Grissom's heart skipped a beat at the sound of the arrival of medial help. His mind and body weary, he eyed the priest with a cold, unrelenting stare. "No more of your so-called words of wisdom. I want to know what... and why," he growled.

Jorge Carlos didn't flinch, but his eyes twitched ever so slightly. He let out a sigh and shook his head. "We'll never know the full extent of the imbalances. It was merely a test for the both of you."

The supervisor's eyes narrowed as his impatience sucked away his more rational thought.

The priest must have sensed the impending explosion. "If he treaded in the white side, then he would survive only if your soul did as well. The both of you needed to rely on each other to successfully walk along the twisted path. If either soul was masked by the dark light, then it would have consumed you both."

"What. Did. You..."

Jorge Carlos grunted, interrupting another tirade. "White dust, the eyes of Yeta, and the essence of life."

Jim, Warrick, and Grissom could all hear the sirens getting closer; the need for vital information was getting more urgent.

Brass edged Gil aside, and grabbed the priest's chin roughly. "English, you yahoo."

"PCP, Mescaline, and water. Potent, but not too much," he simply stated. The Latino casually looked at the supervisor. "About 10 milligrams total, two-thirds to one-third, then I diluted it a bit."

The supervisor felt anger radiate through his body, and his posture must have alerted his friends. Both Warrick and Brass pulled him away before Grissom pummeled the priest into jelly.

Gil fought against his coworkers, who literally removed him from the madman. He pressed his hands to his knees, breathing the dry air deeply in order to slow down his pounding pulse. The entomologist knew ripping the guy apart would not help his CSI at all in this situation. The fury did, however, keep him energized enough to continue to deal with this crisis.

Grissom turned away, not trusting his own fragile hold on his feelings. He stalked back over to Jim's patrol car as the ambulance finally arrived. Warrick had followed him back over to the vehicle. Jim made sure the priest had been dragged away, and he kept near his coworkers.

Both CSI's stayed near Nick, who was starting to come to with the cold air still blowing on his overheated body. The EMT's piled out of their rig and rushed over to the huddled group. Grissom meet them as they reached the car and indicated that they needed to focus their attention on Nick.

The supervisor read the approaching caregiver's name badge, the younger one's name was Frank, and gave the man the bullet.

"This is Nick Stokes. Age 32. He' a criminalist at the Las Vegas police department. I'm not aware of any medical problems or allergies."

Gil took a deep breath as he launched into a summary of what happened.

"This man was injected with a mixture of PCP and Mescaline in liquid form about," he glanced down at his watch in surprise, "six hours ago. It was a high dose, 10 milliliters, but it was supposedly diluted by water."

Grissom remained to one side of the door, trying to give the two men room to perform their jobs.

Frank knelt next to Nick, took a penlight and shined it into his pupils to test for a response. The EMT's partner handed him a blood pressure cuff, in which he wrapped around the CSI's arm, and he inflated it. The medic counted the criminalist's pulse as he scanned his readings. His face scrunched up in frustration.

Frank turned to his partner. "His vitals are all over the place. Been bouncin' around... right now BP's 70/55. Pulse is 80." The medic felt Nick's face with the back of his hand and frowned. "Man, he's got to have a body temp of over 104." The EMT inspected Nick's forearm, palpating the area. "He's got no veins. We need to start a wide open bore IV, he's dry as a bone."

The other medic went through his box of supplies and stepped in to establish an IV. He cursed several times when he couldn't get a flash; he pressed down hard, but was finally able to insert it. He held up the bag of fluid. Frank inserted an ear thermometer to get a more accurate reading of his patient's temperature.

Nick started to push away the EMT's hands while muttering loudly. He still couldn't speak coherently, but his irritation was clearly obvious as he tried to swat away at the offending thermometer.

"Please, sir, just hold on a second," the medic tried to calm the agitated man.

"Nick, it's all right. These men are here to help," Grissom tried to interject some calm.

Grissom relayed his worries to the EMT's. "We were held in that warehouse without air conditioning, ventilation or supplies. I think he's suffering from heat exhaustion. He's been in this car for several minutes and I tried cooling him off with water."

