An Unfair Act of Vengeance

Notes: I was gone all day Saturday, otherwise this would've been out earlier, but I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for the reviews.

Summary: Nick is still recuperating when he is forced to undergo a lot of questioning. The team struggles with Ecklie over how, and who, is going to be handling the case.

David instinctively Reached for the CSI to pull him from beneath the counter, but reluctantly pulled back when the other man flinched as his hand came within a few feet of him. He didn't know what to do… He had never had to deal with someone in such a state. Most of his days were spent with dead people, or the Doc, not with victims to some horrible crime…
Warrick protectively loomed over Catherine as she began to stir on the couch in the break room. She moaned as she began to remember the sight of the hand coming over her mouth. It was the ring that had given him away; it was that class ring that her friend had always worn…

"It… it was Nicky, b-but he wouldn't have done this… he c-couldn't have…"

"We know, we already processed the blood on your hand, and the rag was covered in ether, not too mention that all the fingerprints on it belonged to Nick…"

Greg burst through the door, a look of concern on his face. He saw Catherine lying on the couch, and hurried over to them.

"Hey, Greg…" Warrick muttered, his attention still on their temporary supervisor.

Her vision was clearer now, and she let Warrick help her up.

"We've got to find him, Warrick, we've got to get him in here and fast…"

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Greg nearly shouted at the other two, "What do you 'get him in'? You sound like you want to arrest him or something!"

"Greg, this may be hard for you, hell it's hard for all of us, but we've got to accept it; the evidence points to Nick. And, like Grissom always says, the evidence can't lie." Warrick wasn't sure if he really believed it himself, but he knew that, one way or another, they had to find the Texan soon.

"I can't believe you guys! He's our friend, he would never do that to Catherine unless someone forced him too!"

They stared at Greg in surprise, and they both wanted to believe him. Yet something just felt wrong about the whole thing. The moment was interrupted when Catherine's phone went off.

"Catherine. What did you say David? Ok, slow down… You found him? Where?"

She hung up and quickly motioned for the two to follow her.

"What's going on?" Warrick demanded as they ran after her. Sara watched them race past the lab, and immediately took off after them.

"It was David, he found Nicky!" Catherine called out as they burst into the morgue. They saw David kneeling with his back against the sides to a table, his tear filled eyes looking past them and at the wall to their right. They didn't waste anytime moving into the room only to see a panel removed from beneath the counter.

Warrick bent over and peered inside. "Oh God, Nick! Nick are you ok?" His quivering voice didn't even spark a reaction from the tied up CSI. He looked at his friend's dark brown eyes, and he could see the utter horror within them. His hand reached into the space to put what he hoped would be a reassuring feeling back into the Texan, and when he saw Nick shrink back from his hand he nearly lost it.

The others watched the scene unfold. The room was deathly quiet, and they watched as Warrick once more tried to help their friend.

He laughed, quite happy about how this had gone down, as he stared into the small camera that showed Warrick trying to help his petrified colleague. There was no doubt in his mind that his plan was going to work perfectly, especially with Grissom out of his way… His cell phone rang, and his smile vanished… Who would be calling him now? He sighed. But, his smile crept back into his face as he saw the name on his phone.

"Hello, Conrad… Nice to hear from you again!" He said cheerfully.

"Look, Carl, I need you to fly out here tonight, and get this evaluation we talked about done tomorrow. Some bad things have been going on, and it's urgent."

"Anything for an old friend, I'll be on the next flight… Oh, and your friend is doing quite nicely at my institute; I just thought you might want to know since it's been so long since you've last called."

"That's great, but seriously, it isn't as important right now, call me when you land, and I'll pick you up."

"Oh, I'll call ahead for a rental, I need to get one anyway, and it'll save you some time."

"Sure, well I've got people to see, and things to do. Bye"

"Yeah, bye."

This was perfect. He had known that Ecklie would call him back to rush this evaluation, and he smiled at the thought that his plan would soon be completed. Nicky, Nicky… You made yourself such a wonderful target! I'll have to remember to thank Grissom for how much you both helped me… A quick look at his watch though made him clear his mind and focus on his present task. A few hours later he realized he was closing in on his destination, from where he'd fly back to Vegas as his 'normal' self. Meanwhile, he continued to watch the camera and he relished at the contentment he felt as his plan continued to work flawlessly.

