Chapter Twenty: Fate
"Captain Brass." One of the deputies shouted from across the street. Brass spun round to see the young deputy signally towards the pizza restaurant. Brass pulled his gun out of his holster, signalling with his hands for the SWAT team to follow him towards the door. They all lined up outside the door, watching and waiting for Brass's order. He counted down from three using his fingers then gave the signal to enter and clear. The first wave of the team kicked down the door, charging through the pizza restaurant, finding a beaten and bloody man lying on the floor.
"Captain!" He signalled over to Brass.
Brass ran down the aisle of tables, checking for a pulse on the blood covered man. "Call the paramedics." Brass ordered him, following the rest of the team out through the kitchen as the door to the alley was left open.
"Okay John . . . you know the drill. This is the first batch that we managed to round up from the hospital security footage." Sara clicked on the lights to the observation room, overlooking the line up. Vartann stepped up to the glass, looking out at all the men in the line up. The team wanted him to positively identify the hunters that Brass's unit had brought in, so they could charge them all with the murders of the nine victims and god knows how many others.
Vartann looked at the man on the far left, holding the #1 card. "That's Brian O'Donnell. Number One." He informed Sara. She nodded writing it down on her clipboard. He looked towards #2, trying to think of his name. "Number Two, that's Eagle."
"Are you sure?" Vartann turned to her nodding. "That's one of the victim's fathers."
"Which one?"
"Justin Lee, the young kid . . . he had an eagle tattoo too. The fourth victim." Sara checked through her notes, finding the picture of Justin's tattoo.
"Yeah, he has one just like it." Vartann nodded.
"Where?"
Vartann thought about it a moment, looking at #2. "Right shoulder." He remembered.
"Odd . . . because Justin lived with his step father, why would he have the same tattoo as his father?" Sara stepped towards the intercom to talk to Mitch on the other side. "Mitch can you pull up the right sleeve of suspect number two please?" Mitch nodded, calling another guard over to help him. They pulled the sleeve up to show Sara the exact same tattoo that his son had. "Okay thanks Mitch; take him to Interrogation room five for Catherine please." Mitch nodded, doing as instructed. "What about the rest?" Sara asked, turning back to Vartann. He stepped closer giving her the names or nicknames of the rest of them.
Wendy and Hodges aided Grissom in collecting all of their fingerprints and DNA samples, getting them processed quicker while they waited for word from Brass who was still out in the field, looking for Nick and Greg.
"No, no, no Greg please . . . Greg please . . . Nooo!!!" Nick clutched his cold limp body tightly, holding the blood gaping wound in his chest. "Please baby, please." He whimpered, tears pooling down his face as he cradled Greg's head in his lap. Greg's eyes were slowly getting darker; the usual twinkle wasn't there anymore. His eyes were barely moving and his lips were parted as the blood trickled out down the side of his pale face. "Please baby, just hold on. Please." He desperately pleaded.
Nick looked round seeing lights coming towards him from the other end of the alley. He grabbed for his empty weapon beside him, watching cautiously as a group of men in SWAT gear made their way towards him, shinning their flashlights in his eyes as they approached.
"Hold your fire!" Brass shouted to his team. "Bring the car round!" He ordered one of his deputy's. The young deputy nodded, running off down the alley. "It's okay Nick . . . it's okay." Brass tried to calm him, taking the empty weapon from his hands as he looked down at Greg's lifeless body. He feared they were too late and Greg was already dead, but he saw Greg's fingers twitching slightly at his side.
Brass looked round seeing Vega and the young deputy driving his car down the alley. "Quick! Get him in the back!" He shouted.
Vega climbed out of the car, pulling open the back door. Nick lifted Greg into his arms, carrying him towards the back of Brass's car. Vega helped Nick support Greg, gently lowering him to the back seat. Brass and Vega climbed into the front, watching Nick scooting into the back, gently resting Greg's head on his lap while he held the gaping wound in his chest, trying to slow the bleeding.
Brass quickly put the car in drive speeding off towards the nearest hospital, while Vega called it in, alerting the hospital to get ready for their arrival, leaving the rest of the SWAT team to sweep the area for the shooter.
"Hold on baby, please hold on." Nick pleaded, clutching him close.
Brass pulled straight into the emergency bay where some doctors and nurses were ready and waiting. Vega jumped out the car, pulling open the back door, helping the doctors to lift Greg from Nick's arms onto an awaiting gurney.
