Title: No Easy Task

Chapter 4

Nick sat quietly on the cold marble floor trying to think. Think of how he could convince Jack to let Mary go. Think of what he could do to get out of here in no worse shape than he already was. Think whether his friends had figured out the trouble he was in, whether they were listening to his cell. Hell, just trying to think of anything that would get his mind off of the pain in his shoulder, the pain in his chest, and let's not forget the pain in his head. He reached up to feel the knot that was forming on his forehead.

They'd been sitting in silence for a while now. He wasn't sure how long. It was an eerie sort of quiet too. He no longer heard police sirens. All units dispatched to the scene where surely already outside, having taken their positions and just waiting for instructions from their superiors on how to proceed. Even the bank's telephones had gone quiet. He wondered if maybe the police were trying to get a direct line to one of the phones in the lobby in an attempt to eventually contact the ring leader of this little gathering.

Nick looked over at the brunette sitting quietly on the floor next to him. Mary didn't look like she could be much older than he was. Tear tracks marked her cheeks. She had stopped crying, but only out of fear that doing so would illicit more anger from their hostage-taker. She continued to unconsciously rub at her stomach while following Jack with her eyes as he moved around the small lobby. She seemed pretty together right now. Nick tried figuring how far along she was. Something he was surprisingly good at considering he didn't have any kids of his own and had no day-to-day experience with pregnant women. But he did have 5 sisters. Five sisters who had given birth to nine of his eleven nieces and nephews. And although he lived in a different state than they did and didn't see them everyday, he was the recipient of many, many e-mails attaching a plethora of pictures of them and their families in everyday life and at all sorts of events, all with detailed explanations of what was going on. They were all close and kept in touch as best they could. E-mails and pictures being the most popular choice. His e-mails to them not carrying so many attachments as theirs to him. All he ever did was work, catch a beer and some sports game with the guys, and go on the occasional date. What was he supposed to do, send a photo of his most recent date gone bad or his latest crime victim? Come to think of it, he couldn't really think of a time in the last twelve years or so when someone in his family wasn't pregnant. Seemed to be one right after the other. Like they all took turns, drew straws or something. He hoped his turn would come someday.

"Nick?" Mary's whisper brought him back to the present. He looked at her quizzically, not wanting to do too much talking if he could help it. Not only because of the effort involved, but because he didn't want Jack getting upset at them again. At least not before he could figure out what he could say to the man.

"Are you okay?" That surprised him a little. He's actually extremely concerned about being able to get her out of the bank and here she was asking him if he was okay.

A small smile spread across his lips. "Yeah. Yeah, Mary. I'm fine."

"I don't believe you. Sound like my oldest. He always has to be tough." Her eyes twinkled at the thought of her child.

"How old is he?"

"He's fifteen. Have a daughter too, twelve."

"Wow. That's some age gap. At least you'll have babysitters."

"Yeah. This one," she looked down and patted the belly hidden under a blue cardigan, "was a complete shock."

"I'll bet. What, about 7 months?"

Mary tilted her head to one side, a stunned look extending across her face. "How'd you know? You have kids?"

"Nah, but I do have lots of sisters, lots of nieces and nephews." Nick straightened his back against the counter and grimaced once again at the pain the movement caused.

"Are you still bleeding?"

He looked to his left shoulder and lifted the lapel of his jacket to peer inside at the wound. "I think it's slowed down some. It'll stop."

Mary started unbuttoning the cardigan she wore, revealing a knit tank-top of the matching color underneath, and removed the garment. "Do you think you could lean forward a little bit?"

Unsure of what she was attempting, he asked her why.

"Let me wrap it under your arm and around your shoulder, put some pressure on it and stop the bleeding." Her demeanor seemed to have shifted from frightened-hostage to worried-mother almost instantly.

"You don't need to do that. I'll be fine." He was embarrassed to think she was spending a single second worrying about him.

"I told you, I've heard that before and I don't believe it. Besides, my hormones have got me sweating a little. Needed to take it off. Take my mind off having to pee too. Maybe it'll do you a little good. Now, forward."

"Yes, mam." A genuine smile spread across Nick's face before he grunted at having to move. Mary liked him. He was a polite and considerate young man who made you want to take care of him. She hoped they could both escape this alive.

"What are you up to now?"

Mary startled a little at the sound of Jack's voice. Her demeanor almost completely creeping back to frightened-hostage as she turned the cardigan into a crude bandage around Nick's shoulder. "He, he's still bleeding."

"We're not trying anything, I swear." A pained Nick assured man.

Jack opened his mouth to speak, probably reprimand them again, but was cut-off by the sound of a man speaking through a bull horn outside. Nick recognized the voice and, in fact, was relieved to hear that voice.

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Warrick had driven them to the bank. They rode in silence, each lost in their own thoughts over the situation. When they had arrived, they found the street in front of the bank had been blocked off to traffic. Emergency vehicles were littered all over the street and parking lot. The officers standing guard around the perimeter had recognized the African-American behind the wheel and lifted the crime scene tape to allow them to drive forward. Warrick didn't have to pull up too much before having to park the truck. The closest police cruisers were set up about 75 to 100 feet from the entrance of the bank, half way down bank's parking lot so as not to crowd the single-story brick building. Grissom had jumped out of the vehicle before Warrick could even put it in park, his cell phone pressed to his right ear. Warrick clenched his jaw upon recognizing Nick's truck parked right in front of the bank. He shot a look at Grissom and Sara, who simultaneously nodded back at the man in confirmation of the familiar SUV. They walked as quickly as they could across the blacktop, searching for Brass so he could be updated with the information they had received from Catherine. Brass would be in control of the situation, but considering everything was just starting to come together, there was still a bit of chaos. S.W.A.T. had arrived. There were officers escorting civilians from the back of the building to a safe distance from bank. They were even evacuating some of the businesses on either side and across from the bank. Grissom recognized most of the uniformed officers on the scene and was about to ask one about Brass' whereabouts when another detective caught his eye.

