Is everyone ready for a fun filled dramatic chapter...? I think so! :)

Chapter 8

(Two mornings later)

Nick felt something cold and wet touch his forehead and he hissed in tenderness of his throbbing head. He felt like he'd been through a train wreck. "Ow!" He exclaimed and his eyes shot open to look around for the source of his pain. His eyes focused and he got a two-for-one find, the source of his physical and emotional pain. "Riley...?"

"Lay back Nick." She ordered firmly. The tone of her voice said 'don't-fuck-with-me-because-I'm-doing-this-for-you'.

Nick did as he was told and sighed. "What are you doin here Riley?"

She scoffed. "You left your jacket and wallet at the bar. I thought I'd return it when I found you passed out, face down on your living room floor next to an empty bottle of Jim Beam. I figured I'd do the right thing and at least get you fixed up before I took off but hey if you don't want me to..." She snapped, throwing up her hands in surrender, and standing up.

Nick winced and reached for her hand. "No..." He said softly and Riley took in a deep breath, before kneeling back down beside the couch and continued dabbing the hydrogen peroxide on his forehead and cheek. He hissed again, and she offered no words of solace.

Nick realized she was still pissed and he sighed softly. She put a bandage on his cheek and forehead. "You stained your carpet with blood and whiskey so...you'll probably have to do something about that..." She stated absently and her gaze wandered to his knuckles. "Is that from the fight...or did you get that from punching that hole in your wall." She said nodding towards the bedroom.

Nick sighed and nodded. "Wall."

Her lips were drawn in a tight line as she stood. "Well...there you go." She turned and picked up her purse as she walked to the door.

"Riley wait." Nick called and she paused, not bothering to turn around.

"Nick..."

"Riley please." He begged and hobbled over to her in pain. "Riley I want to talk to you."

"We don't have anything left to say Nick." She replied. He put his hand on her shoulder and gently turned her towards him.

"Yeah, how about me saying I'm sorry?"

"I really don't wanna hear it Nick. We tried it and it didn't work. Just...leave it."

"Riley no...I can't."

She sighed. "Well you're gonna have to try." She said softly and walked out the door, jumping into her car quickly to avoid the harsh rain falling down, and Nick's pursuit of her. Nick went out onto his porch step and then to the driveway to stop her, but she was already driving down the road. He stood in the middle of the road, in the pouring rain, watching her drive down the road and away from him.

He felt the rain come down harder on him and the wind picked up as she drove continuously, not stopping at all, or even slowing down. The song Settle for a Slowdown by Dierks Bentley came into Nick's mind as he stood out there in the pouring rain, Riley's car long gone, but he stood there wishing she would turn around.

But he highly doubted it.

He stood in the rain still, his teeth chattering, his clothes soaked, and his body shaking. She was gone...she was really gone. She was probably going to run back into Deven's arms...he had driven her back to the one who hurt her. Nick felt his stomach churn at that thought and he ran over to his bushes to empty his stomach. His body lurched as he dispelled everything he had in him. His body shook from his vomiting, the cold and wet conditions, and the pain he was already in.

Nick felt tears spring into his eyes and he groaned in pain. He slowly walked back into his house, dripping water all over his floor, but not really caring. He felt his warm tears mix with the cold rain water pouring down his face and he looked to his jacket and wallet lying on his counter. He looked around the house and saw that she had thrown the bottle of whiskey into the garbage and tried to dry up the blood from the carpet.

He furred his brows and sniffed the air, and recognized the scent of her perfume immediately. It's faint scent over-rode the smell of the whiskey, sweat, rain, and blood. He'd probably have to lay down new carpet and fix the hole in his wall, but he couldn't in his current state. He sighed as he slowly walked towards his bathroom and turned the water in his shower on as hot as it would go. He peeled off his clothes and stood underneath the spray.

Nick knew it was probably nearly scalding his skin, but he wasn't sure...he couldn't feel anything.

