Disclaimer: I own none of the characters (except a mysterious man and a couple of dead bodies). Everything belongs to the wonderful people of CSI and CBS.
Spoilers: None this chapter. Spoilers for "Overload" and "Stalker" in next and later chapters.
Archive: Only here, if you wish to use it somewhere just let me know.
Feedback: Yes, please!
Warnings: Possible Character Death and mentions of past abuse (later chapters).
Pairings: I have decided on the pairings but... well it'd be no fun to tell you yet.
Previously on One More Day
"Nick if you don't say something right now I'm hanging up. I mean it! Oh fine, screw you," Sara's muffled voice was the last thing he heard before his eyes slipped closed.
And now for Chapter 2: One More Time
"Grissom, have you seen Nick?" Sara asked her boss as she walked into his office.
"I thought you two were still working on the Peterman case," Gil Grissom said looking up from the case report he had been reading.
"We are. He went back into the house to get his camera and told me to go on ahead of him. I've been back about a half hour and he's still not here yet." Sara explained to him. She wasn't worried, just simply annoyed.
"Did you try his cell phone?" Sara gave him a look that plainly said 'do you think I'm an idiot?' "Alright well, it's a big building he's probably around here somewhere."
Sara nodded, "Well if you talk to him tell him I'm looking for him." She turned around to leave and headed to the morgue to see if Doc Robbins had started an autopsy. Walking along the hallways Sara peered into the rooms she passed, hoping to spot Nick. Passing the break room she noticed Warrick and Catherine sipping on coffee.
"Hey have either of you see Nick?" Sara questioned the two.
"Uh yeah about four and a half hours ago before you both went to process the scene," Warrick quipped at her.
"Thank Rick, but I was kind of referring to in the last half hour or so." She sighed, "Tell him I'm dropping by the morgue when he gets here."
"Will do," Catherine said as Sara exited the room. Sara continued on her way down to the morgue and continued poking her head into rooms as she passed. Now knowing that Nick was not in Trace, the AV room, Ballistics, or the DNA lab was hardly a comforting thought. Walking through the door of the morgue Sara saw the body of seven year old Mackenzie Peterson on the table. The cause of death appeared to be apparent, a gun shot wound to her chest cavity. The serene look on her face and her blonde hair splayed around her head made her look somewhat like an angel to Sara.
"Hey Sara, isn't Nick supposed to be with you?" Al Robbins asked as he appeared behind her.
"You're going to have to quit sneaking up on people in the morgue Doc," Sara complained as she put a hand to her chest.
Robbins smiled and walked over to the girl. "Her body just got here. When I'm done with her I'll process the mother." He pointed his pen at the gunshot wound, "She died of a bullet straight through her aorta. The GSR around the wound suggests she was shot at close range. No defensive wounds that I can see," He said pointing over her arms and legs.
"This means she was either surprised or knew her attacker. I suppose the mother was shot first, from the position of the bodies. It didn't seem like this was a planned murder. I wish Nick would finally get here, he had the inside evidence in the car with him. I processed the outside. There wasn't any sign of a break-in, which goes along with the theory that she knew her attacker." Sara sighed, looking again at the body of the young girl. She hated cases like these; this kid had her entire life ahead of her yet it was stripped away.
"That's not all though Sara," Doc Robbins said, "She was raped, there's no doubt about that."
"Wait, she was raped and there weren't any defensive marks? I can't imagine a seven year old just lying quietly through that." Sara breathed, thinking of the terrors the little girl when through.
"I didn't think so either so I sent a sample of her blood over to tox to see if there was some sort of sedative in her body." Robbins explained.
"Thanks Al. Oh and if you see Nick..." Sara was interrupted by Robbins.
"I'll tell him you're looking for him." He finished. Sara smiled, nodded, and turned to leave.
"Page me when you start on the mother? Oh and don't clean them off just yet, I want to see if I can find any skin cells from the attacker ok?" Sara told him just as she walked out the door.
Sara walked back to Grissom's office, again sticking her head into every room as she passed looking for Nick.
