Chapter Four: Hostage

"Stokes!" Detective Vartann called down the hall towards him as he saw the CSI about to head into the locker room. "Hey Nick, we have Mrs Linda Bartlett in custody, and here's your warrant for the DNA." Opening up the file in his hands, Vartann handed over the signed warrant to the CSI. "DA told me to give it to you directly so we can get this case closed already."

"Thanks, Vartann." Nick gave him a grateful smile then grabbed his kit and head off towards the elevator so he could take it down to the police station and finally get Mrs Bartlett's DNA to wrap up the case.

Nick head straight off towards the interrogation room where she was sat, giving her a curious look before he entered the room. "Hi Mrs Bartlett, I'm Nick Stokes from the crime lab. Mrs Bartlett, I'm gonna need a sample of your DNA." Nick set down his case on the table then unfolded the warrant in front of her so she could take a look at it. Mrs Bartlett rolled her eyes at him then lifted the warrant into her hands as she climbed to her feet. Nick watched her placing a hand on her lower back, holding it in pain from her pregnancy. "Mrs Bartlett, I just need to swab the inside of your cheek with this." Nick lifted a fresh Q-tip from his kit, showing it to her, but she took a step back again, keeping her distance from Nick.

"Where's my lawyer? I told the other guy I wasn't going to talk to anyone without my lawyer, and that includes giving you my DNA."

"Ma'am, your lawyer is on route. We have a warrant for your DNA; if you want I can get one of the officers here to hold you down while I take it." Nick held up the Q-tip to her. "I'd prefer to do it this way though."

"Why do you need my DNA though?" She asked. "It's not enough that my husband dies; now you're harassing me."

"Our suspect was killed in custody. There was female DNA on the cell door that was consistent with a graze, the same kind of graze you've got on your knuckle there. And the gun from your house was also used to kill him."

"That blood, it's not mine though." She protested, clearly lying as she looked very anxious.

"That's why I need your DNA." Stepping towards her again, Nick held out the Q-tip ready and waiting. "See, unlike people, DNA doesn't lie. And if your DNA does match the blood we found on the cell door then I'll know you're lyin'."

"Not until my lawyer gets here. I don't know what I'm looking at here." She indicated towards the document in her hands. "If you dare touch me, I'll charge you with assault."

Nick rolled his eyes then looked towards Officer O'Bryan stood guard at the door. "You gonna help me out here?"

"Stokes, she's been through enough." Officer O'Bryan defended her again. "We can wait until her lawyer gets here, she'd have calmed down by then too." He pointed out to him.

"The warrant was issued by the judge; I have the right to collect her DNA." Nick argued.

"I thought you fags are supposed to be sympathetic." He muttered as he rolled his eyes at the CSI.

"Are you kiddin' me?" Nick glared at the officer in annoyance. "You're lettin' a murderer get away with murder just because you've got somethin' against me personally? You're gonna get fired for not doin' your job if you're not careful."

"Are you threatening me, Stokes?" Unfolding his arms from his chest, Officer O'Bryan took a step closer towards the slightly shorter CSI. "You and your little faggot boyfriend need to get your heads together. She's just lost her husband and the father of her children!"

"I suppose you just stood by while she assaulted Greg too?" Nick gave out a heavy groan then widened his eyes as Mrs Bartlett suddenly reached for Officer O'Bryan's holster, removing his gun while they were distracted arguing with one another.

"Don't move!" She threatened, pointing her gun towards Nick.

Nick scoffed, shaking his head towards O'Bryan as he slowly raised his hands either side of his body. "You gonna let her get away with this too? I'm a father of five you know, do I qualify for the get of jail free thing you've got goin' on here?"

"Shut up, Stokes!" O'Bryan rolled his eyes back at him as he raised his hands too. "Linda, just put the gun down." He spoke in a calm tone of voice towards Mrs Bartlett. "Think of your children." The officer who had known her for years tried to reason with her.

"She didn't think of em before, what good would that do?" Nick remarked as he raised his hands a little higher.

"CSI Stokes, do you carry a gun?" Mrs Bartlett looked towards him, watching his right hand slowly moving towards the holster on his belt. "Don't even think about it or those kids of yours won't have a daddy." She warned him.

"One short won't make a difference to em." O'Bryan muttered.

Nick rolled his eyes at him then slowly lifted the gun from his holster, handing it over to Mrs Bartlett. "Think about this Mrs Bartlett, you're in a police station. The halls are full of cops. There's no way out of here, even if you do kill us." Nick tried to reason with her. "The DA can give you a deal considerin' you just lost your husband."

"Shut up!" She hissed at him, backing them both up away from the door at gun point. "Keith, you got a back up weapon there?" She asked, turning her attention towards Officer O'Bryan.

"Yeah, my right leg." He pointed down to his shoe. "Linda, he's got a point. The DA will go easy on you. We can't help you if you do this though."

"I don't need your help." She shrieked as tears pooled down her cheeks. "CSI Stokes, can you remove Officer O'Bryan's back up and throw it over there." She pointed past the interrogation room table.

Nick nodded to her then slowly knelt down to unclip the backup weapon from O'Bryan's leg.

"Don't get any ideas, Stokes." The increasingly homophobic cop warned him.

"Don't flatter yourself." Nick rolled his eyes then tossed the gun across the room as instructed. "I'm married. And you're so not my type."

"Am I not dorky enough to be your bitch?"

"Would you guys shut up!" Linda barked at them. "Seriously, you're like little girls." Placing one hand on her back in agony, Linda heaved a deep breath from her throat, feeling a painful tingle in her stomach. "Sit down, both of you. Sit down!" She ordered, shaking the gun at them to make them do what she said.

