AN: The support has been great, thank you. Here is the next chapter. Enjoy!


Chapter 4: Reunion

A couple of weeks later

July 3, 2015

After the Grissom family woke up, Grissom made them breakfast, and while they were sitting down eating they told William about their trip down to San Diego for a few days, and while William hadn't seen much of Nick, or the rest of team for that matter, in person, there has been a lot of video chatting with them through the years, so he knew exactly who Nick was and was very excited to see him.

Once breakfast was completed, they did the dishes before they took their time packing and getting ready, then a few hours later, they all, including Hank, got into the vehicle and started on their journey down to San Diego, stopping a few times to stretch and let Hank run around.

By the time it was a little after lunchtime, they were there, so Sara called Nick.

"Hey Nick."

"Sara, hi. I take it you're in town now?"

"We are, so do you want to meet at the lab or the diner we discussed."

"How about the diner. I'll show you guys around the lab later, when there are less people around."

"Ok, we'll see you in a few then. I would also like to tell you, we have a very excited little boy."

Nick smiled as he stood up from his desk chair. "Tell the little man I'm excited to see him too."

"I will, bye Nick."

"Bye Sara."

After Sara ended the call, she looked at her husband. "He said the diner." Grissom nodded before following the directions on his GPS while Sara looked towards the backseat with a smile. "Your Uncle Nick is very excited to see you."

William nodded with a smile. "That makes me happy."

"It does, huh?"

"I love my Uncle Nick."

"Aww, that's sweet, are you going to tell him that?"

William then gets a shy smile as he turns his head to look out the window. "Maybe."

"Well, I hope you do, he would love to hear that. "

A moment later Grissom pulls in the parking lot to the diner, then after putting it in park, he spoke. "Why don't you guys go in while I'll let Hank out for a few minutes."

Sara nodded and they shared a soft kiss before she gets out of the vehicle and gets William out while Grissom takes care of Hank.

Grissom barely made it into the diner and had sat down before they hear Nick's voice. "Hi everyone."

William turned his head and smiled before getting out of the booth and ran the short distance to Nick. "Uncle Nick!"

Nick smiled as he kneeled down to the little boy's level and wrapped his arms around him. "Hi little man, it is so nice to see you."

"You too." He then whispered. "I love you."

Nick's heart melted as he whispered in return. "I love you too, buddy."

After they pull back William gets a shy look on his face before he gets back to his side of the booth so he could go back to coloring on the kid's menu the waitress had given him.

Sara and Grissom smile at Nick before Sara was the first to embrace him. "Hi Nick, San Diego seems to suit you very well."

Nick nodded with a smile as they pulled back. "It has. I mean don't me wrong, for the most part I do miss Vegas and our team." He paused for a few seconds to greet Grissom before he continued. "And while I was a little hesitant on accepting the opportunity at first." He looked at Grissom as he finished. "I followed your advice."

Grissom raised an eyebrow. "Which one is that because I think I gave you a lot of advice through the years."

He nodded with another smile. "You did, but you said. 'You got to go where you can do the most good', and coming here is where I thought I would do that. Plus, I was ready for a change."

They nodded in understanding before Sara spoke. "We get that, probably more than anybody."

"I knew you would."

Once they sat down, Grissom next to their son, the waitress came and took their orders before the conversations flowed with ease.


Close to an hour later, Nick had to go back to the lab, so they finished up their meal, then Grissom took William to the restroom while Nick, who wouldn't take no for an answer, bought their meal, before him and Sara headed outside to the parking lot to let Hank out with his leash.

During this time, Nick looked at Sara with a smile. "I got to tell you Sara, William, he seems like an amazing kid."

Now he'd seen glimpses of that during their video chats as the little boy was growing up, but those chats weren't that long, so this was the first time he really got to spend time with the little guy, and he was amazed at how smart he already was.

Sara nodded with pride in her eyes. "Oh, Nick you have no idea. I never thought someone else would come into my life that I could actually love as much as my husband. William is our whole world, he's changed it forever, and we wouldn't have it any other way."

Nick nodded with another smile. "And motherhood seems to suit you, I don't think I ever seen you this happy, content even, since I've known you. I'm so happy for the both of you, you two deserve it all."

