A/N: First of all, sorry for taking so long to update. I'm dealing with some lower back and neck problems from a car wreck I was in 12 years ago. From time to time, my neck and lower back hurt so much that I can't get out of bed. I was off work for most of last week because I couldn't sit up to work and work is the only place I have internet access where I can upload. I had hoped to get this chapter up and the next chapter up last week, but I have been so swamped at work because I was off that I just didn't have the time. Since they are the ones that pay me, I have to do their work first. Bummer huh? So to make up for it, this chapter is 18 pages long. Hope y'all like it.

Secondly, I wasn't planning on switching POVs through this story, but realized as the chapters played out, I have to since I'm telling this story in the first person rather than the third person. We all know what happens to Nick during the "Stalker" episode and if I kept the story in Nick's POV where that comes up, all you'd be able to see is a blank page while Nick's unconscious and in the hospital or there'd be a huge plot hole in my story. I could always write some fluff about his dreams while he's out of it or just have ten pages of Zs where he's sleeping, but that really doesn't help my story any, plus with twists I've thrown in later on, Nick can't very well narrate what happens because he's not there. (That's always been my beef with Titanic – how could Old Rose narrate what happens to Cal and Lovejoy when she wasn't around to see it?) So, I have to swap between Nick, Anna and another character for later on in the story. I'll list the narrative character in bold before the dialogue starts so you'll know who's telling the story.

One week later after the previous chapter.

Chapter 10 – Bleeding Love

Nick

"So we're detectives now as well as CSIs?" For the past couple shifts at work, our only assignments have been running down leads in the Jane Galloway case and going over evidence again and again, trying to find anything that might lead us to her killer. Grissom had divided up the list of people having contact with Jane Galloway and Warrick and I got assigned the names of the service people who had been to her house in the past few months. We had already been to a carpet installer's home as well as the telephone guy's house and the natural gas company looking for the employees who had been at her house during that time frame. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary with any of the employees we had interviewed and everyone cooperated fully with our investigation. I knocked on the door to a house belonging to a man that had done some electric work at Jane's house a few weeks ago. "Will our paychecks be showing this promotion?"

Warrick laughed. "Doubt it and I don't like this dual role thing, either. That's why we have detectives. They do their thing while we do our own jobs." He knocked on the door again as he peered through a window next to the door. "Doesn't look like anyone's home. This guy got a phone number?"

I handed him the printout as I looked through the window to see for myself. "Too bad we can't get a pay raise or at least a shoe allowance for all this leather we've been using." I saw no movement inside the house and the lights were all off. Warrick started down the porch steps back towards my Tahoe. "How many more names we got to go?"

He flipped the page back over and counted. "Two. We got a guy that installed the security system about a month ago and a cable guy." He looked at the page. "The cable guy lives on Harris Lane. It's the closest. I say we head there first and then we can stop and grab lunch before we go find the security system installer. I'm starved."

"Sounds good." I started the truck and headed towards the address Warrick gave me as he called the electrician and left as message asking the man to call him back.

"Birthday present from your gal?"

"Huh?" I looked at Warrick and realized he was looking at the watch Anna had given me. "Yeah, she got this for my birthday last week. My old one kept dying on me. She wears one like this. It's kinetic." I shook my arm a few times. "All you do is move it and that keeps the battery charged."

"Very nice, Crime Stopper. Your gal's got good tastes. Did she ever take you shopping for a new shirt? I know Catherine asked you the other day and she suggested that you take Anna with you. Maybe she could give you some singing lessons while she's at it."

"Somehow, I already knew I'd never live that down and yes, Anna took me shopping and picked out some new shirts. I had one of them on the other night at the karaoke bar." I flipped Warrick the bird. "Speaking of which, I still need to kill Greg for doing that to me. Kenny Chesney? Guess it could have been worse."

"Oh come on, Crime Stopper, I thought you did well. I can see why he picked that. The whole tractor thing with you being from the south fits and if anyone needs to kill Greg, it's me. Rascal Flatts? That was a fun night though. She like what you bought her? That necklace?"

"You're just begging for me to shove you out of this truck while we're still moving, aren't you?" I gave him the finger again. "Yes. She loved it. I gave it to her that morning after I got home from work and surprised her with the tickets later on that morning. She hasn't taken it off since. I don't know what she liked more, the necklace or the fact I was able to get two tickets to a sold out concert she so desperately wanted to go to and I'll admit that it wasn't near as bad as I thought it'd be. If you ever repeat this to her, I'll kill you myself, but I actually enjoyed the show." I made the last turn on to the street where the cable guy lived. After calling in to dispatch, Warrick and I got out and headed up the steps, passing a few people outside. "Where do you want to go for lunch? I'm starved." I turned to look at a Luna Cable van and almost ran into someone. "Excuse me." I moved out of the man's way and started up the steps to follow Warrick. "That's who I've got for my cable."

"Anywhere is fine and who do you have?" Warrick turned around to see what I was talking about.

I pointed towards the van in the parking lot. "Luna Cable." I knocked on the door and it opened on its own. "Not locked or shut." I looked at Warrick. "Now what?"

"I guess we go in." Warrick's phone rang. "Brown." He listened to the caller. "Oh yeah, this is Warrick Brown with the Las Vegas Crime Lab."

Warrick spoke to the caller about why he was calling as we made our way inside. The apartment was empty, except for a chair and a laptop in the corner of the room. I looked back at Warrick who was on the phone. I took a step in the apartment as I waited to hear if someone would answer me. "Nick Stokes. I'm with Criminalistics. We need to talk to you."

"No, hold on. I got a bad signal."

