Grissom stood next to Commander Henry as they watched the only true source for observing all the activities around. He preferred to have sound and visual, than to be some spectator from several hundred feet away. If Grissom stood quietly in the vehicle, than he could observe all he needed to from the monitors that had been set up and listen in on the wire as things proceeded.
Gil stood tensely ignoring all the radio chatter between the units, his ears solely attuned to the voice that sporadically chirped from the microphone. He watched as Nick approached the steps cautiously, depending on the rail to keep his body moving forward.
He heard the nervousness of Nick's voice when he absently signaled his approach. The van filled up with the audio of scraping fabric, and outside white noise. Gil tensed when the assailant came into view. The man responsible for this entire ordeal cowardly shielded himself from justice with the little boy's struggling body.
Grissom chewed on his lip as Nick did his job and kept his distance as the suspect tried to get him nearer. Grissom felt his body lean closer to the live monitor as the exchange was nearly complete, but his heart thundered when the murderer flung the child over the landing. The static of the radios bounced around as teams screamed their observations. The target was still not clear and now the hostage had been thrown. However, Gil's steely eyes enlarged as he saw Nick grab the child, making himself vulnerable to an attack.
It was what the suspect had been waiting for. His ears were assaulted by Nick's shouts for the child to run, followed by his heavy intake of breath as he was snatched from behind by the assailant. Grissom felt his body tense as his CSI was pulled and hidden from view and the door closed shut on the camera lens.
Commander Henry was screaming for his team to grab Jason as he ran down the steps, away from the building… and finally at an acceptably safe distance. Jason Todd was grabbed by two men there to protect him; all the while his CSI had been torn from safety. Grissom didn't realize his jaw had been clamped shut. His eyes had gone wide in fear when the door swung open, by the thunderous approach of Warrick Brown followed by the rest of the team.
"Goddamn bastard grabbed Nick!" Warrick shouted, stating the obvious.
The SWAT team scrambled to no avail and Gil's eyes darted from screen to screen, his ears keenly attuned to the audio. They were all blinded like bats, their only connection to Nick the wispy audio of a wire hidden in his vest.
Gill took a moment to breathe. To articulate what had happened. He looked over to the shocked and angered expressions of his criminalists as they waited to see what unfolded next. The van was way too cramped and crowded by the other members of the team. It would be like Nick to sacrifice himself up for the little boy… a child who was now safe, and the very fragile CSI at the hands of a madman.
The units were still re-establishing positions outside the van, several SWAT members standing by for additional instructions. The explosives hidden in the building kept them all at bay, knowing that there was a trigger device involved, and the lack of information about the locations of the bombs.
Warrick, Sara, and Greg remained in the back of the van. Catherine snuck up closer next to Grissom's side, the vehicle silent except for the audio signal from Nick's wire.
'Now we can talk.'
They could hear the sounds of harsh breathing and Nick's soft groan after being thrown inside.
'Come on, get up. Let's not be so close to these doors,' Walker instructed.
Grissom tilted his head as the van was filled with the sounds of Nick being forced to move, his weak struggle and hiss of pain, causing Grissom to grind his teeth.
"He's being moved into the next room," one of the AV guys announced.
"Let me see that blue print," Commander Henry instructed.
Sara wrung her hands together, as the sounds of Nick's movements bounced around in all the speakers. Warrick remained tense, his hand on Sara's arm for comfort. The lanky man kept his eyes closed. He blocked off his other senses as he tried to listen as close as possible to what was happening.
There was a lot of white noise and ruckus that had been quickly replaced by another 'thud.' Nick was breathing very heavily now. He had not said a word to the kidnapper- no orders or commands, no soft pleas or questions. It was the lack of any conversation from him that had Grissom's attention. He hoped it wasn't a signal of quiet acceptance. That Nick felt with the child free that whatever transpired next was of no consequence, considering the heavy emotional and physical toll he had undergone the past few days.
'We don't have very much time, you know.'
Catherine's hand rested on Grissom's shoulder at the casualness of the words. Gil kept his head bowed to the ground in his attempts to listen intently.
'I've been thinking about what you said the other day. I mean… how much we're alike. I thought Jason was the answer… I think I was wrong.'
'Did you test Jason?' Nick's voice echoed inside the van.
Grissom squinted.
'No, I didn't. I talked to him about his father, about the kind of evil that raised him. I was going to simply put him out of his misery… of growing up under such influence, but I decided not to.'
The audio shifted. It filled with movement and more inaudible noise.
'I kept him alive so we could have our talk.'
Nick's breathing was ragged, but his voice remained soft and clear. He was trying to help the case and get statements on the record.
'What did you do to all of those other children?' he asked.
