Chapter 24 – Walk on the Ocean

"What about Valentine's Day?"

Anna groaned, "Nicky, no. I'm not getting married on a day that ten thousand other people in Las Vegas will be getting married on. Little Chapel of the Flowers will be booked beyond capacity there and that's the only chapel in Vegas that streams their weddings live."

"Still not sure about inviting your parents?"

"Not yet. My sister really hurt me with some of her comments about us before we left. I doubt she'd be thrilled to hear we're actually going through with the wedding." Anna stopped and kissed me as I grabbed my duty bag and my keys. "Aside from which, we can get married whenever. Bryan just wants to give him enough time so he can learn to walk in whatever heels coordinate with the bridesmaids' dresses."

I had forgotten Bryan's comment about being Anna's maid of honor at our wedding and having to wear a dress. "Lord, I forgot about that. That one we'll talk about. I'm headed in. Love you."

"Love you too, Nicky." Leaving Anna in the kitchen, I got in my truck and left Summerlin to head to work, but I had one slight detour to make before I got to the crime lab.

After arriving at my destination, I picked up the bouquet of six pink tulips I had gotten earlier that day and locked my truck and started towards the back of the cemetery plot. After finding the grave site I wanted to visit, I set the bouquet of flowers down in the stone vase and brushed off some dead grass and a few leaves that were on top of the headstone. "Hey Kristy." I moved some more leaves that blew on top of the marker when the wind picked up. "I guess you're saying hello back." After moving leaves off the marker a second time, I finally stopped trying to fight a losing battle with the leaves and gave up. "Just wanted to say hi and I brought you some flowers." I kneeled down and pulled the ribbon off of the flowers I had set in the vase that was attached to the headstone. "I wish I would have known you longer than I did. I don't even know what kind of flowers you like. Anna's favorites are pink tulips so that's what I've been bringing you. I just wanted to stop by before work and tell you thank you for listening to me while Anna was gone. I didn't really have anyone else to talk to about this. I don't know if you had anything to do with putting in a good word for me with the man upstairs, but I got Anna back. She came back with me and now we're engaged. We stopped in Texas on our way back to Vegas and I gave her a ring and everything. You'd like her." I started to stand up and dusted the grass off of my jeans. "I've got to get to work but I just wanted to stop by and say thanks for your help."

Anna had known I had been coming by Kristy's grave in the cemetery for a while now and didn't have a problem with it. When Anna and I first got together, she saw me turning in the cemetery and followed me in. Concerned about someone dying and not knowing what had happened, she found me in the cemetery standing at Kristy's grave. After she asked what was wrong and why I was here alone, I told her the story of Kristy Hopkins and what happened to her. Anna's genuine reaction of concern and compassion was one of the many reasons I fell in love with her as hard as I did so early on in our relationship. When she comforted me when I grieved again over what happened to Kristy, there wasn't an ounce of jealousy or discord in her voice when she told me how sorry she was about Kristy's death and about how she was killed. Even after I told her what Kristy did for a living and what had happened between her and me, she didn't judge or object. It was at that moment in the cemetery that I realized Anna was like no other woman I had ever met.

The day after we got back from my parents' house, Anna stopped by the fire department and inquired about what it would take to come back to work from her leave of absence. She told me later that the unanimous fire station vote was a pan of her famous homemade lasagna, but her shift captain said that plus a note from her doctor stating her gunshot wounds were healed was what he'd need to clear it with HR.

Two days later, I accompanied Anna on a trip back to Desert Palms to see her surgeon. A clean MRI later, he told Anna to drop off a pan of her lasagna at his office as he signed the forms her shift captain needed and together, we left there and headed home after dropping the forms off at the station. I stayed in the truck while she went in and when she came back out a moment later, Anna brightly told me that they needed her back at work Thursday for a shift on the ambulance with Bryan.

I went back to work for the two days before Anna did and caught a couple of easy cases that had me getting off work fairly close to my regular time off. This was my third day back at work. Grissom handed out assignments and Greg and I got assigned to a dead body inside a home on the west end of town, known as Little Gulf for its condensed population of immigrants from Cuba, the Caribbean islands and Haiti. We had been at the scene for a few hours and had all but come to the conclusion after walking in that there was no foul play, but we finished processing anyway.

