They all watched as the fiery ball that was the helicopter fall to the ground in a heap. Catherine put her hands to her mouth and let out a muffled sob. She looked over to Warrick who just fell to the ground and sat there with his head in his hands. She squatted down next to him and put an arm around his shoulder and looked up at Tennison with fire in her eyes.
"What the hell just happened?" she demanded.
The FBI agent raised his hand for her to wait; he was still listening attentively to his radio and then threw it to the ground. This surprised Brass who had stepped away to speak with some officers. He just returned to find Catherine squatting next to Warrick on the ground. He saw the helicopter blow up and knew that the two CSIs were with Tennison. He tried to get some information from an agent but no one would give him any information, but from the looks of Warrick and Catherine the news wasn't good.
"Catherine who was on the helicopter?" he was sure he knew the answer, but he asked the question anyway.
Catherine was so focused on Tennison that she didn't hear Brass walk up and when he asked her about the helicopter she jumped. She stood up, walked over to Brass, "It was Nick, Jim. He was in the helicopter with those bastards." She started to sob. He awkwardly put his arms around her and patted her back. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes. Nick was a good kid. He had been through hell and back. He didn't deserve this, none of them did.
After Agent Casta had delivered Gil Grissom to the rendezvous point he and his men moved out into the estate. They knew from Mr. Grissom's information that there were four men on foot with Stokes. During their initial search of the estate they had found the helicopter. It was Agent Casta's idea that the HTs would probably be headed there to get off of the property fast. He grabbed his radio and spoke into it.
"Team Two leader to Team Three leader…come in."
Agent Diana Parker was with her team searching the estate for the Mitchell's, Ryan and Maxwell Singer. They were currently searching inside the house when she heard her radio.
"Team Two leader to Team Three leader…come in."
She grabbed her radio to respond, "This is Team Three leader…go ahead."
"We have some new information for you…"
"Go ahead with info Team Two leader."
"Your perps are headed down to the landing pad with one of the hostages. Recommend that all three teams converge silently to free hostage if possible and detain HTs…did you copy?"
"Roger that. We will meet you near the landing pad."
"10-4. Team One leader did you copy that as well?"
Agent John Metcalfe was with his team clearing up the guards that they already had in custody when they heard the radio chatter of teams two and three. He had agreed with what Agent Casta had suggested and when he heard the Team two leader call for him he replied. "Roger that Team Two leader we will meet you at the landing pad."
"O.K. guys let's get going we have some bad guys to catch. Just cuff these guys to something, they aren't going anywhere."
His agents did as they were told and soon all three teams were heading over to the landing pad.
The three teams emerged near the landing pad and each spread out to various positions for cover. It was decided that since there was still a hostage involved that the Agent Casta would be the agent in charge. He did a once over of the landing pad. There were four armed guards standing around the helicopter for security purposes. Luckily enough they were not detected. Casta smirked to himself. 'If only they knew what was coming.'
He assigned Team one to high ground to watch the courtyard. It would also be there jobs to take out the guards and to cover them. He assigned Team Three to the East side of the landing pad there job would be to capture and detain the Mitchells, Maxwell Singer and Ryan. His team covered the West side and would get Stokes out of there if at all possible.
So far there was no sign of the Mitchells or of the hostage, but he was certain and it was obvious with the guards watching the helicopter that their boys were planning on coming this way.
"Heads up Team Two leader, perps just entered the courtyard," Casta heard one of Team One's agents announce.
Every agent was on alert, they watched as the group of nervous men started to make there way out into the courtyard and cautiously head towards the helicopter pad.
They could see the hostage Nick Stokes leading the group. He was in bad shape from what they could tell. His whole face was covered with bruises; they could see a cut with a long dark bruise going almost ear-to-ear on his throat and his shirt was soaked with blood. He looked a little dazed. His hands were tied behind him and he was gagged.
They watched as he tried to slow the group down by tripping and nearly falling to the ground, but the perp Ryan had grabbed Nick's arm and a handful of hair and pulled Nick's head back. They could tell that something else was wrong with Stokes when he scrunched his eyes in pain.
They let the five men pass with out a problem. The plan was to get the group in between all three teams. The five men just stepped up onto the landing pad when Agent Casta spoke into his radio.
"Team one take out the guards."
Four silent shots went off and four guards went down. Agent Casta was thankful for the silencers on their rifles. It would give them a little extra time.
Nick was just steps away from getting on the helicopter that brought him to this place. Ryan had pulled him to a stop just a few steps from the door to allow Singer, Brent and Michael to get in first. As he was standing there he noticed all the guards go down. He could tell that no one else had noticed because they were still getting on the helicopter. He looked around nonchalantly to see if he could spot any of the agents that were hiding. He couldn't and thought to himself 'Damn their good, but they better get a move on before I'm outta here permanently.' Nick decided that this would be a good time to struggle. He was not going to be a willing participant in this. He wanted Ryan to be focused on him and not look at the guards. It worked.
Agent Casta noticed that the hostage saw the guards go down and started to struggle to get loose and had gotten the attention once again of his guard. The other three men were already in the helicopter.
"Team one take out the HT holding Stokes." Casta said quietly in his radio. "When the hostage is clear, fire at will."
Nick was on alert and ready to do anything to help his rescuers. He still struggled with Ryan even after he received a blow to the wrist. If it meant that he would be free in a matter of minutes then never, it was worth the pain. He could feel Ryan's firm hold on his arm while they watched Brent and cohorts get situated in the helicopter. Suddenly Ryan let out a grunt and released Nick from his grasp. Nick took the opportunity to jump from the landing pad without looking back. Ryan fell to the ground.