There was a strange scraping sound. Whatever caused it made Nick's intake of breath even more rapid.
'I buried them in the same graveyards of the churches that the Todds attended. Unmarked and unattended, so that their impure souls could be wiped clean by the soil.'
Nick's raspy and angry voice resonated inside the van. 'They were innocent children!'
'That's the question, isn't it? Are we really innocent, Nick? Was I?'
Grissom shifted his feet; his fear of what might come next slowly crept down his spine.
Walker's voice was lower. 'Were you innocent, Nick? Did you ask to be marked? To have your soul stained, and your spirit tainted by impure hands?'
There was a mumbled response, slurred and profanity laced.
Catherine leaned on Gil's shoulder, face stricken, her eyes squeezed shut. Grissom dug his fingers into his knee.
'Did you ever tell anyone, only to be ignored? To have your violation brushed under the rug.' Walker's voice continued to rise in tone. 'To have your own family ashamed and accept money afterwards, once guilt began to eat away!'
Trent Walker's voice boomed inside the van. It was filled with pain, resentment, and pure rage. It only served to highlight Nick's own silence.
'Talk! Answer me!' Walker's raged voice wavered through, causing Catherine's hands to dig into the flesh of Grissom's shoulder.
Grissom slowly turned around to face the shocked and saddened faces of his team. Sara stared at the ceiling. Her body trembled, and Warrick's arm went around her small shoulders, only to be brushed away. Nick's best friend's expression was of pained realization. Warrick's eyes were wide open and vacant, his brain on overload, thinking and taking in the conversation.
Greg's gaze was directed at the floor, obviously unable to look at anyone right now, as the team slowly put the pieces together. Nick's actions and reactions were becoming much clearer in the resulting chaos.
Nick had still not said a word. Grissom was almost grateful not to hear a response, a final affirmation of the unfolding nightmare.
Gil looked at his team. "I think all of you should leave."
No one moved, too stunned to actually respond to the supervisor's request. Catherine looked over at three sets of eyes that only reflected determination and refusal.
'You know don't you. You knew deep inside that it was wrong. Did you allowit? Did you just let it happen, Nick?'
Catherine sent her coworkers a plea with her eyes, to walk away. To leave Nick with some dignity, not to bear witness to a secret that wasn't theirs to share with willingly.
'Answer me!' Walker demanded.
'Go to hell.'
Nick's response made everyone straighten in pride. He wasn't going to acquiesce and bend to another.
'Soon enough, Nick. We'll both go together, but not until you share with me your pain.'
Then the van filled up with the sounds of Nick's screams.
Nick landed on the floor with a grunt and with a complete void of energy. He remained on his back, his limbs unresponsive and his head filled with a sort of lethargy. His body was dead weight, void of any kind of desire to fight anymore. He closed his eyes, feeling the presence of the other man leaning over him.
He felt a sense of calm, knowing that Jason had escaped. Nick let his exhausted mind slip into a sort of limbo. His fevered skin continued to zap him of any kind of stamina, his strength ebbing away into the smooth floor below him.
Walker had said something to him, but Nick didn't hear him. But the kidnapper grabbed him by his vest, hoisted him up, and dragged him to another room. Nick could barely keep his feet under him, his coordination lazy and slow. Once inside a different room, the kidnapper simply let go of him and he collapsed back to the floor.
Trent Walker put his bomb device onto a small desk and sat down next to where Nick lay sprawled out. He was speaking to him, and knowing that anything said would be a matter of record, Nick tried to keep vigilant. Walker had kept Jason alive, but did he harm him? He asked about the testing and when he angrily demanded to know what he had done to the bodies of his other victims, Walker pulled out his favorite thing.
Walker took out his knife and began to gently stroke the tip of the blade from Nick's throat down the fabric of his vest, idly brushing the blade in an up-and-down motion over his chest. Nick couldn't slow down his breathing; his sense of preservation was still in tact.
Walker began to ask him questions, somehow projecting some weird sort of bond between them. Nick just stared up at the face of a man who was unable to cope with the abuse he suffered. Nick's own day of trauma had been buried deep inside; he wouldn't let it plague his behavior. He learned how to move on and try to escape the phantoms that sometimes opened up old wounds.
Walker was screaming at him, insisting he share his own inner turmoil. It was no one's business, it was left in the past, and he wasn't about to share any of it with this madman. Walker applied pressure to his blade, allowing it to tear at the fabric of his vest, but Nick was not going to cave in to weakness or show the man any fear. Walker would not gain anything.
"You know, don't you. You knew deep inside that it was wrong. Did you allow it? Did you just let it happen, Nick?"
Nick just stared, his jaw tightening from the taunts. His silence would be his victory.