The medics nodded, and the lead checked his readings. "Yep, temp's 105.5." He turned to Grissom. "What kind of reactions has he had to the PCP? Any vomiting? Loss of conciseness? Violent behavior?" The medic eyed the older man in front of him and studied his face. "I'm going to guess by the look of things he did suffer from extreme mood swings, and got physically violent. Once we stabilize him, we'll need to check you out, sir."

Warrick and Brass stood far back enough to allow the medics to work, but they were both eager to hear what happened in that warehouse. Warrick kept looking back and forth at both his coworkers. The more he thought about what kind of nightmare his friends had just gone through, the more pissed off he became.

Grissom ignored the EMT's last comment. "He's been delusional, paranoid, and did get confrontational. He's been nauseous most of the time, vomited twice, his vitals have fluctuated between a high and low pulse and BP. He's been breathing rapid and shallowly, experienced loss of muscle function and coordination, spasms, and he broke his hand." Gil worked his jaw again, "He also sustained several blows to the stomach as well."

Frank took in the information and turned to his partner. "Get a sheet from the cab, soak it with water. We need to transport him ASAP. Get that air conditioning firing inside." The medic looked up at the criminalists. "The heat exhaustion can only exacerbate his symptoms from the drugs. This is going to be tricky."

Nick tried to pull off the BP cuff and he was reaching for his IV. Frank grabbed the criminalist's hands, very careful of his right one, before he could cause any damage and yelled over his shoulder. "Hurry up Johnson, get that gurney over here."

Warrick jumped up to help the other medic. The EMT had grabbed a sheet from his rig, and several police officers and SWAT members were dousing it with bottles of water. The CSI was desperate to do something useful. "I'll take this over there. Your partner wants you to bring that gurney over."

After a few moments of thoroughly soaking the sheet, Warrick carried the fabric over to the others.

"Wait for the gurney," Frank instructed.

Nick was lost in a fog of delirium. He was burning up, and was now surrounded by people trying to hurt him. Their faces were blank, as if all the identifying characteristics were wiped clean. Blurry animated-like mannequins were poking him. His muscles still didn't obey his commands, and he feebly tried to get away.

In his disjointed thoughts he knew he was free from the warehouse, that overheated stove, but now he was completely lost and disorientated. It was overwhelmingly bright out here, everything was stark white, almost brilliant in color. He kept his eyes closed; it felt like he was staring into the baking rays of the sun. The CSI was still burning up, his flesh alternated from feeling fried to freezing.

Johnson returned soon after Warrick, and both medics carefully tried to transfer their uncooperative patient over to the gurney. Brass and Warrick lent a hand as the Texan weakly fought back.

"Come on, let's move him ... carefully... carefully," Frank commanded.

Somehow the four men got Nick flat on his back, and the two medics started to put on restraints. Brass and the two CSI's were about to protest such an action, but the EMT's overrode them.

"This is for his own safety as well as ours," Frank explained as he placed Nick's hands in soft restraints, very carefuly as not to injure his mangled right one any further. His partner secured his legs and torso.

Nick was having none of it as he panicked again. "Nooooo! Please... s-stop it! P-please!" he begged.

Grissom edged his way over, and grabbed Nick's hand. "We're out of the warehouse. It's fine, I promise."

The EMT's were young, but they had both seen enough cases of heat illness to determine that the CSI was in the throes of heat stroke. Once he was safely secured, Frank took a pair of scissors and cut away Nick's T-shirt. Then he shredded the man's jeans, cutting from the ankle to his thighs to provide some sort of ventilation.

After stripping away his shirt and creating slits in his pants, the medics draped the man with the wet sheet. They adjusted the IV so it dripped the much-needed electrolytes to the CSI. Frank grabbed an oxygen mask. "Got to give him some O2, he's hyperventilating."

Once Nick was secured to the gurney, the lead medic continued with his examination. He took out his stethoscope and placed it on Nick's chest. He moved it around and concentrated on the sounds. Frank turned to his partner with a grim expression. "Got abnormal breath sounds, crackles in both lungs... that combined with the low BP..." The man shook his head in concern. He checked Nick's nail beds, noting the bluish tinge there as well as around Nick's mouth.

Johnson looked at his boss. "Shocked lung?" he questioned.

The lead nodded his head in an affirmative. "That's what I'm guessing."

