Suddenly the car stopped, and the engine cut out. Nick reached behind him as best he could with the ropes still constraining his arms, and he picked up his cell phone from the corner. He listened in closely and could hear the low buzz of conversation coming from the other end...
"Grissom..." he said, trying to get the attention of anyone on the other end, and stay away from the attention of the people on his end. He held the phone in one hand and pressed a number key with the other, coding in morse for help, the only morse code he knew: ...---... SOS. He pressed the key in this sequence repeatedly until he could hear a worried hello from the earpiece. He continued to SOS, hoping Grissom knew morse and understood that he and Sara were now in grave danger. Grissom yelled something and then spoke into the mouthpiece of his phone again.
"We're cutting trace now, Nick, we've got a location. Hang tight and we'll be there as soon as possible."
"Where are we?" Nick asked, fear starting to choke him, but the connection between he and Grissom was cut. Nick's eyes started to water and he choked back a sob, closing his phone and shoving it into his back pocket. He heard car doors slamming and felt their force rocking the car. He kissed Sara's cheek over and over as he heard footsteps coming around to check the trunk. When he heard the key in the hatch lock, he closed his eyes and feigned a comatose state, immediately taking a position that turned his body mass into dead weight, buying time for Sara who was still partially covered by his body. If the gang couldn't lift him out, they couldn't lift her out, and they'd be safe a little longer. Nick felt arms grab his legs and shoulders as the four young men tried to lift him out of the car. When they realized they couldn't, the ringleader decided to roll him out instead. Nick hadn't been counting on this and was unprepared when they pulled on him from the opposite side until he teetered on the edge of the car and fell painfully to the pavement. He remained motionless, resisting the urge to wipe the blood from the fall off of his face and hold his head in utter pain. He kept his face neutral, despite how much he wanted to cringe. He did cringe, however, when he felt a weight fall on top of him and he realized that the gang had rolled Sara out as well, directly on top of him. Just as suddenly as her weight appeared, it was gone; and a set of footsteps faded as someone carried Sara off. Nick heard somebody count to three and suddenly the ground was no longer beneath him, hands clenched tightly around his ankles and supporting his shoulders. He was carried a short distance before he was dropped into another car and a hatch slammed shut. He immediately opened his eyes, adjusted to the darkness of the new trunk, and searched for Sara, panicked. He was relieved when he felt long hair under his face, and he shifted over until he could feel the body beside him and be sure it was Sara. Letting out a long sigh, he felt the engine rev and back up, and they were on the road again.
Sara moaned in utter agony, dismayed to feel the ground still moving underneath her. She once again stifled the extreme urge to throw up and wriggled in her ropes a bit until she was free. She threw a hand out in the darkness and felt the roof of the trunk, air, and a warm body. She let out a strangled, startled cry, as did Nick; neither expected the other to be awake, or indeed even alive, and their fright soon turned to joy as Sara wrapped both arms around Nick despite the pain that shot through her left arm when her wound pressed against him. She held Nick tightly and tears streaked down her face. She could tell that she had stopped bleeding, and so she knew she'd be able to keep Nick in better company than he'd been in while she was out cold.
"How did you get free?" asked Nick in astonishment when Sara reached around his back, groping to find the ropes that constrained him.
"They didn't tie me well enough, I guess they figured on me staying knocked out," Sara replied as she found a knot and began to work at it. She loosened it enough for Nick to wriggle his arms out, and immediately he brought his arms around to his front and threw them around Sara. He kissed her forehead and pressed his cheek against hers, holding it there, so grateful to have Sara stable and awake.
"I was so worried about you," Nick said, his throat constricting. "Does it hurt?"
"What? Oh, my shoulder. Yeah, yeah it hurts."
"Can I do anything?"
"You can stop bringing it up," Sara suggested.
Nick lay in silence for a moment.
"Sorry."
"For what?"
"Bringing it up."
"Nick. You did it again."
Nick chuckled despite the situation, and eased off of Sara a bit, keeping his arm securely around her. Both were thinking of how grateful they were not to be alone. Sara thought about who she'd be thinking of if she were alone, and she realized it was the man right beside her. It would be Nick she'd be thinking of, Nick she'd be missing, Nick who she'd never get to say "I love you" to. Because she did love Nick, and more than just as a friend. Her situation felt hopeless, however, because she knew Nick considered her his best friend and he treasured that relationship. He loved her platonically and no more. She wished she could tell him how in love she was with him, these moments potentially being her last, but nomatter how hard she tried, it was the same as it had been in the months and years before; she knew somehow that Nick would never love her as much as she loved him. She needed his friendship and companionship right now, and what she didn't need was the awkwardness guaranteed after an admission of unrequited love. What she didn't know was that her unexpressed love for him was not unrequited.
Sara thought back over her life. She had never truly been in love, and for that matter, she had never been loved. Her parents never loved her, or her brother, or even each other. Hank hadn't loved her, he had simply used her and lied to her and cheated on her. The worst part is, he stayed with the other woman. He left her alone because he had never loved her. She had had a crush on Grissom, but nothing had ever happened between them, and even if they had become something, she knew his first love would always be his job and never her. Nick loved her, but he loved her like a sister and best friend.
"Do they know that we're gone?" she asked tentatively. She'd never had many people constant in her life; the most constant one was right beside her in the same situation. Her greatest fear had always been that one day she would disappear, and nobody would miss her. Especially now; Nick's shift had ended and his team thought he was at home, and she had, through some small miracle, taken the day off and wasn't supposed to be in the lab until much later. By the time she would have been missed, it would have been too late.
"Yeah, remember, I called Grissom's cell and they put a trace on us at HQ... oh shoot!"
"What's wrong?" Sara asked, panic gripping her and making her chest tight with anxiety.
"They cut the trace when they moved us to this car - they're sending the feds to the place where we transferred!"
"We're not in the same car?" she asked. She fought to keep the bile from rising in her throat, disorientation adding to her nausea.
"They moved us - oh my God, they're not gonna find us..."
"Call them back quickly! Get the trace running again, they've gotta find us, Nick!"
She didn't have to ask twice. When Nick mentioned the trace, he immediately pulled out his cell phone and brought it in front of him, the backlight illuminating the panic on his face. The screen was broken from when he had landed on his back pocket, after being rolled out of the trunk of the previous vehicle, but the light was still glowing, albeit a bit dimmer than before. Nick punched in the number for HQ and waited anxiously for somebody to pick up the phone. It rang once... twice...
"Come on, come on, pick up..." Nick muttered as he grabbed Sara's arm and squeezed it, partly to reassure her and partly to calm himself.
It rang three times... four times...
"Hello?"
"Oh thank God," Nick cried. "Can I speak to Gil Grissom?"
"I'm sorry, sir, you're breaking up... can you speak a little louder please?"
"Gilbert... Grissom," Nick emphasized, drawing out his syllables and increasing his volume.
There was nothing but static, and then Nick could make out some very faint words eminating from the earpiece of his phone.
"I'm... sir, but... and I ... would... day?"
"Can you hear me?" he shouted.
More static raged through the tiny earpiece, then the connection broke and the line fell silent.
"Are they tracing us?" asked Sara as Nick pulled the phone from his ear and pushed some keys frantically. Sara's heart sank when Nick let go of her arm and pulled the phone to his ear again, trying to establish a connection again.
"Hello? Hello? The line's dead."
"So, what now?" asked Sara softly.
"The screen said long distance, and the call was out of range..."
"We're not in Kansas anymore."
A/N: Review, por favor