He soon jumped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. As he went towards his room he stopped short when he saw their picture hanging in the hall. A few weeks ago they had gone to Lake Mead and spent the day there, taking pictures randomly, before looking for the tallest building they could find, running to the top of it and taking a picture. It was that photo that was framed and hung in his hallway, because she couldn't bring it back to her place.

Nick felt that their smiles were mocking him, so he yanked on the nail the picture hung on, dropping it to the floor. The picture slid down the wall immediately, and would have broken if there hadn't been carpet underneath it. He ignored it and went into his room, putting on the first pair of clothes he found. The house was eerily silent as the rain pound on the roof and windows. He looked out the window in his bedroom, his shirt in mid air, as he felt a tear slip down his cheek. He missed her...he wanted her to come back to him...but why?

Yes, he knew that she hadn't cheated on him, and he felt horrible for thinking that, but there was something else. Some other reason tugged at Nick's mind, telling him he couldn't live without her...why...?

I love her...

"Damnit, I love her." He said barely above a whisper, and his arms suddenly felt heavier than ever. He dropped them to his sides, his body soon following as he slumped to the ground, next to his bed. He pressed himself up against it and laid his head back. He felt more tears fall freely down his face and he sobbed heavily.

He stayed like that for almost an hour before he finally stood and went to his kitchen. He found the empty bottle of whisky and glasses he had used last night and heaved them all at the wall as hard as he could. He spotted a bottle of wine that they had bought for their 2 month mark of dating. He let more tears fall as he hurled it through the open space in his kitchen, showing the view of the living room.

It slammed against the wall and shattered everywhere, leaving wine pouring down the walls. Out of anger he spun and ran into the hall where their picture used to hang and put his fist through it like he had the other wall in his bedroom. He felt a new kind of power take over him as he tore his house apart.

He beat the hell out of his mattress...the one she had slept in so very often. He broke the mirror in his bathroom...the one she so often used to strike poses in front of. He tossed the picture of them at the door she had walked out of almost two hours before.

He tore his living room apart and found one of her socks hidden beneath the cushions of the couch. He threw it somewhere in his house and finally fell to the ground in a heap. He sobbed more as it grew to full fledge crying. He almost didn't hear the sound of his beeper ringing.

Nick sat there for a moment, simply staring at the display saying 'Grissom'. He finally sighed and wiped his face, grabbing his phone, he dialed Grissom's number.

"Grissom."

"It's Nick."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah...I just woke up." Nick lied.

"Sorry to do this on the weekend but we need you in here..."

Great.

"There's a big mess down on Tropicana..."

Shit.

"Head on collision between two cars, and then a bunch of other cars piled on top..."

Damn.

"One of the head-on-colliders is the craziest thing I've seen in a while...at least in Vegas..."

Fuck.

"It's a replica of the General Lee."

Oh My God...

Nick felt his heart literally stop beating as he silently gasped for air.

"Nick? Are you there?"

Oh God no...it can't be...it can't be her...there has to be at least one more person in Las Vegas with that car.

"Nick?"

"Yeah..." His voice cracked. "I...I'll be there." He quickly hung up his phone and stared ahead of him, trying to get air in his lungs.

God...no, no, no...it couldn't be.

Nick squeezed his eyes shut and slowly began to breathe. "Please don't let it be her..."

Nick parked his Denali and practically ran out to the rest of the CSIs standing under the shelter of the plastic tent. "How bad is it?" Nick asked hurriedly, before even greeting any of them.

"Bad...not to mention the fact that the rain is washing everything away while the rescue mission is still going on." Sara replied.

Nick's ears perked up. "There are survivors?" He asked hopefully and she turned to look at him.

"Oh my God Nick...what the Hell happened?"

Everyone turned at look at him in shock. "Nick...?" Grissom asked.

Nick gulped down the guilt rising in his throat. "I...I uh...I got into a beef out in a bar. Some punk ass kid had one too many beers and thought he was Superman." Nick replied.

Yeah, except the punk ass kid was me, a 35 year old crime scene investigator who didn't have anything to drink and was trying to protect something that wasn't his...

