not in a church, like everybody likes it to be, but maybe someplace special outside of town. I always dreamed of that, even after you left. Then, I just forgot about it…until I decided that something needed to be done for us."

"And have it match my hair? I barely have any of the black left in there!" Maggie laughed harshly, knowing that her hair was going the exact was her father's had, about the time she was born even.

"What does that matter?" Nick nuzzled against her, ignoring the number of stares from the other shoppers. "What matters is that you accepted what I offered to you. You put something on the table and I took it. Then, I gave you something better than what you were going to give me."

"But can we make it work?"

"We almost did last time, but you ran off."

"I had a child to consider and my own sanity!"

"Your own sanity was never there to begin with," Nick pointed out as he made Maggie face him fully. "And your brothers even told me as much. Michael would have been taken care of, despite everything that everybody had said, even my parents. I know that they didn't approve of him and of us living together. But they know what the meaning of 'family' is and are willing to change their ways to whatever unique ones there are out there."

"So…you're really gonna help me?"

"You're willing to help me, aren't you? You started it, remember? You bumped into me in the hallway and scattered my paperwork that Ecklie needed. And we started something that we couldn't stop, not even Grissom or Catherine or even Warrick." He paused. "To open up your soul to me was the best thing that ever happened to me, but you never continued it. We knew each other so well, but never went through with the relationship. And I somehow think I know why. We were frightened, Maggie. We were frightened by what had happened and didn't even bring up whatever else was bothering us. And you're always one to run away from your own problems."

"Oh, so who's calling the kettle black now?"

"You…and me. We're both guilty."

"And to admit it is a start," Maggie pointed out, smiling.

"Yeah, and so is your want for another baby," Nick joked around.

"How do you figure?"

"You looking at the baby clothes with some desire in your eyes is enough, Maggie. I saw it. You want another baby."

"And what if I do?" She crossed her arms stubbornly.

"It matters to me," Nick replied. "You're planning on buying a house. That's fine. But, does it have the room for another child? Do we have the ability to manage another one? How will Michael feel? Will he even be taking my last name? Am I adapting him?"

"Well, you can ask him those questions. I don't know. I don't want to force him to do anything he doesn't want to do, like you adapting him." Maggie sighed, uncrossing her arms.

"You can't force a child to do anything like that, even if he's that young," Catherine said, coming up from behind Maggie suddenly. "It's also a big decision for something that young, Maggie."

Maggie turned around shocked, Nick casting Catherine a knowing smile.

"How do you –?" she started.

"Nick told me and Grissom," Catherine answered, smiling mischievously at Maggie's obvious naïve nature of the situations around her. "Don't worry. The secret is still with me. So is that resignation paperwork that Nick happened to find on your desk and tell me about."

Maggie stood there, agape still.

"You think I wouldn't find that?" Nick asked Maggie as he joined Catherine on her side of the aisle. "We all knew that you wanted to quit again. And that's fine. That must have been a recent decision for you. But, what was going to do in the meantime if I hadn't asked you to marry me?"

"I don't know," Maggie started weakly.

"Oh, Nick, let her think about it," Catherine said, taking the younger woman by the shoulders. "Let her think about the good things right now, like what she's going to be wearing to this elopement I hear you two are having."