"Looks like she just died here in bed getting dressed. Poor lad…" Greg cut off when we heard a noise coming from the back of the house. "What was that?" He looked up from the lady's body. "Who else is here with us?"

I undid the holster snap on my gun and got it out, keeping it down at my side. "Any of your guys back there?"

Detective Vartann shook his head, "We're the only ones in here, or at least we're supposed to be." He left the room after drawing his weapon and started towards the back of the house.

The three of us left the master bedroom and slowly started to approach the back of the house where the noise came from. Vartann stopped to clear a side bedroom, leaving Greg and me alone in the hallway. "This is Nick Stokes and Greg Sanders. We're with the Las Vegas Crime Lab. Please come out of the room with your hands in the air."

Greg turned to look back at Vartann, "How do you say it in Spanish?"

Detective Vartann was in between Greg and me and he called out the command in Spanish, but no one came out. "Guess we need to see who's in there. It could be a child." He called out again in Spanish as well as twice in English but again, no one answered.

Greg brought his gun in front of him and started to bring it up to aim through the door as Vartann moved to one side of the door. "Or a shotgun wielding who knows what." As Greg stepped to the same side of the door that Vartann was on, I stayed on the other side and on the count of three, Vartann kicked it open and jumped back when it registered to him what was actually inside. "Jesus!"

I looked in the room to see what he was throwing a fit about. "What?"

"What the hell is that?" I looked over at Greg who was pointing in the bathroom. Trying to figure out what he meant, my eyes followed the imaginary trail to where he was pointing. I finally saw that there was a large black and tan dog lying down on the rug in the bathroom at the back of the house. "It looks mean."

"No, it looks scared. Put your gun down, Greg. I'm really not wanting to get shot today." I put my gun back in my holster and told Vartann to do the same as I approached the dog slowly. She didn't trust me and got up and hid between the sink and the toilet. "Hi, puppy!"

Vartann started to balk as he stood behind me, "Puppy my butt. That dog could eat you for dinner."

"Whatever." I got down on the floor and sat on my knees and looked at the dog. "Come here." The dog cocked her head to the side and her ears perked up before she made a move. "Come on. It's okay." I held my hand out and the dog took a sniff of me, causing both Vartann and Greg to back up. "If you're both that scared, go call animal control and wait up front."

They didn't need to be asked twice. After making a comment about hoping I wouldn't get eaten, they turned and left the room, leaving me alone with the dog. I heard Greg and Vartann going over who would be the one to tell Anna that I had been eaten by a stray dog at a crime scene in the event that task needed to be completed.

After a bit more coaxing, the dog finally came out from her hiding spot. I saw that she had a collar on her and used my belt as a leash so I could lead her outside and away from the house. Greg saw me coming out with her and took a step to the side just in case. "She's fine. Go back inside and start processing until the coroner gets here. I'll stay outside with the dog until animal control gets here to pick her up."

Vartann said he had already called them and they were on their way as I tossed my field kit in the back seat of the Tahoe so I could stay outside with the dog. She was a well built and chunky Rottweiler mix and according to the tag on her collar, her name was Cassie. I found some potato chips in the center console of my truck that I had left over from a day or so ago and though I knew the chips weren't the best thing for the dog to eat, they were all I had. I handed them to her one at a time. Cassie was very dainty and didn't snap or grab at my fingers and took each chip from me very gently before putting it on the ground to sniff it before she ate it. I took a seat on the driveway next to my Tahoe and handed Cassie another potato chip. "I'm sorry about your owner in there, girl. It'd help us a lot if you could talk. You could tell us what happened. I don't think anyone hurt your owner, but we won't know that until we get her back to the station." Cassie dropped the chip on the ground and instead of eating it, she looked up at me and licked my fingers before she picked up the potato chip that had she dropped and ate it. "You look like you've been fed and cared for. No shortage of meat on your bones." I gave her another potato chip as I scratched her ears. She ate the potato chip and looked up at me again, begging for another. "I don't have any more potato chips. You've eaten them all." Sensing I was out of food, she stretched out on her side in front of me and sighed. "I wonder how you'd get along with Draco?" I could see that the little nub of a tail she had was moving as I spoke to her. She was clearly enjoying the one on one attention I was giving her. "Would you eat Draco or Danilla, or Anna for that matter?" Cassie picked her head up and looked over her shoulder at me before sighing and laying her head back on the concrete. "If I bring you home, will you promise me not to eat Anna?"