With the thought of Riley in his head he turned back out to the pile up. He nervously scanned the ambulances...she wasn't in any of them. "How many DB's?"

"One so far..."

Oh God...

"Female..."

Dear Lord no...

"Elderly woman driving to the store." Catherine explained.

Nick never thought the death of an older woman could make him so relieved.

"We have a live one!" An EMT called and pulled a red head out of the bright orange car. Nick took one look at her and started running as fast as his legs would let him.

"Riley." He breathed and pumped his legs harder, dodging the gurneys and rescue workers.

"Nick!" Warrick called from behind him. Nick ignored him and continued running towards her as they loaded her onto a gurney.

She looked around confused. "Where am I?" She croaked.

"Riley!" Nick reached her and she looked at him crying, scared, and confused.

"Nick what happened? Why can't I move? What's going on?" She asked beginning to panic as tears fell down her face. The rain poured down harder and Nick let out a sob, but shook his head.

"Baby, you were in a car accident. There was a huge pile up..."

"Why can't I move? I can't move my arms or legs Nick! Why!" She shouted getting desperate. Nick bit his lip, knowing that wasn't good. "Nicky..." She sobbed and Nick grabbed her hand.

"Can you feel me?" He asked and she slowly nodded, wincing from the pain.

"Yeah..."

He gave a sad smile and nodded. "That's good Honey...you're gonna be fine."

Another tear slipped down her cheek and she sucked her lips in to keep from crying. "I'm sorry Nick...I should have let you talk."

"No...don't, don't even start that. Baby...you were angry."

She shook her head even though it caused her pain. "No...Nick I should have-"

"Well there's still time...we can talk when the time is right. There's still time."

"Sir, we have to load her in the ambulance." The EMT interrupted.

"Can he come with me?" She asked feebly and the EMT paused for a moment, then recognized Nick and nodded. The CSI team watched from a distance as Nick climbed into the ambulance with the girl.

Grissom furred his brow as he pieced everything together. Nick's newest despondent mood, the scratch marks on his back that he had sustained a few months before that Warrick and Greg still joked about, the joyful Nick they had all experienced for the last few months, the fact that he always clocking out on time and rushing out of there...

"What do we do?" Greg asked nervously.

Everyone looked at him, then at Grissom, who sighed and shook his head. "Let him go...we'll process this."

Nick sat in the waiting room with his head in his hands, elbows on his knees; shoulder slumped over, waiting on news for Riley's condition. The sound of a stampede echoed through the halls and Nick knew what it was...

"Nick!" Jon called with Riley's entire group of friends behind him. They ran up to Nick and he stood slowly. "Where is she?" He demanded, stopping a few feet away from Nick, much to his relief, and everyone crowded around.

He gestured with his head towards the doors. "Back there." He croaked out. "They...don't have word on her yet."

"Is that bad?" Kiersten asked tentatively.

Nick paused and shook his head. "No. Not necessarily." He sugar coated the truth, not seeing the need to upset them.

"What happened?" Thomas asked.

Nick sighed. "All I know is that there was a massive pile up on Tropicana. There are a few other survivors, but other than that..." He once again sugar coated it, seeing a few of them nod absently and glance around as if the walls of the hospital were going to close in on them.

"Will she be okay?" Deven asked softly. Nick looked at the younger man and paused, contemplating his options again. She had said that she couldn't move her limbs, they didn't have word on her yet, and none of the multiple doctors and nurses that went in there had left yet...that didn't add up to a very pleasant influence of the situation.

Nick nodded his head. "Yeah...yeah, she's gonna be okay." He said just as softly as Deven had, who nodded in return and sunk back into the crowd. Everyone looked back at Nick as if he held the answers to everything. He turned and sat back down, not able to take their stares. They took it as their cue and assumed the same position he had.

Yeah...she'll be okay...she has to be...she doesn't know yet...she doesn't know...

Nick felt the familiar sinking feeling in his gut as he thought, scientifically, how it looked...not good.

AH! Oh the cliffhangers! Oh the suspense! Oh the DRAMA!

Reviews make me giddy.

-Chella Belle