Sara, while still holding Hank's leash, brings Nick into a hug. "Thank you, that really means a lot to me." As they pulled back, she asks with a raised eyebrow and smile. "So, when is it your turn?"

"My turn?"

Sara nodded with as she looked over towards the diner building to see her husband and son, holding hands, walking their way. "Yeah, being 100%, undoubtedly happy." She then looked at Nick as she finished. "And don't lie to me and tell me that you are, I've seen the longing looks you've been trying to hide when you look at our son, especially the last few years."

Nick sighed with a nod. "You're right Sara, I have felt something has been missing, for a while now actually." As Sara was giving him a sympathy look, Nick continued with a smile. "But I think that might be changing."

Sara's look changed as she asked in surprise. "Wait, what, did Nick find himself a girlfriend?"

As Nick held up his hand to stop her, Grissom, who was now closer to them and William was paying attention to Hank, asked. "Did I hear that correctly, Nicky found himself a girlfriend?"

Nick chuckled before finally speaking. "Now I wouldn't exactly say that, we only had one date, if you even want to call it that. It was more like a chance meeting at a bar and we struck up a conversation that led to another then another and another through the night."

Sara then asked while getting a little excited for him. "But they were good conversations, right?"

"Yeah they were. She did talk about her 11-year-old daughter a lot though. I can tell she means the world to her."

Now Sara looked surprised again. "Hold on, she has a daughter, and you didn't go running for the hills?"

Nick chuckled while shaking his head. "No, I didn't, and I honestly didn't have the urge to. I liked hearing about her, I liked being there. I don't know on her end, but I did feel something was there."

"Well, did you at least get her number?"

Nick nodded with one more smile. "I did, and in fact, if you won't mind, I would like to invite her to our fourth of July gathering."

Both Sara and Grissom nodded with smiles before Sara spoke. "You're the host to this gathering, you invite whoever you want." She then smirked. "And we promise we won't embarrass you too much."

As they chuckled, Nick gets a text from work, so after checking it, he pulls his house key out of his pocket and handed it to Sara. "You guys can let yourselves in and get settled." When Sara didn't take it right away and gave him a curious look, he continued. "What? Did you think I was going to make you go to a hotel? Come on, I have plenty of room, so just take it."

Before Sara did, she looked at her husband and his look told her it was up to her, so she nodded while taking the key Nick was handing out to her. "Ok, thank you."

"You are welcome."

After giving them the address and saying bye to Hank and William, Nick headed to his vehicle so he could leave while the Grissom family walked to their vehicle and got settled in.

As Grissom was starting the vehicle, Sara smiled at Grissom. "Did you see his face light up while talking about his lady friend?"

Grissom nodded with a smile of his own as he replied. "I did, it's the same look you give to me."

Sara smiled shyly before replying with a sigh. "I just hope it works like he wants. He deserves happiness as well."

Grissom nodded one more time in agreement. "Now let's go see where Nicky lives, see how far he's moved up in this world."

Sara chuckled while Grissom started driving towards the address Sara put in the GPS.


When they pulled in the driveway to Nick's four-bedroom, two-story beach house, to say they were impressed was an understatement.

Sara took a breath as she looked at the big home. "Well, he definitely moved up in the world."

Grissom chuckled as they got out of the vehicle, then after getting William and Hank out, Grissom grabbed the suitcases and followed Sara to the front door of the house so she could unlock it.

Once they were in, they looked around the spacious living room, dining room and kitchen before going upstairs, where there was a nice full sized guest bathroom and four rooms, which one looked to be his office and another was his master bedroom, so Grissom dropped William's suitcase in one of the guest bedrooms, which had a queen-sized bed, causing William to look at in shock. "Wow is that all for me."

They both chuckled while Grissom kneeled down after handing Sara's bag to her and wrapped his arms around his son. "It is, but because this isn't our home, we should ask Nick if Hank is allowed on the bed or not, ok?"

William nodded. "Ok. Can we go on the beach now?"

Grissom nodded with another chuckle. "You got it, and you remember the two most important rules, right?"

