Author's note: my story is almost done. It's bittersweet.
Special Thanks to El Gringo Loco for helping to make this story believable.
Spoilers: I will generally tell what spoilers the chapters contain. In this Chapter: anything with Sam, except built to kill. Not a fan of the ending of that.
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 22: Rescued
Grissom, Warrick, Sara, and Greg stopped paddling and whirled around. Nick's head snapped in the direction Lindsey was pointing and Catherine jerked around.
Was it the floatplane? Did the criminals get out of the hole? Were they in trouble?
These questions revolved around in each castaway's mind.
"Oh God," Sara breathed as her eyes found the cause of their distraction.
"It's a ship!" Greg exclaimed, refraining from jumping up and down. They all stared at the gleaming white ship cruised towards the island, and for a moment, none of them moved as they entertained the thought of what this meant.
Catherine was the first to speak.
"Pass me a paddle! We're going to that ship! Nick, find the flare gun!" she ordered, thrusting the survival kit box at him.
"Yes, ma'am," Nick responded, opening it and digging through. For a moment the others seemed to hesitate, looking at Grissom, who was looking amazed at Catherine, who was staring back at him pointedly.
"You guys heard the woman! To the ship!" he called. They immediately got to work and they paddled harder then they had ever paddled before.
"I got the gun!" Nick called, holding up a flare gun.
"Nick, it's like a camera, point and shoot," Catherine called, the ship acting as a stimulant.
"I know that!" he scowled, turned on his good shoulder, and pointed the gun at the ship and fired. The sleek white ship smoothly turned in their direction.
"YES!" Greg pumped a fist in the air.
"If that's another drug ring, I'll shoot myself," Warrick muttered.
"If that's another drug ring, they can put me to work as long as they give me a shower!" Greg exclaimed.
"Good. You need one!" Sara called. Lindsey giggled. Within moments the ship pulled along side them.
"Ahoy!" a man called down to them. They looked up and saw a sort of officer staring down at them.
"Ahoy!" they all repeated.
"Who are you?" the man asked.
"We were plane wrecked a month and a half ago," Grissom called, taking charge once more, and none of them seemed to mind, "We've been living on the island ever since!"
"From the flight going to London?" the man asked incredulously.
"Yeah! We need help!" Grissom called up.
"Of course. Any injured?" the officer asked.
"Two!" Grissom called.
"I don't count," Catherine scowled.
"Er, one that needs assistance!" Grissom amended. The officer quickly directed his crew to hoist the raft onto the deck.
"I'm Admiral William Bailey of the U.S Coast Guard. We were searching for the remains of the plane crash when we saw smoke in the distance," the man explained, helping Grissom out of the raft.
"Gil Grissom," Grissom introduced himself, pulling Catherine to her feet.
"Catherine Willows," Catherine followed suit, "And this is my daughter, Lindsey."
"Warrick Brown."
"Nick Stokes," Nick said from his position, still sitting in the raft.
"Sara Sidle," she said, kneeling beside Nick
"Greg Sanders."
"Where are you all from?" a second, younger, officer asked.
"Las Vegas" was the single group answer.
"You're a long way from home," the young officer commented, earning him a glare from his superior.
"Admiral, there's something you should know," Grissom spoke up, "A drug ring is using this island to transport illicit drugs and as a place to murder people. They arrived in a sea plane at planned intervals. We saw it with our own eyes."
"They've killed two people," Nick gasped as Sara helped him up.
"And there are two more on the floatplane," Lindsey piped up, "They were going to kill us."
"They arrived early this time and they saw us running on the beach. They chased us all over the island," Sara continued, "They shot at us and we set the island on fire."
"That's how my daughter came to be on the island. Originally, it was us six, and then Lindsey was kidnapped by the criminals, but she escaped," Catherine explained.
"They said they didn't want to leave my mom and everybody as witnesses, so they got ready to hunt them," Lindsey added.
"How many of them were there?" Bailey asked, trying to grasp all of this new information.
"Six," Warrick answered, "I-I had to shoot one in self defence," he admitted, feeling shame.
"Two were buried in a rockslide and the other three fell into a pit trap we made," Grissom took over.
"We knew they were coming back, so we prepared for them. We hid a raft to escape in and we made traps in the forest to slow them down to give us time to get out of dodge," Greg injected.
"Are they still on the island?" Bailey asked, stunned.
"We believe so," Grissom answered. Bailey nodded.
