Chapter 2

Catherine left the building at a fast clip, pulled out her cell phone and hit a number on her speed dial. As she waited for the call to be picked up, she quickly debated whether this call was such a good idea. But before she could change her mind, Sara picked up the phone and Catherine made the split second decision to go with her first instinct.

"Sidle."

"Sara, it's Catherine. Is there anyone with you right now?"

"No, I'm alone. What's this about?"

"I need your help, but you can't let anyone know why just yet. I'm asking you because I think that you will be the one that can dig up what I need to see, without anyone else, like the warden of this facility, finding out. You're not on this case, officially."

"So this has to do with the dead woman at the Women's Correctional Facility?" Sara was trying to catch up with Catherine's conversation, which seemed to start somewhere in the middle.

"For the most part. Listen, you'll hear this soon enough, but act slightly surprised when you do. We have a bit of a problem here. The reader's digest version is that before we could finish processing the scene there was a bit of a riot. The inmates currently have control of their cell block, and have kept Nick as a hostage. I have left Vega with the warden to make sure that they don't do anything stupid."

"Oh my…what do they want? You know we can't release anyone, or even reopen one of their case files based on this kind of action."

"I know, but listen, they want an investigation into their treatment there at the facility. Evidently a few of the injuries and suicides that have happened recently aren't what we were told. According to the woman running the show, all we have to do to get Nick is show that we are looking into this. We don't have time for me to go in to this any more."

"Okay, okay. I'll start with any calls that we answered to that facility and follow any paper trail from there. What are you going to do?"

"I am going to try to go through the proper channels first and try to keep them from doing anything that could get Nick hurt."

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"I hope so. Call me back as soon as you find out anything, even if it refutes their claims."

"You got it." With that, both women hung up, each praying for the safety, and mental health of their colleague.

Erin sat next to the attractive man sleeping on the lower bunk. She was having mixed feelings about him until a few moments ago. Until then he seemed to be sleeping rather peacefully, and she was doubting how a person who was so obviously athletic could be a victim as she had been told. But now she could see the distress on his face, and could recognize the pain and fear in his mumblings as he fought through a nightmare. She was debating whether to wake him to spare him from this pain, when she saw someone from the corner of her eye.

"What's his story, Erin? I would think that with what you've been through, you wouldn't want to look after him."

"He's different, he understands."

"How do you know? He hasn't woken up yet, has he?"

"No, but I can tell."

"Oh, man. You've got that Florence Nightingale look, the one that says that you can help."

"Who knows, Marcy, maybe I can. From what I can tell, he's been through a lot. But its not my story to tell, so don't ask. But Marcy, I don't want him to have to go through anything else if I can help it."

"I get the message. I'll tell them, but I can't promise anything."

"I know." Erin just hoped that Marcy's word would keep this poor guy from getting harassed by the other girls in the cell block.

As Marcy walked away, Erin turned her attention back to the man next to her. She could see his face contorting in horror in reaction to the dream he was having. It wasn't right to let him stay in that state of fright and so she reached over to Nick and placed her hand on his shoulder to try to wake him as gently as she could.

But as with most nightmares, waking from that state is never peaceful, and Nick was no exception. His eyes flew open, and he gasped for breath like he was worried that he couldn't get enough. Those beautiful brown eyes quickly scanned the room in panic, and stopped when he caught sight of her. Erin decided to wait for him to speak and let him make the first move, otherwise she was afraid to put him on the defensive.

"What happened? Where am I?" He said as he tried to sit up. That decision was quickly discarded as his head objected, as well as gentle hands going to his shoulders to keep him reclined. "Ow, my head."

"Stay there. Shay hit you pretty hard. If you stay still, I'll tell you what I can." She took his silence as consent for her to continue. "Jen and a few other girls decided to use the investigation on Carol's death to get the police to look into the stuff that has been going on around here, stuff that is getting inmates killed. They needed someone to stay behind so they had incentive to work on our case."

"Why me?"

"Well, you weren't exactly awake to give them trouble or to say no."

"Aren't you worried that I…" He thought it wise to leave the rest of the question unasked.

"Not really. The cell block is locked down, and there are no weapons here for you to get a hold of. And besides, we could always lock you in here."

Nick couldn't stop the alarm from showing on his face, but he hid it as quickly as he could. Erin was looking for it, and so did not miss it. It must have been horrible for someone like him to react like this. She decided to follow her own counselor's advice on the importance of communication to help this young man while he was with them.