"Linda, are you okay?" O'Bryan gave her a curious look as he took a seat on the bench behind him, putting a few inches between him and the CSI he despised. "You don't look so good."

"I think her water just broke." Nick noticed as he saw the water trickling down her leg that looked a lot like amniotic fluid, and he recognised the symptoms she was going through as he had been around Greg when his waters broke for all three pregnancies. "Linda, you really don't wonna do this with a baby on the way." Nick tried to reason with her.

"Stop telling me what I do and don't want to do!" She shrieked then directed the gun in her hands towards O'Bryan, squeezing off one round into his chest. Nick flinched back from the loud sound then looked up at Linda once his hearing returned. "Now shut up or I'll shoot you too!" She threatened.

"Keith!" Nick quickly moved to help his co-worker on the floor who just slipped off the bench a few seconds after he was shot. Nick nervously looked up towards Mrs Bartlett before he attempted to try and slow the bleeding to the officers wound. Regardless of what he thought of him, he wouldn't just let him die.

"S-Stokes." He choked on the blood pooling into his throat.

"Shh, shh, don't talk." Nick whispered to him then peeled back the officer's shirt to see where the bullet had hit him. "Damn it, Linda, it's gone straight through. He's gonna bleed to death if we don't get him help."

"Well you shoulda thought about that before you started running your mouth!" She shouted at him while she held her side in agony.

"Linda, somebody probably heard the shot. Do you want your kids to be motherless too?" Nick asked her as he grasped his hands together over O'Bryan's gunshot wound.

While Linda was muttering something to herself, Nick looked around the room at the chairs, the discarded guns, his open kit on the table and the fire extinguisher on the wall behind him as he tried to figure out a plan to take her down without harming the baby inside her.

"Stokes, d-don't do anything." O'Bryan croaked from the floor beneath him.

"Yeah, don't do anything Stokes or I'll put a bullet between your eyes." Linda warned him as she leant back against the table behind her.

"Mrs Bartlett, do you really want your baby to be born like this in the room where your husband's best friend bled out?" Nick looked up at her as the blood seeped through his fingers from O'Bryan's wound. "We can get you both off to the hospital. O'Bryan's gonna need emergency surgery, and we can take you straight through to get that baby out safely." Looking towards the door, Nick shook his head slightly as Brass and some other officers were about to burst in. "Linda, just give me the gun and I'll get you both off to the hospital."

"I can't have this baby without him!" She moaned, lowering the gun at her side as she held her stomach from the pain of a contraction.

Nick slowly released his firm grip on Officer O'Bryan then sprang to his feet, going for the gun in her hands. He knew it was a dumb idea, but O'Bryan was going to die and the baby was going to pop any minute now, not to mention the fact that the officers outside would probably shoot her, rather than see another officer dead so he had to do something before it was too late.

Linda struggled with him, managing to squeeze off another round before Nick forcefully tugged the gun from her hands, holding it out of her reach.

"Nicky!" Brass shouted as him and his boys burst into the room. Officer's Metcalf and Spencer tugged Linda away from him while Brass grabbed the gun from Nick's hands, looking at the blood soaking his shirt and hands. "Where are you hit, Nick?"

Nick quickly pat himself down, still in shock from the initial firing of the gun. He gave Brass a shrug then quickly pointed over to Officer O'Bryan lying on the floor. "We need an ambulance for him though. He's lost a lot of blood. And Linda's waters broke, she's goin' into labour."

"On it." Brass pulled his cell from his pocket to quickly call for some paramedics.

Nick leant back against the table edge now that it was all over; letting out a huge sigh when he noticed some blood on his forearm that was coming from him. Lifting his arm away from his black t-shirt, Nick could now see that the bullet had just grazed his forearm. Two inches the other way and they'd be hauling his body off to the morgue.


Waking up to the sound of a ringing cell phone, Greg fluttered his eyes open then reached for the phone as he adjusted the sleeping baby in his arms. "Hello?" He sleepily answered.

"Greg, it's Catherine. Nothing to worry about, so please, please don't get all panicky on me. But there was a shooting at the police station." She calmly tried to explain, making the younger man widen his eyes as he sat up straight, fully awake now.

"Oh my god, who was shot?" Greg immediately panicked, even though she had told him not to. "Was it... is Nicky okay?" Greg asked, swallowing down the large lump in his throat.

"He's okay Greggy." She quickly assured him. "Nick managed to disarm the suspect wielding the gun, and he saved Officer O'Bryan's life. He's at the hospital now."

"If he's okay, then whys he at the hospital?" Greg almost shrieked in panic.

"He's fine Greg, really he is. It's just a scratch. Half a dozen stitches, tops. Nothing serious." Catherine assured him as she checked on the tough guy again. "I just thought I should call you since you're nothing to Nick on paper. Don't panic though, he really is okay."

"Okay, I'll be there in a minute." Greg snapped his phone shut then carefully climbed off the bed, carrying the slumbering baby off towards the crib in the corner. Greg gently set her down, covering her with a blanket then made his way off down the stairs towards the front room where his mother was fast asleep on the sofa. Gently shaking her awake, Greg then pried the empty wine glass from her hands before he looked into her sleepy eyes. "Mom, I gotta go out."

"Again?" She yawned widely, stretching her arms out. "I thought you're on suspended leave?"

"I am. Nick's... at the hospital. He needs a lift home." Greg covered as she'd never let him hear the end of it if he told her that he was injured. "I'll be back before they wake up." He assured her then pressed a kiss to her cheek before he straightened up and head off towards the front door, constantly worrying about Nick. Even though Catherine had assured him that he was going to be okay, Greg couldn't help but feel that their last shared kiss could have really been the very last kiss.


Thank you for all of your reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying this short story, next chapter is the last one. Please Review!

~ Holly