"You feelin alright man?" Warrick asked. "You don't look so hot."
Nick sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little over tired."
Warrick nodded. "I hear that." To avoid silence and get this conversation going somewhere, Warrick asked, "So is everything okay with your brother?"
Nick visibly tensed for a minute before he relaxed and tried to shake off the question. "Yeah, everything's fine. He just needed my help with something." Warrick didn't respond, he just stared out the windshield at the car in front of them. Nick looked at his friend and frowned. "You don't believe me, do you?"
Warrick looked back at Nick. "No, I don't. Over the years, I've gotten to know you really well. And I can tell when something's wrong and when you're lying so easily it's not even funny. It just scares me that whatever it is, you can't tell me."
Nick shook his head slowly and looked out his window. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you. And if you did believe me, we wouldn't be friends anymore. So it's not something I really wanna risk."
"Nick, we're always gonna be best friends. Nothing can change that man."
"Trust me, you don't wanna know."
Warrick sighed. He didn't want to get in a fight with Nick, so he just ended the conversation on a good note. "Fine. Just promise me that if you're in trouble and need anything, you're gonna let me know, okay?" When Nick didn't answer, Warrick punched him lightly on the shoulder. "I'm serious Nick."
Nick turned his head and looked Warrick in the eyes. "I don't want to get you involved in this."
"Well if you're involved, I'm gonna be involved too. So just promise me man."
"Okay. I promise." And then it was done, Warrick just left the topic alone for now.
When they finally arrived at the scene, Warrick could have sworn Nick got even paler when he saw the scene. But he quickly forgot about that when Brass came up to them.
"It's about time fellas." He said dramatically.
"Traffic was terrible, and this side back street isn't exactly the easiest place in the world to find." Warrick responded.
Brass nodded. "Yeah, good point." He turned and motioned to the dark blue Nissan that was a few feet in front of them. "Druggie gets in the car to get away from these guys he owes a lot of money, and he ends up hitting a lost tourist."
"How do you know he was a druggie if this is a hit and run?" Nick asked.
Brass cracked a small smile. "Well, he tried to run. He got out of the car and took off, but didn't make it too far. He passed out as soon as he made it around the corner."
"Okay..." Warrick said. "So all we have to do is match fingerprints and whatnot and he's gone. Easy case."
Brass shook his head. "Not really. This car is in the wrong part of town. And it was hotwired."
"Really?" Warrick asked in disbelief.
Brass nodded. "Yeah, and I highly doubt that our strung out pal over there could tie his shoes, let alone hotwire a car."
"I thought you couldn't hotwire any car made after 1985?" Warrick asked Brass, but was answered by Nick.
"No, you can. It's just a lot harder and not many people know how. If you mess up, you get shocked or the alarm will go off." When he got the questioning looks from both Brass and Warrick, he just shrugged and smiled slightly. "Discovery channel."
Brass shook his head. "Get him a girlfriend, would ya?" He said to Warrick, who couldn't help but laugh. "Anyway, the car's registered owner has been out of town for the last two weeks, so he's out."
"Why would he hotwire his own car anyway?" Nick said.
"Good point." Brass said. "So you boys have an attempted hit and run, and an auto theft. Have fun."
"Oh we will." Warrick said with a sigh as he set to work with Nick.
Three hours later, they were back at the lab, waiting for the results on the fingerprints they took off of the car. Mandy walked over to them, reading the results on the paper in her hands.
"Sorry guys, all the prints came back to Dan Salik, the druggie." She handed Warrick the paper. "Got any more for me?
Nick shook his head. "Nope. That's all."
Warrick sighed. "And of course there's no traffic cameras, trace, or anything else that could help us find out who stole the car to begin with."
"He got lucky." Nick said with a shrug.
"Yeah, the son of a bitch gets away with helping get an innocent college kid killed because he was lost and the druggie just so happened to have a running car waiting for him. I wonder why the car got ditched anyway."
"Maybe he had something to do with the drug deal going down and had to get outta there or something." Nick suggested.