I was scratching Cassie's ears when the animal control officer showed up. "Derek Evanston. I'm with Animal Control. This dead lady's dog?"

"Yep." I reached down to pet the dog's head. "I didn't even see you drive up. She seems to be a really sweet dog with a fondness for potato chips. So, what happens to her?"

The officer shook his head, "I don't know really. It'll depend on a temperament test and if she fails, well, then there's not much we can do for her. Right now, we're beyond capacity. We'll keep her as long as the investigation is open but as soon as it closes, if we still don't have room for her, she'll be destroyed."

I stood up, "Excuse me?"

Derek put the catch pole loop around the dog's neck and handed me my belt back. He started to lead her towards the back of the truck with me following them both. After unlocking one of the cages, he attempted to get Cassie to jump in the back. The dog sat down and didn't move. "Come on, girl. Let's go." The officer tried again to get her to jump, but she refused. Instead, she turned and looked over her shoulders at me. The officer turned to face me, "Help me, please?"

"My fiancé is going to kill me." I made a step towards the dog and I saw the slightest movement in the nub of her tail again. It was almost as if she knew what I was about to do. "Hold it. What if you had an adopter for her? What then?"

"What? You want her?"

The dog looked over at me and with eyes that nearly melted my soul, I hoped Anna would be agreeable to taking this dog in without me clearing it with her first. "Maybe. I can't stand to see her killed." Derek didn't move and I continued, hoping I could convince him to give me the dog. "Come on. The dog's owner just died and now you're telling me you're going to kill the dog? It's just my fiancé and me at home and we own our own home and she's already got a Doberman mix and a cat plus horses. We live out in Summerlin so there's plenty of room for her to romp and play."

Derek looked at me but didn't say anything for a moment. "Well, we usually require a waiting period and a reference check, but seeing as how you are who you are, I'm sure I can let this one slide." Derek told me to hold the catch pole while he got something out of his truck. "You ever stop by the LVPD?"

I bent down to pet the dog. She responded by licking my hand before pawing at my boot when I quit petting her. "All the time." I reached down to pet her again. "Why?"

He held out a piece of paper towards me. "Fill this out and leave it with the desk clerk. We have a mail slot. I'll approve it and get the adoption fee taken care of if everything checks out. Do you need a leash?"

"Thank you." I took the application from him and folded it in half as I reached in my pocket for the keys to my Tahoe. "Actually, I may not. Let me check." I handed the catch pole back to Derek and went to look in my truck. Draco needed her shots right before Anna got back home and I had taken Draco to the vet in my Tahoe when I got off work. If my memory served me right, I never did get Draco's leash out of the back of my Tahoe. When I opened the back door of my Tahoe, I looked in the floorboards and there was Draco's bright purple leash. "I got one." I dropped the application on the front seat of the truck and shut the door.

"Consider yourself the proud owner of a Rottweiler mix named Cassie." Derek undid the catch pole and I clipped the leash to the dog's collar. "Let me know if you have any problems with her and be sure to leave that application at the station. You work out of the crime lab, right?"

"Yeah." He handed me the leash after he clipped it to Cassie's collar.

"Just leave it there, then. I drive by that place enough as it is. You did a good thing." Derek looked down at Cassie. "People think we're heartless when it comes to that, but I'm glad you can give her a good home. It looks like she had one here, too."

I shook his hand and took Cassie back to my truck. "Well. Now what am I supposed to do with you? I can't bring you back inside. You'll contaminate my crime scene." Cassie sat down and perked her ears as she listened to me speak. One of her ears flopped over more than the other one and her head was slightly misshapen. "Wonder what happened to you?" Cassie cocked her head to the side again and whimpered, "Guess I could call Anna."

"What are you still doing with Killer Cujo here? Didn't animal control just leave?" Greg stopped about three feet behind me when Cassie whimpered again.

"Yeah, they did and I'm taking her home and her name is Cassie, not Killer Cujo." After hearing her name, Cassie started to pant and whined. "She likes you. She's wagging her tail." I gently pulled on the leash and Cassie responded by following me. I opened the back door of the Tahoe and she jumped right in. "Didn't even need any coaxing. Good girl!" I clipped the leash around the driver's side headrest and shut the door. It wasn't that hot outside, but I started my truck and left the windows cracked an inch or so. I turned the air conditioner on and shut the driver's side door, leaving Cassie in the truck where she'd be safe.

