Hi everyone...thanks again for the great reviews and continuing support on the story. Enjoy! And and special thanks to Tefla for doing the whole beta thing!
The ride from the emergency room was going to be a short one. The doctor had explained to Nick that he was going to be admitted because he had a case of acute appendicitis. It seemed that Nick was forever doomed with being in the hospital. He figured that by now he should have his own private suite.
Nick's surgery was planned for that evening and the doctor had told him that they would perform a laproscopic appendectomy, that way the surgeon wouldn't have to make an as large incision, as opposed to the normal incision that was generally used. The recovery time would be faster, days instead of weeks. That made Nick a happy man, well as happy as one could be with appendicitis.
The orderly wheeled Nick into the elevator and pushed number four on the panel. At that moment Nick was thankful for the pain in his side, it kept him from thinking about small spaces like elevators. He held his gym bag tighter as if it would comfort him. He then heard the computerized voice in the elevator say 'This is the Fourth Floor' as the doors opened. The orderly silently moved Nick out of the elevator and turned left towards a bunch of rooms. Nick really didn't pay attention to where they were going he was more concerned with the pain he was feeling.
When the wheel chair stopped Nick looked up to see the room number and snickered. This caught the orderly by surprise.
"What's so funny Mr. Stokes?"
"Is this my room?" Nick asked.
"Yes sir…Room 419. Why?"
"Never mind…inside joke." Nick replied.
The orderly shrugged his shoulders and pushed Nick into the room.
As the two men entered Nick could see that the first bed was already occupied. The guy looked like he'd been put through the ringer. He had a cast on his right ankle and bruises all over his face. Nick could see that he was also wearing some sort of brace around his shoulders. He knew what that was; the man had obviously broken his collarbone. Nick recalled back when he broke his collarbone on his father's ranch. It was the first and last time he ever fell off his horse.
The orderly had just pushed the wheelchair up to the bed when a nurse came in.
"Good morning…Mr. Stokes. I'm Brenda and I will be your nurse during the dayshift. Let's get you settled in."
"Please call me Nick." He said.
"You got it Nick."
She came over and took the gym bag from Nick and placed it on the chair near the bed. The orderly locked the wheelchair as they both assisted Nick up and into bed. He grimaced in pain as he laid back. He was glad that he had come directly to the hospital. He wasn't sure that if had gone home if he would have made it. Thinking back now he was a real idiot. He should have listened to Sara the whole time. He could have put her life in danger if anything had gone wrong. The next time he saw her he would be sure to apologize.
After Nick was settled the orderly had left the room, but the nurse remained.
"Mr. Stokes I'm going to have to start an IV on you, but before I do that I need to ask you a few questions."
"OK." Nick waited for that dreaded question.
"Are you allergic to anything?"
And there it was, Nick stopped briefly before he answered, "…Yes I'm allergic to bug bites."
"OK. and how long would you say that's been?"
"Close to a year."
"I see and what happens?"
Nick looked at the questioning nurse he knew that she was just doing her job, but why did he feel like he was being interrogated?
"Um…I have trouble breathing."
"OK. are you allergic to any medications?"
He was relieved that she didn't pursue the matter he really wasn't up to discussing his past brush with death.
"None that I know of."
"Two more questions. When was the last time you ate? And what did you eat?"
"Hmm…let's see. I would say I had a banana and an orange around 10:30 last night and a cup of coffee."
"Great. Let me get this IV started and then you can rest."
Nick watched her as she expertly started the IV in his arm. He was told numerous times that he had great veins like that was something to be proud of.
"What are the chances of getting something to eat around here?" Nick asked.
"Sorry Nick no food for you. You are going into surgery tonight, if you eat anything it could cause problems. You will be getting all your nutrition from the IV now."
"But I'm hungry." He whined.
"I'm sure you are, but there are no exceptions no matter how much you whine." She paused, "You can have some ice chips, but that's even pushing it. OK?"
"Thanks. I need something."
Just as the nurse was leaving the patient in the first bed jumped and yelled out. She quickly ran over to him.
"Mr. Schultz can you hear me?"
The patient had slowly opened his eyes. It took him awhile to focus on the nurses' voice. He looked down at himself then around the room and realized that he was in the hospital. He suddenly started to panic.
"Where are my clothes?" he screamed moving around in the bed.
"Mr. Schultz please calm down and I will show you your clothes," The nurse said.
