AN: I'll try to keep it short this time: Um first off, you really need to read the ending note, as there is some big news in it. Secondly, I really like this chapter basically because the rush feeling is over - we know what it is. And its.. Well.. The title of the chapter explains it all. And last.. I want to apologize for the overall story, because I don't feel like it was very good. I'm still learning..
Important: The next chapter will not be a part of the story, but will be something you will all need/hopefully want to read. You'll better understand this when you read the end note.
Warning: Not properly beta'd. Sorry.. It was kind of half-done.. Well.. Hard to explain.. But I'm terribly sorry for any mistakes, but do know, I tried. Also.. I tried to be as realistic as I could without being boring. I may have stretched a few things… did a few things that normally wouldn't happen, but hey… tv and movies do it all the time!! Just bare with me if you can..
So much for keeping it short...
Ok, go read!
Nick couldn't be more relieved at this very moment, which was odd considering he was in a hospital. It seemed like only minutes ago he was watching Greg being pushed through the emergency room doors with a knife sticking out his side, and now he was able to be picked up. Of course, it had been just over 24 hours since Greg had been emitted, so the fact that he was already well enough to leave made Nick feel so thankful that his friend was alive and well. It really could have ended up so much worse.
As Nick rounded the corner, he noticed that the cute receptionist had been replaced by a large, rather hairy man. And when he could see into Greg's room, he saw her sitting on Greg's bed, while Greg occupied the chair beside it. He stopped just before he was in the doorway to watch Greg and this girl.
As Nick watched the two of them laugh and saw their smiles, he couldn't help not to smile himself. He couldn't really say that he had ever seen Greg put his charms on a girl, but he had to give it to the guy, Greg was quite the charmer. After he saw them exchange what looked like cards with numbers on them, Nick decided it was time to enter.
The young woman saw him first and immediately stopped talking and got off Greg's bed. At this, Greg also turned in his chair and winced at the obvious pain in his side, but greeted Nick with a large smile none the less.
"Hey man," Nick greeted Greg as he walked further into the room. "Didn't I see you this morning," he asked politely turning to the receptionist who's name he couldn't remember.
"Yeah, I think so," she answered as she got closer to Nick and offered him her hand. "I'm Darcy."
Nick reached out and grabbed her hand and shook it. "Oh, that's right." He then turned his attention to Greg. "You 'bout ready to hit it, G?"
"Oh yeah," he answered, placing his hands on the arms or the chair and painfully pushed himself up with Nick's help.
"He'll be sore for a little while and will need to come in tomorrow night and get checked out, but otherwise, he just needs to take it easy and make sure the wound is properly dressed," Darcy said to Nick. He laughed to himself, seeing that Darcy apparently knew Greg well enough to instruct someone else of what Greg was supposed to be doing.
"Thanks," Nick replied, cutting his eyes at Greg. "We'll make sure he follows orders." The statement made Greg roll his eyes playfully.
"I'm sure you will. Well, I leave you two alone and I'll see you later," she asked Greg.
"Yep. Thanks Darc," he answered and watched her leave with a giant grin on his face. Nick just looked at him with a smirk on his face.
"What," Greg asked defensively.
"Oh, nothing," Nick retorted, the smirk still very much present on his face. "She's cute."
"Oh… yeah. She stayed with me the whole day," Greg replied, his eyes on the door where she had just been.
Then something dawned on Nick. "Whoa.. Wait a second," he began in a higher-pitched tone that was still playful. "You got rid of me for her, didn't you?"
Greg immediately snapped out of his lala-land and seemed appalled. "What? No. No I didn't…"
"Yes, yes you did. I saw her walk by earlier today while I was here, and it was suddenly 'Oh Nick, you should go try to figure out the case'," Nick said in a mock-version of Greg's voice. "B.S., man. You just wanted to talk to miss cutesy pants out there."
"No…" Greg responded, but he knew he had been busted. It wasn't that he was wanting to get rid of Nick earlier because he really appreciated Nick coming to visit him, but he was just so excited about this new girl. "Sorry.. I just.. I didn't mean.."
"Nah, it's fine, G," Nick interrupted, laughing. "Like I said, she's cute. And its hard to get a good girl with the job we have. I don't blame you…"
"Yeah.. Yeah thanks." Greg said, still feeling guilty.
"So, you ready to go now," Nick asked again, looking over Greg who was now leaning against a wall. "Oh, and nice scrubs G. You look like a proficient little doctor-boy."
"Hey, little doctor-boys get all the girls…" Greg replied jokingly.
"Yeah, and all the money." Nick retorted and he and Greg walked out the room and through the white hallways, Nick staying close to Greg in case he needed some support. But, despite Greg slowing down towards the end, he managed to make it all the way out the hospital.
