A/N Breathe everyone, breathe. Yes, I've updated. My apologies for the delay, life is… well I'm very busy so I hope you can all forgive me. I hope you all enjoy this chapter; you can let me know just how much by reviewing! Thanks once again, beautiful betas Amorith and Ash.
Thursday - Day 5, 19.13
The sun had already set behind the tree-lined horizon, making Sara's return journey a slower one. As it began to get darker and darker, she began to panic that she was going in the wrong direction and wouldn't be able to find Grissom again. When she reached the place she had left him in, and realized he wasn't there, she felt an incredible loss and worry engulf her. Where was he? Had he been captured and kidnapped or had he simply gone on to warn Greg and Catherine ahead of her? Was she even at the right tree? She forced her insecurities away and took a deep breath. She was at the right tree, she knew that. Was she expected to wait for him? She looked around at the growing darkness and shivered involuntarily. Stuff that, she thought and shook her head. She got her bearings and started off towards where she knew her camp to be.
Nick and Warrick stood as close to the Toronto camp as they dared, both shivering from the cold and feeling anxious. They had let Hapner go in alone, deciding to trust him to bring them back a couple of treasures. After they had them, the plan was a little foggy. It involved running – and lots of it, but that was as far as they had gotten.
It was completely dark now, and Hapner had been gone a while. Nick had begun to fidget and shuffle his feet in an attempt to get warm while Warrick blew on his hands and kept crouching down and standing up again.
"What do you think? You think he's made us?" Nick whispered finally.
"I don't know," Warrick replied honestly and then jumped a little as he heard a branch crack not too far away.
Nick had heard it too and turned abruptly towards the sound. "I don't like this, man," he said quietly, "I feel exposed waiting around like this."
Warrick couldn't agree more, but he couldn't think of any other way. If they were going to win this game, they had to take risks – and tonight was full of them.
To his relief, the familiar voice of Hapner whispered through the air, "It's me – where are you?"
Instead of answering verbally, Warrick cleared his throat and heard the light shuffle of feet coming in their direction. Hapner appeared to be alone.
"Okay," he whispered when he finally reached them, "Some one must have taken the flag down after I was taken away by you guys, but I brought an extra treasure – is that good enough?"
Nick couldn't help the grin that appeared on his face, but since they were in almost complete darkness it didn't matter.
"Let's see them, Mr Hapner," Warrick said pompously.
Hapner crouched down on the ground and began to take out various possessions from his pockets. "Here we have the wind chime, you only gave us this because it was noisy didn't you? And the, er, Shakespeare play – what was the idea behind that? Anyways, I also brought one of the water bottles and the rope."
Warrick and Nick reached for the treasures and a twig snapped somewhere near to them.
All three of them turned around, trying to ascertain where the noise came from. Nick was immediately nervous and began to fight the urge he had to simply run away as fast as he could. Warrick, on the other hand, was suspicious. He looked at Hapner's small smile in the glint of the moonlight and scowled.
"We told you not to tell anyone," he rumbled in a low voice.
Hapner smirked widely, "Wouldn't you?"
Warrick grabbed the treasures in front of him, cursing at the noisy wind chime as he thrust it into Nick's hands and stood up quickly. Nick didn't need telling – he ran, Warrick not far behind.
The river was penetratingly cold and Sara had to use all her will power in order to make herself enter it. It wouldn't have been half as bad if she was able to take a big running leap and belly flop into it, thus getting the pain over and done with in one single moment, but the noise it would have produced made Sara uneasy about alerting the enemy spies who were lurking somewhere nearby. So Sara had to grit her teeth and bear with the agonizingly slow process of inching into the water. When she finally made it to the middle of the river, she was pleasantly surprised that there was a slight current in the water pulling her gently towards her camp. All she would have to do was lay back, keep afloat and wait for her cave to come into view.
It didn't take long for Sara to realize that the current in the water was stronger and faster than she had first thought, for it was only about ten minutes later that she realised the cave was a few yards away. Navigating her way across the water, she managed to come to a stop just outside the mouth of the hollow they'd been living out of.
Catherine jumped so high she was in danger of hitting the roof of the cave with her head. "Sara!" she breathed out as the waterlogged figure of the brunette emerged from the water. Catherine quickly came to her senses and reached into one of the hastily packed backpacks for a blanket to drape around her shoulders.
Sara was shivering – the cold and excitement sending non-stop vibrations through her lanky frame. She grinned at Catherine and thanked her before darting her eyes around the rest of the cave. She relaxed considerably when she saw Grissom walking towards her, arms outstretched. For a moment, she thought he was going to pull her into a hug and display some affection in front of Catherine and Greg, but the most he did was grab her shoulders and ask her if she was okay.
"I'm fine – where were you? I thought you were going to wait for me? I didn't know what had happened Grissom!" Her tone wasn't accusatory, but it depicted her worry well enough.
"I know I'm sorry," Grissom sighed and let his hands drop to his sides, "I saw they were going to move in and I couldn't just sit there and watch… I thought you'd come back with Warrick and Nick – what happened?"
