Author's Note: If things aren't exactly like they were in the episode, I'm adapting it to my own. Thanks for the positive feedback, people. And, so you know, as soon as this chapter is read, and reviewed, I'm going to move it to my other screen name, Stripped...yep, 'tis me!
Chapter Rating: R for violence and language.

~~ Chapter Three: Do I Have To Cry For You? ~~

"Nick, you don't understand do you? This is so hard for me!" Jenna screamed at the top of her lungs. "I feel that I'm safer WITH you!" she shot up out of her seat. "I don't want to be without you! Without you, I feel like there's so much missing, and I can't STAND that feeling much longer!"

"We were never an ITEM officially, Jenna," Nick protested, knowing this remark would break Jenna's heart, and acting like he didn't care, when in actuality, it was tearing him up inside. "We have...had something special, yes...but we were NOT officially an item. You don't think I'd love to just wrap my arms around you right now, and stop you from hurting? It's taking all that I have inside me not to!"

"So, just do it!" Jenna opened her arms, and waited for Nick to embrace her. "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere..." she felt a tear hit her cheek. "I'm never going anywhere, so just hold me!"

"I CAN'T!" Nick yelled, holding his hands out in front of him. "Jenna, if anything ever happened to you, I don't know what I'd do...and in all honesty, I'd rather not have you, then have you get taken from me..." he told her.

"So, you'd rather have me be dead on the inside, than dead on the outside? I may as well be both right now, damn it! Without you, I feel like someone's taken everything away from me...can't you see that?" she started to sob again. "I thought we were going to spend the rest of our lives together, Nick."

"You think I want to be without you? I don't, Jenna! I really don't! I just don't want you to be in danger! If anything happened to you on my account, I wouldn't ever be able to look in the mirror again!" he hated seeing her cry. This was so hard for him, to see her like this.

"Well then, steer clear of all mirrors! You're breaking my heart, Nick! Being without you by my side is the worst torture to me..." she wiped her eyes.

Nick was about to wrap his arms around her, and leave behind his anger for a second, when his phone rang. Saved by the bell...he thought. "Just a second, Jenna..." he turned around to answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Nick, it's Gil...Nigel is somewhere in your house..." Grissom came through the phone, with a panicked tone in his voice. "Are you alone?"

Nick's eyes turned cold. "No..." he looked slowly to the right, then to the left. "Jenna is here..." he turned around, to see if Jenna was still sitting there, and when she wasn't he shook his head. "Never mind, no she's not...she left."

Grissom was partially glad, but partially upset. "I sent Brass and a couple other officers over...they should be there soon..."

"Ok, thanks, Griss..." Nick nodded nervously, and hung up the phone. Nigel was in his house, again? He had heard the whole argument with Jenna. Oh, God...what if Jenna didn't leave? What if...

"NICK!" Nick heard a muffled female scream from his hallway. "NICK! AH!" It sounded so much like...Jenna!

He reached into his cabinet and pulled out a gun, slowly walking into the hallway. "Jenna?" he asked, looking around the hallway. "Jenna? Where are you?" He heard a very muffled scream, and then it went silent. "Jenna? JENNA!" he yelled, starting to become frantic. "JENNA, WHERE ARE YOU? COME ON!"

All in a flash, a ceiling panel came crashing down, and Jenna, unconscious, fell to the floor. Nick's heart stopped for a second, as he knelt down beside her to check her pulse, fearing the worst. Still alive, thank God. Bleeding severely in the forehead, but she was still alive. She looked as though she had been hit in the head with the butt of a gun. How could whoever hit her, though, have hit her in the front of the head? He reached down and touched her hair gently, and was scared out of his mind, by none other than Nigel Crane, Mr. Window Pusher, jumping down from the same ceiling panel he'd thrown Jenna from, and holding a gun to Nick.

"Step away from her..." Nigel threatened Nick by pointing his gun at Jenna's head. "Or she gets it in her pretty little head..."

"Ok, ok..." Nick stood up right away, and stepped two steps back from Jenna. He looked down at the floor, and seeing that he'd dropped his gun, he reached down to pick it up, only to have it kicked out of his reach by Nigel.

