Say Hello to the Past (CSI fanfiction)

Christmas 2000

(AN: takes place after season 1; episode 10: "Sex, Lies and Larvae").
"Okay, I need you to explain this case to me again." Kimberly sat down at the dining room table with her coffee.

Nick had come home for Christmas; he had missed Christmas 1997 because he had just started working at the Las Vegas Crime Lab. He had missed Christmas 1998 because he didn't have the vacation days, and was working a case. Nick had been able to come home for Christmas in 1999, and that is when the tradition of Emma Grace celebrating Christmas with the Stokes family a week before Christmas began. This year Emma Grace was in Mexico helping out in some orphanages like she had done in India during Thanksgiving.

Nick chuckled as he recounted the case he had wrapped up the day before he had left to come home for Christmas. "A man reported his wife as a missing person. The wife was supposed to be on her way to Los Angeles, but she never made it. The wife's car showed up at a bus station, so I was assigned to investigate the case as a missing person."

"So, what did you find?" Gina was sitting in a chair opposite Kimberly.

"The lady's car was really clean. I found blood, so I thought that the wife might have been abducted." Nick chuckled again before he continued with his story. "Turns out she was in a hotel room having an affair."

Kimberly and Gina asked the question at the same time, "What about the blood in her car?"

"She said she saw an injured dog the week before and took the dog to the vet."

"Who was the woman that was on the case with you?" Jeff, Kimberly's husband, asked.

"What's the history between you and the detective that worked the case with you?" Chris had a feeling that he knew the answer, but he enjoyed getting Nick to admit he messed up, a lot when it came to dating.

"She and I went to dinner the week before we were working on the case and she was upset I hadn't called her yet." Nick knew what was coming next from his siblings.

"Why didn't you?" Chris decided to take a different approach to having Nick admit he hadn't been looking for the right woman at the moment.

"Why didn't I what?" Nick asked because he was thrown off by his brother's question.

"Why didn't you call her?"

There was a moment of silence as Nick made eye contact with his brother.

"I knew she wasn't the right one before I asked her out on the date," Nick admitted.

Chris gave a satisfied smirk as he got up from the dining room table. "Does anyone want a piece of fudge?"

There was a yes from everyone at the table. Chris returned with two plates of fudge. Chris placed the first plate close to Nick and removed the lid; it was the chocolate fudge. The next plate was the peanut butter fudge, which brought up bittersweet memories about Emma Grace for Nick.

"Emma Grace came by two days before you came home and made her famous fudge with the kids." That was the last comment Chris made as he picked up a piece of peanut butter fudge and walked out of the kitchen.

Nick sat at the table staring at his piece of chocolate fudge. Nick knew that Chris was telling him that he still thought that Nick's dates never developed into more because Nick still wanted to be with Emma Grace. Chris had been very vocal about his opinions throughout the years with Nick. Nick did get annoyed most of the time with Chris's brutal honesty, but he appreciated it too.

Kimberly, Jeff, and Gina didn't add anything to the conversation; they knew how Nick and Chris could act toward each other sometimes.

The boxes of Christmas decorations made it from storage to the living room where the family started decorating the house for Christmas. Christmas music was playing none stop, and the family was singing along to the beloved carols. Robert and Kevin set up the craft table, and the younger children started making the homemade Christmas ornaments. Nick helped the six-year-old twins, Michael and Matthew cut out the pattern for their train ornaments. Chris was helping the eight-year-old twins, Jessica and Jennifer, make their paper snowflake garland. Anthony, Emily, and Joshua were working together to make the centerpieces for the dining room table. Andrew was helping his uncles lift and display the heavier Christmas decorations around the house, and Ashley was in the kitchen helping Jillian and Sandra figure out the menu for Christmas dinner.