Author: Nicksfriend

Rating:k

Spoilers: For Gedda

Disclaimer: They do not belong to me...that is for sure.

Author's note: Hope you are enjoying this fic, my aim is to please the readers...thank you.

She grabbed hold of Nick underneath his arms and started to drag him into the hallway, Brass entered the room and started to pull Nick over his shoulder but a hail of bullets at the barred shatter proof window stopped him quickly and they all huddled against the inner wall.

"What did you tell them?" he asked, hoping she really hadn't said anything but assuming the worse.

"I thought they were real officers, they showed me their badge, I didn't have any idea that they were killers. I swear." tears now running down her cheek, holding onto Nick, helping to shield him from the possibility of an onslaught of bullets,"I told them that Nick was safe here, that his friends were making sure he was kept safe. The older man wanted to talk to Nick, I told him he was in no shape to talk, then he threatened me, told me they could not assure the welfare of my mother if I continued to protect Nick, that they could do a better job."

"I should have never sent you out there without you knowing everything. We have a mole somewhere in our station or somewhere in the system,they want Nick dead, that you already knew ,but what you don't know is that there are a lot of our officers who are involved and they wouldn't mind killing us all to get to Nick for some reason." he looked over to Karen and shook his head,"I'm sorry."

"Well, Nick felt these were hired killers for some reason, right before he past out,I swear I didn't drug him except for what I gave him last night, I think the pain was definitely an aiding issue in his unconsciousness." Karen was a little concerned about her patient, could he have passed out from the pain from the culture Gregg just performed or was there a more serious problem going on with her patient?

Brass pulled out the pay phone and dialed a number, he needed to trust somebody right now, these men were brave shooting at the house in broad daylight, what would they do when it was dark?

"This is Jim, I need immediate back-up,now dammit, we're being fired upon." Brass held on to the person on the other end of the call, "What's your Mother's address and name?" he needed to get her some protection.

"Janice Roberts. She lives an Desert Sands Retirement Center,apartment 28." she felt Nick's flushed face, his fever was elevated again, he needed something for the fever but he was out cold, she had noticed the gunfire had stopped though.

Brass gave the information to the person he was speaking to on the phone,then ended the call.

Brass crawled over to the door but didn't see Grissom or any other member of the team, the gunfire had stopped and he needed to take a look at the security system, he needed to see what was happening outside.

"I'll be back in a minute." he looked over to Karen who seemed more concerned with her patient right now.

Brass crawled out the door and over to the security system, the house was well insulated for the barrage of bullets, it had held up without a problem, no signs of damage on the inside, the bullet proof glass was showing signs of stress but was holding up well, the electric fence probably the only thing keeping them from all getting burned up alive.

He looked on the screen and saw that whoever had hit the house was gone,for now at least. Every camera showing no activity. He hit the tape button, wanting to see the faces of the two officers better, hoping deep down inside that it wasn't any of his officers, that in fact, Nick was right they had been hired killers,as he zoomed in on their faces he didn't recognize either one, the firemen in the back looked real but they too were gone.

"Where is everybody?" the voice behind him asked.

Brass turned to see Riley sitting on the floor in the hallway, beads of sweat running down her face, or were they tears? "I don't know but we need to find them,check downstairs for Gregg and I'll check upstairs for Catherine, Grissom and Sara."

She nodded but found it difficult to move, she was frightened, being a CSI had never been this dangerous before,never had her life been this threatened in her entire service to the police force."Are they gone?" she wanted to know before she moved, she felt it was necessary to know before she could stand.

"Yeah they're gone but I have some people on the way, they can be trusted." Brass wanted to give her some comfort, her frightened eyes were telling him that this was a first for her and he wanted to make sure she didn't quit when it was all over.

"Okay, downstairs it is, I'll be back in ten minutes, if I'm not here, find me!" her voice nervous but she made her way down the hallway to the basement door.

She opened the door, the light downstairs was on and she quietly made her way down the short amount of steps."Gregg! Gregg are you okay?" she shouted as she held her gun tight in position to shoot anybody who wanted to give her a problem, hoping that the young man was fine.

Suddenly she saw the young lab tech, turned CSI, he was dancing and singing to the music he had in his ear, she put her gun away and walked over the him and tapped his shoulder, "Gregg!"

"What?" he yelled at being surprised by the new girl, flipping his music off and taking out his ear plugs.

"You didn't hear all the gunfire upstairs?" she asked, angry that he could have been killed.

"What gunfire?" oblivious to what had happened.

"Yeah, you would've died. Why didn't you hear all the gunfire upstairs, because you were playing the music so loud." Riley reprimanded the young CSI then started back up the stairs, you need to come and help us find the rest of the team.

Gregg was worried now,"What happened?" worried about Nick and the rest of his friends.

"They know we're here,they want Nick evidently." it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out, they wanted Nick Stokes to be dead, and they would not stop until they had done their deed.

As Riley and Gregg made their way back up the stairs they heard Brass talking to someone in the hallway, it was someone they didn't recognize, a military man who seemed rather friendly with their captain.

"Hey guys I want you to meet someone." he motioned for the two CSI'S to join the rest of the team.

Riley and Gregg put away their weapons and joined the group,"This is Thomas Grayson, a tactical specialist with the Marines, a long time friend."

