Summary: Strange events in the form of murder leave nothing, but trouble and confusion. Nick and Warrick are pulled into a world they were not ready for. It threatens not only their lives, but their sanity.

Disclaimer: This is all written in fun and trial for something new. Everything CSI is not mine and never will be. It belongs to the creative talent of the actors, the writers, the directors, and producers. I am not making any money off of this. Only meant to offer something new on something already so great. No reason to sue.

Author's Note: Nothing like a good kidnapping to get the people to mass together! Thanks for all the great reviews for the last one. They were awesome and loved them all. So, in honor of all my reviewers, I give you this new chapter! Even with the awesome looking episode this evening! Alas, I do have some bad news…it will probably be at least Sun or Mon before I can get the next chapter up. I will be busy, it is my birthday on Sat. after all! But I promise something soon because (runs and hides behind the couch)…no Nick or Warrick in this chapter! I know! Sorry! Go read! Bye!

Title: Poisonous Fear

By: duffshel

#16

Sam Vega stood in the bedroom and looked at the glass all over the carpeting. Nick and Warrick were no where to be found. Both their cars were here as were their shoes. Neither man left this townhouse under their own will power. And from what Catherine told him, there were a lot of people here to do it.

They had brought along Greg and he was standing in shock, staring at the bed. His two friends were gone. They had been grabbed in the safety of Nick's home. It chilled the younger man to his bone marrow. These were the people that killed all the others. Greg swallowed. It didn't look good.

"You should go help Catherine process. The house is clear."

Vega's voice broke through Greg's trance, "Yeah. We have to get these fuckers."

The detective had never heard the other man swear before and it shocked him. Of course he had choice words he would like to use and they were much more colorful than that, but he held them in. Emotions were not healthy at a crime scene.

Vega walked carefully out of the bedroom and headed for the front door. He would wait out in front for the CSI's to finish up their work. On his way, he ran into Brass and Grissom. They joined the many faces of worry and anger.

"What the hell happened?" Brass barked.

"Don't know. House broken into, both missing. Catherine and Greg are inside already."

Grissom didn't even bother with the two cops and went straight for the doorway. The blonde CSI was on her knees looking at the floor by the couch.

"What do you got Catherine?"

She looked up at the new arrival, "Hey Gil. Just have some dirt residue. And since Nick makes you take your shoes off at the door most of the time, I doubt it is from his or Warrick's shoes."

"Most likely. Where's Greg?"

"Right here," the new CSI walked out from where he was bent over in the kitchen, "What do you need?"

"I want you to figure out how they got in, how many at each entrance. Check the parameter and see if you find anything that matches the other houses."

Greg nodded, "Yeah, they did use the same vehicle at the White's and the Johnson's. Could have brought it here as well. I will look for tire treads."

Grissom watched as the other man left before he turned his attention back to Catherine, "Have you looked in the bedroom yet?"

"No, I started in here."

"Okay, I'll head in there and meet you in the middle."

He moved slowly down the hallway and into the bedroom. Grissom had been to Nick's for only a handful of occasions and only saw the bedroom once. It hadn't changed. He took a deep breath before he pulled out the camera. This was going to be another long process job.

!#$&()!#$&()!#$&()+

Mia rubbed at her eyes. They were sore from all the microscope work she had been handed. The murder at the Johnson house had been bad and there were many swabs to go through. And it didn't help that Robbins gave her a few samples to work through as well. And she could hear Hodges talking to himself across the hallway.

So far all the swabs turned up to be the blood of the victim, Veronica Johnson. There were three more to go before she was done. Then she could go through the vials from the good doctor. She reached over and picked up the next one in her line. The work to get the test results was almost so routine that Mia could do it with her eyes shut.

The new sample paper printed out and Mia grabbed it. Her eyes widened a little at these results. The boy had bled at the crime scene. Mia dug through her notes to see where this samples had been collected. According to what Catherine had written, it was taken right next to the mother's body. There hadn't been much in this spot.

Mia puckered her lips out as she thought things over. Why would they grab the boy and kill the mother? It made no sense. He would be a hassle to take along and could cause problems. These people had plans for the boy. Couldn't be good ones, either.

!#$&()!#$&()!#$&()+

The final stand was made in this room. Grissom had finished his work and stood back by the doorway. From the marks and the shifts in the carpeting, Nick and Warrick had been brought down in this room. He had samples from the broken window and a few blood spatters he found throughout the once safe bedroom. It all made his kit feel god awful heavy.

