Author: Nicksfriend

Rating:k

Spoilers: Stalker. It drives me crazy when they do something to our sweet Texan and then they allow no resolution. Drives me crazy!

Disclaimer: They do not belong to me...that is for sure.

Author's note:This is my third CSI fic. Please be gentle.

I love this episode and it is the epi that got me hooked as a CSI addict.

"It's not over for me, it's over for Jane Galloway though." Nick was in obvious pain but nobody seemed to hear him, they just left the room. No words were spoken, except "We need to get back to the lab."

Grissom and Catherine were walking down the hallway following Sara and Warrick to Nick's room when Grissom's cellphone rang. He quickly retrieved it from his belt and answered so as to not disturb other patients.

"Grissom." He came across a little perturbed that he was having a call at the moment.

"Archie, listen I have been watching the rest of the tapes and I think I found something." Excited to be able to help his friend Nick and to also help in the investigation.

"We already have Nigel Crane in custody." Grissom responded rather flatly.

""No, there is something else you need to see. I think we may have another player in this sick game." Archie stopped to allow Grissom to answer.

"What are you talking about Archie?" Grissom's movements down the hallway stopped and the rest of the team stopped with him, hearing his frustration over the phone.

"It looks as if Crane had an accomplice, someone who had access to the newsletter. Crane makes mention of him in a tape. He called him his special helper, which is different than what he called Nick which was his friend." Archie continued to observe the antics of the insane man on tape as he talked.

Grissom's mind could not wrap around this, he had told Nick it was not about him, but what if it were all about him. "I'll be right there."

"Something else, he had taped Nick the same way he had taped Jane Galloway." Embarrassed that he had seen so much of Nick's private life on screen.

"Don't allow anybody else access to those tapes, I'll be there as soon as I'm finished here." He motioned the rest of the team ahead and waved Brass over to him.

"What is it Gil?" Brass asked worried that something else had happened with Nick's stalker.

"I need you to talk to Crane." Grissom's voice low as not to draw attention to his conversation.

"You got to be kidding, the man can only say six words. I am one, who am I." Brass looked over his shoulder watching as Sara, Warrick and Catherine entered Nick's room, thinking that the kid go not handle much more. "Okay, maybe I can use the attic of the justice building to make him feel more comfortable, maybe offer him some of my clothing, who wouldn't want to be me?"

"Whatever you have to do just do it, I need to know if he had an accomplice, it could mean Nick's life." His tone of voice serious as he glanced over his shoulder and wondered if Nick could be safe wherever he was located.

"I'll put an officer at the door, tell Nick I'll see him later." Brass turned and headed down the hallway.

Grissom walked towards Nick's room where he heard a very distraught Nick arguing with Warrick.

"I had surgery? What the hell man. I go to sleep for a few minutes and wake up with a hole in my gut." His voice was as loud as a sore throat would allow and he was trying to sit up in bed.

"Listen Nick, Warrick saved your life." Sara interrupted, "You're not thinking very well right now."

"You need to calm down before you pull out your stitches." Catherine was trying to calm Nick with a soothing hand to his forehead.

"You don't get it." Nick finally lay down and gave into the crowd around him, frustrated that again his life felt out of his control.

"What don't we get man, that we care about you, that we all have been through hell in the past couple of days. I give man." Warrick threw his hands up in the air and walked out of the room, bumping into Grissom's shoulder as he exited the room.

Catherine removed her hand and gave Nick a small smile and then followed Warrick out of the room.

Sara gave Nick a very disappointed look and pulled up a seat and sat down, Grissom came around and stood near the window, taking in the very agitated Nick Stokes, something he had never really observed of the young man except at a crime scene and even then he was in control. This was different and he almost had immediate understanding, Nick's privacy had been violated, he felt out of control of his own life.

Nick turned his head in frustration, he had tubes and drains coming out of everywhere, 'I guess someone recorded this moment in my crappy life too.', he thought to his groggy self. Why did his life feel like it was no longer his to direct.

"I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry." He looked over at Sara who seemed to melt at his words, she was worried and he knew that his friends always had his best interests in mind, "That was so stupid, I just can't ." he ended his sentence abruptly knowing that he was about to admit his true feelings in front of his friend and his boss, something that he had done once but had decided to never to do again. He attempted to move but was stopped by the pain in his gut. 'Damn." he thought to himself.

The room was filled with silence for several minutes as both Sara and Grissom watched their friend, who was not only in physical pain but also emotional pain. Nigel Crane had taken away something more precious than Nick's clothes, he had taken away his peace of mind, his security.

The nurse entered, bringing him something to assist his pain. Grissom and Sara took that moment to step out.

"Were those your friends?" The older nurse asked as she swabbed the IV port to inject his pain medication.

