CSI: Braden Sanders-Stokes: Science Geek in the Making

Summary: Braden runs into trouble at school when he decides he wants to grow up just like his father. Braden is twelve, in this, the thirteenth chapter.

Greg set down a glass of milk and a plate of two cookies just as the school bus was pulling up out front, letting all the neighborhood kids out. He looked up, catching sight of his son saying goodbye to his best friend with a hug. He swallowed an unknown lump in his throat at the shared affection between the boys.

Then Braden was running towards their front door and bounding through it, his black blazer flapping back to reveal the Queen t-shirt he wore underneath.

"Hey, how was school today, buddy? Your first day at middle school, I need to hear all about it!"

"It was ok," he said, dropping his bag and dropping himself into his chair at the kitchen table.

He looked at the plate of cookies then up at his father. "Since I'm in middle school... that means I should get more cookies. Right? A growing boy needs his sugar and chocolate. Just like you said."

Greg sighed. "You're right." He pulled out two more cookies and put one on the plate while he sat across from him. "So, tell me what happened." He took a bite of his own cookie.

"Not much. School's boring. We're not all in the same room now and a bell rings to tell us when we need to switch."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Braden shrugged. "I guess not." He dunked a chocolate chip cookie into the glass and let it soak up the milk before eating it.

"So, what else happened?"

Braden looked away. "Nothing. Can I take this coat off now?"

"It's called a blazer, and of course you can. I didn't say you had to wear it all day if you didn't want to."

"Where's Da?" He shrugged out of his blazer.

"He had a rough shift last night so he's still in bed."

"Oh." The boy paused. "I don't like girls."

"Where did that come from?" Greg was startled by the sudden change in topic. His eyes furrowed.

"They're weird. They giggle too much. And I saw this one hanging on Jeremy. He couldn't get her off. Chris says they're bad for you. That all they want is for you to do things for them. I like this house. No girls allowed. I'm not gonna have a girl in my house when I grow up."

Afraid this was going to be a long and serious conversation, Greg couldn't help but envy Nick at that moment.

"But what about Patty? Don't you like her?"

He looked down at his lap. "She's ok. I guess. I don't know."

"Well, what don't you know about it?"

"I think she smiled at me today. What does that mean?"

"Could mean a lot of things. Most likely means she likes you."

"Ewwww."

"Yeah, G. Ewwww."

Greg looked up as Nick came into the kitchen still dressed for bed in sweats and a t-shirt, his hair rumpled. Greg smiled, reaching out and pulling Nick to him for a kiss. Nick grinned before reaching down to steal a bite of Greg's chocolate chip cookie.

"She wouldn't steal my cookies... would she?"

Nick looked up with a smirk after swallowing. "I don't know. She might."

"Noooooo! She can't!"

"Braid, she won't if you don't want her to." Greg swatted Nick's arm. "Go get your own cookie."

"Nah. Your's tasted better."

Braden hid his face in his arms on the table. "I'll only share with Jimmy!"

Greg huffed. "Fine. Then I won't share mine with you either."

"Da? Can I go play with Jimmy now?"

"Don't you have homework?"

"Yeah?"

"Then you should be doing it. Once it's done, then you can go play. Ok?"

"Yeah, ok." Braden sighed, got up, and went up to his room, lugging his backpack with him.

Nick then saw the sour look on Greg's face. "What's going on, hun?" Nick sat down beside him.

"Nothing." Greg shook his head.

"You're turning into him."

"No. He's turning into me, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember. I'm just thanking God you found a Queen shirt and not a Marilyn Manson shirt for him."

"Heh, that'll come when he gets into high school. It's hidden in the back of our closet."

"Don't be joking about that, please."

"Yeah, I am. It's not. He likes Queen, but beyond that... I doubt he'll go much more into harder rock and metal."

"Good." Nick picked up the crumpled blazer and straightened it out.

"I'll take that upstairs." Greg reached for it.

"You really can't talk about girls, can you, G?"

Greg sighed. "No. I've been gay my whole life, Nicky. Some of my best friends were girls, and I just can't imagine them as anything beyond that. That's why I gave you the job of giving him that talk."

"And we had that talk."

"Well, he's still..."

"Greg, remember when you were that age? One talk isn't going to help make all of his fears about growing up go away. I think that talk mostly freaked him out. I was going to give him some space before I brought it up again, to see if we could go further, make him more comfortable with the idea."

"Growing up was hard. I hated it."

"How do you think I felt? What are you so afraid of?"

"They hugged."

"Who?"

"Jimmy and Braden."

"When?"

"Just when they got off the bus." Greg realized he was staring off into space but he couldn't stop.

"Why?"

"I don't know. I couldn't ask."

"G... what do you think is going to happen that's so bad?"

"What if he's gay?"

Nick's hand pulled his chin towards him and he found their eyes locked. "G? Why are you asking that like it's a horrible thing? Don't tell me the last thirteen years have all been for nothing."

Greg stared at Nick before shaking his head. "No! God... no... I didn't... no..."

"Then what is it? What's wrong here?"

"I just... I don't want him to get hurt because of it."

In his mind he saw a small dark closet with a chair holding it closed. Dirty mattresses. Silent house, waiting to smother, to kill.

Nick's hand curled around the back of his neck. "You can't take away what he rightfully is, whether it's gay, straight, bi, or transgendered. You've got to let him decide."

"I'm just afraid for him, that's all. Can't I be afraid for my own son?"

"I wish you weren't. I wish there was no need to be. But really, I'm sure everything's going to be ok. I think you're taking this a little too far."

Greg rested his forehead on Nick's shoulder, gripping the other man's arms. "I hope you're right. I really do."

