Title: And the Thunder Rolls

By: duffshel

Author's Note: Howdy all. Thanks for all the great responses to the last chapter. It means the world to me to hear from everyone about how they are liking things. I hope to be able to keep everyone happy until the end. This chapter moves us forward a little. No big action though, I'm afraid. I'll try to get the pace moving again next chapter. I promise, more is to come. But just let me know what ya think about this one. Promise to be back as soon as I can. Until then! Bye!

#5: On a sleepless night…

It was a long walk. A really long walk. Nick never would have thought that the other classroom could have been so far away. Whoever had built this school seriously needed to take a new look at his plans. And he'd have the opportunity to do so. The hallway needed some work.

His shoulder pulled where his arm was draped over Warrick. This action was a domino affect to his rib cage. At least none of those fragile bones appeared to be broken. But he wasn't going bowling anytime soon, that was for sure. His hands would most certainly protest that activity.

Greg led the way and the other two CSI's got their first look at the students who had been in the room with the dead girl. They were all still gathered together, but there wasn't one that looked like they were traumatized in the least. In fact, Warrick could see two of the guys had started a game of cards.

There was a chair lying on its side. Warrick pulled Nick closer to him and looked at Greg, "Hey, grab that chair and put it upright."

The long, thick hair shifted as Greg looked at Warrick confused. He didn't understand at first, but then taking one more look at the Texan, Greg dashed for it. After clearing out some of the mess around the area, Greg had the chair set and ready for Nick.

"Here, sit."

"Well, ya know when things are getting bad, when Greggo here can boss ya around," Nick grumbled as he was lowered into the chair. Neither man let him do any of the work. It was beyond frustrating.

"Just sit down and don't talk for a bit, man. Have to get this all figured out."

Warrick stood and placed his bloody hands on his lower back. Now that the adrenaline and shock of things was almost completely worn off, his body was beginning to protest any and all movements. His leg was twitchy and short pains shot up into his hip often. But there was no way he was saying a word to the others. There were more important things to worry about.

He looked over at the students once again. They had taken interest in the new arrivals, but were trying their hardest to avoid actually looking at the men. The girls had grouped closer, whispers running wild between them. Their eyes darted over at them quickly and with studying gazes. Warrick had never received looks like those when he had been in high school.

A sigh escaped from deep in his body. Greg had moved to stand behind Nick, his eyes starring straight at Warrick's face. As for the other CSI, Nick had his head leaned forward, brown eyes shut. It was clear the man was trying to fight off the pains that ran through his body.

"Okay, I'll go figure out where Andy and Jim are. We need to get everyone together so we know what to do next. Greg, come with me. Nick, stay here and try to relax a little."

Nick opened his eyes and glared at the taller man, "Stay here?"

"Yeah. You're injured. Just chill for a bit and let us get this worked out. Won't kill ya or anything."

"Oh, no. Of course not. Have to listen to the almighty Warrick after all," Nick's voice took on a strong sarcastic tone, accent thickening, as his eyes narrowed, "Nicky'll just sit here like a good ol' boy and do as Warrick says."

"Whatever, dude. We'll deal with this later."

Greg stood his ground and didn't say a word as the other two men faced off against each other. That scary tension from earlier was back and seemed to be taking a new tone. He started to roll his heels off the ground, ready to bolt if need be.

When Warrick nodded his head at him, he didn't bother to say a word. 'Just follow and no one will get hurt. Easier.'

But neither man made it far. Their exit was cut off by Brass and Andrew hauling an unconscious man from somewhere else in the school. It appeared to be a struggle for the two of them. Warrick jumped forward to help Brass out with the man's torso.

"Thanks," Brass huffed as they maneuvered into the room. The older detective barely noticed the wide eyes observing them. All he wanted to do was get this guy on the floor, somewhere out of his arms. He was getting heavier and heavier by the minute.

Greg immediately darted around, clearing the way for them. There was a table they could use, but it was on its side. With a deep breath and a grunt, the former lab rat managed to get it upright and ready for the others to place the injured man on it.

No sound was made from the director as his body was placed on his back. There was no movement from behind those closed eyelids. Blood still dripped from the lacerations on his face and torso. Now that he was flat on the table, it was clear his left leg was broken in more than one place.

"Shit, this guy's a complete mess. What're we going to do?" Warrick looked up at Brass once he took in the man on the table.

The older detective rubbed a shirt sleeve across his top lip, trying to collect the sweat pooling there, "Schools have first aid kits. We find one, fix him up. Get some help, find a way out."

"Simple."

The snorted response turned all heads and eyes towards Nick. He hadn't moved from his chair, but he had straightened his body up more so he could see what was going on. They were seriously screwed in this mess. It was beyond clear.

