Author's note: This chapter is very short, but it does what I wanted it to do. Enjoy. Something longer is coming next time, I promise. Still no coupling as of yet.

Spoilers: I will generally tell what spoilers the chapters contain. In this Chapter: season 6, slight 'Inside the Box',

Summary: When Ecklie chooses Grissom's team to head to a conference in London, the Las Vegas CSI nightshift couldn't be more excited. Then their plane crashes in the sea. Now Grissom, Catherine, Nick, Warrick, Sara, and Greg are stranded on a deserted island and their only way home is to survive.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI. .

Surviving the Storm

Chapter Three: Proving Everyone Wrong

"This meeting had better be important. With Grissom's team on vacation, we're falling behind," the gruff voice of Captain James Brass mumbled. He and every other person at the police station, morgue, and crime lab were assembled in one mass of people, standing in front of the crime lab. Finally Conrad Ecklie spoke.

"Firstly I would like to thank you all for assembling here on such short notice," Ecklie started. He was joined by the new sheriff and several other very important people.

"Get to the bloody point, man," Brass mumbled under his breath.

"I have some grave news to report to you all and it will affect each and every one of you in one way or another," Ecklie resumed and even Brass had to admit that Ecklie was looking even more miserable then usual, "Flight 412, Las Vegas to London crashed into the Atlantic a few hours ago. Our nightshift CSIs: Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows, Sara Sidle, Warrick Brown, Nicholas Stokes, and Greg Sanders were on that flight. Officials say that there were no survivors," Ecklie broke off.

Brass stood stock-still. He could see several others were just as affected by this news as he was. All on nightshift. He moved towards Ecklie, and he wasn't the only one. Dr. Al Robbins and David Phillips, along with several other detectives had started to ask Ecklie questions.

"Have their families been informed?" Brass asked, thinking of Warrick's new wife and Catherine's little girl.

"Not yet, Captain Brass," Ecklie answered, shaking his head sadly.

"I want to be there when you tell them," Brass said stubbornly.

"Of course Captain. You knew them best," the sheriff agreed. Damn right, he knew them best. He worked side by side with them for the past six years, longer for Nick and Warrick, and longer still with Catherine and Gil.

"I want to be there too," Robbins spoke up. Brass nodded, knowing that the coroner was good friends with each CSI. The pair of them followed Ecklie into the lab, where they called Nick's parents in Texas and Grissom's mother in California. All of them were flying out to Vegas. Then they went to visit the local families of the rest of the CSIs.

Brass knocked on the door of a white condo. A pretty black woman answered.

"Mrs. Brown?" Ecklie asked.

"Yes," she answered, perplexed.

"My name is Conrad Ecklie and this is Jim Brass and Albert Robbins. May we come in?" Ecklie asked. She invited them inside, where they sat down in the Brown living room and told Tina Brown of her husband's plane accident. Brass could see the denial in her eyes, but soon she was overcome by tears. They stayed with her for about an hour, before they offered to drive her to Warrick's grandmother's home. They left her there and they drove out to Catherine's home.

"May I help you?" Lily Flynn asked, staring from Bass to Robbins to Ecklie and back again.

"Ms. Flynn, we are here with news regarding your daughter. May we come in?" Ecklie asked. Lily led them into the house, which had pictures of Lindsey scattered around the room.

"Has something happened to Catherine? Is she alright?" Lily asked. Brass shuffled uncomfortably.

"Ms. Flynn, my name is Al Robbins. I knew your daughter quite well. She was involved in a plane crash during her trip to London. There were no survivors. I'm so sorry," Robbins dropped the bomb.

"N-no!" she shook her head before breaking down completely. Brass moved to comfort her. After a few moments he asked:

"Where is Lindsey?"

"A-at school. Writing an exam," Lily sobbed. The three men nodded.

"Is there anyone we can call?" Ecklie asked.

"S-Sam a-and Nancy," Lily choked out. Brass recognized those names as Sam Braun, Catherine's biological father, and her sister. He got on the phone and called the appropriate people, very unsure of how Sam Braun would react to hearing of his daughter's death. He knew however, the most heartbreaking moment would be when they told Lindsey Willows that she was an orphan. And he was right. When they told Lindsey when she came home from school, the young girl bust into tears. Then she said something that tore Brass's heart in two.

"U-Uncle Gil?" she asked softly, scanning the crowd for Grissom.

"I'm sorry sweetie. He was on the plane with your mother," Brass said, feeling the tears threatening to escape. Lindsey burst into more tears, and her grandmother came and held her tight. Ecklie got up to leave.

"Ecklie-" Brass started.

"We did what we had to do. We informed their families that they're dead," Ecklie said shortly, sadly, "They're dead."

However it seemed that Grissom and his team were proving Conrad Ecklie wrong again. They were almost to the island, all of them too excited for land to feel tired. Then finally, they could see the bottom of the ocean. Another few minutes and all six of them were jumping out of the raft, stumbling through knee-deep water, and finally stumbling up on the beach.

"Land!" Greg laughed, getting down on all fours and kissing the white sand. Even Grissom laughed in relief.

"Oh my God, I can't believe it! We're alive!" Catherine laughed, hugging Sara and Nick. Warrick sat down on the sand, laughing.

"If we had alcohol, this would be quite the party," he said, laughing as he, Greg, and a very reluctant Grissom, were pulled into a many armed hug. They all fell to the sand, breathing hard.

"We did good, guys," Nick breathed, his chest heaving up and down. He was exhausted and very righteously so.

"Yeah. We made it," Sara said softly.

"Y-Yeah," Grissom agreed, yawning. He didn't even need to look at his team to know they were just as wiped out as he was. His eyes were drooping and he fell into slumber.

Brass sighed as he turned on his TV, when he got home later that evening. He was just in time for the six o'clock news, and the top story in Vegas and everywhere else in the USA was about how nobody survived a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean.

But yet on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, six criminalists slept in the sand, proving everyone wrong.

TBC