Warrick stepped outside on the balcony to talk to the caller as I kept looking inside the empty apartment. The apartment was spotless. There were no pictures on the walls or anything inside that would indicate someone lived here. "Your door's open. We just need to ask you a couple of questions." The only sign anyone lived here was the plastic lawn chair and the laptop that was sitting on top of some milk crates in the corner of the room I was in. I turned to see if Warrick was still on the phone. He motioned for me to start looking inside while he finished up his phone call. I left him on the porch and stepped further inside the apartment. I called out again alerting anyone who might be inside of my presence. The carpet in the living room stopped and the ceramic tile of the kitchen started a few steps in front of me. I noticed some red drops on the tile floor and got out a cotton swab to take samples. After dropping phenolphthalein on the swab, it didn't react. "Not blood." I stuck the swab in my vest pocket and stood up and looked towards the bedroom of the apartment. I heard footsteps behind me on the tile floor and as I turned around, I was slammed into the wall next to the refrigerator. The force of the impact was enough to knock the breath out of me. I gasped and tried to reach for my gun, but I wasn't fast enough. Whoever was fighting me shoved me into an adjacent wall, this time pinning me. As I fought with my assailant, I tried to tell him I was with the police department crime lab but couldn't get the full statement out before I was again shoved into the wall causing me to trip over the open cabinet door. I fought back and managed to shove him off of me, allowing me to stand up before I was shoved out of the kitchen and slammed against a wall in the hallway leading towards the back of the apartment. Still trying to fight back, I managed to knock him to the ground, but he got up quickly when he saw me trying to reach for my gun. I didn't get a chance to get it out and I was hit again as I was pushed violently into the front room, knocking the breath out of me once more. I got free of my attacker after I landed a right hook and made it to the door of the bedroom. "Warrick!" I tried yelling out again, but he didn't hear me. I was yanked back in the room and tripped and fell to the floor, hitting my head on a closet door that was open.

My attacker wouldn't listen to my pleas to stop fighting with me and because of a hooded shirt across his head, I couldn't see his face. He stood over me and shook his head before he put his foot on my chest to keep me down. "You're a bad friend." I tried to think if I recognized the voice, but I couldn't place it. I said I was with the crime lab, but rather than stopping, I was yanked to my feet and shoved once more and heard the sound of glass breaking. I landed on the ground below the window with a sickening thud. The shadowy figure that had just thrown me out the window was still up watching me. I tried to focus on getting a good look at whoever it was as I heard Warrick yelling out for me to hang on. "Warrick, he's up there." I tried to point towards who it was that shoved me out the window, but couldn't. I saw that he was still up in the window watching as Warrick called in to dispatch with an officer down call, but I couldn't get his attention.

"Officer down! We have an officer down at 826 Harris Lane. Officer down! We need an ambulance and backup at 826 Harris Lane now!" I could hear from his voice that he was approaching me. He was still calling in to dispatch what was happening as he got closer to me. "Officer down! Suspect still on premises." Warrick looked up at the broken window. I groaned as the pain shot up my body as he turned his attention back to me. "Nick, oh my God, Nick!" He threw his radio on the ground and sat next to me. "Nick? Talk to me!"

I couldn't concentrate on what he was telling me because of the pain. My only thoughts were of Anna. "Anna." I tried to get up, but couldn't. "Anna. Call her." I tried to stay awake, but I was fighting a losing battle with the pain I was in. I tried to concentrate on the sound of sirens approaching but I couldn't do it through the pain I was in.

Anna

"Bullfrog!" I shoved him off the couch. "You just shot me and now I'm dead. I'm on your team, goof. You're supposed to shoot the aliens and the other station's members, not me. We've got to beat Station 12. They're up two games to one and it's about time they handed over that Doom trophy to someone else but they won't if you don't quit killing me."

"Sorry." Bryan got back on the couch and started playing again as my character reset after I was graciously killed by my own team member. "Think we got a chance of taking station 12's trophy from them?"

Maneuvering my player through a maze of obstacles and over a land mine without it blowing up, I stopped to shoot an alien on screen. "Yeah, if you'll quit killing my character we do." I shot at another enemy alien on screen and watched him go down. "And another one bites the dust." I turned around, looking for my babysitter. "Where's Marshmallow Man? I need the backup."

Bryan blew up an alien. "He's asleep. He was tired." He blew up another alien with the original shot. "Bonsai!"

We had just gotten into the next level of the game when the bell at the station sounded. I put my controller down and Bryan and I both stood up, preparing to run out the door as the dispatcher announced the call over the station's radio system, "Officer down, 826 Harris Lane. Medic 72, Truck 41 please respond. Repeat, officer down 826 Harris Lane. Medic 72, Truck 41 please respond. Advise also that Angel Rescue Two is en route for immediate transport. LVPD units on scene, suspect may still be on the premises. Responding units please beware this subject is considered dangerous."

Brad came up front after hearing the bell. "That for us?"

Bryan shook his head, "No. That's for station 8. Medic 72 is assigned there."

Brad went to the kitchen as I looked at Bryan. "Not good when you get an officer down call. Wonder who it is?"

"We can call dispatch later on and find out who it was and how they're doing." He turned his attention back to the game. "Bonsai!" I watched him as his player jumped off some rocks and into the middle of a forest and started shooting the aliens around him.

"Yeah. Later." I was still staring at the PA speaker in the room we were in and wondering how Bryan could go from one emotion to the next so quickly. I wasn't paying attention to the game. Something kept nagging me about the call but I didn't know what it was.

"Aggie?" I turned my attention back to the game after Bryan said my name. I picked up my controller, diverting my attention from the officer down call back to the Doom game we were playing.

