Step One
He felt like a spy.
His clothes were dark, and he felt the strangely unfamiliar weight of a gun at his hip. It wasn't that it'd been so long, what with his recovery, that he hadn't had a gun at his side. It was more that now Nick had it as an intimidating and aggressive force—not the backup precaution.
Paige seemed unaffected by their objective. Her weapons (yes, there were more than one) just added to her confidence and steeled her resolve. She too was dressed darkly, even her gloved hands. Her fingers gripped tighter at the steering wheel as she turned the car and stopped outside a skyscraper.
Nick gulped, and stared up at the tall glass structure.
"So this is it," he said to fill the silence. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Paige nod.
"You sure you're still up for this?" she asked. Her eyes flickered to his chest. It'd taken them a couple of days to lay low and strategize, and that'd help Nick. But he wasn't as strong as he used to be, and that worried him.
It worried Paige too. But Nick nodded anyway.
"What's the signal again?" he asked.
She simply put her hands on her hips.
Paige stalked up to the building, not even hesitating at the doors as she charged in with attitude and ego. Nick watched, his chest tight with remnants of pain and anxiety.
He glanced at his watch, and then jogged to a side entrance. As he neared it, he pulled a baseball cap tighter over his head. Surveillance here was not to be underestimated, and even though Paige's strategy wasn't about discretion, he wanted to be a little hidden.
As soon as he was inside, Nick's eyes followed the stairs as they switch-backed up for at least forty floors. Nick tried not to feel weak at the sight of it all.
He trotted up three floors before cutting inside to an elevator. Nick kept his head low, his eyes to the ground.
The elevator rose quickly to the 48th floor. Nick skipped it and rose to the 49th floor, where he got out. He quickly moved left, following a mental schematic.
He hoped Paige was all right.
He also hoped she was just right. About all of this.
Two hours later
"What now?" Catherine asked tiredly of Grissom. No one wanted another case, even though they officially weren't busy otherwise. Sara and Greg sat at the breakroom table next to her, both looking helplessly dejected.
Grissom wasn't thwarted by this.
"Warrick and I just got back from that homicide downtown," he said. In his hands were three surveillance tapes. "I want the three of you to go over these." He went to hand them to Catherine, but stopped mid-air. "You're not going to like what you see."
Something about the warning made Catherine freeze. Beside her, Sara and Greg sat up straight.
"Okay," she answered slowly.
They were all uptight as the videos queued up. The first tape was labeled '48th floor hallway.'
The time code read 8:03 pm, and as it sped past that, the scene remained the same. The hallway was empty, until 8:34 pm.
A lone dark figure emerged from the stairwell. The person, someone with a smaller build, swayed confidently down the hallway. Judging by the long hair, the woman slowed down for a moment, then picked up her pace again.
The three CSIs scooted closer to the big screen display. Greg zoomed in on the woman's face.
"Paige Landry," Sara said aloud.
Paige charged ahead into a large room, disappearing from the camera's view.
"Switch tapes," Catherine barked. Greg scrambled for the next tape. The two left were labeled 'Executive Office lobby' and '49th floor hallway.'
He held them up for Catherine to see.
"Which one?"
Nick's heart raced as he made his way through the hallway. This floor was different from all the others. Instead of large offices across from the elevators, Nick saw a balcony.
He swallowed and went out on it. There wasn't much room to move around, just enough space for a few tables and chairs. But he was more concerned with the other side of the balcony.
Something about him . . .
Sara narrowed her eyes at the new figure on the tape of the 49th floor hallway.
"Is that . . ." she trailed off. Greg started to nod as the man stared over the balcony and down at the 48th floor roof.
"The jaw is the same," he said. His eyes never left the screen.
"Nick," Catherine said, and it almost commanded them to just be quiet and watch.
If it was him, Nick suddenly pressed against a corner, as if he were hiding. And then he just waited, his eyes glued to the 48th floor's roof.
"What's he looking at?" Greg asked.
Sara leaned forward. "Grissom mentioned that the scene had a sun roof."
"So Nick's looking down on it," Catherine filled in.
The question they all had now was why.
He could hear Paige, already in the room, facing Them. He glanced down at them all. Paige and the three other men in the room stood tensely around a large wood conference table.
The room was dim, but even so, Nick could see how on edge Paige was. She shouted something at them, and through the glass sun roof, Nick could understand bits and pieces.
Sara paused the tape of Nick, and put in the tape of the office lobby. The angle shown wasn't the best, but it showed an open door to the murder scene.
