Chapter 11 – Stay With Me
"Get enough to eat?"
Anna kissed me as I pulled her closer as I stuck the key in the lock of my apartment and shoved the door open, "Yes. I was hungry and judging from what all you wolfed down, looked like you were hungry, too." I threw my keys on the counter as Anna took off the wet shirt she was wearing, leaving her in the camisole she had on under it. "When's the movie start?"
She checked her watch, "Seven. I'm gonna go change so we can go if you're still feeling up for it. I need to start a load of laundry and throw this shirt in before this tea ruins it. Be right back." Anna turned and kissed me again before she walked towards the back of our apartment to change so we could leave. The waitress at the restaurant had accidently spilled tea on Anna while we were there. She didn't have anything to change into, so she wore the tea soaked shirt while we were finishing our meal. The waitress apologized profusely for spilling the tea even though Anna wasn't mad. The manager came over and gave us our meal for free and apologized again before we left.
I heard Anna in the hallway starting the washing machine as I sat down on the couch and turned on the TV and started flipping through channels. I stopped on the Discovery Channel and started to watch something about penguins and the melting polar ice caps when my phone rang. "Griss?"
"Nick, listen. He's been in your house."
"Huh?" I was confused, "Who?"
"Nigel Crane. The stalker. Brass is on his way to your house now with two uniforms to post at your door. Where's Anna?"
"My apartment, why?" I peered out the window after hearing a noise outside my apartment. "Anna is here with me. She's getting changed and we're about to go see a movie. She had to change shirts or we would have gone straight to the movie from the restaurant." I twisted the rod on the mini blinds to close them, "Who's Nigel Crane and why is he after me?"
"Nigel Crane, the cable guy. Catherine and I just got done watching some tapes we found in the apartment where you got hurt. We went back to recheck it earlier tonight. He's obsessed with you. He's after you and Anna. He admitted on the tapes that he was the one that was behind the peanut butter on Anna's truck and he was the one that killed Audrey Malone and Jane Galloway and he was the one who shoved you out of that window. Both of you need to get out of the house, now. We're on our way there."
"I'll get her o…" My doorbell rang, interrupting me. "Hold on, Griss." I got up to answer the door, "Who is it?"
"Lawrence Pearson. You don't know me, but I worked with Mr. Grissom on the Jane Galloway case. I need to speak to you, please."
I opened the door and saw him standing on my front porch. He had his eyes closed and his hands in the air. It looked like he was a blind man trying to find something, "You answered. Good." He brushed past me and into my apartment and went straight into the kitchen, "I saw this apartment and the street name in my visions. Only, this is all wrong." He started to walk back in my living room and looked up, "It's the wrong angle. Raven Lane. Raven is a death bird. Dead bird, death lane." He went to the kitchen and started pacing back and forth, "This is all wrong. I need to be looking down at you. I saw everything in here, but it was like I was looking down at you from the ceiling, just like the death bird would be doing as he waited on you to die."
"Nick? Nick!" I looked down at the phone, realizing Grissom was still on the other end.
I brought the phone back up to my ear as I watched the psychic walking around in my kitchen, "Well, Anna and I aren't alone anymore."
"What? Nick, who's there with the two of you?"
"Your psychic is here."
"Green tea!" Lawrence turned to me, "I'm seeing green tea!" He moved towards my kitchen and picked up the kettle Anna had used to make tea a couple days ago, "You drink green tea!"
"What?" I was beginning to get tired of giving people a look of confusion all the time.
Lawrence held up the kettle, "Green tea. I saw green tea but it was getting hurt badly. Did you drink green tea?"
"How do you hurt green tea?" I shook my head and brought the phone back to my ear, "I don't drink green tea. Anna, my girlfriend, does." With Grissom still on the phone, I turned my attention back to him. "Sorry. He said he saw green tea and a dead bird in my apartment?"
"I don't know what that means but keep him there and you and Anna need to get out of there now. Nigel's nowhere to be found. We have uniforms at his house, but he's not there. We just saw the tapes. He's trying to become you and is going to kill Anna. He sees her as competition for your emotions. Brass already dispatched units to your apartment."
I turned around to see where Lawrence went, but my kitchen was empty. I shut the phone, but rather than putting it down, I kept it in my hand as I went to find Anna. Before I could get to our bedroom to check on her, a scream and then a single gunshot followed by the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the floor stopped me in my tracks as my blood ran ice cold, "God, no. Anna!"
I kicked the laundry basket that Anna left in the hall out of my way as I went in our bedroom where she was getting dressed. I saw her feet at the edge of the bed. She was lying on the floor between the bed and the wall, trying to get enough leverage with her feet to shove herself backwards from the man that shot her. She kept bending her knees and trying to shove off of the rug with her feet, but she couldn't do it. There was too much blood. Not having time to react properly, I realized I still had my phone in my hand and I threw it as hard as I could at him as he stared down at her. It hit him in the side of the head causing the phone to break apart and fall to the ground. He grabbed his head and looked down at the broken phone, "What the hell? That wasn't very nice." He rubbed the spot on his head as he faced me, "Oh, Nick! You're here." The man smiled at me as I looked at Anna who was on the ground and not moving. He made a step towards me, kicking part of my broken phone under the bed and out of his way.
"Anna!" I started to make a lunge for the man to knock him down and to check on Anna, but he stopped me. He pushed me backwards before I could get to her.
"Manners, Nick! Manners!" He turned to face Anna again as he rubbed the sore spot where my phone hit him. I couldn't see her well with him being in the way, "You want to see what I did just for you?" He moved out of the way and motioned for me to look at her, "See? Just for you. Consider this yet another gift from a friend." I started to move closer to her and saw that he had shot her in the right shoulder. She was dressed in the white camisole and the khaki skirt she had on from earlier. The shirt had a blood stain on it that was growing larger by the second from the gunshot. Anna realized I was in the room and I watched as tears formed in her eyes and fell down her cheeks as she groaned in pain. The man bent down to get a closer look at her. "Maybe next time you'll think twice before you come between my best friend and me. I already told you this once, but I'll repeat it again for you. Bros before hos, dear. Bros before hos." He raised the gun to shoot her again and I lunged at him, knocking him to the wall. He braced himself against the wall and shot Anna a second time after he shoved me off of him. She flinched and cried out in pain, "Try that again and I shoot her again. Got it?"
