Nick felt weak. He needed Amy, he craved Amy and yet, she didn't want him, hadn't wanted him for some time it seemed and it hurt. He was thankful that he was working with Sara and that she wouldn't press him for more details or handle him with kid gloves the way that Catherine might. Her understanding hug had been what he'd needed at that moment, but shift was over now and he was alone. The last thing he wanted was to be alone, but he'd turned down an invitation to join Greg, Sophia and Sara at the diner for breakfast. He'd begged off, claiming that he was tired. The truth was that he wanted to talk to Amy, wanted to find out why she'd stuck around after his ordeal when it was clear now that she hadn't wanted to be with him at all. He'd cut her off in the parking lot before she'd had a chance to finish and now he just wanted one more chance to see her, one more chance to convince her that they could work.
He eased his Denali up in front of her house, pushing his sunglasses up onto the top of his head. As he was about to turn off the ignition, he stopped as he realized that while Amy was home, she certainly wasn't home alone. Hurt shot through him like a knife; he knew the car that was parked in her driveway; he knew it well. And as he sat there for a long moment blinking away tears and choking back a sob all of the pieces slid together clearly. An old friend that he'd introduced to Amy shortly after they'd started seeing each other had mentioned more than once that if she ever got tired of Nick, his door was always open. Now it seemed she'd taken John up on that offer.
Nick turned the ignition on and pulled away from the curb. He wasn't sure where he was going, but he didn't want to go home, he didn't want to be reminded of the time he and Amy had spent together there. He didn't want to think about how she'd comforted him as he woke screaming from his nightmares. He knew it couldn't have been easy for her, but he'd never asked her to stay; she'd done it because she wanted to. Or at least that's what he thought.
He let himself get lost in thought as he drove and it wasn't until he was driving across Hoover Dam that he realized he really wasn't sure where he was going. He pulled the SUV over at an observation area and got out, glad that at this hour of the morning that there weren't too many people around. He climbed up on the hood and just stared out into Black Canyon with Lake Mead at his back. He had a brief thought that 726 feet was a long way down to the bottom of the canyon, but shook it off. She might have dumped him, and cheated on him, but if being buried alive didn't kill him, he wasn't going to give Amy and John the right to push him over the edge.
As the morning sun rose higher in the sky he thought maybe he should call his parents and tell them about Amy, but he reasoned that there was plenty of time later. His head was beginning to clear and he realized that he wasn't really alone. He had a group of friends that he could count on; a group that was like family and he'd blown them off. He felt a pang of guilt; Sara in particular had looked concerned as he'd turned down the offer for breakfast. The others hadn't known yet about Amy breaking up with him; and maybe that was part of why he didn't want to go to breakfast.
The thought of food suddenly made his stomach grumble and he realized that not only did he need to get something to eat; he needed to go home and get some sleep, maybe via the liquor store so he'd be able to sleep. As he slid off of the hood of the Denali, his cell phone sounded from his belt. He pulled it out of the holster and glanced at the caller ID. "Hey, Rick."
"Nick, man, I thought we were hitting the driving range this morning." Warrick sounded a little gruff.
Nick realized that Warrick must be standing on his front step wondering where the hell he was; and knowing Warrick he'd probably called the lab to find out if Nick was pulling a double. "Sorry man, it slipped my mind."
"Sara told me about Amy." Warrick had a tone in his voice that said everything he'd been thinking about Amy but had held back because she was Nick's girlfriend.
Nick wasn't sure whether to be irritated with Sara or thankful that he didn't have to tell all of his friends what had happened. "Yeah."
Warrick's tone softened. "You ok?" Before Nick had been buried alive, they'd been good friends; afterward Warrick considered him a brother and he let Nick know that he could count on him for anything. Life was just too damn short.
"I will be." Nick hoped that he sounded convincing. He knew it would hurt like hell for a while, but hopefully he'd get over Amy and be able to move on. "She hooked up with John."
"Keller?" Warrick knew the guy and went out of his way to steer women away from him. On the same token, the guy was usually someone that had your back, even if he might be willing to steal your girl.
"Yeah." Nick let out a tired sigh. "Mind if we hit the driving range another time?" There was no way once he drove the forty or so miles back into Vegas that he was going to have the energy to hit a bucket of golf balls.
"Where are you?" Warrick hoped that Nick wasn't in some cheap bar off the Strip drinking away his sorrows.
Nick let out a wry laugh. "Hoover Dam."
"You're not thinking about jumping are you?" The words were out of Warrick's mouth before he had a chance to think about it.
"Thought about it for about a half a second, but I figured if I could be buried alive and live, it just wasn't worth the trouble over a woman." There was a hint of humor in Nick's voice. "No, man, I'll be fine. I just went for a drive to clear my head a little. I'm gonna head home and get some sleep."
"You know we're all here for you, Bro." Warrick knew that Nick knew, but he just wanted to remind him.
"I appreciate it, Rick." Nick smiled. He couldn't buy friends as good as the ones he had. "I'll catch you at shift."
"Sure." Warrick replied and then ended the call.
Nick put his phone back on his belt and climbed behind the wheel of his Denali, turning it around and heading back towards Vegas. As he pulled into his driveway, he noticed a vehicle just like his sitting in front of his house. He shook his head as he considered that Warrick must have waited for him to get home to make sure he actually got home and he began to put together a speech in his mind. It wasn't until he'd slid out of the SUV that he realized that Warrick Brown wasn't the one parked in front of his house.
Sara stood leaning against her Denali, a smile flitting across her face as Nick glanced over at her. "Where've you been?" She tried to keep her tone light, but she'd been worried about him when she had swung by his place after breakfast with an order to go for him and found that he wasn't there. When Warrick had stopped by, she'd filled him in on what had happened, both out of concern and to explain why she was camping out in front of Nick's house.
"Just driving." Nick was grateful for her concern; she of all people would know that he wasn't going to be sleeping when he got home from work.
Sara's expression softened. "I was worried about you...feel like having some company for a while?" She knew that if she'd been dumped, she wouldn't want to be alone, and with what Nick had gone through, she wanted to offer to be there in case he had a nightmare.
Nick felt emotion choking in his throat and nodded. "I think having a little company might be kind of nice."