Ch. 29

JJ was watching Ella who was asleep lying next to her on the bed. JJ was enjoying having her young toddler curled into her side. She glanced over and saw that Nick was watching her intently. She saw him smile as he was leaning back in the chair next to her bed. She was ordered to stay in the room for at least another day or two, despite the fact that they understood it was only to make sure she was strong enough and healthy enough to be out of the hospital wing, they really resented being told to stay there. However they both agreed that if JJ was going to have to stay there then they wanted Ella to stay there and Nick was definitely not going anywhere. JJ was worried though, the main killer was still on the loose and there was no telling who his next victim was going to be.

"She looks so peaceful when she is asleep. You could hardly tell that she has been through so much in her short little life." JJ said in a soft whisper like voice.

"I know. I just wish she had never been exposed to a woman like that. I wish I knew who this killer was so I could show him what I think of people messing with the people I love and care about the most." Nick said with an angry growl.

"You didn't love me at the time." JJ said with a smile on her face.

"I have always loved you JJ, I just never thought it was a welcome type of love. I figured being older and all that you wouldn't want me to love you or want a life with me." Nick confessed with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Well your instincts were completely off there." JJ said with a sigh. "I wish she didn't have a story like she does. When she gets older she is going to find out that she wasn't even conceived the natural way, not even the new age way. You and I never even wanted to have a baby together at the time. I didn't even know I had been pregnant or had a baby."

"Well, at least we know now. I am so glad that you are her mother JJ. I am not happy about what happened to you, what they did to you. But I am glad that they used my sperm and that you are the one who carried my child and gave birth to my child." Nick said as he leaned forward and grabbed her hand.

"Well honestly, I am glad that they used your sperm because I don't think I could have handled this without you by my side Nick." JJ said as she gently moved a stray piece of hair out her daughter's face.

Catherine was studying Nick and JJ through the window. She could tell that the two of them loved each other, probably had for a long time. She knew that the fact that they were parents together and that they had a common goal in life, to raise their daughter and keep her safe from harm. Catherine was worried that she was never going to have the happiness that she could tell Nick and JJ were trying to achieve with each other. She was happy as her relationship with Warrick started to grow, and she loved her daughter with everything that she felt inside her. Lindsay was a handful all the time, she was a teenager after all, but she loved her with everything that was inside her. As a mother Catherine couldn't imagine what it would feel like to know that a serial killer and a horrible person had been raising your child, a child you didn't even know you had because you had been drugged and your body had been used without your permission. A mother's womb was special and it had been used like a cheap rental motel. Catherine could tell though that the end result was something that JJ and Nick were happy with.

Sara was sitting up in bed. Lying next to her, fast asleep, was Grissom. He had been having trouble sleeping a lot lately and so when she had watched him fall asleep she had been thrilled. Now she was watching him closely as he started tossing and turning, mumbling and talking in his sleep. She could hear him talk about Brass and begging him to be all right. She knew that Brass and Grissom were close friends and the thought that his best friend was in such bad shape and possibly in a position to die, that had to be slowly eating away at Grissom on the inside. Sara was trying to think of anything she could say or do that would make him feel better. Even worse, Warrick was still in the hospital struggling to recover from his own injuries and that was eating away at Grissom at the same time. She knew he cared about every member of the team, even the traitor Krisalyn, with everything inside of him. He treated all of them like they were a member of his family, a family he loved so dearly that he would give up everything he had to protect them. Sara had to find a way to help Grissom before he let this whole thing eat him up inside.

