"Is he okay?" Jeremy choked out.
Warrick sighed. "They don't know for sure yet. He lost a lot of blood and everything...but they think he should be alright."
Grissom sighed in relief. "Good." He turned to Brass, changing from worried friend to professional. "A few CSIs are at the house with a couple of your guys...will you send more to be safe?"
Brass nodded. "Already on their way. I also have a background check running on Eric Taylor and his guys to see what else we can find, just in case."
Grissom turned to Jeremy. "Will you excuse us for a moment? I need to speak to Captain Brass and Warrick for a moment." Jeremy nodded weakly and walked out of the waiting room, heading towards the cafeteria to get some much needed food. Grissom turned back to Warrick. "What happened?"
"Nick's brother got in a little trouble with them years ago, and they just wanted payback."
Grissom looked at Brass, who shrugged. "Jeremy said the same thing. Nick and Warrick were just bystanders. Eric apparently loathed Nick and tortured him to piss off Jeremy."
"And me." Warrick added angrily.
"Okay...Warrick, stay here with Jeremy until Nick gets out of surgery and you can see him. Call me if anything changes or for whatever reason. I'm gonna go back to the house and see what else I can do." Grissom said.
"Okay." Warrick said simply as Brass and Grissom took their leave. He sank into the plastic chair of the waiting room behind him and his hands finally stopped shaking when he saw Jeremy return. Nick's old brother took the seat across from Warrick and he smiled sadly.
"Thank you." He said.
Warrick shrugged. "For what?"
"Doing what I should have done. Being there for Nick when I was too scared to."
"Jeremy, you're being too hard on your-" Warrick started, but was cut off.
"No, it's true. You're a better brother to Nick than I've ever been. You were there with him tonight, and all the other times he was in trouble. I didn't even come visit him until a month after that kidnapping thing because I was too afraid. Of my own brother. He's really lucky he has you, because I'm a complete fuck up."
Warrick shook his head. "That's not true man. Nick looks up to you...I can't be a better brother to him than you. You are his big brother, no one can beat that."
"I did more harm than good for that kid. This is all my fault, and I couldn't even try to make it okay. He's gonna hate me for this."
"No he won't." Warrick said, but Jeremy didn't seem to hear him. He buried his head in his hands and fell silent. They sat like that for what seemed like days before Dr. Manah came back in and addressed Warrick.
"Mr.Brown." He said as Warrick stood and they shook hands. Jeremy looked up and just watched.
"Is Nick okay?" Warrick asked anxiously.
"We managed to stop all the bleeding, external and internal, and remove the bullets. He's stable right now, and I don't see any problems in the near future. We are, however, keeping a close eye on his heart to be on the safe side. He came out of surgery an hour ago, and all tests came back fine. He should be waking up soon, and you can see him when he does."
"Dr. Manah?" A young, blonde nurse said from a little ways down the hall. "Mr. Stokes is waking up now."
"Perfect timing." Manah said. "Only one of you can go in at once so he won't be overwhelmed, but you can stay as long as you like as long as he gets some rest." Warrick nodded and thanked Manah before he left to go check on more patients. He turned to Jeremy and motioned to Nick's room down the hall.
"Go ahead." He said.
Jeremy shook his head. "No, I can't see him. Not like that...it was my fault. You go, you're more of a brother to him than I am."
Warrick didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything at all. He just turned slowly and went into Nick's room as quietly as he could. He sat down in the chair next to Nick's bed and waited patiently for his best friend to fully wake up. When Nick's eyes were completely open, he looked around him in confusion. Then when he realized where he was, he held up his hands in front of him and frowned at the bandages on both of them.
"What's wrong?" Warrick asked.
Nick let his hands dropped back onto the bed before looking at Warrick. "I just...I figured that if I made it this far, I'd wake up with handcuffs on, not just bandages."
"That would only happen if you got arrested." Warrick said simply.
"Well, I thought I was gonna be considering I stole a car, getting an innocent person killed and shot two other people."
"Self-defense."
Nick laughed humorlessly, causing pain to course through his cracked ribs. "Yeah, right."
"Plus, how would the police know all that? Or anything else you did?"
Nick stared at Warrick blankly for a few minutes. "You didn't...why didn't you tell them?" He asked.
Warrick shrugged. "Why would I? The golden rule is you never rat on your friends."
Nick closed his eyes. Cuts covered his face and neck, and of course his chest and hands that were covered in bandages. His skin was pale, and he somehow looked skinnier than he had before this whole thing had started. Nevertheless, he still had his strong voice laced with the Texcan accent.
"I lie to you...almost get you killed...and you don't tell the police what an awful person I am? After everything you know I've done?"
Warrick shook his head, even though Nick couldn't see him. "Why would I tell them you're an awful person? I don't wanna lie to the cops Nicky."
Nick opened his eyes and smiled. "Thanks man." He almost whispered.
Warrick shrugged again. "You would have done the same thing for me."
Nick nodded in agreement. "If given the chance." He said. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before remembering his brother. "Where's Jeremy?" Nick asked.
Warrick paused for a second before saying, "He's out in the waiting room. Only one of us could see you at a time."
Nick understood exactly what that meant. "So he was too scared to see me again." He said and shook his head. "I guess I should be used to it by now...he's okay though, right?"
Warrick nodded. "Yeah, he's fine. He's worried about you though...he's a nervous wreck."
Nick just closed his eyes to try and make his awful headache go away, but that didn't work. He wasn't mad to see Warrick at all. It was good to know his best friend cared about him and that he too was okay and was always there whenever he woke up from situations like these. He just wished that his brother didn't hate him so much and would just pretend to care, for once.