An Unfair Act of Violence
Chapter 2
Notes: Took me a while to finish this one, I ought to have Chapter 3 for tomorrow night...
Sara waited in silence in the waiting room. She had lost track of time, and now realized that she had no clue how long Nick had been in surgery. It must've been at least a few hours, but her teeth bit into her lip knowing that if that was the case then Nick must've been in bigger danger than she had realized…
Grissom looked around the scene, for any clues as to who might've attacked his CSI, and had killed two other men. He had forced himself to wipe his hands clean, but whenever his eyes chanced to see the blood from his friend that had stained his clothes he found it impossible not to shudder. His normally complacent hands were now balled tightly into fists, as he looked around the room. Though the floor was dusty there was too much disturbance to get any useful footprints.
The sudden ring of his cell phone caused both himself and Catherine to jump. His hand quickly pulled it from his belt, and he walked back out into the hallway. Catherine looked up, and listened to see what the call was about.
"Yeah, we'll be there as soon as we can, bye." Grissom hung up, and turned to Catherine, "That was David, our bodies are next up, and they're being prepped for the autopsy now. We'll leave Warrick and Greg here to finish up."
Grissom and Catherine walked silently into the morgue only to see David waiting for them.
"Where's Robbins?" Catherine asked as they approached the younger coroner.
"He's spending the week on vacation with his family." His eyes glanced at the two, "Have you heard how Nick's doing?"
Grissom looked down at his feet as Catherine sighed, "Sorry, Dave, but we haven't exactly heard anything from Sara for the past three hours."
"Yeah, but shouldn't he be out of surgery by now, Catherine?"
"Look, I don't even want to speculate what Sara's not calling might mean, can we just get on with this?"
"Well, c.o.d. for OfficerDayton wasn't any surprise, but the other victim is where this gets really disturbing…"
"How so?" Grissom questioned, finally saying something.
"Well, none of his injuries were post-mortem."
"Wait, so you're saying that everything that happened to him, his gouged out eyes, the sheered off skin, the bruises, the broken bones, all of it happened before he actually died?" Catherine asked incredulously.
"Like I said," David replied, "weird, and creepy. I've managed to determine that c.o.d. was actually from him having ingested some sort of poison. Otherwise, I can't help you out much. Oh, and I sent a sample of his blood to DNA, I tried to get his fingerprints, but, uh, someone burned the guy's fingers. The burns must've healed, but the fingers only made a solid black oval when I tried it."
"What about any trace? After all he went through there had to be something on him from whoever did this."
"I thought so too, Gil, but I checked his entire body at least three times to make sure, there was absolutely no trace whatsoever on him, not even under what remained of his fingernails. Sorry, but whoever did this was smart, and made sure he didn't leave anything behind."
Sara fidgeted as she waited for results. There had to be something she could do… Stay calm… If he was dead you'd know, as long as they're still operating it means that they still have someone to operate on… She tried not to think about how with each passing minute Nick came closer to death…
"You must be Miss Sidle."
Sara jumped up as she saw the doctor come out of the room; she never even gave him the chance of removing his blood-soaked operating garments before she had run up to him.
"H-how is he, is he…" she found that she couldn't even finish the question, but the doctor held up his hand to stop her. He already knew what she was going to ask.
"We're taking him to the ICU, mostly for observation. The operation itself was completely successful, unfortunately your friend in there went into a state of shock midway through the operation, which compromised his breathing. There aren't many places in your gut where you can get stabbed so that it misses all your organs, major veins and arteries, etc. Nevertheless, your friend should be awake in a few hours. I know it isn't really my area of expertise, but I've never seen any stabbing to the gut not cause damage to the victim's organs. It could be luck, yet somehow I get the feeling that whoever did this to him didn't want to kill him."
Sara stared at the doctor with her mouth wide open. A few moments slipped awkwardly by before she shook her head, and could let herself give a sigh of relief.
"How is he?" Grissom asked immediately as he answered his phone, his eyes still watching the caller ID on his desk.
"Thank God…" he whispered as he listened to Sara relay the information from the surgeon. He absentmindedly hung up on her as he fell into his chair shaking with relief. He heard the electronic fish over the door begin to sing as Catherine rushed in eager for any news.
Warrick clumsily wrestled his phone from his pants pocket as the ringing forced him to stop thinking about Nick.
"Warrick."
"Hey Warrick, its Catherine."
"Have you heard from Sara, did you get any news about Nick?" he asked rapidly.
"He'll be fine Warrick, Grissom just went to meet with Ecklie to discuss the whole situation… I just hope the two don't get into some sort of fight…"
Ecklie stared at his desk while Grissom told him what actions he thought should be taken before Nick was allowed back to work.
"I'm sorry Gil, but I'm not sure that that's enough."