Greg stayed where he was. "I'll take your word on that. You better hope she doesn't eat anything. Like Anna…"

I glanced back over my shoulders at the truck. I could see the end of Cassie's nose sticking out of the crack in the window. "She'll be fine and we're almost done here. Coroner's almost done, right?"

"Yeah." Greg stood to one side as a uniformed officer came out of the house. "They're getting done now."

David and one of his assistants brought the lady's body out and took it to the van. He said they'd start on the post as soon as they got back. Greg and I spent another half an hour collecting evidence. Everything we found confirmed our suspicions that the lady simply died of natural causes and there was no foul play suspected.

Greg and I walked outside together after we cleared the scene, but he and I parted company as soon as I got close to my truck. He kept about four feet of distance between us when I reached for my door handle to get in. "Wuss."

He stood behind the mailbox and watched as I got ready to open the door to my truck, "I'm expecting Cassie to come out and go all Cujo on you. Figured if she does, you'd need help."

"And you'd help, how?"

"I'd hide."

"You're so helpful there, Greg." I shook my head, "See you in a bit. I'm leaving. I'm gonna call Anna to come get her."

I backed out of the driveway and started towards the lab. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I flipped it open and started to dial Anna's number when she called me first. "Perfect timing. I was just about to call you."

"I beat you to it. I figured I'd get your voicemail. I just wanted to say hi. How's work going?"

I came to a stop at the stop sign at the entrance of the subdivision and after making sure no one was coming, I eased out onto the main road, being careful not to accelerate too fast as not to throw Cassie in the floorboards. "Not bad. Just got done at a DFO and well, I have something I need to tell you."

"Uh, oh. Whenever I hear those words…"

I interrupted Anna, "Well, it's nothing bad I don't think." I adjusted the rearview mirror so I could watch Cassie. She was on her side and was sound asleep. "I sort of, well, I have a dog with me and…"

It was Anna's turn to cut me off, "And what?"

"Well, the lady that DFOed had a dog and they were gonna kill her and I sort of told the ACO we'd take her."

"Nicky."

"Anna. You should see her. She's flipped over on her back in the back seat of my truck. She's sweet and she promises she won't eat you or Danilla and she promises she'll be friends with Draco. I even had her hold up her paw and swear on a stack of potato chips."

"Potato chips?"

"That's all I had in my truck for Cassie to swear on, but she still put her paw on that bag and promised not to eat you."

Anna laughed, "Well that's a point in her favor. I take it you want to bring her home?"

"If it's okay with you." Cassie yawned in the back seat and flopped over to her back and was now completely on her back, four paws in the air. I started laughing. When Anna asked me what was so funny, I tried to describe the dog's position in my back seat. "So what sayeth the Queen? Can we keep her?"

"Butter that toast, Nicky. Need me to come pick her up or are you gonna bring her home?"

"I've still got to go back to the lab and drop some stuff off but if you want to meet me there, we could grab lunch or something and you could meet her then."

"Sounds good. I'm on my way to the lab now. See you in a bit. Love you."

"Love you, too." I shut the phone and tossed it into a cup holder in my truck and headed back towards the crime lab.

About twenty minutes later, Judy was paging me, telling me I had a visitor. Figuring it was Anna, I headed up front, but it was the animal control officer needing to get a photograph of the dog for his records. I had left Cassie with Judy and she gladly brought the dog out and held her still for Derek to get the picture he needed. I told him I hadn't had time to fill out the paperwork yet but I'd let him know when I did.

As he was leaving the building, Anna was walking in. "Anna, meet Cassie." When I said her name, the dog perked up and started to shake. "Cassie, this is Anna." Judy handed me Cassie's leash. As I started to walk towards Anna, Cassie was straining on her leash, trying to get to Anna as quickly as she could. Anna bent down and petted Cassie before Cassie sighed and wound up sitting on top of Anna's feet. "Look, she likes you already. How can you say no to that face?"

Anna didn't look up right away. She sat down on the floor in front of me and Cassie followed suit and sat beside her, "You better be glad I'm an animal lover." When Anna stood up to leave, Cassie followed. I walked outside with them and told Anna goodbye and helped her load the dog into the back of her Xterra. "See you in a bit."