Warrick could not keep his worry and confusion at bay. "What's' wrong?"

The lead EMT looked at the CSI. "Acute respiratory distress syndrome. He vomited under too much stress, there could've been aspiration. He has lung damage or inflammation."

Nick's friend looked at him, still frustrated, and not quite sure what that meant.

The other EMT tried to explain in simpler terms. "There's inflammation in his lungs. He's not getting enough oxygen into his blood stream. We'd insert a trach tube, but he's in no condition for that right now. The ER docs are gonna have to sedate him, and we're not allowed to do that in the field."

The trio looked on in muted silence.

Johnson placed an oxygen mask over Nick's nose and mouth. The terrified man shook his head back and forth, but it remained on. Both EMT's loaded the criminalist into the ambulance; Frank hopped in with the gurney while his partner went into the driver's side. The lead medic went on his radio to communicate the sick CSI's latest round of vitals and status.

Warrick helped Grissom into the rig; it was agreed upon that in Nick's mental state it was best if he rode with him. Also, it would give the EMT's a chance to give the older man a cursory exam. Grissom kept his hand on Nick's forearm over the sheet as he tried to keep some form of contact.

The lead EMT opened a door to one of the refrigerated compartments and grabbed three small ice packs.

"See if you can keep him calm. I'm going to place these packs around his neck, groin, and chest. They're the key areas for getting his core temp down, but in his state, it'll only agitate him."

Grissom patted Nick's arm as he wriggled around on the gurney, fighting against the straps holding him still. The medic placed the ice packs around various parts of Nick's body, and re-covered him with the damp sheet.

The ride would last fifteen minutes. Grissom drank an entire bottle of water en route. He refused his own IV, stating that he'd accept one once Nick was admitted. The supervisor kept his word and continued to try to talk to the delusional man. Nick was quieter, clearly worn out by the latest bout of hysteria. The older criminalist otherwise sat in silence as he waited for their arrival to the hospital.

Warrick and Jim had followed behind in a patrol car. Warrick was all ready on the horn to inform Catherine and Sara about the situation. The other team members had split up to follow two different leads. Brass had his foot hard on the accelerator as he tried to keep pace with the ambulance. No words were spoken as they tired to take in on what just happened.

Author's notes:

I wanted to update this story days ago, but the fanfic website has been down. So here it is! However the down time inspired me so look for some one shots soon!

Slea-

Thank you. I've always been a big fan of friendship stories, they tend to have a higher impact of emotions. Glad you're enjoying this.

csifan-

Sorry you had to wait so long..not my fault this time! Here's some more.

Designation-

Gil wouldn't want the rest of the officers to see Nick in his state and I don't think having a bunch of people gawking at him..even in concern...would be good considering his state of mind. Thanks again!

M2s-

They have to del with things one step at a time. You're too sweet, my dear. Thank you for the continued support.

mudhousejunkie-

Gil would be very protective of Nick after this. Thank you again.

msquirrel-

You're back! Nice seeing you again.

Pip3-

Than you for taking the time to respond. As far as the drug induced things, well it took a while, but finding a dark place is interesting.

amarawind-

You're reaction was priceless. Hope you're still enjoying the beach.

C1-

Thanks my friend. Glad you're liking it.

higherbeingfrinedsfan-

Thank you again. Warrick and Brass might be best not to prod too much into this. We shall see though.

vonnie-

Gil knows how thing might be perceived and Warrick is shocked, but he knows that something awful must have transpired in there. Warrick knows Nick too well to believe that anything short of the devil would have caused him to hurt Grissom. Brass is a very smart cookie. Thank you again.

Wolfwood-

The focus of the story will remain on Nick and Gil since it is a character study, but Bras and Warrick will have their moments. Thank you for your support.

brigitta-

It must have been very interesting indeed to read the story backwards, but then you could see Nick slowly go back to normal! Thank you for taking the time to respond, I'm glad everything I conveyed really made you able to visualize everything. The after effects are very tough to deal with, you'll have to wait to see!

Groban-

Nick is my tough CSI, he can pull through anything..it'll take time, but he will always endure. I love him so. Thank you.

Gerandfan-

Thank you very much. Hoped you liked the newest one.