When the man knocked me back, he shoved me hard enough and I tripped and hit my head on the closet door. I touched the spot on the back of my head and when I saw my hand, it had blood on it. "Fine. Whatever you say. Just don't hurt her again."
"What are you trying to do? You're worried about her? I'm just trying to help you. Don't you see? This girl here is no good for you!" Anna coughed and tried to move her hand up to feel the second gunshot wound in her stomach but she couldn't get her hand up high enough. The man's attention was turned back to her when she groaned in pain again. He raised the gun to shoot at her but changed his mind, "Look at her, Nick. Look. You're so self absorbed. You and your life and that girlfriend of yours are the only things that matter to you. I'm taking care of her for you. She wouldn't die. No matter what I did, she wouldn't die." He looked down at Anna again, "But you're about to." He pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at Anna and it landed on her blood soaked skirt. "Guess you'll need this now." I looked over at what he threw and saw that it was Anna's red scene tag, "You use these to show you're hurt, right? Did I get that right? You give the red one to the person who is in charge of the scene?"
"Anna's scene tag?" I looked at the man in our room, "Where'd you get that?"
"From here of course, Nick. Where else? She left her helmet in your room and I got it. I figured it might come in handy one day."
I started to slowly move closer to Anna. The blood pool on the floor was getting larger. Anna didn't have that much time left and I had to get her medical help. The deranged man was holding us both hostage wasn't going to let me call anyone to help her. "Why'd you do this? Why try to kill her?" I looked at Anna as I moved closer to her. He didn't do anything to stop me from kneeling on the floor next to her. I put my hand on her shoulder, trying to stop the blood. Anna brought her left hand up to where my arm was. I felt as she wrapped her fingers around my arm and moaned in pain. "And who the hell are you?"
He turned around to face me, "What did you say?"
"Damn it, you heard me. You shot my girlfriend and I don't even know who you are or what you want!"
The man's face fell, "You don't know who I am? You don't remember me?" Anna coughed again and I heard her start to gag as she started to choke on her own blood. He turned around to face her, "Shut the hell up, bitch! This is your damn fault." He waved the gun at her. "YOU! YOU!" He stopped yelling at her long enough to look at me. He made a step towards me and I stood up and put myself between his line of sight and Anna. He pointed over at Anna, "This is why you can't remember me! It's her fault and we punish bad people, don't we?" He raised the gun at her again.
"Stop!" I held up my hands and folded them like I was praying and I was. I was praying and begging him not to shoot Anna again. I knew she didn't have much time left and I was trying to stall any way I could. "Please, man. Don't kill her. I'll give you whatever it is you want. Money, my truck, whatever it is you want, but please, just leave now. Go. Don't kill her."
A loud noise came from my living room. "What was that?" The deranged gunman left my bedroom and went towards the living room.
Seeing that as my cue, I kneeled down and picked Anna up again, holding her close to my body. "Anna. I'm so sorry." I brushed the blood soaked hair out of her eyes. "Please hang on. Please." I looked up at the door and the man was still gone. I heard the gunman fighting with someone up front. I turned my attention back to Anna. "Please don't die on me. I'm gonna call 911. Just hang on, please!" I knew Anna put her phone in the drawer when she got to my apartment so she wouldn't lose it. I opened the drawer and pulled her phone out and saw Anna's gun in there. He hadn't found it yet. I got it out of the drawer and put it on the floor underneath Anna where he couldn't see it. "Use this if you have to. Just keep it hidden. Keep it next to you. If something happens to me, use it if you need to if something else happens." She shook her head and started to cry again. "I'm not leaving you. I promise. If he comes back in here alone, use it." She closed her eyes and held on to my arm with her left hand as I dialed 911. I reached up on the bed and got a towel and held it over Anna's shoulder wound trying to stop the bleeding. "Anna, please hang on. Please. You can't leave me." I held the phone to my ear using my shoulder as I held the towel over Anna's shoulder wound. Two more gunshots interrupted my pleas for Anna to hang on as I waited on the 911 operator to answer.
"Las Vegas 911. What is the nature of your emergency?"
"1780 Raven Lane Apartment 8. My girlfriend has been shot and a deranged man is holding us hostage. This is Nick Stokes. I'm with the crime lab. Captain Jim Brass has…" I heard footsteps approaching and I threw the phone under the bed and out of sight and moved the gun under Anna's lower back where she was lying on top of it to keep it hidden while I held her. I hugged her tightly as the man came back in.
"You gotta watch who you let in here, Nick. That guy was snooping all over the place. He was almost as bad as her." He looked at me as I kept my hold on Anna. "So sweet. Touching really." He raised the gun and pointed at me. "Let her go, Nicky. Let her go or I'll shoot her again and this time, I won't just injure her."
I looked down Anna. I knew he'd kill her if I didn't do what he wanted me to do. She slowly nodded her head, letting me know she understood I had to leave her. I gently put her back on the ground in the pool of her own blood that was spreading across the carpet in my bedroom. I started to bend down to kiss her, but he stopped me by poking me in the neck with my own gun. She started to reach for something, but stopped and let her hand fall back to her side.
"Nick."
I turned my attention away from Anna. Her skin was fast losing color. The pool of blood I saw when I was holding her was slowly spreading behind her. She tried to move her hand again, but she was so weak, she couldn't do it. I watched helplessly as she coughed and gagged on her own blood. As her eyes were pleading with me to do something, I couldn't do anything except stand there and watch her die. I was helpless as the man held the gun on me. He looked back at Anna and pointed the gun at her again, "Nick Stokes. Leave. Now." He waved the gun over her body. "Leave now or I'll shoot her again. I've already killed that other guy up front. I can kill her while you watch or we can save her for later. Your choice."
Anna slowly nodded her head again and closed her eyes. She coughed once more and her body went still. The man looked over and kicked her foot. She didn't move. I started to cry, but held back my tears as he shoved the gun into my shoulder and pushed me out into the hallway. I tried to look at Anna once more, but the man being behind me shoving me with the gun prevented me from doing that. "Go." He pointed towards my living room. "She's dead. Nothing you can do for her until we do the autopsy on her later on."
"What?" I still didn't move. I saw an opportunity to catch him out off guard and I took it. "That's not my job. You should know that by now. That's a coroner's job."
"Don't patronize me, Nicholas." He shoved me again. "I said go damn you!"