"Ah man," Nick began as he cranked his car. "You should have seen Sara when you called. She about flipped right out of her seat."
"Why," Greg asked, not really understanding why Sara would be so surprised to hear him.
"Think about it Greg. She hadn't seen or heard from you at all, only saw the blood in your apartment. And you know Sara, she's such a worrier and stubborn to boot. Grissom had to tell her a couple times that you were ok and that we all needed to work on the case. And then you end up figuring out the last clues anyway."
Greg felt kind of bad now. He hadn't thought of the whole situation from anyone else's point of view, but to him, he had always been fine.
"Sounds a lot worse when you say it like that. And, it was just luck that I saw that news broadcast. Heck, it may just be a coincidence anyway."
"Maybe, but like you said, everything fits. All of it. And this close to Halloween.. Its perfect. I just can't imagine anyone going after a bunch of children for any reason."
"Yeah," Greg responded as the Vegas lights washed over his face and lit up the night sky. "The world can be crazy… So what do we do now?"
"Well," Nick took a deep breath. "From what I heard before I left, they are notifying the police department as well as the school officials. That's all I know really. Now, on to other pressing matters. If you want to go home right now, you can. But if I go back to that lab without you, I think Catherine and Sara will have my hide. But no pressure."
"No, that's fine. I want to see them and see what's going on anyway."
Nick nodded and they were silent for the rest of the trip. When they pulled into the lab parking lot, Nick quickly got out and went around to Greg's side to offer help as needed. Which turned out to be useful as the Denali was slightly high off the ground and Greg's legs about gave out. But after a moment, he was fine.
As they walked slowly through the hallways, a couple heads turned to see Greg who they knew had been hurt. Greg either didn't pay them any attention or otherwise blew them kisses, knowing that it was one of the most effective ways to turn their pity into something, anything else. Greg had never been one for pity.
As they neared Grissom's office, their supervisor's voice could be heard in a serious tone. "Ok, then what are our options?" Grissom asked, exhaustion clear in his voice.
When Nick and Greg entered the room, all heads turned to see them. After a short moment of silence, both Sara and Catherine came over to him. Sara gently put her arms around his neck and hugged him while Catherine was looking him over and Greg could see the motherly look in her eyes and knew what was coming.
"You look kind of pale," she said suddenly.
"No I don't," Greg said simply with a grin then turned to Grissom who was also looking him over. "What's going on now?"
"Glad to see you're ok, Greg. And we were just discussing that. Why don't you have a seat," Grissom answered.
Greg agreed that was a good idea and slowly made his way over to the couch where Warrick was also sitting. When he sat down, Warrick grabbed Greg's shoulder lightly and nodded, which Greg knew was his version of saying "Glad you're ok." Greg smiled then turned back to Grissom.
"Basically right now, they aren't prepared to close the school down on such short notice and they're saying that it's all probably a coincidence, so we're discussing other options," Warrick said quickly to Nick and Greg so that they could continue.
"Our best bet right now is to put some guys around the school, some undercover maybe, others in their uniforms. Maybe it will scare the guy off if he realizes that you all put the puzzle together," Brass suggested, mainly addressing Grissom.
"Yeah, but that wouldn't do much for the kids either, I mean, a bunch of cops standing around the school… they're bound to know something's up. And I don't think its worth scaring the kids," Catherine offered, her motherly morals shining through.
"She's got a point," Nick added. "It's a middle school… they would notice."
"But Brass is also right," Sara spoke up. "If our perp sees some uniforms, maybe he'll back off. I'd rather scare the kids if it means nothing will happen."
Silence fell over the room as they all thought this over. Suddenly, a simple idea occurred to Greg.
"Well, what if you gave them a reason for being there. I mean, it may not convince everyone, but it would be better than nothing. And you would have most of the cops undercover, right?"
No one said anything at first, but looked at him thoughtfully.
"What do you mean by 'give them a reason'," Grissom asked, eyeing Greg curiously.
"Well.. it's a school… I mean, they have people come in and talk about their professions and stuff all the time, right? So, you have some officers in some classrooms, and then of course the guys undercover can watch other major places around the school and look completely normal…"
"You mean.. like a career day," Warrick asked, sounding slightly impressed.
"Yeah.. And maybe some of us can go in the science classrooms.. We're all about science and are better prepared to handle problems than the students or teachers… Besides, a police officer in a science classroom?" Greg finished, ending his thoughts in a sarcastic manor pointed at Brass.
"He's got a point Griss. Would something like that be possible Brass," Catherine asked.
Brass thought about it for a moment. "It should be. The school is accepting protection just in case something goes down. We would just have to notify the school board and make sure the principle and staff are notified. My guys will do as their told and probably wouldn't mind answering questions. As far as you CSI's are concerned, that's your deal Grissom. And Ecklie's too. They are all technically trained to handle these situations and it wouldn't hurt…"
Everyone's eyes were now on Grissom, though he wasn't looking at any of them. "Ok.." he said finally. "I'll have to run it by Ecklie, but it shouldn't be a problem. Though, I think a few of us should stay behind rather than all of us being in the school."
"I agree," Sara said. "It wouldn't be smart to have everyone in one area, especially if this whole thing falls through and it happens somewhere else…"
"Well, we'll have some people outside as well. Some of you can stay there," Brass offered, then took a deep breath before talking again. "Now, do we have any suspects at all?"
"Well that's the thing," Warrick said from the couch. "There was nothing at the scenes. At all. So, we thought to run background on the three victims, see if there's anyone in common, but honestly, that's almost pointless."
"Because both Greg and Margaret Brown would be easy targets. It's not hard to find a CSI and Brown is always on the tv… And with Greg's trial not too long ago… All he would have to do is look them up on the internet and wait until the perfect time," Sara continued.
"No witnesses or cameras… And there was no sign of forced entry on any of the victim's houses. He probably just got lucky not having to break in or anything, but otherwise, he knew what he was doing" Nick added.
Greg sat on the couch, letting them all go over all the details and feeling a little awkward because he was apart of these "victims" they were referring to. And also the fact that they were right, he allowed easy access for the guy to come right in and attack him.
"However," Warrick interrupted. "We figured Anthony Knight may have something because he seemed to be the only one that got hand chosen due to past records and also got the most elaborate display. And he apparently got acquainted with a Walker Bently, who has done time for rape of a minor, which seemed like a good choice. The only thing is he was 18 at the time and the girl was 16. But that's the only guy that could fit for a motive."
"So what about him," Brass asked.
"Barbados," Catherine answered simply. "Has apparently been living there for the past year."
"Could have gotten in under the radar," Nick offered, though they all knew it was unlikely. They just wanted so badly to have some sort of an idea on this guy.
"Yeah, which is why we're watching him and we'll also alert everyone to look out for him, but that's the best we have."
"Alright," Grissom spoke up. "I want everyone to go home, get some sleep, and be back here at six. School starts just after eight. That'll give us a couple hours to prepare."
They all nodded and got themselves ready to go. Most of them cleared out of the small office, leaving Grissom, Nick, and Greg. Before Nick and Greg could follow the others out, Grissom began to talk.
"Greg, may I have a word?"
And here it was. Greg was pretty sure he knew what this was going to be about. He looked back at Nick who quickly said he'd be in the locker room, and Greg took a seat in front of Grissom's desk.
"I just wanted to say you did a good job with the case and all."
Greg chuckled. "I didn't really do anything, just watched tv. Besides, I made myself an easy target."
"Still Greg.. You've been proving yourself more capable of being a CSI than I ever thought possible, and I just… I just thought I should tell you that."
Greg was a bit stunned at this point. Grissom didn't usually come out and say sentimental things like this to most people, so this was really quite the honor. And, a shock at the same time.
"I.. well thank you Grissom," Greg finally managed to get out after searching desperately for anything to answer Grissom with. "Though, I bet you only said that because I could have died…" Greg added, unable to take this very unusual feeling between Grissom and himself.
Grissom just looked Greg over for a moment, as if he was, again, studying him. And then a small grin flashed. "You're probably right. Now, I'm sure you realize you won't be a huge part of the plan tomorrow?"
Greg now decided to stand, and as he did, he even managed to stifle the cringe that threatened to spread across his face. "We'll see," Greg responded simply before turning to exit Grissom's office. Before he was completely out of the room, he turned around and saw Grissom sitting there, as if waiting for Greg to say something else.
"It's kind of weird, you know," Greg began, one hand holing onto the wall. "All this buildup and everything could happen tomorrow… And yet, this is the calmest I've felt in days."
"Calm before the storm, Greg," Grissom replied, sounding very much like the Dumbledore of Harry Potter. Or maybe even like Yoda. Greg shrugged.
"Night, Grissom."
Those words alone didn't really have much meaning, but Greg knew otherwise. With Grissom, some of the most simple things had the most importance. And lucky for Greg, he was the same in that respect and therefore found it easy to communicate with Grissom.
"Goodnight, Greg."
AN: Ok, so the big news is that this story will be a 2-parter. For two reasons really. 1 - Because it feels to me like two separate stories. That may not make a lot of sense to you guys, but you also don't know exactly where I'm going with it (though you should basically know the gist.) And
2 - Because I've made the decision that I'm not very good at the whole mystery thing, and now that the mystery part is basically over, the next part will be more actiony and stuff, which I feel I'm much better at.
So, it only seems natural to make it a two parter, as the feel will be different.