Nick followed the doctors and the gurney down the hall, but got stopped outside the operation room by one of the doctors. He pushed past them to see the doctors cutting through Greg's t-shirt to access the bullet wound in his chest. Greg's body was so pale and lifeless, making Nick even more worried as he looked on.
"You'll have to wait here sir." A woman in green scrubs ordered him. Nick stayed put, watching the heart monitor anxiously as Greg's heart flat lined. He watched in horror as the doctors and nurses tended to his lifeless body with paddles. He felt his own heart beginning to fail, watching the flat continuous line on the monitor.
"Please, please . . . c'mon baby please." Nick softly begged, watching closely as the tears continued to stream down his face. "Please Greg, please."
Greg's chest arched up off the operating table as the electricity surged through his body. Once the paddles were removed he fell flat and lifeless once again. Nick clutched handfuls of his hair, desperately pleading for Greg's heart to start beating again.
Catherine walked round the interrogation room table once again, eyeing down her suspect as he sat in the chair with a smug grin across his face. She hated him the second she walked in the room. How could someone be part of an organisation that killed and raped his very own son and what's worse is that he couldn't care less.
"So did you help kill your own son too? Was that one of your hunts?" Catherine dropped down into the chair opposite him, reopening the file of his son's murder scene to show him the pictures again. "Did you know your son was beaten and raped to death? Did you help?" The suspect known as 'Eagle' just sat in his chair, averting his eyes from Catherine's line of sight. "Answer ME!" She raged, slamming her hands down on the table. "Answer me you son of a bitch!"
"Just Chill Lady." He stated calmly.
"Just Chill?" She shouted angrily at him. "You're son is dead along with countless others and your telling me to just chill? You're facing the death sentence here, so you might wonna give me something . . . don't you want justice for your son?"
"Nope." He simply said in a 'don't care' attitude.
"If either of my friend's dies, I swear to god I'm going to..."
"Catherine!" Grissom shouted from the doorway. "Come talk to me a minute!" He ordered. Catherine looked at her suspect then climbed to her feet, heading out the door. "Seriously, go home. You're tired."
"Damn right I'm tired. This son of bitch won't tell me anything useful!" She barked at him.
"Losing it like that in front of a suspect isn't going to help us out any."
"Grissom, I can't go home. I just can't!" She shouted, stuffing her hands on her hips.
"Well you're not doing anymore interrogations." He checked his watch against the clock on the wall. "C'mon, the doc should be done with the autopsy by now."
"Grissom, what about Nick and Greg? Why won't you tell us anything?" She pleaded, just as Sara came out the other interrogation room. Sara and Catherine both looked at him expectantly, waiting for answers on their missing family members.
"Brass found them." He muttered under his breath, staring down at the floor.
"And?" They both intuitively asked, folding their arms across their chests.
"Greg's . . . Greg's been shot." He stammered out. "Brass took them to the hospital. We don't know how bad it is yet, but we've got to keep working. Once these guys find out where Nick and Greg are..." Grissom looked around the station in a paranoid stance. "We have to finish this. Before they find them."
"I agree, but we're not gonna find them by looking at autopsy reports and going home to sleep!" Catherine shouted at him.
"Catherine, you can't interrogate anymore. Sara did Vartann identify them all?" Grissom asked turning to her.
"Yeah, he says two are missing though. Our bear tat mystery man and a man they call Hogan."
"Okay, come with me to check the autopsy. Maybe Hogan is our dead guy from the desert?"
"I don't really wonna see the ass bag that tried to kill me." Catherine moaned. "I'll be in the lab helping Wendy and Hodges with the positive ID's." She grabbed the file from Sara, heading off towards the elevator.
"What's up with her?" Sara asked her significant other.
"Long night. Kidnapped, almost being shot . . . she hasn't slept since."
"I haven't slept since I thought I killed my husband." She confessed, shoving her hands deep into her pockets.
"You didn't kill me honey."
"I almost did. I thought I was going to be alone again." Grissom took a step forward, taking her hands in his.
"Honey, you're not alone. You didn't kill me, see I'm still here. We're still alive . . . now we have to protect Nick and Greg. C'mon." He took hold of her hand, leading her off towards the morgue.
One more large jolt of electricity surged through Greg's body, arching his limp chest up off the table again. Nick desperately dug his nails into his fists as he looked on. The monitor beside Greg began to softly bleep once again. Nick gave out a large breath of relief that he wasn't even aware he was holding in, watching the doctors quickly working on Greg's open wound now that his heart was beating again.
"Sir you'll have to wait outside." A nurse told him firmly, trying to pull Nick away from the window.
