"Greg?" She said, breaking his trance.
Greg tore his eyes away from Nick and looked at Catherine. "Yes?" He asked, as if he hadn't been staring at Nick without any knowledge of his surroundings.
"Are you okay?" She asked with amusement.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Greg said with a nod. "Better than I've been the last two years."
Catherine glanced at Nick, then back to the youngest member of the CSI team. "Everything's okay with you two now?"
"As much as I didn't think it was going to be...yeah, it is."
"You sure? Because if he's being a jerk or trying to take advantage of you or anything...just tell me and I can have Warrick kick his ass."
Greg laughed. "Thanks for the offer, but everything really is starting to get back to normal. I'm just so happy he's back that I easily forget about how bad it hurt when he was gone, and I don't care about that anymore. He's sorry, and I know I can trust him."
Catherine smiled. "Well I'm glad it's working out. Just be careful. I love Nick, he's a great guy. I just don't want to see you get hurt again."
Nick had been back in Vegas for a few months, but it was clear everyone still remembered what had happened. "Thanks Catherine, I appreciate your concern. And I give you full permission to use your judgement on when you think Nick deserves to be beat up a little by Warrick every now and then."
"What about me beating Nick up?" Warrick asked as he walked into the room with Nick.
"Greg said I can give you permission to whenever I feel fit." Catherine said with a grin.
"Do I get a say in this at all?" Nick asked, holding back his smile.
"No." His three friends said in unison.
Nick couldn't hold back his smile anymore. "Whatever, I can take Warrick."
"You wanna step outside?" Warrick asked his best friend, who slowly started walking backwards.
"Actually..." Nick said, still backing away with a smile on his face, "I'll take a raincheck on that. I gotta go do something."
"What could be better than hanging out in the lab with us?" Greg asked with mock hurt in his voice.
"Don't worry about it." Nick said with one of his famous smiles. "I'll see you at home." He was out the door before anyone else could add their input. The other three CSIs went back to work wrapping up the case, soon forgetting their curiosity in where Nick was off to.
Nick knew his help wouldn't be needed, so he didn't feel bad for leaving work early. He stopped at Mickey's on his way home just as it was closing. Nick laughed, realizing he works really weird hours and hates triple shifts when he buys ice cream at ten at night. He put the to-go carton of Rocky Road ice cream in the passenger seat and headed for his house. He had opened the door, went into the kitchen, put the ice cream away and came back into the living room to watch TV before he realized he wasn't alone.
Nick stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Jess sitting on the couch a few feet away from him. She was smiling casually and motioned for Nick to sit down next to her.
"Hi Nick." She said, still smiling.
"Hi..." Nick repsonded. He looked back and forth between Jess and the door several times, trying to remember if he had locked it before he left for work hours ago. He could have sworn he did. "Can I help you?" He asked.
"Come sit, I want to talk to you." Nick hesistated for a second before slowly walking over and sitting at the opposite end of the couch. Jess moved so she was right next to him. "I never got a chance to explain to you about Andy."
"What's to explain?"
"He's not my boyfriend, you are. Were. Andy's just a bad boy. I was only physically attracted to him. He's not boyfriend or husband material like you are. It didn't mean anything."
Nick shook his head. "That's not the entire reason I broke up with you." Jess frowned at that statement, so Nick elaborated. "I'm not in love with you. I never was. I've been in love with Greg for as long as I can remember. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lead you on."
Jess nodded slowly. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this..." She said, and before Nick could react or even make sense of what was going on he felt a sharp prick in his neck, right in his vein. Mere seconds later he felt incredibly tired and couldn't control his muscles. They felt like they had been turned to stone. He watched as Jess' face moved closer to his, but he couldn't do anything to stop it.
"Don't worry." She whispered in his ear. "It' just a temporary drug. But it'll give me plenty of time to show you what you're missing out on."
Nick felt like he was having an out of body experience as he was pulled off the couch and dragged towards the hallway. Just before reaching his bedroom door, Nick was pushed up against the wall and held there by Jess. All he could do was look at her and watch what she was doing. When she leaned in close to him for a second time, Nick picked up on the strong scent of alcohol on her breath. That basically explained her crazy actions concerning the last few minutes.
"I'm willing to give you a second chance." She said before leaning all the way in and pressing her lips to his. Nick tried to pull away, but the wall behind his head prevented him from doing so. Instead he had to jerk his head to the side to break the kiss.
"I don't want a second chance." Every word Nick spoke felt heavy on his tongue and his own voice sounded weird to his ears.
Jess moved to kiss him again, but Nick pulled his mouth away in time. "Don't make me do something worse Nick..." She warned. She kissed Nick again, harder this time, making it difficult for the drugged Texan to fight her off. Nick tried as hard as he could, and increased his efforts when he felt her hand move between his legs and squeeze firmly. He would have fallen over if Jess hadn't been pinning him against the wall.
Nick managed to rip his mouth away from hers again. "Leave me alone...you can't make me love you." He said breathlessly.
Jess sighed. "I guess not. But I can stop you from loving someone else."
Nick wished he could make his hands move so he could stop Jess from undoing his belt. He felt his stomach lurch when she started pulling his jeans down, but stopped suddenly and pulled something small and black from her back pocket. Nick couldn't tell what it was until she flipped it open, revealing the sharp, silver blade hidden inside. She lifted Nick's shirt up and held the cool blade against his skin in between where the thin line of brown hair starts at his belly button and leads down a couple inches before disappearing under the waistband of his boxers. He closed his eyes when he felt the pressure change from the flat side of the blade to the sharp point being pressed into his skin right where his boxers start and his tan skin ends.
"Why are you doing this?" He asked.
"I could do it to Greg." Jess said instead of answering the question.
"No." Nick said immediatly and opened his eyes. "Leave him alone, he didn't do anything to you."
"You're right." She said as she added pressure to the knife. "But I'm sure you let him do whatever he wants to you."
Before Nick could respond, he was met with a white hot searing pain directly above his groin. He didn't need to look down to figure out what just happened, but he did anyway. He watched helplessly as dark blood spilled out around the silver blade and ran over his boxers and jeans before finally pooling on the floor. Nick's eyes snapped shut again when Jess jerked her hand to the right before pulling the knife out and dropping it on the hall floor.
"This is going to be slow and painful...but you deserved it." She whispered in his ear before turning and leaving as covertly as she had come in.
Nick had no feeling left in his body except for the searing pain two inches below his belly button. He couldn't move his arms or his hands to try and stop the bleeding from the gash in his stomach. His previously heavy body began to feel light as he sunk to his knees. He stayed like that for a few seconds, swaying back and forth slightly before falling to his left and hitting his head on the wood floor. He passed out seconds later, slowly bleeding to death in his own house.
Sorry for the cliffhanger. Next chapter should be done soon. Thanks for the reviews. Any and all suggestions regarding anything to do with the story are more the welcome.