About an hour later, the phone at the station rang. "I got it." Bryan stood up to answer the phone after he gave the controller to Brad. "Station 11, Brooks." Bryan was quiet as the caller spoke. "Yeah, hold on." He held the phone out. "Aggie, for you."

I gave my controller to Marshmallow Man and got up to get the phone from Bryan. "Station 11, Gigandet." I watched as Bryan sat back down next to Brad to finish playing the game.

"Anna?"

"This is she."

"Anna, this is Catherine Willows."

I felt a chill run down my spine. I knew by the tone of her voice that this was not going to be a social call or an update on the investigation from the other day. "Catherine? What's wrong?" She said nothing. "Catherine? Oh, God. It's Nick." I dropped the phone on the floor and slid down the wall. Bryan noticed me and threw his controller on the ground. He got up to come see what was wrong with me as Brad looked on. Bryan handed me the phone as he sat down beside me on the floor. I numbly held it to my ear, bracing myself for the worst. "Catherine? What's going on? What's wrong? Where's Nicky?"

"It is Nick. He got hurt at a scene earlier. Another ambulance crew came and got him and took him to Desert Palms. He kept saying your name over and over again after he got here. Warrick said Nick wanted him to call you right after it happened, but he didn't get a chance to because Nick lost consciousness at the scene. The police got there after Warrick made the officer down call and they didn't find the person who hurt Nick. It was only after Nick got here that he realized you weren't here and he started to panic. I told him I'd call you right before he had to be sedated."

I started to shake. "What happened?" Bryan reached for one of my hands and held it in both of his while I listened to Catherine explain what happened. Brad sat on my other side and kept looking at Bryan to find out what was wrong. Bryan made a gesture to Brad that he'd tell him what was going on later.

"Warrick and Nick were at an address checking for a connection to the Jane Galloway murder case from earlier. Warrick was on the phone and Nick went in and apparently the suspect was in the apartment and shoved Nick out a second story window."

"Oh, God." I thought about the officer down call. "Harris Lane? That was Nick? The one 72 got?"

"Yeah, that was him. I take it that wasn't your station?"

I choked back tears, forcing my voice to work right. "No, we're medic 78. That address is on the other end of town. I just heard that call about an hour ago." The room started to spin as I got dizzy thinking about Nick being hurt. "I'm across the street. I'm on my way." I threw the phone at Brad and ran out the front door, ignoring their pleas for me to wait on them to drive me. I kept going and ran outside and through traffic, not even bothering to pay any attention to the cars as they flew past me as I ran to the hospital. Running through the ED doors, I ran into Catherine who was still holding her phone in her hand. "Where is he?"

"They just took him upstairs to radiology. Come on." She took me by the arm and walked with me to the hospital elevators. "He just got taken upstairs when I hung up the phone with you."

She pushed the button and after waiting what seemed like hours, the doors opened and the elevator took us upstairs. When the doors opened, I took off running again, leaving Catherine behind.

"Anna?"

I stopped in my tracks and turned around and to see who was calling me. "Warrick. Where's Nick?" I looked through the windows of the recovery room across the hall from where we were, trying to find him. "What happened earlier? Where is he?"

"Sit down, please." He tried to lead me to the chairs on the wall in the waiting room. "He's still being looked at. The docs are pulling x-rays."

"Damn it, I don't want to sit." I pulled away from Warrick and shoved him back when he tried to reach for me as I started towards the nurses' desk. "I'm with the LVFD. I'm checking on a patient. Nick Stokes?"

"Hold on. Let me look, dear." The older lady at the nurses' desk tried to reassure me with a warm smile as she typed his name in the computer. "According to this, he was seen downstairs in the ED. Cuts, abrasions and some bruises and a suspected dislocated shoulder, possibly broken." She looked up at me. "You're his wife?"

I started to say I was just his girlfriend when Catherine interrupted me and told the lady I was his wife. "Yes, they just got married not too long ago and she hasn't had time to change her last name on her shirt. Isn't that right, Anna?"

Though I was puzzled by Catherine's behavior, I didn't argue. "Yes. Is Nick still in x-ray?"

The nurse said he was and she'd come get us when she had more news. Catherine led me over to the chairs as I sat down between Warrick and Catherine. I put my head in my hands as the elevator doors opened again. I kept my head in my hands, not even bothering to look up to see who came in. "Anna?"

I looked up and saw Mr. Grissom and another lady standing in front of me. "Mr. Grissom."

"Please, call me Gil. I don't think you've ever met Sara. This is Sara Sidle with the crime lab."

I held out my hand and she shook it, but I was still mechanical and not paying attention to much of anything as I sat back down in the chair. Sara sat down in front of me. "Anna?" I looked up at her. I couldn't say anything through my tears. "He's going to be okay." Sara hugged me as I laid my head on her shoulder and cried.

"Are you here about Nick Stokes?"

I pulled my head off of Sara's shoulder when the strange male voice spoke. "We all are. I'm his wife, Anna." I motioned to the people around me. "These are his co-workers from the Las Vegas Crime Lab. How is my husband?" I noticed Sara shot Gil a look that he waved off. "Where is he? Can I see him?"

"I'm Dr. Stephen Reed. I'm one of the emergency department trauma surgeons who saw your husband when he was brought in. He's still in back being treated right now. We've pulled a set of x-rays and we've done an MRI of his shoulder and so far we've found an anterior dislocation of the left shoulder. That's when…"

I cut him off, "I'm a paramedic. I know what it means. What else? What about internal damage? Is he going to be okay?"

