| Goodbyes and Good Friends - by kyrdwyn |
| Rated: PG Spoilers: Pilot, The I-15 Murders, Boom Synopsis: Nick reflects on his relationship with Kristy Hopkins |
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| CSI, Gil Grissom and company, and places and etc are all property of Anthony Zuiker, Alliance Atlantis, CBS, and other companies. They did not condone this fic, and I am not getting paid for it. I write because I want to. All other characters not appearing on CSI in any way, shape, or form that appear in this story are my property. If you have any comments - good or bad, feel free to e-mail me at: toxicrev@yahoo.com |
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| The skies were overcast, a depressing gray as opposed to the usually clear blue skies. It was fitting for this day. Sunny skies would have been inappropriate. Nick Stokes stood at the edge of the gravesite and watched as the assistants from the funeral home removed the wooden casket from the hearse. The young crime scene investigator was the only mourner at the site. Standing next to him was a minister the funeral home used when the faith of the deceased was unknown. The older man had been troubled that Nick was the only person there. Nick had explained that the young woman had no family, and apparently no other friends. As the assistants set the casket on the catafalque, Nick thought about the young woman whose body lay inside. Kristy Hopkins had been a vibrant young woman, despite her choice of professions. Nick had been attracted to her, though he knew dating her would be dangerous. After all, she was not only a prostitute, but she'd also been a suspect in two of his investigations. But there was something about her that had beckoned to his sense of chivalry. She'd reminded him of a lost puppy, needing something to cling to in this cold and lonely world. She'd had no one else, no one who really saw her as Kristy Hopkins, the person. They saw her as a product to be bought and used. Nick hadn't seen her as anything more than a suspect the first time he'd met her, when she'd drugged her john to rob him. He'd let her off easy for the victim's sake. He shook his head at her audacious request for him the next time she'd gotten in trouble. That's when his protective instincts were roused. After all, she hadn't been doing anything other than shopping when the security guard had gotten nasty with her. Nick didn't see any call for what the man had done, and he was glad to have been able to help her out, and get the charges dropped. His boss had given him grief about his apparent relationship with Kristy, but he hadn't done anything to deserve it then. He was just giving in to what an old girlfriend had called his "Knight in Shining Armor" instincts. Kristy was a classic damsel in distress. Nick smiled sadly as he thought about their last meeting. Hearing her desperate voice as she tried to get away from a guy she didn't want to be bothered by, he'd gone over and stepped in. In retrospect, it wasn't the smartest thing to do, given what happened, but he couldn't have resisted the impulse. It wasn't in him to leave a woman he knew in a situation like that. So he'd broken up the argument and given her a ride home. He'd been pleased to hear that she was considering going back to school; he didn't like the idea of her staying in her profession. Accepting her invitation for a drink had been dumb, he knew that. But he'd been a little lonely himself at the time, so he had gone against his better instincts and joined her, both for a drink and in bed. He didn't regret staying with her, though he did regret leaving. Sometimes, when he couldn't sleep, he thought about that night and wondered if it would have ended differently if he had still been there when Jack Willman had shown up. But he hadn't been, and Jack had shown up and strangled her with her own curtain sash. Nick still remembered the fear and sorrow that had gone through him when he had gone by her house the next morning to invite her to breakfast and found the coroner's assistants wheeling her body out, and Eckley talking to the detective. Sorrow for her death, and fear that he was going to be Eckley's prime suspect. He knew that once Eckley realized he had been there, it wouldn't be too hard of a stretch for the man to accuse him. Grissom and Catherine had believed in his innocence, though, enough for Catherine to beg the sheriff for enough time to clear Nick's name before his career was ruined. At that point, Nick hadn't cared about his career. He'd just wanted to get the man who had killed Kristy. Catherine had, and Nick was profoundly grateful to her for that. He had hugged her, thanking her for being there, for believing. Her faith meant a lot to him. Nick couldn't help performing one final act of chivalry for Kristy. When the coroner had mentioned that she had no one to claim her body, he'd done so, arranging for this funeral. He didn't want her to be alone, buried in a pauper's grave like her life had meant nothing to this world. She deserved to have someone care about her at the end. Realizing that the minister was waiting on him to begin, Nick nodded at him. As the words of the internment service carried on the chilly breeze, Nick felt someone come up beside him and take his hand. Turning, he saw Catherine standing next to him, Grissom on her other side. They both nodded at him and gave their attention to the minister, to his words of hope of a better place that awaited Kristy. At the end he watched as the casket was lowered into the ground. He silently said his goodbyes to the young woman, wishing her a better place in Heaven. He turned and joined Grissom and Catherine at their cars, accepting their condolences. Nick knew they weren't at the service because of Kristy. They were there because they cared about him. Just as he didn't want Kristy to have to be alone at this last ritual in her life, his friends didn't want him to be alone as he said goodbye to someone he cared about. He'd read somewhere once that a man never truly knew the measure of his friends until his funeral. Nick was glad that he had learned the true measure of his friends before then. He just wished Kristy had been able to as well. |