Title: No Easy Task

Chapter 7

Mary sat at the back of an ambulance, a pressure cuff wrapped securely around her right arm. The moments between her run out the front doors of the bank to now feeling like they'd happened a lifetime ago. As she had stepped out of the bank, her only instinct was to go. Get away from the building as quickly as her feet would take her. Twenty feet from the doors, she felt, before she saw, two officers on either side of her. All she knew was that each man, dressed head to toe in black and wearing thick bullet-proof vests and helmets, had slipped a hand under each of her harms and practically carried her away to a safe spot on the other side of emergency vehicles.

She seemed to have a welcoming committee waiting for her. She was met by several people: a stout, balding man in a drab brown suit, a gold shield on his jacket indicating he was someone of authority; a tall black man with piercing green eyes and clenched fists at his sides; a fidgety, spiky haired man, or boy – he didn't look too old; a worried redhead who kept brushing bothersome hair from her face; a gap-toothed brunette, her arms firmly crossing her chest; and a stern older man with a graying beard. Worry seemed to radiate from them all except the last one. She couldn't read him at all. What she could pick up on was that they must have all known Nick. The brown suit guy, he made the introductions and was starting to ask questions, but she cut him off.

Mary bent forward, drawing concerned stares from the group, all afraid that the woman was going into labor. Brass was calling out for paramedics when Mary realized what they must have been thinking. "No. I'm okay!" Her expression of alarm switching to embarrassment. "Please, I just need to use the bathroom."

The group looked at each other with slight amusement. But it was Catherine that understood what the poor woman was feeling, knowing full well she never allowed herself to be too far from a bathroom when she was pregnant with Lindsay. "Mary, right?"

Mary nodded, hoping relief would come soon.

Catherine smiled and placed her arm across the woman's back. "Come on, Mary. We'll walk next door and come back here right after." Her statement telling the others there would be no questioning until Mary did whatever she needed to do. With that, Catherine escorted her to the restaurant next to the bank. Besides Nick, the redhead was Mary's other angel.

A short ten minutes later, Mary was feeling better, the paramedics took her vitals to make sure she was well enough to withstand the police's questioning. Once they got the green light, Brass began.

"You feeling alright, Mary, relatively speaking, to answer some questions?" He spoke to her in the same assuring tone, hoping she'd stay calm and collected unlike her coworker.

Mary gripped the blanket now laying over her shoulders and took a sip from the water bottle Catherine had given her. The same group that greeted her before was now gathered around her again. "Yeah. Yes. Were do I start?"

"Let's just start at the beginning. When everything started." Mary took in a breath and gave the same account that the teller had given them, but she was more concise and to the point. She told them of how the man had ordered her to the floor, against the teller's counter where Nick sat bleeding from the gunshot wound. About the beating Nick took after realizing he was with the police department. And about the discovery of the cell phone which had earned Nick a smack to the head with his gun. About Jack's demeanor.

"Mary, can you tell me about the extent his injuries, about Nick?"

"He kept saying he was okay, but he was in a lot of pain. Kept trying to talk to Jack, the robber. Got through to him a couple of times and calmed him down, but that guy's not right in the head, you know? Took a lot for him to talk as much as he did. He has a couple of cuts and bumps on the head, but he only blacked out for a little while after the first time Jack hit him. And the gunshot, Nick said he thought it wasn't bleeding too much. Must have gone out the back because he had some blood on the back of his jacket too. I did what I could and wrapped my sweater around it to put more pressure on it. But I think he lost a lot of blood. He was sweaty and a little glassy in the eyes. And his hands were clammy." Talking about Nick's condition upset her. They knew her concern for their colleague was genuine and it didn't surprise them at all. Nick had a way of endearing himself to just about anyone he met.

Brass knew they needed to get Nick out of there sooner rather than later. "What can you tell me about weapons? Did you see how many he had?"

Mary took another sip of water. "His partner had the shotgun. It's still lying near him, I think. Jack had a handgun. Has that one in the waistband of his pants. It was Nick's that he's been carrying in his hand. Ernie, the guard, had one too, but I didn't see if he took it." They were amazed by her composure.

"You're doing great, Mary. We're almost done. I just need you to tell me where Nick is sitting in the lobby?"

"Like I said, he was against the counter, sitting on the floor. The counter is about 25 or 30 feet back from the entrance. Nick was sitting almost to the far left of the counter. I guess that's another 30 feet to the left of the front doors. Jack has a desk blocking the front doors, otherwise its just the open lobby with two other desks up front for customer service."

"Good. Sounds about right from the blueprints I've seen. Listen. You've been a great help, Mary. I'm going to let the paramedics take you to the hospital just as a precaution. We want to make sure you and the baby are okay. Alright?" Mary nodded and received a small smile of thanks from the detective.

She reached out and grabbed his arm before he left. "Detective Brass?"

"Yes?"

"He says he plans on leaving with Nick."

"Yeah, that's what he says, but we're not going to let that happen." An assurance of that was all he thought she wanted.

But Mary pressed on. "I'm just thinking, he reminds me of my teenage son." Jim's brow furrowed at that statement.

"What I mean is he doesn't really have a plan for what he's going to do an hour from now."

"Yeah. I got the same feeling from him."

"I think he only asked for the transportation because everyone kept asking what he wanted and he didn't have an answer. Nick could see it, so could I. He wants to give up, he just doesn't know how to do it. Keeps mentioning you guys shooting him for what he did. He shot Nick, but he keeps saying he's not a threat. It's his emotions that have made him so scary in all this."

Grissom's voice surprised them all. "That's usually what gets in the way."