He shoved me again and I got up and left Anna behind. We came back in the living room and I saw the pile of ceiling debris on my floor and Lawrence Pearson in the middle of it. He wasn't moving and the dark red blood on his jacket let me know he was dead. "Shot him, too?"
"Yes. I did." I was poked in my back once again as I slowly made my way to the couch and watched as the deranged gunman put the gun to the side of his face and rubbed his temples. "You get migraines too, I know you do." He shook his head. "That's why we're so perfect, Nick. You and I, we're like one and the same. You get migraines, and I get migraines." He held out his arms. "Look, we even wear the same clothes." He turned around to give me a full view of his outfit. "I picked it up from the dry cleaners along with Anna's uniform shirts. Those came in handy, didn't they?" He stopped to rub his temples again. "I think I'm getting a migraine now." He turned around and looked at the counter in my kitchen. "Mind if I get one of these?" He picked up one of the bottles I had left over from earlier after my trip to the hospital. He put the gun on the counter long enough to open the bottle and popped some pills in his mouth and picked up a cup Anna was using earlier for her tea, turned the water on in the sink to fill it and swallowed the pills. He threw the bottle on the ground and picked up the gun again and turned to me. "That'll help."
"You didn't have to shoot her. You could have let her go. Do you want to be responsible for Anna's death as well as this man's death?"
"Nick, Nick, Nick. I've already got that problem worked out. He was about as bad as that bitch girlfriend of yours. You know how many times I tried to hurt her? The shirt at the crime scene? The peanut butter?"
"That was you?" I started to stand up, but he pointed the gun at me. I sat back down. "You were the one that tried to kill her with the peanut butter? How the hell did you know she was allergic?"
"Her medical bracelet." He smiled as if he was proud of himself. "I saw it before and saw her allergies. I couldn't get my hand on any penicillin, but peanut butter is easy to come by. Any person can walk in the local store and pick up a jar. Best buck and a half I ever spent." He pointed towards Lawrence. "This guy was coming between us, so I got rid of him. Anna started pissing me off more and more. She was going to come between us, Nicholas. Don't you get that? I shot her because I'm your friend. How can we be friends if you spend all your free time with her? Huh? I mean think about it, Nick. She's always here. You're always there. How can we have any male bonding time over Texas football and basketball games and movies if Anna's always here with you?" He pulled one of the bar stools over and sat in front of me, still keeping the gun aimed at my chest.
"Have we met?"
He stared at me. "Sports package? 150 channels? I even threw in a couple movie channels for free."
It finally dawned on me who he was. "You're the guy who installed my cable."
"We connected. When you told me what you did, it made sense. I know I related to you that way. We talked like forever. It's like we've been friends forever. I tried to get rid of that girlfriend of yours twice already, but she's like a bad case of fungus. She won't go away. I left her uniform shirt at that crime scene and damn you, you got her out of it. I put the peanut butter on her truck door handle and damn it if she didn't run inside and save herself. I figured when you showed her the prom pictures that lady sent you after she saw what I did to make Jane Galloway look like your prom date, she'd get mad and leave you, but damn her, she didn't so I had to do something else. That's when I had to shoot her. It just hasn't been the same since your girlfriend came into our lives. Well, I took care of that too as she was going to totally come between us."
"I remember now. You and I talked about the crime scene photos I had spread out on the table."
"Bingo! You finally remember me! Now what's my name?" He pointed the gun at my head. "My name. What is it?"
I remembered what Grissom said on the phone earlier when he called me. "Nigel. Nigel Crane."
"Excellent! You do remember me! See, with that girlfriend of yours dead, you're able to think again for yourself."
"You do know the police are on their way, right?" I was hoping to scare him off. "They're on their way here. I was on the phone earlier."
"Yeah, I heard that." He used the end of the gun to open my blinds enough to look out. "We made friends that day and every time since then, you just blew me off. You blanked me. You didn't even recognize me when I came into your hospital room that day after I hurt you. Sorry about that, by the way. It was the only way I got through to you. You are so self absorbed. I was right in front of your face and you didn't notice. You basically tripped over me twice and did you recognize me? No. Manners! Manners, Nicky! Manners! We don't have much time left now do we?" He stood up. "Get up." I could hear that the police cars were getting closer as the sirens got louder, but they were still not close enough to help me. "I just don't know anymore. You only remembered me after all of this. What kind of friend are you?" He pointed the gun at me. I lunged at him, knocking him to the ground as he tripped over Lawrence's dead body. Nigel stumbled, but grabbed the gun as I stayed on the floor. "Manners, Nicky! Isn't that what Anna called you? Nicky? Mind if I call you that, too? I mean, now that she's plant food, someone has to call you that." He cleared his throat and aimed the gun at my head but dropped his arm to his side when he started laughing. "Poetic justice right now." Nigel was laughing harder. "This is poetic justice. You're about to die in the exact same place where you first told Anna you loved her. Your girlfriend is plant food and you're about to be turned into plant food and it's all in the exact place you said you loved her for the first time. Wow. How's that for irony? Can I pick the scenes or what?"
"How'd you know that? You weren't here. No one was here the day I gave her that necklace."
"Oh, I watched, Nick. I saw a lot. There are some video cameras in your apartment that I left behind after I installed your cable for you. One of them was aimed right here. I saw it all. Quite touching really." He raised his arm again and aimed the gun as I closed my eyes, praying it'd be quick. "This is because you're a bad friend."
"Anna, I love you and I'm sorry." My voice was barely above a whisper as I kept my eyes closed, knowing the kill shot was coming. All I could hope for was that it was quick and I wouldn't suffer.
My eyes were still closed when I heard a gunshot. I was startled by the noise, but I didn't feel anything. I heard another noise as a body hit the ground, but I knew it wasn't mine. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times as I tried to get my senses together as several more shots were fired.
The last shot fired startled me and as I flinched to get away from it, I felt my end table behind me. I looked down at my shirt and didn't see fresh blood. All I saw was Anna's blood from where I held her earlier before she died. I started trying to piece together what was going on as my senses slowly returned. I didn't think I was shot. I was beginning to think that death was a lot more peaceful than I thought when I finally started to focus. The first thing that I saw was that Nigel was dead. He was lying on top of Lawrence's body in the middle of my living room. The gun he used to shoot Anna was on the floor in front of him. In between tears falling from my eyes at the realization that Anna was dead and now I had to go on without her, I tried to see who it was that saved my life and I focused beyond the two bodies in my living room.
