Title: No Easy Task

Chapter 2

Catherine walked into the break room after arriving from the B and E/double homicide she had spent hours processing with Sara and Grissom. Coffee was all she needed. Upon entering the break room, she came across Warrick and Greg duking it out with some football videogame Greg had recently become obsessed with. The two men were like children, goading each other with every move they managed their video counter-parts to make.

"Hey, guys. What are you still doing here? Is the teen party homicide keeping you on the clock?"

Warrick and Greg didn't even so much as make eye contact with Catherine, but managed to acknowledge the redhead with a "hey" in unison.

"Geez, guys. Take a break will you. Just so you know, Grissom's on his way in here and he wasn't exactly in the best of moods, so I'd turn that off before he gets here."

Warrick took note of her warning. "Yeah, gotcha, Catherine. I'll finish whooping your ass later, man."

"Sure, Warrick. You're lucky Gris is moody, man, cause your ass was already mine."

"Moody, Greg? What, may I ask, would have you calling me 'moody'? Maybe the fact that you're in here playing games instead of working on processing the, what, three boxes of evidence I see in the layout room?" Grissom looked none too pleased. Greg just looked down right petrified at having been caught playing video games and talking about Grissom.

"I...uh...nothing….right, three boxes, I'll get right on it." Greg left the break room as quickly as his feet could carry him. Even as he walked down the hall, he could feel Grissom's eyes following him.

Warrick felt for the younger man and spoke up. "Hey, Gris, we just got back. Taking a quick break. Nick went to get some breakfast and then we're going to get started on everything we brought back."

Sara walked in and her ears perked up at the mention of breakfast. "Hey, Nick's getting everyone food? I want in. Where'd he go?"

"Yeah, you guys should've called us. Shouldn't leave us out!" Catherine chided.

"Not sure where he went. Had to stop by the bank, get some cash, then he was picking something up. Fast." The "fast" was meant for Grissom's benefit.

"I'm gonna give him a call, let him know there are a few more bellies he can fill." Catherine proceeded to dial Nick's number in the hopes she could catch him before he left whatever "gourmet" place he chose to get breakfast from.

On the second ring, she heard him pick up. "Hey, Cath. What's up?"

"Hey, Nicky. Word around the lab is that you're getting breakfast for graveyard." She was unable to hide the smile in her voice.

"Is that so?"

"So say my very reliable sources. Grissom, Sara and I are probably pulling a double like you. Being the sweet, considerate man that you are, you wouldn't mind getting some extra stuff for us, now would you?"

"I don't know how reliable those sources of yours really are, but yeah. Flattery will get you anywhere. What are you guys working on that has you putting in the extra time?"

"Remember I'm vegetarian, Nick." Sara shouted from her position in front of the coffee maker, hoping Nick would bring back something appetizing.

"The B and E call Sara got turned out to be a double. Grissom and I were there helping her process the scene. Turns out one of the victims is the son of a friend of the Sheriff's. Great, isn't it? What will already be a complicated homicide investigation is only going to get more muddled up by what I am sure will be the Sheriff's poking his nose into every lead we follow and every suspect we investigate. I think he's already trying to spin the friend's son off as an innocent victim in all of this, but some of the stuff we collected on the scene doesn't look good for the kid. Guess we'll just have to wait and see." Catherine poured herself some coffee while relaying the little information they had so far.

Either Nick was distracted by what he was doing or he was ignoring her, because he hadn't said a word since she started describing the case to him. "Nick, you there?" She could hear someone talking the in background, so she knew the call hadn't been dropped. "Hellooo?"

That's when she heard Nick mumble something in a very low voice. "Cath, LV Bank down the street, we got a problem here."

"Nick? What do you mean you got a problem? What's wrong?" The sound of his voice made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She cared for all the guys on the team, but she was always a little more protective of Nick, especially after the Dylan Buckley case and the secret Nick had shared with her. And right now there was something wrong. Only she couldn't get any more information from Nick on what was wrong.

The tone of Catherine's voice more than the question of "what's wrong" immediately caught the three other criminalists' attention. Grissom was the first to ask. "Catherine, what's wrong?"

She faced the others. "I don't know. We were talking one second, next thing I know he's mumbling 'LV Bank down the street, we got a problem here'."

She turned her back to try and get Nick back on the phone. "Nick? Hey, Nicky? What's going on? I need more info here, help me out." That's when she heard it. Gunshots. Sounded like a shotgun at first, but then there were two more shots and the sound of the phone clattering to the floor. "Oh, Jesus."

Catherine's face went pale as Warrick went around to face her. "Catherine, what's going on?"

"I...I don't know. I heard gun shots, three gunshots and it sounded like he dropped the phone."

"What do you mean gunshots?" Grissom questioned her.

"Gil, I know about as much as you do. I can hear yelling in the background. I don't know what's going on." She took a few steps away from Grissom and Warrick to try and concentrate on what she was hearing. She could hear a man yelling and the sound of someone panting. "Nick? Nicky are you there?"

