hey everyone! I decided to update as soon as I could! As allways R&R. One thing I forgot to do in the last chapter was the disclaimer! Funny.Keep in mind I'm not a doctor, so don't sue me if I don't get all the medical terms right. Now on with the story!

Disclaimer: ok so I don't own any of them, wish I did but I don't. But I'd take a guest appearance on the show any day!


Chapter 2

From Bad To Worse

The firemen busted down the door and the room was full of smoke and fire. They brought in water hoses and began putting out the fire.

"The neighbors had heard something going on at the house, then saw fire through the window and called 911." Brass informed Grissom.

Grissom barely heard him. He was too focused on the door of the house. After what seemed like hours they finally got the flames down, and were dragging out two lumps.

"Oh my God." Warrick said shocked. They were pulling out Nick and Greg. They both looked to be unconscious. They were severely beaten, lots of bruises. Then he noticed the two gunshots in Nick. The paramedics rushed to him first, trying to stop the bleeding. Suddenly, it looked like Nick was waking up, but it was only just enough time to cough up more blood.

"Internal bleeding." He heard one of the paramedics say. He looked away. He couldn't stand to see them this way.

"All that blood." Warrick said, to no one in particular. "I don't which one was beaten more, Nick or Greg." Grissom looked up to face him.

"Does it matter? We need to worry about the who and the how." Grissom stated.

"Don't forget the why." Grissom and Warrick got in their Tahoe's and drove behind the ambulance to the hospital.
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Warrick sat quietly in the in the waiting room with Grissom when the girls showed up. They were both in tears. Cathrine had calmed down by now and sat next to Warrick, but Sara was pacing the room waiting for the doctor.

Finally the doctor came to the waiting room.

"Are there any relatives of Mr...." He looked down at his sheet. "Mr. Nick Stokes and Mr. Greg Sanders?"

"We're all their family. We're all they've got in Vegas." The doctor agreed to tell them their condition.

"They're both in surgery right now. It's taking longer than we'd expected. Greg has had some head trauma, a few cracked ribs and two completely broken ones. When he does recover, we expect him to wake up in at a few days." They all nodded, so the doctor continued.

"Nick is in worse condition though. He has many broken ribs, about four. His leg will be fine after we get the bullet out, we aren't sure about his stomach area. The shot went right past his important arteries but we don't know if it hit his kidney or not. He might need a blood transfusion, and he's got bleeding in part of his lung. He won't be able to talk. If he does, tell a doctor right away, to much exertion and it could kill him." The doctor finished. Sara had more tears coming down her face.

"But.. he'll be okay right?" She asked softly.

"He might be in a coma for awhile. We'll know more when the surgery is over." The doctor closed his book and headed back to the emergency room. Sara finally stopped pacing and sat right down on the hard floor. Warrick put a hand on her shoulder, and gave her a reassuring smile.
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4 days after their surgery, the CSI team had found out that Nick in fact did need a blood transfusion. The bullet just missed his kidney's and he was recovering fine. Greg was in his hospital room, still unconscious, with Cathrine by his side. Cathrine and Sara had agreed to stay with them and switch off rooms every once in a while. Sara had told Cathrine she wanted to be there for Nick when he woke up, so they stopped trading rooms.

Cathrine was reading a magazine when she heard a noise from Greg. She looked at him and his eyes began to flutter open.

"Greg? How are you feeling? Do you need anything?" Cathrine asked concerned.

"I feel like I was hit with a bat a few hundred times." He said weakly. Cathrine smiled at his ironic statement.

"It was a trophy, and only about twenty times." Greg smiled. Cathrine always treated him like a son. He was youngest of the team and was the strangest.

"How's Nick?" He suddenly asked. Cathrine looked down at her shoe and Greg knew something was wrong.

"Cathrine?"

"He's um.... he's gonna be fine. The doctor said he has about four broken ribs and his leg is fine now that the bullet's out. The bullet in his stomach just missed his major arteries and his kidney and he needed a blood transfusion. He still hasn't woken up yet, but there's still blood in part of his lung." Cathrine was crying again. She tried to continue. "They said if he tried to..... tried to talk, we should get a doctor because...." She was trying frantically to pull herself together. "Because too much exertion could kill him. Once he starts talking, the blood in his lungs will come up and he'll start having convulsions." Greg lifted up his hand and placed it on her arm.

"It's okay Cat. He's gonna be fine. I just wish I could see him." Cathrine looked at her purse then got pictures out of the side part. She handed them to Greg.

"The doctors took pictures for us. Evidence you know." Greg's face went pale, then a little green.

"Oh my God." He said quietly. He had so many cuts and bruises you could barely tell it was Nick. Suddenly Greg went quiet and started to shake. Cathrine called for a doctor.

"You're going to have to leave the room. He's having a seizure." Cathrine left the room and Sara was out in the hall.

"What's going on?"

"Greg's having a seizure." Sara gasped. The women held onto each other. They decided to go back to Nick's room together.

"He looks a little better." Cathrine said, trying to be positive.

"He's still in a coma. They have a tube down his throat to help him breathe." Sara sat down in the chair beside his bed and grabbed onto his hand. Cathrine sat across from her when the doctor that was treating Greg came in.

"His seizure has been calmed. This can sometimes happen after someone has had some sort of head trauma. He won't be awake for a while though." Cathrine nodded her head and the doctor left.

"I'm sorry Cat."

"For what? It wasn't your fault he had a seizure. I shouldn't have shown him the pictures of Nick, but he wanted to see how he was doing but he couldn't leave his room."

"It's okay Cathrine. You did what you thought had to be done. If only Nick would wake up.

As if on cue, Nick's eyes began to flutter open. His hand immediately went to his throat.

"It's okay Nick. It's just a tube. It's helping you breathe." Sara explained gently. Nick lay his head back down on the pillow and looked up at the ceiling. Cathrine had left to tell a doctor that Nick had woken up. She came back a few minutes later with a doctor behind her.

"Okay Mr. Stokes. I'm going to need to breathe out for me." Nick did as he was told and felt something come out of his throat. He was about to cough, but the doctor gave him a shot before he did.

"It's just going to help you. You won't be able to talk for a while and it'll cause extreme pain when you cough." Nick looked at Sara then Cathrine. They both nodded their heads.

Nick began to shut his eyes again when he felt a cough starting to form. He knew from what the doctor had told him that he shouldn't cough, but it was too late. They came out it bursts and then followed by more blood. His chest was constricting every time he coughed. At least three doctors came rushing in, pushing Sara and Cathrine out the door. They raced Nick out of the room, spatters of blood coming out of his mouth and landing on the floor as they went. They took him to the operating room and shut the doors.

Warrick and Grissom had reached their floor when they saw Sara and Cathrine looking at the operating room door.

"What happened?" Warrick asked them. Neither spoke.

"It's Nick. He started coughing and blood just came up. They said they needed to get him to the operating room before his chest constricted any more." Cathrine explained quietly.

"How's Greg?" Grissom asked. Cathrine began to cry.

"He had a seizure and is back in a coma. I showed him..... I showed him the pictures of Nick.... and he..... he just started shaking. I shouldn't have shown him the pictures." Cathrine said crying fully now.

"This week has just went form bad to worse." Warrick stated. They all sat in the waiting room waiting for any sort of news on Greg's or Nick's condition.