Grayson shook their hands, already having been introduced to Grissom and Catherine. Grissom still had his weapon at his side, Catherine had her gun on her waist,neither were ready to take any chances with Nick's life.

Dr Roberts came around the corner,"I need some assistance with Nick, Catherine can you help me?"

Catherine was feeling a little perturbed at the doctor for giving out Nick's location to the two men, but she hadn't had all the facts and she felt bad for Nick. They hadn't shared everything with her, it almost proved fatal for her friend, for all of them.

Catherine walked into the room, Grissom and Brass had placed him back into the bed, his bed placed against the wall out of sight of anybody looking into the window from any distance.

"He went out on me and I need to find out why, he really isn't responding to much right now and he was fine before I gave him this." she held up the bottle of Toradol.

"Maybe a reaction to the medication?" Catherine's concern was elevated at the description of her friend's condition.

"His sats are good, his vitals all within normal ranges, except his fever, it's elevated but not as high as it has been, I'm a little confused." she rubbed at her head, fighting off a migraine that threatened to interrupt her work.

"Possibly tainted medication?" Catherine questioned out loud, as she looked around the room for other clues.

"No way, he took the medication earlier, he was fine." she put the med bottle down on the table and picked up the antibiotics, the vancomycin level, she hadn't checked it since she started him on the med.

"Tell Gregg I need some more lab work done, he might be in renal failure, the Vancomycin can cause problems with the kidneys, I knew that and should have been checking it out. Dammit!"Dr Roberts was mentally giving herself a beating, she was a professional, she knew better.

Catherine ran to get Gregg. Dr Roberts was recalling her pharmacological teachings and that Vancomycin was a good drug but it could be dangerous,the side effects were impressive,run it too fast one could cause cardiac arrest,even too much of a good thing could cause renal failure, cause difficulty breathing and even be fatal.

Gregg entered breathless with his tools to draw blood,"How much doc?"

"I want a CBC, BMP, and a hepatic panel. Also,lets get a vancomycin level and a drug screen, just to make sure that nothing got into his system that we aren't aware of Gregg." Dr Roberts was worried about many possibilities now that she knew they couldn't trust anybody.

Gregg noted that Nick didn't even flinch when the needle hit his skin, the situation was serious, he knew Nick would respond if he could. He obtained the blood and disappeared back downstairs, passing Grayson and Brass in the hallway.

Grayson looked at the young tech, "We need to get you guys out of here, it probably isn't safe anymore Jim." the man was the best at military problems and solutions,he knew that Nick's life was in danger if he stayed in this house, the bullet holes out front a testimony to the veracity that they used and yet they had been unsuccessful. They would try again.

Jim nodded, he knew that they would need a safer place but it was up to the doctor if Nick could be moved again. His condition seemed to worsen by the hour, if they couldn't get his condition improved they would need to take him back to the hospital, it was a death trap regardless."It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad anymore," his remark more for himself than for the man who he had called to assist in helping to protect his friend.

"That's why you called me Jim." Grayson remarked as he started looking at the security system.

"Where's Sara?" Grissom asked ,noticing for the first time that the woman he loved was missing.

"I thought she was in the room with you and Catherine." Jim replied seeing that they weren't all accounted for,"Who saw her last?"

"I guess, I did,she said something about exploring the house." Grissom started towards the back of the old house, she couldn't have been in the basement, Gregg would have seen her, surely.

"If she heard the shots she would have come back here, evidently either she didn't hear the shots or was unable to hear the shots." Brass commented, pulling out his weapon,"Grayson, tell your men we have a missing woman, Sara Sidle." Brass instructed his friend.

"I don't have any door alarms or window alarms going off so she has to be inside." Grayson shouted back to Brass.

"Sara!" Grissom shouted her name through the house.

"She didn't have a gun did she?" Brass asked already knowing the answer.

"No." Grissom answered, knowing that Sara was too stubborn for her own good.

Nick's Room

Dr Roberts started looking at he lab values as they started getting to her via Riley, the numbers were good, the white count was elevated but that was due to the pneumonia. She was awaiting the creatinine level, needing to see if he was dehydrated or if the med was causing a problem with his kidneys.

"Riley. Go ask Gregg about the other tests, I need to give Nick another tepid bath, his fever is going up again." she started him on a saline wide open drip, she would need to get a foley catheter in soon if he didn't wake up .

She walked in the other room to get something for her headache,she needed to get her patient to wake up.

"Nick, you have some work to do, you need to wake up, that doctor doesn't want to have to put you back into the hospital now." the voice spoke to him.

Nick could hear Warrick but he couldn't respond.

"Bertha will be glad to hear that you're coming back." he smiled at the thought of his friend needing a sitter.

"I can't. I'm too tired." he thought, unable to speak any words right now, his body fighting something new. Had he been shot?

"Nick you're getting close, you have to wake up, you have work to do." Warrick's voice seemed real,like it was inside of his mind.

"I can't do this anymore. I'm too tired." he spoke to the familiar voice, he didn't feel like fighting anymore.

Okay...don't worry, overlooked an idea so I had to put Nick down for a while...hang on though ...he is about to get motivated to wake up!