CSI: Braden Sanders-Stokes: Coming Home

Summary: Braden finally gets his "forever home" but it's not easy adjusting to a new life in a new home with new parents. Braden is three years old, in this, the second chapter.

"You look nervous, G."

"I'm not nervous. I'm just excited, that's all. I mean, we had so much fun with him the past few weeks. He loved the zoo and the park. He loved everything we did together!"

"Just remember this is new for him and he might crawl back into his shell again."

"Don't worry, Nicky, everything's gonna go smoothly. I promise."

Nick pulled into the long dirt driveway. Sitting on the porch steps of the large Victorian house, between the two foster moms, was the three-year-old. He had a smile on his face and he looked like he was having difficulty sitting still. Nick smiled as he and Greg got out of the car, glad to know the toddler seemed happy they were there to pick him up.

Dana helped him down the stairs and he ran across the yard into Greg's outstretched arms. Greg lifted him off the ground and spun him around in the air. The other woman, Page, handed Nick the toddler's backpack when they met in the middle of the driveway.

"You ready to go home?" she asked Braden who was now perched on Greg's hip.

The boy nodded vigorously.

"You be a good boy for your daddies, ok?"

"I be good. See you later!"

"Oh, honey, you won't..." Dana began.

"Maybe you can come back and visit sometime," Page broke in before her lover could upset Braden.

"Yeah! I see you later!"

Both women sighed and shook their heads.

Nick opened the back door to his SUV and Greg buckled Braden into his new car seat before climbing in beside him.

Once they'd said goodbye to his last set of foster parents and Nick had them back out on the road headed towards their house the reality of the situation seemed to settle on the little boy. He stared straight ahead at the empty passenger seat in front of him and he was quiet. Just as Greg turned to ask him something he noticed the tears running down his face and the scared look in his eyes as he clasped his tiny hands together in front of his face.

"Hey, what's with the tears?" Greg asked, his attention on Braden and not the man watching them in the rearview mirror.

But the boy was beyond words and pulled away when Greg reached out to put an arm around him. He only cried harder. Nick turned his eyes to the road and concentrated on getting them home quickly, glad they both had the week off from work.

When they got home, Greg picked the crying child up into his arms, despite Braden's complaints and struggles. Nick moved to his side and got the front door open for them. As Greg and Braden passed through Nick caught sight of a neighbor he didn't really know staring at them, probably wondering what they were doing to cause such crying from a little boy. He ignored her and followed his husband into the house.

Greg had already taken Braden upstairs to show him his new room. Nick could hear him talking excitedly, trying his best to get Braden to stop crying.

"Remember how you said your favorite color was green?" Greg asked.

"Yeah?" the answer came out as a strangled sob, and wrenched Nick's heart.

He'd known this would be hard for Braden to get used to yet another home, he just hadn't expected it to be this hard.

"Well, now you've got your own room and it's green! I'm gonna show it to you!"

Greg sure could act like a kid sometimes, but right now, it didn't seem to be helping anything.

Inside the room, Nick stood behind Greg and Braden, taking in the sight of the room with its pale, almost spring green, walls. There was a small bed in the corner with a nightstand beside it. A dresser on the opposite wall and a bookshelf filled with large legos he couldn't swallow, toy cars, board games, anything a growing boy could possibly want. But he didn't stop crying, even when he was told all the toys and books belonged to him and he didn't have to share any of them anymore. He only burrowed his head deeper into Greg's neck, as if he was trying to get away from something, as if he didn't want to look at the room.

Nick was beginning to get seriously worried, wondering what was going on, when the truth sank in and smacked him in the face. He moved beside Greg and murmured into his ear so Braden couldn't hear him. Greg turned to face him when he'd told him what he thought. The look on his face was asking what he couldn't out loud with the boy so close: "What do we do?"

Nick didn't know how to answer that until he saw the stuffed animals they'd bought for him sitting in a bunch on his new bed. He grabbed the closest teddy bear and handed it to the boy.

"You know, I used to have one of these when I was your age. My Teddy helped me get through every tough situation I had to go through. Maybe... maybe this one can be your friend and help make you feel better, huh? What do you think?"

Braden took the bear and threw it on the ground before struggling to get out of Greg's grasp. Greg set him down and he ran to his bed and surprisingly, scrambled underneath into the safety of the darkness. Nick moved toward the bed but Greg's hand on his arm stopped him. He turned to his husband who nodded his head in the direction of the door.

"Just leave him alone for awhile," Greg said when they were far enough away that Braden couldn't hear him.

"He's under the bed, Greg. Only my dog, when I was a kid, ever went under there."