With that, Mary was loaded into the ambulance and taken away from scene.

Brass faced his investigators. "We'll call again. Give him one more shot to come out, otherwise, it's a go with the plan."

-----------------------------------------------

Inside, Jack rummaged through the box Mary had pulled into the bank. The cops had given them some water, wrapped sandwiches, chips and the first aid box the detective had said he'd throw in there. Jack grabbed a bottle of water, cracked it open and took a greedy drink. He was tired and confused. He shouldn't be here now and he didn't know how long he was going to be able to keep this up. And he certainly didn't want to die.

Turning back to the injured man, he grabbed a second bottle and the first aid kit. "You want some water?"

"Yeah. Water would be good. Thanks." Nick was feeling every bit as tired and winded as if he'd just run a marathon.

Jack walked over to Nick and handed him the water. He bent down and placed the first aid kit on the floor next to him. "I don't know your name." It was a statement, not a question.

Nick didn't really feel like talking, but the kid's behavior had once again leveled off. Killers don't usually ask for their victims' names, most preferring as much detachment as possible. "Nick. My name's Nick."

"Nick." They spent a few more minutes in silence as Nick opened his bottle and took a sip of water. Just enough to wet his dry mouth. His stomach might rebel with anything more than that.

"This really wasn't supposed to go like this, you know?" Jack picked at the label of the bottle he held. "We just wanted to get some money to get us by for a while." Jack walked over to Tommy's cold body and kneeled by his friend. Nick didn't say a word and allowed him to continue.

"Just tired of living the way we were. You know, we became friends because we both came from really screwed up homes. We met in school. Even there we were considered delinquents. Of course we probably were, but no worse than some of the other kids. And our parents, if you could call them that, didn't think much better of us." He got back up and walked to the other side of the lobby while continuing to pick at the bottle. "It was because of him that I had a place to live after my dad threw me out of the house. Guess he I got too old for him to beat. I was like seventeen. Had no idea what I was going to do. Then Tommy let me stay at his place, but his dad was a drunk and thought I was just a leech or something and wouldn't let me stay. But he didn't care what his dad said and he'd let me sneak in at night. And I'd sneak out in the morning which wasn't hard cause his dad was always passed out by then."

Jack walked over to the counter and leaned his elbows on the marble surface, almost as if in a trance. "One night, he barged into his room, saw me sleeping on the floor next to Tom's bed. He was drunk and pissed like I've never seen anyone. Even worse than my old man. Started yelling and pulled me up by my shirt and hit me hard. And he kept going. Tommy freaked, thinking he was gonna kill me. So did I. I thought that was it, you know?" He looked down at Nick.

He knew that feeling. "Yeah, I know what that's like."

Jack could see he did and quickly looked away. "Yeah. Tommy went after him. Never had anyone defend me like that. He knocked him on his ass. The old man was in shock. Didn't dare fight back, but then he kicked his own son out on his ass." He walked over to a desk across from Nick and dropped his weary body into a chair. It was the first time all morning he'd done anything to show his guard was down.

"That's not what parents are supposed to do, right?"

Nick shook his head. "No, man, they're not. You deserved better than that. Sounds like you guys were real close."

"Yeah. It's been just the two of us for a longtime now."

Seemingly lost in his thoughts, the man remained quiet. But Nick knew he had to keep him talking. Nick was starting to get lightheaded. There was no way he'd be conscious for very long if he went with Jack on his trip to who know where. He was sure Jack didn't even know. "Jack, I don't want to see you get hurt more than you've already been in your life."

They made eye contact again. "What's going to happen if they catch me?"

Nick took a moment think about that. It wasn't going to be what he wanted to hear, but if he wanted the truth, so be it. "Do you mean if you leave here with me or if you surrender?"

"What's the difference?"

Nick sat up a little straighter even though it caused his vision to swim a little. He took a deep breath in and spoke. "Difference is you leave here with me, adds a kidnapping charge to everything else they may charge you with. You take off with a hostage, they see you as more of a danger, whether it's to me or to the public in general. More people will be after us. Could mean the difference between both of us getting past this alive."

Jack listened.

"I got to tell you, Jack. I'm not feeling too good. I don't know how far I'll make it with you. And I don't know how that'll have them react."

The man sucked in a deep breath of his own and let it out in a great sigh. "What about if I, um, what about if I just give up?"

"If you were to surrender? We'd give Detective Brass a call. Let him know you wanted to end this. Let him know you're unarmed, make sure they know that so no one gets nervous when they see you come out." Never had Nick felt so hopeful in his life.

"Then I just walk out? They won't shoot?"

"I won't let them, Jack. You'll have to leave all the guns here. We'll walk out together. You'll have to get on the ground and then they'll come handcuff you. But I'll stay right by your side so nothing will happen to you."

"Yeah, I've heard that before."

"Look at me, Jack. I mean it, man." Nick was as earnest as he could be, and communicated that with his eyes. Jack didn't seem to be the kind of guy that looking too far down the road ahead. He just wanted to know what was going to happen next and Nick didn't expand beyond that.

It was all it took for something to click in Jack's head. "So what do I do?"

The phone began ringing again, startling both men. Jack looked to Nick and Nick motioned to the phone. "Help me up. I'll tell them we're coming out together. Make sure they know we're unarmed. Let them know we're not looking to cause trouble." Nick's use of the word 'we' appeased the younger man.

Tbc…

I think this story is almost done, only a couple of chapters left to put out at most, but we'll see. Didn't want to make this into too long of a saga.

Thanks to everyone for their reviews.