A/N: For all the Nick lovers(there are many I know, I am among them) this chapter is for you! Here's something you won't see everyday, Nick and Morphine, and interesting combo! Hehe!
Chapter 37
Catherine Willows had no idea what to expect when Grissom called her and sent her to Nick Stokes room in the hospital under the reason of parental supervision. That was a new one for her. She entered the room to find Lockwood and Vega sitting across the room as far from Nick as they could, Archie's bed was empty with black spots on it, though not very many, and a nurse putting fresh bandages on his disfigured hand, tossing the old ones, which were oddly stained almost completely black. Nick was not being cooperative.
"Owwwww…" he whined pitifully, "stop it, owwww." the nurse was struggling to keep his hand still while she re-wrapped the bandages.
"Mr. Stokes please hold still I have to get this wrapped or you'll have to have the bones reset, you don't want that do you?" Nick stuck out a pouty lip for a moment holding still for about three seconds before beginning again.
"Stop it, that hurts…owwwww…."
"Mr. Stokes, it wouldn't hurt if you'd stop pulling away." he tried to pull away his hand but she held him mid-forearm and wouldn't allow for the movement. They were both huffing with irritation, though the nurse was showing great composure. Nick however, stuck his surprisingly long tongue out at the nurse.
"Meany." that was when Catherine decided to be the hero of the day.
"Nicholas Stokes you put that tongue back in before I pierce it!" He whipped to look at her, her entrance having gone unnoticed by both, and quickly sucked his tongue back in like a lizard. Then he got this silly lopsided grin from ear to ear.
"Hello Cathy-roo, come to rescue me from the meany?" Cathy-roo? That's new, I'll have to write that down for unusual nick names.
"No, I'm here to make you behave. Now hold still and let the nurse wrap your hand." her voice left no room for argument, even again a high-as-a-kite Nick Stokes. She walked closer to the two.
"Thank you Mrs. Willows."
"No problem." she looked at the black stained wrappings. "What did he do?" suddenly Archie came huffing out of the bathroom, grumbling loudly. The silly lopsided grin returned to Nick twice as large as before.
"Isn't he beautiful? A real work of art. My masterpiece. We should put him in a frame." Catherine turned to see what Nick had done and stood, gaping at Archie. From his cheek bones, all around his eyes and his entire forehead were pitch black. Just south reaching his upper lip, the left half of his face--splitting at the center of the nose--was a bright solid blue, the right half was a bright purple.
The chin and lower lip had large, lumpy bright, almost lime, green circles and hot pink filling in any space between the circles. His neck started with orange, but apparently Nick had gotten bored and there were large splashes of just about every color ever invented splotching his entire neck. Catherine suddenly noticed that Archie wasn't wearing a shirt, but in just as many colors as his face and neck, Nick had painted a bra onto him with a squiggle line down to his belly button. She fought back the smirk.
"Oh Nicky you didn't." Archie shot him a glare that would have been a cause of death if it weren't spoiled by all the paintings.
'Oh he did. And what's worse is he waited until I was knocked out with pain meds to do it, so I didn't wake up for hours afterwards. The stuff had plenty of time to soak through my shirt and into my skin! I CAN'T GET IT OFF!" Catherine was a bit worried about witnessing a 419, Nick being the victim. Good motive though.
"My masterpiece, lovely." Nick said with a slight drunken Texas slur. Catherine was finding it very hard to hold back the laughter.
"How did he get it all over him then?"
"The black marker broke during the bra." Nick confessed.
"Yes well, said markers have yet to be found." Archie groused.
"Isn't he supposed to be bed bound?"
"We think he hopped, we're not sure, there weren't witnesses." the nurse commented. For the first time Catherine noticed that Vega and Lockwood were working hard at keeping their distance from Nick.
"Well what did he do to you two?" they looked like deer in headlights. Lockwood went first, the look of a kid tattle-tailing.
"He ummm…proposed marriage but I turned him down so he asked for a foot massage." Vega looked aghast at him.
"Lucky, after my marriage proposal he wanted a full body massage." Cath turned when Nick spoke up again, absently pulling his hand away from the nurse, but not enough to impede her work.
"Aren't those ladies just love-ely" he giggled like a girl and they all stared at him shocked. Catherine leaned her head back with a groan and a perfect view of the ceiling.
"oh Nicky." she looked back and the officers their noses scrunched and Nick. "You two can go, I'm sure Brass has better things for you to do than baby sit him." they left eagerly. Cath looked back at Nick who had gone back to fighting with the nurse, pulling his hand away as she tried to wrap it. She quickly dug through her purse until she found the desired object.
"Hey Nicky, let's play a game." he perked up instantly, the nurse and hand forgotten.
"A game? Play, I wanna play, can I play?" she smiled.
"Of course. You like Uno?"
"Yeah Yeah Uno, Uno" he grinned maniacally. She was struggling not to laugh at his morphine induced antics. He would probably die of embarrassment later, but for now it was entertaining. Then he frowned.
"Cath…" he whined in a childish voice, "I can't hold the cards" he gave her a pouty, I'm about to cry, look.
"Well just set them on the table then."
"You'll look though!"