Catherine and Greg had already finished up their work and he had sent them back to the lab to begin the intricate processing procedures. The only other person left in this house with him was Brass. Grissom took a deep breath as he looked around the room, his imagination running wild.

People swarmed into the house and took the two CSI's by complete surprise. They both ran and took cover in the bedroom since the front and back door were being converged upon. Nick locked the door behind them and they tried to find something to use in defense

Warrick grabbed up his phone from his pocket and made an urgent call to CSI. Catherine answered the phone, but soon heard only the end of a dead phone. The window was broken, the door opened. Nick and Warrick fought, but were soon over powered and taken down. Neither fought once they were caught. Either completely unconscious or…dead.

Grissom shook his head from these thoughts. He had always criticized the members of his team for jumping the gun. No one was present to see him make a complete hypocrite of himself. Never create a crime scene within your head. Always wait for the evidence to tell the tales.

Another exhale of warm air left his body as he turned around and left the bedroom in search of the wandering detective. He found the other man standing in the kitchen.

"I'm done. We can head back to the lab and meet up with Catherine and Greg," Grissom stated as he walked over to Brass.

"Anything?"

"No. All we know is they broke in using both doors and the bedroom window. Nick and Warrick were taken from the bedroom. Greg has tire treads that might match the other scenes and Catherine had soil stains from the carpeting. I have some blood and glass from the bedroom."

Brass nodded, "Well then, let's head on out. I'll lock things up here for Nicky. Only have some plastic for the window though."

The CSI clenched his fist tighter around the handle of his kit. He would have to remember to make some calls to get that window patched up. And to have all the locks changed. The sun was warm on his skin as he walked out from the protection of the house. Grissom wiped his chin and cheek against his shoulder with a roll of the joint.

He looked around at the other houses in the area. There was some distance between the various buildings, but not enough that someone wouldn't hear a shout or a scream. Grissom could see all the empty driveways and didn't feel confident anyone knew what had happened outside on their safe street.

"Daydreaming again?"

"No Jim. Just thinking about how no one is home and no one saw a thing."

Brass slapped a heavy hand on Grissom's upper back and walked over towards his car. The keys jingled in his hands, but it sounded duller than normal. He could hear the CSI following him, but there was nothing light in the steps. This was weighing them all down. But he didn't dare think that it shouldn't.

The doors of the Magnum sedan thudded closed as both men settled down into the seats. Brass turned the engine on and began heading back to the lab. He didn't feel in the mood to talk with the other person in his car, but he got the feeling was mutual. His fists clenched around the rubber covering the steering wheel as he thought about what had happened in the past couple of days.

People were dying and now two men, two friends, were missing. Those two boys were in trouble once again. Brass knew the tension settling in his stomach would not leave until both those CSI's were sitting in front of him, cowering from his lecture. And what a lecture it would be.

The large building containing the lab almost seemed to sneak upon the detective. Ask him and Brass was sure he wouldn't ever be able to tell how he got from Nick's to the lab. Grissom didn't seem interested since he got out of the car as soon as it was put into park. Brass shook his head and left to head to the station.

Grissom could hear the car leaving and walked into the lab. People passed him, but he didn't take in any of their details. His mind didn't want any new information from the outside world. What he needed was inside his head and waiting for him with his two colleagues.

He found them both with Mia in the DNA lab. None of them were smiling, or even moving for that matter. All seemed to be made of wax. It brought Grissom to a halt for a moment. He had seen emotions like these before, but only at funerals.

"What do we have?"

It was Mia that spoke up first, "Well, I have yet to inform you about the blood from the Johnson house. Most of it was the wife's, but the son's was also present. It wasn't much, but enough to know he was injured to most likely comply."

"And from Nick's?"

"I have just begun the work on the swabs Greg and Catherine dropped off. It should be about five more minutes to see if we have a match off any of them."

Grissom nodded, "And the trace evidence?"

"Hodges said he would drop everything else and get to work right away," Catherine said softly, "And he would come over as soon as he had anything on anything. Did you drop off your stuff?"

"Not yet. I'll walk over there quick and be back to here the results from the blood tests."

The supervising CSI turned on his heels and walked into the quiet trace lab. David Hodges was bent over and looking at something through the magnified lenses of the microscope. The man was focused on his work and Grissom hated to interrupt him from finding anything important.

"David?"

"Yes?"

"I have some more stuff from Nick's place for you to work with."

