Author: Isabel Juno

Story: The Assassin's Decision

Disclaimers and such in previous chapters

Authors Notes: see last chapter...

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Hours into minutes

Nick pulled himself into wakefulness groggily. His entire body hurt and he had no idea where he was. His nostrils detected the strong scent of antibacterial cleaners and astringents and his skin was wrapped in gauze bandages. He lay in a bed with overly starched pristine white sheets. He opened his eyes slowly, not wanting to acknowledge existence. God, how he hated anesthesia. Kathleen was sitting in a chair by his bed reading a copy of Gulliver's Travels. She glanced up at him and smiled warmly.

"Welcome back to the world of the living."

"Ugh… thanks. How long have I been out of it?" he asked hoarsely. She grabbed a glass of water from his bedside table and helped him drink.

"About a week. I read all the magazines here so Gil brought me a few books of his to read, Catherine brought me some clothes, and Jim brought me some real food." She grinned at him as his attention had sharpened when she said "real food".

"Want some?" She asked grinning evilly. He grinned back.

"Sure the doctors won't kill me for it?" She pretended to think about it.

"Well actually it's probably not a good idea. The doctors said that your stomach should be fine. But to be honest I think your gonna be on a strictly soup, applesauce, and Jell-o diet for a while." She said seriously. She almost burst out laughing at Nick's crestfallen look. He began bemoaning the injustice of hospital food and dictator doctors, at which point Kathleen burst out laughing. He looked at her, startled.

"What? What's so funny?" He asked bewildered. Kathleen continued to laugh at the confused texan. She shook her head.

"Nothing. Just the look on your face when I told you what your diets probably going to be for the next week."

"WEEK!" That was too much for poor Nick, who fell back on his pillows practically cursing doctors. He fell silent after a few minutes, seemingly relenting to his inevitable fate. Kathleen smiled and placed her bookmark carefully in the book, time for Gulliver and the giants later. She sat still waiting for Nick to ask what she knew he was dying to ask. A few minutes later he inquired.

"So did they find the guy yet?" His voice was flat and emotionless but Kathleen watched his eyes moisten slightly and dart around nervously as he faced the ceiling.

"They haven't found him yet but they're looking." She knew all they would find of David Velcher would be his mangled body identifiable only by his dental records and they would find a confession in David's own hand telling them that he'd been the one who attacked Nick and ordered the assassination of over 209 people in the last 20 years. Kathleen had always known how to forge Velcher's writing. She'd practiced it just in case, and she knew what to say. She had written down the names and year of each assassination she'd either committed or known about. She hadn't killed as many as some of the others Velcher "owned" as he put it. She was the one Velcher had sent on the most dangerous assignments because she was the best and now she was in a world where she had no real marketable skills. It scared her. Nick sat thinking.

"They're not gonna find him are they?" He asked calmly. The first thing he'd done the first time he'd woken up was to demand a sketch artist and he'd described Velcher and now the police were out looking for a man who aside from some skin tissue stuck under Nick's nails and in his teeth where Velcher had torn his knuckles punching Nick in the mouth the police had only a sketch. Kathleen hoped that Robins, the coroner, would run a DNA check through on Velcher and notice it was the same DNA as Nick's attacker. Then all the pieces would fall into place. Nick stared glumly at the wall and Kathleen felt an overpowering urge to hug him, which she acted upon carefully as not to hurt him. He looked in a surprised way at her and hugged her back. He inhaled her scent, one of lilac and lavender, and ran his fingers through her beautiful black hair. He never wanted the moment to end but of course it did as Kathleen let go calling out a greeting to Grissom, who stood in the doorway looking like he was about to back out of the room and leave the two alone. Nick was overjoyed.

"Griss!" He called out cheerfully. Grissom smiled and strode in and gave Nick a rather awkward hug. Nick noticed that Grissom smelled like bourbon and wondered if Grissom had been drinking a lot.

"How are you feeling Nick?" Grissom asked his eyes betraying his concern far more than his words. Nick smiled easily.

"Pretty good. What about you?" He inquired curiously. He saw a flash of emotion go across Grissom's normally stoic features. It disappeared as quickly as it had come and Grissom just nodded sullenly. Kathleen sensed the tension emanating from Grissom and hurriedly changed the subject. She picked the first thing that came to mind.

"So have they decided to let Greg out today?" Nick's head whipped towards her panic apparent on his face.

"What?" He turned to look at Grissom. "What? Is Greg here? Is he ok? What's happened?" Grissom frowned slightly and Kathleen kicked herself, bad choice of subject.

"Nick, shut up for a minute and let me explain." Said Grissom evenly. He looked very tired all of the sudden.

"Greg tried to commit suicide. He's fine though; we stopped him in time. He has undergone psychiatric evaluation and he'll be in therapy for a while. He will be fine." Gil assured Nick.

