Hi everyone sorry it took so long to update. I appreciate all of your reviews. I'm totally bummed I just noticed that all my hits for my stories were deleted. Oh well. It was nice to see how many people are actually reading them.

Nichole101: I plan on putting in your request next chapter, though there won't be a super big part for him, but he will be in there and thanks for the review!

Rojaji: Brass is like the comic relief..isn't he? I'm glad that you thought that was funny. Thanks!

Chrissie0707: I so need a beta. I wish someone would magically appear and say…why yes I will help you in anyway I can. I plan on having a little more talking in chapter 11. Thanks again for your continuing reviews.

NickGilGreggonumber1fan: Yep they are a family and team. Thanks for the review.

Tefla: Thanks for the review. I know I so need a Beta, and I never take anything you say as criticism just as an honest critique. I'm not really sure how many chapters yet. I have the ideas in my head it's just putting them down and not rushing the story. Please feel free to guess the plot. I would not rather say in my response to you. That would be giving the story away, but you can write me at: and I will let you know if you are close. - Oh and I love the long reviews.

Midnight's Raven: Thanks for the review. You know I'm such an idiot I so knew the mistaken identity thing, but I was writing in the middle of the night, but the other grammatical error, I really am an idiot and as I mentioned about would like to get a Beta. So if you know of anyone let me know. Thanks!

Mudhousejunkie224: Thanks for the review!

Pike2: Thanks! I wasn't really too happy with the way that chapter went, but I'm glad that I was able to get the emotional point across.

Snowangel-983: Thanks!

Crystalphoenix: pretty soon…stay tuned.

Angelic Little Devil: Thanks for the review and mentioning the tenses. I will try to keep an eye on that. I really need a Beta! Don't worry who said Nick was finished venting? Hee hee

Oh and did a happen to mention that I NEED A BETA! Does anyone know where I can find one, or would anyone like to volunteer? Just think you will be able to read the next chapter before anyone else. Do I sound like a commercial or what?

On with the story…

Grissom had tried to engage Nick in conversation a few times in the car, but he guessed Nick wasn't really in the mood to talk. Every time Grissom asked a question or made a comment to Nick, he would either just grunt or answer with a yes or no. This was a completely different Nick than at the hospital. It seemed that Nick was closing in on himself again.

He knew Nick had just laid his feelings out for everyone to see and needed some time to sort things out. Grissom gave up trying for now. He normally wasn't a social man and would prefer to interact with most bugs than humans any day of the week. You could always count on bugs to do what they are supposed to do, but people were a different sort of animal.

In the past hour he had found out more about Nick than from the last five years working with him. That troubled him. Was he that out of touch with his people? He vowed to himself that he was going to meet with each and every one of his them, including Hodges and get to know them a little better.

He had let Nick down. All this time Nick had been hurting, taking and hiding his emotions in some deep well. Grissom wanted to make sure that Nick no longer felt he had to do that. He glanced one more time at Nick when he heard him sign.

"We are just about there." Brass spoke up from the front seat.

Grissom nodded his head in acknowledgement and looked over at Nick. Just by that statement alone he saw Nick go from relaxed to perplexed. Nick started to crack his knuckles, a nervous habit really, but Grissom understood why Nick was nervous. Heck who wouldn't be?

Mr. Williamson who was riding in the front seat with Brass turned to face the two CSI's.

"O.K. Here's how this is going to work. We will be going in a side entrance of the hotel; two more officers will meet us there. Your room has already been secured and is currently being occupied by two more officers. The officers we meet at the side entrance will escort you up to the room. Once there they will leave and the two officers that were in the room originally will remain, they will be relieved at midnight. The six officers will work eights hour shifts and will relieve each other."

Nick listened and acknowledged what Williamson had said, then continued to look out the window without saying a word.

Williamson looked over to Grissom who just shrugged.

