Chapter Eight
"Nick!" Emily dropped to her knees and with a heave, flipped the CSI over onto his back. She patted his cheek in an effort to wake him up.
His eyes fluttered open. Confused, he asked quietly, "Emily? What happened?"
"You fell over. I think you've lost a lot of blood." she told him. Emily didn't know a lot gunshot wounds, but she figured Nick was going into shock and that she had to get help immediately. She looked down at his waist and saw his cell phone.
Emily grabbed it. "Nick, I'm going to call for help. Hey, look at me!" The sound of her sharp tone caused Nick's eyes, which had been on the verge of closing, to snap open.
"What?" he asked, groggily.
"You've got to keep your eyes open for me, okay? I'm gonna call Grissom. He's going to send help." Emily peered into his face and gave him a smile that conveyed more confidence than she felt.
She flipped open the phone and scanned for Grissom's number. As the phone rang, she placed her uninjured palm down on Nick's wound in an attempt to stop the blood that was still flowing.
"Nick?" Grissom's voice asked in surprise.
"No. It's Emily." she said.
"Is Richard with you?" Grissom asked anxiously.
"He's dead. Nick's hurt. I can't get him back to the car and even if I could, I'm not sure it's in any condition to drive. We need an ambulance." Emily urged. She could hear Brass' voice in the background, peppering Grissom with questions.
"What happened? How bad is he? Where are you?" Grissom questioned her.
"He was shot in the shoulder and then the car crashed and I don't know if he's got any internal injuries but there's all this blood coming from the gunshot wound and I"m trying to stop it but I can't tell if it's working and I think he's going into shock and he keeps wanting to close his eyes but I'm trying to keep him awake." The words flowed out of Emily's mouth at a rapid speed as she started to give into her panic.
"Okay. Stay calm. You're doing fine. Just keep applying pressure and try to keep him awake." Grissom tried to reassure her in a calm tone. "Do you know where you are?"
"Some woods or something. There are a lot of trees. I don't know!" She breathed deep and tried to calm herself. She looked down at Nick. "Nick, do you know where we are?" She asked.
"What?" He stared at her and tried to shift his eyes back in focus.
Emily leaned forward and got closer to Nick's face. "Do you know where we were before the car crashed?"
"On the way to the lake." he breathed.
"On the way to the lake." she repeated to Grissom.
"Okay. That's a place to start. How long were you driving before the accident?" Grissom asked. Emily could hear a rustling sound on the other end of the phone.
"About twenty minutes I think. Maybe more. I don't know I lost track of time. I'm sorry." Emily's voice cracked.
"It's okay. We're going to find you. Keep talking to Nick and keep this line open, okay? We'll be there soon with help." Grissom assured her.
From the moment that he had heard Emily's voice, Grissom had sprung into action. He had already gotten a map out and begun analyzing the different streets in an attempt to figure out just where Emily and Nick were while Brass looked over his shoulder. The supervisor was overjoyed to see that there was only one possible road that they could be on.
He jabbed his finger at the road and Brass whipped out his own cell phone to call for help.
Grissom turned his attention back to Emily as he rushed out of his office. He could hear her talking to Nick, trying to keep him awake and focused. He silently wondered how bad Nick was and hoped the ambulance would reach them soon.
On the other end, Emily tried to keep Nick awake by asking him the first question that popped in her head. "So, Nick, got any brothers and sisters?"
"I got a brother and five sisters." he mumbled.
"Wow. Six siblings. That's a lot. Where do you fall in the birth order?" She asked. Emily felt stupid to be asking him about his personal history with an air that suggested they were talking over coffee rather than lost in the woods after sustaining multiple injuries.
"I'm the youngest." he said. His head lolled to one side and Emily reached forward and smacked his cheek. His eyes flew open.
"The baby of the family. Just like me." Emily swiped the back of the hand that was holding the cell phone across her face to wipe away the blood that was running down her chin.
She was so tired and her arm hurt from trying to apply pressure to Nick's wound. Emily just wanted to lay down and go to sleep and make this horrible night just a memory, but she forced herself to stay focused for Nick's sake.
"Must be tough being the youngest of seven." she said.
"There are worse things. Getting shot for instance." Nick made a feeble attempt to smile.