"They're even going to let him continue taking care of Miles." Proffered Kathleen. Nick looked greatly relieved and began muttering irritably to nobody in particular.

"Can't even have stomach hemorrhaging and undergo surgery without all hell breaking loose." Gil and Kathleen smiled at each other. Nick was going to be fine. Gil gave Kathleen a look that told her he needed to speak with her alone. Kathleen told Nick she was going to go get some coffee and Gil told Nick he had to check in on Jim and the lab to see if Ecklie had tried getting in again.

"He doesn't seem to get the fact he's been canned. Even security doesn't seem to help. We've even threatened to arrest him the next time we catch him in the lab." Gil grinned as his mind conjured up an image of Conrad Ecklie rotting in jail. It was one of his fondest daydreams. Nick chuckled, picturing much the same thing that Grissom was. Kathleen smirked at the two men who were lost in their daydreams. Grissom followed her out of Nick's room, his eyes still slightly glazed over in a daydream state.

"What did you want to talk about?" she asked heading down towards the cafeteria. Now that she thought about it, coffee sounded really good or maybe a nice cappuccino. Gil snapped out of his daydream and cleared his throat. He looked slightly embarrassed.

"Umm… well your probably going to be mad for this… but I did a background check on you. I wanted to know who you were and you're not terribly forthcoming about it. I know who you are. I know who you used to be. And also we found Velcher." Kathleen just stared at him feeling the blood draining out of her face and struggling to pull herself together. He didn't give her a chance.

"I also know who that makes Miles. I know that situations you've dealt with are very far from ideal and I know you've done what you've had to too survive. I can't honestly say I wouldn't have done the same thing. I'm not going to arrest you because I can't prove you've done anything and also because I don't want to. You saved Nick's life. Maybe not directly but you've still saved him. I do have many questions though. I'm hoping you'll come clean with the answers over coffee with Jim and I." Gil had pushed the elevator button and stepped inside waiting for her. She forced her legs into motion reluctantly. She watched him push the button for the cafeteria level. He waited for her response. She carefully considered what to say.

"I'm not sure how much I can tell you to be honest. I'll do my best as long as you promise not to tell anybody and why the hell does Jim know?"

"He helped me uncover your past." Gil stated simply, as the elevator started down. Kathleen nodded accepting his answer.

"And, we won't tell… anybody unless we have to." The last bit was added after a moments pause. It caused Kathleen's head to turn so sharply towards him that her neck cricked. She nodded after a moments thought. It was only fair. The elevator pinged as it landed on the correct floor. The two walked silently out of the elevator and down the almost absurdly brightly lit hall. The short hall opened out into a massive room that encompassed the whole floor, with floor to ceiling windows and an enormous beige carpet and many white round tables and 4 chairs to each table. Few patients, families, doctors, and nurses sat around at them or stood at the windows looking out at the vastness of Las Vegas. Gil still puzzled over why they'd brought Nick here. This was terribly far from the strip, about five or six miles. The doctor had told him that Nick had requested to be brought here and that the EMT's had only followed the patient's requests. He glanced around the room spying Jim sipping coffee out a white styrofoam cup in the corner. Good, thought Gil, less chance of being over heard. He led Kathleen over to the table and sat down. She followed suit resignedly and stared out the window into the early morning light. Unbelievably there was a light fog over the city that hadn't burned up yet. The lights of the city reflected inside the fog to create an eerily beautiful effect. She tore her eyes from the scene as Jim began to question her in an uncustomarily gentle tone.

"So who exactly is Miles?" Jim inquired. Kathleen turned to fix Jim with a stern stare.

"I can't tell you much about him because I don't know for sure if he is who I think he is. But if I'm correct then Miles is the son of David Velcher and a woman who lived here in Vegas many years ago. I know she died about 4 years ago and that she was terrified that Velcher would find out that she was with child. Velcher had made it clear to her that she was to be on birth control, and she told me he wore protection every time just to be sure. She told me that she had taken the pills and somehow had still gotten pregnant. A one in a million chance and it happened to the one woman who would be killed for it. She came to me, begging me to help her. She knew if anybody could keep Velcher from killing her, it would be me. So I decided to help her. The poor woman was desperate and she didn't want to give up the child. I found her a safe harbor in Colorado with a friend of mine. She was then given a new identity and taken to a quiet town in Maine. The last I heard from her was when Miles was 3. She said that she'd seen some strange men around her town and I advised her to move. She did and that was the last I heard from her. I found out two years later she died and her son was missing. I assumed that despite my efforts David Velcher had found her and killed her and her son. Her name was Andrea Lyon." Kathleen paused and then added.

