Chapter 8

Less than a week later, the doctors decided that Dani was well enough that she could be moved from the hospital to her own home. The doctors were less than willing to let her stay alone, so Nick promised up and down that he would be staying with her, unknown to Dani. She would have asked him anyway, because she was, quite honestly, scared to stay alone, with whoever had shot her still at large.

Half an hour before she would be officially discharged, he disappeared down to his car and drove off, to a destination so far unknown. She watched out of her window, waiting for the familiar SUV to appear, blonde hair tumbling in a frame around her face. She looked much healthier; the IV had been removed and her shoulder and stomach weren't as sore as they were before.

Before she actually saw the car turn in, there was a knock on the door, and she turned, and the doctor at the door held up her clipboard. "Congratulations, Miss. Ryan, you are officially discharged from the hospital and you can go home! Um, your friend Mr. Stokes told me to tell you to wait in front of the front doors." The doctor smiled and moved out of the way of the door, and she walked through gratefully, thanking the doctor sincerely.

She stood outside the front doors of the hospital, in a little grassed area where there were a couple trees growing. Probably some of the few real trees in Las Vegas. She enjoyed the little escape to nature, even if there was concrete only a few feet away. She leaned against the tree, waiting patiently for Nick, mind wandering around. Her eyes wandered around almost as much as her mind, until it landed on the grass at her feet. Suddenly a flash of a memory came back to her, and for once it wasn't a pleasant one and not even about Nick.

Cold grass beneath her back, mind-blowing pain in her shoulder, and her vision was swimming in front of her eyes, but there was a shape…a shadowy shape in front of her, and the glint of a gun. Suddenly a loud exploding noise and a sharp pain in her stomach, but she'd seen the flash of light from the gun…and she'd seen him. A vision out of hell, it seemed, her deliverance to death…

She gasped, holding a hand up to her forehead, closing her eyes, forcing herself to put a vision of him in her head. It had been so unclear before, not even a shadowy figure, and now it was suddenly so clear, like a picture in her mind. Why hadn't she seen it before? Weird how the mind works…

Her impression was that he wasn't very tall, probably shorter than Nick, and she could have sworn she saw a reflection off of glasses or something. She thought she'd seen an outfit that looked...in fact they were the exact clothes she'd seen Nick wear a thousand times. She pressed the heels of her hand into her eyes, trying to think, to visualize.

So intent was she on visualizing, that when someone put a hand on her shoulder, she jumped a full foot backwards, stumbling and falling down, and for a moment she saw, not Nick, but whoever it was who had shot her. Nick immediately knelt next to her, looking right into her terrified eyes.

"Dani? Dani, what is it? What's wrong?" He asked, scared for her, and suddenly it went clear again, and it wasn't the shooter, but Nick once more, and she scrambled to her feet, hugging him for a moment, relieved.

"Nick, Nick, I think…I think I saw him. I saw who it was!" She said, almost unable to believe it herself. "He had glasses, I know that for sure, and he was kind of short…shorter than you for sure…he was wearing clothes that look like yours, the ones you left at my house once, that you picked up later on." Nick eyes had widened, and now were about the size of dinner plates.

"Oh my god…Dani, I never picked up those clothes…oh my god, it can't be…it can't be him…" He grabbed his cell phone, and she latched onto his arm while he pulled her gently to the passenger seat of the car, and she climbed in as he held the phone up to his ear.

"Grissom, I need you to check something for me…you remember Crane? Yes, Nigel Crane, he's still…he's still in jail right?" There was a long pause in which Grissom obviously checked on the computer, and then there was a sharp intake of breath. "How long? Damn it! Griss…I'm coming in. Yes, Dani's coming too, I'm not leaving her alone…yeah, we'll be there in about fifteen minutes." He had already started driving, and Dani was watching him, eyes wide.

"Who's Nigel Crane? What's going on, Nick?" She asked, and Nick glanced at her for a moment, but didn't answer, chewing his bottom lip, obviously stressed out and maybe a bit scared. "Nick?"

