-EPILOGUE-

Brass walked briskly through the halls of the CSI headquarters and knocked on Supervisor Gil Grissom's office door.

"Hey," he said, as Grissom looked up, expectantly. When Grissom failed to communicate, as usual, Brass continued. "We got a confession."

"Whose?"

"Peter. You knew him as Peter Humber, Catherine and Warrick knew him as Peter Ryerson, real name Peter Jackson."

"I knew that."

"You knew his real name was Jackson?"

"Yes, it was on the printout Greg handed me. He owned the first car used in the kidnapping."

"Well, he confessed to Grace Vanderton's murder. They met on a set and he claims it was true love at first sight... if you can believe that. He says he snuck in under pretense of visiting his girlfriend, Grace, then killed her because her supposed ex-husband was not, in fact, her ex-husband. They were never divorced. Peter, for all his obvious charm, Brass said with a sneer, "couldn't convince her to leave the rich old fart for him. He was, however, included in her will."

"How handy," Grissom offered. He always loved a tidy little confession to go along with the evidence; some of the jury members were always bound to be old-fashioned and dubious of modern technology. "And what of the kidnappings?"

"Part of a gang initiation gone bad. Pete was clean for a couple of years, got some commercials on his resumé, things went south with Grace and he went back to the drugs, the booze, the hookers, the whole nine yards. Tried to look up some of his old boys, but they've been clean for years. None of 'em ever wanted to look back. Pete, being resourceful, drags his dealer's clients into the ring."

"So everything's done here," Grissom stated.

"Indeed."

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Sara lay in a coma. The bullet had finally been removed from her shoulder; it had barely missed the subclavian artery. A millimeter more, and she would have bled out within minutes. At Nick's constant request, his bed had been moved to Sara's room, and he lay beside her now, their cots touching, waiting for her to wake up. The steady beep of her heart monitor, though assuring she was alive, became a monotonous nuisance drilling into Nick's head. He wished for the umpteenth time that she was strong enough not to need to be monitored, but her incredible blood loss had made her dependant on many machines. Maybe it was a good thing, Nick thought, that Sara wasn't awake to see that she couldn't move on her own, or that she needed help. Accepting help was never one of Sara's strong points.

Nick shifted, his headache slowly dissipating. The doctors said he'd be fine after a couple of week's rest, so he decided to enjoy some time off despite the his sterile and impersonal surroundings. He sighed and reached over onto Sara's cot, grabbing her hand with his and holding it. Whenever he wasn't watching her, he was sleeping, and somehow her touch made it easier to do so. He closed his eyes reluctantly and squeezed Sara's hand.

Sara's eyes fluttered open, but shut again immediately when the light reached her pupils. She groaned deep in her throat and put her hand up to her head, making a rubber tube fall against her arm. She frowned and squinted at her arm, then realizing that the tube was connected to her... an I.V. She was in the hospital. She was so incapacitated by the struggle that had ensued between she, Nick and the four shadows once she had woken up in that bright cement cell that she actually needed to be in the hospital. The thought almost made her sick to her stomach. She coughed violently and brought her hands up to her mouth, always one to prevent the spreading of germs, but was surprised at the weight on the arm not hooked up to the I.V. She tried lifting it again and did, slightly; there was something on her hand. She tilted her head as much as she could and found there was another hand holding her own. Startled, she followed the arm up to the bed next to her, where Nick lay with his eyes closed and tubes sticking out of him as well. She squeezed his hand gently and lay her head back on her pillow, closing her eyes against the blinding white sterility.

A short while later, Nick awoke to a numbness in his arm. He realized he'd rolled onto his arm in his sleep, and rolled off of it, shaking it slightly. He looked down at the I.V. in his hand and realized that Sara's hand was still in his. He smiled and squeezed it. His heart leapt into his throat when he felt Sara squeeze back.

"Sar..." he whispered.

She looked at him and smiled, her eyes brimming. "Oh, Nicky..."

Sara moved over in the cot so her shoulder was touching Nick's. Nick reached over and stroked her hair, tucking every loose piece behind her ear.

"We did it, Sar. We made it."

Sara's eyes fluttered shut and she leaned into Nick slowly. "We did," she agreed, before she touched her lips softly to Nick's. Nick pulled her closer and returned the kiss, deepening it as far as he dared with them both having suffered such incapacitating injuries. Sara pulled away and looked at Nick, her eyes still misty but shining.

"And I'm glad we made it... I'd blame myself if something happened."

"Sara, you couldn't blame yourself..."

"But I would have... you mean too much to me, too."

FINI

A/N: like it? Hate it? Glad it was all up in one day? lol. Please informez-moi. Avec un review. S'il Vous Plait.

p.s. some thanks for my reviewers! or I guess it's thanks, gracias and merci... either way,you make me happy.

ALEX! you are a nutcase! but thank you for the reviews. :) and thank you for NOT reading the other one. (and I don't do the crossover thing... yet.) are those pink and blue socks MINE, by any chance?
lol love the name. boo?

Marie: I meant, he kicked it so the light went out. There wasn't actually a hole. Unless, without my knowing it, he suddenly gained superhuman strength and kicked a hole through layers of glass and steel... no, I think he just broke the light.Thanks for reviewing!

M2S: I tried to get all the characters in, so I'm glad you noticed lol. Please tell my sister there was action, she didn't believe me. Even after she read it.

A Christy: I'm quite honoured to be getting a review from you :D And I posted every single chapter immediately, I guess it was just a delay on behalf of the site.

DarkDreamer56: Gah! Give me a chance to get some ideas before I write another fic! (trust me, they're few and far between.)

CSIFreak6: Yeah, that's a delay on the site, because I was DEFINATELY up late posting these all together. Well, I guess it's cleared up now...

And last but not least, Sahariah: MY FIRST REVIEWER! (squee) Ask and you shall receive... the entire story is posted and updated. Thanks so much for reviewing!