"Vartaan! Where's Brass?" Grissom shouted and walked towards the younger detective who was still a good fifty feet away.

Vartaan removed his sunglasses and pointed them to the left. "By S.W.A.T. bus maybe, he was trying to find some of the bank employees that got out and get some info from them. Should be setting up a command post over there too."

The three CSIs went in that direction in search of Jim. They spotted him over at the far end of the parking lot. The frumpy detective was speaking to a distressed blonde. As they approached, they assumed that she must have been inside the bank when the attempted robbery took place. She was crying almost uncontrollably, mascara running down her face along with her tears. Jim placed a hand on her shoulder. They approached quietly in order to hear the conversation between them.

"Miss Stevens, I need you to calm down for me. I need to know what happened in there, tell me how many there were, how many were left inside."

The woman took a few deep breaths and made a big effort to relay the information to the detective. "There were two guys…an- and…they had on trench coats, that's where they hid their g-guns." She let out another sob and then took another calming breath.

"Go on Miss Stevens, you're doing fine." Brass tried to keep her going.

"The bigger one c-came up to the c-counter and pulled out a deposit slip. He had w-written on it that he had a gun a-and he w-wanted me to empty out my d-drawer. It took me a second to do it. I freaked, froze." She had to take several pauses in between sentences to keep her composure, or what there was of it.

Sara clenched her fists at her sides. It took all of her effort to not shake the woman and make her relive the incident faster so they could find out if Nick was okay.

Brass continued to encourage her. "Go on."

"I s-started to pull money out of the drawer and into the guy's b-backpack. At one point I thought I h-had a ch-chance to hit the alarm and I did, b-but he noticed and got a-angry and y-yelled and then his gun came out. That's when Ernie, the guard…" She started to cry again. "Ernie asked him to back-off and the guy turned around and p-pointed his gun back at Ernie. But he's not the one that fired. His p-partner, he was near the e-entrance, he pulled out a sh-shotgun or something and shot Ernie in the back." The crying started once again.

"Miss Stevens, the accomplice, he only fired once? Did anyone else get hurt?"

"Yeah. He only fired once."

The relief was brief upon hearing that he only fired once, but she continued with the story.

"But we had one other cu-customer in line, young guy. He had a black cap, dark hair. It was early so there was h-hardly anyone in the bank at all. When Ernie got shot, he p-pulled out a gun and shot the one near the entrance." The tears continued to fall as the woman got a faraway look. "He shot the other guy, the one that shot Ernie. And then, the one that demanded the money, he yelled and shot the customer with the gun. I s-saw him fall. It all h-happened so fast. The few of us th-that were behind the counter, we ran behind one of the security doors to the back offices and the v-vault. We called 911 and later came out when we saw officers at the back of the bank."

Sara was fighting the urge to cry. From what this woman was saying and the information Catherine had gotten, there was little chance that Nick hadn't gotten hit. Grissom's stony expression didn't reveal any of what he may have been feeling. Warrick however was showing every bit of the anger he was feeling coursing through his body. He started to pace near the group, shaking his head and trying to get a handle on what he had just heard.

"Thank you Miss Stevens. You've been a lot of help. I'm going to have this officer escort you away from here. I'd like for you not to go too far away, just in case we need to talk to you again." Brass' mind raced to the night a few years back when they had just barely gotten to Nick's in time, shocked at seeing the young man struggling with a gun wielding Nigel Crane. They'd prevented him from getting shot then. They were too late now. He turned to face Gil.

"Wait, Detective?" Miss Stevens, a little more composed, had one last thing to add.

"Yes?"

"My co-worker, Mary. She worked upfront in the lobby as an account representative. She's still in there. I'm scared for her. She's seven months pregnant. I don't think she got shot or anything, but she didn't come out with us."

"We'll do our best to get her out, I promise." Brass dismissed her and the uniform and turned again to face Grissom. He ran a hand across his tired face. "Has Catherine heard anything?"

"Her story pretty much confirms everything Catherine thought she heard. She called on the way over here. She could hear Nicky, but he did sound hurt. She also thinks the remaining gunman may have beaten him, hurt him more. Nick may know his phone was still connected. Seemed to be giving us as much information as he could about what was going on in there." Grissom told the older man about the robber's name being Jack, how Nick and the pregnant bank employee were the only hostages and that Nick seemed to be trying to talk the man down.

"Atta boy, Nick. Kid's always thinking."

"Hold on, I still have Catherine on." Grissom turned his attention to his phone.

"Catherine, have you heard anything else."

"Besides the confirmation you just got? It was quite for a while. Now I can hear Nick and the hostage talking to each other. But nothing but calming assurances. Only confirmation that they're okay, relatively speaking."

"Okay, thanks Catherine. Call me back if you hear anything important."

"Gil, we've been connected for almost an hour now. I don't know how much longer we'll be connected."

"I know. We'll take it as long as we can get it." With that he disconnected the phone.

Vartaan came running over to them. "Captain, we got a direct line set up to the bank. I think we're ready to communicate with them."

"As ready as we'll ever be, I suppose." Brass went to the are set up as a makeshift command post, grabbed a bullhorn and made his way behind the cruiser closest to the entrance of the bank.

Brass's rough voice echoed across to the building. "Whoever you are in there, my name is Jim Brass. I'm with the LVPD. We'd like to talk to you. We're going to be calling you. You can pick up which ever phone rings in the lobby. We want to make sure everyone's alright. We're ready to hear your demands."

tbc

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