Still squinting as I tried to focus on the blurry form leaning against the wall, I gasped. I didn't believe it. Once I began to focus more clearly, I still couldn't believe it. It was Anna. She was holding her gun and still had it pointed in the direction of Nigel's dead body. She had saved my life. I got up and tripped over the ceiling debris as I started towards her, which wasn't the smartest thing I could have done since she had the gun, but I had to get her attention, "Anna? Honey?" As she leaned against the wall for support, her eyes were wild with fright and pain as she kept a careful watch for any movement in front of her. Her right shoulder was dripping blood from the gunshot wound and her right hand was over the injury to her lower abdomen while she stood still, never once taking her eyes off of Nigel. Her left arm was locked solid with the gun still pointed in his direction with her finger on the trigger, ready to pull it if need be.
I looked down and saw the blood pool forming on the carpet underneath where she was standing as she leaned against the wall for support as I called her name again, "Anna?" I slowly approached her, trying to get her attention. It wasn't until I said her name again that I saw the slightest movement in her eyes. She looked over at me as she started shaking as she tried to register what was going on before returning to her watch over Nigel's body. I didn't have the medical training Anna did, but I knew she was in shock from the blood loss, "Anna, it's okay. I promise. He's dead."
I watched and saw her eyes shift quickly towards my direction once more as she tried to take in everything, but she still didn't believe me that Nigel was dead. "Anna?" Her eyes moved from the scene in my living room and then back to my face again as she surveyed the room. Even after I had told her a few times Nigel was dead, it still didn't register with her that she was safe, "Anna? Give me the gun." I took a slow step towards her. She didn't move and remained poised to shoot again, "Please. He's dead. Anna?" I held out my hand and slowly put it on her shoulder. "Anna? Please?" She looked at my hand on her shoulder before she dropped the gun on the floor as her knees gave way and buckled underneath her, causing her to slide down the wall. I caught her before she fell to the ground and held her tightly as I used the wall in the hallway as a brace so I could pull her into my lap as I slid down the wall, out of sight from the scene in my living room.
Tears traced down my cheeks, "Oh, love, I'm so sorry." My t-shirt I was wearing immediately soaked up the blood still coming out of her shoulder and stomach wounds. I ripped the side of my shirt and held it on the wound on her stomach as I hugged her close to me. She started crying again as I held her tightly to me, rocking her gently as we waited on the police to get here. "I thought you were dead. Oh, God. I thought you died. When he kicked you, you didn't move."
Her voice was weak as she put her left hand on my arm and held on tightly to me. "I had to save you." She coughed again and brought her hand to the wound on her shoulder, "I knew…" She stopped and coughed again as the front door to my apartment burst open. I started to look up at the door, stopped when Anna started shaking as I held her. She started to choke and cough until she became still as her eyes closed and her hand fell off of my arm as I felt her body relax in my arms.
"Anna?" I tried to wake her up, but she wouldn't open her eyes, "No, no, no! Anna?" I kept shaking her as someone called out for me but I ignored them, my attention focused solely on Anna, "Anna? Oh, God! Anna!"
"Nick?" I heard Brass's voice as he called out to me from the living room of my apartment, "Damn it, Nick! Where are you?"
"Over here." I didn't want to move Anna any more than I had to. "We're over here." I shook Anna again, trying to wake her up, "Oh, God. Please wake up. Anna?" She gasped for air as her eyes finally opened, but she continued to shake.
Brass rounded the corner and saw me holding Anna as she fought to stay alive. He got down on one knee and brushed her hair out of her eyes, "Oh, shit." He looked at me with a fear I haven't ever seen before in his eyes. I knew what he thought, "An ambulance is outside." He shoved at one of the officers who had come up behind him, "Send them in. Scene is secure. Give them an escort. Carry them in if you have to." I looked down when I heard Anna saying something. She had her eyes focused on the ceiling, "What's she saying, Nick?" Brass leaned in closer trying to hear her voice.
"High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing in his ecstasy…" Anna stopped and coughed, "Then off, off forth on a swing." Anna stopped and coughed again, but this time harder as she started gasping for air as she started to choke on her own blood. Her hand went to her neck as she started to grab at her own throat in an instinctual response to help herself breathe better.
"She's having problems breathing." Brass got up and turned to face another officer, "Where are the damn paramedics?"
I heard someone say they were outside. Brass yelled out to send them in. I stood up, picking Anna up with me. "No, we'll go outside. She doesn't have that much time." I cradled her in my arms as I stepped over the dead bodies of Lawrence and Nigel. As we passed, Anna tried to bury her face in my bloody shirt as we stepped outside.
Anna started reciting whatever it was she was saying earlier as I took her towards the ambulance that was waiting in the parking lot behind where my truck and Anna's truck was parked. Her voice was barely above a whisper as she continued to recite, "As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow bend, the hurl and gliding rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding..." Anna coughed again as we got to the wall surrounding the courtyard of my apartment building. She started reciting again as I ran by a few police officers that were watching me while keeping the crowd back from in front of my building.
Outside, Gil and Warrick were helping to move the crowd out of the way as I carried Anna away from our nightmare and towards the ambulance. I didn't pay any attention to them and instead focused on Anna as we made our way towards where the medics were with the two of them running in front of us to clear a path. Warrick shoved someone out of the way so I could make the last few steps to the medics. I tried to put her on the stretcher, but Anna stopped reciting whatever it was she was saying as her body went rigid and she started to shake again as she reached for my neck and wouldn't let go.
"Anna." Her grip tightened, "Anna, look at me." She started crying again and was refusing to let me go, "Anna!" I put my hands on her cheeks and stood in her line of sight so she'd have to focus on me, "Anna." I kept saying her name until I saw her connect with me, "It's okay. I'm here. I'm just putting you down on the stretcher." She still wouldn't let go as she continued to hold on to me tightly with her left arm, "It's the paramedics. They're taking us to the hospital. It's okay. I'm not leaving you." I could only imagine what she was thinking as I tried to put her down, "Anna, please let them help you. I'm not leaving you. I promise but you've got to let me go so they can help you." She finally looked up at me again, "Anna?" I felt her left arm loosen around my neck as it dropped to her side as she cried even harder. The two medics strapped her in as I reached for her hand and felt her hand tighten around mine. One of the medics came around to my side of her and knocked my hand out of her grip.
