Wow...thanks everyone for those great reviews. I really appreciate it. I don't know about you guys, but I have to say I was way disappointed with this past weeks episode. I won't go into any detail for those of you who haven't seen it yet.They so missed the boat. It could have been oh so much more. But since there's this thing called Fanfiction we can make it anyway we want..right!

I think I admitted to each of you that reviewed how nervous I was about writing this chapter. I have to admit I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out...I hope you are to. Enjoy!

When Nick woke up he found himself alone. He looked around the room to assess the scene. He remembered what he had said to the doctor about being evidence. With the condition of the room the doctor had understood the message and didn't touch anything.

He looked down to see the pillow still on his chest. Though the pillow was very light it felt very heavy to him. He stared at it, something that was supposed to be of comfort turned into a murder weapon. The victim in him wanted to push the pillow off and onto the floor, but the CSI in him said it had to stay put.

He sighed inwardly. He assumed that the police had been notified and wondered how much longer until they arrived on scene. It was one thing investigating a murder, but it was quite different being a witness to one. Not only that, he would probably be considered a suspect. Though he was used to being around dead bodies this whole situation made him uncomfortable.

He took a quick glance at the drape separating Dustin's body and him - the lucky and the unlucky. Nick never considered himself lucky, but in this case he was. He was lucky he hit the call button when he did; he was lucky the nurse had come in when she did.

He let his head fall back onto his pillow. Up to this point he was able to block most of the pain out for a while, but now that both the adrenaline and medication wore off it returned with a vengeance. He tried not to concentrate on it, he wished there was something to take his mind off of it.

Nick suddenly heard voices from just outside his room. 'Finally a diversion' he thought to himself. The door opened and he heard footsteps as the group entered the room. He wondered who was there no one had spoken yet. He made a poor attempt at pulling himself higher in the bed when he heard the voice from the other side of the drape.

"Gil Grissom with the Las Vegas Crime Lab. I'm here to ask you a few questions about what happened tonight."

Nick froze when he heard the voice from the other side of the drape. 'Grissom…Grissom was here. Oh God!' as if he didn't already have enough problems? 'Great!' He seriously considered hiding under his covers 'Oh yea nice thought Nick…Grissom comes in and sees you hiding under the covers he's definitely going to think you lost it.'

He wasn't sure why he was panicking he knew the procedures. Why he didn't realize it sooner was beyond him. Nick took in a couple of deep calming breaths, but jumped when he heard Grissom's voice again.

"Excuse me sir, may I come over?"

Grissom knew the patient was awake he saw him move. He wasn't sure what the problem was. The doctor didn't mention anything about the patient being hard of hearing. He turned around to see Sara and Catherine looking at him. He shrugged and was just about to reach for the drape, when he heard a voice from the other side answer him.

Nick knew the meeting was inevitable, he would have to face Grissom soon enough. When he thought about it there really wasn't anything that he had done wrong. He was officially on vacation and it wasn't his fault that he had gotten appendicitis. He took another calming breath, cleared his voice and answered.

"Yea come on over."

The voice sounded familiar to Grissom as he pulled back the drape. He glanced back at Catherine and Sara one more time. When he turned his head to look at the patient he was face to face with Nick.

Grissom stood there … speechless. It wasn't often that he didn't have anything to say. He let his emotions take over, something that he rarely if ever allowed. He wasn't sure what to feel first.

Shock obviously was the first thing that came to mind. Nick was the last person he would have thought to be in that bed.

Anger was a close second. He was angry with Nick for not letting them know he was in the hospital and he had surgery to top it off.

He was also relieved to know that Nick was OK. He had survived the attack and would be able to help in the investigation as a witness to the murder.

But finally concern won out. Nick was part of his team, part of his family. He was sure there were reasons or circumstances as to why Nick didn't notify them. He walked to the front of Nick's bed and looked down at his CSI.

Nick tried to read the look on Grissom's face, but as usual the CSI hid his emotions well. They both stared at each other in silence for only seconds, but to Nick it felt like eternity. Finally Nick cleared his throat.

"Grissom I…" he said weakly.

Grissom put his hand up to silence Nick. He could see the look of uncertainty and worry etched in his eyes. This man in front of him witnessed a murder tonight and was nearly killed and here he was afraid of facing his supervisor. He needed to ease Nick's mind. He placed his kit down next to the wall and carefully walked up to the side of the bed.

"How are you doing?" Grissom asked with concern.

"I could be better." Nick answered honestly.

"From what I hear you had quite the evening."

"Yea…you could say that."