The beige Taurus followed the police car to the side entrance of the hotel. There were a number of cars parked in the parking lot including one unmarked police car. The squad car pulled up far enough so that Brass could get Nick as close to the door as possible.

When the caravan pulled up the two plain clothed officers made their way down to Brass's car.

Warrick had been following the Taurus and pulled his SUV quickly into a parking spot.

As Nick exited the car with Grissom, Brass and Williamson, Warrick, Catherine, Sara and Greg quickly exited their vehicle and walked over. The group made their way into the hotel with Nick in the middle. They took the service elevator up in two groups. Brass, Nick, Grissom, Williamson and the two officers were on the first run and the rest of them on the second run.

By the time Warrick, Catherine, Sara and Greg had exited the elevator the first group was entering the hotel room. They followed the group in and locked the door.

The room was a two-bedroom suite. It looked like the county was going all out. The main room consisted of two couches, a wet bar, a decorative chair, a desk and chair, a coffee table and a television.

The two bedrooms were just to the left of the main room. Both room were right across from each other with the bathroom in between them.

Nick took in his surroundings looked at Grissom and said, "I have a bit of a headache. I think I'm going to go and lay down." Without another word said he walked into the room on the left and shut the door.

Grissom watched Nick walk through the door; he turned around to speak to the group, but before he was able to Catherine walked up to him looking at the closed door.

"How's he doing?"

"Hard to say. He's definitely not talking anymore. I tried to start up a number of conversations with him and all he did was grunt. I guess he's just got to get use to all this. I'm not sure what I can do to make it all better."

They were all listening to the exchange, with the exception of Williamson and the four officers. There wasn't a single one of them that wasn't concerned for Nick's physical safety and his emotional well-being.

Brass had regarded what Grissom said and added his own comment, "Look guys…Nick's a tough kid, he'll pull through all of this. You just got to give him a chance."

Williamson walked over to the group after dismissing two of the officers. The remaining two sat down on the couch away from the group to give them their privacy and turned on the T.V.

Looking at his watch Williamson said, "Gil, Warrick you guys might want to head home. We have an early day tomorrow in court."

Warrick looked like a deer in headlights. With everything that happened in the past twenty-four hours he had completely forgotten that he was scheduled to testify as well as Grissom and Brass.

"If you don't mind Mr. Williamson I would like to stay for awhile and make sure Nick's O.K."

"That's fine Warrick, just make sure that all three of you get enough rest. I'm going to need all of you to be sharp tomorrow. Detective Brass that means you as well."

"I just came off vacation. I've gotten enough rest for a year."

"Well even so, Mitchell has one of the best defense attorney's around. He will be putting you guys through the ringer. So I want you on your toes."

"We've testified before Mr. Williamson," Brass replied.

"Yes I'm aware of that Detective, but I just want to make sure that everyone is ready to go."

"I can assure you that we are. We will put that scumbag behind bars for life. You don't have to worry about that."

"Well I hope you are right Detective," he looked at his watch. "…Well I've got to get going I still have a lot to do get ready for tomorrow. I will see you at the courthouse at 9am. Detective your testimony isn't scheduled until the afternoon. I will call your office and let them know what time you should be at the courthouse. If you could please tell Nick that I will be by sometime tomorrow to go over his testimony again.

"Until tomorrow then," Grissom replied.

Williamson left the room after talking to the officers one last time.

Brass looked at his watch as well and said, "I think I'm going to head home myself. I might as well get some sleep besides I think you guys need some quit time with Nick."

Catherine looked over to Brass, "Hey Jim would you mind giving me a lift back to the Lab? We all drove over here in Warrick's truck and my car is parked at the Lab."

"Sure Catherine."

She looked over to Grissom, "I don't think we should smother Nick. I need to get back to Lindsey anyway. When Nick wakes up tell him I'll give him a call later."

"Your right Catherine. Nick probably needs his space right about now. I guess we'll just let him rest. I'll stop by in the morning before I testify. Warrick you are still going to stay for awhile?"