Walker's face was sweating, his skin's tone growing dark with increased anger. "Answer me!" he screamed.
"Go to hell," he replied. It was such a satisfying thing to say.
Walker stopped methodically taunting him with his knife. With a glint in his eye he stared down at him, placing his face mere inches away from Nick's.
"Soon enough, Nick. We'll both go together, but not until you share with me your pain."
The kidnapper took his left hand and caressed his fingers over Nick's vest, sliding them down to his belly. His fingertips lingered right over his injured abdomen and pressed down hard.
Nick screamed when the weight sent hot white blinding pain across his stomach. Walker continued the pressure for several seconds and stopped. Nick had a death grip over the kidnapper's hand, trying to prevent the assault. Once Walker removed his fingers, Nick tried to shrink away, but the man kept him still. Panting, the CSI calmed down once the throbbing receded.
"Did you enjoy it, Nick? When someone you trusted hurt you. Did you fight back?"
Nick gnashed his teeth, but Walker waited for an answer. His fingers went back to subject him to more pain and Nick felt them as he pressed his fingers down harder.
"Stop! You bastard," he choked out. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't ask for Matt Todd to do what he did. It's always about control," he gasped.
Nick fought hard to breathe. He groaned and tried to control his shivering body.
"I must have. We both did. Why would we let it happen otherwise? He sensed something wrong inside me. The same way I tested those children, to find out the evil inside them."
Nick's brain was running a mile a minute. He felt a twinge of empathy at the desperation that had twisted up the mind of a child who had been unable to cope with what been done to him.
"There was nothing wrong with you. Nothing you did made Matt Todd hurt you. He's the sick man. He was the one with the control problem, not you," he whispered. Nick was so tired, his body unable to endure this much stress. His head was pounding and all he wanted to do was sleep.
"You're wrong!" Walker yelled. "I must have wanted it. My body didn't seem to mind. Neither did all those kids. It's all the same," he rationalized.
Nick closed his eyes shaking his head. "Your body is programmed to react in a certain way… its natural... no matter how hard you fight it. You were a kid who trusted a man who was supposed to look after you. Of course you'd blame yourself… its easier to accept that we were somehow at fault than to believe an adult capable of that kind of violation."
Walker was shaking his head while he ran his hand though his buzzed hair.
"No, no. It's not true. Who did you tell then?"
Nick kept his mouth closed. He saw Walker's agitated expression as he asked the same question again. Nick saw the fingers start to come down on his belly.
"No one!" Nick's voice cracked. "I told no one. I just pretended it didn't happen."
Walker's expression twisted into a mask of non-acceptance. "No, you told no one because you liked it."
Nick grew angry. "I never wanted it. Neither did you," he whispered.
"Did you let it happen, Nick?" Walker was leaning over him again. "Did you fight back?"
Nick was lost again in a flurry of pain. It was hard to concentrate as his ears were filled with a loud buzzing sensation. "I just memorized the planets," he mumbled.
Walker looked confused. Nick was fading out on him, shaking his head, not paying him any more attention. The kidnapper slapped Nick's face a few times to gain his attention. The CSI opened his unfocused eyes, they reflected back in a daze, bright with fever.
Walker looked over at the prone man, his head still shaking. "No, you're wrong. And I'll prove it. I might not have the time to do it properly. With the children I first took away their favorite thing and taunted them with it for hours, keeping their wants and desire for it at bay."
Walker looked around the room, taking in his surroundings. "But with you, I know. You'll be tested just like the others."
Nick's eyes grew large at the last statement. Walker went to unzip his vest, and Nick grabbed the man's hands with as much force as possible.
"You'll have to kill me first," he growled as he shoved the man away with as much force as possible.
Walker was caught off guard by the amount of strength that his hostage had managed to exhibit. He was right, this man had shown incredible resolve, and as much as he wanted to see for himself, it was just a matter of time. The kidnapper grabbed his knife and decided to end the game now.
Nick took a second to try to sit up. He began to reach for his right ankle when Walker was on top of him again, the sharp knife posed to strike. Nick used his left hand to grab Walker's wrist as the knife came bearing down on him. With what little adrenaline left flowing in his veins, Nick tried to keep the suspect's hand in the air over him. His right hand brushed up against the gun hidden in his ankle holster.
Nick struggled with a man near his strength on a normal day. His fingers curled around the gun and he brought it to his side in only a second, even though his struggle seemed to last forever. Walker had the knife over Nick's chest, the point pressing down, tearing the fabric of his shirt.
He felt the blade begin to dig, as Walker whispered, "Just let go."
Nick pointed the gun towards the body over him, and as his assailant made one final attempt to jab the knife in, Nick pulled the trigger.
tbc...
Notes at my bio...