"I just did." Grissom said with a smile. "Nick, I'm really glad you are alright."

"Thanks Grissom."

"Anytime." Grissom quickly scanned the room and came back to Nick. "Now I understand what the doctor meant."

"You talked to my doctor?"

"Briefly. He didn't give me any details about your condition, but he did mention that you said you were evidence. Now it makes sense. Only a CSI would say that."

"Yea they wanted to examine me. I said no." Nick paused for a minute. "I don't mean to rush you and all, but I'm really hurting here and I'm going to need something soon. So do you think you could get started?"

"Sure thing Nick…would you mind more company?"

"Not as long as they can process a scene and visit at the same time." Nick responded with a smile.

"I'll see what I can arrange." He moved away from his position next to Nick and walked over to the drape. He looked around it to see Catherine and Sara processing. He wasn't surprised that neither of them heard anything since Nick was still in a great deal of pain and was talking with a weak voice.

"Catherine, Sara would you come over here I want you to meet the witness." Grissom said.

"Look Gil, we need to process this scene so we can move the witness out of here." Catherine responded.

"Yes Catherine I realize that, but I really think you're going to want to meet this patient first."

Catherine put her hands up in surrender and both her and Sara walked over to Grissom. He smiled at them.

"You aren't going to believe this and Catherine you may think twice about considering this person being a suspect." He stepped to the side allowing both Sara and Catherine to see the witness.

"Nick you're the witness!" Catherine exclaimed. "What happened to you?"

"Appendicitis."

"I knew it." Sara said.

Grissom looked at Sara it wasn't often that he was surprised twice in one evening, but it looked like tonight was one of those nights.

"Am I to understand Sara that you knew about Nick's condition and didn't tell the rest of us?"

Sara looked at Nick, but Nick answered. "Yes Grissom she knew, but I asked her not to say anything."

"Why?" Catherine asked.

"Call it stubbornness. I just didn't want you guys to worry about me. I have put you through enough already. It seems that no matter how hard I try I always wind up in trouble." He looked over to Sara. "Sara I put you in a bad position, it was wrong and I'm really sorry."

"Nick we'll worry about all that later. For now let's focus on the room and getting all of the evidence processed. Starting with this."

Grissom looked down at the pillow on Nick's chest. He could tell by Nick's body language that that pillow had weighed an awful lot. It must have taken every ounce of will and determination to not push that pillow off. He began by taking pictures of it from every angle.

Nick just lay there and observed. He felt a little self-conscience, though his friends did everything they could to not to make him feel that way he still did. Even though he didn't want to admit it he was a victim – again. He closed his eyes as the flash from the camera went off.

"We're almost done Nicky, then I want to ask you some questions about what happened." Grissom said.

Nick just nodded quietly. He was amazed at how fast and precise Grissom, Catherine and Sara had covered the room. He knew they were professionals, but he rarely if ever watched them do their jobs. Well except one other time.

He watched as the two female CSIs packed up their evidence. Both women walked over and each gave him a peck on the cheek before walking out. He watched as the coroner removed the lifeless body of Dustin Schultz. It seemed time was standing still. He didn't realize that someone was talking to him until he felt a tap on the arm. He looked over to see Grissom looking at him.

"I'm sorry Grissom what did you say?"

"I said are you ready to tell me what happened?"

"Yea sure. Where do you want me to start?"

"Why don't you start from the beginning…" Grissom suggested.

Before Nick started the door opened and Jim Brass walked in.

"When the nurse told me the name of the witness I just had to see it for myself." Brass walked over to the bedridden CSI. "How are you doing Nick?"

"Well under the circumstances I guess I'm doing OK. I was just about to tell Grissom about my evening."

"Oh...well good. As usual my timing is impeccable." Jim said with a smile. He pulled a chair over to the bed and reached into his jacket and pulled out a pad of paper. He looked to Nick waiting for him to start.

Nick knew that was his queue to start and he did just as Grissom suggested he started at the beginning, which for him was his shift. He explained about the pain in side that he had through shift. He then went into arriving at the hospital and his prognosis.

"They wheeled me up here from the emergency room. I actually laughed when I saw the room number."

"Yea well imagine how we felt when we heard we had a 419 in room 419." Brass responded.

