Hi everyone, well I thought I would have this chapter out tomorrow, but I finished early. I hope you like it.
Oh and thanks for all of the reviews.
Grissom sat at his desk completing some paper work as the nightshift ended. He casually glanced out his door as he heard three familiar voices coming down the hall. He spied Brass, Warrick and Greg as they walked by. He quickly got up from his desk and ran after them.
"Warrick … Brass!" he called after them.
The three men stopped and turned when they heard their names being called. Grissom finally walked up them and could see that both Brass and Warrick were armed with both a gun and an assigned radio.
"Are you guys on your way over to get Nick?"
"Yea … I kind of enlisted the help of your CSIs. Not that I could keep them away anyway. Don't worry though I was able to get approval for the overtime," Brass replied with a smile.
Grissom waved his hand, "I don't care about the overtime Jim. How many of you will be covering Nick during the move?"
"There will be four of us … the two officers that are guarding him already, Warrick and myself. Nick doesn't know it yet, but Greg will be driving his truck home."
Grissom smirked at that last comment, "Good luck with that one. I guess I really don't need to tell you to be careful, but I'm going to anyway … be careful! I still have a few hours of paperwork left so if you need anything call me."
"Will do." Brass said.
"Oh one more thing … could you please tell Nick that I will be over later to check up on him?"
"You bet."
With that said the three men turned and headed toward the exit. Grissom stood there and watched them leave. For some strange reason he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Instead of going straight back to his office he went over to radio dispatch and signed out a radio. He wouldn't be there physically, but at least he could monitor them if trouble arose.
He returned back to his office and, with a sigh, continued his paperwork. He occasionally glanced at the radio not giving in to temptation to call for status. About forty minutes went by when heard Warrick's frantic voice come through the radio.
"Dispatch I have shots fired at Desert Palms hospital, request backup immediately!"
Grissom grabbed the radio and ran out of the lab. He knocked a few people over in the process. He would apologize later. Right now he had to get to the hospital … two of his CSIs were in danger … as well as a close friend. He stopped for a moment wondering if he was acting brash. He brushed that feeling aside and started his truck.
The engine roared and he floored it. The hospital was only minutes away. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Warrick's voice through the radio again.
"Dispatch … I have three officers down. Where the hell is my backup?"
"Backup is two minutes out … is the shooter still in the area?"
Grissom froze. There were three officers down. He knew he was taking a chance by assuming that it was Brass and the other two officers that had been hit. What about Nick? He waited for Warrick's response to the dispatcher's question. Was Warrick in danger too? Grissom relaxed only a little when he heard Warrick's response.
"Dispatch … shooter is dead at the scene."
He finally pulled into the hospital parking lot and drew the attention of every cop that stood there when his tires screeched as he stopped his car.
He opened the door to his vehicle and ran towards the hospital flashing his ID to each and every cop he saw. He could feel himself giving way to his emotions. He still wasn't use to the feeling. He walked into the hospital as he took in the scene.
The lobby was hustling with medical personnel running back and forth and there were cops everywhere.
Grissom could hear whispers as he walked by some officers. 'They're dead … such a shame … they were good men.' He turned and looked at the officers briefly then picked up his pace.
He finally stopped when he saw the wheelchair bound Nick being pushed towards the ER by a nurse. From the looks of it, it looked like Nick was hit. He could see blood all over his face and his shirt. He looked past Warrick to the elevator to see Brass being lifted onto a gurney. He could see that he had been shot. He was relieved that his friend has lived, but found a profound sadness for those who had lost their lives.
He finally rushed up to Warrick as he pulled his phone out.
"Warrick what the hell happened?"
He regretted his tone right after he said the words he knew that his emotions had taken over. By the end of this day he was going to be doing a lot of apologizing, but for now he wanted … no needed to know what happened.
Warrick turned around surprise etched in his eyes he took a moment before answered.
Grissom stood there looking at Warrick wanting for an answer. Warrick pulled the phone away from his ear and placed it back in his pocket.
"Grissom I was just about to call you." Warrick replied.
"What happened Warrick?"
Out of habit, and not of nervousness, Warrick ran his fingers through his hair. In doing that, it helped him relax. He wasn't sure why. He looked at Grissom then answered.
"The only thing I can tell you is that I was outside getting the car since they were bringing Nick down. I had just pulled up the truck when I heard gunshots and people came running out. I called for backup and went inside. When I got inside I saw a man standing in front of the elevator with his gun aimed at Nick's head."