"I promise, I won't look at your cards, promise." he looked at her for a moment then seemed satisfied. Although Nicky never noticed, Catherine did look at his cards, using the advantage to let him win. The point was to keep him occupied and happy. They played three rounds, the nurse finishing around round two and leaving pleased to be finished. After the third round Nick could never be happier with himself having won all three.
"Hey Archie you want to play a round?" Cath offered.
"I don't want to play with Nick." he griped still sore about his painted body.
"Well than I'll hold Nick's cards for him and you can whollop him for a few games, sound good?" he sighed.
"Okay, I'll play." by the the time the cards got put away Nick had won three games, with Catherine's help, and Archie had won two. Nick quickly fell asleep for that and Catherine, after much discussion, was able to dissuade him from revenge. She stayed until Nick was safely asleep and Archie off the war path before taking her leave. That ha been an interesting day to say the least. She snuck out careful not to wake Nick. She didn't want to have to deal with his childish, morphine induced antics again today. She never would have guessed morphine would bring out such behavior in him.
She wandered down the halls of the hospital She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do next. She was going home soon, but she eventually decided to go visit Sara before dropping by Warrick and Greg then going home. She had been with Nick and Greg for a while and she was in the mood for girl time. It was nice to see her smile instead of snarl when she came in.
"Hey Catherine, how are things going?"
"I'm doing good, everyone is finally improving."
"That's good, how was Nick?"
"High as a kite. I felt sorry for Archie."
"What's he doing to Archie?"
"He, ummm…painted Archie while he was zonked on meds, apparently he can't get it off. Oh, I've got a picture!" they gave a bit of a girlish squeal and they as Catherine pulled out her phone and scrolled to the picture. The room abounded with giggles and 'oh poor Archie's'. after a bit a silence filled the room. Joy would come but it was only short spurts right now.
"So how's Greg? Grissom told me about everything that's happened." Catherine pursed her lips.
"He's…improving. He's having a really hard time, but he's talking again. Took a week but whatever Warrick did, it worked. But, he's really having a hard time."
"I wish I could go see him, but they say I still have to stay here for a day or two more. Gosh, I just want to leave! I feel fine!" she collapsed back to the bed frustrated but still winced as a dull pain streaked across her chest.
"I know, but just be patient, you'll get out of here sooner if you cooperate with them, as hard as that may be." Sara yawned involuntarily.
"Do I have too?"
"Yeah, but hey, when you do get out, you can stay at my place, we'll have a slumber party or something. Good ole girl time, and just relax. We've all got a lot of time off, let's just have all the fun we can, a shopping spree maybe?" Sara smiled.
"That sounds great. I'm inspired to be a 'good girl'," she said sarcastically, "and go to bed. Tell Greg I said to get better soon, that I'll visit as soon as they let me and give him a hug for me?" Catherine stood headed to the door.
"Sure, I'll let him know. He'll be glad to hear it." with that she headed towards Greg's room. He regarded her sleepily, blinking owlishly, and she knew it would be a short visit. Warrick sat next to him more bright eyed and smiled.
"Hey Cath." Greg didn't sound so monotone, but he didn't have the usual spark either.
"Hey Greg. How are you feeling?"
"Better than earlier. Food helped. And talking to you and Warrick, that really helped." he emphasized a word. Progress, he's slowly working his way back. YES!
"That's good. I'm glad you're talking it through. It'll help. Sara says hi, that she'll visit when she can and sends a hug." he nodded as Cath gave him the requested hug. She hated that she could still see the haunted look in his eyes, more in the background, but just as strong.
"How's Nick? Is he still okay?"
"Yeah, he's high as a kite and driving Archie nuts. You wanna see his umm…masterpiece?" they looked at her surprised and nodded. She again whipped out the phone bringing up the picture that Archie hadn't known she took. Warrick laughed. Greg gave a small but clear smile. It was the first and one of the best things her and Warrick had ever seen. Greg smiling.
"Archie would never have sat still for that, how'd Nick manage?" Warrick inquired.
"He waited until Archie was sleeping defenselessly aided by meds."
"Wicked." Greg gave a tired yawn.
"Tomorrow can I moved to Nick and Archie's room? I'll feel better with them, being able to see them, know they're okay."
"Absolutely Greg, it won't be a problem. I think Archie would like company besides Nick, a buffer zone I suppose." almost another smile.
"Thanks," he yawned again, "I think I'm going to sleep. Warrick, could you…could you stay tonight?"
"Of course, I planned on it, brought my PJ's and everything."
"Well, I'll let you sleep and come by tomorrow. Sleep well." he nodded with a yawn and laid further back, bringing the blankets up to his chin again. He only did it when he was sleeping now, but it still made him feel a bit safer having the blanket tight around him. He was asleep quickly, reassured by the fact that Warrick was next to him, protecting him from anything in the night. As Warrick too fell asleep, it was with a triumphant happy picture in his head, a memory of what had happened. Greg had smiled.
A/N: Did you enjoy? I hope so. I worked very hard on this chapter. Poor Archie. Anyways, depending on how it flows there will be one or two chapters left, I highly doubt three. Enjoying?