"I'm going to send some of my crew to the island to round up this drug ring and bring them into custody," Bailey explained in a decisive tone, "As for now, you are all welcome to go below deck and shower and get cleaned up," everyone perked up at this, "There's a barber on board, as well as a medic, and there should be some extra uniforms lying around in the laundry room. Our cook is also one of the finest anywhere," Greg started drooling. The Admiral continued, "As for me, I will be alerting the appropriate people about this. Excuse me," he said, then he turned to the young, eager-looking officer, and ordered, "Rodney, show them below."
"Admiral, there's something else," Warrick stepped forward.
"Yes?"
"I have one of the criminal's weapons. Lindsey stole it from their plane and gave it to Greg, who gave it to me. As I said, I used it on one of them before I was shot at myself. I had to jump into the water, so any fingerprints will be washed away, but you could probably get a ballistics match to some sort of case," Warrick explained before he carefully removed the weapon from his waist and handed it him, butt end first.
"Thank you, Mr. Brown," Bailey replied, carefully taking the piece into his white-gloved hands.
"What are you guys, cops or something?" Cadet Rodney asked before he could stop himself. He reminded Grissom a little bit of Greg; Rodney had problem keeping a lid on it, too. Admiral Bailey once again glared at the younger man. The six castaways, however, grinned.
"CSIs," they all said together. They received a small nod from the Admiral before the man walked off, alerting his crew of the situation on the island. Rodney looked crest-fallen that he wasn't included in the crew going over to the island.
"I guess you'll all want to get cleaned up," he said, very unenthusiastically.
"Yes!" Catherine almost yelled. Grissom knew he had to say it, but was a little bit apprehensive.
"Actually, I'd like that medic to take care of Catherine and Nick first," he told Rodney. Catherine stopped cold.
"Gil…" she drew out his name in a warning tome that Lindsey knew all too well.
"Catherine…" he replied, staring back at her. Everyone stopped to stare at Grissom and Catherine, sensing that this little stand-off could get ugly. Even Rodney had the good sense to stay quiet.
"Fine," Catherine finally relented, surprising everyone. Just because she relented to his demand that she saw the medic, didn't mean that she had to like it. And she voiced that fact until the men and women went their separate ways to shower and clean up. In fact after she showered and shaved, she was relatively subdued on the subject of a medic.
"I'm clean!" Catherine exclaimed joyously as she stepped out of the shower of the Coast Guard ship, in just a towel.
"I've never been so happy in my entire life!" Sara agreed, standing at the mirror in the bathroom, dressed in men's clothing several sizes too big for her, and combing her hair.
"It's just a brush and a shower," Lindsey said, raising her eyebrows. She sat on the toilet lid, watching her mother and Sara clean up. She was not keen on letting her mom get farther than six feet away from her.
"When you've lived on an island for five weeks, a shower feels like heaven," Catherine shot back, pulling an oversized men's shirt over her body, wary of her now properly bandaged arm.
"So does a toothbrush," Sara injected. Catherine almost attacked her toothbrush. Lindsey raised an eyebrow.
"I'm going to go sit on the cot," she announced. The cot was five feet away from the bathroom so it was okay in Lindsey's books.
"I can't believe this," Sara said, "We're finally rescued."
"And after all we've been through," Catherine agreed, "Storms, hunger, sickness, angry mafia guys who wanted to kill us…" Sara chuckled.
"How's the arm?" she asked.
"Kind of stings," Catherine replied, "You seemed to do alright, though."
"Only thanks to Nick," Sara acknowledged. Catherine smiled knowingly.
"Why am I not surprised?" she asked. Sara blushed.
"What about you and Grissom?" Sara asked, trying to do the same to the older woman.
"He saved my life," Catherine stated, softly and tenderly, as she finished getting ready.
Catherine exited their room and stood in the corridor, after assuring Lindsey she would be back. She walked along, only to run into a clean-shaven Gil Grissom.
"Lost the beard, I see," she quipped, quirking an eyebrow at him. He looked so…odd without his beard, but there was something attractive about seeing his bare face and buzzed hair.
"For a while anyways," he laughed, and then, "You look good, Cath."
"As opposed to…" she trailed off and laughed at his 'Oh crap' expression, "I feel good," she added. His expression relaxed.
"I'm glad," he said, smiling. Another silence had fallen between them, and for the first time in over twenty-years, they felt shy around one another.