Brent was finally in the safety of the helicopter and it would only be a matter of a minute or two before they took off and they would be safe. He snapped his seatbelt in place, as did his brother and uncle. When he looked up and out of the helicopter he could still see Ryan and Nick standing there. Suddenly blood splattered onto the window and he saw Ryan let go of Nick and all to the ground. Brent tried to stand up abruptly, but forgot he had his seatbelt on. He looked down to unbuckle his seatbelt, when he looked back up Nick was gone from his sight.
"No!" Brent screamed.
This alerted both Michael and Maxwell who noticed the blood on the window as well.
"I have to go and get him. I'm not through torturing him." Brent said not thinking clearly.
"Brent sit down now, we are getting out of here. That man is not worth it." His uncle said firmly. "Get us the hell out of here!" he screamed at the pilot.
The pilot lifted off and swerved to the right, when a rain of gunfire erupted suddenly from the estate. He could here the clunks of the bullets hitting the helicopter.
Brent, Michael and Singer could do nothing but hold on. They too could hear the bullets pelting the helicopter. They were almost home free.
Nick had jumped off the landing pad and landed on two feet unfortunately one of his ankles twisted when he came down and he heard a snap. He fell to the ground when the helicopter took off bullets were flying everywhere. He was watching the helicopter and trying to take cover when three agents approached him.
"Mr. Stokes we are going to get you clear of this gunfire."
He nodded his head in agreement since he still had the gag on. The agents helped him up. He let out a yell when he stood on his left ankle. The agents got the hint and carried him to a location farther away since bullets were still flying. As they sat him down on a bench farther into the courtyard Nick watched the helicopter fly past the wall and into the night. He let out a shaky breath that had been a close call.
"O.K. let's see about getting these cuffs and that gag off of you." The agent said pulling the gag off of him.
"You guys are a sight for sore eyes. I'm sorry about back there. I think I broke my ankle when I jumped clear of the landing pad." Nick said with a smile that looked like he had just won the lottery.
"Don't worry about it. I'm glad that we were able to help." The agent said as he took off the cuffs that Nick was wearing. Nick slowly brought his arms forward and looked at his wrist. It looked as bad as it felt.
"Well that explains why you were in so much pain when Ryan grabbed you. We knew something was wrong…let's get you out of here."
"Wait we can't go…not yet." Nick said feeling ashamed of himself. In all this excitement he had forgotten about Grissom.
"Why can't we go?"
"We have to get Grissom. He's still down in the cell."
"Mr. Stokes, Mr. Grissom has already been rescued and I would imagine he's probably at the hospital right now."
"He is…well in that case let's get out of here." Nick said with relief reaching for someone to help him walk. As he stood he heard a loud explosion and looked out into the desert to see the helicopter explode and fall to the ground in a fiery mess.
He watched as the fiery ball that was the helicopter fall to the ground in a heap. There was no way anyone would have survived that crash. Suddenly he felt relief. He would never have to worry about the Mitchells again.
Agent Casta walked up to Nick, "Mr. Stokes I'm Agent Casta one of the team leaders, we are going to get you out of here now. Two of my agents will carry you out to where the paramedics are waiting. I'm sure as a CSI you understand that we don't want anyone in here affecting our crime scene."
"I understand completely Agent Casta." Nick replied.
The two agents that had been with Nick each lifted him up. He was being carried like he was sitting in a chair. He had one arm around each agent's neck, and the three of them slowly walked over to the North end of the fence. Nick glanced around one more time to see the guards and Ryan lying there dead. He wanted to make sure that Ryan wasn't going to get up. He saw one of the agents drape a sheet over Ryan's body. If that wasn't permanent then nothing was.
After the helicopter had crashed Agent Tennison ripped out his radio and had thrown it to the ground. He had felt responsible for Nick Stokes death. He had enlisted Nick's assistance in this case and now he was dead because of him. He knew that it was part of the job with being an FBI agent and had been trained to deal with this specifically like this, but it still didn't make it any easier. He looked over at the CSIs who were just sitting there in shock. What was he supposed to say? That he was sorry. He was, but that wouldn't bring back their friend.
He finally bent down to retrieve the radio he threw to the ground and put the earplug back in his ear. He listened to the radio chatter and what he heard brought a smile to his face. He turned and looked at the three distraught people standing in front of them and said quickly.
"You three need to come with me right now."
Catherine and Brass turned and looked at Tennison.
"Why?" Catherine asked still sobbing.
"I can't say, just come with me and I will explain it once we are there."
The two CSIs looked at Brass, he shrugged and they followed Tennison back to the North wall where they found the paramedics waiting once again. There were four firefighters present this time assisting the agents in lifting a stretcher over the wall on ropes. The rope was thrown over a tree branch so the firefighters could use that as leverage. The agents on the other side would lay the patient on the stretcher and the firefighters would pull it back over.
"O.K. Tennison we're here. Do you want to explain why? We could care less if one of Singers cronies survived." Brass said dryly.
"Just bare with me for a minute. I think you will be very interested to see who they pull over."
"Is it Nick?" Catherine asked quickly stepping forward.
But before Tennison could answer the stretcher was lowered to the ground and lying on it was a very beaten up Nick. He looked over at the two CSIs and Brass with a huge grin and said.
"Hi guys…did you miss me?"