Title: All in a days work
By: anmani
Summary: Nick and Detective Vartann is on their way back from a scene.
Written as a birthday present to dagsrommer and beta'ed by serenity, girls you are two sparkling diamonds.
Characters: Nick, Greg, Grissom, Catherine, other
Genres: drama
Rating: PG
Warnings: none

Nick scooped up the crying infant, oblivious to the orders that Vartann was barking into his radio. The baby had spittle dried around the mouth and the diaper hung crooked from the otherwise naked body. Cooing, he scanned the room for baby paraphernalia and to his disappointment all he found was an empty diaper bag.

"Sofia is on her way and Catherine as far as I understood." The detective interrupted his search.

"Tell them to bring diapers." Nick weighed his options to soothe the child and recalled one of his nieces love for sucking on fingers.

The sobs subsided as the baby latched on to his right pinky and Vartann's words about child service never really got through to him.

"Hey Stokes?" The detective knew that the CSI did not always pay attention to things outside the crime scene, but he'd rarely seen Nick so shut off from the world. It took a repetition of the man's name to get his attention. "Have you got any extra clothes, I mean they are gonna want ours when they show up."

Nick's face lit up as his brain listed the contents of his duffel bag sitting in the backseat. He quickly directed the detective and a surge of triumph filled him as he constructed a makeshift diaper out of tissue and an old t-shirt. The baby turned out to be a boy with a severe rash, but he couldn't think of anything in his kit that would help.

As the approaching sirens grew close in rhythm Vartann went outside to meet the uniforms and directed them in securing the scene. He'd seen and tried a lot over the years, but this was his first time as a witness to a murder-suicide. Standing in the shade of the shabby house he collected his thoughts so he could give a recount of the events to Sofia once she showed up.

The blonde in question pulled up to the bulldozer-ready excuse of a house and took in the scene outside. Detective Vartann had the shell-shocked look on his face like most witnesses and she wondered if he was even aware of it. The man was normally a cool and steady person, considering the job he worked. She gave the uniforms a polite nod before approaching her colleague.

"Curtis."

"Vartann."

"Stokes and I were on our way back from the suspicious death we'd worked tonight." The detective closed his eyes and sighed trying to loosen the tension riddling his features. "Nick had opened his window and I don't blame him, the scene was so damn stuffy."

Sofia nodded, recognizing the excuse as one of the many they had all used to explain Nick's behavior since his kidnapping.

"We heard shouting followed by gunfire, semi automatic. The neighborhood is not listed as a keep low profile so we brought out the gumball and started the sirens, hoping to stop the shooter." They both looked towards the street as another vehicle pulled up and subsequently greeted Catherine Willows.

"We caught a glimpse of a man running across the street towards the house with a weapon in his hands." Vartann paused and wiped his brow with the back of his hand.

"Hey Nicky." Catherine walked cautiously over to her younger colleague. "Who've you got there?" She took in the smell and the makeshift diaper, the malnourished look and Nick's attempt to soothe the infant.

"The baby boy we found on the couch when we came in." He never took his eyes of the baby while speaking to his superior.

"Did you put the ... t-shirt ... on him?" Catherine found the fabric oddly familiar and only got a nod for an answer.

Catherine sighed and went outside knowing that Nick was still too shocked to really speak, but would hold up as long as he had the baby to take care of. She had found the request for diapers odd, but had complied and went to retrieve the bag she'd thrown together before leaving home.

Sofia fell into step with her and filled her in. "Mom and Dad fell out over something, she ran and he shot wildly after her. Nick and Vartann showed up as she had escaped back into the house and they followed Dad into the house with guns drawn."

Sofia paused while Catherine reached into her SUV. "But before they could do anything the guy shot repeatedly at the woman and when she dropped to the floor he turned the gun on himself."

"Did he say anything?" Catherine had worked several cases like this one and often the men regretted their acts and cried out in remorse.

"In Spanish and Vartann only recognized ‘puta' so Nick will have to fill us in on that part."

Nick had his full attention on the baby and ignored Catherine as she collected evidence from him and the baby. The only time he showed a hint of emotion was when he was told to strip, thus letting go of the baby. The boy began screaming the second Sofia took him in her arms and didn't stop until Nick had him securely back in his. Catherine signed the evidence bag with Nick's bloodied clothing and sat it next to the one already holding the diaper Nick had wisely dumped in an evidence bag.

