a/n: thanks so much for your patience. It's been a very hectic week, but I finally found time to get this out. I'll continue as soon as I can.

Unaware

Nick had never been so confused in his life.

He wanted to believe Paige. Really. But past experience told him not to. Or maybe he did believe her.

But he was still in danger, and being near her emphasized how precarious of a situation he was in. Paige Landry. Her name seemed so good-girlish, and yet Nick felt safer with a thousand tigers.

He sighed as he pulled on a pair of pants. Paige had offered to help him get dressed, and even though it might have spared him some pain, Nick wasn't about to get that friendly again with her. He bit his lip to keep back a groan as he went for a shirt.

Nick wondered if he should run. He was alone for the moment, though Paige was waiting just outside the door. He knew Grissom and everyone would know he's gone, and he wondered if they would worry.

Of course they'd worry! Nick's eyes glanced at a phone in the corner of the room. With his eyes on the door, Nick picked up the phone and dialed a number he knew well.

Catherine watched from one of the labs as Grissom paced around his office. He had that intense look of thought on his face, combined with worry Catherine had never seen so deep in her friend.

It wasn't just concern. Grissom was anxious. He wrung his hands as he paced, and then suddenly stopped wringing his hands as he realized how outwardly frazzled he was acting.

Catherine smiled sadly at him. It was endearing to see that Grissom cared so much about Nick, and probably just as much about any of them. It was just too bad that it took Nick's near assassinations and kidnapping to realize it.

Grissom suddenly stopped pacing as his phone rang. Catherine watched with mild interest as he picked it up.

The next thing she knew, Grissom was almost yelling into the phone.

"Where are you!"

Catherine darted for Gil's office, with Sara on her heels. Gil just listened and stared ahead at nothing.

"Nick, where are you?" Grissom repeated. Catherine felt her heart lurch. She moved for the phone, and hit the speaker button.

"—know, but I'm here with Paige."

It was Nick!

"Nick, are you in any danger?" Grissom asked. Catherine's immediately thought was a resounding 'Yes!!' Nick started to answer when suddenly they all heard a shout in the background.

"Are you crazy?!" Suddenly the phone line was smothered, and Catherine stiffened as she heard a struggle on the other end of the line.

"Nick!" she called out. The line crackled until it died, and then the haunting sound of an empty dial tone filled the room.

Catherine and Grissom stared at each other, and Sara just looked shattered as she stared at the phone.

"No."

Grissom shook his head and swore under his breath.

"We had him!" he shouted to anyone who would hear. Sara fell back into a chair, her eyes never leaving the phone.

"Maybe he'll call back," she whispered with trace amounts of hope. She finally looked to her boss and to Catherine. Catherine couldn't utter a word, but she felt the devastating jolt when Grissom just shook his head.

They had him, and now he was gone.

Paige stomped on the phone, then proceeded to rip the phone cord from the wall. Her eyes were dark and wide when she looked at him, and Nick felt himself recoil.

"Nick, you can't just make a call," she said as she crunched the phone's remains beneath her shoe. "You'll get us killed."

"How?" Nick managed to say. He clutched at his chest and stepped back, away from Paige. She just closed the distance between them, and grabbed Nick by the shoulders.

"You still don't get it," she said, her tone suddenly low and barely controlled. She kept moving forward, forcing Nick back until the back of his knees hit against the couch. He fell to the cushions, clutching his chest again. "You don't get how powerful they are. They have everyone's phones tapped!"

"I called Grissom's office," Nick responded feebly. "It's a secure facility."

"No, it's not," Paige said. "I got in there, no problems."

The memory of that flashed in his mind, and suddenly Nick felt just as angry and hurt as he did then.

"Yes. How could I forget?" Nick started sarcastically. "You threatened to kill me!" She just rolled her eyes.

"You know my reasons then," she said. "We've been over this."

Nick let out a loud and frustrated sigh.

"No, not really," Nick said. He was tired of the cryptic answers, and even the more clear ones he'd gotten. He was tired of this mess. "Who are you?! One moment you're telling me everything, being vulnerable and sweet, and the next moment you're freaking out!"

She rolled her eyes again and jabbed a finger at his chest. Nick winced and tried not to grunt at all, even though such a small gesture hurt.

"I was a fool to think you'd ever understand," she said. She whirled away from him, and the two of them let a tense silence fill the air.

Nick chewed at his lip for a second. "Look." He paused and ran a hand through his short hair. "I appreciate you . . . intervening, or whatever. But I think we should stay away from each other." As soon as he said it, he felt even more tense. His stomach twisted in knots, and he knew he'd said the wrong thing. Not just for her to hear, but something he didn't want to happen.

Her anger vanished and was replaced by a sad fear. Something inside Nick tugged at him, told him she didn't care about the danger, didn't care about the inconvenience she'd caused him.

She cared for him, even though it was bizarre and dangerous for them both. And now, she was afraid he really wanted nothing to do with her.

Nick feared he would give into the instinct of survival to leave the disaster in Paige behind. She stared at him, her eyes boring into his.

And then she closed the distance between them again, letting her body collide against his even though it hurt like hell. Nick fell back on the couch, lying down as Paige covered his lips with hers.

As she devoured him, Nick tried not to wince, but the pressure on his chest hurt too much. Finally he pushed her away, gasping out in pain. Paige quickly sat back as a wave of pain went through him. Nick closed his eyes, as if it would help shield him from the pain, but it didn't work.

"Nick, are you okay?"

He just shook his head—anything else would have hurt too much. Nick was too involved in his own pain to sense what Paige was going through.

Or rather, what she noticed.

Paige quickly got to her feet, her ears almost perked up as she listened to the stillness around them. She put a hand over Nick's mouth, and he almost yelled at her.

But her face was stone. She was serious, and ready. Her posture transformed, as did her body language and attitude.

Suddenly she darted across the room and dug something from under an end table. Nick's eyes widened when he saw it was a gun.

And just as she had it cocked and ready to go, someone burst through the window behind Nick.