Summer of 1987
"Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada"
The words seemed to smile at the boys. The growing desire in their hearts, to escape their old lives and start over, was becoming fulfilled. They felt empowered.
A boy with dark brown hair, and coke-bottle glasses turned to his two companions and smiled brightly.
"The last 15 years haven't mattered at all guys." He spoke, as a genuine leader of the trio.
Whoops and cheers flooded the small seat that the 3 boys shared on the crowded bus.
"We start living now!" the self-proclaimed leader began again.
The red-head of the group cheered to the other boys' words but quickly butt in when the cheering had ceased.
"This is a tough city, that's what I was always told. Were gonna hafta stick together. We won't be able to do this alone, were gonna hafta promise er' somthin'"
"We'll make it, together, or shall our souls rest in hell if we abandon each other" The third boy finally spoke up.
"I think were gonna need a little more than words here guys" the leader spoke again, the boy then reached into his pocket and retrieved a knife "We're gonna need some substance to them words."
"A blood promise." The other two agreed simultaneously, nodding their heads in approval at the leaders' quick thinking.
The red-head pricked his pinky finger quickly, and winced at the sudden sensation that filled the limb.
The leader then drove a steady gash across his pinky finger, intently staring as the blood pooled onto his finger tip, as he passed the knife to the third boy.
The third boy quickly gashed his finger, as their leader had done, and all three wrapped their fingers tightly together, blood dripping from their suspended state.
"Together." The leader began
"Together." The other two repeated.
"Or shall we suffer in Hell for eternity."
"Eternity." The other two repeated.
"Alright folks, welcome to beautiful Sin City, Nevada, if you'd please exit to your right, and steer clear of the traffic to your left, I hope you enjoyed your trip and we look forward to taking you home on a Sunset Arms travel tour, 'with us, your free to ride into the sunset…'"
20 years later.
"Alright Catherine, you and Sara have a 419 down at Circus-Circus, suspicious circs, so be thorough. Vega will meet you there, and David is on route, so get there quick." Grissom explained as he dangled an assignment slip in front of Catherine's face.
Catherine ripped the paper harshly from Grissom's grasp and proceeded out the door.
"I'm drivin' Sar; meet me out front in 5." She called back into Sara who was now proceeding out the door and to the locker room behind her.
Once the women were clear out of ear-shot Grissom addressed the remainder of the team.
"Nick picked a good week to be out, we haven't been overly busy. You guys have been keeping up with his mail, and newspapers right?"
"Yeah Gris, everybody knows that's like a red bulls-eye on a house for thieves, especially in this city." Greg answered as he got up to pour himself some more coffee.
"Well I don't have anything for you guy's right now, but stick around on stand-by for at least an hour, before you go cracking open some cold cases and getting too involved with them, okay?"
"Sure thing Gris." Warrick responded as he watched a grimacing Greg, and laughed, as he realized that somebody had brewed the generic brand coffee in the machine.
Grissom then made a quiet exit to his office, as Greg and Warrick were left sitting in the break room.
"So tomorrow's my go, for grabbing Nick's mail and paper's right?" Warrick asked, more in an attempt to start conversation than anything else.
"Yeah, I still can't believe he locked us out, told us to put his mail in his work locker, I mean come on, it's like an unwritten law to throw parties a guys' house when he's away." Greg whined.
"You know how he is about his place, as messy as it is; he knows where everything is… still got them bad after affects ever since….you know." Warrick trailed off, it always felt wrong to talk about what had happened to Nick, but it felt even more wrong that Nick wasn't there while they were examining his actions.
"I know, it's been awhile, but going to Texas always does him some good. He always comes back happier, not to mention with a huge accent to rip on for the first few days." Greg laughed as he fondly remembered Nick telling Greg to hand him an evidence sack, rather than bag. Classic Texan slang.
"Well, I'm gonna head over, see if any of the techs could use a hand, you should help Mia out in DNA, at least until we can start working on a cold case." Warrick announced, as he headed to Archies' A/V lab.
"You think she'll let me turn on my old music? I think I still have a few CD's in my locker." Greg called to Warrick who was halfway down the hall.
"You wish Greggo, you'll be lucky if she let's you touch a thing." Warrick laughed as he rounded a corner, and Greg proceeded in the opposite direction.
Greg had been absent-mindedly swiveling in his hijacked computer chair in the break room for the past fifteen minutes. After Mia had kicked his…. What did she say? "Egocentric-childish ass" Yeah that was it. Out of her lab, he had decided that as much as it pained him, he would go see if Hodges needed a hand with anything.
Hodges had been his usual ass-like self. Just as Greg suspected, and noticing that between Mia and Hodges, he had only been on call for a half hour, he became increasingly bored. It was right after Hodges had begun ragging on him about his irresponsibility as a CSI, when Hodges had left for a break. Greg knew that that was his perfect chance.