"Catherine, I want you to know that I meant what I said when we were running. I do love you," he sincerely admitted, successfully breaking this silence, looking her directly in the eyes.
"Now this is more romantic," she replied, smiling, "I love you too," she wrapped her arms around his neck and reached up to kiss him. He responded readily and wasn't about to let her go ever again.
"Is this all you two are going to do from now on?" the ever-insistent voice of Greg Sanders broke them out of their kiss. They looked over to where Greg was standing, his hair shorter and back to its old spikiness. Next to him was a beaming clean-shaven Warrick, looking just as dashing as before their trip from Hell. Nick was on Greg's left, his left arm in a sling and he was leaning on a crutch under his right arm.
"Greg, I can still throw you off this boat," Gil threatened, still not letting go of Catherine.
"What did he do now, come up with another one of his stupid songs?" Sara asked as she and Lindsey came up behind Grissom and Catherine.
"Nah, I save those for you and Nick," Greg shrugged. Warrick laughed.
"Yeah and because you know Catherine and Griss would kick your ass," he pointed out.
"He's lucky I'm a cripple right now," Nick stated. Sara smiled and went over to him.
"Ah, Nicky, if he only knew how many times we did sleep together by the fire," Sara teased. That served its purpose. Greg's eyes practically bulged out of his head.
"What did you guys do on that island?" Lindsey questioned, looking from her mother and Gil, who were both still holding one another, to the other CSIs.
"Sorry kid, we've gotta keep it PG-13," Warrick teased. Lindsey shuddered and scowled at him.
Gil gently pressed his forehead against Catherine's as they listened to the banter.
"We're never going to have another moment alone together, are we?" he asked. She laughed.
"One good thing about the island: lots of privacy," she quipped, pecking him on the lips anyways.
"I hate to interrupt," the deep baritone of Admiral Bailey rang through the corridor, "But I'm sure you will all be pleased to know that we have five members of The Ring in custody, as well as the two prisoners on the seaplane, both of whom admitted that they kidnapped Sam Braun's granddaughter."
"That's me," Lindsey chirped.
The descent to the holding cell below deck was tense. All six castaways wanted to see for themselves that Boss and his men were captured. Admiral Bailey authorized it. Grissom lead them, followed by Warrick, Nick, Sara, Greg, and Catherine and Lindsey, who persuaded her mother to allow her access.
"Boss, I think it's the Swiss Family Robinson," Johnny called, eying them with contempt. They saw Boss rise, but since he was handcuffed to a pole, he did not go anywhere.
"You landed me in the joint!" he snarled, glaring at them.
"It was either here or in Las Vegas," Greg quipped. Sara placed a hand on Greg's shoulder.
"He's right. You wouldn't have lasted long in our town," she injected.
"Especially if Sam Braun found out you were the one who kidnapped my little girl and was planning to murder her," Catherine added, eyeing the man with equal contempt. Boss's eyes darted from Catherine to Lindsey and back again. He easily made the connection.
"Braun's gone soft," he mumbled.
"But you're still scared of him," Catherine stated. His eyes flashed.
"Used to work for Ol' Sammy. I know the business. I know what they did in the old days. I was lucky I went to jail for the embezzlement charges and not to Braun's Casino graveyard. He told me what would happen if I crossed him again, but now he's just a old man trying to get on the right side of the law. I'm not scared of him."
"You're lucky Lindsey escaped or you would have been very scared of me," Catherine replied, coolly.
"And what do I have to be scared of, Missy?" Boss asked snidely.
"Her and me," Gil injected, taking his rightful place beside Catherine.
"And me," Warrick added.
"Me too," Nick replied.
"Me three," Sara said as well.
"Dude, you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us," Greg finished. And that was definitely something for Boss to think about. And he'd have a long time to do so.
They left the holding cell and went to stand up on the deck, taking in the fresh air, looking forward to the days when they wouldn't be able to smell the salty ocean.
"Good thing I'm not sea-sick anymore," Nick joked.
"We're leaving now," the Admiral spoke, "The most important thing now is getting you home."
"Thank you, Admiral," Grissom said softly, speaking for everyone. Bailey smiled at him and mearly turned to walk along the deck to the engine room.
The six castaways and Lindsey, however, did not move from their position at the railing. As the great ship started to move away from the island, they stood in a line, and watched as the landmass that had acted as their home faded away, the image of the smouldering island forever imprinted in each of their minds.
TBC
I can't believe it is almost over!