Nick was laying in a room he didn't recognize, even though it was almost completely dark. The shadowy figures in the room and lining the walls weren't those of the rooms he would normally be sleeping in. They didn't match any of the rooms in his, Warrick's, or Catherine's house. It definitely wasn't the lab. Nick was out of choices as to where he was. He didn't know where he was, but he knew he was laying in a fairly comfortable bed with a soft dark red comforter thrown over him. Nick hadn't noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt anymore until he looked down and saw his bare chest that actually looked kind of like he did have a shirt on because of the dark blue and black bruises covering the surface of his upper body.
Nick wished he could move, speak, anything but just lay there. The previous events that had lead up to this slowly startedflowing back into his mind. When his memory was in full swing, Nick began to get a little concerned as to whether or not Surella had come back for him and taken him to wherever he was now. But that fear quickly went away as Nick figured that if Surella had in fact come back for him, he probably wouldn't have been so kind as to have put him a nice comfortable bed and remove his shirt. At least, Nick hoped he wasn't the one who had removed his shirt. Nick's answer came into the room moments after he had opened his eyes.
Nick watched as Mike walked across the room and over to the left side of the bed he was in. Mike looked down at him, seeing he was awake and obviously not sure of what to say. They were both silent for a few minutes before Mike finally said something.
"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.
Nick shrugged as best he could. "I've been better."
Mike nodded slightly. "I had a doctore friend of mine come over and check you out. Hospitals ask too many questions. He said that the damage isn't as bad as it looks, just severe bruising and it'll be hard to breath until your ribs heal up. You're gonna be fine though."
Nick barely paid attention to that information. There was more important things he wanted to find out. "Did you find me?"
Mike nodded. "Yeah, me and Jack did. Dad got a message from one of Surella's guys saying we better check up on you. When you weren't at home and didn't answer your cell, we knew exactly where to look. Surella pulls this shit all the time, just never on us. That was a big mistake."
"Why? What did you guys do?"
"Nothing," Mike answered quickly. "Don't worry about it Nicky, just rest and get better."
"Why did he go after me? I didn't do anything to him," Nick asked.
"He wanted to shake us up, intimidate us," Mike replied. "He wants to send a message and look like a bad ass. He knows better than to go after dad directly and you're like the new kid at high school. Don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen to you again, I promise."
"This wasn't that bad. I've had a lot worse happen to me in my life, trust me," Nick said.
"And I wasn't around to do anything about it," Mike said sadly. "You probably don't believe me, but I wish I could have been around when you were growing up. At least I had Jack lookin' out for you, and Jason too. They did a better job then I would have been able to anyway."
"Yeah," Nick said, nodding slightly. "Maybe, but they're not my real brother. You are. That counts for something."
Mike sighed heavily. "Unfortunately, it doesn't count for much in my case."
Nick was still having trouble breathing when he had clocked in for work the next night. Mike had driven him home and finally left after Nick had promised extensively that he was okay. He had taken a long, hot shower before getting dressed and going to work. His chest felt a little better than it had before and Mike assured him it would be back to normal sooner than he thought. Nick was looking forward to that indefinitely.
But that had nothing to do with the fact that Nick's lungs wouldn't take in air right now. That wasn't a factor at all to his racing heart and sudden spinning of his head. That was all due to what he had just heard on TV that had taken his full attention away form whatever Warrick had been telling him as the two friends sat at the table in the break room.
"...gangster Tommy Surella was found dead today, along with his two main muscle men, in the back of a van in the alley off strip. Police have no witnesses or leads at this time, but if you have any information..."
The news anchors voice suddenly faded as Nick looked back over at Warrick quickly. Warrick had noticed Nick's sudden behavior towards the news and the fact that his face was now paler than he had ever seen it.
"What's wrong man?" Warrick asked.
Nick answered by getting up and leaving the break room quickly, heading for the vacant locker room away from the other people in the lab. Warrick instinctively got up and followed Nick into the locker room, getting more and more worried with every step. He hadn't heard what had spooked Nick on the news, but could figure out that it was not only pretty bad, but most likely involved his real family that just so happened to be gangsters.
When Warrick walked into the locker room, Nick was standing about ten feet away from the door, and even from there Warrick could see his hands were shaking. Warrick closed the door silently behind him and stood there, staring at Nick, waiting for something to happen or for his friend to just spit it out. When neither came, Warrick couldn't help but try to spark the conversation himself.