"Yes, I can't be too far on the beach without a grown up and I can't be near the shoreline without holding yours or mommy's hand."

Grissom hugged his son while replying. "That's right, we just love you so much we don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"I know daddy, I love you too."

After sharing a hug, they get out of each other's arms and William runs out of the room, Hank running after him, while Sara and Grissom chuckled at their excited son, it's not like this is the first time he'll be on the beach. In fact, they only live two blocks away from one at home, he just always really loved the beach/ocean.

Once they dropped off the other bags in the last guest bedroom, they headed downstairs so they could go down to the beach, where they enjoyed some lovely family time. Then three hours later, Sara gets a text from Nick, asking if they'll come down to the lab for a little tour since it was in-between shift changes and there wouldn't be a lot of people there at the time, so they did just that.


Later that night, once William was tucked in bed and asleep, which Nick did allow Hank on the bed, so he slept in his normal spot as if it was William's bed, the three grown-ups were in the living room chatting away before Nick took a sip of his beer and looked at Sara. "So, am I supposed to unofficially know?"

Sara looked at Nick with curiosity. "Unofficially know about what?"

Nick chuckled. "Come on Sara, I've been a CSI for almost 20 years. You didn't touch a beer at dinner, which I know you like the kind I got and your shirt seems a little baggy like you're hiding something, so is William getting a younger sibling? Or am I not supposed to know right now?"

They chuckled before Sara replied. "We knew we couldn't hide it from you for very long, but we didn't want to decline the invite, so the answer to your question is that yes, William will be getting a younger sibling in about six months."

Nick stood up with a smile, taking Sara's hand to help her up so he could bring her into his arms for a hug. "Congratulations. I'm so happy for you."

While in the hug, Sara smiled. "Thank you, we are really happy about this as well."

Nick pulled back while shaking his head. "No doubt about that."

He then turned to Grissom, and they share a hug. "Congrats, Griss."

"Thank you, Nicky."

After they pulled back, Sara spoke again. "We were going to see if we can get a video chat set up before we leave so we can tell the others."

"I'm sure we can make that happen." After thanking him again, Nick waved his hand towards the back door. "Now get out of here and go enjoy some alone time, I'll be in here looking after William."

Sara looked at Nick with a raised eyebrow. "You sure?"

Nick nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I suspect you're not going to go very far anyways, we'll be fine."

Once Sara and Grissom nodded with a smile, Grissom took her hand and they headed out towards the back, not stopping until they made it down to the beach.

They held one another, and she sighed in content, causing him to ask as he ran his hand you and down her back. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm better than ok. I have the life I didn't know I really wanted until I got it. I thought..." She started to get emotional, so she shook her head. "Well, you already know what I thought. I just love you guys so much. I don't know what I would do if I ever lo…"

He cuts her off as he pulled back to cup her cheek. "You won't, honey."

Sara nodded with another sigh. "I have told you today that I love you, right?"

He nodded with a smile as he brings her closer to him. "You have, I hear it every day, and I love you too."

They then kissed softly before holding one another again as they looked out at the darken horizon.

From the deck, Nick watched the beautiful scene with a smile, it wasn't very often he gets to see that, and while it might seem gross to see an ex-boss/mentor and someone he saw as a sister like that, not to him. Both of them deserved each other and he was happy for them, so to see little glimpses of their moments still felt like a treat, considering he didn't get to see them like that for the two years they were secretly dating, which still bugged him he didn't find out before it was revealed to them.

As Nick sighed about that thought, for multiple reasons, he finally got a text message he's been waiting on all day for. 'Sorry about the text delay, I got busy helping out my aunt, it wasn't a very good day for her. But to answer your question, my daughter and I would love to join you and your friends to a non-pressure gathering.'

Nick smiled as he texted her back. 'Ok, see you around 3 then. I'm sorry about your aunt though, if you need anything I'll be happy to help.'

'Thank you, I appreciate it, and see you around 3.'

After reading the latest text, Nick turned around and walked inside the house with a smile on his face, looking forward to tomorrow.


AN: Thanks for reading, and please review. Find out what happens next. I hope you are all having/had a safe and happy weekend, see you next time.