Author's note: i'm hopin to get another chapter up before school in the fall. cross ur fingers.
Spoilers: I will generally tell what spoilers the chapters contain. In this Chapter: none
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 11: OUR Responsibilities
"Good news," Warrick announced to Nick the next day.
"What's up?" Nick asked, biting into a banana.
"We're almost finished with the shelter," Warrick replied, smiling slightly. He sat down by the raft, ready to take his shift.
"That's great!" Nick exclaimed, "What else needs to be done?"
"We just need to put one more wall in the sand and then the roof," Warrick explained. Nick grinned.
"Finally! We've been working on it for ages!" he said, looking over to where Catherine, Sara, and Grissom were standing around, talking.
"You'd better get over there, bro, or you're gonna miss the plan," Warrick told him. Nick grinned.
"Would this be better or worse than missing assignments back home?" he asked. They shared a laugh and then Nick ran down the beach. Grissom always gave them a hard time at home when they missed the assignments, and apparently he hadn't lost that quality when they were marooned on the island.
"Nick, do you want to help me with this wall?" Grissom asked as he approached. So he wasn't as late as he thought.
"Sure thing, Griss," he replied cheerfully. They both tilted the wall of sticks up and held it steady as Catherine and Sara pounded it in with rocks. Nick was vaguely wondering if they discussed this before or if Catherine knew what Grissom needed this time around. If Nick was a betting man, he would have placed a considerably large sum on the latter. After Catherine and Sara could beat the wall down no farther, Grissom and Nick took over to even out the walls. After they secured this wall to the others by vines.
"Nicely done, guys," Sara panted. The four of them surveyed their handiwork. They placed the shelter in a spot heavily shaded by trees to at least attempt to keep it cool in the day. It wasn't far from the fire, but it was far enough away that it wouldn't pick up any stray sparks. As of right now, it looked like a box without a roof, except there was a space to use as a doorway.
"Hey, you guys," Catherine started, looking deep in thought, "How are we going to get Greg and the raft into there?" The other three looked at the problem. The doorway was too small to fit a raft and everybody had to duck slightly under the top.
"Over the top?" Nick suggested, "We could take Greg out and hoist the raft over the walls before we put the roof on."
"Good idea, Nick," Grissom praised. They went over to Warrick and explained their plan. Then he and Nick hoisted Greg out of the raft and gently set him down on the leaves.
"What now?" Warrick asked. Grissom shrugged.
"Nick? This is your idea," he said. This reminded each CSI of when Grissom would relinquish power to allow them free reign in a case. Nick paused for a moment before he answered.
"Three of us could lift the raft over and two of us can catch it on the inside," he directed. Nick, Warrick, and Sara took their positions on the outside. Catherine and Gil went inside. It took Nick, Warrick, and Sara a couple of minutes to manuver the raft, but they managed. The wall shook a little as the bottom of the raft hit it, but other then that, the plan went without a hitch.
"Way to go!" Sara cheered.
"Nice job, you guys," Catherine praised, but she was looking at Nick in particular.
"Good idea, Nick," Warrick commented. They were all smiles, until they heard a horrible gurgling noise.
"Greg!" Catherine exclaimed running over to where he lay in the leaves. The rest were on her heels. She quickly turned him over onto his side, where vomit oozed from his mouth. He continued to cough.
"Shit! We should have never left him alone!" Nick cried, angry at himself.
"Nick, go get some water," Grissom ordered firmly. The younger man obeyed, while Sara supported Greg's head. As Greg retched some more, Grissom was struck by how much the movement looked like bobbing one's head to music. Grissom swallowed hard and knelt down to help, taking the wet cloth from Warrick.
"Griss, you okay?" Warrick asked, swearing he saw fear and pain flash across Grissom's eyes. Gil nodded.
"Why wouldn't I be?" he responded, turning his full attention on Greg.
