Here is the next Chapter
Enjoy . . .
Nigel stood in horror. After he finally snapped out of his shock, he extended his hand towards the suspicious man. Maybe his disguise would really hold for now.
Grissom eyed the young man; he seemed skittish, of course he just kind of snuck up on the doctor.
When the man extended his hand, he took and gave it a hearty shake.
"Sorry to startle you ah . . . doctor . . .?"
"Doctor Smith, and you would be?" Nigel asked smiling. His sharade had worked, but he had to get out of there before the amitriptyline took its toll on Nick.
If he was still there when the drug created its effect Grissom would know, his long hard hours of planning would have been for nothing.
"Gilbert Grissom, is there any change in Nick's condition?" Grissom asked still a little suspicious about the mans identity. The man looked so familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on it.
"No, he . . . is still unresponsive."
Nigel had only skimmed over Nick's injury file. The young man's collarbone was shattered from the impact of that bullet he had shot him with.
His wrist was shattered, and he had a grade three concussion.
The massive internal bleeding caught his attention though, he hadn't meant to originally cause SO much damage, but not all things could have been avoided.
Nigel had gotten lucky though, if Grissom hadn't worried about Nick the way he did, then Nick wouldn't have survived test one.
Nigel had gotten angry with himself for putting Nick in such an off position, Nick was unconscious so he couldn't tell Grissom that they were no longer friends, that Nigel was his friend. And if Nigel would have saved Nick himself, surely Nick would have been willing to forgive him for his rash decision on shooting him. But Grissom had gotten to Nick quicker.
"His blood loss brought down his blood pressure so quickly that we almost lost him." Nigel smiled at the look on Grissom's face, the man looked as if he would explode.
"Do you have any idea when he'll wake up doctor?" Warrick asked from the doorway.
Nigel looked at the man; it was the same guy that was carelessly talking on his cell phone when Nigel had pushed Nick through the second story window. What a careless friend, Nigel thought bitterly. I would have never left Nick alone in an apartment like that. Nigel justified.
"I'm not one could decipher that, I was sent here solely to check up on him," Nigel blurted out. In all honesty he wish he knew when Nick would wake up.
Grissom now eyed him with uncertainty. "If you were sent here to check up on him then how did you know his condition so prominently?"
Nigel tried hard not to roll his eyes at this man. "I have to be informed of the patients condition before I check on him of course!" Nigel defended himself, he wasn't incompetent. Nick was his first priority.
"Of course, I'm sorry if I offended you . . . it's just that Nick is like a son to me, and we are worried about him." Grissom was now trying to sort out pictures and names of people; this man was so familiar.
"Well, I have work to do . . . but if I see Nick's physician, then I'll send him up here to answer any of your questions. Nigel had only a few minutes at best before Nick's body would shoot into overdrive.
Grissom nodded; he really needed to speak with Nick's doctor. "It's okay, I'll call him, I have a few questions I need to ask him." Grissom put his hand to his chin, if he didn't find out whom that man was it was going to drive him crazy.
The man smiled and walked out the door.
"Griss, is it me or did that guy seem . . . somehow familiar?" Warrick asked, his blue eyes locking onto the pale figure lying unnaturally still, a thin clear sheet of plastic hung over him to protect his body from bacteria. Both Warrick and Grissom were asked to put on surgical clothing complete with cap, mask and boots.
"Its bothering me, he seemed a little too nervous," Grissom replied, pulling up an ugly blue plastic chair next Nick. He picked up the phone lying on the nightstand; he waited until someone picked up. It was a nurse; she paged Nick's doctor who answered the phone five minutes later.
"Mister Grissom, what can I do for you today?" The doctor asked.
"Doctor Jennings, do you have any good new for me today?" Grissom asked hopefully.
"I'm sorry but Mister Stokes is in the same physical and mental condition he was yesterday. He is still very weak, and there is a good chance that his body will indeed take on an infection in his lungs."
Grissom frowned at the news. "Is there anything that you can do? My field is in forensic science and I have more luck with the dead than with the living, but I'm sure that there has to be something you can do for him."
"Calm down Mister Grissom, there are risks to everything, but Nick has a good chance of coming through this. It's harder to know the extent of these injuries when the patient is in a coma, such as Mister Stokes. And do believe that even though Mr. Stokes hasn't gotten better, he hasn't gotten worse, and that could be vital right now in his current state."
Grissom and doctor Jennings conversed for a few more minutes, than Grissom and Warrick talked about old times.
"Griss, do you think Nick will have . . . mental problems when he wakes up?"
Grissom looked down at his hands, that thought had managed to always stick its way into the back of his mind. He wondered many times if Nick would have these problems and the same answer beckoned him every time.
"I don't know, I know more about what can go wrong with the human anatomy, than what can go right. Nick is sensitive about his work, and I have absolutely no idea what will come of this accident."
Warrick was about to speak when Nick's monitors started going berserk.
His body started shaking with little movements, then got bigger until his body was arching off the bed.
"Warrick, go get help!" Grissom yelled.
Warrick did as he was told; he ran down the hall and collected any nurse free.
Grissom had to hold Nick down before he pulled the I.V. from his arm. The convulsions were getting worse bringing on new problems.
Grissom watched in horror as bile erupted from the young agents' mouth. Thinking quickly, he rolled Nick over before he could choke. Memories of the night the team had found Nick flooded his senses.
He looked up to the heart monitor to find a straight line coursing through the screen, not the comforting zig-zag that proved a heart was still beating.
TBC