Chapter 5: Back to the hospital

By the time they arrived at the hospital, Nick and Catherine were shaking so badly that the paramedics rushed them to the trauma room. Once there the doctors started to examine them. First the doctors and nurses had to get Nick and Catherine to calm down so that they wouldn't hurt themselves more. Then once they were calm, the doctors started to examine them.

Nick was all dirty and bloody, so the nurses got rags and some water and started to clean his skin. Once he was cleaner, the doctors could see that he was very bruised. He also had a lot of cuts, especially around his legs, arms, and face. The nurses cleaned the cuts, while the doctors continued to examine them. They noticed that his ankle was still bleeding, so they farther examined it. They saw that he was shot in the ankle, the bullet was just barely in his ankle, it was hanging on by a piece of skin. The doctors carefully took the bullet out of his ankle. Once the bullet was out, they were able to tell that he had also sprained his ankle badly. They continued to examine him and realized that a few of his ribs were bruised and cracked. Moving to his upper body, they realized that his right shoulder was already in a sling from a previous injury. They carefully took the sling off so that they could examine the shoulder better. There was a big bruise on it in the shape of a boot, where he got kicked. Other than that, the shoulder looked to be healing from a previous injury. Not knowing whether he was more hurt or not, they continued on their examination. His wrists were badly cut from the ropes that had bound them together. Lastly, they examined his head. He had a concussion but they wouldn't know how severe until he woke up and under went a proper test. Finished with the examination, the doctor bandaged his ankle and wrapped it with an ace bandage for extra support. Then the doctor wrapped his ribs so they could heal faster, and put bandages on the cuts on Nick's wrists. Lastly he put Nick's sling back on.

Catherine was also really dirty but she wasn't that bloody. The nurses cleaned her up and the doctor started his examination. Her face and neck were really bruised. Her neck was severally bruised, the bruise forming a hand print, suggesting that she was strangled. Her wrists were more cut than Nick's were suggesting struggle, but other than that, she was fine. He bandaged her wrists and farther examined her windpipe. It was bruised, she was lucky it wasn't damaged.

Finished with both of their examinations, he moved them to their floor room, room 231. Once he got them there, he went to find the rest of the CSI's knowing that they would want the bullet from Nick's ankle and news on how they were doing. Reaching the waiting room, he called out their names.

"Hi I am Dr. Simmons is there a Grissom, Brass, Sara, Warrick, and Greg here?" Dr. Simmons started waiting for everyone to nod. "if you would follow me, I have news about your friends."

Eager for news they followed the dr.

"Your friends suffered through a terrible experience today both physically and mentally. Nick has more physical injuries than Catherine does, but they both have the mental suffering to overcome. Nick's injures include; lots of bruising, lots of cuts, a concussion needing more testing to see how severe, a badly sprained ankle, he was also shot in that ankle, his wrists were bound so now they have deep cuts and rope burn on them, most of his ribs are bruised and some are cracked, and he was kicked in his already injured shoulder so I don't know if he injured it further, I'll contact his doctor for that. Catherine on the other hand only had bruising on her face and neck and cuts on her wrist. The bruising on her neck was due to strangulation. The cuts on her wrists are due to her struggling to get free from the bindings. They are in room 231 if you want to see them. I just need to talk to Grissom for a few more moments." Dr. Simmons informed. He waited for everyone but Grissom to leave then he continued. "Grissom, I am going to be honest with you, they went through, mental, physical and emotional trauma so it is going to be a long road to recovery. Nick has the physical recovery time, but Catherine is going to have guilt for not stopping Nigel until it was almost too late. Both of them are most likely going to have nightmares about what happened tonight for a while. So just keep your eye on them and make them take it easy until they get over what happened to them today. Do you have any questions?"

"No I'm just worried about Nick and Catherine. Nick has been through so much in his life time that I don't know how much more he can take, before he cracks. On the other hand, Catherine has never suffered through trauma, at least that I know of. I just don't know how to help them."

"To help them all you need to do is be there for them when ever they need you. Listen to them when they tell you something, and reassure them when they look depressed. If you do that, they will be grateful. Now go and see them. Oh before I forget, here is the bullet that struck Nick."

Grissom headed up to room 231 and walked in. He saw Nick and Catherine in their beds with their eyes closed. Looking more closely at Nick, Grissom realized that Nick's left ankle was wrapped tightly in an ace bandage and elevated on a pillow. There was an Ice pack on Nick's ankle to reduce the swelling and numb the pain. Nick was covered in cuts and bruises. His wrists were bandaged and so were his ribs. Grissom turned away from Nick and looked at Catherine. Grissom noticed the handprint around her neck and sighed. He knew that they almost lost two key CSI's tonight. He went over to the others and sat down. After a while he saw Catherine toss and turn.

-------Catherine's dream-------

Catherine looked around and realized she was back with Nigel. Only this time it was different. Nigel had the gun pointed at Nick's head and Nick didn't have time to defend himself. Nigel killed him. Catherine screamed and lunged at Nigel kicking him furiously.