"He seems to be calming down," Sara said, "Greg! Greg can you hear me?" there was no response, but as she said, he was indeed calming down. He stopped heaving and while his breathing was heavy, he seemed to have fell back into his slumber.
"Do you think he's alright?" Warrick asked. Catherine felt for a temperature. She cringed.
"He's really warm," she announced. Nick had got back with the water by this time and now Catherine was carefully examining the cut over Greg's eye. It wasn't infected, thankfully, so she let Sara re-bandage it, while she jogged to catch up with Grissom, who was making his way over to the rocks. The three younger castaways stayed by Greg.
"I should have known better!" Nick exclaimed, visibly upset. He wasn't sure how much his blunder had hurt his friend and was scared that Greg had suffered more harm.
"No, Nick, buddy, it could've happened to any of us," Warrick said softly, "One of us should have realized we needed to watch Greg. It's not your fault, man."
"Look at him, Nick. He seems fine," Sara tried.
"But what if he's not? If something happens to him…" Nick trailed off, distraught.
"You know Greg wouldn't give up that easily. He's spunky," Warrick said, looking down at the pale man with an affectionate expression on his face.
"Plus he'd kick your ass if he knew you were beating yourself up over one little mistake. Try to, at least," Sara added, causing a weak smile to form on Nick's face. While he felt a little better about himself, someone else was in need of some convincing.
"Gil, are you okay?" Catherine asked her friend as they sat on the rocks together. He nodded and then shook his head immediately after. She looked sympathetically at him.
"He's back asleep now. He's okay," she said, not believing her own words.
"Cath, he won't be okay again until he's back in the break-room, listening to that punk rock," he choked out, "I want to go home, Catherine."
"I know, Gil. I wish we were home right now, too," she agreed, gently stroking his arm with her hand. Somehow it made him calm down a bit and when he spoke, he sounded closer to normal then he had been before.
"I miss Las Vegas. I miss the lab and everybody, even Ecklie. I miss my hermetically sealed townhouse and my advanced crossword puzzles and my bugs," he admitted, though he wasn't sure why he was telling her this or why he was using her terms for describing his life, "Everything seemed so much simpler."
"I was wondering when you were gonna join the rest of us in our self-pity," she said, smiling ruefully. They had all had their breakdowns about home. Catherine couldn't help but think about what she was missing in her daughter's life. One night Warrick had vowed he would never complain about his wife's cooking again and then he went for a long walk alone. Sara would get antsy and refused to talk to anyone when some one wondered what was going on back in the lab. Nick had reminisced so frequently about camping with his family that he actually broke down. And, although he couldn't show it now, Greg had been so frustrated when he couldn't remember the words to his favourite song. It seemed for a while, at least, that Grissom never joined them in their own personal sorrows.
"You're not going to tell anybody, are you?" he asked. She grinned.
"Your secret is safe with me," she said. He laughed and then stopped.
"Catherine, if we don't get out of this alive, you're all my responsibility and I will have failed you all," he said seriously.
"Our," she corrected.
"Our?" he asked curiously.
"Our responsibility. I'm the co-supervisor, remember?" she quipped. They looked at each other for a moment, only to be interrupted by Nick and Warrick calling them to help with the roof.
The shelter was finally finished later that day. The roof had been constructed by securing sticks into notches at the top of the walls and then draping it with several palm tree leaves. It provided good protection from the sun, yet everybody had to duck inside. Warrick christened it "The Fire Trap." Before darkness fell on the island, each castaway had made a small bed of leaves to sleep in. It wasn't much, but at least it was better than sleeping on the hard ground. One would have expected sleep to come easily to them after the hard labour they put into creating this tiny spec of civilization on the island, but as it was, conversation only ceased when Catherine ended the day with:
"This feels like the Family Robinson. I wish the kids would shut up so I could get some rest."
Then with a slight chuckle from Grissom and a couple of cheeky remarks, four of the five of them consented to get to sleep, while the other remained vigilantly at Greg's side, feeling the responsibility to do so.
TBC