"Match up the time codes," Catherine said. "Play them side by side."
"You knew what you signed up for."
One of the men facing Paige smirked at her, and something about it made Nick mad. He felt his fist tighten, but he willed himself to just stay still until Paige gave him a signal.
"Yes I did," Paige said. "And I know what actually happened. You tricked me."
The men just scoffed. "You were too eager to care."
Paige glared at them and crossed her arms in front of her. "Maybe be I was then. But not anymore."
"Oh yes," said one of them. Paige probably knew who each was and what role they played, but Nick just leaned closer to the glass to make out all the words. "I think 'not anymore' started with the jail assignment."
"No," Paige quickly interrupted. "It started when you wanted me to kill someone good. Innocent."
The three men looked to one another, looks of disbelief and mockery on their faces. Before they could ridicule her, Paige pressed on.
"You told me reasons why people needed to be eliminated before," she said. "And I believed it all. But I couldn't buy your justification on Nick."
"Oh, it's Nick now?" one chided. "No longer just an assignment, no longer 'Mr. Stokes'?"
"You said you were strictly thinking of the assignment when you said not to eliminate him," another one said. "I guess you lied."
Paige's eyes narrowed dangerously at them all. "You taught me how." She suddenly dropped her hands to her sides, just hanging but stiff. "I want you to leave him alone. Me too."
She waited for some sort of reaction, positive or negative, but the three men just stared at her. And suddenly, they were laughing.
From Nick's view, it wasn't something humorous. The tone was mean, challenging.
And Paige reacted to it.
Paige had been arguing with a few men. Greg couldn't see who they were or how many, but from that open doorway shown in the surveillance tape, he could tell there were three or four of them. They faced Paige, and judging by Paige's body language, the conversation was escalating.
Greg watched the tapes alongside Sara and Catherine. On another screen, Nick was poised above the sunroof, just waiting. He seemed to jump up as Paige placed her hands on her hips.
Suddenly Nick drew his gun and fired a shot at the sunroof. Paige simultaneously lunged for a concealed weapon and then both screens lit up with gunfire and glass as Nick plunged through the shattered sunroof and down into the room with Paige and the men they faced.
Looking back on it, it was quite stupid that he, the injured and recovering one, had been sent in to literally crash the party. When Nick landed, he felt jarring impact through his legs and up to his chest. It wasn't even that far, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt.
Nick quickly shook off the glass and staggering he felt. His entrance had provided the distraction Paige needed, the edge to send the enemy off balance, even if just for a second. Nick got to his feet as the men drew weapons of their own.
The shots were loud, and each one made Nick's heart skip a beat. Or maybe they fueled his pace. Adrenaline fed his body strength and reaction time. He whipped around and fired four shots defensively at the men, all the while hearing the echo of Paige's shots.
Two of the men were down, but the third lunged at Nick. He rammed into him, and Nick gasped at the impact. Instinctively, he shut his eyes as they both flew back onto the floor.
Sara's jaw dropped as Nick and one of the men wrestled on the floor. Her heart rammed against her chest, threatening to explode with the suspense. The man was on top and punched Nick in the stomach.
Sara cringed as Nick recoiled. But Nick didn't give up easily. He pushed against the man, sending him off balanced. And then Paige stepped in.
Catherine almost jumped as Paige fired at the man attacking Nick. The man fell to the floor instantly. He wasn't dead though. His body moved slightly. Nick slowly got to his feet, his eyes wide and his mouth open in shock.
The three CSIs stared as Paige stepped closer to the fallen man. A gun hung by her side, almost limply in her hand. She seemed impassive as she straightened her arm and fired.
"No," Sara whispered at the screen.
Nick recoiled and seemed to yell when the shot went off. His eyes were wide as he stared at the now dead man and then at Paige.
She went to him, and helped him steady himself on his feet. Without saying a word, she stalked out the door, leaving Nick to follow. Her gun was clearly visible and in hand as she led the way out.
Nick hesitated before following her. He seemed to look at the man who'd been shot, point-blank. And then slowly, as if defeated himself, Nick left the crime scene.
Catherine stopped the tapes.
No one spoke as they reflected on what they'd seen. No one knew what to say. It seemed like no one knew what to do either.
So they just sat, facing blank TV screens as the images replayed graphically in their minds.
a/n: I tried to make this a bit split-viewed, if you couldn't tell. I hope I didn't confuse you all with the switchbacks. Enjoy!