Sara explained what had happened with Nick and Warrick as the four of them sat down and waited. Everything had been packed up and waterproofed as best as possible, now all they had to do was wait for the rest of their team to arrive before they were raided.
It was unnerving, sitting there in the quiet simply waiting to be invaded. Obviously the enemy team wouldn't hurt them, although Grissom was sure things would get physical once they started happening.
"What's taking them so long?" Greg finally asked no one in particular.
Sara shook her head, "I don't know."
Catherine sighed nervously and darted her eyes outside the cave for the 20th time in a minute.
"You thinking something Cat?" Sara asked, watching her.
Catherine nodded, "We should leave here, take our treasures down the river – one of us can stay here and wait for Nick and Warrick but it's just too dangerous sitting around and waiting."
Grissom nodded his agreement, "I think you're right, who wants to stay?"
"Wait a minute," Sara said anxiously, "If someone stay's and the other team do come in here – they're going to be taken for sure. They'll be taken and then Nick and Warrick will turn up to an empty cave and have no idea where any of us are."
It was a predicament – a problem with no right answer and the four CSI's looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Grissom for his say. He always hated being supervisor – why was everything immediately his decision? But then Greg spoke up.
"I'll stay – I'll take cover in the bushes just outside the cave and wait for Nick and Warrick. You guys go down the river until you reach this spot here," he pulled out a map and pointed to a place along the river. "This is just before the rapids get pretty nasty and it's also fairly close to the pick up zone we have to get to the day after tomorrow."
"Greggy…" Catherine started but stopped at the determined look he gave her.
"Trust me, we'll be okay," he said.
"Greg are you sure?" Grissom asked, studying the younger man for any signs of false bravado.
Greg looked back at Grissom, slightly impatient, "Yes. Now go on before this team raids us already!"
They all stood up and began to move the packs into the water. They had tied them all together so that there wasn't any chance of one floating away by itself. Once they had loaded everything into the water, Grissom, Catherine and Sara made sure that Greg was well hidden inside the bushes close to their cave entrance. Finally, it was time to depart. Grissom gave Greg a pat on the shoulder and began to sink slowly into the water, gasping a little at the icy temperature.
Sara kissed him on the cheek and winked at him, "See you soon Greggo."
Catherine gave him a warm hug and whispered something in his ear that made him blush and dart his eyes towards Sara before disappearing into the shrub again.
"Lets go," Catherine whispered to Sara and the two of them made their way into the river.
Grissom was already in the middle with the packs, which were floating just below the surface of the water.
Catherine and Sara reached out to grab the packs and together the three of them began floating soundlessly down the river.
Warrick galloped blindly through the forest, jumping logs and jerking suddenly away from the trees that loomed up at him when he was barely a foot away. He could hear Nick behind him, puffing and gasping almost as loudly as he was. He could also hear the clanking of the wind chimes Nick carried and the occasional shouting of directions from their close followers. Occasionally, a beam from a flashlight would pass in front of him and catch his eye making him jerk in the opposite direction. The Toronto team seemed to be everywhere.
He knew he was going gradually towards the river – but it was taking an incredibly long time. In the back of his mind, Warrick knew that running straight for the river was a bad idea and that once they reached the cool and murky water they wouldn't be able to get away from their hunters. They had to lose them before they reached the river; otherwise they risked exposing the whole Vegas team to the chase and ruining any chance of a silent escape.
Grasping the treasures he held more tightly, Warrick surged forward.
Behind him, Nick grunted. He was easily a faster runner than Warrick was so keeping up with the man in front of him was no problem. It was a problem when Warrick suddenly shifted directions unexpectedly, causing Nick to jar his ankles in order to follow him or smash his shoulder into the trunk of a tree if he wasn't quick enough to move.
Nick was well aware of the time it was taking them to get back to the rest of the group. The few treasures that the two of them held would be worth next to nothing if their camp was raided before they had a chance to leave. Nick hated the thought that they might be hanging around waiting for him and Warrick and putting the team's chances of winning in jeopardy. He hoped that they'd worked out a way to get the treasures out of the cave and into safety.
Soon the shouting voices around them had faded into nothing and the lights from the flashlights were long gone. Warrick felt himself slowing down and gradually came to a stop, gulping the fresh night air into his lungs. He turned and saw that Nick was doing the same and gave his friend and tired but genuine grin.
"That was… intense," he breathed out and looked around them.
Nick swallowed deeply and nodded, grinning boyishly back, "You can say that again!"
Warrick breathed out a sigh and squinted into the darkness, "Which way do you think the river is?"
Nick raised his eyebrows, "You don't know? You were navigating I thought you had it under control?"
"I do bro, I just wanted to make sure," Warrick said.
"Okay," Nick sighed and looked around, "For some reason I'm thinking that way," he pointed to his left and looked at Warrick.
Warrick grinned, "Not bad Stokes, not bad," he slapped Nick on the shoulder and started walking in the direction Nick was pointing. "You noticed we were gradually going up hill then?"
Nick started to follow his companion, "My calves noticed," he winced and bent down to rub the lower half of his left leg before straightening up again and jogging off after Warrick.
TBC