"He's also got a concussion, a sprained wrist, a tension pneumothorax as well as a few stitches to his forehead for a cut along with slight renal trauma. We're also about to take a second set of x-rays to check for bruised or cracked ribs. All in all, he's going to be okay. He's very lucky. If he would have fallen and landed at a different angle, he could have shattered his spine or broken his neck." Dr. Reed stood up to leave. "We'll need him up here for a little bit longer so we can pull some more x-rays and possibly another MRI or a CT to check for further damage. I don't see why he can't go home in a couple hours or so after we're done running the additional tests." Dr. Reed eyed the crowd behind me. "You can go back since you're his wife, but I can only allow two people at a time. Which one of you is Mr. Stokes's supervisor?"

"I am." Gil stepped forward. "I'm the supervisor on the night shift at the Las Vegas Crime Lab." He held out his hand, "Dr. Gil Grissom." Dr. Reed shook Gil's hand and told us he'd come get Gil and me when Nick got moved to a recovery room.

"Someone want to explain to me what's going on? Anna?"

I looked over at Warrick. "He's, uh, he's got a dislocated shoulder, a bruised kidney, maybe some bruised ribs and air in his chest cavity where there shouldn't be any, likely from a collapsed lung due to the fall and a cut to his forehead that needed stitches." I put my head back in my hands.

Two hours later, the doctor told us that they had moved Nick to a recovery room and Gil and I could go back and see him but not to stay too long. "As I said earlier, pending anything popping up on the MRI or the x-rays we just took, he'll probably be released later on today." Dr. Reed looked at me, "Are you going back to work after this? He's going to need someone to stay with him for the next couple days."

I looked down at my clothes. I had forgotten I was still in my uniform from work. "N-no, I can call in for the rest of my shift and get someone to cover for me." I stared at Nick through the window. "I'll be home with him." I didn't break my gaze from the window as I put my hand on the glass and looked at Nick, still sleeping in the recovery room.

Dr. Reed left us alone as Gil and I went in Nick's room. "Do you want to be alone?"

I shook my head. "No. Not just yet." I pulled a chair next to Nick's bed and picked up his right hand in mine. His eyes were closed and he was sedated from the MRI and the x-rays from earlier. I closed my eyes as I leaned over to the bed to cry. I felt Gil's hand on my shoulder as the tears fell freely from my eyes and onto the bed.

Gil stayed with me until he got a phone call about half an hour later. He stepped out to take it, leaving me alone with Nick who was still asleep. I closed my eyes and started to softly sing. 'Let me tell you that I love you, that I think about you all the time. Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm going home, but if I should become a stranger, know that it would make me more than sad. Caledonia's been everything I've ever had." I stopped to wipe tears out of my eyes as I tried to remember the rest of the song. I had heard the song a thousand times, but now I could only remember parts of it. 'Now I'm sitting here before the fire, the empty room, the forest choir. The flames have cooled, don't get any higher, they've withered, now they've gone but I'm steady thinking, my way is clear and I know what I will do tomorrow. When hands have shaken, the kisses float, then I will disappear.' I stopped singing when Nick started to stir. "Nick?" I put my hand on his shoulder. "Nicky?"

"Caledonia."

I wiped a tear out of my eyes when he recognized the song I was singing. "Nicky?" I got up from the chair and sat on the edge of the bed as I put my right hand on his cheek. "Nick?"

Nick's eyes finally opened. I could see he was trying to focus on where he was. He finally focused enough to see me. "Anna." He smiled. "I now know why you love that song so much." He tried to sit up, but I held him back. "What happened?"

"You were pushed out of a window at a crime scene. You've been here at the hospital about five hours. Catherine called me and I ran over here." I felt Nick's hand tighten around mine. "Oh God, I…" I had to stop speaking. I was crying again.

"I'm the one hurt and in pain and you're the one crying. That's why I love you so much." Nick let go of my hand and reached over and brushed the tears off of my cheeks. "When can I go home?"

I looked over at Gil after he knocked on the door and told him to come in. He moved by a couple of hospital employees looking in at us from the hallway and opened the door to Nick's room and came in. "Heard you were up." Gil pulled the chair that I was using by the bed and sat down. "Welcome back. Anna's going to take you home in a little bit. She's your wife now by the way." Gil smiled when Nick looked confused. "It was the only way they'd let her back here. So we lied for you. I'm going to head back to the lab. Nick, you're off work for the next week. Doctor's orders. Anna, make sure he listens." I thanked him for helping me as he turned and left the room, leaving me alone with Nick.

"My wife?" He smiled. "Anna Stokes. That's easier to remember and easier to spell than Gigandet."

"And it fits." I held his hand in mine and kissed him gently.

"Lie down with me." Nick pulled on my hand and tried to pull me down so I could lie in bed with him. "Please? Finish the song?"

I tried to position myself in bed where I wouldn't hurt him. After moving around some, I finally got settled and finished Caledonia while Nick closed his eyes and relaxed. His left arm was in a sling again and his right arm was around me, holding me, with his fingers lightly tracing my back as I softly sang. I got done with the song and started crying again. "I'm fine, Anna. You can stop crying." He hugged me tighter with his right arm as he tried to console me. "Necklace looks good on you."

I looked down to the heart pendant hanging from my neck. "I'm just relieved you're okay." I wiped tears from my eyes with my free hand. "I just..." I stopped, trying to find the right words as I propped myself up on my elbow so I could see him better. I kissed him gently. "I can't lose you."

"I promise you this," Nick put his hand on my cheek so he could look directly at me, "You never will."

I started to cry again, but stopped myself when an employee came in our room. "You need to check Nicky for something?"

The man stared at me. It looked like he was lost or out of place. "No. I'm just checking to see how he's doing. Nick, do you need me for anything?"

