Chapter Twenty Eight

"What the hell happened? Is he okay?" Grissom asked frantically. Nick, who was completely red in the face from panicking so much, was waiting outside of Greg's room.

"I...I don't know! He had woken up, said a few words, then just started screaming like he was in pain, and I was in the room the entire time! Oh God, this is all my fault, oh God." Nick exclaimed.

"Hey, hey, it's not your fault, it's okay, Greg's gonna be fine." Catherine soothed Nick. Then, the doctor came out of Greg's room, looking tired and disheveled.

"Doc, is Greg okay?" Nick asked, his eyes begging for some good news.

"For now...Mr. Sanders has settled, but we can e sure that there will be many more of these reactions." Dr. Pearson sighed.

"Mr. Grissom gave me a list of all the chemicals in Greg's body. Now, over the past few hours, we have had many of the top scientists try to...recreate the poison so that afterwards, we would have a bigger chance of creating an antidote that would work. We have discovered how to create to poison."

"That's great! And the antidote?" Sara exclaimed.

"However, we have not figured that out yet...the antidote is much harder to create since there are so many alternatives...we have tried many formulas, many mixtures! But...what I am trying to say is that it could take us weeks until we can create the cure."

"And Greg doesn't have weeks..." Catherine whispered in horror.

"Exactly...we have examined the poison thoroughly, and now we know what to expect."

"And what's that?" Grissom asked.

"Having frequent seizures if just one of the effects...Greg's heart could suddenly stop beating, his lungs can suddenly contract for a long time, and he wouldn't be able to breathe. The poison inside of him may burn up his nerves, or make his body lethargic while his pulse is sky rocketing! And last of all...Greg's organs, all of them, can shut down in the span of only a few minutes, and he would undoubtedly die." Nick's eyes brimmed with tears.

"This can't be happening."

"What can you do for him now?" Grissom asked.

"We will do anything to keep him alive, but the most Greg has is...three, four days, until his systems will shut down."

"Dr. Jack Pearson, please report to the lobby, Dr. Jack Pearson, please report to the lobby." The hospital echoed with the nurse's request from the PA system. Dr. Pearson frowned, and excused himself, hurrying away.

"We need...we need to catch them both, Gris, we really do." Nick's voice broke with determination. Grissom nodded, pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly, and sighed.

"Do we have any leads on where Johnson and O'Reilly is?" No one said anything.

"So we have absolutely no idea where they are?! Come on, people, snap out of it, and think! Greg is depending on us!" Grissom exclaimed.

"Sara and I will go back to the lab, and check the phone message again for any other background noises that we may have missed." Catherine stated rather timidly. Grissom nodded, and the women left quickly.

"Okay guys, let's recap. So Nikki wants revenge on Greg."

"Because his dad supposedly killed Nikki's mom." Nick said.

"Right, so she teams up with the 'dynamic duo', thinking she could use them to kill Greg, kills Crane, and supposedly falls in love with Johnson. They go to Miami for a year and a half, creates a new torture poison,"

"They poison an innocent man to test it, then cure him, and came back here to poison Greg." Warrick finished.

"So where could they be? Two criminals returning from Miami? Hotels? Abandoned warehouses? The bar?" Nick wondered.

At the same time, Grissom's phone rang, and he answered, clearly annoyed.

"Grissom." Then, a moment later, Grissom's eyes widened slightly.

"All right, we'll be right down." Grissom said, and he hung up.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"You did the whole 'wide eyes, dropped mouth' thing when something shocking happens."

"They found Nikki O'Reilly's body outside the hospital, by the road."

TBC...