"Think you're gonna outsmart me?" Nigel asked, watching the gun sail across the floor and hit the wall. "You think you know a guy...and he pulls a gun on you. Nick, you've disappointed me..."

Nick wondered where he knew this guy from, but didn't say anything, so not to upset him. He looked at Jenna, love filling his eyes, and worry filling his heart. Seeing from the corner of his eye, though, that Nigel was expecting an answer from him, he looked up at him. "Why'd you do this to her?"

"She was hurting you, wasn't she? I thought she deserved a lesson..." Nigel explained, looking down quickly at the helpless Jenna, lying on the floor. "Goes to show who your true friends are, doesn't it, Nicky? You can't count on princess, here...or any of your other alleged friends, who aren't here yet. I'm here for you, Nicky..."

Jenna awoke, somehow not forgetting what had happened. She looked inconspicuously at Nick's shoes. What do I do? I need a plan...she thought. She looked up a little, and saw the gun against the wall. Staying low to the ground, she crawled across the floor, hoping that Nigel didn't see her. Her head was killing her, and she could only hear soft murmuring coming from Nick and Nigel in the background, but she reached for the gun, and pulled herself to her feet.

Nigel, still pointing the gun at Nick, looked down at where Jenna had been lying, and was overcome with anger to see that she wasn't there. "Where did princess go?" he glowered at Nick.

Nick looked down at where Jenna had been, too, and panicked. "Jenna? JENNA!"

"I'm right here..." her eyes narrowed, as she pointed the gun at Nigel. "And not afraid, either!"

Nick was immensely relieved, not only because Jenna was ok, but also because he wasn't in it alone anymore. He knew that Jenna was a smart woman, but now, he saw that she was immensely under-credited. To have the will power to crawl across the floor with a gigantic gash on her head, and to have the strength to stand up, and hold a gun to an attacker? And, to defend Nick to the ends of the earth, even after what they'd just been through? Jenna wasn't only the most beautiful woman he'd ever met, she was the strongest, sweetest and smartest. But he'd already known that.

Nigel, in fear of getting shot, now aimed his gun at Jenna, giving Nick the opportunity to pummel it away from him. He lunged at Nigel with all his might, and took the gun away from him. Not quickly enough, though. The gun went off and, immediately after, Brass and two other officers broke in the door. Nick looked around for wherever the shot had penetrated, and started to get nervous when he couldn't find it. He glanced over at Jenna, and saw her lying on the ground, gun still in her hand. "Jenna? JENNA!"

Nigel had gotten his revenge. Jenna lay, unmoving, on the ground, blood covering her front half. Nick panicked again, and took her pulse. He looked closer at the wound, and he knew right away, the bullet had pierced her heart. That was it...Jenna Grissom, the love of his life, was gone. And she didn't even know how much he loved her. "You FUCKING BASTARD!" Nick shouted at the top of his lungs at Nigel. "You killed her! You fucking killed Jenna!" he lunged at Nigel, who was being taken away by the police, only to be held back by Brass.

"Nick..." Brass yelled at him. "Contain yourself! He's going to jail!"

"Damn it! He fucking killed Jenna, and you're telling me to contain myself? I don't think so! Jenna is dead!" Nick suddenly realized that the words he had just said were actually true, and broke down in a fit of tears.

Gil rushed into the room, after one of the officers outside had told him that Jenna had been shot, and glanced down at her motionless body. A glacial look formed in his eyes, and he knelt by his daughter's body. "Jenna?" he begged for her to just speak one word to him. He closed his eyes, and then glanced up at Nick. "What happened?" he asked.

"I'm so sorry, Gil...I didn't mean for it to happen this way!" Nick pulled himself away from Brass, and ran up beside Jenna. "I didn't want her to come here...I swear it..."

Gil nodded, knowing that Nick was telling the truth. "I know, Nick...don't worry," Nick and Gil broke down crying over Jenna's body, and then they shared a friendly hug, knowing that this experience would bring them that much closer.

~~

Tell me what I gotta be,
Tell me what you wanna do.
Cuz I can't live my life the way you want me to.
You know I can't go on
Living like we do.
Do I have to cry for you?
~~ 'Do I Have To Cry For You?' – Nick Carter