"If he finds it safe, then it's his safe place to be, and we shouldn't intrude on it. Right now, it's what he needs. Let him be. He'll come out when he's ready. In the meantime, we've got all the makings for french toast and chocolate chip cookies. I say we get started cooking something. He'll get hungry soon enough with it being almost dinner time, and hopefully the smell will bring him out."

"I suppose now would be the worst time to even contemplate getting that dog you were talking about. We should grab those books we put in his room before he gets any great ideas. You know, let him get settled first," Nick suggested as he mixed the chocolate chips into the cookie dough.

Greg was beside him, coating bread in the egg mixture for the french toast. "Actually... we were going to adopt a dog too. A Greyhound. And they've been through a lot, usually, before they get to be someone's pet. A lot like Braden, it seems."

Nick stopped mixing to look at Greg. Their eyes locked and they both understood where Greg was going without having to say anything. This, perhaps, was just what he needed to get over his hurdle.

There was a sniffle behind them and they both turned to see Braden standing in the doorway, his face red and blotchy with tears still streaming down his cheeks to drip from his chin. In his hands he was clutching a hand-made pastel colored patchwork elephant Nick recognized as the one his mother had made when she'd learned he and Greg were adopting a child. Wrapped around his shoulders was the small blanket that had been folded up at the foot of his bed. The blanket was a solid green in a soft fabric with an edge sewn on that was almost smooth when rubbed together. Nick hadn't wanted to get the blanket because of the weird feeling edge on it, but Greg had insisted that was the one they should get. And now he knew why. While Braden was clutching the elephant in one hand, his other was clutching that edge, rubbing the fabric together as if it was helping to comfort him as much as the elephant.

"Hey, Kiddo, how're you doing?" Greg asked softly.

"I don't wanna move again," Braden said through his tears, confirming exactly what Nick had been suspecting.

Nick knelt in front of him so he could be at the same eye level. "You know what? You don't have to. This is your last stop, your forever home."

"Forever home? What's that?"

Greg had disappeared into the hallway and Nick heard him on the stairs before he saw him returning with a book in his hands. He recognized the children's book A Greyhound's Tale: Running for Glory, Walking for Home by Craig Pierce.

Nick stood up and guided Braden toward the livingroom where the three of them could sit on the couch together.

"You see, Braden, there's a breed of dog, known as the Greyhound," Nick began to explain.

"They look like this," Greg spoke up, showing him the dog on the cover of the book. Braden looked at the dog, studying it, as if he was memorizing every little detail and Nick couldn't help but think that maybe he'd make a good CSI someday.

"These dogs are bred to race each other. When they leave their first homes, they get sent to race tracks across the country and when they can't race anymore, or when the tracks close, or their owners loose interest in them they get sent to adoption groups for new owners to take them home. They call these homes their forever homes because it's where they'll be living for the rest of their lives with people who care about them and love them."

"They're a lot like you," Greg said. "You've had many homes and many people taking care of you, but now you're here and this is where you're going to live and we're going to be your parents for the rest of your life. You won't have to leave here and live anywhere else."

"Really? You promise?" Braden's eyes were large and a little unbelieving, as if he'd heard this before, or some version of it.

"Promise."

There was a long pause.

"I took these. I sorry," Braden whispered with an apologetic look in his eyes as he held up the elephant and a corner of the blanket he was still rubbing together between his fingers.

"It's ok, they're actually yours. You can do what you want with them," Nick said.

There was another long pause.

"So, I got you this really cool book. You want me to read it to you?"

Braden thought about it for a moment.

"I hungry. I look at pictures?"

"Of course you can," Greg handed him the book as Nick stood up.

"You two enjoy the book and I'll finish getting dinner ready."

"What we have?"

"Do you like french toast?"

"That's breakfast food."

"Yeah, but it tastes so good, it's ok to have once in awhile for dinner. If you can convince Nick to get off his healthy eating habit for one night," Greg smiled. "We've even got chocolate chip cookies for desert too. I convinced him big time, which means we owe him a lot later."

Nick smirked before disappearing into the kitchen as Braden curled up in Greg's arms on the couch to look at the book.

"French toast be good," he heard the toddler say. "Doggies be good too. Specially doggies like me."

A/N: So, one hurdle over... at least for now anyway, though it might come back to haunt the boys later. I have to say when I reread this, the ending totally made me cry. sigh This series is going to be a long one, just so you know. Overall, I've got about sixteen chapters planned so far, including the first two. And it looks like everything will be in chronological order. At least for now. A lot will happen. This is life, so there will be lots of fun, sweet, cute times, and some angst thrown in, but nothing too bad. In the end, I must apologize for such a long time between updates, but now I'm going to concentrate on this story and Texas Chronicles, and I'll be updating them regularly.

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