Special thanks going out to all of the people who took the time to review (especially everybetty and KatKnits00 who've reviewed every chapter so far :-) ). I really appreciate the time you take to let me know what you think of my story.
The black vehicle containing Grissom and Catherine screeched to a halt as Grissom slammed on the breaks. The sounds emanating from the crime scene less than a mile behind them were no longer those he knew and was comfortable in. They had changed to sounds of terror, people were screaming and yelling about. It was absolute chaos.
"Are you okay?" Grissom looked over at his slightly shaken supervisor in the seat to his right. Her hair was a mess in front of her face and she'd obviously taken a hard jerk when Grissom had halted their momentum so suddenly in response to the explosion from behind.
"I'll be fine." She answered immediately. "What the hell happened?"
Grissom couldn't answer, he had no more idea of what was going on than she did. He turned his Tahoe carefully back towards the crime scene so they could determine what was happening. He knew it was important that they get back to the lab as quickly as possible, not only to check on Nick, but, most importantly, to ascertain whether his initial suspicions had been correct. He also knew that after an explosion with the magnitude of what he'd just felt, people were bound to be hurt, and they needed to help them if they could.
The crime scene behind that had been the picture of order only moments before, was now in complete disarray. People were screaming, nothing was as it had been when the CSI's had left less than five minutes earlier. The scene didn't register immediately for Grissom and Catherine. Both of them were in a state of shock. How could this have happened?
Grissom found Brass pulling an injured cop from amidst the bodies lying in the newly formed crater. He was sweating profusely and bleeding from one arm, but not enough for him to stop working and trying desperately to get his men out of the hell they'd found themselves in.
"What the hell happened?" Grissom had to scream to make himself heard over the noise of the scene around him.
Brass didn't answer immediately. He dragged the man towards the nearest ambulance and, once the paramedics had gathered up his charge, he collapsed on the ground, exhausted by his exertions. For a long time he didn't answer Grissom or even look at him.
"What happened?" Catherine enquired again.
Brass's exhaustion was evident. His voice was dripping with it. "Once you guys gave us the okay the coroner tried to extract the body from the scene so it could be taken to the lab for the autopsy. I was about to leave. We just got a call on the radio about a guy pulled over on the way back into town, possibly drunk, definitely vomiting on the side of the road. I was walking away everything blew up. I didn't realize what was going on until I turned around and I saw…"
Grissom and Catherine didn't need to ask what Brass had seen upon turning his eyes back to the scene. The evidence of the explosion was still strewed all around them. Catherine was reminded forcibly of the scene in the abandoned warehouse that had resulted from Grissom's botched ransom drop with Nick's kidnapper. There was blood everywhere and body parts were strewn across the desert for at least a quarter of a mile. Only one difference set this scene apart from the scene she'd investigated a few weeks before. This time the bodies belonged to innocent people. Their own people.
Brass stood up and began talking to the nearest police officers. Pushing his exhaustion aside, he was back to business, demanding information of the nearest police officer he could find. Within minutes the death count had reached five. Four police officers standing too close and the coroner trying to remove the body had all been killed in the blast. On top of that, flying debris injured 3 people, including Brass.
It had been a long time since Grissom had seen carnage of this nature. He turned to Catherine his mind doing double-time. "Cath, we have to get back to the lab. If I'm right…I need to process some evidence."
As he said it Grissom checked his pocket once again for the small package he'd placed there earlier. He sighed as he realized it was safe. It's a good thing I got this when I did he thought to himself and he was right; with the scene in the state it was now, it would have been impossible for them to find any useful evidence.
Catherine was still in a state of shock, she looked at Grissom and he was stunned to see tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Oh god Gil," She started, holding back the tears. She refused to let them fall. "I told you to stay behind. You would've been…I shouldn't have let them try to remove that body. This is my scene. This is all my fault!"
Grissom did something them that surprised even himself. He drew Catherine into an embrace, stroking her hair and making the most conciliatory noises he could manage under the circumstances. Catherine pushed him away and fixed him with a questioning glare. Never before, in the time she'd known him, had Gil let such a display of emotion escape his guard.
"I'm not your boss anymore remember?" Gil smiled at her to try to assuage her tears, but, though the tears were in no danger of flowing past their lids, the look of terrible burden had not yet left her face. Grissom held onto Catherine's shoulders firmly, looked directly into her eyes and said slowly and carefully, "It's important you listen to me now Catherine. This. Was. Not. Your. Fault."
Catherine wasn't convinced but allowed a look of compliance to slide onto her face. She was at least aware that now was not the time for guilt. Grissom was right; they needed to get back to the lab.
Nick walked into the lab only slightly green in the face. He schooled his features into a look that resembled his normal expression and walked into the DNA lab. It was empty. Nick left the marked samples he'd taken from the scene in the lab and set himself to the task of determining who had belonged to a shoe print he'd found near the grave.
Nick had been working diligently at his task for nearly twenty minutes when he realized that the shoe print looked too familiar. Where have I seen this before? he wondered to himself. He stared at the photograph of the print for a couple more minutes before it hit him. He glanced slowly at the bottom of his own shoe. Perfect match. Nick had spent nearly half an hour of valuable time analyzing his own shoe print. A print he'd taken of his own shoe! "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ME?" he yelled to the empty room.
Nick was sitting alone in the break room, trying desperately not to think about the case he was supposed to be working when Warrick and Greg walked into the room closely followed by Sara. They were congratulating themselves on a job well done and Nick remembered with longing the feeling that accompanied cracking a case after a difficult night's work. He wondered dully whether he'd ever get to experience that feeling again. Or perhaps he'd lost his touch?
Greg stopped halfway through joking with Warrick about one of his disproved theories about their most recently solved case, when he saw Nick sitting at the table, staring out a window but very obviously not seeing anything outside. He hiked a smile onto his face and sat down to attempt to cheer up his friend, closely followed by Warrick and Sara, who had also realized that Nick was in need of cheering up.
"So how's the first case going?" Greg began with a valiant effort at engaging Nick in conversation. Nick offered no response.
"Ya buddy, already feeling that mid-case buzz coming?" Warrick attempted to take up the attempt.
"Huh" Well it was sort of a response anyways. Maybe he was just deep in thought trying to crack this case, his fellow CSI's thought.
"Come on Nick," Sara tried, "let us in on what's going on. Now's not the time to get cryptic. How is it working with Grissom as an equal? What's your case on anyways?"
"28 year old female. Reported missing just over 24 hours ago. She was buried alive; we…I mean they didn't find her in time. She was dead before we got there."
The report, delivered in a tone that none of them had ever heard from Nick's mouth, left the three investigator's looking as though they'd been plunged in a lake of ice water. Warrick blinked twice, but could think of nothing to say to comfort his friend.
"Gris and Cath are still at the scene. I came back to analyze some evidence."
Grissom and Catherine chose this moment to storm into the break room looking for assistance. They made a very sore sight. They were both covered in dirt, sweat and blood. Tokens of their efforts to assist the injured people from the scene. Each of them was holding a few fragments of the plastic coffin that had been at the scene, which made Nick wonder slightly,how did they get those? as he leaped up from the table.
"What the hell happened?" Nickyelled out as he rushedtowards his colleagues.
Grissom looked slowly into the face of the man he'd worked with for so long. "Someone's trying to make this personal," he said. "It happened again."
All right everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know there was a bit of … development between Grissom and Catherine in this chapter but I wanted to say that I don't intend this to be a love story of any kind and that there's probably not going to be anything deeper in that area. Please, please, keep reviewing and feel free to offer any suggestions! Thanks for reading!