Title: This Man
Author: stokesgirl
Rating: PG
Character: Nick Stokes
Warnings: Character death
Spoilers: Only if you haven’t seen the season finale of Season 10
Disclaimer: Not mine; only borrowing for a little while. I promise to return him unharmed. ;)
A/N: This story was written for the CSIFiles/TalkCSI Nick Stokes songfic challenge. The song for this challenge was “How To Save A Life” by The Fray
Summary: This is basically a story about a man.

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

This is a tale of one man; a son, a brother, a co-worker, a criminal investigator, a friend, a Texan, and a hero (even if he doesn’t think he is). You see this one man never sees himself as a hero. Why? Because he was not able to save the life of his best friend, no, his ‘brother’.

This man thinks back to that night in 2008. He should have walked out with him, followed him home, and then sit down and just talk to him. Be there for him. Of course he didn’t and now he lost his best friend. Now all he does is wonders where he went wrong, why had he not known how to save a life?

The team had just finished a great breakfast together; after they cleared their friend of murder charges. They talked, joked with each other, and laughed. One by one they all went home until this man and his best friend were only left. This man asked his best friend if he wanted to go get a beer, but his friend declined. His friend, thinking of this man, told him to stay behind and ‘go for it’ with the red-headed waitress and this man watched his best friend, his ‘brother’, walk out the door not knowing that it would be the last time he would see his friend alive.

Someone came into the diner and said something was happening down the alleyway. This man’s stomach just dropped and he ran out of the diner and headed down the alley. What he saw turned his world upside down. He saw his best friend lying in his bosses arms, covered in blood, his eyes open with no life left in them. His boss looks up at this man with a look on his face that simply said, “Why?” This man did not have the answer to that question as he was looking at his boss with the same look on his face.

That was over two-years ago; so many changes have happened since then. His boss could not take the loss of his ‘son’ so he left the lab for good; which always makes this man wonder why his boss never looked at him as a ‘son’. Oh this man will not admit it, but it stings every time he thinks of it. The team had two new members, one of which has since left, and he was promoted to Assistant Supervisor on Grave.

This man, I speak about, has the biggest, kindest heart you will ever find in a person. They say that things are bigger in Texas and after knowing this man, I believe it. His heart is definitely the size of Texas. His empathy for the victims and the easy way the victims take to him, especially children, is unsurpassed and that mega watt smile will make your heart melt. He is respectful, caring, and charming to a fault. I bet his momma had a hand in that. He is also one of the bravest men I have ever met. Who else could be buried alive for almost twenty-four hours and come out of it even a stronger person?

One thing I can tell you is that some of the spark has left his eyes. That will happen in this line of work and after everything that has happened to him in his life, you would think he’d be the one most likely to leave the lab. No one would have blamed him; I certainly would not have, but no, a hero would never give up.

He still doubts himself, I can tell and it all stems from losing is his friend. He still wonders how you save a life. I have to remind him sometimes that he has saved lives. Every time he solves a murder he saves a potential life. He talked a father out of killing himself in front of his daughter and let us not forget the rodeo cowboy he talked out of suicide, as well. If he really wants something that proves he is a hero all he has to do is ask Cassie McBride. Cassie will tell anyone that this man is a hero. He certainly is to her. They keep in touch and I can always tell when he has talked to or received an email from Cassie. He always has a smile on his face. It is not his normal smile, no; it is more like a smile that a father would have for his daughter.

Ray Langston could tell you that this man is a hero, as well. Who else, after been shot and in tremendous pain, could play dead and then shoot and kill the man that was about to kill Ray? This man, a hero, that’s who.

So you may be wondering who this man is. Well he is the man I see sitting on a bench next to his best friends grave. It is the anniversary of his friend’s death. I hear him talking to his friend; telling him what is going on.

This man is my friend, my ‘brother’, my Assistant Supervisor, a very special person to me, and one of my daughter’s favorite people. He is Nick Stokes.

 

The End