"Nick? My name is Erin, and I am in here for manslaughter. It was in self defense, and in defense of my two kids, but they felt that I could have found another way, so here I am. I thought that you should know that, but you do not have anything to fear from me. I know who you are, Nick, and what you went through not too long ago. That is why the door to this cell remains open. Know that while you are with us, you will be treated as a guest, and share what food and water we have."

"Why didn't you all just file a complaint about your treatment here?"

"They read all outgoing mail and messages. We found that out after some complaints were sent, and it was bad for the author's health."

"You could have just given a letter to us before we left."

"I can't answer that because I am not running this show."

"Who is? Can I talk to her?"

"Her name is Jen, I have no need for last names. She'll probably stop by later to check on us, but if your lady friend couldn't change her mind, I doubt you will."

Vega was getting more than a little worried about the people in the warden's office. There were two distinct groups, each with their own method of dealing with the inmates here, and both vying for dominance. Up 'til now, he was trying to stay out of it, let them fight it out, but the real hot heads of the group were looking like they were about to leave to pursue their own agenda with or without orders or consensus.

He had to get their attention. "Hey! We need to calm down here. I realize that this is your turf…"

A statement that was answered by a chorus of "that's right."

Vega went on as if he had not heard them. "…but that man down there with them is LVPD. Know this, if any action you take, without the consent of my department, puts him at risk in any way – physical or otherwise – there will be hell to pay. That's not a threat, that's a warning."

One of the hot heads spoke up to ask, "What do you want us to do, take up knitting?"

"What you do on your own time, is your business. What I expect during this situation, is that we follow protocol, and try to take care of this as peaceful as possible. And no vigilantes. Got it?"

That same guard turned to the warden, "Who's in charge here anyway, ma'am?" No one could miss the derision dripping from his words, as well as the challenge.

The Warden gave the outspoken man a look that could freeze water. "I am, but we will be working with the LVPD just like I would expect them to work with us if our situations were reversed. Got it? If you don't like it, Cargile, I can take your resignation right here and now."

"Thank you, Warden Kessler. Knowing Catherine Willows, we should be hearing from someone very soon." Vega was comforted by the fact that she was going to let calmer heads prevail.

"Until then, Det. Vega, we will deploy officers around cell block A to make sure things don't get any worse. Henry, Morgan, Dimosi, and Manning I want you four to go down to these four points around A and keep your cool. No action unless you hear from me, or are in mortal danger. Go."

Vega was thankful to see that the four chosen officers did not come from the group of hot heads. But this didn't stop him from silently pushing for Catherine to hurry up and contact them with the next move.

Catherine picked up her cell phone again and dialed Grissom. Fortunately he answered on the first ring. "Grissom."

"Gil, I need you to relay the following information to Ecklie. We have a hostage situation at the Correctional facility, they have Nick."

"WHAT! How did that happen?"

"Short version – they claim that a few of the deaths and injuries that have happened there lately are not the accidents that they were reported to be. They want us to look into it. When this Carol died, they planned this little coup to get help. They also claim that their previous attempts to get someone's attention to what is going on there have been intercepted. Nick is alright for now, I have their promise that they will do their part in keeping this violence free."

"Can we trust that?" Grissom could hear her concern in her voice if not her words.

"My gut tells me we can, but everything else has me worried."

"Okay, I'll tell Ecklie and the Sheriff. What are you going to do?"

"I've enlisted Sara to help look into their claims under the radar. She's following the paper trail. I'm going to talk to Brass to see if we can get this situation cleared some other way. I want Nick out of there ASAP."

"We all do, Catherine. I'll call you as soon as I can, and get a few more people, like Archie, to help Sara. Nick is strong, he'll be fine."

"Nick is in a small cell, under guard without his friends there to support him, he is not fine."

"He knows that we are doing what we can for him out here. I'll call you when I'm done here and know more." He was slightly taken aback to hear nothing but the dial tone as his answer. 'I guess she didn't really like that answer.'

To be continued...

A/N - Thank you so much for the reviews and constructive criticism. It istruely appreciated. I will try to post as often as I can, but I don't have the story finished yet so I am trying to post as quickly as I get it written. Besides, sometimes its hard to write a story when there are so many good ones here to read. :-)