"No, I have to be with him." Nick insisted.
"C'mon Nick." Brass pulled him back, heading for the waiting room while Greg was in surgery. "Here Nick sit down." Brass indicated to some empty seats. "You can't help Greg right now."
Nick shook his head. "No, no I can't!" He couldn't just sit down while Greg was fighting for his life down the hall.
Nick began to pace up and down the waiting room anxiously biting his nails as each second ticked by.
Sara and Grissom stood by the autopsy table as the doc brought up the dead bodies medical record on the computer. "Confirmed." Doc Al nodded. "This is Bennie Marius."
"Bennie Marius is our man in the mask?" Sara asked to confirm. The doc nodded, printing off his drivers licence. "What happened to his face?"
"Looks like fire damage." The doc noted. "Looks quite recent too."
"Maybe that's why he was wearing a mask." Sara suggested. "So this isn't our bear tat guy or Hondo, so there's still two more out there." Sara said looking up at Grissom.
"Let's find them then. Thanks Al." He half smiled, heading out of the morgue with Sara right behind him. "Honey, you and Catherine get to the hospital; find out how Greg's doing. I'll be there shortly."
"Okay." Sara nodded, rushing for the stairs to go and find Catherine.
"Oh Sara!" Brass shouted. Sara spun on her heels to look round at him. "I've got another suspect for you." Sara groaned angrily. "Sorry."
"No, it's not that . . . I just wanted to go check on Greg." She sighed heavily.
"He's still in surgery."
"So you left Nick alone?" She practically shrieked at him.
"No, no . . . Vega is still there." Sara rolled her eyes at him. "I'll get back there."
"No, you can interrogate the suspect, and I'll go to the hospital. I'm more sympathetic." She smirked at him.
"I can be sympathetic!" He protested after her.
"Yeah, but I'm better at it." She ran up the rest of the stairs, looking for Catherine in the lab. Brass returned to the interrogation room to question the suspect brought straight from the hospital himself, now confirmed to be Hondo the missing hunter by Vartann.
"Why's it taking so long?" Nick demanded, still pacing the room beginning to wear tread marks through the floor.
"I'd worry more if they came out sooner Nick . . . it would mean there was nothing they could do." Vega tried to explain. Nick nodded beginning to pace the room at a different pace. His arms were shaking terribly; his wrists were shaking so hard his fingers felt like they were going to fall off.
"Nicky!" Catherine shouted, running down the hall towards him. Nick welcomed her with open arms, clutching her tightly against his trembling body. Sara walked down the hall behind her, giving an anxious look to Vega as they watched Catherine and Nick crying against each other.
"How is he?" Sara whispered to Vega.
"Don't know yet. No one's told us anything." He mumbled, climbing to his feet. "I'm gonna go get some air." Sara nodded, taking the next hug with Nick as Catherine stepped back.
"He'll make it Nick." Sara whispered, smoothing her hands up and down his back softly. "He's a fighter."
"I know he is." Nick held her tightly, crying softly into her shoulder. "I wish they would just tell us what's happenin' though."
"You'll know soon enough Nicky." Catherine tried to assure him. "The longer it takes the better."
Brass kicked the interrogation door shut in anger. The suspect gave him nothing but attitude, demanding a lawyer and justice for the beating Nick Stokes had given him.
"Jim!" Ecklie shouted through the hall. "Was that really necessary?"
"Yes!" He snapped at him, heading for his office with Ecklie right behind him. "We've got all but one of the suspects in custody, and that asshole won't give us his name or a location."
"Suspects for what?"
"Do you not watch the news?" Brass snapped at him. "Seriously Conrad, you might wonna get your head out of your ass every once in a while to really look around and see what's going on!"
"What is going on?" He asked completely baffled.
Brass pushed Ecklie back into the empty chair in front of his desk, pushing his office door shut then started explaining everything that had been going on for the past few days since the very first victim was found, while Ecklie looked on at him completely flabbergasted, asking him to repeat a few things before he continued.
"There now, it all make sense now?" Brass asked the completely astonished Ecklie.
"God! Leave you people alone five minutes and look what happens!" He barked at him, storming out of his office. Brass rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his scotch before he head off to the hospital to find out how Greg was doing.
Nick started to pace the waiting room again anxiously, glancing up every time a doctor came through either of the double doors at each end of the narrow hall. He felt contained, trapped even, sweating and shaking, finding it very difficult to breath. He desperately needed some air, but he was awaiting news to find out if his beloved Greg was even alive.
