Nick Stokes works for the CSI in Las Vegas, Nevada. His team is his family, and he loves his family back home in Texas. Everyone says that Nick is a ladies' man, but what if there was a girl back home in Texas that no one knows about? What if this g...
(AN: takes place in June 2005; after the season 5 finale "Grave Danger." The song "I Remember" by Kenny Chesney is what inspired the ending scene of this chapter. The picture is what Andrew looks like.)
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June 2005:
Nick's sisters and Emma Grace had outdone themselves to celebrate another Stokes high school graduation. Baseball, basketball, and football decorations were all over the house; all the sports Andrew had played during high school. Graduation banners were hanging from different walls. The food was spread out along the kitchen counters, and a dessert bar had been set up with too many desserts to count.
Nick was sitting on the couch in the family living room. After almost a month of recovery from being buried alive, Nick was okay physically. He still had some pain as his body healed the ant bites with the help of a prescription ointment and antibiotics. It was taking longer for Nick to recover emotionally.
Bill had convinced his youngest son to see a counselor who specialized in helping people who were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Nick's sisters, brother, and parents had to coax any information about what happened out of Nick. The counseling was helping Nick, but he was having a hard time not believing he was nothing but a broken shell of a man.
"Hey, Uncle Nick." Seventeen-year-old Andrew sat down beside Nick on the couch.
"Hey, Andrew. Why aren't you out there playing basketball?" Nick asked pointing outside where some of Andrew's friends were out on the basketball court.
"I just wanted to make sure that everything is okay between you and Aunt Emma." Andrew watched Nick closely.
"Yeah. We're good, Andrew." Nick tried to give his nephew a reassuring smile.
Andrew wasn't convinced and gave Nick a doubtful look. Everyone had noticed that Nick and Emma Grace seemed to be back to being friends and nothing more.
"Are you excited about coming to Vegas in the fall?" Nick knew that his nephew wasn't fooled, so he decided to change the subject.
The subject changed worked, and the two talked about the upcoming college semester for a few minutes before Andrew went outside to play basketball. After Andrew left Nick helped his sister, Sandra, hang up balloons. Lisa, Nick's third oldest sister, came into the room holding a crying Maggie Hope.
Nick watched his sister try to soothe the upset baby for a while. "Hand her here, Lisa."
Lisa looked at Nick for a second before she handed over the crying child.
"What's wrong, Sweetie? Is there too much noise in this house for you?" Nick talked in a soothing tone to the two-month-old. Maggie Hope started to calm down the moment she was in Nick's arms.
Lisa waited until Nick had managed to get Maggie Hope to stop crying before she spoke. "You're a natural with her." She couldn't keep the smile from her voice.
"I've had a lot of practice with all the nieces and nephews I have running around here." Lisa rolled her eyes at her baby brother's response.
"Sure," Lisa said; her voice dripping with sarcasm as she walked away from Nick.
Before Nick could say anything in response to his sister, the back door opened as Andrew and his friends made their way inside from playing basketball. Andrew's graduation party started after the boys washed up. By the end of the night, while the boys settled into their sleeping bags in the living room, everyone in the house had told Nick's sisters and Emma Grace what a great job they had done with the graduation party.
The next few days in the Stokes house passed in usual chaos. The final touches on wedding planning for Maya and Chris were underway. Ashley and Emily seemed to go on double dates with their boyfriends every night. Andrew, his friends, and Joshua were out of the house enjoying the weekend vacation they had saved up for. Other nieces and nephews were all around the house.
Nick found Emma Grace sitting on the porch swing watching Molly, Brittany, Tyler, Luren, William, Marie, and Katlin have a water gun fight in the yard. Kimberly, Jeff, Lisa, and Robert were the adults in charge of helping with the water gun fight. James and Kevin were sitting up the water slide while Gina and Allen watched the toddlers, Lexi and Elizabeth, and Maggie Hope in the kiddy pool.
"Didn't feel like getting hit with water guns?" Nick asked as he sat down beside Emma Grace on the porch swing.
"I wanted to appreciate the beauty of this moment." Emma Grace's smile was serene, but Nick could see sadness in the depths of her eyes.
"What else were you thinking about?" Nick wanted to wrap his arm around Emma Grace. He settled for resting his arm across the swing back.
"Mom, Dad, and Amy." Even though the sadness was still there, Emma Grace's eyes lit up with love as she spoke about her family.
"I can see Mama spoiling Marie, Katlin, and Maggie every chance she gets. Daddy would do any and everything they asked him to because all three of them would have him wrapped around their little fingers. Amy would be the cool aunt, and let the girls get away with anything. Who knows, Amy might've had a few kids herself, and they would be running around with this bunch." A few tears escaped Emma Grace's eyes, but she wiped them away.
"I'm sorry," Nick whispered the words. Emma Grace looked at Nick and saw the raw pain, frustration, anger, and loss in his eyes. Emma knew the two were not talking about her family anymore. Nick was apologizing, yet again, for deciding that he couldn't be a dad to Marie, Katlin, and Maggie Hope.
Nick and Emma both knew that with Nick deciding that he was too broken to be a dad that their relationship was over. Emma knew she couldn't cut Nick out of her life as she did last time. So, she had decided that even though her heart felt like it was physically breaking, Nick Stokes was her best friend, and she wasn't giving up on him.
Emma Grace's hands were shaking as she placed both hands on Nick's cheeks. "It's okay, Nicky. But, I want you to know that You. Are. Not. Broken. You are strong, and you're going to recover from this. I believe in you." Before Nick could say anything in reply, Emma Grace leaned over placing a gentle kiss on his lips. Emma stood up and walked inside the house where Nick's parents, his oldest sister, and Maya and Chris were finishing up wedding details.
Nick sat on the porch swing watching Emma Grace walk away. He let his silent tears fall as he thought about what Emma Grace had just told him. The tears continued to fall as Nick watched the water gun fight in the yeard. He hated Walter Gordon for breaking him to the point where he lost the woman he loved and the girls he saw as his daughters. He wanted them back, but he wanted to be whole for them, not a broken man.