Grissom listened intently he wanted to be sure to take in every detail of Warrick's story. He closed his eyes briefly when Warrick mentioned the gun aimed at Nick's head.
"I identified myself and told him to drop his weapon. The shooter actually turned and looked at me with a smile almost daring me to stop him. He refocused his attention back on Nick and was just about the pull the trigger when I shot him."
By the time Warrick was finished telling Grissom the story he only just realized that he had killed a man. With all the excitement he had forgotten he had taken a life. He would do it again if he had to. He had saved his friend's life.
Grissom was satisfied with the details that Warrick had given him. He knew he would have more questions later. He glanced over and saw the ER sign.
"How's Nick? He had blood all over him … was he hit?"
"No … it was blood splatter from the two officers that were killed."
"Is he OK?" he looked at Warrick with questioning eyes.
Warrick understood was Grissom was asking him … how was Nick's state-of-mind after this incident … if you could call it that.
"Physically he's fine … other than the surgery. They took him back to the ER to check him out. Mentally on the other hand I think this will be yet another set back. He feels responsible and guilty of course, but I had a conversation with him just before you came in. He says that he will get over all this with time. I guess that's all we can hope for, but he knows that we will be there for him."
Inside Grissom was ecstatic that Nick was physically OK, but he was worried about Nick mentally. He had just gotten over his kidnapping now not only did he witness a murder, but also an attempt was made on his life. He knew Nick was a strong person and he hoped that he could get past this and move on.
Grissom remembered the day when Nick told him that he had gone to see Kelly Gordon in prison. He had also told Grissom what he had said to her … 'To not take it with her'. He hoped that Nick would take his own advice and to not take this with him.
Grissom had looked past Warrick and at the bodies that were covered on the floor. He counted four.
"I count four bodies … I know one is the shooter, the other two are the cops … who's the fourth?"
"The nurse."
"How? She didn't take cover?"
"Those are questions that you are going to need to ask Brass or Nick. When I arrived she was already dead and her body was lying on top of Nick. He said that she had saved his life and that's all he really said on the subject."
Grissom nodded. He scanned the area again.
"Where's Greg … did he leave?"
"Oh man … I totally forgot. He took Nick's truck back to his house. He's waiting there for us right now." Warrick shook his head he couldn't believe that he had forgotten about Greg.
"Warrick it's OK … I think Greg will understand."
Grissom could see that this was all starting to get to the CSI. He was proud of Warrick for everything that he did today. He didn't panic and he did everything right and by the book. He would have to tell that to Warrick when things settled down.
"Warrick why don't you call Greg and let him know what happened. I'm going to call Catherine and Sara."
Warrick nodded and pulled out his phone as Grissom did the same thing.
Nick allowed himself to be wheeled into the ER just as long as he was away from all the death. He laughed … death … wasn't that his job? To figure out what happened to people when those who committed crimes killed them. Any other day he would be the one they would call to come in and investigate the crime scene. Not today. Once again he was part of a crime scene and once again he escaped relatively unscathed.
Before he knew it the nurse had wheeled him into a room and had helped him up and onto an examination table.
"Mr. … I'm sorry I didn't catch your name." The nurse said.
"It's Nick Stokes, but please call me Nick."
She smiled, "Sure Nick and my name is Wendy. Would you like to clean up?"
Nick let out a small laugh, "As much as I would like to Wendy …I have to wait."
"Wait … why?" she said confused.
"I can't believe this is happening again," he mumbled to himself.
A look of realization came across her face, "Are you the patient that witnessed the murder upstairs?"
Nick looked at her and nodded.
"I understand … you need to wait until they collect your clothes for evidence don't you?"
He nodded again.
"Well is there anything I can do for you until that happens?"
"Yea, could you turn back time so that none of this happened?" he asked hopefully.
She walked over to him and put her hand on his. "I wish I could. You've been through a heck of a lot in the past day or so. This has got to be very hard on you."
"You have no idea."
"You are probably right. I know I can only offer to listen or to help in some way, but that's all I can do. The healing is up to you."
Nick nodded at her words. "You know I want to thank you again for what you said out in the lobby. It didn't take the pain and guilt completely away, but it helped."
"Well I'm glad I was able to help … if only a little bit."
Nick nodded one more time and looked away. He just glanced out the door just as Brass was wheeled by. He could see that Brass was bleeding pretty badly from the shoulder and hoped that the detective would recover with no problems.
The nurse squeezed his hand one more time and left the room leaving Nick once again alone with his thoughts.
Well? Did you like it? I hope so. Please review, review and review! Thanks!