"Nah, it was a small thing, two guys running their own coke franchise with probably only one customer. We have nothing left."
By now, the pair had made it all the way back to the breakroom and had each poured themselves a cup of coffee and had taken a seat at the table. Nick's hands were shaking slightly, and Warrick couldn't help but notice.
"Are you sure you're okay Nick?" He asked, but Nick didn't hear him. He was so out of it, and it was starting to scare his best friend. "Nick!" He practically yelled, causing Nick to jump slightly.
"What?" He asked. His voice was squeeky and didn't sound like him at all.
"Are you okay? You're acting so weird."
Nick just sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"If you say you're fine one more time I'm gonna-"
Nick cut him off. "Really, I'm okay. Just not feeling so good from being run down and everything." Nick drank the last of is coffee and stood up to leave. "I'm gonna go home and get some sleep, I'll see ya later."
Warrick merely nodded. "Okay, feel better."
"Thanks." Nick mumbled as he left the breakroom. Warrick wasn't too far behind him, he was exhausted as well. But even more worried about Nick.
After a few hours of mindlessly walking around his house and flipping through channels, Warrick couldn't stop himself from calling Nick. His gut told him something was wrong, so he picked up his cell phone and dialed the number he knew by heart, only to be answered immediatly by Nick's voicemail. That meant his cell phone was off. Nick's cell phone wasnever off. Knowing he was probably over reacting but not really caring, Warrick got in his car and drove over to Nick's house.
The front door was unlocked, and as soon as he walked in he knew it was a good thing he had come over. Dozens of beer bottles were scattered around the normally clean living room along with cigarette buts and empty packs. Nick was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, and his whole body was shaking. Warrick quickly went over and sat down next to him. He shook his shoulder to get his attention. When he did, the look on Nick's face only made him worry more.
"Nicky...are you okay ma-?" Warrick was inturrpted by Nick's fist hitting him in the face. It didn't hurt too much though, considering how drunk Nick was.
"Stop asking me if I'm okay!" He yelled. "I'm clearly not. What the fuck more do you want from me?"
"I want you to tell me what's going on. Let me help you Nick. You're scaring me."
"Oh, you're scared? You think you're fucking scared?" Nick stood up on his feet and swayed slightly. Warrick stood up right after him and held his arm firmly to steady him. "If you're scared, then I must be a lot more than scared." Tears started falling down Nick's pale cheeks. "Just leave me alone Warrick...I don't want you to get hurt from this too."
Warrick forced Nick to sit back down on the couch. "Nick, I have no idea what the hell is going on. But I can tell it's not good. Let me help you bro."
"It's too late to save me."
"No it's not man. Just calm down and tell me what's wrong."
Nick shook his head. "You don't understand. If you get involved, they'll kill you too."
"Who will?" Warrick asked.
Nick laughed humorlessly. "Why do you care so much? You should know by now that I'm not worth any of this. I should have just pulled the trigger when I had the cha-"
This time, Warrick inturrpted Nick, but not by punching him. He just pushed him back against the couch and held him there, forcing him to look him in the eyes. "You better not ever say that to me again. Don't even think that."
Nick shrugged weakly. "Or what? You'll kill me?" He stared at Warrick mockingly. "By all means...please do. I'm begging you man. Help me out."
"Stop it!" Warrick shook Nick as hard as he could, but immediatly regretted doing so. Nick closed his eyes shut tightly and clenched his jaw together. His hands were shaking again and his skin felt hot to the touch. He pulled himself away from Warrick's grasp and stood up again. He slowly opened his eyes and looked down at his best friend.
"You're my best friend Warrick...that's why you gotta trust me on this. If anything happened to you because of me..." Nick trailed off as he started swaying a little more. His eyes slowly closed again, and just as his knees gave out and he began to fall forward Warrick stood up and caught Nick before he hit his head of the coffee table. He carefully put Nick on the couch and sighed heavily.
How was he supposed to help his best friend if he didn't even know what was going on?
Whatever it was, he knew it was worse than he thought. And it was only going to go downhill from there.