Title: The Past Comes Back To Haunt You

Author: GregSanders

Summary: Special Thanks to NicknGrisfan for the inspiration to write this. Nick has a daunting secret past that he has refused to tell anyone. But what happens when that past comes back to haunt him and it throws him and his buddy right in the middle of it? And what happens when he finds out that his secret involves his buddy too?

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or any of its characters. All those characters you know are solely owned by CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer.

A/N: Yet again, thanks for NicknGrisfan for giving me the inspiration to write this story. It is going to be an intimidating task, but I'll do my best. Thanks for the challenge!

Chapter 1

A 4 year old boy is walking down the stairs of his big home in the middle of a summer day in Dallas, Texas. The heat outside is radiating into a massive heater, but the inside of the house is cool and comfortable. The young boy hits the bottom of the stairs and sees his older brother playing catch with his second older brother. His two older sisters are playing with their Barbie dolls in the living room as his mother feeds their new-born son. As the young boy walks into the kitchen, he sees his father making his famous flapjacks. "Hey Nicky! Glad you can finally join us for breakfast," shouted his father in his thick Texan accent.

Nick smiles and sits next to his mother as his father serves the pancakes onto each plate. "David! Round up your siblings!" shouted his father to the eldest brother.

David smiles and motions for his siblings to run into the room. Each took a seat around the table as their father sat at the head. "Billy, why don't you say grace today?" asked his father.

Billy nodded and folded his hands in front of him. The whole family intimidated him as Billy began to speak. "Dear Lord, thank you for this delicious meal this morning. Thank you for my older brother, David Stokes, my two younger sisters, Gracie and Laura, my two younger brothers Nick and Jacob, and my parents. Thank you for the amazing day to play football and we hope that you look over our dear younger brother that is still missing from our one big family. Our Lord and Savior, Amen."

Each repeated the last word and began to dig into their food. Forks and knives began to screech as they met with the plate. Young Nick looks up and sees his family beginning to disappear one by one. Younger Nick turns into adult Nick Stokes as he looks around. David looks up at his younger brother and says, "Why didn't you come after us?"

Suddenly, David disappears as does Gracie and Laura. Nick finds himself sitting alone at the table. "Guys? Where are you?"

Nick stands up and begins searching the house. There's no one there. "DAVID! BILLY! GRACIE! LAURA! JACOB! MOM! DAD!"

There is no answer. Suddenly, he hears a screeching coming from outside. As he runs outside, he sees a black van speeding away and his mother and father lying in cold blood on the driveway. "No…" mutters Nick.

Nick runs up to his mother and looks at her. "Please find them…" she whispers.

Nick begins to cry as he holds his dead mother in his arms. Nick turns around and sees a dark hooded man standing right behind him. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

As the man opens his mouth, he begins to say in a familiar voice, "You okay Nicky?"

"Grissom?"

"Nicky, are you alright?"

Gil Grissom shakes a sleeping Nick's shoulder trying to wake the Texan up. "Nick, wake up!"

Finally, Nick opens his eyes and looks at his boss. "What?"

"You fell asleep. That's what you get for working overtime," smiled Grissom.

"How long have I been asleep?" Nick asked as he let out a big yawn.

"For almost two hours now. You were supposed to go to a crime scene with Greg, but he knew how tired you were, so he's off on his own right now with Brass. You were shaking, is everything alright?"

Nick hesitated a moment. "Yeah…I'm fine…just had a nightmare, that's all."

Grissom lifted an eyebrow at the young man. "Are you sure Nick?"

"Yeah David, I'm fine."

"David?" asked Grissom.

"What?" replied Nick.

"You just called me David. Are you sure you're alright?" asked Grissom.

"Yeah. So, where is this crime scene?" asked Nick, trying to get off the subject.

Grissom eyed him suspiciously. "It's down on Freemont Street…double homicide."

Grissom handed Nick the slip and watched as Nick ran out of the work-room and towards the garage. Grissom laughed and shook his head as he headed off towards Trace to see if Hodges had anything on his case.

When Nick arrived at the crime scene, he saw Brass standing outside with an irritated look on his face. As soon as Nick cleared the yellow tape, Brass smiled and walked up to him. "Thank God you're here! Greg was driving me nuts in there," stated Brass.

"That's his job since he is the runt of the group. So what do we got?" asked Nick.

"Two dead bodies, both male. One had his driver's license on him while the other had an ID bracelet on. Their names are Fredrick Phillips and Jeffrey Donahue. Greg's inside processing the scene now."

Nick nodded and walked in where he saw one dead male lying face up on the sofa while the other was strewn on the stairs. Nick shook his head as a light flash filled the room. "FINALLY! There's sleeping beauty. I was wondering when you were going to show up," smiled the spiky-haired-CSI-formerly-known-as-Greg Sanders.

"Great to see you too. So what haven't you processed yet?"

"Let's see…David is running late, so I haven't processed the bodies yet, and I haven't processed the kitchen yet," stated Greg.

"Who's late?" asked Nick.

"David…David the assistant coroner. Doc said he was on his way, but that was twenty minutes ago."

Nick stood there shocked. "Nick? Nick…? NICK!" shouted Greg.

Nick looked at Greg. "What?"

"Are you okay? Do you need to go home and get some rest? You know I can handle this," urged Greg.

"I'm fine. So, I'll go to the kitchen while you wait for David to show up."

Greg nodded with confusion as Nick ran into the kitchen. Greg laughed a little and shook his head as he continued to photograph the scene.

As soon as Nick was in the kitchen, he fell against the wall and breathed in deeply. This had never happened at a crime scene before. He knew David well and knew that Greg meant Doc Robbins's assistant, so why did he freeze up when he heard his name? Did it have to do with the nightmare last night with his older brother? Either way, Nick had to get to work. So, Nick took in one last deep breath and began to process the scene. As Nick took a swab of blood from the counter, he heard Greg shout from the other room, "FINALLY! What took you so long?"

"I got lost," replied David. Nick let out a little laugh as he continued to process the scene.

TBC…

Okay, I know it is kind of a corny ending to this chapter, but don't let it fool you, there will be plenty of action on the way. Please R&R to tell me what you think. Flames are not appreciated!