Nick shook his head, "No. I'm fine now that Anna's here. Could you send a nurse in though? Adjust my pain meds for me?"

Nick couldn't see from his vantage point in bed, but I saw the man's fists tighten before he said he'd send in a nurse. I shook my head and turned my attention back to Nick. "Well, if I would have brought soap, you wouldn't need a shower." I laughed. "I'm giving you one right now by crying."

Nick started to laugh. "Ouch. Don't make me laugh. That hurts."

Dr. Reed came by an hour or so later and released Nick from the hospital. He handed me a stack of papers and a few prescriptions. "Now keep still and no work for at least a week. I trust you to keep him home. He needs time to heal." He then handed me a white paper bag. "Some samples of the medications I've written prescriptions for. This will hold you over until you can get to the pharmacy."

"Thank you." I looked at Nick in the wheelchair as he was watching the nurse adjust the foot holds. "I'll make sure he stays off work." She pushed the chair out towards the waiting room as I held on to Nick's right hand. We got to the waiting room and saw everyone. "You have an audience."

"I get hurt and the whole team shows up. Nice. Thanks for coming. I appreciate it." Nick looked up at me. "We both appreciate it."

Catherine said she'd drop the prescriptions off at the pharmacy on her way back to the lab. "We're going back by that apartment later on to finish what you and Warrick started. You go home. Let Anna take care of you. We'll let you know what we find."

When we got outside, I realized I had run over from the station and didn't bring my truck. "Can one of you give us a ride to the station, or stay with Nick so I can go get my truck? I ran over when Catherine called."

"Your partner and Marshmallow Man gave them to me and they brought your overnight bag from work, too." Greg showed me my keys as he handed me my LVFD bag. "Stay here. I'll go get your car. Your partner told me to tell you that Marshmallow Man had volunteered to take your spot on the ambulance so you could go home with Nick. Your work husband said to call him later and let everyone know how Nick's doing." Greg left, headed to get my truck from the parking lot as I made a mental note to thank both of them for bringing my truck to me and covering me on the rest of my shift so I could go home with Nick. Greg appeared a moment later with my truck and the nurse and I helped Nick inside and we went back to his apartment.

"Home." Nick looked around his apartment and sighed. He pulled me in close to him with his right arm. "Thank you." He kissed me and laid his head on top of mine. "What a day."

"Yeah. You're telling me and you're welcome, but I'm not quite sure what you're thanking me for."

Nick sat down on the couch and winced as he went to lie back. I sat down on the floor in front of the couch. "For being there for me." He brushed my cheek with his fingers. "It's nice to have someone there waiting for me and to take care of me. Thank you."

"You're welcome." I leaned in to kiss him again, this time taking my time doing so. I had to pull back before things went any further. "What timing to go and get injured." I kissed him again and turned the TV on.

After taking some of the medications the doctor had given us, he fell asleep on the couch. Nick had just enough to last until I could pick up the prescriptions later on at the pharmacy. I woke him up long enough to move him to the bedroom where he promptly fell asleep again. I stayed in bed with him, holding onto his hand as he slept. I started changing the channels, not really watching TV. My attention was focused on Nick and watching him for any sign of distress. The doorbell rang and I got up and headed up front and opened the door. "Hey, everyone. Nick's asleep, but come in."

Catherine came in, followed by Greg and Warrick. "Here are the prescriptions. We stopped by to bring them to you so you wouldn't have to leave Nick to go get them." I took the bag from her and she hugged me. "How's he doing?"

"Thank you. I was going to go out later, but you saved me a trip. As for how he's doing…" I shrugged my shoulders after getting hugs from Greg and Warrick. "He's asleep. He doesn't remember much about what happened. He just said he remembered fighting with someone who appeared out of nowhere and then being shoved out the window and being in a lot of pain but that's it. He told Gil at the hospital that everything else is a blur. Traumatic amnesia I guess."

The three of them stayed for a bit, telling me that they would be headed back to the apartment later on to see if the owner was home and to finish what Nick and Warrick started. I told them I'd call if anything happened. They left and I shut the door behind them. I locked the deadbolt on the door and headed back to the bedroom. Nick was still asleep. I changed out of my uniform and into a t-shirt of Nick's and got in bed next to him and hoped I'd be able to sleep.

Catherine

Warrick, Sara and Greg stopped by the day after Nick got hurt and interviewed the neighbors at the apartment building where Nick got injured, but they didn't know anything about the occupant in the apartment they were asking about nor did they see anything after Nick got hurt. Most everyone they talked to thought the apartment was vacant because of the lack of furniture. Greg noted in his report that he stopped by the manager's office and confirmed with them that the occupant was Nigel Crane and his rent was paid on time every month.

Grissom and I were back at the apartment about a week later to finish up the investigation. He was reading over a printout one of the uniforms had given us before we left the lab. "Nigel Crane, age 37. No criminal record. According to this, he's worked for Luna Cable for eleven years and lives alone and no mention of any family members." Grissom handed me the printout he was holding as I was looking at the boarded up window on the second floor from where we stood outside. He headed in the apartment as I checked the perimeter of the apartment building.