Nick had jumped at the initial outburst, but relaxed when his roommate did. He was hoping that he wasn't going to be like this all the time.
The nurse walked over to a closet where she removed a bag of clothes.
"You clothes are right here Mr. Schultz, shoes and all. OK? Now if you would please settle down. I don't want you hurting yourself anymore than you are."
"Sorry about that. I must have been dreaming or something."
"That's OK. Do you need anything? I'm getting some ice chips for yourroommate."
"No thanks I'm good." He said glancing over at Nick.
The nurse left and returned shortly with Nick's ice chips.
"Now Nick you are scheduled for surgery at 7:30pm. The orderlies will be here to get you around 6:30pm. Try and get some rest. If your pain gets any worse ring the call button ... OK?"
"Sure thing …thanks."
The nurse left the two men alone. Though Nick was tired he was curious about the man he was sharing the room with. He guessed it was the investigator in him. He looked over to the guy in the next bed and introduced himself.
"I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier…I'm Nick. I'd get up and shake your hand, but I don't think I could get out of bed."
"Dustin Schultz its nice to meet you Nick and trust me when I say I know how you feel. So what are you in for?"
"Appendicitis." Nick answered. "You?"
"Hit by a car."
"That's got to hurt."
"Oh yea, I can honestly say that's one experience I never want to repeat."
"I hear you."
At first Dustin wasn't sure what to think of his new roommate. He seemed like a likeable guy and was certainly friendly enough. He wondered if this guy could be used for his purposes. It was obvious that his hit-and-run was no accident the more he thought about it. He wondered if they would be coming for him. He had to ditch the disk somewhere. Dustin was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Nick gasp in pain.
"You OK over there?"
"Yeah, just peachy." Nick responded.
"So Nick what do you do for a living?"
"I'm a Crime Scene Investigator for the Las Vegas Police Department."
Dustin couldn't believe his luck. 'Should he trust this guy?'
"You're a cop?" he asked.
"No … I'm not a cop. I'm just a scientist who wears a gun."
"Must be interesting work."
"It can be … How about you? What do you do?" Nick asked to change the subject.
"I'm afraid my job isn't as exciting as yours. I'm a programmer at Capral Enterprises."
"Hey man your job is as exciting as you make it." Nick let out a deep sigh. "Man I'm exhausted. If you don't mind I'm going to sack for a few hours."
"Sure no problem." Dustin said as he was formulating his plan.
After Jake Evers had received the call from Harris he wasn't able to go back to sleep. He knew that if anyone got a hold of that disk that it would ruin him. It hadn't been the first time that he had crossed the line to get ahead of the game. He had ordered some bad things to be done and luckily enough he had Harris to do the dirty work.
He still sat in his bedroom, but at his well-polished desk sipping another scotch. He kept eyeing the phone willing it to ring. Finally the phone rang causing Evers to flinch. He reached over and picked it up.
"Yea."
"It's Harris…he got away."
"What do you mean he got away!" he said slamming his drink down on the desk.
"We nailed him as he was crossing the street."
"And?"
"Well before we had a chance to come around he was surrounded by people. We'll finish him off at the hospital and get the disk back. We already went through his car and didn't find anything, he must still have the disk on him."
"Harris you better take care of this or I will find someone that will."
"Yes sir."
Sara was relieved when Nick drove off. She still wasn't comfortable with him driving in his condition, but she was glad that he was going straight to the hospital. She hoped that he would remember to call her, but knowing him he would forget. She knew that Nick had Grissom and the rest of them as emergency contacts if god forbid something happened. She looked at her watch shift was just about over and she planned on heading over to the hospital to be with Nick whether he wanted the company or not.
She walked into the locker room and just sat down on the bench when the door opened. She looked up to see Catherine peek her head in.
"You about ready to head out?"
"Yea I was getting ready to … why?"
"They found a floater … Day Shift wants us to handle it. They are getting swamped."
"But..."
"I'm sorry Sara, but both Warrick and I are going to."
'Well so much for going to the hospital to be with Nick' she thought to herself.
"OK. Give me a minute."
"Sure I'll meet you outside." Catherine turned around and left the locker room.
Sara let out a big sigh sometimes she hated her job especially when it kept her from important things like being with a friend when he was sick. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Nick's number. After a few rings she heard.
'Hey it's Nick sorry I can't take your call, but if you leave a message I will get back to you as soon as I can.'