Nick smiled softly, "When I arrived in here the victim – Dustin was sleeping. After a few minutes he woke up disoriented worrying about his clothes. Once the nurse showed him his clothes he settled down. We introduced ourselves. He told me that he was a programmer at Capral Enterprises. After that I sacked out, with being up all night I was exhausted. The next thing I knew I was being woken up for surgery. When I left for surgery Dustin wished me luck. I came back from surgery I was still kind of out of it for a little while, but once the anesthesia wore off I was fine. I had just nodded off when I heard struggling coming from Dustin's side of the room I looked over to see a man standing over Dustin and he was holding a pillow over his head..."

Nick stopped for a moment lost in the thought. Grissom and Brass both shared a look. They knew this had to have taken a toll on Nick. They waited patiently until Nick spoke again. His eyes were downcast looking at his sheet.

"I tried to get out of bed to help, but I couldn't I was still hurting to much. I wasn't sure what else I could do. Then it stopped…the struggling. I could no longer hear Dustin. He was dead, the guy looked at me, he knew I could identify him. He walked towards me with the pillow. Can you believe I actually reached for my gun? I had forgotten where I was. I must have accidentally hit the call button when I did that, because in less than a minute the nurse asked if I needed anything. That's when I screamed for help. I was only able to get a few words out before he had the pillow over my head."

Nick stopped again he could still feel the pillow over his head and the feeling of helplessness.

"Nick let's take a break. Do you want some water or anything?" Grissom asked.

"Yes to the water, but no to the break. I want to get this over with." Nick responded back to the two men.

Grissom poured Nick a glass of water that the nurse had brought during the interview. Grissom brought it over to Nick who accepted it gratefully. He two large sips from it and it seemed to have calm him down just a little.

"I'm sorry where was I?" Nick asked.

"You had just gotten to the part where the guy had put the pillow over your head." Brass mumbled.

Brass had been to privy to hundreds of interviews and interrogations it was always different when it was one of your own. He would have done anything to make this less painful for Nick, but there really was no sugarcoating murder. Nick had seen the assailant and was the only witness, this had to be done and Nick knew it.

"Oh yea…Thanks….um…he had just put the pillow over my head…I knocked the IV pole over trying to defend myself. I struggled with him, trying to keep the pillow away long enough, but I was starting to lose my strength. To tell you the truth I was surprised that I even had any after the surgery and all."

"It's called survival instinct Nicky and you have barrels of it." Grissom responded.

Nick took in the words that Grissom had said and continued, "He had just gotten the upper hand on me when all of the sudden the pressure stopped and the pillow was lifted. The guy had taken off out of the door. The nurse came up to me to help and I pushed her away told her to help Dustin. After that I don't remember much, I must have passed out. I woke up later with just the nurse, Doctor Grossman and two guards in the room. The doctor was just about to examine me when I told him not to touch me and that I was evidence. After that I must have passed out again. I only woke up minutes before you guys came in."

"Can you give us a description of the guy Nick?" Brass asked.

"I can tell you he was about 6'2, he looked to be in his mid-to-late 40's. He had brown hair. He also had a tattoo on his right forearm of a pit bull. He was wearing all black. There really wasn't anything else that stood out."

"Would you be able to identify him if you saw him again?"

"Yes definitely."

"Did Dustin give any indication that he was in danger?"

"No, but he was in here for a hit and run or at least that's what he told me."

"OK…Nick you did good. We are going to go back to the lab and process the evidence we found." Grissom said.

"In the meantime I'm going to get some mug books over here to see you could can identify this guy."

Both men got up from their seats they could see the relief on Nick's eyes that the interview was finally over. They could tell that he was getting tired.

"Nick one more thing before we leave. I know that you don't want to hear this, but…. we have posted two officers outside your door and they will move with you when you transfer rooms. This guy knows you can identify him. He may come back to finish you off."

"I understand…thanks. I guess this isn't the vacation I thought it was going to be."

"Vacation is so overrated anyway," Brass said as he walked out of the room.

"Nick, I want you to get some sleep. We'll be back later on this morning to check on you. If you need anything and I mean anything you call or page me. Understand." He said touching Nick's shoulder.

"Sure Grissom."

"OK then. I'll see you later." Grissom gave him one last look before he left the room.

Brass was waiting for Grissom just outside the door.

"So what do you think Jim?" Grissom asked.

"You want my honest opinion I don't like it at all. I have feeling this guy is going to be back and come after Nick. We are going to have to watch him like a hawk. I don't think he realizes how much danger he is in."

"I have to disagree with you Jim I think Nick is all to aware of the danger he is in."

"Yea well I'll feel a lot better once we get this guy behind bars."

"You and me both."

Well there you have it. I hope none of you were disappointed. As usual I appreciate all thoughts good, bad or ugly. See you next chapter. Take care!