"Griss, I still haven't found Nick any where. You haven't heard from him?" Sara asked falling quite ungracefully into the chair in front of Grissom's desk.
"No Sara I haven't. Maybe he found something at the scene and is collecting it," he suggested, wrapped up in the case file he was working on.
"It's not like him not to call though," Sara pointed out. After nearly an hour with no word from him, she was starting to get worried.
"You're right it's not. Was the first officer on the scene still there when you left?" Grissom inquired.
"He left just after I did, Grissom. Nick was just going back in to get the camera. It shouldn't have taken more than a minute. It's really not like him to not call," Sara explained.
"I know Sara. Would you like to go back to the scene to look for him," he asked her. She nodded but there was some reluctance in the nod. "Would you like me to go with you?"
"If you're not busy. If you are I can get Warrick or Cath or someone," Sara told him.
"No, it's fine. Tell Greg to grab a kit and I will meet you both there." Grissom told her as he gathered the papers on his desk into a neat pile.
"Sounds good," Sara called over her shoulder as she exited the room. She found Greg in the AV lab with Archie, Warrick, and Catherine.
"You ever talk to Nick?" Warrick questioned her.
"Uh, no. That's actually why I'm here. Greg you want to come find him with me?" Sara asked her younger co-worker.
"You mean to the crime scene?" Greg looked up at her from his seat next to Catherine.
"I sure do," she replied.
"Wait, why are you going back? I thought you'd already gathered the evidence." Warrick questioned.
"We did. I just can't find Nick, Grissom thought maybe he found something when he went in to get his camera. Greg and I are going to go check it out." Sara explained to him.
"Was the first officer still there when you left?" Warrick asked, a hint of worry in his voice. Sara knew he and Nick were good friends, therefore he knew it was unlike Nick not to call if he found something.
"No, he left right behind me," Sara told him. "Come on Greggo, grab a kit and follow me to the car. Grissom's going to meet us there. I'm driving," Sara said as she strolled out of the AV lab.
Greg threw a glance at his co-workers, "Imagine that," he quipped and followed Sara out of the lab.
"You don't think anything is wrong do you?" Catherine asked Warrick.
"I doubt it; Nick probably just forgot to call. He probably got wrapped up in some piece of evidence. Or something..." Warrick said.
"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself of that more than you're trying to convince me." Catherine told him, concern laced in her voice.
"Maybe I am." Warrick countered turning back to the surveillance tapes of the grocery store they'd been processing for a robbery.
In the Car on the way to the Peterson's house.
"Sara what's wrong? You seem a little tense," Greg commented. He was right, her shoulders were squared and her arms stiff on the steering wheel. The drive was thankfully a very short ride to the Peterson house.
"I'm just... I don't know. It seems stupid to be worried. But it's... not like Nick to at least not call in. He said he was right behind me." Sara confessed her eyes still straight ahead on the road.
"It's okay to be worried Sara," Greg told her as she pulled into the Peterson neighborhood. Upon arriving at the house Sara and Greg both spotted Nicks Tahoe parked outside.
Sara smiled seeing it and told Greg, "The twerp probably just forgot to call." Greg returned to grin and the both hopped out of the car. Their grins faded as they approached the house.
"Would Nick just leave the door open like that?" Greg asked her.
"I... no I don't think so." Sara swallowed and drew her gun out of it's holster. "Stay behind me Greg." Greg nodded and complied without a word.
They walked up the stairs to the front door, nearly without a sound. Sara reached up to slowly pull the door back, nothing jumped out at her so she opened it even further. Gun still aimed at anything that dare come near her, she entered the house. When her foot hit something solid on the ground she looked down. Word failed her when she saw the sight on the floor.
Nick lay on the floor, a large pile of blood surrounding his torso. He was as pale as Sara had ever seen him yet there was sweat on his upper lip and forehead.
Sara quickly knelt down and checked his pulse. It faint, yet still noticeable. Greg entered behind her and saw his friend lying on the rug just inside the front door. Sara pulled something off her hip and Greg saw she was radioing for assistance.
