A/N: Penultimate chapter time guys (sob sob) I have loved writing the story, wrote way more chapters than anticipated but I hope you've enjoyed reading it. What's this rumour about Greg dying in the real CSI world! Please can somebody fill in a very worried English student? They can't kill him off they just can't! Anyway enough rambling, you want to know what happens next after that very nasty cliff-hanger (sorry about that!) Without further ado I present you chapter 22.

Disclaimer: OMG I've just realised I've not written one of these! Please don't sue me lovely CSI people I'm only a poor British student! Don't own CSI, the only thing I own in this story are the characters you don't recognise from the established CSI franchise and of course the storyline is all dreamed up from my devious little mind.

"Dammit Greg! Not now! Not after all we went through, you're not dying on me now!" Grissom cried. He urgently began CPR before the paramedics could even reach him, breathing life into Greg's lungs and then beginning chest compressions. "Come on Greg! Come on!" He pleaded, the chest refused to rise, he wasn't responding. Catherine and Sara watched helplessly, tears streaming down both their faces. Warrick looked on in horror, unable to believe that was Greg lying there lifeless on the grass. Gil was not giving up, breathing for him again. Nothing. He remained motionless. Grissom was struggling to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill, they had found him too late, and Paul had won. Suddenly the small body began to respond, the chest was rising by itself and Greg began to cough violently as he struggled to breathe again. Grissom quickly got over the shock of seeing him revived and sensibly rolled him onto his side, so he did not choke on the water that filled his lungs. "That's it "he encouraged "Spit it all out". Greg spat out the water that had threatened to clog up his lungs, a sea flowed out of his mouth, slowly his eyes opened

."Griss?" he croaked in disbelief at the face hovering above him, convinced he was going crazy and Paul had morphed into Grissom.

"Yes Greg, it's me, its over we found you, you're alright now" Slowly, more faces swam into Greg's view, Catherine was tightly clasping Warrick's hand, her face stained with tears but a smile beamed broadly on her lips. Sara was also stood there, staring down in disbelief at him, was he in Heaven? Was Sara an angel? Or worse was he having an out of body experience and they were staring down at his body? He became acutely aware of the rain lashing his face; did they have rain in Heaven? Finally he took in the commotion surrounding him, the flashing lights of ambulances and the police all around. It was real Grissom was real, they were all real, he was alive! He tried to speak but his throat burned and he realised he was staring like a gaping goldfish.

"Found? How, He said I was gonna die…never find me…you came" Greg was struggling to make sense of what happened. Warrick draped blankets around him as he shivered violently, his skin was going blue. The paramedics took charge quickly loading him into the ambulance and also handed blankets to the CSIs who were soaking wet. As the doors were about to close on him, Greg suddenly remembered something else and his eyes filled with tears once more "Wait! Where's Nick...Oh god he did kill him didn't he?"

"No he's alive Greg, Nick's alive, don't worry" Sara called out, she saw tears, tears of relief running down his face and they locked eyes for a moment before the doors closed on her young friend, the same friend who had just 'died' moments ago. It was the end of two days of hell she never wanted to experience again.

The four brave CSIs were treated for the affects of hypothermia, having spent so long in the icy cold water. The ambulance carrying Greg was followed by a second ambulance carrying Grissom and Sara and the third with Warrick and Catherine. Grissom sat huddled in blankets on the opposite side of the ambulance to Sara who was wrapped in grey blankets and foil. Her hair was sopping wet and her make up had been completely ruined by the water and her tears but she didn't care about her appearance in the slightest. The two sat in silence for a while.

"I really thought we had lost him" Sara eventually said

"So did I"

"You saved his life Grissom"

"We all did, we all got him out of there, besides we should probably thank Nick, if it wasn't for him then we would definitely have been too late."

Sara didn't want to think about what would have happened if they were too late; it was bad enough to find him barely breathing. Suddenly, everything that had happened these past two days caught up with her, the massacre, Greg's kidnapping, the explosion, Nick's injuries, Paul's suicide, finding Greg then almost losing him again.