"Come on Nicky… it's just me, man, it's just Warrick, we're gonna get you out of here ok?" Warrick said in his most comforting voice that he could; they waited, but Nick was terrified. This isn't going to be easy… Catherine had called Ecklie, who had in turn called the paramedics, but Warrick knew that Nick was physically fine. Finally, Warrick decided Nick needed out of the tight space, so he quickly wrapped his arms around his friend. Tears fell freely from his face as he felt the other man try to squirm out of his grip.
Nick could only see the hands reaching for him. Somewhere in the distance he thought he heard a familiar voice calling to him, but he couldn't remember who it belonged to… Even though his eyes were as wide open as possible his vision was too clouded to actually see much of anything. He was terrified. He's going to kill me… He'd never forget that smile… tears ran quickly down his face, but his breathing was shallow, and he hardly made any noise as he felt himself being pulled back into the morgue.
Catherine immediately grabbed a pair of scissors to cut the tape, and almost put them back as Nick tried to squirm away from the sharp metal object. His vision was becoming clearer slowly now that he was out of that hole… He felt a gloved hand touch his face as it began to peel the tape away. He tried desperately to get away. Something inside his mind was telling him that they were going to hurt him… that they weren't who he thought they were. They're my friends… I can trust them… But he couldn't make himself truly believe anything…
"Catherine!"

She turned to see Ecklie coming towards her in the hospital. She sighed; he was the last person she had wanted to speak to, especially about Nick's condition.

"How is he?"

"He's scared out of his mind… He won't let anyone come within a few feet of him without freaking out, and he hasn't said a word to anyone…"

"Have you contacted his parents? Or Grissom?"

"I can't get a hold of any of them."

"They're in California." Both jumped in surprise, neither had seen Greg come up behind them. "Nick told me they were taking a few weeks off, and they took his brother and sisters to some resort type of place. Nick couldn't go… I want to talk to him Catherine."

"I'm not sure that is a good idea Sanders." Ecklie responded nonchalantly.

"I don't care. I need to talk to him."

Catherine gave another deep sigh before nodding her head, and stepping aside to let Greg enter the room.

Greg couldn't help but notice how quickly Nick became alert when he had walked into the room. He could see that the Texan was scared… of him. Tears immediately began to fill his eyes. He seriously doubted that anyone had ever been afraid of him before, but seeing one of his role models, and his friend, scared senseless of him was just wrong… He couldn't meet Nick's eyes as they stared intensely at him, and forced himself to take a step forward. Greg stepped back as soon as he saw Nick tense up and cringe as if though Greg was going to hurt him.

"It's ok Nick… I j-just want to talk to y-you…"

When his friend only continued to stare at him in fear he realized this would probably just be a one way conversation…

"You were right Nick, I know there was someone else, I j-just know it. B-because I know you c-could never do that, and that you never w-would do that…"

Something changed in the other man's attitude towards Greg. He could still see the fear in his eyes, but the man didn't flinch when he decided to take a slow step forwards.

"I need you t-to tell me what this bastard made you do… W-we want to nail him so much for this, f-for what he made y-you do."

"You mean you want to nail him."

Greg was taken aback by the cold, quiet comment. Nick's voice was shaky, but he could see the fear start to go away as the older CSI stared at him. He walked up slowly to Nick's side, and held out his shaking hand. Nick tried unsuccessfully to grin, and placed his hand in Greg's.

Catherine watched silently from the door, and when she saw Nick let Greg touch him she began to relax… In some twisted way finding him in that space had comforted her… There was no way Nick could've done that; it quenched her fears that Nick could've actually been at fault for everything that had happened… She jumped as she felt a hand lay firmly on her shoulder, and shook her head when she saw Warrick looking in the room at Greg.
"What do you mean by that?"

"They don't believe me… I can t-tell…"

"They do Nick, they were just scared… I was s-scared too… T-this never should've happened…"

"But it did…"

"Yeah, you're right, but y-you need to move on, man, being afraid of everyone isn't going to h-help us catch this guy… d-don't shut out Warrick and Sara and Catherine… they care, and i-if we l-lost you it'd tear us all a-apart…"

"Ok, man, I'll tell you what happened… at l-least most of it…"

It was several hours later before Greg found himself standing in the hallway once more. The rest of the team stood there, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"He said he was too tired to talk to anyone else right now, but that w-when he woke up he'd really like to talk with you guys…"

Warrick sighed and couldn't stop himself from grabbing the young CSI and hugging him. Catherine and Sara both smiled at him and he could see they were fighting both tears and the urge to hug him as well. It was a while before Warrick released him, but he soon found the man clasping his shoulders and looking him right in the eye.

"Thank you so much Greg… You have no idea how thankful I am… you brought Nick back, you got him to agree to see us…"

"Whatever you said worked, I'm proud of you, Greg." Catherine added, her voice shaky.