"Yea, I just want to make sure that everything is O.K. with him." He looked over at Greg.

"If it's O.K. with Warrick I would like to stay with awhile as well."

"So anyone else need a lift?…last offer." Brass said looking at Sara.

Sara walked over as well, "It's probably best that Nick just have some time with the boys. It may help get his mind off of some things."

Grissom walked over to Warrick, "You know that I don't have to tell you how important tomorrow is. Just make sure you get some rest and make sure Nick gets some rest. Tell Nick that we will see him tomorrow." He looked over at Brass. "Let's go."

The three CSI's and the detective walked out of the hotel room leaving Warrick and Greg with the two officers. The both walked over and sat down on the other couch.

"So what's on?" Warrick asked.

Warrick wanted to give Nick a little time before he went in to bother him. He figured Nick needed some rest from the head injury, so he would leave him sleep for a couple of hours.

It was a nice quiet evening in the Fletcher house. Dewayne Fletcher was a family man he loved his wife and teenage some more than anything in the world.

The evenings in the Fletcher household always consisted of making and eating dinner together. It was a far cry from his day job. He was a bailiff at the courthouse. There were all sorts of scum that came in and out of that place. He saw how people could be, that's why he was so adamant about having a good family life at home. He didn't want to become another courtroom statistic.

Tomorrow he was assigned to the courtroom where the Mitchell case was being tried. The case had already been going on for a week. He knew that the prosecution had CSI's Gil Grissom and Warrick Brown along with Detective Jim Brass scheduled to testify. Then on Tuesday the key witness for the prosecution Nick Stokes was scheduled.

Each one of the bailiff's knew every single one of those men and Dewayne had met them all on multiple occasions. Unfortunately most of them were during trials. They were good people in his book. What had happened to Nick Stokes was horrible and he hoped that the jury found Mitchell guilty so Nick could have some closure.

The Fletcher's were just sitting down to dinner when the doorbell rang. Dewayne's son ran over to the door and opened it while his parents remained seated at the dinner table. As the door opened four men pushed there way into the house. This caused Dewayne's son to cry out. Dewayne and his wife jumped up when they heard their son's cry and before they could reach their son the four men entered holding their son.

Ryan walked in behind his men and up to Dewayne Fletcher.

"Where do you keep your uniforms?"

Dewayne looked to his wife, who was now being held by two of Ryan's men. When he didn't answer right away, one of the men grabbed his wife's hair roughly and she cried out.

"I keep them in my bedroom closet." He replied with terror in his eyes.

"Go get one, while you we'll acquaint ourselves with your family…Hurry!" Ryan said forcefully.

Dewayne quickly ran into his bedroom and returned with a uniform in hand.

"Good now you're coming with us. You are going to help us in court tomorrow."

"There's no way I'm going to help you!" he yelled back.

"Well you better, because if you don't cooperate I will have my men kill your wife and son. They will remain here until the job is completed. So you better to as your told."

"Please I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt my family." Fletcher cried out looking at his wife desperate to reach her.

"Good choice Mr. Fletcher." Ryan turned away from Fletcher and to his men, "Take him."

The two men that held Dewayne's son released him and grabbed Dewayne by the arms and dragged him out of the house. He screamed back to his family, "Everything will be O.K., just do what they say."

Mrs. Fletcher was crying and her son just stood there watching in shock.

Ryan started to walk towards the door when he turned back around and said to the remaining men in the house, "No loose ends." He turned back around and walked out of the house.

Mrs. Fletcher's arms were released; she ran up to her son and hugged him. How could one minute they be sitting down to dinner then the next be fighting for their lives? Her eyes got large when she saw them pulling out their guns and screwing on silencers

She screamed through tears, "My husband is cooperating, please don't kill…" her sentence was never finished as both her and her son fell to the floor dead.

Well there's Chapter 10. Let me know your thoughts. Please review! Take care!