Brass, Vega, Grissom, Catherine and Sara were sat on chairs against the wall, trying to keep it together. From what Nick incoherently managed to explain to them about Greg's injuries and where he was shot, they knew from past experience that the odds weren't very likely of him surviving, but they wouldn't give up hope. They couldn't lose another member of their family, not after Warrick was taken from them so suddenly.
Grissom knew what Nick was going through, he too had to cradle someone he loved in his arms, watching the blood pouring out of his body while there was nothing he could do. Nick hadn't sat down once though and he really wasn't in the talking kind of mood.
"Nick, sit down." Grissom instructed to the empty seat beside him.
"What if... what if... he... he... flat lines again... what if... they won't tell us?" Nick anxiously shook in terror, turning towards them all.
"Nick don't think like that. Greg's gonna be okay." Catherine tried to comfort him. "Nick sit down, you're looking a little pale." Nick shook his head restlessly continuing his pacing. He bit his lip so hard that tears formed in his eyes.
"C'mon Nick, I'll get you a coffee." Sara suggested, trying to direct him to a chair, but he pulled out of her arms, continuing to pace up and down. Sara looked right at the others, trying to urge them to help her as the desperate man in the midst of a panic attack paced up and down the room like a robot. "Nick how about a sandwich?" He shook his head again. "Water?"
"No Sara!" He snapped at her, making her tremble slightly. Nick looked up seeing the figures of Jason and Carrie Sanders appearing at the door. "You've got some nerve showin' up here!" He barked at them.
Brass and Grissom leapt to their feet to hold back the hot headed Texan as he lunged towards the unsuspecting parents.
"Nick, you've got to calm down!" Brass ordered, trying to pull him back with the help of Vega and Grissom.
"Why the hell are they here?" He shouted angrily. "Who the hell called them?" He shouted accusingly at his co-workers.
"We came for our son!" Carrie Sanders sobbed. "Is he alive?"
"What do you care? You rejected him!" Nick shouted at the terrified woman. "You don't deserve to see him, he deserves better then you!" He barked then forcefully pulled away from the arms restraining him, almost throwing them to the floor as he returned to his anxious pacing.
Jason and Carrie Sanders stood over at the other side of the room, leaning against the wall, as far away from the angry Texan as the small room would allow them to be. The anger in his eyes made the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end. They thought he was going to kill them from the way he lunged at them. Brass and Grissom stayed stood up, just in case he went for them again. There was no telling when the hot headed Texan would strike, like the flip of a switch he could go off at any second.
Hours later a doctor finally walked out, looking round at the room of distraught family members. Something he was all too familiar with.
"Which one of you's family?" He asked the crowd of people gathering around him, waiting to hear the news. Nick immediately stepped forward while Jason and Carrie Sanders cowered in the background. "Your family?" Nick nodded, anxiously waiting.
"Well?" Nick snapped at him impatiently. The doctor dare not ask how he was related seeing the angry look in his eyes.
"Well we've managed to stabilise Mr Sanders, the bullet didn't hit any major organs luckily, but he did suffer a great blood loss. He should be out for a while, but with the transfusions underway he should be..." He took a deep breath looking around at the crowds expressions. "We'll need to keep a close eye on him, but he should be fine. He's a real fighter."
"Can I see him?" Nick asked, needing to see him to believe he was okay.
"Yes . . . he won't be awake for a while yet."
"Room?" Nick ordered.
"317." Nick ran down the hall, immediately finding Greg's room where a nurse was fixing an IV drip to his arm. The nurse gave him a half smile as she stepped out the room. Nick immediately rushed to Greg's side. He had more colour in his cheeks now, but he was very still. When Greg was awake he was always bouncing around and always smiling. Now he was still, making Nick tremble.
Nick lifted Greg's hand carefully into his own, softly brushing his fingertips across Greg's forehead. "Greg, I'm here baby. You're safe now." Tears rolled down Nick's cheeks as he looked at Greg's fragile body. "I love you Greg." He pressed a kiss to his forehead, feeling Greg's fingers wrap around his own causing a slight smile to spread across his face. Nick lowered his lips to kiss Greg's lips softly.
It was finally over, the nightmare had finally ended and he was once again reunited with his beloved Greg.
Please Review.
One guy still on the loose and Greg fighting for his life. What's gonna happen??? You'll have to keep reading to find out :D I hope your still enjoying the story, I'll try and get the next chapter done as soon as I can.
Thanks to Tish for beta-ing!
Thanks so much for all your reviews! I really enjoy reading them, they make my day and inspire me to keep writing for you :D