Greg laughed quietly to himself as he remembered just 15 minutes before he had been humming the tune to 'Pirates of the Caribbean' while 'commandeering' Hodges computer chair.
Greg began to hum the tune again as he sat bored, waiting for Hodges to return from break and notice his missing chair.
"Hey pirate boy, Gris has a trash run for us, doesn't usually take two, but after hearing you humming down the hallways, he told me to get you outta here. Brass is gonna meet us there." Warrick announced as he stifled his laughter at Greg, as he instantly stopped his humming and nearly fell out of the chair.
"Sounds good, where's it at?"
"Way out in the sticks man, some cheesy little desert town, there's directions on the slip… but it's gonna be a long drive, I'm driving, meet me out front in 5." Warrick announced as he went to grab his vest from his locker and head to the parking lot.
"SANDERS!"
Greg heard Hodges screams all the way in the break room, and was quick to dash off to the trace lab to have a last little bit of fun before leaving with Warrick, with Hodges' chair in tow.
"You can remember this as the day…" Greg started to announce as he poked his head into the trace lab "that you almost caught…" he continued as he pulled the chair into view "Captain…"
Hodges' enraged face turned up into a smirk as he looked directly behind Greg.
Greg turned around to see Grissom standing there, eyebrow raised in a combined confusion and amusement.
"Headin' right for that trash run boss" Greg said to Grissom as he turned back to Hodges, while Grissom walked away shaking his head.
"Greg Sanders!" Greg yelled quickly as he rolled the chair into the lab, being sure to hit Hodges with it, and dashed to the locker room before making it out into the parking lot and into Warrick's Denali in record time.
Nick was close to smiling as he found a sliver of hope in the form of a broken brick. He had just come back to consciousness minutes before. If he could just maneuver his bindings against the protruding rock, he might be able to snap them. Nick inched over, helplessly flailing his tied arms and legs to move closer to his destination. Nicks feet made it to the rock first, and Nick rationalized that if he could stand up he would be a lot less vulnerable than he was now.
Nick looked around his tiny prison as he rubbed his tied ankles against the semi-sharp rock. His best guess would place him in a basement of sorts, due to the lack of light, and the musty aroma that seemed to emanate from the walls.
The grey-brick walls seemed stained black, as if a fire had ravaged the house above at some earlier point in time. Nick had to contain his laughter of relief as he felt the bindings on his ankle loosen, and his legs separate abruptly.
Nick rolled himself over to the wall that he had used to cut his ropes and managed to stand up. He examined his confined space closer to reveal the darkness of it all. Nick had yet to figure out why he was here; he had spent his time here rolling around on the dirt floor. Nick knew that he had been clocked on the head with great force when he was first taken, and the sticky reminder of blood on his left cheek was becoming more apparent.
What scared him most was that he did not have any sense of the amount of time he had spent here. He had never been good with measuring time, and his watch was now missing, whoever had taken him had probably taken it as well, he rationalized. Nick relished in the relief that he was standing, and conscious, so the next time someone entered his room he would have a better shot at figuring out what the hell was going on.
His happiness was cut short as a prominent sound of footsteps could be heard descending what sounded like stairs outside of the door, which he had just now noticed; how dumb could he be to not notice the door?
A man with, what Nick couldn't help but thinking of as 'the classic ski mask' on opened the door and even through the fabric Nick could see his smirk. Or was it her? Sara's indiscriminate gender beliefs flashed through Nick's mind.
No, it was a guy. No chick could do all this to him.
"I see you're up" a male voice taunted.
Nick couldn't help but smile, partially in relief at the man-like pitch, partially to try and show the man he was not scared of him.
"Who are you? Why am I here?" Nick demanded.
"You, my friend, are in no position to be asking questions… I see the leg bindings didn't tickle your fancy, nevertheless, I think you'll find it quite beneficial to your health if you just roll with the punches, and deal with your petty inconveniences." The man explained solemnly.
Nick glared in response.
The man then decided to pull a police night-stick out of his belt loop, and swung it forcefully into his opposite hand. The man in the mask took one step toward Nick, before Nick's instinctual response was to tackle the man to the ground.
Unfortunately for Nick, the man was quick on his feet, and managed only to fall onto his knees, while Nick landed face first in the dirt, hands still securely fastened behind his back.
The man was almost too precise with his attack, and Nicks eyes flashed terror as the man rose the night-stick high above his head.
The man then left the room and returned quickly to Nick's muffled cries of agony. He proceeded to re-tie Nick's legs, this time with 3 different pieces of rope. Nick groaned louder as the guy wrapped the rope tightly around his newly-broken leg. Once done he whispered in Nick's ear:
"You'll find it worthwhile to do as I say… I suggest you leave these ropes in place before I break every bone in your body."
The man then slammed the broken brick, Nick's sliver of hope, with the night-stick and took the sharp pieces out with him; leaving Nick to wallow in his own agony, waiting for the second phase of his plan to unfold.