Title: Strength of a Woman

Summary: When Nick's fiancé gets into some trouble, the true strength of a woman will be tested.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the CSI characters, or any of the Las Vegas landmarks. I do, however, own Samantha Stevens.

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"Samantha, you're being very brave."

My chin is shaking, and tears are pouring down my face. I knew Nick would be here soon, but I didn't know how much more of this I could take before I snapped.

"I'm sure invetigator Stokes would be very proud of you right now."

"Please, just let me go."

"Not yet, not quite yet."

The shrill ringing of a cell phone echoes through the warm air. The man behind me answers.

"Yeah…..he's here? Good, bring him in."

The door in front of me opens as Nick and another man steps in. I don't know if I should be glad that Nick is here, or scared that now they have him as well.

"Nick Stokes, so glad to finally see you again."

"I know who you are, Mike. You're doing this to get back at me for your brother."

My mind scans through my past cases trying to remember something about a man Nick or I had put away who had a brother named Mike.

"Just because your evidence got my brother the death penalty means nothing to me. I would never hold that against you, CSI Stokes."

I look up just as Nick flashes me a look. In that one look, that one moment, his eyes ask if I'm okay, and tells me everything I need to know.

"Your future wife has done a great job."

"She's very brave. That's one of the reasons that we all love her."

I look up at Nick, and crack a small grin through the tears.

"That's why I came to make a deal."

"A deal? What a surprise! What is this deal?"

"Well,"

Nick begins as he steps forward a little bit.

"Take me instead of her."

My mind begins to race at Nick's statement and I can feel my heart drop to the bottom of my stomach.

"Why, Mr. Stokes, that's so sweet of you. Come on over here."

"No. Samantha comes away first."

"Ugh, fine then."

Mike helps me up and sends me over to Nick. Before I have any idea of what's going on, Nick shields my body with his, as around ten LVPD officers practically burst in to arrest Mike. Nick just holds me in his arms for a minute, glad to not have lost me again.

"Are you okay?"

He whispers in my ear. I just nod my head into his shoulder. Nick and I stand up, and look around us.

"Samantha, we'll need to meet you at the hospital."

"Okay, Griss."

Together, hand in hand, Nicky and I begin to walk to the door. As we walk away from the carnage, and I begin to realize how lucky I am, I take a deep breath and turn to Nick.

"Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm pregnant."

A/N: This is the end of this story. I hope you all enjoyed it. The end may seem kind of weird, but it seemed like a good place to end it, and a nice place to end it if I decided to write a sequel.