She broke down, making no attempt to hide her tears as they fell freely and cried heavily, great big sobs. Grissom scooted across the ambulance and held Sara as the emotions she had kept bottled up exploded now. "Let it all out" Grissom soothed holding her hand as she buried her head into his shoulder "Just let it all out"

At the hospital, Nick was like a caged animal, pacing anxiously in his room. It was almost two hours since the team had gone, and they hadn't heard a word since. Nick was beginning to seriously doubt himself now; if he was wrong then Greg was almost certainly dead, no! That bastard couldn't win. His sadistic grin would be forever etched on Nick's mind, he wasn't taking Greg with him, he couldn't. Nick fell into a troubled sleep.

Greg was in a bad way, the doctors revealed to his anxious team mates on arrival at the hospital. It was a miracle he survived. As well as the hypothermia from the water, Greg had also suffered head forced trauma, as well as numerous bruises and cuts to his arms, legs and ribs, there were needle marks all over his arms where he had been repeatedly injected with some kind of numbing drugs. Worst of all was the likely possibility that Greg had been repeatedly raped, the doctor revealed sadly to the devastated CSIs. They were not yet allowed to go in and see Greg but they watched him from the window, in the harsh light of the room they saw the full extent of Greg's injuries, they had not even noticed in the drain. Catherine let out a sob as she saw his lithe body lying in the hospital bed, broken and bruised. There were tubes hooked up to him everywhere and he had a huge bandage around his forehead. His eyes were closed, having been sedated, his arms that were rested above the blankets were starting to return to his normal colour but his skin was marred with so many bruises and marks for it to be normal. He didn't look like the Greg that they all knew and loved, it was somebody else lying in that bed; it didn't look like Greg Sanders.

Nick awoke with a start to find sunlight streaming through the blinds of his hospital room, he had slept all night! He had to find out what happened. The nurse walked in "Morning Mr Stokes" she smiled "You have a visitor, a Sara Sidle? You know her?" She asked carefully, not willing to make the same mistake that had allowed a psychotic killer to get in his room before.

"Yes!" Nick exclaimed "Send her in please"

She hadn't even got half way into the room before Nick pounced on her "Please tell me you found him" He begged.

"Yes we found him" she smiled, gratefully accepting Nick's hug

"Oh thank god" Nick heaved a big sigh of relief "He is going to be ok?"

"I won't lie Nick he is in a really bad way but he's alive and out of danger and that's all that matters" Sara replied "How are you feeling?"

"Better, I can stand up again" he said with a small smile. He studied Sara stood before him and noticed for the first time what an awful state she was in. She had panda eyes, and looked like she hadn't slept in days, her hair was unkempt and tangled and her top was ripped.

"Sara no offence but you look awful, what happened?"

"You don't look too great yourself" she joked "Well we found Greg where you said we would but it took a long time to free him water rising fast, I got wet, make up ran, hair got wet and smelly. Saved Greg, revived Greg, cried quite a lot, came to hospital, slept on that chair in the corridor, came here, that just about sums it up"

Nick quickly realised that in a small way Paul had won, he had succeeded on one aim, all the CSIs had been put through hell, these last couple of days. Hopefully though it was all at an end now. "When can I go and see him?" Nick asked anxiously

"Not yet" Sara admitted, "He's sleeping now and then the doctors will have to run tests..." Her voice tailed off

"Tests? What kind of tests?" Nick asked sensing the hesitation in her voice.

Sara paused, took a deep breath, she knew Nick was going to be so angry and upset.

"Nick, the rape kit came back positive. He was raped. Nick please don't blame yourself, it wasn't something that you could have prevented" She pleaded.

Nick was shattered by the news, it was something they had all feared but to now hear the cold blunt truth was heartbreaking. "I wish I could have done something though, should have done something, I never even sensed that anything was wrong. Damn he was clever!" His fists clenched into tiny balls, he had no outlet to release his anger.

