Catherine started to talk to Beth, trying to keep her engaged in conversation. Beth's answers were slow and were bordering on incomprehensible, but at least she was still awake. Catherine continued to apply pressure to Beth's leg, even though the towel was tied there. It was only a few more minutes before the sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance. There was a collective sigh from the group as they realized that the paramedics were close.

"Nick, go outside and wait for the paramedics. Jump out in the street if you have to. I want them in here as soon as possible." Nick jogged outside and listened for the sirens. He waited for them to come into sight and when they did, he began to wave his arms like a madman. They soon pulled into the driveway and as the paramedics exited their vehicles and prepared their equipment, Nick began to fill them in on the little he knew.

"We have two gunshot victims, a male and a female. The man was shot in the shoulder and is unconscious. The woman was shot in the upper thigh and is going into shock. Both have lost a large volume of blood. It's important that these guys live. They're two of our own."

One of the paramedics responded as he passed by Nick. "We'll do the best we can, sir." Nick nodded. He couldn't control his emotions anymore. As the paramedics rushed inside, tears began to fall freely from his eyes. He couldn't bear the thought of losing Beth and Greg. They meant too much to him. They were like the younger siblings he never had. Greg was always trying to cheer him up, trying to get him to laugh. And Beth was always there to listen whenever there was something on his mind. Neither one of them ever expected anything in return. They were two of the best people that he knew. They didn't deserve to die. They had to pull through.

Catherine and Grissom stepped aside as the paramedics came in and took over the situation. Both were very nervous for their young co-workers' lives. Grissom watched as the paramedics worked feverishly on Greg's still form. He knew enough about human anatomy to know that Greg would need a miracle to survive. He listened to the frantic words spoken between the men who were trying to keep Greg alive. They stabilized the young man as best they could then placed him on a stretcher and rushed him out to the waiting ambulance. One of the men looked at Grissom and asked him a question. "Excuse me sir, are you related to the victim?"

His voice was shaky, and full of emotion. "No, I'm not a blood relative, but I am definitely family."

"Then I'm going to ask you to ride with us. We're going to need you at the hospital." Grissom hesitated only long enough to let Catherine know what he was doing. He then stuck to Greg's side, whispering words of comfort and of hope to the young man, while praying for a miracle.

The paramedics working on Beth moved as fast as those who worked on Greg. Beth was still conscious, but was unable to communicate coherently. She could only answer yes or no questions, nothing more complicated. The paramedics tried to keep her awake by asking her questions about simple things. While they were asking her questions, they quickly removed the bloodied towel from her leg and replaced it with sterile gauze and bandages from their kits.

Beth's mind was whirling. The pain combined with the fact that her best friend was on the verge of death was too much for her. She knew that she had to keep fighting, but her reasons for fighting were fading with every passing second. She heard some of the paramedics whispering about Greg's condition, and she knew how bleak things looked. She didn't want to and couldn't live without Greg. She finally stopped fighting the darkness that had begun to obscure her vision. Closing her eyes, she welcomed the numbing blackness that washed all of her pain away away.

The paramedics lifted the now unconscious Beth onto a stretcher and began to take her towards the ambulance. Before they could go very far, Catherine jumped to Beth's side. With tears in her eyes she said, "I'll be riding with her."

One of the paramedics turned to her. "Are you related?"

"I'm part of her family, yes."

"Okay."

Catherine turned to Sara. "I'm riding with Beth, and Gil is with Greg. Wait for Brass and when he gets here, go with him to the hospital." Sara was about to say something, but Catherine had already turned and was rushing out the door to be with Beth.

Warrick felt like the whole thing was just one big nightmare. After checking for a pulse on the dead man, he had walked over the corner and stood there, alone. He had watched the scene as though it weren't real. It wasn't Beth and Greg lying on the floor bleeding; it was two other people, people that he didn't know. Throughout his entire career as a CSI, he had only dealt with three crimes that had touched him personally. The first was when the rookie, Holly Gribbs, was shot and killed while he should have been with her. The second was when a little girl in his old neighborhood was shot and killed. And the third was when Detective Lockwood was shot and killed during a bank robbery. These three instances had touched him in a way that made him rethink his mortality. But when he saw Beth and Greg lying on the floor, these three instances faded away into nothing. He knew the two chemists much better than he had known any of the three who had died. Beth and Greg were two of his close friends. They were part of his family. He didn't know what he would do if either one of them died. He tried to shake the morbid thoughts from his head, but the sight of Beth and Greg lying on the floor had been burned into his mind. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw them. Fresh tears began to fall from his eyes as he thought of the scene all over again.

Sara turned to face Nick and Warrick. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she spoke. "Catherine is riding with Beth and Grissom is riding with Greg. She told us to wait for Brass so that he can take us to the hospital."

"Why can't we take the Tahoe?" Nick's eyes were red and his cheeks were wet. He was panicking. He wanted nothing more than to get to the hospital as soon as possible and to be with Beth and Greg again.

"None of us are in any condition to drive." Nick knew she was right. He cursed under his breath and sat down. He put his head in his hands and sat there weeping. His best friends were going to die and there was nothing he could do about it. He had never felt so helpless in his life. He was always fighting for someone or something. But this time, the fight was not his. The fight belonged to Beth and Greg, and unfortunately, it looked as though they might lose.