"I have an old picture of her and Miles." Gil raised an eyebrow and Kathleen opened her purple purse and pulled out a wallet and withdrew from it, a faded and worn old picture. Gil took it and examined it closely. It depicted a small boy with short crew cut brown hair wearing clean crisp khakis, a neatly pressed dark green dress shirt, plain black tie, dress shoes, and a yarmulke sitting next to a very pretty young woman. She had short straight black hair that stood up in a spiky sort of style with hazel eyes and a warm smile that lit up her face. She wore a simple flowery sundress and a light purple silk scarf with just enough flare to indicate that she was a city girl. Gil recognized a much younger Miles and assumed the young woman next to him was his mother, Andrea. He studied the background, the small family stood on the beach on the rocky coast of Maine. They stood on a huge boulder that protruded out into the ocean. The surf smashed up against some smaller rocks in the background and a seagull was caught in time forever in mid-flap with a small crab in its beak. It was a cloudy day and the boy and his mother looked happy despite the weather. Gil felt a pang of sadness for Miles and he handed the picture to Jim before looking at Kathleen. Her eyes reflected what he felt. How could anyone destroy such a tiny happy family?

"Miles can't be any older than 3 in that picture." Gil said, surprised to find his voice rough with emotion. Kathleen nodded.

"That's how old he was when the picture was taken." She informed him.

"So do you know what Miles' full name is?" Jim asked still not looking up from the picture. Kathleen nodded.

"Miles Ezekiel Lyon." She said softly, as if saying it would herald somebody screaming and diving through the window into the street below. Gil absorbed this thoughtfully.

"What's his birthday?" asked Gil. Kathleen blinked at him.

"October 12." She told him. Gil nodded and sighed.

"Do you have any idea where Miles went after his mother died?" Asked Jim, glancing up from the photo.

"No, I never actually saw Miles until he showed up here and I didn't know who he was at first. It was when he started cracking the same bad jokes his mother used to make that I realized why he looked familiar." The three lounged silently every once in a while sipping their coffee. After a while Jim spoke up.

"So should we tell Greg? Or confront Miles?" Gil frowned and cocked his head to the side thinking hard.

"No…" he said slowly, "I think that… Miles will talk about his past when he's ready too and if we push him he'll withdraw or worse. I'm going to help Greg push for custody of Miles and Greg gets out of therapy." Kathleen smiled.

"I think Miles would love that." They all knew Miles came in and visited Greg everyday. They played games and sang badly to Pink Floyd and Iron Maiden music. This tormented the nurses, doctors, and patients with in a fifty-foot radius of Greg's room. Greg underwent many psychiatric and physical evaluations and after two more weeks of torment was deemed to be mentally and physically fit.

He was released the following Monday and was given his therapy schedule. Nick was due to be released after the watch on his stomach for more bleeding ended. He had been in the hospital for nearly three and a half weeks and he was getting antsy. Nick, Greg, Miles, and Kathleen were constantly making mock plans to take over the hospital. They had even made a map of the hospital and used meter sticks to point out where there "forces" (tiny soaps) would be stationed during the takeover. Gil would often point out spots where they would be over run by screaming infants or geriatric patients and they would change their strategies. Nobody thought to ask how Gil knew about strategy or how he knew the hospital so well. Gil wasn't about to tell them he'd been wandering around the hospital when he wasn't at the lab, crime scene, or at the mobster trials taking place.

He'd told Nick that the guy whom had hurt him had been found murdered in his hotel room and that nobody was really making an effort to find his killer. Nick had accepted the news in a relieved manner. He told Gil that he simply didn't want to have to testify. Gil had smirked and told Nick about how much he hated testifying. How it made him feel like he had when he was a kid who was caught not paying attention in Sunday school and was being forced to say an our father and hail Mary in front of the entire church. He added that he had had to do that several times, one time for reading Origin of Species during the reading of Genesis. Greg who had been in the room at the time had laughed so hard that he'd fallen out of his chair and started choking for no real reason except he was laughing to hard.

Gil was still trying to think of a way to make everything right with Catherine and he'd made his decision and his plan. He'd brought Nick and Kathleen in on it as well as Greg and Miles. Jim had to be left out of the loop because, as was discovered when they tried to throw a surprise birthday party for Lindsey and Jim had accidentally mentioned it to her, Jim could not keep a secret. Everything was set up and everybody knew their part. Miles and Greg kept Lindsey from getting into trouble and also provided as babysitting so Catherine didn't have to worry about it at all. Warrick would hold fort at the trial and at the lab and Jim was scheduled to work anyway. The lab had pretty much been shut down on graveshift. Day shift took most cases, as did swing shift. Graveshift was pretty much limited to paperwork and processing evidence at the moment. After almost another week Gil was ready to put his plan into action. It had been a full month since his fight with Catherine and now he was going to make it right, and get Kathleen and Nick into an exclusive restaurant.

TBC

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