"Let's go." He yelled to his partner who went ahead of him to open the doors. He turned to me. "Desert Palms. Meet us there."
"NO!" Anna started to yell. "GOD DAMN IT ALL! NO!" She started to cough again, "He comes with me, damn it." She coughed and again started to choke on her own blood as she picked her left arm up off the gurney, trying to find me, "Nicky?" She tried to get up to look for me, but couldn't.
"I'm here." I held mine out and she grabbed on to it, refusing to let it go. I moved over in front of her where she could see me. "I'm right here."
"He comes with me, damn it." She coughed again and gripped my hand tighter, refusing to let go of the lifeline between us as I heard her start in again on the reciting, "Stirred for a bird, the achieve of the mastery of the thing."
I looked at the medic who swapped sides with me so I could be on her left side as I held her hand, "Do you know what she's saying?" I said no as the medic leaned in closer to her to hear, but she stopped again when she started to choke and gasp. We shoved the gurney towards the ambulance as the other medic helped load her in. The medic driving slammed the back door and jumped in the front seat.
Anna started to fight what the medic was trying to do to her. "Nick?" She tried to get up but couldn't because she was strapped to a backboard, "Nicky?" She started trying to find the ends of the straps to undo them herself and got one of the buckles flipped up and started to pull the strap out. "Help me up. I have to go home."
I took her hand away from the straps and held it in mine, "Right here." I kissed the top of her hand as she fought, "I'm right here and I can't help you up." I was sitting beside her on the bench, watching as she was being treated by the medic in the back of the ambulance. He stuck an IV in her hand which caused her to flinch. He hooked a bag of fluids up to her IV and hung it up over the gurney. Her eyes focused on me and her grip on my hand tightened as she kept trying to kick her legs as she fought more to get out of the restraints. "Anna, please stop. He's trying to help you." She wasn't listening to me and she continued to fight.
"She's probably going into severe shock from the blood loss. She got any allergies?"
"Peanuts and penicillin." I looked at Anna, wild eyed and frightened and in obvious pain, "Just peanuts and penicillin."
The medic reached up to a bin and got clear bottle out of the cabinet behind him. He stuck a needle in the vial and drew up some of the liquid from the bottle. He picked up the IV tubing and pushed the plunger in. Anna's grip loosened on my hand as her eyelids fluttered and finally closed. "Nicky, I…" Her voice faded off as she became still.
"Sorry, but I had to sedate her so she'd quit moving and so I can intubate her to help her breathing. I don't know where the bullets are and if they're somewhere near a major artery, one of them could hit that and she would bleed out and die. You ever figure out what she was saying?"
"No." I used the back of my hand to wipe tears out of my eyes. "No. I didn't." I watched as the medic started to intubate Anna. When he got the tube in her throat, her eyes opened about halfway. "She's awake. Anna? Can you hear me?"
He pulled the guide wire out of the tube and attached the ambu bag to it, "She's not awake." He and I watched as Anna's eyes fluttered shut as he started to help her breathe. "It's a reflex. She's still sedated."
The ambulance finally pulled into the hospital parking lot and though it felt like several hours, I knew it was less than five minutes. The medic driving got out and the back door flew open as he pulled the stretcher out. I got out and the medic in the back of the ambulance got out behind me as both of them sprinted into the hospital, pushing Anna on the gurney. An emergency room doctor and some nurses came running up and grabbed the gurney at the end of it where Anna's feet were. It was then that I finally noticed she was only wearing one sandal. "Thirty two year old white female, double GSW. One in the upper right shoulder, one in the lower right abdomen. No exit wounds with major blood loss and severe shock. Large bore IV started with saline bolus, intubated in the field, administered O2 by ET tube and point five of Haldol in the field. She was combative."
I listened as he finished telling the staff about her vital signs as they shoved her into one of the trauma bays in the ED. "You can't go in." A nurse shoved me back as the double doors to the trauma room shut. I stood and watched until someone else came over and shut the blinds, unsure what to do or think as they blocked the view I had as they were working feverishly to save Anna's life. The sounds of people shouting orders became indistinct to me as I tried to listen in.
"Nick?"
I turned around and saw Sara standing behind me with Grissom next to her. I just looked at them and shook my head and turned to face the trauma room. I started to say something, but I couldn't. I just stared at the concrete wall separating me from the woman I loved, hoping and praying to God that she'd be okay. I couldn't stand up anymore and let myself slide down the wall until I was on the linoleum floor as I heard the shouts behind the wall.
"We're losing her."
I stood up quickly and stared at the window. At the sound of those words, my blood drained out of my face and wave after wave of nausea washed over my body.
"Damn it, she's crashing. Clamps. Now!" Someone else was shouting orders in the room. I felt my knees begin to give out and I slid down the wall again.
"Paddles. Now! Charge to 150 and push the epinephrine."
I continued to listen to the sounds coming from the trauma room. I was unable and unwilling to leave. "Again. Hit it again. 200." Something metal crashed to the floor as another person yelled out that she was back.
"Get more blood. Type, cross and match at least six units and let's get her upstairs now or she won't be around much longer."
The nausea continued to wash over me as I heard someone shout out more orders. "OR 2. Get the surgeons in there now. She doesn't have that much time left. Now go! We're on our way as soon as this bleeder is clamped off." I brought my knees to my chest and rested my head on my knees as I started to cry again.
Grissom moved beside me and sat on my left side, while Sara moved and sat on the ground on my right and began to pull gloves out of her field kit. "Nick, I know this is a bad time and all, but…" Sara faded off, "We um, we…well, we need to…process you."
I looked down at my blood soaked t-shirt and jeans. I ran my fingers across my chest and felt the wetness of Anna's blood that had soaked into my shirt. "Can we wait? Please? I just want to wait until the doctors come out and let me know how she's doing. Please? Stand here and watch me or I'll strip butt naked here. I don't care, but please, this wall being between us is bad enough." I turned to face Sara, still pleading, "I don't want to leave her. Please, don't make me leave her alone. She didn't leave me when I was here after I got hurt. I'm not leaving her."
Sara looked at Grissom who said that was okay, "Fine, but Nick, after they do, we have to do this."