He was sitting there and staring at the plans he had been making for so long. He was down his two helpers and that was making him so angry. The cops had survived and now JJ was back with Nick Stokes and they now knew that Ella was their kid. He had worked so hard to keep all this from them, he had worked so hard to keep them apart and now he had heard they might be talking about marriage. He wasn't going to allow that to happen, he wasn't going to allow anyone to be happy if he couldn't be happy. They all thought they were so cool with their badges and their lovers but he was going to show them. He was so much smarter than those CSI bozo's and he was going to make them all look like fools. Warrick Brown was struggling to get over his injuries in the hospital. The guard had been placed back on him and it had been increased. They were talking about moving him into a federal protective custody room and he knew then he wouldn't get to touch the down CSI but Warrick Brown wasn't the one he wanted out of the way the most. He knew that Captain Brass was holding his own after the gas had gotten to him and that JJ had managed to turn out just fine. She was even going to be released as soon as they thought she was ready.

JJ was the one he wanted out of the way the most. He needed to find out a way to get her out of the way. Nick and JJ had been thorns in his side for way to long. He knew that JJ had nearly exposed him and had nearly found out his identity not to long ago. He wondered if she knew that she had his name on a piece of paper somewhere. She did have his name on her suspect list, he knew she just didn't know it. How she had even gotten close enough to suspect him was something he didn't understand. He would find her suspect list and make sure he was no longer on there, he had to make sure she had eliminated him as a suspect, because then he would be able to take her out and no one would even look in his direction.

JJ was still awake a few hours later. Ella was fast asleep and even Nick had fallen asleep in the chair he had been sitting in. Something was bothering her and she wasn't at all sure what it was. She slowly climbed out of the bed, moving the pillows so that they were on either side of her daughter. She then walked over and sat at the table that was on the other side of the room. She pulled out her notebook, the one that she had someone grab from her desk and she opened it. It was necessary that she figure things out. She looked over all her suspects, the ones she had finally managed to get listed and what they did for a living. She then booted up the laptop that she had brought in there. She needed to figure this out. As her laptop was powering up she glanced behind her and smiled at her new family. She had always been in love with Nick and now they had a little girl together and he wanted to marry her. He wanted them to be a family and have more kids together and as she had been growing up that had been her biggest dream, to become Mrs. Nick Stokes. She smiled at her little girl who looked like an angel as she slept in the bed, curled on her side.

JJ then turned back to the laptop as soon as she typed in her password she watched as all her files and everything came up on the computer. She started comparing things and pulled up all the search fields that she could use to search her suspect names. She was going to get as much information, background, criminal history and family history, as she could for each person. As she was reading through the names she stared at the one name she had written in code. She knew that no one knew what that name was, it was the one name that JJ had reluctantly placed on her list but she knew it was a good one. She had a feeling that was the suspect, that was the killer. She didn't know how to explain it since she had no evidence to back her up, but her gut was telling her that he was the one behind all of this. She leaned back in the chair and stared at the code, she nearly jumped out of the chair when she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders.

"Hey, why are you awake?" Nick asked her softly.

"I can't sleep. Knowing this guy is still out there is bothering me. He is going to kill more innocent people and he will come after us again. He wants me dead, badly. He went all out to hurt me in one of the worse easy you could hurt a woman, and now that it backfired on him and I have Ella and I know she is my little girl, he is only going to get madder." JJ pointed out.

"True." Nick said nodding his head. He sat in the other chair at the table. "When we found a copy of that list at your place I noticed that name was the only one in code. Why?"

"It was a personal name. I added the name on a whim because of something that had happened a while ago. Nick this person is the reason I don't want my family near our daughter or near me." JJ admitted in a soft whisper.

"If this person has something to do with this case and there is a possibility that they are the killer and that they are the ones behind hurting Warrick, you and Brass and kidnapping and hurting Ella, I want to know everything there is to know and I want that information now JJ.' Nick said his face going hard.

"You already know his name, you just need to think about it and think hard Nick." JJ said as she stared at the man who was the father of her child.

Nick stared at JJ and tried to think of who she could be talking about. Why would this person keep her family away from them? Why would this one name be the whole reason she banned her parents from ever meeting their granddaughter and probably future grandchildren? Nick knew there was a lot of things he still needed to learn about what had happened between JJ and her family after he had left Texas but he was sure she would tell him once they had their serial killer locked up. The question was, could the information she was hiding from him, possibly get her killed?