"I'm not dropping the line, it's still connected. Gil, you need to call Jim and ask him to send an officer to the LV Bank down the street, make sure everything's alright. That's where he said he was."

Grissom was already pulling out his cell phone but stopped mid-dial when he heard a gasp from Catherine. "What is it? What do you hear?"

"Someone's asking if he's a 'god damn cop.' I don't know, sounded like Nick saying 'wait' and….sounds like someone's getting beaten. Call Jim now!"

-------------------------------------------------------

He could hear the sound of someone whimpering and the faint sound a sirens. Teller must have really hit the silent alarm. Daring to open his eyes, he could see the robber named Jack pacing back and forth and cursing to himself in the middle of the lobby. He figured he must not have been out that long because he could see that Jack was still a little agitated and out of breath from his attempts to use him as a kickball.

The whimpering was coming from his right. He tried turning his head to see who was next to him, but he wasn't prepared for the blast of pain the simple task caused. He took in a few quick breaths and tried to assess all the different areas that were hurt: shoulder – burning pain from the gunshot wound; chest and abdomen – 5 or 6 kicks probably broke something in there again, causing pain to come with each breath; head – kick causing brief unconsciousness, possible concussion and a spitting headache. He slowly attempted to get up. He did not want to be in a totally defenseless position if this guy focused on him again.

Getting to a sitting position took forever, or so he thought. Once up, he could see the pregnant bank employee sitting on the ground next to him. She was the one crying. Being the ever dependable, compassionate guy that he was, he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. It'll be okay. Mary, my name's Nick." Even though his vision was a little blurry, he could read her name tag.

Mary was trying to control herself while rubbing her round belly. "I thought he killed you."

"I' okay. It's gonna be okay. Sounds like the police are close by."

Mary whispered, "I don't want anything to happen to my baby." Fresh tears were spilling down her cheeks.

"It'll be okay, we'll get you out. I won't let him hurt you." Mary gave him a sad smile, not entirely sure he would be able to help considering the way he looked, but she was appreciative of his efforts to assure her.

Jack heard them speaking to each other in hushed tones and rushed over to them. "Shut up! Don't be planning any great escapes or I just might not hesitate to shoot you this time!"

"She's just scared. She's pregnant. Let her go, please."

Jack cocked the gun and aimed it at Nick again. "I told you to shut up! Damn cops are out there already. I'm the one that decides who leaves and only when it's for my benefit."

Peering across the lobby and through the slightly open blinds of the glass walls of the lobby, Nick could make out what appeared to be several police cars and cops running around trying to figure out what was going on inside. Looking at the front doors of the bank, it appeared that Jack had pushed one of the customer service rep's desks in front of the glass doors. Taking in the rest of the scene, he saw that the guard was still exactly where he had gone down, but Jack's partner had been moved away from where he fell near the entrance over to the far end of the lobby. Nick was adjusting his position when his thumb brushed across the smooth plastic of his cell phone. As casually as he could, Nick looked down to see the phone still on and with the call timer ticking away, still connected to Catherine . If someone was listening on the other end, maybe it would help them figure out what was going on in here and help him and Mary get out of here altogether.

Nick needed to get as much info to the outside on who was in here. "Name's Jack right? It's just the three of us in here, okay. Let her go. You can use me for whatever you need. I won't fight back. Can't really anyway."

"What are you, stupid? Or do you just have some sort of a death wish? I told you to shut up. Your buddies are already out there. Probably planning on storming in here. I'm not letting them take me down that easy!" Jack continued to pace the lobby all the while trying to eye the scene outside the bank.

"No, listen. I just don't want anyone to get hurt. They won't come in here without trying to talk to you first. They want this to end peacefully. You should want this to end peacefully. It will be better for you, Jack."

"And what the hell would you know about what's good for me, huh? This couldn't have gone any worse than it did. You killed my buddy and I shot you. You and you're cop friends are just gonna make sure the judge locks me in prison and throws away the key. No, I'm gonna get outta here if I can."

"That's not true. I can help you. Just need to show them you're willing to work with them, not hurt anybody and end this situation."

"Yeah, what are you, some sort of hostage negotiator? You trying to work me over? That's something, real rich. We try robbing a bank, end up getting stuck with hostages and one of them turns out to be a police negotiator." A disbelieving laugh erupted from Jack's lips.

"Jack, I'm not a hostage negotiator, I'm not a police officer. I'm a crime scene investigator. I just want for this to end." Nick was starting to sweat bullets, what with the pain he was experiencing. With his injured ribs, talking was getting a little difficult too. But he needed to get through to this guy. Make him know he wasn't a threat. Well, at least not anymore since he'd been disarmed.

"Crime scene? You're a fingerprint guy? What the hell does the fingerprint guy go around carrying a gun for? Call yourself whatever you want, you're a cop. And you made this a lot worse for me. Now shut up and let me think!"

Tbc

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