Privacy by SLynn
Disclaimer: It's all mine, because yeah, this is what I'd do with my free time if I actually owned these characters.
Chapter 31: It's Over
They'd all but forgotten she was there. Sara had watched the entire interview with Greg from behind the glass. She'd heard it all and never doubted the truth of it. She watched as Grissom left and then came back in again. As he and Brass grew more detailed with their questions and she couldn't help but be proud of how Greg held his own. He was direct with his answers without being rude and gave all the details they needed without going overboard, a first for him.
Another hour passed when she heard commotion in the hall. She peaked out, curious at the exchange, when she saw her. Ortega was being led in by Officer Peters. She slammed the door so loudly that the three men inside the interrogation room flinched. Grissom, remembering her now, got to his feet in a hurry but Brass beat him there.
He got to Sara before she could do anything career ending. Restrained her, pulling her back before she'd had a chance to lay a hand on Ortega. He'd never seen her so mad. Brass had to physically put himself between the two.
"I'm the victim here Sidle," Ortega practically spat out. Peters was now holding on to her as firmly as Brass had Sara.
"Not yet but you will be."
"Did you hear that?" she directed at Brass, "She threatened me."
"I didn't hear anything," Brass returned as Peters led her off to the waiting room.
Brass looked at Sara, waiting for her to calm down. She glared at Ortega the entire time until well after she was out of view. Jaw set.
"Sara," Brass started.
She pulled her arm out of his grasp.
"I'm fine."
"You've got to calm down," he instructed, "No one thinks Greg did this. Okay?"
Sara nodded too angry to speak. Grissom, who'd watched the exchange from a distance, didn't know the right thing to say any more then Brass did. All he could do for her, for all of them now was piece together the evidence.
Hours had passed without any word. It was growing lighter outside and still Dr. Greene hadn't returned. Catherine joined them just after five in the morning. She let them know everything she knew about what had happened. By then she'd learned Greg's version of events, confirming everything Amy and Warrick had felt. She also told them about Danny Foster's DNA match and that both he and Ortega were in for questioning now. Warrick heard it all with optimism, but Amy couldn't join in. She felt so detached.
At a quarter to six they finally got news.
"The procedure took longer then expected," Dr. Greene admitted straight away, "we had some unforeseen complications. There was some internal bleeding, apart from the artery, which had to be fixed. He had a few more broken bones then expected and some torn tendons but all in all, it went well."
Catherine let out a sigh of relief.
"His arm will be in a sling for about six weeks and he'll need some physical therapy. That and some bed rest and he should recover fully."
"Thank you so much," Catherine said again. Warrick and Amy were past words. "Can we see him?"
Dr. Greene smiled and nodded at them as she turned to lead the way.
"He should be up soon," she said stopping at his door, "The anesthetic was fairly heavy so he may not remember much at first or know exactly where he is."
She left them to enter when they felt like it. When they felt ready, but for Amy she didn't think that time would come.
Catherine made the first move. She opened the door and looked inside.
Nick was still sleeping. His left arm was in a sling, the most they could do to immobilize it for now and his right hooked up to an IV.
Catherine stepped inside followed closely by Warrick and then Amy.
Seeming to sense the movement in the room, Nick's eyes began to flutter.
"What happened?" he asked setting eyes first on Catherine who was the nearest.
"How much do you remember?" she asked concerned but still doing her job.
"Not much," he admitted.
"Try and remember. It's important."
"Okay, well we were at the scene," he started. His voice was rough, a side effect of the general given him, "Jensen got called away. Greg needed batteries. No, wait, I needed batteries he just went to get them. He was gone a long time so I went to see where he'd gotten too. When I got up the hill I couldn't see him, someone had left their lights on, but he wasn't alone. I heard a voice but I don't know…"
Nick stopped, trying to remember it but having little success.
"I don't know what she said."
"So it was a woman?" Catherine asked, trying hard not to lead him.
"Yeah, it was. It sounded familiar. It sounded almost like Ortega."
Nick stopped as if it really dawned on him, at least in part.
"Greg?" he asked, "What happened to Greg?"
Catherine saw how worried he was and wasted no time assuring him that Greg was healthy and should be in to see him soon. Relieved Nick seemed to realize that it wasn't just him and Cath in the room.
"So did I get shot or what?" he asked Warrick.
He grinned back at him.
"Yeah you did. Fell down that hill too. Hope it knocked some sense into you."
"I wouldn't count on it."
Warrick laughed, glad to see Nick still had his sense of humor. Nick smiled too, but it faded on seeing Amy. She looked so scared.
"Why don't we," Catherine started indicating the door. She walked over to Warrick and practically pushed him out of the room, exiting herself, without finishing her statement.
Nick continued to look at Amy for several uneasy moments.