"H-he told me that the guy who stabbed him was waiting f-for him in the locker room with a gun. H-he m-made me promise to tell you, Catherine, t-that he was s-so s-s-sorry that he had to do that to you, but the guy h-had a g-gun to his head… and that the guy forced him to tape h-himself up, and to roll into that crawl space."

"Let me guess, you believed him?"

They turned around to see Ecklie and the dayshift supervisor walking towards them.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Catherine demanded ferociously.

"I handed the case over to the dayshift supervisor, and I'll be overseeing the entire case myself. Any objections, or can we get this show on the road already?"

"Who the hell do you think you are! You aren't taking this case from us!" This time it was Greg who responded, his shouting had attracted the attention of the dozens of people wandering through the hall.

"That'll be a three week suspension, without pay, for you Mr. Sanders, and I'll be discussing your future employment for the lab with Grissom when he gets back."

They looked stunned. Greg bit his lip so hard he could tastea small bit of blood, but he didn't care, he was too pissed off to care.

"I'm not going to be tolerating any insubordination from your team, so I suggest you all take some time off, and try to help your friend get ready for his evaluation tomorrow."

"Wait, I thought that was supposed to happen once Grissom got back, so that he could sitthrough itwith Nick?"

"Too much has happened to wait any longer. The DA wants the results, and if they like what they see they'll take him in for further questioning. Now, if you don't mind I have work to do."

The two forced their way into Nick's room, leaving the stunned team standing in the hallway.

"That's it, we're going to help Nicky, even if it means going behind Ecklie's back. I'm not going to let that asshole ruin Nick's life even more. Greg, I want you on the first flight out to California to contact Nick's family; we're going to need their support here. Then I want you on a plane to New York to find Grissom and tell him what's going on. Warrick, you're Nick's best friend, I don't know how we'll do it, but you're going into that evaluation with him tomorrow. Sara, I want you to go to Nick's house, talk to his neighbors, or anyone who knows him, see if you can find this guy he's talking about, or if anyone saw any guys creeping around, or following Nick. Warrick you come with me, we're going in there to stop Ecklie from doing any damage to Nick. Let's move, there's no time to waste."

Greg and Sara quickly hurried away, going in opposite directions down the hall. They didn't bother to say goodbye; they simply didn't have the need, or the time. Catherine forced herself to stay clam, and opened the door to Nick's room.

Tears welled up in Warrick's eyes as he saw Nick regain his fearful look, and that eerie silence. The other two turned to look up at him, and they could see Ecklie was getting mad at Nick's refusal to speak. The two didn't even seem to notice that Nick was cowering in his bed, and flinched every time they spoke to him.

"That's it, this interview is over, get out NOW!" Catherine roared. Everyone looked at her in surprise, but the two reluctantly stood to leave the room. "I need to talk to you,Ecklie, so don't go too far." She added forcefully. Once they were through the door Warrick moved to follow them before Catherine grabbed his arm. "Warrick, stay here with Nick, calm him down, try to help him relax, I'll go take care of that S.O.B."

Warrick nodded and looked at the once more terrified Nick. He felt sick at the look of horror on his best friend's face, and realized that Nick was afraid of him too at the moment.

"Nicky, y-you need t-to know how sorry I am, man… I should've listened to you… if I h-had you wouldn't be here now… I p-promise you, I really d-do believe you, I know you didn't do any of it without being f-forced to…"

Once more Nick let his guard down a little bit, enough to not flinch as his best friend slowly approached him. He had waited for Greg to stick his hand out so he could grab it, but Warrick was different, and he needed his closest friend now more than ever. He lifted his trembling hand out, and managed to smile as he felt the other's hand grasp onto his.

"It's ok, man, if I had r-really wanted you to believe me I w-would've just b-beaten it into you that I was r-right…"

Warrick laughed at his friend's simple attempt to lighten the mood in the room. He was just glad to have that look of utter terror wiped clean from the Texan's face.

"Alright, Ecklie, you can take this case, but Warrick isgoing to through the evaluationwith Nick, or it doesn't happen at all!"

"You're pushing your luck Catherine…"

"You're right, and I'll keep pushing it as long as I have too!"

Greg waited anxiously in line at the airport, once he made it through the security checks it was all he could do to not run straight for the boarding room. He hurried past dozens of other people, mostly headed towards the exit, until he finally reached his plane, just as it started boarding passengers.
Dr.Carl Albertswalked calmly through the airport, it was nice being back in Vegas so soon, and tomorrow his plan would really start to unfold. A young man raced past him, and it took him a while to notice that it was a CSI that worked with Mr. Stokes, who was heading for a plane to San Francisco.
To Be Continued...