Andrew shook his head, dispelling all similar thoughts from his head and turned towards the kids, "Hey. Any of you know if the teachers keep kits in each of the rooms?"

It was Natalie that moved from the group, Susie moving with her. The two blondes moved together towards a cabinet that was stationed next to the teacher's desk. Susie leaned towards the other girl, voice in a hissing whisper. But none of the other people in the room could hear what had been said.

Warrick's eyes narrowed as he watched the two lithe bodies move forward. He couldn't figure out what they were trying to do. From what he had seen since they had walked into this room, none of those kids ever moved once. It was almost like they couldn't move at all.

Natalie reached forward with her left hand to grab the silver handle. The door swung open, but Greg couldn't see what was inside from his angle. But it wasn't long before Natalie produced a thick, white box from the depths of darkness.

"Here. I don't know what's in it, but they can use it for something, I guess."

The older men were shaken from their freeze and Andrew was the one to move forward to collect the aid. He nodded as he took it, taking in the fact that Susie seemed to be hiding completely behind Natalie. But there would be time to worry about that later.

"Thanks girls."

Andrew placed the box on the table by the director's leg, "Anyone know this guy's name?"

Long, black hair moved as Kevin lifted his head, "Mr. Kentwood."

"Hey Warrick," Brass mumbled under his breath as he ruffled through the aid kit, "Get Nicky fixed up too. Take a look at yourself. I want everyone looked at."

The tall CSI moved over next to the detective and took the gauze and tape thrust at him. He took a glance downward, but was sorely disappointed with this school's emergency procedures thus far. There was nothing more than some rolls of white gauze, some tape, scissors, and a couple Snoopy band-aids. That would help a dying man for sure.

Sighing, he turned around to face off against the glare he had felt piercing into the back of his head for a full ten seconds now. Nick did not look happy. Not at all. It wasn't Warrick's fault that he got hurt and now had to be worked on. This was not something the CSI was looking forward to having to do to his partner. Never was.

"Okay Greg. Gonna need your help, buddy. We need to get Nick upright. Then, I'll get that belt off so we can get to his wound."

"Ya know, I'm sitting right here. Don't talk to about me like I ain't here, man," Nick puffed out his chest a little, nostrils flaring in anger at being talked about as if he was handicapped and couldn't stand on his own.

Greg shifted his weight on his feet again, "Only take a couple seconds Nick. Just let us help you."

"Yeah, just let us help ya, bro."

There was no way he was going to win and Nick knew it. He took a deep breath and simply nodded his head. This was going to be embarrassing enough. Didn't need any more attention from the other occupants in the room with him. His body groaned as he was shifted back up to his feet with the help of the other two. The wound pulled and he was certain it had started to bleed again.

Leaning heavily on Greg, Nick felt his cheeks flush as Warrick tackled his belt buckle and the zipper. The jeans weren't what could be called tight, but they did require Warrick to reach around him and tug on them. It caused more blood to rush to color his face and neck. Nick was just very thankful that his partner didn't pull them far down. Only enough to get to what he needed to see.

"Damn man, that must really hurt," Warrick whistled out as he took a good look at the cut. It was higher than he had originally thought, but just about as deep. Glancing up with an apology, Warrick lowered Nick's boxer shorts a little so there was no cloth barrier.

'Greg? You see any disinfectant in that kit?"

The younger CSI looked around Nick's shoulder towards where Andrew and Brass were frantically cleaning up the music director. But he didn't see any bottles of anything helpful. "Nah, man. Nothing."

Warrick shook his head and gently pressed the skin around the cut. It was red and looked to be coming inflamed. He was worried about infection. That was something they didn't need on top of everything else. But then an idea struck him.

"Hey kids. Any of you have a water bottle?"

Blank eyes starred back at him. Warrick wanted nothing more than to get up and start screaming at them for their slow and lame reactions, but he managed to control it. Now was not the time to lose it over something so trivial. There would be time to beat on lockers later.

Just as he was about to ask again, Amber looked up and nodded. She slowly moved off her chair and made her way to what must have been her backpack. The zipper sounded through the area and she withdrew a blue bottle of water. There only appeared to be about half left, but it would work. Her feet produced no sound as she walked over to give Warrick the bottle.

"Thank you. Helps a lot," Warrick smiled as she looked up at his face. There was nothing coming from her that day. She soundless moved back to her seat. Arms wrapped around her torso as she hugged herself.

Now with the water, Warrick quickly unscrewed the top and poured a little onto part of the gauze he had in his hand, "Greg, hold him still. Have to clean this up a little before I bandage it."

Nick closed his eyes tight as he felt Greg's grip tighten around his shoulders. Fingers poked at his hot skin, but it was the wet cloth that set fire through his hips. A pain-filled moan escaped his throat despite his best attempts to be silent. He gasped back the second one as Warrick dug a little bit to pull out some gravel that had worked its way in.

