A/N: Another of my chapters. Enjoy!

xoxox

Nick stared at the blank screen, willing it to come on again. Tears were welling up in his warm, brown eyes, threatening to spill. He looked at the moniter where he had seen Pam mere seconds before, realization sinking in that if he didn't get up and get moving, she might not have a chance to live.

He stood to leave, following Archie out the door. Greg was left alone in the room, his blue-haired goddess gone from the screen in front of him. He remembered with a shudder how the blood had dribbled from the corner of her mouth, pooling on the table underneath her. He sighed, then got up and left, going to his locker and opening it. He leaned in, searching, until he found what he was looking for. A small, wallet-size photo of Maddy, He allowed a single tear to run down his cheek as he gazed at her smiling face, her blue hair covering one eye, two fingers on her right hand held up in a peace sign. He sniffed a little, getting control of himself, and headed to the bathroom to splash his face with some cold water.

Jim Brass had never felt so panicked in his life. His usually calm, sarcastic expression was gone, replaced by a frantic one. He hurried down the halls, meeting Grissom halfway between the A/V lab and the breakroom.

"Gil, I need you to check something out for me," he said breathlessly. Grissom was startled at how his friend had fallen apart, and he wondered vaguely which of the girls it was who meant so much to him. All three, maybe?

"Okay, Jim, get ahold of yourself," he said, placing his hands on the other man's shoulders. "Let's go."

Grissom followed Brass down the hall, stopping in front of Archie's lab. "I had Archie record the footage we got, it doesn't have sound. That's where you come in, Gil."

Grissom sat down in the chair, clicked the play button on the screen. "Maddy's asking how the captors know the girls," he said calmly, after watching the screen for a few minutes. "I can't really tell, but I think he's asking her if she knows him. It's Regan, the mailman. That's what she says. Then she asks why he's doing it and he says..." Grissom squinted, scrutinizing the way Regan's lips moved. "You could say it's for ransom, you could say it's to get back at three certain guys." He paused the clip, looking up into Jim's face. "I'm assuming that you're one of them. Who are the other two? Nick and Greg, right?"

Brass looked at his friend, surprise etched all over his face. "How did you know?"

Gil smiled. "Catherine tells me all the latest gossip, you know."

xoxox

On the other side of the video feed, the girls had begun to stir. Natasha was the first to wake up, trying to sit up and then remembering where she was and why there was a throbbing pain in her head and her shoulder. She turned a little, facing Maddy, who had her mouth open and her eyes shut, blood dripping slowly from the side of her mouth.

"Maddy," she hissed, trying not to be too loud. One of Maddy's eyes opened, and she looked blearily around before opening the other one.

"Jesus, Tash, you look terrible," Her words were slightly slurred, but as she took in her surroundings her eyes cleared and her voice became sharper. "How are we getting out of here?"

Natasha attempted a shrug, failing to strain against the bonds that held her to the table. Maddy smiled a little, then turned her head the other way after hearing Pam groan a little.

"You awake?" she said, noticing that her friend's eyelids were fluttering a little. Pam opened her eyes, staring right into the goofy grin Maddy-the-lab-tech was giving her.

"Hey, Mad," she said weakly, craning her neck a little to see Natasha on Maddy's other side. "Hey, Tash!" She said this a little too loudly, though, because at that moment the door to the room they were in opened and the three captors came in.

"They're awake," the one called George said in an oily voice, moving towards Pam and running a finger over her collarbone. She shivered, recoiling as best she could from his touch.

Tasha winced as she turned to lay on her left side, remembering how she's been shot there. She faced Maddy, who was working at the bonds around her wrists with nimble guitarist's fingers. The knot came undone, and she tried to reach the ones binding her ankles. "If I can get my own undone, I can free Tash and Pam and we can fight back," she thought desparately, finding the knot behind her feet and tugging at the strings.

"Shit," Regan said, moving over to wear Maddy was struggling with the knot. He shouted to Doug to turn on the cameras, and a window popped up on the screen Grissom and Brass were watching, horrified. Archie, Nick, and Greg walked back into the A/V lab at that moment. Archie rushed over and hit the record button. Regan synched the ropes tighter around Maddy's wrists, then grabbed her right hand and squeezed until he heard her forfinger break like dry spaghetti.

Maddy screamed, tears sliding down her face. Greg's heart was ripping in two. Regan walked away and picked up a piece of white cardboard. He wrote busily on it while Doug and George advanced on Pam and Tasha. Doug took out a knife and tickled it gently over Natasha's arm, slicing in slightly then pulling it out and wiping the blood on her hospital gown. Pam was being threatened with a gun. A tranquilizer rifle, but a gun none-the-less. George hit her on the side of the head, sending her mind reeling, then punched her hard in the stomach, bringing her crashing back to reality. He stood back and aimed the gun, shooting her squarely in the shoulder. Her mind went blank.

xoxox

The tears that had come so close to spilling out of Nick's eyes finally flooded, running down his face and falling down to his black t-shirt, soaking in like so many raindrops. Greg ran one hand through his hair, anxiously biting his nails as the tears fell from Maddy's eyes, mixing with the blood from her mouth on the table. Brass had his head in his hands, and although no one could see it, tears were pooling in his palms. Grissom looked over at him, searching his friend's body language for a sign of what was going on in his mind.

"Oh my God," Greg said shakily, causing everyone in the room to look back at the screen. Regan had scrawled hastily on the piece of white cardboard and was holding it up to the camera.

Jim Brass, Nick Stokes, Greg Sanders-

We will get one million dollars in hundreds or we kill the girls. We're starting with the one in the middle. If you don't have the money in the dumpster behind La Chaton in twelve hours, they die. The sooner we get the money, the less we hurt your CSIs.

A look of horror spread across Greg's face and he ran from the room, crashing through the halls until he finally reached his locker. He pulled out the picture, making sure it was safe, then slid down the wall to sit on the floor, allowing the tears to come freely.

Back in the lab, the feed had stopped with the message that it would be back on in an hour's time. "Archie," Grissom said sharply, "I need you to pull some stills of the ransom note. There was a logo on the cardboard, see if you can enhance that. Get a brand name for me."

xoxox

A/N: Well, that's my chapter for now! Next will be one by Nikki, aka Natasha. Thanks as always for reading, and review!

Maddy