Chapter Rating: R
Chapter Title: Pieces – Inspired by a Hoobastank song…
Author's Note: I'm gonna end this story within the next two or three chapters…
~~
The personal vendetta had just increased in triplicate for Marah. Not only did James have her brother, but he also had her…well, whatever Greg was. She stared out the window of the Chevy Tahoe, and waited for a sewer hole. "We should have run into a fucking sewer hole by now…" she cursed, but then jumped. "Griss! Sewer! Stop!" she pointed frantically and as soon as the car came to a half-stop, jumped out, and ran to the sewer hole.
"Marah! Wait for Detective Brass and Sergeant O'Reilly…" Grissom yelled. "We can't go down there without backup…" he ran up behind her and grabbed her arm. "Believe me, I'm as anxious as you are…" he then shut up, seeing Marah's sheer doubt of that statement.
"My brother and my…uh…friend are down there with my psychotic father, and some other…really freaky crazy guy, Grissom…you expect me to just sit here, and let them die?" Marah was practically screaming, but decided against that. "If anything happens to either of them…I swear…"
Bonnie walked up beside Marah, and sighed. "I'm as anxious as you are…believe you ME…but we can't go down there unprotected, Marah…" she comforted her. "Just think of it this way…if we go down there without Brass and O'Reilly we're gonna be of no use to Paul or Greg, because we'll be as good as dead…"
~~
Greg watched for any psychopath or non-psychopath, while Paul finally got some sleep. His mind was racing, with thoughts of his car crashing, thoughts of Marah, thoughts of being safe again. He wondered how close Marah, Bonnie, Nick, Neleh and everyone else were to finding them. He looked at the ceiling, and then down to the floor. Damn, this Stenbeck guy is a pure…I wanna say genius…but…no, I won't give him that much credit. His eyes widened, and then he cupped his hand to his ear. "Did I just hear…are those SIRENS?" Greg shot up, and started to violently shake Paul's shoulders. "Paul! Paul! Wake up!"
Paul groaned. "What the hell do you want?" he complained, and scoffed when Greg put his hand over his mouth. He attempted to mumble out a, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" but it came out more like "Whadafugouhinkouooing?"
"Shut up!" Greg yelled. "Listen!" he pointed to the ceiling, and uncovered Paul's mouth. "Sirens!"
"Oh! Whoa! Make as much noise as humanly possible!" Paul stood up, and started to yell. "Talk like this!"
"WHO DO YOU THINK FIGURED IT OUT? AND WHERE DO YOU THINK WE ARE, ANYWAY?" Greg asked, obeying Paul's suggestion.
"SOMEWHERE UNDERGROUND, MAYBE, SINCE THE SOUND CAME FROM THE CEILING?" Paul suggested, looking around. "PLUS THE FACTOR THAT THE WALLS ARE ALL MADE OF ROCK…THAT WOULD BE LOGICAL!"
Greg laughed at all the yelling. "SOUNDS LIKE AN EPISODE OF SURVIVOR IN HERE!"
Paul laughed too. "YOU ATE THE LAST PIECE OF…uh…RAT! DAMN YOU!"
~~
Marah looked down the sewer. "I'm going down first…because if James is down there, I really don't want any of you to get hurt…" she started down the ladder, not waiting for an answer from Grissom, O'Reilly or Brass.
Grissom followed her closely, then Brass, Bonnie and O'Reilly. (Author's Note: The following description came from Parasite Eve I, my favorite Playstation game…) The sewer was darker than they thought it would be. Some sort of off-green colored water ran down in between the two walkways. The walls were made of some sort of gray rock. Slate, Marah assumed. The walkways were pretty narrow, about one foot, and the waterway in the middle was about two feet long. Their walk was accompanied by the sound of a light trickle of water.
Bonnie stopped. "Guys…listen…" she stopped them for a second. "Do you hear that?"
Marah listened too. "Yeah…I do…" she nodded. "Sounds like yelling…maybe it's workers, either that, or we're getting close…" she pulled her gun out, just in case.
Grissom, O'Reilly and Brass followed her lead, and pulled their guns, too. "Miss McKechnie…did you bring a gun?" Brass asked her.
"Oh…uh, yeah, sorry…this is all new to me…" Bonnie pulled her gun out.
Marah held her hand up, signaling for everyone to be quiet. "Listen…do you guys hear that?" she asked, referring to a clatter, and two deep voices talking.
"You mean, aside from the yelling we heard before?" Grissom asked.
"I hear it…the clatter…" O'Reilly nodded. "We need to split up…there's a four way intersection up ahead…" he explained.
"Well…there's an uneven amount…one of us will have to go alone…" Bonnie panicked. "Which one of us…"
Marah took a deep breath. "Me…I'll go left, Grissom and O'Reilly, go straight, Brass, you take Bonnie right…"
"No way…we're calling for more backup…Marah, you're not going alone," Grissom shook his head ferociously. "We'll go back topside, and then call Warrick…but you're not going alone."
Marah narrowed her eyes at Grissom. "Why?"
"I hate to say it, but I agree with Grissom, Marah…" Bonnie nodded. "It's not that I don't wanna find Paul, because I do, but you can't be facing off against your father without backup…"
Marah took a deep breath. "I guess you're right…" she held back tears.