It was getting dark outside as I started the perimeter check. I got my flashlight and turned it on so I could check the grounds. I made a few passes over the grass in the yard but didn't see anything. I started towards the hedges under the windows and something reflected off the beam of light. I bent down to pick the object up and it was a pair of sunglasses. I got an evidence bag out and put them in the bag and walked back to my truck and tossed the bag in the front seat. I turned my flashlight back on and kept an eye out for anything on the sidewalk that was leading up the stairs. I entered the apartment and checked to see where Grissom went, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Not a stick of furniture except for a computer and a chair." I started out in the living room, looking for anything that would suggest a human being lived here, but with the exception of the white plastic chair, a few milk crates and the laptop, there was nothing. "How do people live like this?" I saw a coat closet in the living room and opened the door. "Empty." I shut the door and started to look around the apartment. "I bet this is what Gil's apartment looks like, except I bet he's got his bug collection out." I mused to myself at the thought as I searched the rest of the apartment and found nothing. There was nothing here to suggest anyone lived here. "No pictures, no furniture, no clothes, no TV. Nothing." All of the items I normally saw in a house were absent. Even though no one was in the house, I realized I was speaking out loud to myself as I walked through the apartment. I stopped to look at the computer and chair again. "This looks like the owner moved, but forgot to take the laptop and chair with him." I started back towards the kitchen and saw some red smudges on the cabinet door. After taking samples of the red smudges on the outside of the door, I opened it and saw that the cabinet was empty except for a recycling bin at the bottom. The bin had the same red drops in it that were on the door. I was swabbing the drops inside the bin when I heard something move in the pantry behind me. "What the hell?" I looked over and saw Grissom coming out of the attic. "You scared me." I shined my light in his face as he stepped on the stool in the pantry and then on the floor behind me. "What were you doing up there?"

"I heard what you said and I do have more furniture than this in my apartment, thank you." Gil turned his flashlight back on and aimed it at the attic access. "He lives up there, not down here. Works, sleeps, changes his clothes. Everything up there. He looks down on the world separating himself from others. Fascinating really."

"You're gonna love this, then." I held up a swab I had taken. "Red hair dye. Look familiar?"

"That's the same color as Jane's hair." Grissom was lost in thought as he looked back at the attic access panel in the pantry. "That's how he was able to sneak up on Nick. Nick told me at the hospital that the guy appeared out of nowhere. He was where you were and he was probably looking at those drops on the floor just like you were and I was able to sneak up on you. If Nigel was the one that hurt Nick, that'd explain how he was able to sneak up on him the same way I just snuck up on you. Look."

"That's what Anna told me also. Said Nick told her he didn't know where Nigel came from." I got on the step ladder and hoisted myself up in the attic. I sat on the attic floor, leaving my legs hanging down through the opening. I turned my flashlight back on and followed the beam of light around the room. Everything Nigel owned was crammed into the small confines of the attic. The bed was shoved against a wall next to a bookcase full of tapes from a handheld camcorder. "How many tapes you think he's got up here?" I pulled my legs through the opening of the attic and after getting up and dusting my pants off, started counting the tapes on the shelf. After losing count at 30 tapes on one shelf, I stopped. "Somehow I don't think I want to know what's on these tapes."

Grissom came up through the attic access door. "I don't think I want to know, either." He turned his flashlight on and shined the beam of light at the tapes before shaking his head. "Dinner and a movie?" He looked at the tapes a second time as he started to count them on the shelves. "Hope you like horror films. Something tells me that these aren't going to be cartoons about mutated karate trained kung fu reptiles."

Grissom and I spent the next hour boxing up the tapes as well as some other evidence from the apartment. I had just gotten the last box put in my truck when I saw the boarded up window on the top floor that Nick had been shoved out of. "I'm gonna call Anna and see how Nicky's doing. He had a follow up appointment earlier today with the radiologist. I'll meet you at the lab." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Anna's number. "Anna?"

"Hey Catherine."

Shutting the back door of my truck, I asked how Nick was doing. "How'd the appointment go? Wasn't that today?"

"Yeah it was. He's doing really well actually. His follow up appointment earlier today went really well. The radiologist pulled another x-ray and did an MRI and said that everything looks good. He got the stitches out of his forehead while he was there. He's almost back to his normal self and got released for work next week. We're just getting ready to head out to grab dinner and may go see a movie. I'm not in a cooking mood and we both have a bad case of cabin fever."

I got in the truck and started it up getting ready to head back to the lab. "We just finished up here at the apartment Nick was at. We didn't find much, just some video tapes and some other odds and ends we're going to take back to the lab and process. Did Nick lose a pair of sunglasses by any chance?"

"Oakleys? Yeah, he said they must have fallen out of his pocket when he got shoved out of the window. Did you find them?"

I glanced over at the sunglasses in the bag on my seat. "Yes. Tell him we're going to process them for fingerprints and we'll get them back to him later. I'll let you know what we find on the tapes. If anything changes with Nick, let us know."

"I will, Cath and thank you for everything. Please tell everyone else the same also. Nick and I both appreciate it."

We hung up as I got to the lab. I handed a box of tapes to Warrick and another to Sara. "Take those inside to Archie and tell him to find some popcorn and tell him to start with the first one." I looked at the third box. "It's going to be a long night."

Two hours and a dozen tapes into the collection later, we were no closer to finding out what was going on than we were before we started. The tapes we saw up until this point were just generalized with crowd shots, random rants and different views of inanimate objects. I yawned and got ready to shove the next tape in the machine when Gil came in. "We're looking at this backwards. We've been doing this the wrong way." He handed me a tape. "See the number?"

"Tape 89. So what?"

"This tape has Jane Galloway on it. This is the one we found at her house. It was in the attic." He handed the tape to Archie who put in the machine. As the tape began to play, Jane Galloway appeared on the screen. It was a montage of shots from her in bed to painting her toenails to soaking in a bubble bath. "We need the last tape. We've been going about this all wrong. If this cable guy was the one who hurt Nick, it'd be after the Jane Galloway tapes." Gil started moving tapes around in the last box. He handed me a tape that was near the bottom of the box. I took it from him and handed it to Archie.