"Not a doctor, but I think this will hold up 'til we get you to a hospital."

"Haven't we had that discussion about hospitals before," Nick pushed past his teeth, "I don't want to be prodded."

Greg laughed at this, "Then you are in the wrong line of work. You should have worked in a petting zoo if you didn't ever want to be prodded. Nick, you've bad luck with this job."

"Oh, geez, thanks Greg. You my friend too?"

The mood was a little lighter as Warrick cut off some of the white bandage and applied it to the area with a lot of tape. He had no idea how long they were going to be there so he wanted to make sure the stubborn Texan kept it in place. Next time he would wrap Nick up in tape if he had to.

Nick tried to get his jeans back up on his own, but it wasn't working. The new addition to his skin didn't want to budge against the pull. Warrick had to help him. The blush was never going to leave now. His body was quite glad to sit back in the chair though.

"Alright, sit. Let me see your hands."

"Oh yeah, you're one to talk. Yours are worst than mine by far."

It was true, but Warrick had been ignoring that pain along with all his others. The bleeding had stopped awhile back and he had picked a little at the rocks. All in all, they weren't as bad as he had thought they were.

"Besides, I saw your ass limping around. Your leg's bothering you as well."

Warrick looked up as the words shot at him, "Oh yeah, what about your leg, your ribs, and your head? I think you are not going to beat me in this game, Nick."

"Whatever," the Texan mumbled as he lowered to rest his chin against his chest. But he didn't refuse the other man when Warrick reached for his injured hands. Nick had mostly messed them up during his struggle to get out after Warrick had found him. Nothing too terrible though.

It burned as the gravel was washed away, but Nick simply bit his lip to keep in all sounds. He pulled away once his partner moved to wrap them as well. Bandages would just get in the way.

"Okay, ya looked at mine. Now, I get to do the same."

Greg smirked as he watched Warrick shrug and slap out his hands, palms up. It was clear that he had the worst wounds to his digits. Pulling those rocks from Nick had taken its toll. But Greg was sure Warrick would do it a hundred times over without thought if he ever had to again.

"Happy now, Nicky?"

The glare wasn't as good as Nick had been hoping for, "No. Still have other injuries, man. But, I'll harass you later about them. You're gonna be on the hospital bed right next to me just so I can jaw ya to death."

"Now that you two are done bickering, I say we check and see how our friendly cops in blue are doing," Greg finally spoke up between the other two CSI's.

The youngest of the trio didn't bother for any response as he moved around the chair towards the temporary hospital bed. Andrew was pushing downward hard onto the man's chest, trying to stop the bleeding from the large cut they had discovered once they pulled the dark shirt of the man.

"How's it going?"

Brass looked up quickly from where he was cleaning up several lacerations on the man's stomach, "Well, if we can get the bleeding to stop, he might have a chance. Anyone check out the kids? Make sure they're okay?"

"Not yet, I'll go talk with them," Nick stated as he slowly made his way towards the open chair standing alone by the group of students.

Warrick shook his head as he watched Nick wander away from his friends. It was obvious he didn't want to be bothered anymore about how he was feeling. Now they had to worry about saving the music director's life. Then, getting the hell out of this school.

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

"So, how y'all doing? No one get hurt in that fiasco we just had?"

Nick suddenly felt really old. He never had when he was dealing with his nieces and nephews, but these teenagers made him feel ancient. This was a feeling he had never really experienced before. It confused him and he felt nervous to sit with these kids.

When he had been in high school, kids knew to respect their elders in most situations. They answered when talked to by someone of authority. None of these kids must have learned those simple manners or they just didn't care. It was scary to think his future would some day be in these kids' hands.

"Cat got your tongue?"

This went over all their heads, "What?"

The tallest boy spoke up. His voice was solid, almost bored. Nick shook his head, "What's your name?"

"Derek. How many times do you people need to know?"

Nick held up his hands in surrender, grin plastered on his face, "Just a question, man. Nothing more."

"Oh just ignore him. He thinks he can say and do whatever her wants," the blonde girl from before scoffed as she looked at the boy's face.

"Okay, but that wasn't my question. Did any of you get hurt? Any injuries of any kind?"

"No sir."

Nick looked at the timid, red haired girl. She still had herself wrapped up tight. He could see the dried up tear tracks on her cheeks. "And you are?"

"Amber."

"Well, Amber. My name's Nick. And I promise you, all of you, we're going to get out of this soon and just fine. Trust me."

She smiled timidly back at his grin. Nick only could hope he wasn't giving her any false hope in this matter. He would never be able to live with himself if he did.

TBC…