"I'd come over to you but I can't," he finally said.
She let out strangled laugh before crossing the room to stand beside him. He gently took her hand in his good one, running his thumb across her fingers.
"I don't know what to say," she finally managed, tears in her eyes as she looked down at their hands. "I thought I wasn't going to see you again."
Nick wanted to tell her he'd thought the same thing. When it happened, when he felt himself falling backwards in a blinding pain, that was his last thought. Her. She was the only person that had come to mind. It was on his lips now but she spoke again before he had the chance.
"Look at me," she said starting to wipe the tears off her cheeks, "You're okay and I'm crying which makes no sense because you're okay. And now I can't stop. I'm not emotionally equipped to handle these situations Nick."
"Come here," he implored. "Please."
She sat down gingerly beside him on the bed and leaned in till their foreheads touched. Using his hand he pushed her hair back out of her face before resting it on the back of her neck. Nick gently rubbed the skin just below her hair line and the last of her tears fell as she looked in his eyes.
"I love you so much," he whispered.
Nick kissed her quickly once then once more.
"I love you too," she returned before exchanging his kiss for one of her own.
"Have a seat," Brass instructed Danny Foster.
The man was in his late thirties, balding and looked scared stupid.
"We have a few questions to ask you about your ex-wife Diane Ortega."
"Is she okay?"
"She's fine," Brass assured him. "Although she did have a little altercation tonight."
"But she's okay?"
Brass nodded and gave Grissom a quick glance.
"Did it happen in the field?" he continued to ask, he sounded agitated, "Because she's an attractive lady and I always warned her about working out in this city. Not that she ever listened to me."
"Do you still talk to her, regularly?"
"We're on good terms."
"Good. That's always good."
He paused here and pulled out some papers from a file, scanned them briefly before looking back up to Danny.
"You were still together when she applied for the position here at the lab, right? The one as a crime scene investigator."
He nodded now, tapping his fingers as he did so.
"How'd she take getting passed over again? We looked it up; it was the fourth time it had happened. Fourth time passed over."
"She wasn't that happy about it, but then she made detective so she felt vindicated."
"You ever work with electronics why you were in the lab?"
"Sometimes. Mostly I did ballistics but occasionally I worked in the tech lab."
"I'm sure you've heard that two of our CSI's here had their home robbed a few weeks ago."
It wasn't a question but Danny nodded along as if he'd been asked.
"Funny thing is, we found your DNA there, in their home. Now we've talked to them both and they've never seen you before in their lives. How do you suppose that your DNA and that of your ex-wife ended up in that house?"
"That's got to be a mistake," Danny Foster stammered, "There's no way…"
"You know how DNA evidence works. You've seen it before. It's no mistake."
Danny ran a hand over his forehead, his left hand.
"Hold it," Grissom said walking over, "Can I see your hand again please?"
Danny held out his right one for inspection and Grissom smiled at him faintly.
"The other one."
Reluctantly he did and clear as day both of them could see the scrapes.
"Looks like you've taken a beating," Grissom observed, "or given one."
Grissom joined Greg and Sara behind the glass not long after Danny Foster gave a full confession.
Before they'd split he'd set up the surveillance wire in one of the SUVs held in the garage. It was his idea and his attempt to keep his then wife happy. He thought if he'd helped her prove Greg's incompetence, she'd stay. It hadn't worked but they continued to tape conversations and review them nearly daily.
After the Fenton case, Ortega saw her chance to use the press to do her dirty work. She approached Mitch Anderson and fed him tapes and photos when convenient. Also told him about higher profile cases she knew Greg was working. But this and her own in-office smear campaign hadn't worked as well as she'd planned and she'd grown more and more frustrated.
Danny insisted that it was her idea to plant the camera and that she'd been the one to attack Greg in his home. She knew he'd be there, they'd both been suspended, but she didn't care. Her only goal was to get him fired even though she no longer wanted the job herself.
Danny Foster described her as obsessed. She hated Greg Sanders. It was all she talked about at home and eventually what broke up their marriage, not that he didn't still help her or stop loving her.
That night, fuming that Sanders had once more gotten a second chance, she listened in to where he and Stokes would be. Knowing it was the perfect chance, she begged Danny to help. He did by roughing her up. He didn't know the details of her plan but they didn't need that. Greg had already related it.
He was placed under arrest shortly there after and so was Diane Ortega.
She'd denied everything continuously, refusing to make a statement, but they didn't need that now. Catherine had returned at this point and with Nick's account it was all complete.
It was over.
A/N: Yeah I know, we all knew it was Ortega. Man I suck at setting up a reasonable second! I tried harder this time but it was easy to eliminate Betty and Mitch (the scum bucket); now I'm determined to fool someone in my next fic! BTW – I've still got a wrap up chapter after this one. It's not over yet.