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the concrete wall as I listened inside the trauma room at the sounds of the doctors and nurses trying to keep Anna alive. I still had my eyes shut when the doors opened and a rush of air blew past me as two nurses and a doctor ran by me, running to the stairs on the opposite side of the hallway. They pulled the door open and I watched as they took the stairs two at a time as they went upstairs to the OR. "Nick Stokes?" I turned around to see where the sound came from and saw a doctor coming out of the trauma room.
"Yeah, that's me." I braced myself against the wall as I stood up, "How's Anna? Where is she?" I looked over his shoulders at the now empty trauma room before the doors shut, "What's going on?"
The doctor motioned for me to follow him, "My name is Dr. Lincoln Ryan. I treated Anna. Come with me." He led me away from the ED and into a private waiting room off of a hallway in the opposite direction of where the stairs were with Grissom and Sara following Dr. Ryan and me into the room, "Can you two step outside, please?"
"No, they can stay. I don't care who stays. Just tell me, how is she?"
"As you wish. Anna's on her way upstairs now to the OR. One of the bullets entered in the upper right shoulder, breaking her clavicle and causing some muscle and tendon damage. The second bullet entered in her lower right quadrant and that's the one we're concerned about. I can't see in to see the damage done by that bullet. She had massive amounts of blood loss with some tissue and tendon damage. I set the bone in her shoulder as best as I could down here and we managed to get the blood loss slowed down long enough to get her upstairs for surgery. That's where she's going now." He put the clipboard under his arm as he folded his arms across his chest, "She got lucky in one aspect tonight. I'm one of the orthopedic surgeons here. I'm not normally down here in the ED, but tonight I was. I'm not going to lie to you. She's critical. Very critical. It's possible she won't survive the surgery. Anna is very weak and has lost a tremendous amount of blood from the injuries sustained. I have no idea why she's still alive right now, but she is. She shouldn't be. People with that much blood loss don't live, but Anna is alive so she's got that going for her. We gave her a transfusion in the trauma room and her vital signs improved, but they dropped again shortly after and she coded while she was down here. We got her back and got her stable enough to take her up to the OR to repair the internal damage."
I felt the blood drain out of my body as the room began to spin once again. I felt someone lead me over to a chair and I sat down, "What? You mean, she could…" I couldn't even say the word. A lump formed in my throat as more tears made their way down my cheeks and down to the linoleum under my feet.
Dr. Ryan sat down next to me while Gil and Sara stood a few feet away. "Yes. She could die. Dr. Nathan Hoyt is who is going to be doing her surgery. If anything happened to me, I'd want him on my side. The doctors here are going to do all they can to save her life. You have my word on that but if she has family, now's a good time to call them. Get them here as quickly as possible."
"Her family's in Arkansas. They'd never make it." I remembered her telling me it was about a day's drive from where they were to here. "Bryan." My stomach lurched at the thought of calling Bryan to tell him what was going on, "I need to call Bryan. He's Anna's best friend and might as well be her brother." Dr. Ryan said he'd keep us updated as the night wore on, but told us to go up to the second floor to the OR waiting room and he'd let the surgeons know where to find me. He left me alone in the silent room, with nothing around me to take my thoughts off the fact my Anna may die. "I, uh, I broke my phone. I need to borrow one." Sara handed me her phone and told me to call him. For some reason, I remembered Bryan's number off the top of my head for the first time since Anna gave it to me just in case I ever needed him. I punched in the numbers and hit send.
"Hello?"
"Bryan?"
"Yah?"
"Bryan, this is Nick."
"Oh hey, CSI Man. Didn't recognize the number. I was just…"
I cut him off, "Bryan, you need to come down to Desert Palms. It's Anna. She's, oh God…" I closed my eyes as I tried to force my voice to work right.
"Nick, what's wrong with Aggie?"
I took a deep breath and hoped I could get this out, "Bryan, she's been shot."
"What?" I heard a noise as he apparently dropped the phone and again as he picked it back up again, "Aggie? My Aggie? No, no." I heard him start to gasp on the other end of the line as he started to panic, "Nick, no. Not Aggie. Oh, God no." Bryan let out a sob as he was taking in what I had told him, "No, she can't be. Not my Aggie. She's fine, right? Cathy's upstairs working in the ICU. She didn't call me. Shot? Where? What's going on?"
I could feel the tears coming back again, so I handed the phone back to Sara so she could explain who she was and what happened at my apartment. I listened to her side of the story as she told him where we were and he needed to get down here quickly. She ended the phone call and put the phone back in her pocket after telling me he was on his way down here and that he'd call Anna's parents and sister.
Grissom and Sara helped me stand up and we walked in silence to the elevator and got in. Sara pushed the button to the floor we needed and the doors closed and I felt the elevator shake as it started its journey up. The doors opened and we were greeted by a nurses' station. Sara approached the station as Grissom stayed with me. I was bewildered and still in a trance, not really caring what was going on, but Grissom explained it to me, "She's asking for some scrubs and a private room. We still need to process you."
My mind was blank. I could hear the words he said to me, but I couldn't process them. Grissom might have well been speaking Russian to me. I just nodded, but I didn't understand what he said. I couldn't process it. Sara came back a moment later and handed Grissom a set of green scrubs. "We can use one of the pre-op areas. Over there." Sara pointed as she led both of us to a small room off to one side of the waiting room. "Nick, I told the nurse at the desk we'd be in here. She said she'd come get us as soon as she had news." Sara pulled the blinds down across the windows and turned the lights on.
I just stood there, unsure if my voice would even work. I took a seat on a gurney in the middle of the room as Sara got her camera out and started taking pictures of my shirt, my pants and my injuries on my arm. "I need your clothes, Nick." She handed me the green scrubs Grissom was holding. "I'll go find you some shoes to wear while you change." Sara left the room as Grissom moved some partitions in front of the doors to give me some privacy.
I peeled my blood soaked shirt off and handed it to him and he put it in a paper sack. He sealed the top and signed it and tossed it into a plastic bin behind him. I took off my shoes and jeans and he put them into bags also. Grissom took some photos of my body and told me I could clean up while he finished. I turned around and saw a sink against a wall. Almost robotic, I turned the water on and let it heat up before I took a rag and started to wipe Anna's blood off of my arms.
