Title:Last Drink Tonight
Author:Nicksfriend
Disclaimer:I do not own or have any sort of connection to CBS or the CSI franchise...wish I did though it would be nice to have a little extra cash.
Summary: A trip to a missing person is interrupted by a drunk driver.
Desert Palm Emergency Room
Dr Kasey and Dr Mason had ridden in the medic cab with their patient,worried about his mental condition as well as his physical condition, ice packs now underneath his arms,neck and on his groin area.
The fever was causing him to have small epileptic type seizures,his body would get suddenly rigid and shake uncontrollably,his teeth gritting together, his airway being kept open with a tongue blade.
"Give him another five of Valium. Go ahead and give him a loading dose of Dilantin too." Dr Mason ordered, seeing that the fever was now one hundred and five point three,his patient's eyes still open,fighting the medication and the fever.
The paramedic acknowledged the order and flipped the yellow cap off another pre-dosed syringe of Valium and placed it in the IV port that was now infusing Ringers Lactate open wide for volume and hydration purposes, emptying the contents of the syringe.
Nick's body stilled, his tongue bleeding from him biting it during the last two seizures,his eyes still open, starring at the doctors who were tormenting him. The way she had tormented him, he couldn't sleep, he couldn't rest, he couldn't trust anybody.
The truck pulled into the ambulance bay, the doors were opened and Nick's body was jolted on the stretcher,then he was moving quickly through the familiar doors of the emergency room.
He wanted to yell but the plastic airway was causing him to be unable to respond,unable to speak,unable to say how much he hated them for doing this to him,why had his friends forsaken him, why?
"I need a full trauma panel,phenytoin level, blood and urine cultures,foley, and we need a cardiologist, his chest is mince meat, don't apply any leads to the reddened areas of his chest." Dr Mason shouted at the trauma team,as he was already ordering more medications, his focus only on his patient, Nick Stokes.
"What's his O2 sats?" his voice and mind was in control, he wanted to see how Nick's lungs was holding up through the events.
"They are a little low at 90%. Nasal cannuli? The trauma nurse asked as she prepared the oxygen.
"If they fall any lower get O2 on him to keep him above 90%. I need a blood gas first, get respiratory up here now." he ordered,wanting to see why Nick wasn't responding to his treatment,"Also call MRI, and get radiology up here to do a chest xray,anterior lateral views if possible, add a film of his left leg too, and get ortho up here,he'll need a new cast placed."
"Yes sir!" another trauma nurse yelled, already on the phone getting radiology to send up a portable machine for the films.
He walked over to his still awake patient,"Nick, buddy, tell me what's hurting." he knew his patient was in pain, the grimaces on his face a clear indication.
"My chest,everything." he mumbled, the drugs causing him some confusion,he was seeing things he knew weren't real,hallucinations,auditory and visual, the face of his tormentor on every face around him, laughing, finding his predicament funny,humorous,fascinating.
"Nick, listen to me, we're going to have to get you on a cooling blanket, they need to cut off your clothes, I just want you to know what's going on, no surprises." hoping that his patient was understanding,but the way his eyes were darting back and forth he doubted Nick was able to focus on anything that he was saying.
The nurses were cutting off the sweatshirt, audible gasps from several individuals were heard, the deep cuts and bruises noticed,more as they turned him to his side.
One nurse could not help herself,"What the hell happened to him?"
"A monster attacked him." Dr Mason shook his head,what had the bitch done to his patient? "Let's get cultures of all his wounds, rectal,penis and buccal swabs,we need to rule out infection and sexual abuse." he looked at Nick as they placed him on the cooling blanket,the rectal probe placed, then they covered him with only a sheet.
His body shivered as he started to sweat, the tylenol suppository starting to assist his fever."Get her away from me, please, please get her away from me!" he moaned as loud as his damaged and abused voice could in the small space.
After two hours of intesne medical attention, as Dr Mason looked up at the fluids infusing,antibiotics,fluids to rehydrate and meds for the anticonvulsants he fet relief that Nick had started to respond a slight bit to the meds. His MRI scan had been completed and read, it was unchanged from his earlier film the day before,Nick was having febrile seizures, he needed to get the fever under control, but he was worried t hat he was missing something, the redness on his patient's chest indicative of cellulitis or a second degree burn,he just hoped it wouldn't spread if it ws cellulitis.
Emergency Waiting Room
Catherine and Warrick stood in the emergency room waiting area again, suddenly a crowd was gathered outside the doors, it had to be John and Elizabeth arriving. The media were like attack dogs,wanting to get a hold of the two individuals that were not only Nick's siblings but they worked for the DA's office in Dallas, Texas.
The police officers pushed them through, a special area was reserved for Nick's friends and family.
"How is he?" John asked as he walked into the room,quickly using his attorney skills to assess the facial expressions, it couldn't be good.
"The doctor will be out in a few minutes to update us, but I need to be honest with both of you,he's in pretty bad shape both physically and mentally." Warrick replied, a part of him so pissed at Nick's family for not being there from the beginning and another part just happy that someone from Nick's family had finally showed up.
Elizabeth took John's hand,holding it tight, wanting to just see her little brother, wanting to tell him that she loved him.
