Disclaimer: Usual… Don't own them…

A/N: Sorry it is taking me so long to update. School and work are beginning to pile up again.

Enjoy!

~~Sara's Place~~

Sara lay in Nick's arms. She sighed and pulled him closer. Nick gladly relented and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"Well, isn't this cozy." Ecklie sneered from the open bedroom door.  His eyes gazed at Sara's bare back. "My my Miss Sidle, I didn't know that you and Mr. Stokes are an item."

Nick lay in the bed, glaring at him. His initial reaction had been shock. Pulling on the blanket on top of the bed, Nick covered Sara with it. "How the hell did you get in here, Ecklie?"

Laughing, Ecklie swung the gun that was in his hands around. "I have my ways."

Sara looked over her shoulder at him. "What the hell do you want you psychotic bastard?"

Ecklie looked at her and sneered. "Oh, not in the mood for pleasantries, I see, Miss Sidle."

Sara looked about ready to spring on him from where she lay. In the time Sara had been looking at him, Nick had managed to grab her shirt and a kangaroo zip sweat-shirt that she had lying around on the floor. He handed them to her. She sat up with her back to Ecklie and threw the shirt on as fast as she could, being careful of her arm.

Ecklie stared at her and then motioned with the gun for her to get up. "Get into the living room."

Sara glared at him and crossed her arms defiantly. "I'm not going if Nick isn't going."

"I'm serious Sara! Move your ass into the living room, now!" Ecklie shouted. "Or I will shoot him." He pointed and aimed the gun at Nick's chest.

Sara looked back and forth between them. "Fine! Fine! I'm moving! Just don't hurt him, okay?"

Sara got up and with one final glance over her shoulder at Nick, she walked toward the living room. Ecklie stared at Nick for a moment of two. Stepping forward, he took out a set of handcuffs. He attached Nick's wrist to the bedpost. "I bet you're wondering what I'm going to do to her while you are incapacitated in that bed over there. Believe me, her screams will be screams of pleasure."

Nick clenched his jaw and stared at Ecklie. His face was red with anger, but he refused to say anything to him.

Ecklie merely laughed and left the room to leave Nick alone with his fears for Sara.

~~Hospital~~

Catherine sat next to Gil's bed, Greg standing beside her. She had her hand entwined with Gils, and she was never going to leave his side.

Gil's eyes fluttered open some time later. "Catherine?" He whispered, looking at her through the corner of his eye.

"I'm here Gil. What do you need?" Catherine said, standing up. She leaned over the bed so he didn't have to force his voice so much.

"H20." He said.

Catherine grinned. He was definitely going to be fine. "I see that you have no issues cracking jokes still." She said.

Gil looked at her seriously. "Where is Ecklie?"

"I don't know. There has been a police guard here for a few hours now, but he hasn't shown up."

Gil nodded, the wheels in his mind obviously turning. "Have you been able to reach Sara?" He asked.

Catherine shook her head. "That is strange that she wouldn't call." She looked over at Greg. "Could you go and call Sara and tell her that Gil is going to be okay?"

Greg nodded, knowing that Catherine wanted some alone time with Grissom. He quickly glanced at Grissom lying on the bed. "Glad you're feeling better, chief." He said and turned to exit the room.

~~Sara's~~

She was sitting on the sofa, just staring back at Ecklie. Thoughts were whirling around her head a mile a minute and she couldn't stop them. Before too long, she opened her mouth. "What is your problem Ecklie? I mean why can't you just leave us all alone? What, hurting both Catherine and Gil wasn't enough? You just had to come after the rest of us too? Don't you realize that the more people you hurt, the worse your jail sentence is going to be?" Sara half shouted.

Ecklie swung around, gun waving. He knelt in front of her and looked her in the eye. "Yes, I had to come after the rest of you. Don't you think that I wanted to destroy all of you nightshift workers? I hate every last one of you!" He sneered.

Sara looked him straight in the eye, her chin set defiantly. "Well, if it's any consolation, no one really likes you much either."

Something inside him snapped. His hand reached up and before he knew it he had his arm drawn back to hit her. His hand connected with her cheek, and it sent her reeling backward. He couldn't stop himself, control was something that she had caused him to lose. His fists rained down on her with sickening thuds and she had stopped fighting back well after the first few. She had been screaming, fighting, kicking, but she grown silent. He stopped, his chest heaving from exhaustion. He couldn't see any of the living-room. Everything else in the room was dark, except for Sara. He could see her, but then he would see red. The phone ringing brought him out of it. Reaching for the phone, he snarled, "what!"