She repeated the procedure with Vartann and couldn't hide a smile as he stood there in Nick's sweats and his own Wellingtons.

"Have you never heard of traveling with an extra change of clothes?"

"I have, and I normally do, but ever heard about dry-cleaners messing up?" Vartann bantered back, relieved that it was Catherine working the case, he'd always felt at ease around her and he could really do with something to lighten his heavy mood.

"Only too many times. I once got a dress back in size 18. I guess to some a black dress is a black dress." She got the smile she intended from the detective and went back inside. Nick hadn't moved an inch since she'd left him and her uneasy feeling for her protégé only settled deeper.

"Nick? ...Nicky?" She took a deep breath before she placed a hand on his shoulder, hoping that he wouldn't jump.

Nick snapped his head around at the touch and recoiled holding the baby even closer. Catherine removed her hand sighing deeply, Nick's reactions worried her exceedingly. The situation would only get worse once child service would show up and claim the child, which right now seemed to be the only thing keeping Nick from breaking down. She considered to give the ‘do not get personally involved' speech, but Nick already knew it by heart and there was only little chance of getting through to him in his current state of mind.

She left him with the baby and found Sofia to let her know the situation.

"That's gonna take some rule bending." Sofia's blue eyes narrowed in thought.

"I know and I still have a double to process here." Catherine ran a hand through her hair and chewed on her upper lip.

"Won't that baby need some feeding?" Sofia was trying to get things prioritized, but whenever colleagues were involved it got so much harder and she felt that they were all fumbling like beginners.

"I'll go in and clear Nick, you send an officer to get some formula..." Catherine raked her brain for a brand name, knowing how much easier it would make it for the officer sent. Sofia had already given the order and a brand before she managed to come up with one suited for a child of Hispanic descent. From there on things happened faster than Catherine liked.

Two hysterical women showed up claiming the child, a man wanting reimbursement for bullet holes in his car after the shooting and child services to take away the infant. With Sofia's help she got Nick sent off with child service and Vartann had gained enough self composure to go with and look out for Nick. It was only then that she got down to her actual job of processing the scene and the bodies.

Vartann watched as Nick fed the infant a bottle and images of all the situations he had seen Nick Stokes in flashed through his mind. Like most he too had a tendency to be protective of the CSI before him and the events of the night had increased it tenfold at least. He had attempted conversation with Nick, but he only thing the Texan could talk about was the baby and Vartann figured that perhaps the whole biological clock thing could also happen to men.

After some back and forth with the bureaucrats Grissom showed up to sort things out. Vartann heard the head honcho give Grissom a very unflattering description of their behavior and fought down the urge to punch her.

"Detective, call Greg and tell him to get his ass over here ASAP." Grissom's order nearly had him saluting, but he went outside and did as told, wondering what Greg had to do with anything.

The call was short and Greg's reaction filled in the blanks for him. Vartann leaned on the nearest wall he could find, letting his discovery sink in. After the initial disappointment of Nick not being free on the market he searched for the clues that had to have been there. He had to admit that the two of them keeping a secret that big was quite an accomplishment and that they probably fitted better together than so many others struggling to stay together.

Greg arrived flushed and with his clothes in more disorder than usual. Vartann just pointed to the room where Nick, Grissom and the child services head honcho still were. He listened to the agitated voices of Greg and Grissom occasionally interrupted by the female leader and the infant, but never Nick. The chirp of his phone brought him back to the present and he fumbled to answer it. The display read Willows and he knew she would be disappointed with the little information he could give.

He was still on the phone when Greg emerged from the office guiding Nick with a firm grip. Anger rose as he took in the disheveled Nick without the baby. Greg gave him a curt nod, never breaking his pace. The voices in the office reached a higher level, thus making them all freeze on the spot. Catherine raised her voice on the other end to regain his attention, Vartann choked out a half baked answer and hung up.

"Nick?" Grissom opened the door and waved the two men back inside. Vartann let a satisfied smile spread on his lips, the entomologist could be one hell of a negotiator when he put his mind to it and it seemed that he'd won this round as well.

"Come on detective they don't need us anymore." Grissom had left the office without him noticing and had now landed a guiding hand on his shoulder.

"So all rules got bent or what, Grissom?" Vartann wondered quietly.

"Not all." Grissom walked him out to the parking lot and ushered him into the Denali sitting next to Greg's Volkswagen, one he figured would need a baby seat in the very near future.