"You're scaring the hell out of me man," he said, trying to be calm. "What the hell's wrong?"
Instead of a verbal response, Nick pulled his long sleevedt-shirt over his head with his still shaking hands, revealing to Warrick the vast expanse of black bruises covering his entire chest. It was impossible to make out a distinct shape of any of them because there were too many and they all were conjoined to form one huge, terrible looking bruise. Warrick also noticed two white bandages taped across each of Nick's wrists, something he hadn't been able to see before because of his long sleeves.
Warrick was in a state of shock at this sight. "What the hell happened to you?" he managed to say.
"Surella," Nick said, finally finding his voice.
Warrick shook his head slowly. "Tommy Surella? The mobster?"
Nick nodded. "Yeah."
Then it hit Warrick. "He's dead, Catherine and Grissom are out on that case right now. He did this to you?" Nick nodded again. "When?"
"Last night," Nick replied. "He brought me to that place we always go mini golfing with Linday. His guys tied me up to the fence in the batting cage, and he turned it on and all the baseballs hit me. He said he wanted to send a message to my father."
Warrick's jaw dropped. "And now he's dead," he said quietly. "Do you think-"
Nick cut him off. "Yeah, I do. When I woke up, I was at Mike's house. They called him and Jack and told them to check up on me, and Mike knew where to look for me when I didn't answer my phone. He had a doctor friend of his look at me and said I was okay and Mike told me not to worry about Surella, that they made a big mistake."
Nick pulled his shirt back over his head, concealing his bruises and bandagedwrists,and took several deep breaths before speaking again. "They killed him Warrick, because of me they killed him. This isn't good."
Warrick held up his hands. "I know, I know, but just calm down. You didn't do anything wrong, and I bet this is going to be just like all the other times when no one can prove that your family did anything."
Nick sank down onto the bench in the middle of the room. "I don't want them to be my family. I don't want anything to do with this. I get into enough trouble as it is on my own without them helping me out by getting me tied to a fence and being a human pitching target."
Warrick sat down next to Nick. "I know this is crazyman, but you can't just hide from it. Have you talkedto Jack?"
Nick shook his head. "No, not for a few days. I haven't seen any of them for a while until last night when I woke up at Mike's." Nick sighed heavily andheld his head in his hands."This is so fucked up."
"It's gonna be alright man," Warrick said, trying to be helpful to his best friend even though he knew it was borderline impossible to do that right now, especially given the current circumstances.
JamesSparazza was not an idiot. In fact, he was one of the most intelligent people that Jack Miller had ever met in his entire life, and he'd met a lot of people in his years. There were very few people that he had met that he had that impression and overwhelming respect for immediatly.James Sparazza was clever, charismatic, confident and just an overall bright human being. Jack had only met one other person like that in his life, and that person just happened to be James' youngest son, Nick.
Jack felt helpless as he sat there at the table along with Mike, Jimmy and Nick. After Nick had gotten over the beautiful house he was in and the fact that it belonged to his father, the four men had sat down to talk business. James had asked Nick there for one reason and one reason only, and they all knew what it was and had been expecting it to happen sooner or later. It was really just a matter of time before this meeting took place.
"Let's cut to the chase, shall we?" James said. "I know more about you than meets the eye. And what I know, I really really like. You're just like me Nick."
Nick cringed to himself at that thought, but kept his mouth and brain from formulating a sarcastic comment.
"I want you in my life," James continued. "Both as my son, and as an employee. Going thirty years with absolutely nothing isn't easy to do, and I want to take advantage of the fact that we're relocating to Vegas to do bigger and better business, and you're perfect for the job."
Nick looked over at Jack, who was starting down at the table in front of them with a blank expression on his face. Nick looked back over at his father, trying to ignore Jack's reaction. Nick knew he had to do this for the benefit of everyone, but especially himself. If he could accomplish his ultimate goal, then he could be lifted from the burden he had been carrying for thirty years. He was still unsure of exactly what this burden was, but he felt it's presence every day.
"I know that there's no need to say the obvious and that there's unspoken things we're all in agreement of. So now the question is, are you in? Because if you're in, you're in." James said in a very firm tone.
Nick looked at Mike, who smiled somewhat weakly, but smiled nontheless. Then he looked back at Jack, who was still staring at the table with no emotion on his face whatsoever, but Nick knew exactly how he was feeling. Despite being scared out of his mind and totally unsure of his capability to go through with this, Nick took a deep breath and nodded slowly.
"I'm in."