The tears started to flow out of my eyes again as one by one, each swipe of the rag took more and more blood off of my body. I finished up and Grissom handed a towel. I dried off then put on the green scrubs and tightened the waist drawstring. He moved the partition out of the way and I could see Sara was outside with Warrick, Catherine, Greg, Jim, about ten LVFD members and some police officers waiting on any news about Anna. I tried looking over at them, but I couldn't. At the sight of them standing outside in the hall, waiting just like I was for any news about Anna, I started to cry again. I pulled the gurney back over and went to lie back. I sighed and put my head back on the pillow of the gurney and tried to hold off the tears, but had no luck. "Why?" My fists began to tighten as rage washed over my body. I could feel my face getting hot as the blood boiled inside my body. "Why?"
"I wish I could answer that." Grissom stopped writing to look at me, "I don't think we'll ever know why he chose you or why he felt a need to harm Anna. From what we saw on the tapes, he was trying to become you. He idolized you. Jane Galloway was someone he could control. You were someone he could become. He couldn't do that with Anna alive or with you alive for that matter."
"She was repeating something. Sounded like song lyrics. I don't know what it was. I've never heard it."
"What did it sound like she was saying?"
I closed my eyes as I tried to remember the words. "I think she was saying 'high up there, on the reins of a wing in ecstasy.' She stopped and coughed, then I think it was 'over on a swing as the hill stops' or something like that and then she stopped again."
"The Windhover?"
"Who's that?"
"It's a poem." Grissom pulled his reading glasses off and put them on the counter next to the sink, "What she was reciting was probably what she was concentrating on to keep herself conscious. Reciting the poem kept her brain busy enough to fight off the natural urge to slip into unconsciousness so the body could protect itself. Reciting was what she was doing to stay conscious. Otherwise, she would have probably given into her brain telling her body to shut down and it's doubtful she would have woken up."
I heard a soft knock at door as Sara let Greg, Warrick and Catherine in the room where I was. Jim stayed out in the other room, talking to the LVFD members and the officers that were out there.
"Any news yet?" She held out a pair of black Crocs towards me, "These were all I could find. I hope they fit. The socks are inside."
I took the shoes from Sara and tossed them on the floor after I got the socks out. "Thank you and no. Nothing yet on Anna."
I wasn't in a talking mood so I closed my eyes tightly, hoping to choke off the tears that were flowing so freely down my face.
Nearly two hours passed by before a nurse knocked, "Mr. Stokes?"
At the sound of my name, I shot up and jumped off the gurney, sending it crashing into the wall behind me, knocking something off a shelf beside where the gurney hit, "Anna? How's Anna?"
"Do you want them to leave?"
I shook my head, "God damn it, just tell me."
She looked shocked after I spoke to her like that and in any other situation, I wouldn't have been so rude, "Doctors are about to be finished up on Anna. There was some tendon and muscle damage from the bullet wound to her shoulder and she's going to need at least one more surgery for that. The bullet broke her clavicle on her right side. The ED doc set that downstairs and the surgeon checked it while he was repairing the tendon damage to her shoulder. Her stomach wound was the one we were concerned about. The surgeon got the bleeding stopped and repaired the damaged muscles of her abdomen caused by the bullet wound, but the prognosis looks guarded, but good. She got another blood transfusion in the OR and they're closing her up and about to move her into recovery. All in all, she got lucky considering what happened. A few centimeters in either direction on either wound and she'd be dead. You can go see her within the hour. I'll come get you when she is able to have visitors. Just be careful please, and don't stay too long. She needs her rest and she's still going to be groggy from the anesthesia."
I watched as Grissom got his ID out of his pocket, "Gil Grissom, Las Vegas Crime Lab. We're going to need those bullets once they're extracted from her body."
"No problem. I'll tell the surgeon when I go back in and we'll get them to you when we're done." The nurse looked at me, "I'll come get you in a little bit and if anything changes, I'll let you know."
I was still trying to take in what the nurse had just told me, "Anna's okay? She's going to be okay?" The nurse said she was going to be and left the room after telling me she'd come get me when Anna's out of surgery.
"Nick?"
I turned around to see who was calling me, "Bryan."
He came in the room and hugged me before he stepped back and wiped tears out of his eyes, "I just talked to Cathy. She's in the ICU tonight and said she'd let me know when Aggie gets moved to a room. She hasn't heard anything. Have you?"
"Yeah, the nurse just came in here and said she'd be moved in about an hour or so. Anna has some muscle damage and a broken collar bone I think. Oh, Bryan Brooks, this is the rest of my team. You know Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows and this is Sara Sidle, Greg Sanders and Warrick Brown."
"Nice to meet all of you. Just wish it was under better circumstances." He saw the growing crowd of fire department personnel in the waiting room outside, "Listen, I'm gonna go tell the guys outside and go find Cathy and tell her the news. I'll be back in a bit."
"Bryan?" He turned back around, "Anna was reciting a poem after she got shot. Grissom said it was called 'The Windhover.' Does that mean something to you or to her? She's never mentioned it to me."
I could tell that I caught him off guard, "Wow. That's one I haven't heard in a while. Yeah, her mother used to recite that poem to her in French or sing Caledonia to her as a kid whenever Aggie got scared or hurt. They've both always been her favorites."
As Bryan left, Sara pulled the gurney back over and put it between the curtains hanging from the wall. She led me over to the bed and as I went to lie down, I felt better knowing Anna would be okay, but knowing we had a long way to go until she was better.
"Nick, you do know you can't go back to your apartment, right?"
I turned around to face Catherine, "What?"
She came and sat beside me on the gurney. "Your apartment. You can't go back. If you need something like clothes or a toothbrush, I'll send Jim or one of the officers back, but you can't go back. It's going to be a while before we finish processing it."
"I don't care." My mind went blank as I was still thinking about Anna, "I don't even know what I need anymore. The only thing I need right now is Anna."
Catherine held onto my hand. "Change of clothes? Shoes? Does Anna need anything?"
"Her iPod for sure. She's always got it on and I know she'll want it up here when she wakes up. Her iPod is in my truck and the docking station is in our room. She'll probably also need her phone. All her numbers are in that. It's under the bed in our room. I used it to call 911 when…" I couldn't finish the sentence. "When Nigel left when the ceiling collapsed after Lawrence fell through it."
"Mr. Stokes?"
I turned around to face another lady wearing surgical scrubs, "Yes. Are you here about Anna? Is she in recovery?"