"You might call them that, they just have a habit of walking out." he soke mostly to himself, remembering when he had expressed his feelings in the lock up room, how they had just walked out.He rolled his eyes and stared towards the door as the nurse injected the medication. The pain in his stomach was nothing compared to the pain he was feeling inside.

Grissom and Sara stood outside the room waiting for the nurse to finish. Both feeling helpless to assist a man in so much pain.

"Listen I need to run back to the lab, you stay with Nick. I'll be back in a while." Grissom had already started to walk down the hallway.

Sara looked at Grissom with suspicion, "What?"

Grissom turned around and answered,"Crane may have had help. I need to go and talk to Archie." He turned and continued walking down the hallway leaving a very stunned Sara behind.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'This guy is a nut case, how in the hell am I going to get him to talk?.' He thought to himself as he entered the room where Crane was being held. They had taken Nick's clothes as evidence and now the little man was dressed in an orange jumpsuit.

Brass placed Nick's folder on the desk and sat down at the table, the officers standing at the door, Crane sitting on the edge of his chair still repeating his mantra.

"I am one, Who am I?" Now Crane was sitting rocking back and forth as if he were a child who was trying to comfort himself.

"Listen, I am one you don't want to piss off so I want some answers and I want you to give them to me. Did you have someone to help you?" Brass leaned forward hoping to intimidate the man who was sitting staring into oblivion. He picked up the newsletter with Nick's picture and shoved it over directly in front of Crane's face, "Did you have help Mr Crane? Because for some reason I don't think you are smart enough to plan this all by yourself?"

"I am one, who am I?" Crane continued his mantra over and over again.

"Listen you little sick son of a bitch, I need some answers and I want you to give them to me or I will lock your sorry ass up." Brass had enough of the sick little mans antics.

Crane looked up at Brass and stared, "I am one, Who am I?"

Brass stood to leave, seeing that he was getting nowhere quick with the crazy man before him, when he thought he heard something different,he turned and looked a now smiling Crane starring down at the newsletter.

"You said Nick would be my friend." Nigel Crane's voice was low, more like he was talking to himself.

"Who said it Nigel, who told you such a sick lie?" Brass leaned over and was now in his face.

"I can't tell,he'll get mad." He clasped his hands together and started rocking again. Repeating his mantra again, "I am one, who am I?"

"Get him to lock up." Brass was upset, someone was playing a game, a game of life and death with his friend.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Grissom walked into the lab, he had had enough of Nigel Crane and his control over Nick's life. As he entered Archie's area the first thing he saw was Nick's sleeping form on screen, he was mumbling something in his sleep. As he sat down he noticed that Nick was talking in his sleep, he was talking about Catherine. He shook his head, the boy takes his work home with him, he thought to himself.

Archie turned and looked at Grissom and gave him a look of concern, "I've been going over these tapes and I am getting the impression that Crane was just a pawn."

"What are you saying Archie?" Grissom was still watching the screen.

"Watch this." he flipped out the current tape and placed in another but this time it was Crane talking again.

"I have a special friend, he helps me to gather things. He helps me to get my friends. He is my helper." He pauses for a few seconds, he seems more nervous when he speaks of this person,"My friend Nick knows him, ask him, ask Nick." Then the tape ends.

"Does he mention this anymore?" Grissom asks as he starts looking through the tapes.

"I have been through the majority of the tapes but there is still a lot of them, but so far that is the only mention of the special friend." Archie picked up the tape he had been watching earlier and popped it back into the video player.

Grissom stood and started walking out the door, "Call me if there is anything else, I need to go back to the hospital and talk to Nick."

"Will do." Archie replied as he watched Nick continue to toss and turn in his sleep, continuing to mention Catherine's name.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Warrick and Catherine sat in the cafeteria having a cup of coffee, there concern evident.

"I was just trying to help him Catherine, why did that make him so angry?" Warrick held his hand to his head trying to rub away a headache that had developed from lack of sleep and guilt.

"Listen, Nick has been through a lot in a short amount of time. He is just venting that onto you right now. It is probably because he is afraid." Reaching over and trying to give him comfort with a hand to his shoulder.

Warrick nodded and looked up into her blue eyes and smiled a small smile, "I know Nick, he is too stubborn to admit that he wants help or even needs help. That Texan can just make me so mad and yet he is my best friend."

She nodded, "I know, Nick needs you right now, he just doesn't know how to express that, so he comes across angry. We both know he is angry at the situation, not you."

"Yeah, you're right. We need to go back up and check on him." Warrick pushed himself away from the small table and stood," Are you coming?"

Catherine nodded and stood, both leaving their hot cups of coffee behind on the table. Both unaware that they were being watched.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx