Greg inwardly cursed himself over and over, for multiple reasons. The latest factor was that, per usual, Nick had been right. His crazy plan had actually worked. McKeen was threatened by the team and wanted to take them down, but he was emotionally invested in what was going to happen after his son was killed. He acted recklessly, and since he couldn't carry anything out himself, his guys dropped the ball several times. DB and Nick convinced Brass and Archie to agree to the plan because they were going to do it one way or the other, and it had a better success rate if the A/V tech and police captain were on their side. And they were right. Nick was taken from his house later that night while he was pretending to sleep and taken to a seedy motel off the strip where he was thrown into a room also holding Katie.
The young girl was frightened by the appearance of another man she did not know and could only assume that he was another bad guy. It wasn't until the door slammed shut behind the guy that threw the new man in did he speak softly to her.
"Katie, my name is Nick," he said quietly so that only she could hear him. "I work with your grandfather."
Katie shook her head slowly. "I don't believe you," she said as she sat up against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest.
Nick couldn't help but smile. "He told me you were a smart kid. He also told me to tell you that as soon as we get you out of here, he's taking you to this new ice cream place that just opened up. It has sixty-four flavors, and he wants to bet that you won't be able to decide which one you want."
"What does he look like?" Katie asked. "My grandfather."
"He has white hair and glasses," Nick replied, "and he also told me to tell you he's going to start wearing his pajamas inside out too because you do that."
Katie finally smiled. "Okay," she said softly, becoming a little less afraid by making a new friend. "Why are you here?"
Nick shook his head slowly. "It doesn't matter. All that matters is that we're going to get you out of here real soon, okay? But you have to trust me. You have to do what I tell you to, and everything is going to be okay. Your grandfather and mom are on their way right now with some cops that I work with, and they're going to take you home."
Katie nodded slightly. "Okay. But what about those guys out there? They have guns and they told me that if I make any noise or anything that they'll come back in here and shut me up."
"Did they hurt you?" Nick asked hesitantly, not really wanting to know the answer.
"No," Katie replied, shaking her head. "I was too scared to say or do anything so I just stayed still and they put me in here and haven't come back until they brought you in."
"Alright," Nick said, smiling at her slightly. "We just have to sit tight for a little while longer, and then it'll all be over."
They sat together in Katie's corner of the room, not talking much. After a while they were sitting in silence as Nick listened intensely for any sign of movement or commotion outside. After what felt like an hour to him, he hadn't heard anything, and he began to worry. But he had to remain stoic or Katie would panic, and he didn't want to scare her any more than she already was. Just when he was about to become scared himself, he heard the sirens outside and the front door down the hall be burst through, and that was his signal.
Two minutes after he heard the siren, the door to their room flew open and two men came in with guns pointed right at him. Nick stood slowly, but kept his hands down by his side. He heard gunfire down the hall and the distinct voice of Brass yelling. His voice was getting closer and closer, telling Nick he was on his way to his aid.
"Where's the girl?" the guy on the right barked at Nick.
Nick shrugged. "What girl?"
The guy on the left was called back out into the hallway to help his fellow hostage takers, leaving just Nick and the guy with the gun pointed at his head. "Don't fuck around Stokes," he spat. "Where is she? Tell me before I kill you and find her anyway."
Nick's eyes darted from the gun to the bed to his right quickly, but it was just obvious enough for the man to notice where he looked. The guy fell forward onto his knees and leaned forward to look under the bed, but he didn't get that far. Nick stepped forward and kicked the metal frame of the bed as hard as he could, sending it forward into the man's skull, knocking him backwards and causing him to drop his gun. Nick scrambled over the bed and dropped to the floor, reaching for the gun, but was hit in the back of the head by something hard. He fell flat against the floor before he was able to turn over just in time to stop the man from stabbing him in the chest with the knife he had produced. Nick was stunned from the blow to the back of his head, which made it easier for the other man to wrestle him up to his feet and finally maneuver himself behind Nick, holding the blade to his neck.
"Where is the fucking girl?" he asked for the third time.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Nick replied.
Suddenly Brass and DB appeared in the doorway, guns drawn. All gunfire from the hallway had stopped and was replaced by cops yelling orders at each other to apprehend the suspects. Upon seeing Nick being held captive with a knife to his neck, DB slowly lowered his gun, but Brass held his steady and trained on the small target of the man behind Nick.
"Where's Katie?" DB asked, scanning the room for his granddaughter.
The door to the room slowly began to close, seemingly on its own. It stopped when it was hallway shut, and Katie slowly stepped out from behind the door. She stood frozen to the spot when she saw the man holding the knife on Nick, and was unable to look away until she felt her grandfather's arms around her. It was only then that she closed her eyes and buried her face against DB's neck as he picked her up, holding her tightly.
"Just get her out of here DB," Nick said.
"Nobody's going anywhere," the man with the knife said, as he added pressure to Nick's neck.
Brass kept his gun trained on the man with the knife. "Your surrounded. All your buddies are in cruisers, we're just waiting on you. Put the knife down, and you can walk out of here rather than being carried out in a body bag."
"My instructions were to hold the girl and Stokes until we could move them to where McKeen could meet us. I may not have the girl, but he'll get over that. He wants Stokes more, he's getting him."
"Guys," Nick said, getting Brass and DB's attention off of his assailant. "Just get her out of here. This guy has a knife, not a gun. He can't fight you off. Just get Katie out of here and worry about him later."
"I don't want to leave without Nick," Katie said as she lifted her head off of DB's shoulder. But DB didn't listen to her. He quickly took her out of the room, leaving Brass and Nick to deal with the man with the knife.
The knife was being held to Nick's neck with such force that it blood was now flowing from the cut it created, running down Nick's neck and staining the front of his shirt. When he swallowed, the knife dug deeper and caused more pain.
"Are you willing to die for Jeffrey McKeen?" Brass asked. "Because you're about to. I'll shoot you right here, right now, if you don't put that knife down and let him go."
The man made his decision when three more cops came into the room with their guns drawn. His odds suddenly went way down, so he dropped the knife to the floor and shoved Nick forward before the cops converged on him, throwing him to the ground.
So Nick and Katie escaped with only minor injuries. Katie had a bruise on her arm from where the door hit her when she was hiding behind it, but a few bowls of ice cream and a movie healed everything for her. Nick ended up needing a few stitches to close the wound on his neck and also had a concussion from the blow to the head, but other than that they were both fine. They caught Ecklie's shooter and were in the process of interrogating Moreno's partner and everyone else they had apprehended so far that night. Ecklie was going to be fine, and it was looking like they were actually going to be able to break down McKeen's empire.
After being reamed out by the sheriff for acting so stupidly and recklessly without consulting her, DB sent him home to rest after thanking him multiple times for saving Katie. He smiled tiredly as he left the conference room, making his way through the lab to the exit so that he purposely walked by Hodges' lab. He stuck his head in through the door and waited for the tech to look up from the microscope at him.
"I took your advice," Nick said, eliciting a smile from Hodges. "As much as I hate to admit it, you were right. Thanks man."
Nick was honestly surprised to see Greg's car in his driveway when he finally got back to his house. They didn't live together, not technically, but Greg had spent basically every day and every night at Nick's since they had gotten together. It was closer to the lab and bigger than Greg's apartment, so it just made sense. But after their fight the other night and everything that had happened with the McKeen case, Nick had assumed the ex lab-rat wouldn't want to be anywhere near him for the time being.
Greg was in the kitchen when Nick walked into the house. He had just finished doing the dishes, which told Nick he had been thinking. Greg was a fairly disorganized and messy person, so when he did actually clean something, it was because he had something on his mind and wanted to distract himself. Cleaning was just a way for Greg to think without having to think about thinking. Nick closed the door softly behind him before slowly walking towards the kitchen, stopping at the entrance so he was half in the living room and half in the kitchen.
"I'm glad you and Katie are okay," Greg said quietly as he turned the water off and wiped his hands on his jeans. He didn't turn around.
Nick stared at the back of Greg's head. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice steadier than he thought it would be.
Greg placed both of his hands on the counter in front of him and leaned all of his weight forward. "You didn't do anything wrong," he replied. "You did what you had to do, as always. You saved a little girl and probably caught all of the bad guys associated with McKeen."
"I hurt you," Nick retorted. "Nothing I could have done right could have outweighed that. That was never my intention."
"It's never your intention," Greg said, "but it still doesn't stop you half the time." He turned slowly to finally look at Nick.
Nick nodded once. "So I guess I'm sorry that you didn't get your wish. I'm sorry I didn't die."
Greg had to make a point not to stare at the bandage on Nick's neck and instead focus on the other man's eyes. "You really are insane now," he responded. "If you honestly think that I wanted you to die, then that proves you're insane."
"How does that prove anything?" Nick asked. "You're the one that said it. Why would you say it if it wasn't true? I could see it in your eyes that you meant it. I'm not saying I blame you. I don't blame you at all. I just wish there was something I could do to make you happy for once."
Greg sighed heavily. "You do make me happy Nick, by being alive. If you died, I honestly don't think I could handle it. I shouldn't have said anything to the contrary because it's simply not true. I was just scared I was going to lose you and thought that if I kept fighting with you, you wouldn't do anything stupid. You risked your life to save a little girl that you had never even met."
"Just because I didn't know her doesn't mean that her life is more valuable than mine or that she deserved to die," Nick replied, shrugging slightly.
Greg couldn't keep the small smile from spreading across his face, no matter how much he wanted to. "And that's exactly why you can't quit. Because no one else was willing to do what you did. No one ever goes as far as you do for people they don't even know, but you do it because it's the right thing to do."
"I don't want to talk about any of that," Nick replied. "I want to talk about us."
"What is there to talk about?" Greg asked.
Nick felt his heart drop down into his stomach. He thought that what Greg meant by that was that there was no "us" to talk about. He thought that Greg was going to leave him because he wanted to quit. He didn't even know if he was actually going to quit; he had made that decision in the heat of the moment without ever really considering what quitting his job would entail. But he didn't care about that at the moment. All he wanted to do was ensure that he still had Greg, because if he had him then nothing else would really matter.
"I don't know what you want me to say Nick," Greg said when Nick just stood there silently. "I'm sorry for what I said to you, I really am. I sat in Brass' office the whole time you were gone, listening to the scanner to make sure that you were going to be okay. I was terrified that I was never going to see you again. I hate that feeling, so much, and I have it all the time because of our job, but I don't want that to change if it means changing you. Without this job, you simply won't be the Nick I fell in love with. We both know that."
Nick shook his head slowly. "Who am I going to be then?"
"I don't know," Greg replied. "But I guess we're going to find out."
"I don't know if I'm quitting or not yet," Nick said, still shaking his head. "I can't think about any of that right now because I'm too fucking scared that I'm about to lose you. I don't want to lose you. I've lost everyone else, and that's fine, because I still have you. I can't lose you too."
"I didn't go anywhere," Greg said. "I'm still here. I couldn't leave even if I wanted to, which I don't. Whatever happens, happens. It doesn't matter as long as I'm with you. As hard as it is, and as crazy as you are, I'm just as crazy for loving you I guess. And that makes you even crazier for loving me. So there's no place I'd rather be."