"I can't tell you right now, it might not be…it might just be a coincidence…" He said finally, and then continued to chew his bottom lip, swallowing uncomfortably. "Don't worry…even if it is, there's no way he can get to you now…unless…" He trailed off, and she waited for a few minutes, but he never finished that sentence, and she decided not to press him.

Exactly fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the crime lab, and they got out, Nick looking around, as if expecting something to jump out at them any second. As soon as they walked in, Grissom came up to them, frowning deeply.

"Griss, Dani remembers a bit about who shot her, and…the description matches him…" Nick said, and the fear in his voice made Dani look at him, eyes wide, then back at Grissom, obviously getting just a little bit annoyed at being kept in the dark. Grissom frowned, and then motioned for them to follow him. He went into his office and started shifting through his files. Nick put an arm around Dani's shoulders, as if trying to shield her from whoever this Nigel Crane was.

Grissom, having found what he was looking for, held out a picture, which Nick glared at angrily. "Is this who you saw?" Grissom asked Dani, and she took the picture, looking at it, and there was no question. The glasses, the stature, even the hair…it was all as she remembered. She nodded, and Nick swore loudly, running a hand through his hair.

"Grissom, why didn't you ever tell me he was out? How could they let him out? He's a psycho, Griss, and he's obviously still obsessed with me, that's why he's targeting Dani!" Nick said angrily, not caring that this wasn't Grissom's fault. Grissom didn't even react, just blinked at him, then spoke.

"Do you think he's stalking you again? We have to check your attic. Dani, you have to stay here." Grissom said, causing her to immediately start protesting, but he shushed her effectively. "You can't come, you're not technically working here right now…you're still on medical leave…so you have to stay here…or head home. Go hang out with Greg or something." Nick, when she looked at him for support, nodded.

"He's right, Dani, it'll raise a lot of questions…plus it might be dangerous, and I would feel better if you would stay here…" She sighed and nodded, giving him a quick peck on the cheek before heading out into the hall towards Greg's lab, and Nick watched her for a moment before turning back to Grissom, anger sparking in his eyes. "Let's go."

Dani headed into the lab, but found out that Greg was, for once, out in the field doing something, leaving her with nothing to do. Having not grasped that this Nigel person could be anywhere and that he was dangerous, she decided to take a bus to head home, but she'd leave a note for Nick, so that he wouldn't worry when he came back with this Crane person.

Walking out into the street, she waited at the bus stop for about ten minutes, then took a bus ride for about twenty minutes before she got anywhere near her house. She got to her house after about five minutes and fished through her purse until she found her keys, pushing open the door. Feeling exhausted, as it was getting to be late out, she decided to just heat up a frozen dinner to munch on and watch her episodes of Three's Company to relax her mind.

Halfway through heating up the dinner in the microwave, she paused, thinking she heard something. She turned her head nervously, but there was nothing behind her. She looked up to the ceiling, chewing her bottom lip, then decided she was imagining things or that it was a squirrel on the roof or…something. She gulped, turning back to her microwave, which was beeping, showing that the dinner was done.

Taking the dinner out, she walked back into her little living room, and put it onto a small tray, walking over to the T.V, inserting one of DVDs into the player, and grabbing the remote, heading back to the couch. She didn't start it right away, however, again looking up at the ceiling, where she could swear she heard footsteps, but chalked it up to frazzled nerves, turning back to the T.V, preparing to turn it on, when she heard more sounds from up in her attic. Unnerved, she stood up, deciding maybe she should check it out.

Before she even got to the door to the stairs that led to her attic, the door flung open, and a man stumbled out. As he drew his attention to her, she immediately recognized him from both the photo and her own memory. Gulping, she spoke, noticing the gun in his hands, and as nervous as he looked, she had a feeling that was just an outward appearance, considering that he also looked mentally unbalanced, and had already shot her once.

"Nigel Crane, I assume?"

((Dun dun dun! Cliffhangers are just sooo fun, aren't they? I now grin evilly whilst I watch you die from suspense!! XD Also, I need some opinions. Should I have it extremely tragic (As in Character Death), just a little bit tragic (extremely, extremely close to death wound), or not at all tragic (Maybe a broken limb or something…) XD Anyway, opinions please, or I won't be able to write a new chapter! Muhahahahaha!))