Chapter 5:

They arrived at the scene and were shocked at the site in front of them. All they could see was metal upon metal, twenty five cars piled on top of one another. It looked like every ambulance in the state was here to help out. As the four CSI's looked over the mess of cars, one in particular caught Nicks eye. He didn't know how he saw it but under three cars was Hailey's Mustang. Nick charged for the officer that was standing by. "The girl in the Mustang, did you get her out?" He asked.

"Sir, you have to step back. We're doing the best we can." The officer said.

"Fuck that. Did you get her out." He said grabbing the officers collar. Warrick grabbed Nick and pulled him back. "No," he said trying to get Warrick off.

"I don't know sir."

Another officer came over to control the situation. "What's going on here."

"I want to know about the girl in the Mustang. The car is over there, under those ones." he said pointing.

"Sir, we're trying to remove as many bodies as we can with out injuring more." He looked at Nick and felt compassion for him. "I'll see what I can find out."

Nick stepped back with Warrick. Warrick pieced two and two together. "You think Hailey's in this mess?" He asked.

Nick lowered his head, "It's her car Warrick." He shook Warrick's hand off and started pacing. He saw three firemen and two rescues rush over to her car. They had gotten everyone above her out of their cars, working their way down. By now the other CSI's were gathered around watching what Nick was, and it didn't take Grissom long to realize it was Hailey's car. He was the most scared he had ever been in his life. Almost getting killed by Sid Goggle was nothing compared to this. His daughter was facing life or death, if life was even an option.

Nick saw the rescue team carefully pull Hailey out of the car, he saw the blood covering her from head to toe. Thunder cracked and another burst of heavy shower came down. The rescue team checked for vitals, and then Nick saw one yell to the other and they began running toward the CSI's, to the ambulances. Nick and Grissom saw Hailey as she was being wheeled past them. She didn't look good, but if they were rushing that had to be a good sign, right?

Nick ran off following them. "Go. Day shift will be here any minute, and we can't really do much yet." Catherine said to Grissom. He dropped his case off and ran after Nick. Grissom went into the front of the ambulance, as instructed, and Nick stayed in the back.

The two men were waiting in the waiting room for Hailey to get out of surgery. Nick collapsed into a chair as Grissom continued to pace. "This is all my fault." Nick said softly.

"I highly doubt you caused and accident like that." Grissom said, hoping he wouldn't blame himself.

"I did." He said lifting his head up. "We got into a fight, and then she drove off, she probably wasn't alert enough to avoid something, or...I don't know." He said his head returning to his hands as he began to cry again.

They saw two more doctors rush into Hailey's room. And they both knew something bad was happening to her. They silently prayed that she would come out of this.

Three hours later Catherine, Warrick, and Greg had showed up. The three of them walked into the waiting room and saw Grissom and Nick in the worst shape, so they guessed that they hadn't gotten any news yet. Catherine sat down next to Grissom and reached a hand out to comfort him. Nick stood up and looked in the tiny window of the door, into the ER. He saw a lot of blood, but he saw the machine still beeping. He turned away and saw Greg approaching him. "Look man, I don't want to fight with you, not now." He said warily.

"That's not why I came over. I know you love her and I just wanted to apologize for before." He said.

Nick nodded his head, and gave Greg a hug. They were two, out of three, of the most important people in Hailey's life and they needed to stick together for her sake. Out of the corner of Greg's eye he saw Sara coming into the room. Nick didn't need to see her right now and Greg was glad Nick had his back to her.

"How is she?" She asked coming up to Warrick.

"We haven't heard yet." He answered her.

Nick knew that voice and was shocked that she had the audacity to show up here. He turned around and saw her. "What are you doing here?" He said approaching her.

"I heard about Hailey, back at the lab, and I came over as soon as I could." She said.

"Get out, you don't belong here." Nick spat as Warrick stepped between them preventing anything from happening.

Grissom saw the tension between them and figured something had happened between them. He stood up and walked over to them. "I don't know what this is about and I don't care. Right now someone I hold very dear to me, is battling for her life. Now is not the time to fight over some petty little shit going on between you two." Greg had never heard Grissom swear before and it took him by surprise.

"I just came down to check on Hailey." Sara said.

"Bull shit." Nick yelled out.

"Nick take a seat." Grissom said pushing him back. He then turned to Sara. "Sara I need you back at the lab with the day shift, helping them out with the accident. We'll let you know if anything comes up here." He said leading her out.

"Alright." She said walking out.

A doctor came out of the ER room, and Grissom turned around facing her. She looked down at her clip board, "Is there a family member here for Hailey Hayes." She said looking around.

Grissom moved closer to the doctor. "I am."

The doctor knew Grissom from a few other cases. "Mr. Grissom-"

He cut her off. "What do you want a blood test?" He said knowing, she would drop her questions.

The doctor nodded her head . "Follow me please."

"As far as I'm concerned we are all her family, so whatever needs to be said, can be said here." He said as everyone listened intently.

"We've managed to get Ms. Hayes stable, however the first forty eight hours are critical. At anytime her heart could fail, but if she makes it through the forty eight hours then her chances of living are very strong. She's suffering from a concussion and broken leg. There is also a chance that she may be paralyzed from the waist down, but we won't know for sure until she wakes up. She had a lot of internal bleeding but we were able to clean it up. other than that it was just a few cuts and bruises." She looked down at the clip board again. "I'm also sorry to say that she lost the baby." The doctor finished.

Grissom's eyes cut to hers. The doctor then left, and Grissom looked over at Nick. "She was pregnant?" He asked him.

Nick was in a daze, he didn't know left from right, up from down. The whole room was spinning, he sat down before he fell, and took a minute to register what was happening. Hailey could still die, she might be paralyzed, she was pregnant, and then lost the baby. "She was pregnant." He whispered.

Everyone was shocked about the baby, everyone except Greg. They took Hailey into another room to get cleaned up, and then put her in the ICU. A nurse came out of the room as the group came up to her. "You may see her, but I can only let one of you in at a time." She said.

Grissom looked at Nick, "You go." Nick said. Grissom walked through the doors and saw Hailey laying in the bed. He walked over to her and carefully took her hand. He saw wires and tubes hooked up to her and tears began to fall down his cheeks. He smiled a little thinking that if she were awake she would be ripping the tubes off, hating to be restrained. He sat down in the chair next to her. "Hailey." He said to her. "I know you can pull through from this. You have to ok?" He didn't know if he could deal with it if she left him.

Grissom walked out half an hour later. He nodded to Nick and he went outside to get some air. Nick walked into the room and saw the same thing Grissom saw. He sat down next to her, and delicately took her hand. "I'm sorry." He said breaking down. All that mattered to him right now was Hailey. He needed her in his life, to him she was the air he breathed, and with out it he would die.