"I'm surprised at you, G. Calm down, hun. You're the one who had to drag me out of my comfort zone all those years ago just to get me to date you."

Greg looked back up at him. "Now you know that's not true. I know you wanted me. You wanted me so bad you could barely hold yourself together."

"Right, G. Go take this upstairs. I'll get dinner started." Nick pressed the blazer into his hands.

"Ok." Greg did as he was told.

When he reached Braden's room he was surprised to find him shirtless on his bed staring at the Queen shirt several feet away on the floor by the laundry hamper.

"Braid?"

The boy jumped, startled from his thoughts, and turned to face his dad as he tugged a new shirt over his head.

"Why'd you change your shirt? What was wrong with the one you had on?"

Greg hung the blazer up in the closet before facing his son. Braden was biting his lower lip.

"What's wrong?"

"They didn't like it."

"Who didn't like what?"

"The other kids. They thought I looked stupid."

"Looked stupid? What do you mean?"

"With the blazer. And the shirt. Like you. They hated it. I just wanted to look like you. Everybody likes you."

"Hey, that never stopped me. I wear what I want because I want to. I don't listen to what other people say. Besides, people need to like you for you, not because of what you wear to school. Our coworkers used to hate what I wore to work years ago. I just didn't let them change me. My style is part of who I am. And that's just a fact."

Greg sat down beside him, putting an arm around his shoulders.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. You just need to find a style that's all you. Instead of copying other styles. It's good for now, lets you see what's out there, let's you decide what you like. Mix them up, pick and choose what works and what doesn't. Then, when you find what you like, stick with it. Don't let others tell you it's ugly. Unless of course you're my boss and you wear an ugly straw hat. That's another story all together."

Braden giggled at that.

"See, nobody taught him about style."

"Why didn't you?"

"Cause he's my boss. And sometimes he can still make me nervous."

"Why's that?"

Greg paused to think about it for a moment, resting a forefinger against his chin. "It just is," he finally concluded.

"That's not a good enough answer, Dad. That's why my teacher would say."

"And she's right. But I can't say more than that. I can't think of a good enough reason."

"Then you shouldn't be nervous around him."

Greg fell back onto the bed. His own son had him beat there. How on earth had he got himself into this situation?

"Jimmy said it looked cool though."

"He did? You mean the style you were rockin' today?"

"Yeah. That's why he was giving me a hug. Cause everyone else teased me about it."

Greg sat back up again. "What did they say?"

"They said I looked stupid. That no one dressed like that."

"Next time someone says that you just need to ignore them. Don't let it bother you. I know that's a hard thing to do, but it'll help, I promise."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Once they realize their comments don't rile you up, they'll stop."

"Hey kids." Nick appeared in the doorway. He stopped when he saw them in the midst of an important conversation. "What happened? What'd I miss?"

"Nothing much. How's dinner coming?"

"I thought we'd go out to eat instead of eating in. Anyone up for some Italian food?"

"Yeah!" Braden jumped from his bed.

"Alright then."

"Your father had to tear me away from the pimples when he snatched me up."

"No I didn't. G, you were as handsome then as you are today. As handsome as you're gonna be in the far future."

At the restaurant the three enjoyed a quiet dinner together until Greg felt Braden stiffen beside him. He looked over at his son and found him staring at the door. Standing just inside the restaurant, looking for a place to sit was a family with a boy who looked to be about Braden's age. He had blond hair and thick arching eyebrows with sharp blue eyes. His mouth was turned down into a deep frown as he scanned the tables.

"Ignore him, Braid."

"Ignore who?" Nick asked, turning in his seat to follow Greg's gaze. "Who's he?"

"Brett. He's in my math class."

"He doesn't look like a particularly nice kid."

"He's not."

"Just remember what I said earlier, Braid."

"Yeah, I'll try."

"Hey, you getting ice cream for desert?"

"Can I?"

"Of course. Go pick out what you want."

Braden got up and went to the cooler where the ice cream was kept and peered inside to choose what he wanted.

Greg was just glad he'd chosen to change back into his Queen shirt and blazer before they'd left the house. He knew he'd be alright in the end.

"I get to have desert first. I bet you don't. I bet you had to eat everything on your plate first. Huh brat?" Brett swaggered up to Braden at the ice cream cooler. "You still wearing that stupid outfit. You look dumb, you know that?"

Greg made a move to get up but Nick stopped him with a hand on his arm from across the table.

"He'll be ok, G. Let him stand up for himself."

He tried to relax, but his body refused to obey and Nick refused to let his arm go.

Braden reached into the cooler and pulled out an ice cream sandwich.

"You stupid? Don't you know how to talk?"

"I like the spaghetti here," Braden finally said. "And I don't care what you think about my clothes."

He turned quickly on his heal and headed back to the relative safety of his fathers in law enforcement. He slumped into the booth beside Greg and sighed as he peeled the wrapper away from the sandwich and began to nibble away at it.

"That was pretty impressive, Braid."

"No it wasn't. He'll just come up with something worse tomorrow when you're not around. I wish I could be like you. You wouldn't let anyone say that to you."

"Braid," Nick spoke up, finally letting Greg's arm go. "You keep standing up to him like you just did and you'll be fine. Eventually he'll stop."

A/N: So, it's not my best chapter by far, but all the same, I hope you like it. I apologize for any mistakes as I'm feeling a little under the weather and just want to get this story finished already! My full intentions are to finish this story before I post another one. I've got four more stories lined up to go after this one, though some of them aren't through the plotting process just yet. They will be soon though, so don't worry.

Also, just so you know there will be 17 chapters in this story along with an epilogue, so we're almost done. And remember, the more reviews I get the faster I'll write. Thanks for reading and sticking with this for so long!