"Archie, play this." I handed him the last tape. He put it in the machine and the screen came on. "That's him." I looked at the picture in my hand and compared it to the images on the TV monitors. "That's Nigel Crane." I watched for a few moments before he started going off on a rampage about Anna and Nick on the tape.

"You will never get me. No. No. You'll never get me the way he does. And I…I got a friend. I told you I did! We had something. We were friends. Best of friends, but then that girl came along and ruined it all. Before she came in the picture, he knew me. He acknowledged me but now it's Anna this and Anna that. Enough about Anna! I'm sick of Anna. I want my friend back but instead Nick, you're just too wrapped up in your pathetic little life with Anna to see what's going on around you. I've tried to get her out of your life, but it just didn't work. You figured out the shirt that was hers was a plant. I should have thought of that, but I didn't. I knew you were smarter than that. I tried to get rid of her with the note and with the peanut butter. I saw her medical bracelet and it listed her allergies, so I put the peanut butter on the door handle and nothing. Again! Nothing! I was hoping that when you showed her the pictures your classmate sent, she'd get mad and leave, but apparently she didn't. You never left her side. You were always with her. I saw you at crime scenes and you didn't see me. I saw her at the scene with the cat. The paper came and made a big production of it, but they didn't mention you and you're the real hero even though you weren't at that scene. I saw you out at restaurants and you didn't see me. I saw you at the store and you didn't see me. I saw you at the Bellagio and you didn't see me. I saw you at the karaoke bar and you didn't see me. I tried to get your attention, but no. You didn't look. I tried to get Anna away from you to tell you what a good job you did on the song, but no. You didn't leave her. As you left, you walked right by me that night. You even had to move out of my way when I came in the door. Did you even look at me? No. You just kept to yourself or just kept walking away, living in your own little world consumed by her. You never saw me! YOU NEVER SAW ME BECAUSE OF HER! Why didn't you see me, Nick? It's because of HER!" Nigel threw a water bottle he was holding off camera and got up, leaving the picture. He came back in the frame and sat down again. "It's like he's the kind of guy I always wanted to be and that's why it's so great because we're friends now. I finally have someone that understands me. We're so close, we even wear the same clothes. I think if it came right down to it, he'd lay his life down for me, but Anna would probably stop him. Now I guess I just have to take it in my own hands now, don't I? I need to find another way to make sure she dies. Guess the peanut butter is out. We already know that won't work. She'll just save her life again. I'll just have to kill her myself." He stopped talking and looked down at his feet. He stayed that way for a few moments before he looked back at the camera. "Yeah, you'll be sad, but I'll be there for you. I'll be there like a true friend should be. I'm your one true friend, Nick. Not Anna. Not anyone from work, but ME! We had something going on. We talked for hours that day. Remember? Just you and me. Once she is finally left us alone, we had established a friendship, a solid friendship. You know that. You trusted me and I trusted you." Nigel turned his attention to the empty space next to him as he rambled on about something else.

"It was almost like he was looking at someone who wasn't there. Think he's imagining Nick being there?" I was beginning to understand why Nick and Anna were so upset by this guy. I looked at Grissom to see if he had a response, but he said nothing as we continued to watch the tape until Nigel got up and left the frame but came back a few moments later and sat back down.

"See, I told you! Nick trusts me, don't you, Nick? He'd trust me enough to stop his heart. We're true friends and true friends trust each other. Ask him! He'll let me kill her. I know he will." Nigel started pointing to something behind the camera. "Go ask him. He'll tell you. I tried to get into see him at the hospital but couldn't get her away from him. That annoying Anna was back in the room, sleeping in the bed next to him at the hospital. I went in the room after I stole some scrubs to say hi and he didn't recognize me. Anna was there, brainwashing him as usual. No one even asked who I was or what I was doing there. Everyone was consoling Anna. It's Anna this and Anna that. Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna. Enough! Enough Anna! I didn't want to hurt you, but it was the only way I could get your attention. I had to get you away from her. Nick, why didn't you kick her out of the hospital room? I was there. I wanted to see you. That's what friends do. I was upset. I was worried about you, but did anyone stop and ask me how I was doing? NO! It was Anna, Anna, Anna. How's Anna? What can we do to help Anna? Someone help Anna. What does Anna need?"

Something on the side of the screen caught my eye. "Archie, freeze it." Archie stopped the tape as I tried to figure out what it was. "Over on the left side of the screen, zoom in on those pictures."

"Will do." Archie moved the zoom frame around what I was looking at. "Who's the girl?" Archie had zoomed in on a picture on the shelf behind where Nigel was sitting. "That Anna?"

Grissom looked at the screen as Archie started to focus the pixels. "Yes, that's Anna, Archie."

Archie moved the zoom frame over and sharpened the image even more. "Looks like a newspaper article." Archie continued working on it until he got the picture clear enough to read the caption on the picture of Anna. "Oh wait, I remember that. She's the one that saved that kid's cat. That story in the paper made my mother cry when she read it."

"I saw that, too. Nick showed it to us before he went home that morning. He said it was Anna's birthday and he had a surprise in store for her. That picture was taken the day before Anna's birthday." I focused on the newspaper photo and I saw something else. "There's more beside the picture of Anna and the little girl and her cat." I looked at the two photos, trying to figure out what they were of. "Sharpen it up. I can't see it."

Archie moved the zoom frame over and focused on the images. One was a picture of Nick and Anna that was taped to the wall, the second was our internal newsletter. "That's the internal newsletter with Nick being the featured Crime Stopper. How'd weird cable guy get that? That newsletter isn't distributed out of this office, but he's got a copy and where'd the picture of Nick and Anna come from? I doubt either of them let him take their picture with any camera. Nigel's already said on the tape that Nick didn't recognize him whenever he saw them out."