Hodges looked up, his eyes filled with concern that Grissom couldn't ever remember seeing on the other man's face, "I will get right on it as soon as I am done with these soil samples that Catherine gave me. So far all I have is matches to the soil collected from the backyard. Nothing exciting, I am afraid. Nothing foreign."

"Well, I have some glass fragments from the broken window that I need you to check for anything that shouldn't be on them. If you happen to find any blood, send it over to Mia right away."

The trace technician nodded his head and turned back to the samples he had been working with. People in the lab might think he didn't care about his coworkers, but that was not the case. Knowing that Warrick and Nick were missing, as much as they drove him nuts, scared him. And he didn't even want to think about the effect their loss would have on everyone.

Grissom watched him for a moment before he walked back out into the hallway. He stretched his arms above his head to try to ease some of the tension building between his shoulder blades. A groan left along with the vertebra popping. His entire body wanted to quite and throw in the towel, but his mind and heart wouldn't let him do anything close to that.

He turned to head back into the DNA lab when squeaky tennis shoes stopped him. He turned to face Archie Johnson as the surveillance expert ran up to him. This was surprising to Grissom since he didn't know they had any video on anything that was going on in their case.

"Hey boss. I have something from that call, " Archie smiled.

Grissom was completely confused with what the other was talking about, "What call?"

"Oh, the call Warrick made to Catherine. She gave me her phone before she left and told me to look into it. I checked it over to see if I could get any background noise from it. I cancelled out Warrick's yelling at Nick to see what I could get. There was some heavy breathing, shuffling noises, and distant voices coming through a thick substance. My guess is that the breathing and shuffling is Nick since Warrick was yelling at him to stop going towards the door and to get by his side. The other voices, the other people in the house."

"Alright, that is good. If there is anything we need from you, I will let you know."

Grissom turned to walk away, but was stopped by the other man, "Do you think they are okay?"

"Yeah, they will keep each other safe. They will be fine. We will find them," Grissom said to Archie, as much as to himself.

Archie gave a small smile before he headed back into his office. Not wasting another minute, he walked straight into the other lab with three very pale, concerned people. This did not look good at all.

"Results?"

Catherine nodded and turned to face her boss full on, " Two spatters are positive for Warrick, one for Nick. From the other three samples we took, no match. But there were three other people bleeding in that house today."

"Get the pictures developed and set up the scene. Greg, I want you to get to work on those treads you found. I want everything we have in thirty minutes, conference room. We are going to put this together and get our guys back."

Grissom took a look at the rookie CSI and tried to ignore the lost look. He knew this was tough on Greg, but he couldn't let his concern for the younger man to take him away from the case. Once this was over, he would make sure Greg was okay. He would make sure everyone was okay.

!#$&()!#$&()!#$&()+

Sharon Walker stood by the van that they had parked outside the building, in the back by the wooden cellar doors that led into the basement. The cigarette in her hand was almost down to the filter, but she couldn't bring herself to drop it to the dirt. Her body was tired and she wanted nothing more than to go to bed. But there was work to finish.

With one more long drag on the rolled up tobacco, she threw the still red butt to the ground. Her eyes drifted over the once vibrant red doors as she headed for the oak door leading into the main building. The wooden benches were occupied by various members of their group. None of them knew what was happening under their feet. They weren't ready to take part in this, yet.

She smiled and waved to a couple of the children as she walked past to Mr. Tenner's office. He was waiting for her there with the files. Sharon wasn't going to take part in tonight's lesson like she had with Brian or Ralph. Her faith only went so far.

Jacob Tenner looked up from the papers on his desk and watched the woman walk into his office. He always enjoyed watching her move. It always made him spend a few more minutes in the bathroom than normal in the morning. This was his secret treat of the day.

"What else do you need from me, sir?"

The elderly man rubbed his wrinkled hands together, "Nothing if you want no part in this. I can use some of the others. Besides, I think these two will be a problem for awhile. They are going to take some time to teach."

"Then I will take my leave."

"I will see you in practice in three days. Your service with the information will be rewarded greatly by the Fates."

Sharon nodded her head. She could feel the man's eyes on her ass she left the room. It was not a new sensation for her, but she would never turn away from it. Mr. Tenner had given her something that no one ever had been able to before.

The large hall was quiet, heads were down. People were praying to their various gods or goddesses. She always worshiped the Jewish God, but accepted the beliefs of Tenner into her life. As her feet carried her to the entrance doors, her eyes focused on the red, oak door with the newer handle. A chill ran through her entire body at what she knew would be happening through that wood very soon.

TBC…