Chapter 14

Greg was terrified beyond words. His breathing was hitching and Warrick squeezed the younger man tighter to himself. They were looking at Joshua Flemings straight in the eyes. "Fuck" Warrick breathed out for everyone. Grissom was examining him as one of his bugs in the collection. " As I said before, long time no see Grissom. What can I say? I missed you dearly"

" Sorry to disappoint you Flemings but I didn't" Grissom replied coldly
" no…no disappointment on you but I'm highly on lil Greggy here. I came to see how good he had done the task I appointed. Shame" Joshua smirked looking at Nick.

"I'm not one of your side kicks" Greg spat finally collecting himself.

"Oh no you are not Sanders. You are my slave"

" He doesn't belong to you…he is not your fucking slave" Warrick hissed angrily.

"I control him"

" No one can!" Greg demanded clenching his fists.

"No one can? I don't need to remind do I?" Joshua said smugly.

Greg almost leaped on to Joshua but he threw Greg to the wall using his telekinesis weaving his hand. Greg was knocked out and fell limply to the ground. Warrick reached to his gun but Grissom stopped him.

" It's useless. He astral projected himself here" Grissom said softly watching every feature of Joshua.

"Huh?" Warrick asked bewildered and he noticed a flash of surprise passed on Joshua's face.

"I must say, I never knew Gil Grissom a CSI would know about astral projection"

" I have my moments" Grissom said dryly.

" How it feels to see your team suffer Grissom?" Joshua asked and at the same time Warrick felt strong hands chocking him and cutting his oxygen supply. Warrick struggled against his invisibility hold to release himself but nothing happened. Black dots danced in front of his eyes. Bitterly Warrick realized he has less chance and soon going to loose consciousness.

Grissom watched Joshua choking Warrick helplessly.

"Stop it… you have all your things against me. Why don't you hurt me instead?" Grissom asked trying to distract Joshua. It did work . Joshua released the hold on Warrick and he gasped for air.

"Torturing you will be fun but it's more fun to see people you care get tortured. Don't you agree?" Joshua said laughing wickedly.

" You are sick" Grissom spat.

"So I have been old."

"You won't sing that tune for long Flemings. You will be back where you belong to" Grissom said helping Warrick onto the chair.

"I doubt that Grissom. I have the cards in my hand…I play the game."

A soft moan was greeted them on Greg's side. All their attention was drawn back to him. Greg's eyes fluttered open and he blinked owlishly. Grissom tried to reach to him but he was forcibly held back by Joshua. Grissom cursed.

Joshua made his way to Greg who was trying to steady himself with the help of the wall. His head and back was hurting pretty badly and Greg wondered whether he cracked one of his ribs with the flying he took. Greg looked up at Joshua ignoring the dizziness and the waves of nausea hitting him.

" This is not over Sanders. I'll get you back"

"You can't control me. I'll fight it off" Greg said leaning on the wall; his voice shaking.

"For how long Gregory. You can't fight me" Joshua said shaking his head in mock concern.

"Watch me" Greg gritted his teeth.

"Well I gotta go. I came to say this is not going to end here. It will end when all your pathetic existence are gone . Until we meet again Greg" Joshua disappeared leaving Greg shivering. He slide down the wall until he hit the floor. Greg drew his knees closer and hugged himself. Grissom reached the youngest CSI and placed his hands on Greg's shoulder. Greg looked up. There were unshed tears in his eyes.

"It's not gonna end is it Griss" Greg whispered and Grissom heart sank at how young and helpless Greg sounded.

" No Greggo. It's gonna end. Sir Flemings will help us. We'll beat it and I need you strong we all need you strong" Grissom squeezed the younger man's shoulder offering comfort for both of them. Warrick walked to Greg rubbing his sore neck. " Don't let him make you give up Greg" Warrick said his voice still raspy and scratchy. Bruises has started to form around his neck. He extended his hand to Greg and Greg stared at it a while and let Warrick help him on his feet.

"You ok?" Greg asked noticing the bruises.

"Gotta say even though they were some freaking invisibility hands, surely had a dead grip." Warrick said rubbing back of his neck. " How about you? You took the flying lesson?"

Greg winced as he touched the newly formed bump on back of his head. "Guess I've been better" he commented dryly.

"You probably got a concussion Greg. Check yourself out before you go to Warrick's place." Grissom said.

"What about you?" Warrick asked stealing a glance at Nick.

"I'll stay with Nicky. You two head home."

"Why didn't you let me shoot the bastard Grissom?" Warrick asked angrily as he remembered Grissom stopped him from empting his bullets on Joshua.

"What good will it do Warrick? It's his astral body. Beside we are in a hospital…you shoot and when the cop outside come in and Fleming disappearing what are you gonna say to him. And If he reports this Ecklie will kick you out of the case saying your are emotionally involved in this" Grissom reasoned himself.

"We all are emotionally involved Grissom" Warrick pointed tiredly.

"I know. But I want you all alert."

Greg moved to Nick's bed. "I'm so sorry Nicky…" Greg said squeezing his hand lightly. "God…I hope all this is a bad dream" he paused. " You get well soon Stokes and you better play your damn country music to drive me nuts" Greg sighed and patted Nick's arm gently and walked out of the room with Warrick.

……………………………….

Just as Grissom suspected Greg was concussed. But he was relieved that he hadn't got any ribs cracked. After the check up and with strict bed rest order Greg and Warrick headed to Warrick's place. The usual annoying buzzing voice of Joshua commanding him to kill the CSIs was back. Only this time it wasn't that strong and Greg successfully managed to block him and set up his own barriers. Warrick was humming along the music playing in the radio and Greg tried to concentrate on it. His head hurt but Greg chose to ignore it. 'Suck it up MTV boy' Greg muttered to himself.

" You ok there Greggo?" Warrick asked out of blue and Greg gave him an exasperated look. Warrick looked amused. " I know stupid question…but humor me!"

"I'm not sure that I can fight him Rick. Not forever"

" That won't be necessary. Like Grissom said Sir Flemings will help us. He is more powerful than his son"

" How do we know he'll help. It's his son" Greg pointed out.

"Oh he will. I met him Greg. He's not too happy with Flemings"

"I'm still not sure"

" You know what Greg? Apart from your happy-go-lucky self, you had something that we all lacked sometimes"

"What?" Greg asked wondering what the hell it was.

" Faith." Warrick said simply. " You had enough faith for all of us and don't loose it. Don't loose that faith you had with you. It's gonna help you like hell in this"

…………………………..

TBC

Ok…First of all thanks a lot to everyone who reviewed and put my story on alert you guys are the BEST. Sorry that it's short and not one of my best chapters.

Hmm…I have doubts whether I'm loosing the touch of this story. I hope you still like it and not disappointed with it. It's near to the end. There are like six more chapters but it might be more. Anyway Thanks for reading and hope you will drop a review.