"I'm sorry about that." Emily apologized, leaning a bit closer to his face. She gave a sniff and rubbed at her face again.
"Are you okay? You're bleeding." Nick asked, finally able to focus enough to notice the blood on her face.
"Don't you worry about me. So what is it that your father does?" Emily already knew this, but she couldn't think of anything else to ask. She wanted to keep Nick's attention on something other than what they'd been through.
"He's a judge. I thought I told you that." Nick murmured.
"You did. I guess I forgot." She lied clumsily.
She wondered what it must have been like for him to grow up in such a large family - to be loved by so many people. She wondered what it must be like to have a father you could actually respect instead of having one who was pure evil.
Emily felt the pang of self-loathing. How could she sit her feeling like that when Nick was pain because of her? How could she disrespect the memory of her brother like that? Had he not proved his love for her time and time again by risking his life for her? What better testament to love is there than self-sacrifice?
Emily tightened her grip on the cell phone as she felt a fresh wave of tears sting her eyes. She fought against the wave of emotions threatening to overtake her. She had to be strong.
Nick shivered. "It's cold. Why is it so cold?"
"I'm sorry. Just hang on, okay? Help's coming soon. Then we'll get you warm and all fixed up. Sound good?" Emily tried to snuggle closer to him in order to provide a bit more warmth.
She was about to ask Nick more questions when she heard a sound in the distance. Sirens. The calvary had arrived.
Emily shouted herself hoarse in an attempt to lead the paramedics to her position. When she saw them come stumbling through the trees, she gave a sigh of relief. They immediately moved her to the side and began their efforts to stabilize Nick.
As Emily watched them load him on a stretcher and carry him off, Grissom and Brass appeared through the trees and came over to her side.
"Is he going to be okay?" Emily asked, her eyes following the EMTs as they carried Nick away.
"He'll be fine. You did a good job." Grissom said with confidence. He took a moment to study her face. "We need to get you checked out too."
"No. It's okay. I'm fine." she said, bringing her hand up to hide her face and in doing so made it possible for Grissom to see the cut on her palm.
"There's a lot of blood. I think your nose might be broken. Your hand needs to be looked at as well. That's a deep cut." Grissom stated, taking hold of her hand.
He reached out to take hold of her arm so as to gently try to lead her away, but she shook him off.
"It's nothing I'm not used to." She breathed, shaking her head. She tried to take a few steps away from them but was unsteady on her feet. Brass reached out to keep her from falling.
"I'm just tired." Her voice was weary. It was clear that the emotional strain of the evening was finally hitting Emily with full force.
"I just want to sit down. Can we sit?" she asked, turning her blue eyes to Grissom.
"Sure. We can sit." Grissom gave her a small smile.
He was about to suggest heading back to the road where the ambulance was, when Emily unceremoniously plopped down on the ground. Brass gave the CSI the tiniest fraction of a smile as they both joined the prosecutor on the ground.
"Can you tell us what happened?" Grissom asked her slowly.
In a voice that sounded completely unnatural to her, Emily began to recount the events of the evening. She told them how Richard had appeared at the diner, made Nick hand over his gun, and then shot him. She told them how Richard had forced Nick to drive while he sat in the back with her. She told them how Nick had crashed the car on purpose in order to give her the chance to escape. She told them how Richard had caught up with her and forced her to the ground. She told them how Nick had tackled Richard and how they had struggled.
"And he was on top of Nick, choking him. I picked up the gun and told him to let go, but he wouldn't listen. He was going to kill him, so I shot him. I killed my father." The full weight of her words seem to hit her like a ton of bricks as if she was only now realizing the full ramifications of what she had done. Eyes growing wide, she clamped a hand over her mouth.
A dry sob escaped her lips. "I did it! I've dreamt about doing it for a long time, but I never thought I'd actually do it! I can't believe it! He's gone! I don't know what to do! I don't think I can handle this!"
At these words, she began to rock back and forth, wringing her hands and searching the ground frantically for something that she could not find. Her breathing became erratic and tears began to run down her cheeks and mingle with the blood on her chin and under her nose.
Even though it was against his nature, Grissom grabbed the young woman and pulled her into a tight embrace as she collapsed into a full-fledge emotional breakdown. He smoothed her hair as she cried uncontrollably and they sat together on the ground until the morning light signaled the dawn of a new day.