The person on the other end of the line seemed to be taken aback. "Nick, dude, it's Greg. You've gotta work on your phone manners my man." Then it dawned on Greg what was going on. "Ecklie you son of a bitch, what the hell is going on?" He nearly shouted.

"Sara is preoccupied with the rearrangement of her face and poor Nicky boy is stuck in the bedroom." Ecklie sneered.

Dead air met his reply. My plan is working, Ecklie thought. Soon enough, they will all be here, and I will destroy them all.

~~ The Hospital~~

Greg hung up the phone. Dialing Brass' number, he relayed the information, telling him to get over to Sara's apartment right away. Running, he got to Gil's room in no time at all. When he got there, his chest was heaving.

Catherine looked at him strangely. "What is it Greg? What's happened."

"Sara… He's she…." Greg couldn't get the words out.

Gil looked at him through is newly returned glasses. "He's got her. Ecklie has her… He said he was rearranging her face…" A look of horror crossed the young man's face. "Brass is on his way there now."

~~Nick~~

He could hear her screams from the other room. Tears ran silently down his face as he fought to undo the cuffs.  He could hear Ecklie's blows raining down on Sara's body, and he saw red. He tried as hard as he could, struggling to get his hand free. He could hear the wood on the bed post splintering and a glimmer of hope spread through him. He fought harder, the wood seemingly groaning in the process. Finally it snapped, the momentum sending him forward slightly. Moving gingerly, he picked up a crutch that was lying on the floor by the bed. Leaning on the edge of the crutch, he started walking, the piece of bed-post still dangling from his wrist. But he didn't care. He would deal with that later. He needed to get Sara out of the hands of that lunatic.

Stepping into the living room slowly, he saw Ecklie standing over Sara's body that lay crumpled on the floor. "Get the hell away from her." He stated as calmly as he could.

Ecklie whirled around, grinning. "Well I see our famous Texan has gotten out of bed. Couldn't stand hearing your woman screaming my name?"

Nick took a few slow steps closer. Ecklie took a few menacing steps toward him. He had his weapon drawn and was aiming it at Nick's chest.

Neither of them saw Brass, Warrick and a couple of cops open Sara's door. Nor did they see Sara pointing her gun at Ecklie.

"If you so much as hurt a hair on his head I will kill you." Sara said, her voice shaky. It took every ounce of strength for her to hold her gun in place. If it wasn't for the adrenaline coursing through her body, she wouldn't have been able to do it. She heard Ecklie cock the gun, getting ready to shoot.

"If it's over, I'm taking you two down with me."

Sara could see that his finger was pulling on the trigger. She knew what she had to do. From her angle, she could clearly make the shot, Brass couldn't. "I'm warning you one more time Ecklie, if you don't put your gun down, I will shoot you."

Nick stared at Sara's bruised features. Sara, what did he do to you? Lifting his crutch, Nick swung it at Ecklie, narrowly missing him.

Ecklie merely laughed, and fired a shot, missing Nick by inches.

Sara reacted faster than she thought she ever could. She pointed her gun at Ecklie and fired. She knew she had gotten him as she saw him fall to the floor. She dropped the gun and slumped over.

Nick moved as swiftly as possible while E.M.T's ushered Ecklie away. He lowered himself to the floor. "Sara?" He whispered softly, his voice trembling in fear.

She opened her eyes slowly and stared at him. "Nick… It hurts." She whispered.

Nick nodded. "I know sweetie. They're going to come for you next."

She looked squarely in the eye. "Did I get him?"

Nick smiled and brushed the hair from her face. "Ya you got him." He looked from the gun on the floor to her. "I didn't know you had a gun on you." He say it's holster strapped to her leg. "No wonder I didn't see it, we didn't quite get that far, did we?"

"Very funny." Sara said. She winced as she moved to cover his hand with her own. "Catherine can feel safe now."

Nick nodded and smiled at her. "You are the bravest person I have ever met."

Sara merely shrugged. Tears were beginning to pool. "Did I kill him, Nick?"

Nick shook his head. "No, you didn't Sar. At least, he was still alive and kicking when I saw him leave."

Sara nodded one last time before passing out in his arms.