Greg awoke slowly easing his eyes open and taking in his surroundings, he took in a sharp intake of breath as jagged memories slowly returned. Being attacked at the lab, held prisoner in a strange place, hearing water all around him and finally seeing Sara's face. He looked questioningly at the four walls surrounding him, finally realising he was in a hospital room, he felt so so weak and eventually fell back into a restless slumber.

The young man tossed and turned violently as he began to have some awful flashbacks "No!" He screamed fighting whatever nightmare he had in his head. "NO, leave me alone please get away from me!" his hands twitched defensively. "No let go of me please!" His screams were so traumatising it sent the nurse scurrying in. Grissom followed, alarmed and confused. Greg's eyes had snapped open and panic was written across his face. "Keep him away from me!" He screamed pointing at Grissom, eyes flashing with fear, all he saw in front of him was Paul grinning at him, "leave me alone!" The nurse desperately tried to calm the young man down, he was now sat up in bed, shaking from head to toe. Catherine suddenly appeared in the doorway, having heard Greg's terrified screams.

"Greg! It's OK it's me Catherine"

Greg stopped shaking "Catherine? Why are you here with him? Keep him away from me!"

"Keep who Greg?" She questioned, looking around confused "Grissom?"

Greg looked at Grissom once more and finally saw him through his confusion.

"Grissom?" He repeated weakly, the evil grin and dark soulless eyes had been replaced by Grissom's concerned face, he was hallucinating, Paul was stood there just moments before wasn't he?

"Paul was here!" he insisted.

Catherine clasped his weak hand in hers and spoke to Greg gently. "No Greg he wasn't Paul's dead he cannot hurt you any further, you're safe now I promise"

"He's dead, is he really dead?" Greg didn't want to get his hopes up, convinced he had somehow misheard Catherine, or it was all part of some cruel dream

"Paul's dead" She confirmed "I can't imagine what he put you through sweetheart but he can't harm you again"

Greg found himself crying in relief; his nightmare was finally over "how did you find me?"

"It's a bit of long story Greg, the important thing is you're safe and that's all that matters" Grissom replied, looking at the young man, lying all broken in the hospital bed, he would be bearing both physical and mental scars he would struggle to recover from. Greg smiled back at him weakly.

"Thanks"

"What for?" Grissom asked in surprise

"For coming to find me" He said it like it was unexpected, like he expected them to leave him to his fate.

"Of course we came Greg," Catherine said still clasping his hand "We would never have given up on you, you're part of our team, we care about you"

It was all Greg needed to hear, that despite everything he had been through at the hands of Paul, they still cared about him. He was part of their team.

"Catherine" He whispered "What happened to Nick? Why wasn't he there?"

Catherine and Grissom exchanged glances before she replied

"He was hurt in an explosion Greg but he's OK, he's upstairs, he can come down to see you when you're ready"

Greg nodded "I'd like that"

"Greg" Grissom probed gently "Greg the doctor's want to run some tests, they need to check you're not infected after um" He couldn't bear to say it.

"Oh" Greg's voice became small and his cheeks burned in shame and embarrassment at the painful memories.

Catherine's heart went out to him, he had survived but he would have to carry the burden of what Paul did to him from this day onwards. She hugged him, carefully making sure not to hurt him too much "You'll be OK honey" The nurses came in to dress him in one of those awful hospital gowns; they carefully helped him out of his bed and onto the wheelchair. It was obviously a painful manoeuvre for Greg who winced involuntarily as the orderly firmly but gently lifted him out of the bed and they wheeled him away.

"We'll be right here waiting Greg" Catherine called after him.

He offered Catherine a weak smile but inside, he was scared to death of what the tests might show.

A/N: One last chapter to come, just to wrap everything up in a nice neat way but still with the possibility of a sequel if wanted?