"Nick said he took a copy of that newsletter home to show Anna, but how'd Nigel get it?" I opened the case file in front of me. "Nick said he got the cable installed over two months ago, but this newsletter is less than two weeks old. Nigel must have been back in Nick's apartment at some point in time." I stared at the picture of Nick and Anna until I remembered where it came from. "That picture of Nick and Anna was from a career day Anna worked a couple weeks ago. I remember that because Lindsey took the picture for the school paper. Lindsey said Anna had asked for copies when she got the film developed and told her to give them to me so I could give them to Nick. I gave them to Nick about a week or so ago. I don't remember the date that Anna was there, but Lindsey said that they were together at her school. I can ask the principal when Anna was there. Nick didn't sign up did he?"

Grissom shook his head, "No, day shift went this year, but they went before the LVFD did. He must have gone with Anna as support or something."

A thought hit me. "Where are the photos from the scenes Nick has worked from the past couple weeks? Archie, I need the ones from Brad's camera also. Pull them all up and put them on the monitors." I knew where the crime scene shots were that I needed. I ran out of the room and down the hall to the records room. After dragging a stool over, I got the box down that I needed. Not even bothering to properly cut the evidence tape sealing the box, I pulled the lid off, tearing the box in the process. Moving aside bags of evidence, I got my hands on the envelope with the photos in it. Leaving everything where it was, I ran back to the AV lab. "I took some crowd photos at this scene. It was a house fire that Nick and I worked. Nick said he and Anna both didn't feel right. I didn't think it'd hurt anything and if it made them both feel better, I'd do it." I laid out the photos on the table, tossing photos aside until I got to the end of the stack where the crowd shots were. "Here." I started looking through the crowd trying to see if I could see Nigel in any of the shots. "Archie, give me that magnifying glass." I held my hand out and he dropped it in my hand. I started looking through the magnifying glass at the crowd. I froze when I stopped over Nigel's face in the crowd. "He was there watching." I flipped to another picture and he was in that one. "He saw everything. No wonder they were both so messed up. He was there the whole time and they were being watched."

"But what set him off this time? Wasn't Anna there when Nick had his cable hooked up?" Grissom took the magnifying glass from me and started to look at the pictures. "Nigel's changed positions in the shots. In this one, he's closer to the end of the yard, but in this one, he's in the middle of the street."

"Anna was there when Nick got his cable hooked up, but he said she was sick. Anna was in the bedroom sleeping when Nigel was there." I picked the magnifying glass up again and looked at the photos. "Nick was collecting footprints from the outside in this shot." I picked up the one of Nigel in the street. "Nick was talking to Anna in this one. Nigel kept moving because he was trying to get Nick's attention at the scene, but Nick wasn't paying attention to anyone but Anna." I put the magnifying glass down on the table. "Nick touched her." I remembered now. "At the scene as I was taking pictures, he touched her shoulder and let his hand drift down her arm until he held her hand. I remember that he touched her before she left to go back to the station. They were both really uneasy about what was going on. Nick didn't let on to Anna that he was as uneasy as she was, but he told me later on that day after Anna was gone that he was freaked out. They both were really worried, but Nick was trying to reassure her." I put the photo down and started to flip through the other ones. "Nigel's here in this one, too." Nick was facing the crowd and Nigel was looking at him, trying to get his attention, but Nick was focused on something else and wasn't paying any attention to him. "Nick wasn't looking in his direction so he didn't see it. "Archie, pull up the crowd photos from the last few cases Nick worked. It's time to play where's the psycho."

Archie pushed some keys on the keyboard and the pictures came up. "This was from that wreck earlier with the DUI." He flipped through the shots. "That him?"

I said it was and as we flipped through photos of three more scenes, Archie found Nigel Crane in the crowd shots of two photos while Gil and I found Nigel in four more of the pictures including the ones Brad took. My blood ran ice cold as I realized what was going on. "He's mad at Nick for not recognizing him and he's taking it out on both of them. Oh God."

Gil looked at me. "Where are they?"

"Anna said they were at Nick's. She said he was getting hungry and they were going out to eat and then to a movie if Nick felt up to it."

He left the folder he was holding on the desk as he turned to leave. "I'll call Nick and warn him about what we found. Catherine, you call Brass and get some uniforms over there now. Anna didn't go back to work this week, did she? I know Nick's off through this weekend."

"She's there with him and she's not going back to work until Nick's better. Anna said she was going to stay off work until Nick came back to work next week." I turned around and watched as Gil ran out of the lab, headed back to his office to call Nick as I dialed Brass's number on my cell phone. I felt a shiver run up my spine as the still picture of Nigel Crane on the screen stared down at me.

A/N: Oooh….A cliffie! I know that on the DVD, Grissom and Catherine went back to the house that same night after Sara and Warrick took Nick home. I swapped that with Greg, Sara and Warrick and added in the second visit by Gil and Catherine to my version of the story so that events in the next couple of chapters will make sense. Show me some love in the form of reviews.

Next chapter should be up this week. It's typed out but I've got one "scene" that I'm not sure if I like. I've rewritten that one scene and now I gotta decide if I like the original one or the new one better. Decisions, decisions.

Random observation – is it just me or does Doug Hutchinson look like the Verizon "Can you hear me now" guy?

Also toying with the idea of writing kind of a parallel to this story but it'll be written from Nigel's POV. Guess we'll see if that materializes or not. No one has ever written anything from his POV and the character was so vague that it's wide open for interpretation. Sometimes it can be fun to write from the boogie man's perspective. We shall see…