"Hey Nick…its Sara I'm just wondering how you are doing. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no news is good news, but you better call me. They found a floater so it looks like we are going to be working a double. I will try and give you a call sometime today. I hope you are feeling better. Bye!"
She hung up the phone and felt horrible that she couldn't be there for him, but Nick was a CSI and understood the job. He knew it wasn't anything personal. She got up from the bench and walked out the door and headed to her next assignment.
Nick didn't realize he had slept so long until the nurse woke him up for surgery. He opened his eyes to see her standing in front of him along with two orderlies.
"Nick…we are going to be taking you to surgery now. They will be putting you under with a general anesthesia. The surgery itself shouldn't be to long, but you will be in recovery for about an hour after the surgery and then they'll bring you back up here. OK?"
Nick nodded his head in understanding and started to sit up when the nurse put her hand on his chest.
"Nick just let us to the work."
The nurse removed the blankets that covered Nick and the three hospital employees slid Nick over to the waiting gurney and covered him back up. Dustin watched all this with fascination. He was actually looking forward to Nick leaving. He wanted to stash the disk before someone found him and what better place then his unsuspecting roommate who happened to work for the police department.
Dustin felt badly he didn't really want to involve another person in his mess, but he really didn't have a choice. It was imperative that he get the disk to the authorities and if he had to do it in a round about way then so be it. He had secretly decided that he would tell Nick the whole story tomorrow morning, when both of them were feeling better. In just speaking with Nick for a short time he seemed like he was a nice enough guy and could be trusted with such a valuable object.
He watched as they wheeled Nick out of the room and he wished Nick luck with his surgery. Dustin waited for about twenty minutes and when he was sure that no one else was coming back to the room he slowly sat himself up scrunching his eyes in pain. The broken collarbone was making it difficult to get out of bed. He worked through the pain and was finally able to sit up, he then stepped down off the bed onto his good leg bringing the broken one down gently. He was happy that whoever had set the cast made it so he could walk on it.
He limped over to his closet and pulled out his shoes. He opened the heel to find the disk still there. He closed his eyes in relief. Until that moment he was scared that the disk had been lost. He placed his shoe back into the closet and walked over to Nick's closet. Dustin opened the closet door slowly like he was expecting someone to jump out at him. He peeked in and saw Nick's gym bag placed on the first shelf.
Dustin stopped suddenly when he heard voices at the door, but then they passed. He released the breath that he had been holding and grabbed Nick's bag. He unzipped it to find Nick's jeans and shirt, his shoes and a CD player…perfect!
He opened the player and removed the CD that was sitting in there. He placed the disk he had into the CD player and placed Nick's CD back on top of it. He put the CD player back into the gym bag and zippered it back up. He smiled at himself that was as good as any hiding place that he could think of.
Dustin slowly made his way back to his bed, but with a little extra flare. He knew that the disk was safe and tomorrow it would be in the hands of the police.
Visiting hours were over when Robert Harris pulled into the hospital parking lot. He planned on making a short visit to Dustin Schultz room. He had manipulated the room number from the operator. The only thing he had to do now was sneak in unnoticed.
Harris walked into the hospital like he was supposed to be there. He casually walked up and into the elevator. He pushed the fourth floor. As the elevator opened he walked out glancing in both directions he wanted to make sure that he wasn't seen. He knew that Schultz was in room 419 and slowly made his way towards that group of rooms. He stopped just in front of the room. He looked around again to make sure he wasn't spotted before walking in.
Dustin had finally fallen asleep when he suddenly felt a presence in the room. He opened his eyes to see Robert Harris standing next to the bed with a pillow in his hands. Dustin's eyes grew large as he saw the intent in Harris's eyes. He never got the chance to scream before Harris put the pillow over his head. He tried to push the pillow off his face, but with the broken collarbone he didn't have the strength to do it. He could slowly feel the darkness coming and then he knew no more.
Nick's surgery had gone well with no complications. He was now in his room and resting comfortably. The nurse had given him some pain medicine to help him sleep. He had just nodded off when he heard Dustin struggling. He looked over to see a man standing beside Dustin's bed with a pillow over his head. He could see Dustin struggling to get out from under the pillow, but it was a futile effort. Nick tried to sit up to help, but he couldn't. He was unsure of what to do. His thoughts came back when he heard Dustin's struggling cease. He looked over only to see the man staring back at him.
Well there you have it chapter 6. I hoped you liked it. As usual please review. Thanks!