She shook her head, "I'm afraid I don't know that." She handed me a plastic bag. "These are Ms. Gigandet's personal items from when she was brought in downstairs. Watch, necklace, earrings and the contents of her skirt pockets. Looks like a tube of Burt's Bees, her keys and sunglasses."
I took the plastic bag from her and thanked her as she left the room. I held the bag up and shifted the contents inside as I moved the bag around in my hands. The silver Tiffany heart necklace that I got Anna for her birthday was at the bottom of the bag, covered in dried blood, "I got this for her birthday last month. She never took it off."
"Nick, we need her belongings. We just need to inventory everything, do some swabs and pictures and we'll get everything back to you as soon as we can and if you want, we'll get the blood off the necklace and jewelry before we give it back." I said okay and handed Catherine the bag and she handed it off to Greg, "Process this ASAP so we can get it back to them. Warrick, take the clothes and shoes of Nick's and go. Sara, check with the ED and get Anna's clothes and start in on the stuff we got from the apartment. Ecklie will be by later with more from the apartment as soon as they're finished there. We'll meet you at the lab in a bit."
As they left, the three of them expressed their sympathies on Anna's health and said they'd be keeping her in their thoughts.
"Nick, I'll bring your truck and Anna's iPod back up here in just a bit. I can call Sam and get you a hotel room at the Tangiers if you want one. It's behind the hospital. You'd still be close to Anna and you'd have a place to shower and get some sleep."
It took me a minute to register what she was saying to me. My mind was going in a thousand different directions at once. I finally realized she was trying to get me a place to stay, "Thank you."
Catherine left the room to go make the arrangements. I looked at Grissom. "What am I supposed to do now?"
"Be there for Anna. She's on her way to recovery and she's going to need you now more than ever. I know you're going to need some time off for yourself and for Anna. Take all that you need. I'll clear it with Ecklie."
"How'd she do that?"
Grissom looked confused, "How'd who do what?"
"Anna." I looked back over my shoulders after hearing a noise outside before I continued, "Nigel shot her twice. She was bleeding badly, but she got up. She shot him and saved me. She could barely lift her arm up when I was in there, but she got up and shot him? How'd she do that?"
"Nick, you remember that case from last year with the guy that crashed into that burger place? Remember him? He had the stake in his head."
"Yeah, yeah. That guy. Shed blew up or something, right?" I started to remember what Grissom was talking about. He and I worked a case where a guy in a Jeep crashed his truck into a drive thru window at a restaurant. When we got there, he was still alive, but he had a wooden stake sticking out of his head.
"Him. Yes." Grissom pulled a chair closer to the gurney I was on and sat down, "He had that stake driven so far into his head, he shouldn't have been able to breathe, let alone drive to try to get help. The basic reflex functions were still there which is how he was able to drive, but couldn't do much else. If I had to guess, it was kind of same thing with Anna. She knew she had to save you, so she did. It was a natural reflex for her to save your life, so she did. She found a way to."
Grissom stayed with me for another half hour until a nurse came to get me to let me know Anna was in recovery. Catherine brought me a room key to the room at the Tangiers. "Room 445. If you need anything, just call the front desk or call Sam. You're a VIP, so they'll take care of you and I'll bring your truck and the iPod back as soon as I get to your apartment to get them."
"Thanks, Cath." As I stuck the card key in the pocket of the scrubs I was wearing, I started walking with the nurse as she led me into the recovery room. She left the room and brought in a plastic chair and put it beside Anna's bed. I sat down, staring at Anna. Tubes and wires were coming out from her body and were connected to monitors on the wall. She was still sedated, but her coloring had started to return to her face.
"Nick?"
"Bryan." I got up and he pulled me into a hug, "She just got out of surgery." I wiped a tear out of my eye with the back of my hand. "She, uh…She had some blood loss and a broken clavicle and some muscle damage to her abdomen and they had to take out her gall bladder and repair a laceration to her kidney. They told me that her condition is guarded but good I think was how they worded it." I took my seat back in the hard plastic chair as I picked up Anna's left hand in mine. She had an IV in the top of her hand and keeping my distance from the needle in her hand, I curled her fingers around mine and started to cry again, "Docs says she's gonna be okay."
Bryan stood behind me and looked at Anna. He brought his hands up to his face to cover his eyes as he turned around and sighed, trying to cover up a sob. "Oh, God, Aggie." He wiped a tear out of his eyes as he came to the side of the bed. He still had his left hand across his forehead. After staring at her for a moment, he dropped his hand and reached forward and touched the bruise on her face gently with his fingers. "Damn it. You're my best friend and I love you and you better not leave me." He leaned in close to her, "We save lives, dammit. Remember that." He whispered something in her ear that I didn't catch and kissed her on the cheek.
I noticed as Bryan sat on the edge of Anna's bed that someone had pulled her hair into a pony tail to get it out of the way. I got a better look at the bruise that had formed on the side of her face. "Did he hit her?" Bryan turned to look at me and looked upset about the bruise, "The gunshots I get, but the bruise? He didn't, um…you know, um…did he?"
I knew what he was trying to ask, "No, no. There was no way. He didn't have enough time. I heard Anna scream and I was in the room in less than ten seconds. I think it was from where she fell. When I heard the scream and the shot, I came into the room and found her on her side. The shooter rolled her to her back so she could look at him. The bruise was probably where she fell."
"My wife's already in the ICU waiting on Anna to be transferred from recovery. I'll let you stay back here with her so they don't kick us both out. We're not supposed to be back here in recovery but they made an exception for us and I don't want to jinx that. Stay with her, Nick. She doesn't need to be alone."
After promising Bryan I wouldn't leave her, he left the room and left me alone to cry once more over what happened. In the midst of my tears, I managed to pray that Anna would make it through all of this as I started to sing the same song she sung to me when I was in the hospital a few weeks earlier, '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.'
A/N: And another cliffie! Will Anna live? Will Anna die? Will Nigel come back from the dead? Ok, that one I can answer for you – he's dead. Toast. Deceased. Bought a farm. Ceased to exist. Slipped into a displaced state of being. Plant food. Isn't in the union anymore. This isn't sci-fi nor is it All My Children. Once you're dead, you stay dead. And yes, I know that he didn't die on the show. I changed it, so no flames. This is why we call it fanFICTION! I didn't like the way Stalker ended so I changed it.
I don't think they ever said Nick's address during this episode, so I made it up.
Reviews, please. Pretty please?
