It had been 3 hours, and everyone but Warrick had fallen asleep.

"Hello, are you here for Mr.Stokes?"

"Yeah, I'm Warrick Brown...is he okay?"

"I'm Dr. Hanavan. Mr. Stokes just got out of surgery. He has 3 broken ribs, his right wrist is broken, he dislocated his right shoulder, he has severe concussion and minimal internal bleeding."

"Can I see him?" Warrick couldn't keep the hope or worry out of his voice.

The doctor gave him a sympathetic look. "He's having some tests run on him right now, and you can see him through a glass observation window. He should be awake soon." Dr. Hanavan led Warrick to where Nick was being tested. His heart broke when he saw Nick lying there, motionless, with numerous tubes running to and from his body. Warrick stood there and watched as various tests were run on Nick. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Catherine came up from behind him and hugged him. He turned around and saw the rest of the team - Greg, Grissom, Sara, and Brass had joined them - all with the same sad look on their faces. It was clear Sara had been crying, and Greg's eyes were even a little red.

"He shouldn't have come in after me, I didn't deserve to be saved. That should be me in there, not him." Warrick's voice broke and he started crying again. Greg slowly walked up to the glass next to Warrick.

"The fire fighter told him it was too dangerous, that it wasn't a movie, that he couldn't go running into fires trying to be a hero. Nick said he wouldn't let you down again...he..." Greg stopped and looked down at the floor. Sara had started crying into Grissom's shouler.

Warrick looked up and through the glass that was seperating him from his best friend. "He wasn't trying to be a hero...he was just being Nicky."

Nick had slept for a couple hours before waking up. While the rest of the team was in with Nick, Warrick sat in the waiting room. He wanted to talk to him alone. His mind was racing with all the things we wanted to say to him. There were so many feelings...but Warrick was unsure of how to actually get them into words. 'I'm sorry for punching you in the face' wasn't exactly the road he wanted to go by. He looked up when he heard Nick's door close. Grissom, Sara, Greg and Brass waved then walked in the opposite direction, heading back to the lab. Catherine walked over and sat next to Warrick. "He fell asleep. The doctor said with all the pain meds he's on he might drift in and out of sleep, but he's gonna be fine." Warrick just shook his head. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the chair. "Do you wanna talk about...umm...what happened between me and Nick?"

Warrick opened his eyes and looked at Catherine. "There isn't much to talk about. It happened, nothing you can do about it now."

Catherine put her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry. I know this is going to sound horrible...but I was so upset over you getting married and then Nick needed someone to talk to after the Kelly Gordon thing...I was half trying to get you jealous I guess."

"Only half?"

"The other half would be the alcohol and the fact Nick's not bad to look at." Warrick laughed and hugged Catherine.

"I know he's irresitable. It's not like we were together...I was married. It's nobody's fault. Well, it's my fault that Nick's..."

Catherine cut him off. "No it's not Warrick. What do you think Nick would say if he heard you just now?"

Warrick sighed. "He'd probably yell at me."

"Exactly. Everything's gonna be okay Warrick. Go sit with him until he wakes up...I gotta get home to Lindsey." Catherine kissed Warrick's forhead and left. Warrick sat there for a couple more minutes, trying to gather his thoughts. When he realized that was useless, he got up and walked up to Nick's door and looked through the window. His chest was moving up and down slowly. There weren't as many tubes in him either, which Warrick took as a good sign. He took a deep breath, opened the door and went into the room.