I kissed Anna and headed back inside. Greg came in with me and we finished up on what we had collected at the house. Doc Robbins came up from the morgue to tell us his official COD was an aneurysm and for us to rule this lady's death a death by natural causes.

After Greg and I had gotten done, I snuck out of the lab about an hour earlier than my shift was over with. Greg said he'd cover for me if anyone came looking. I told myself that after all of the unpaid overtime and the strain and problems this job had caused me, I had earned the free hour. Quickly walking to my Tahoe, I managed to get in and sneak out of the parking lot before Grissom or Ecklie saw me.

When I got back home, I didn't see Anna or the dogs. I heard splashing coming from the back of the house and followed the sounds towards the back.

As I looked in the sunroom, Anna was swimming laps. Draco was in her normal spot in her beige dog bed underneath the planter on the west end of the room. I opened the door slowly and saw Cassie stretched out on a reclining lawn chair. I laughed to myself at the thought I had about all that the dog needed was a pair of sunglasses, a book and sunscreen on her snout and she'd look like a beach bum. Anna had spread a blanket across the lawn chair and Cassie was sleeping happily a few feet away from Draco. I took a seat on the other lawn chair in the room and waited on Anna to finish swimming her laps or at least realize I was here. Draco started barking at something and when she did, Anna stopped. "Nicky, hey." She hoisted herself out of the pool. "How long have you been watching?"

"Not long."

Anna had pulled herself out of the pool but kept her feet in. I told her I'd be right back and went inside and changed into a pair of swim trunks. When I came back out, Anna was swimming in the lap pool using a pink plastic kick board. I got in the water with her and swam out to where she was and took the other end of the board. Even though I could touch the bottom from where I was standing, I could feel the motion under the water that Anna couldn't. Every time she kicked, I could feel the water moving next to my legs. "First time back in the pool since, I was, well you know."

"Do you think about that a lot?"

"I try not to." Anna let go of the board and went under water. When she surfaced again, she grabbed the board and shook her wet hair off of her face. "I can't say it's any easier, but, I don't know. It's…"

Anna didn't say anything right away. "I give up. What is it?"

"I don't know if easier is the right word either, but I have accepted it happened to me and I can't change that. I'm not afraid anymore I guess is what I'm trying to say. Fear was a huge part of my life after it happened. I told you I was worried about Renee coming to finish what I started or worse, me not being able to protect you. I haven't had a nightmare about that in weeks. Sometimes, my shoulder will hurt or something and I'll have a flashback to lying on the floor but it's not as bad as they were. I'm hoping the visions will fade over time."

"Mine too." Anna leaned her head against my arm which was resting on the board, "Some of the scariest moments of my life were sitting there, just waiting to die. I thought you had already died. I didn't know what I'd do without you."

"As much as I try not to think about it, I do from time to time. I just, I don't know. I know that it happened. I got shot. I moved on and I did a lot of really stupid stuff along the way, but that's all in the past, right?"

"Yep." I moved the board out of the way and held on to Anna as I started to walk down towards the more shallow area of the pool so she could stand on her own. "You don't look like you lost it any while you were on sabbatical."

"That's one way to word it. I can tell I haven't been in the water in a while. I can't do the laps I used to do but if I survive work tomorrow, I'll work my way back up to what I was at. Speaking of which, I have to go back to work tomorrow. Bryan's already called and asked me to dust off my Super Medic cape. I told him I was kind of nervous and that I haven't even gotten my uniform out of our closet yet. What if I kill someone?"

I laughed, "You won't kill anyone. You'll be fine." I set Anna down in the shallow end of the pool but she didn't get out. The pool had steps at the shallow end and Anna sat on one of them. I sat down beside her. "How has Cassie been?"

"Lord, she loves the water. That was one of the first things I learned when I brought her home. I was gonna swim laps, but got sidetracked and didn't do it. I got busy with other stuff around here and heard this splash. I came back here thinking Draco fell in and instead, Cassie was doing laps in the pool."

"Sounds like she's fitting in fine." I yawned. "Long day. Rescuing damsels in distress is always hard. Take me to bed or lose me forever."

"Said the man who tripped and about killed himself over a flower pot." Anna stepped out of the pool and held her hands out towards me, "Show me the way home, honey."

A/N: Little Chapel of the Flowers does exist in Vegas and they do stream their wedding online. If you're bored, look them up and watch the weddings live.

Reviews?

Merry Christmas everyone.