~~
"Find anything, Nick?" Neleh walked around the car and touched Nick's shoulder.
"Yeah...someone tampered with Greggo's breaks..." Nick pointed to the break wires. "They were cut..."
"Oh my God!" Neleh gasped. "That's terrible!" she peered over Nick's shoulder, and saw the cuts in the break wires. "Maybe we should dust those for prints, since this car is pretty much unsalvageable..."
"Yeah...but I think I already know who did this..." he sighed, and shook his head. "Either Stenbeck or Nigel..."
Neleh pointed to the road, and sighed. "They called for more backup...that was Warrick, Sara and Harmony... and they're pulling over."
"What is this, suddenly a team effort?" Nick asked, following Neleh to the rest of their team.
"It's Nigel and Stenbeck, so, yeah...it is a team effort..." Neleh explained.
~~
"DO YOU THINK THEY'RE STILL ON THEIR WAY?" Paul asked Greg, starting to go hoarse.
"DUDE, YOU SOUND LIKE BRITNEY SPEARS ON CRACK..." Greg laughed. "AND YEAH, THEY'RE STILL COMING...THEY WOULDN'T JUST LEAVE US HERE WITH SEÑIOR PSYCHOPATHO AND MONSIEUR Aliéné..." (Author's Note: Aléiné is 'insane' in French...to those of you who aren't familiar with French, that is.) he laughed at his nicknames for James and Nigel. "WANNA HELP ME COME UP WITH MORE NICKANMES?" he asked Paul, with a quick laugh. "JUST TO PASS THE TIME, AND ALL..."
"SURE...WE CAN CALL MY FATHER...EL DIABLO..." Paul suggested.
"COME ON...BE A LITTLE MORE ORIGINAL, PAUL!" Greg shook Paul's suggestion off, with a little laugh.
"WE CAN CALL HIM...LARRY THE DUCK..." Paul shook his head. "AND NIGEL...FRANCES THE TURTLE..."
"NOW THAT'S ORIGINAL..." Greg laughed, hearing footsteps approaching.
~~
Now, the investigation 'party' had increased. Not only was it Marah, Grissom, O'Reilly, Bonnie and Brass, but now they had Harmony, Warrick, Sara, Neleh and Nick with them. They came to the four-way intersection, and split off into three groups. Marah, Warrick and Harmony went left, Grissom, Sara, Bonnie and Brass went straight; and Neleh, Nick and O'Reilly went right.
Sara stood in front of their group, with Grissom behind her, Bonnie behind him and Brass pulling up the rear. "Bonnie...be prepared to pull your gun at anytime..." Sara warned her, looking back to see that she already had it out. "Or...you could already be prepared..." she forced a small laugh, disregarding the fear coursing through her veins.
Bonnie nodded. "Marah briefed me on everything while we were still topside..." she explained, looking professional as could be.
Grissom pushed Sara behind him, and peered around the corner. "You can't relate with people like James Stenbeck as well as I can..."
"You say that like it's not a bad thing..." Brass stated.
Grissom rounded the corner, and pulled his gun, just in case. "I don't think I've seen a sewer twist and turn so much..." he told his followers.
"Me either...just goes to show you that Vegas really is twisted..." Sara made a joke.
Bonnie laughed a little. "Guys...is that a two-way intersection up ahead?" she asked, using her free hand to push some black hair behind her ear.
"Sara, Bonnie...go straight...Brass and I will go right..." Grissom commanded.
"Aye-aye, captain..." Sara nodded, as they split off.
~~
Neleh clung to Nick. "This is almost like a horror movie..." she peered around the corner. "Six CSI's, two police officers, one lab tech and one civilian, searching for two lost friends..." she started talking like a movie voiceover guy.
Nick narrowed his eyes and Neleh. "Neleh...this is very real...you of all people should know that..."
"I do, I'm just..." she watched O'Reilly pull his gun, and jumped, automatically pulling hers too, which caused Nick to pull his. "What? What do you see?"
"Nothing, Detective Snyder..." O'Reilly explained, rounding the corner. "It was a 'just in case' scenario..."
"Oh...right...of course..." she gripped Nick's arm tighter.
~~
Harmony and Warrick walked a couple steps behind Marah. "Do you think they're ok?" Warrick whispered, trying not to let Marah hear his doubting voice.
"I hope so..." Harmony watched Marah act like this was all a ballet to her. "Maybe she should become a cop or something...she looks like this is her forte..." she peered around the corner. "Uh...Marah, what are you doing?" she asked Marah, who was knelt onto the ground, seemingly examining something.
"This is Paul's..." Marah picked up a watch. "I gave it to him on his twentieth birthday..." she explained, handing it to Harmony. "Hold onto that for me?" she asked.
"Sure..." Harmony held onto the watch, then started to follow Marah again.
"You guys..." Warrick looked at Harmony, then Marah. "The paths split..."
"You guys go straight...I'll go left...and I'll radio if I need anything," Marah nodded, signifying that she didn't want any argument about it.
"But Grissom..." Harmony started to argue.
"No...I'm going this way..." she pulled her gun, and rounded the corner.
"Let's follow her..." Warrick nodded to Harmony, who nodded in agreement.
~~
Suffocating, sinking further each and every day
Barely treading water, knowing I will not give up