"You stupid little killer, how could you kill him he never did anything to you. He never did anything wrong. Why did you kill him?"

"Oh honey, I did it for you. It is your fault that he is dead. It is your fault that I am hear murdering someone and it is your fault that your about to die." Nigel stated advancing on her and grabbing her by the neck.

Catherine screamed and kicked with all of her might but that only made Nigel angrier.

-------end of dream-----------

'This is just a nightmare, he isn't really dead, Nigel is.' Catherine kept repeating that thought in her head and felt some one shaking her shoulder. She woke up gasping for air and sweating all over. She looked up and realized that Grissom shook her shoulder to wake her up. She smiled gratefully and started to calm down. 'That was one bad nightmare. It is all my fault, why didn't I do anything to help him.'

"Sorry" Catherine whispered.

"Catherine you have nothing to be sorry for." Grissom exclaimed while the others nodded.

"But I couldn't protect Nick."

"Catherine you also needed protection, your wrists were bound together. There was nothing else you could have done. Heck, you even were able to call Brass with out Nigel noticing. You did more to help Nick, then I would have thought possible."

"But…"

"No buts, Catherine. Just try to calm down right now."

Once Catherine calmed down, Grissom went back to his seat. A few minutes later, Nick woke up. He looked around the room disoriented. He saw Grissom leave the room. He turned his head and noticed that Catherine was laying on the next bed over. He felt really guilty that she had to be there and got hurt in the process. He knew that Nigel only came after him and that Catherine was just a innocent victim. He knew that Catherine would blame him for what happened. He heard that door open and saw Grissom come back. This time however, Grissom was not alone, there were two doctors following him. Once of the doctors Nick recognized as Dr. Carson, he did not recognize the other one. The doctors made their way to his bed. They told the others to leave so that they could examine Nick and Catherine.

"Hi Nick, this is Dr. Simmons. He treated your injuries last night and needs to run a few tests to see how badly some of them are injured. So just do what he says and it will be over before you know it." Dr Carson explained.

Dr Simmons started testing Nick to see how bad his concussion was. Once he was finished examining Nick's head, he was relieved that Nick only had a minor concussion. Moving on to Nick's ankle he stopped to explain to Nick what he needed to do.

"Nick I am going to move your ankle around. All I need you to do is tell me when it hurts and how much it hurts ok."

He started moving Nick's ankle around and stopped when ever he saw Nick wince or grimace in pain. After that was completed he told Nick to slowly stand up and see how much weight he could put on his ankle with out it being too painful. Nick followed Dr. Simmons instructions and put has much weight on is ankle as he could. It was really painful, but Nick being used to pain, ignored it. Dr. Simmons realized that Nick was in pain and ordered him to lie back down. He un wrapped Nick's ankle and changed the blood stained bandaged underneath. Then he left to find a brace with more support. A few moments later he came back and sat down next to Nick. He gently lifted Nick's ankle on to his knee and slipped the brace on tightening it as tight as possible. After that was finished he gently placed Nick's ankle back down on to the pillow. Done with Nick, he moved on to Catherine.

Dr. Carson then moved over to Nick and examined his shoulder. He was relieved to find that it was no more injured then it was before. He then left the room to tell the others that they were allowed to come back in.

Dr. Simmons was finishing his examination of Catherine. He looked at her neck and noticed that it was luckily not damaged, it was just badly bruised. He wanted her to stay here for a day or two just in case she develops asthma. Once he was finished examining her, he told the others what he found.

"Nick's concussion was very mild and should only last two to three days. His ankle is badly sprained so I put it in a more supportive brace. There is a bandaged under the brace that needs to be changed at least twice a day because it is covering his gun shot wound. His shoulder luckily was no worse than it was before this incident. Catherine's neck will be badly bruised for a while and it will be tender to the touch. If here voice is hoarse, tell her to whisper because we don't want her to damage her voice box. I want to have them spend at least two more days here so that I can make sure they are recovering fine. After that they can go back to work. Just make sure they take it easy." Dr. Simmons informed. After he saw everyone nod, he left. Dr. Carson stayed.

"Nick should be out of the sling in the next few days. He just has to continue his exercises to strengthen his shoulder. It could still be painful at times but the muscle had healed as much as it is going to. The pain he experiences now will be with him for the rest of his life, so once he is ready he can use his arm again." Dr. Carson informed. Once he saw everyone else nod, he left.

The others looked at Nick and Catherine and pulled the chairs up so they could sit by their beds. Sara sat right next to Nick and held his hand. Nick smiled at her.

Two days later, Dr. Simmons came back in and examined Nick and Catherine. He cleared them and sent them back home. Sara, Grissom, and Warrick came in to the room and waited for Catherine and Nick to get ready to leave. Catherine was ready first and walked over to them. Nick started to limp over slowly. Sara saw Nick and quickly went to help him. She wrapped her arm around his back and let him lean on her. Slowly they made their way over to the others and headed to the lab.