Dr Mason tall thin form looked even thinner to the CSI's, a worried look etched on his face,a thick chart in his hand."Hi, you must be John Stokes and Elizabeth Stokes Banner." he reached his hand out to give John's extended hand a firm shake then Elizabeth.
"I won't beat around the bush, Rebecca did a number on Nick,she beat him, she tried to kill him numerous times with several different medications and,she even attempted to destroy his heart. We have a lot to work through before he'll be better,though his old injuries are still a concern." He stopped a few seconds to give the group time to absorb the new information.
After a few seconds he resumed," His febrile seizures are a bigger problem right now, we can't get them to stop, so we are being aggressive in fighting his fever,once the seizures stop we will place in on a unit but for right now the ER is the best place for him,one on one care."
"Can we see him?" Elizabeth asked, wanting to see her brother.
"I will be honest, he is in no shape for visitors right now,and I don't know how you might take this but he might not want to see you." Dr Mason knew he might be crossing a line but they hadn't been there for his patient when he needed them,why would he want to see them now?
"Listen,I know this is difficult to understand,but we didn't know, our parents didn't tell us that Nick had been in an accident, we had to find out from watching the news." John wanted to see his brother and he would fight anybody who said he couldn't.
Dr Mason nodded, some understanding to the situation,but still it made him angry at the parents, he had spoken to both of them.
"Listen, one of you can visit but only for a few minutes." he stood, he needed to get back to Nick.
"You go John,you always were his big brother." she smiled,wanting her brother to see him first,not actually thinking she could be able to be strong enough for Nick.
He nodded,she didn't have to ask him twice, he stood and followed the doctor back to see his brother, he knew what he had done to Nick after his near death in the plexiglass coffin was wrong now and all he wanted was to know that his little brother would be fine.
He entered the busy ER, still following the tall,thin doctor until he came to a small cubicle,inside he could hear the moans of what sounded like a wounded animal that was suffering.
He walked in, the doctor leading the way, Nick was attached to lots of tubes,monitors and IV's. The visual of his little brother was enough to make one want to turn and run but he stood fast, he knew he had to be strong for his brother,his brother needed him.
"I'll be back in a few minutes." Dr Mason turned and left the two men alone.
He walked over and took his brother's free hand, the other had wires and equipment attached,"Nick, it's John,I'm here. Elizabeth and I came to visit you."
Nick's fevered eyes starred up, tears filled them as she saw his brother,"John?" his voice cracking with emotion,"That you John?" his other hand now grabbing at his brother's hand, gripping it tightly.
"Yeah, it's me Nicky. What happened to you little brother?" he asked,already knowing the answer,finding himself looking over the deep cuts and bruises that marred Nick's body.
"She hurt me,she was so mean, she did bad things to me John." his voice panicked but younger,more child like than he had ever remembered Nick sounding.
Nick looked around, the fever still causing him to wonder if he was seeing things or if it was really John.
John pulled over a chair, it was evidently hard for his brother to focus,"Hey,little brother, listen, I'm not going anywhere, I'm right here."
"Don't leave me John,she'll hurt me again, I know she will, she told me she would hurt me again. She told me she would hurt my family, even mom and dad."Nick's voice was pleading,his hands grasping John's with strength he didn't think possible for his injured brother.
"She did bad things John,bad things." he whispered as he looked around, as if he were hearing voices,voices that were not there. "Was that Mom?"
"No Nicky, Mom is in Texas with Dad. What did the woman do to you Nicky?" Feeling that his brother needed to talk,needed to tell somebody what had happened to him in his captivity.
"She threatened me and made me do bad things but I didn't cry John, I was a big boy,big boys don't cry, right?" Nick was suddenly in tears again, his face scrunched in pain,"She's a bad babysitter John, she's so mean and she hurts little boys."
Suddenly he knew that Nick was no longer talking about Rebecca but about Dorothy Cannon.
"She said that she killed bad boys. That I was a bad boy." he was shaking his head,wanting John to know he hadn't wanted to be bad, she made him do the bad things.
"Why didn't she kill you Nick? What happened?" he didn't know why he asked,it just came out,he needed to know why she spared his little brother.
"She said she knew a secret, a secret that would save her someday. I think it was about dad,she seemed to know a secret that daddy didn't want her to talk about." he was rambling now,the fever causing him to be unfocused.
"Nicky, do you know the secret?" John asked,suddenly realizing that Nick was no longer seeing Rebecca.
"No, I have to go to bed and never tell anyone or daddy will punish me."He whispered as if his father was near, fevered eyes starred at the curtain,"I didn't cry John, you would have been so proud of me,I didn't cry, not even a little. I was a big boy,daddy's big boy."
"I'm proud of you Nicky,so very proud. I need you to rest now, can you do that for me?" he asked, seeing that his brother was fighting the drugs they were giving him for rest.
"Don't leave me." he looked at John again, pleading eyes starring at him.
"I won't leave you Nicky, I'll stay right here." he smiled at his brother then reached up and pushed sweaty hair from his brother's face, a renewed anger starting to grow inside of him,wanting to talk to his father, to find out what secret was worth his brother's pain and suffering.
Okay,we still have a ways to go but I got off the slow stick today and just wrote...hopefully you like!