"We've got an officer down. Officer down! Send an ambulance." She said, when she finally got her voice back. "Nick, oh God Nick! Can you hear me?" Sara asked him, her voice anything but calm. She looked a Nick for a moment and then noticed a small shake starting to form on his body. She looked up to Greg, her eyes pleading with him to do something.
Greg stood motionless just behind her. It wasn't until he heard a car door slam that he looked back and saw Grissom standing in the drive way. Seeing the look on Greg's face and hearing the ambulance barreling down the street, it didn't take Grissom long to figure out what had happened. He quickly ran up to the house and pushed past Greg to see what was inside.
Nothing could have compared him for the sight he saw when he entered. Nick lying on the floor in a puddle of blood, Sara with her hands covered in his blood, and Greg looking on with a terrified face. The ambulance pulled in front of the house and the paramedics rushed into the house, pushing Greg, himself, and Sara aside.
"Ma'am we need to you let go of him so we can help him," one said to Sara, who had been rubbing Nick's arms when his body had started to shake. Sara nodded and helped herself off the floor. She watched as the paramedics checked Nick's pulse and lifted him carefully onto the stretcher. Her breathing became labored as they rushed Nick down to the ambulance hoping, praying that he would be okay.
Grissom picked up his cell phone and dialed Brass, "Yeah its Gil. We've uh, we've got a crime scene and we need you here Jim. It's uh... no, one is dead, someone's been shot though... No actually I'm not okay... You better believe I'm going to be working on this case, me and my team... I'll tell you when you get here." Greg heard his one sided conversation on the phone, silently cheering him on.
Grissom clicked the phone shut, gently grabbed Sara's elbow and told Greg to call the lab before heading down to the ambulance. Greg squeezed his eyes shut as if the sun was bothering his eyes, even though there was only the moon light out. He pulled out his phone dialing a number that was familiar to him.
'Hello,' the voice of Catherine drifted through the phone
"Cath, it's Greg."
'Did you find Nicky?' when he didn't answer she spoke again, 'Greg? Greg what's going on?'
"Yeah we uh, we found Nicky." Nicky? He questioned himself. He'd never call him Nicky. Apparently Catherine picked up on it.
'Is he okay? Greg is Nick okay?' she demanded her voice catching as she spoke.
"No he's not Cath. He's been... he was shot." Greg told her, some how not believing the words that left his mouth. He heard her suck in a breath on the other end of the phone and repeat what he'd said to someone, he assumed Warrick.
'We'll be right there.'
Without waiting for a reply she hung up. He walked down the steps towards Sara and Grissom. Both were standing to their backs to him facing where the ambulance was still parked. They were standing with their arms limp at their sides and shoulders slumped. Greg approached and Sara turned to look at him. He was positive it was the first time he'd seen anything resembling tears in her eyes.
The paramedics were trying to stem the flow of blood that still poured out of the wound. 'How can someone have so much blood?' Greg questioned himself. A monitor that they had hooked Nick up to started beeping and both paramedics double they're work. Two Tahoe's roared down the street and stopped near the house. Out of one came Warrick and Catherine and Brass and some officers stepped out of the other one.
Warrick, Brass, and Catherine all hurried over to the ambulance and with one look at Nick, Warrick let out a particularly nasty word. The team all looked on as the paramedic's faces became more hopeless.
Warrick felt the bottom drop out of his stomach when one of them looked up and mutter, "I'm sorry..."
Next Chapter: One More Sunset
The next chapter will be more about the thoughts going through the other CSI's heads. The case will become more in depth and quite confusing- it's not as simple as it seems.
I realize that there was no real way for Warrick and Catherine to get there that fast but let's pretend there was!
Thanks to everyone who reviewed: c1, werewolfe, csifan, higherbeingfriendsfan, and Lisa! I loved how each of y'all said please don't kill Nick! I really appreciate it!
I know that was a horrible way to end it, but y'all will be a lot happier with the next chapter. Let's just say the paramedic wasn't through speaking. Alright and cause I can't leave y'all like that... if you want to know something about Nicks condition read on... if not then this is it!
Thanks for reading!
-Amy
I don't plan on killing him off just so you know. But it will be very touch and go.