"Look, Ecklie, he didn't do anything wrong, all protocol was followed, he doesn't need to take that proficiency test again, and I don't see why he should have to take a few extra weeks off if he doesn't need it."
"Gil, the fact is that he has gone through way too much for me to just look the other way. I can be lenient on the protocol proficiency test, but I feel he needs more time. You may not like it, but trust me, it's completely necessary."
"What about having a psychiatrist evaluate him, at least give him a chance. It's been a year since that animal buried him, and I know he'll still be able to perform his job after this."
"Fine, but we go on the psychiatrist's results, no matter what Gil."
The supervisor barely managed to stop himself from storming out of Ecklie's office in a mad rampage. He needed to keep control of himself; if he hadn't Ecklie would probably still be contemplating the idea of letting Nick go completely. I owe it to him to at least make sure that his job is still here waiting for him… He thought solemnly before heading out to his SUV.
Sara stood in surprise as Grissom walked up to her outside Nick's door in the ICU.
"Hey, he still hasn't woken up, could be hours, or days, according to the doctor. They told me to wait out here in case he c-crashes. I guess they don't want anyone in their way."
"Doesn't matter when he gets better, Sara, it just matters that it'll happen."
"Yeah, I wish actually do something to help him though, I feel completely useless here, just watching him…"
"That's why I'm here, I want you to go home and get at least a few hours of sleep, then you can head over to the lab and help the others process the evidence. I figure I'll catch up on some paperwork while waiting for him to wake up."
"T-thanks, Griss…" She fumbled for the words, but eventually left the sentence unfinished as she gave a final glance into the hospital door before heading out to her car.
Grissom shook his head. His own team still seemed to believe that he was some sort of a shell, incapable of caring, or helping others out. Or, maybe he was just overanalyzing the statement. After all, she had to be tired, and he knew how helpless she had been feeling… Only a single year ago I felt the same thing when he blew himself up… Not that he had cared about Walter Gordon, but the guy hadn't even told him where Nick was…
He couldn't see anything. He tried to open his eyes, but his body wouldn't respond. He tried to move, but something was holding him down… Oh God… no no no… Nick immediately saw the dirt packed around his Plexiglas coffin… He could feel the sweat dripping down his face, as he began to regain feeling in his arms and legs. He strained against whatever held him down, and he was too afraid to open his eyes… he was too afraid to see what horrors his 'luck' had brought him this time… Then he felt a cool hand rest on his forehead.
Grissom had rushed into the room as soon as he saw the younger CSI begin stir and as he expected Nick had begun to struggle against his restraints. Without hesitation he had thrust his hand into a bucket of ice that had been left within the room. His next step was to place his cooled hand on Nick's forehead to try to calm him down.
"It's ok Nicky…" he said soothingly, "you've got to calm down… you're in the hospital…"
He could dimly hear the voice, but at the moment he couldn't quite place it… He tried to take a deep breath only to find that his chest burned. The pain began to bring him back to his senses… Then he remembered the room and staring down at the knife in his own gut. His eyes flashed open, and he half expected to see his hands still soaked in his blood. The room began to come into focus, only to see Grissom staring protectively down at him.
"Hey Griss." He had barely been able to get the words out, his throat was parched, and he winced as he continued to regain feeling throughout his body. The other man offered him a slight grin, and he pushed the call button. Moments later the doctor hurried in, and began to remove the restraints.
"Sorry about these," he offered sympathetically, "but we were afraid that you'd have a few seizures before you woke up. Luckily, you didn't need them." With the restraints gone he moved in to check Nick's pulse.
"Well, you're holding up pretty strong Mr. Stokes," he smiled, "by the looks of things we'll have you out of here by tomorrow. That is, if the nurses let you leave." His eyes wandered over to a small pile of papers next to his bed each with a name and number.
"Mr. Grissom, about Mr. Stokes' condition," the doctor said quietly after they had left the CSI alone to get some rest, "he doesn't work for one week minimum, I'll reevaluate him then, and determine if he needs more recuperation time or if he is fit to work. Otherwise, make sure someone checks up on him every once in a while, and don't be pushy, but be sure he's taking his meds. Shouldn't be too hard to get him to do it, not if he wants to get back to work pronto."
"Thanks, doc. We won't let you, or Nicky down." Grissom answered firmly. God knows I've already let him down enough. He finished silently.
Nick couldn't help but laugh when he saw Greg gawking over the stack of numbers Nick had received. He leaned on Warrick for support as they walked him gingerly out to his best friend's SUV.
A tall man wearing a white sweat suit hurried past, bumping into Nick as they passed into the parking lot. Warrick grabbed Nick as the bulky man curtly apologized before heading on his way. After he turned the corner he casually gazed over his shoulder at his prey, and a smile crept over his face as he saw Nick's two friends helping him into an SUV.