Authors Note: I own nothing. But I thank my readers and my reviewers. You are feeding the muse! I was also able to write it in a fashion that kept it in the same rating!Chapter 9

"There you are! Nick you scared the hell out of me, I thought you were going for coffee!" Catherine practically yelled with one hand to her chest.

"Sorry Cath, I needed to decompress a little." Nick answered apologetically. "I should have told you."

"It's ok Nick, this whole case just has me tied up in knots, and I know it's even harder for you. Mandy, could you excuse us for a minute, please?"

"Sure, I have some things cooking in the lab anyway. I'll catch up with you guys later." Mandy gave Nick a pat on the shoulder before she left.

"Nick, I really don't know where to go with this. We need more information on this woman so we can get an idea of what she might be capable of." Catherine sat down next to him. "I can only think of one way to do that." She looked at Nick hopefully.

Nick groaned. "I know, that's what we were just talking about. But I have to do this my way. Otherwise I don't think I'll be able to at all."

"What would your way be?" Greg asked as he appeared in the doorway of the locker room.

"Hi Greg, the more the merrier I guess." Nick motioned Greg into the room. Greg obliged and closed the door behind him.

"I need to be alone. I can record it so you all can listen to it after." Catherine and Greg both tried to protest. "No! I can't watch your reactions. I'm barley dealing with Mandy's reaction to the little bit I told her. You can sit out in the next room, but I have to be alone. No compromise." Nick stated firmly, determined not to fold. Nick looked between the two waiting for their response.

"Well Brass isn't going to like this one bit." Was all Greg could say. "And I hate it that you're going to be alone while you have to relive this shit."

"Well neither do I. But I guess we don't have a choice do we Nick." Was Catherine's defeated response.

"Only choice is mine." Nick confirmed.

**CSI**NICK**CSI**NICK**CSI**NICK**CSI**NICK**CSI**NICK**CSI**

"Who's brilliant idea was this?" Brass was ranting when he heard the idea. They had all met at Nick's house.

"Mine, and you aren't gonna talk me out of it, so don't even try Jim." Nick stared firmly at Brass.

"Aw, hell kid." Brass wouldn't argue with him. None of them could possibly know how hard telling something like this must be. "I'll be right outside the door. You just yell if you need me."

"I'm only asking for the next room guys. That's all. I can't bear to see all of you while I tell about it all." At seeing the perplexed look on Mandy's face Nick made a slight confession. "There's more than what I told you Mandy."

"What?" Mandy was shocked, how could there be more. "But all those things, there was more. Oh, God Nick." Mandy nearly started crying.

"See what I mean. Really, just do what I ask, please. I can't express how important it is to me that none of you have to see it. It's bad enough you'll have to hear it later." Nick looked pleadingly at each of them.

"I hate this too. But I respect Nick enough to honor his wishes." Greg stated as he stood up, heading for the kitchen.

"Here, keep this with you. Use it if anything, and I mean anything happens." Brass handed him a two-way radio on his way to the door.

"Brass, I'll just be down the hall." Nick tried to hand it back.

"I don't care if it's 10 feet away and I have a direct view of you." Brass affirmed, refusing to take the radio back.

Catherine and Mandy each gave Nick a hug before they joined Greg in the kitchen.

"Well, Nick, here you are alone to relive your nightmare." Nick mused to himself as he closed his bedroom door. He fiddled with the tape recorder for a few minutes. Stopping when he had a momentary flashback to Walter Gordon's voice. Nick shook the memory from his head and turned on the recorder. One nightmare at a time Stokes. He reminded himself.

Nick sat on his bed and cleared his throat, then he started to speak. "Well, I guess I have to start talking before I can finish talking right?" Nick gave a nervous laugh. "You all have the basics. My age at the time and the perp's name. So I guess I should start with the details." Nicks voice became monotone as he began reliving the night his childhood was stolen from him. He told of the places she touched, the things she did. The items she used for each assault. He recounted each assault, as there were many. He had tucked away, deep in his mind, that the babysitter watched him for the weekend. Not the few hours he had convinced his adult mind to accept. And he referred to himself as the victim through the entire tape.

**CSI**NICK**CSI**NICK**CSI**NICK**CSI**NICK**CSI**NICK**CSI**

After two hours Brass was done with waiting. "Nick." Brass quietly called into the radio. "Nick, it's Brass. I'm sorry, but I can't wait any longer. I just want to come and make sure you're okay." Brass got out of his chair and headed for the door.

"Nick, open up it's just me." Brass beckoned as he knocked on the door. "Nick?" Brass listened. The bedroom was silent. Brass tried the door and found it unlocked. "Nick, where are you?" Brass slowly looked around the room. "Catherine, you guys better get in here." Brass spoke solemnly.

The trio came running into the room, each fearing Nick had some kind of breakdown. What they found instead was Brass standing by the bed staring at a picture on the nightstand. Three sets of eyes followed his line of sight. Three terrified CSI's gasped.

There on the nightstand was a Polaroid picture of an unconscious Nick, being held up haphazard by a brown haired woman with green eyes and a birthmark.

"That bitch." Catherine and Mandy stated in unison.

"The tape!" Greg ran around the bed looking for the tape recorder. He found it under the edge of the bed. "Should we listen to it?" Greg pondered. Recalling how upset Nick had been when the recording he made while buried was discovered and Grissom kept the information from Nick.

"This is different Greg." Catherine gently took the recorder form him. "He expected us to find this and listen to it."

Catherine pressed play, and they listened to Nick speak about a "male victim, nine years old and what his perpetrator did to him over a forty eight hour span of time". Then there was a short pause. Then Nick's voice told them of the hours of abuse. He itemized each object she assaulted him with and how it was used. He told how "the victim" tried to fight his attacker off. How "the victim" pleaded for the assault to stop. He told of the evil, vile things that were threatened upon "the victim's" family.

The longer they listened, the more they heard the emotions returning to Nick's voice. About an hour and a half into the tape they heard Nick finally break down into incoherent sobs. In the midst of his grief Nick was interrupted by a female voice.

"So you do remember me my love. I knew you would." She gloated.

"No, this can't be happen..." Nick voice began to slur.

"Quiet my pet, soon we will be home. Then we can catch up. Let me take this parting shot for your friends outside before we go." The sound of the camera could be heard. That was where the tape stopped.

"Dammit!" Brass bellowed as he smashed the radio against the wall.

"How did she get in? We were right here!" Catherine was barely keeping it together as she tore through the house trying to find any clue as to where she took him.

"STOP!" Greg yelled at them. "Catherine, the recorder, she must have turned it off. It could have prints. Along with the picture and any door she might have used."

Catherine looked in her hand and realized she was still holding the recorder. "Damn it! He's right. Everybody out! Get the kit out of my Denali and everybody glove up. Brass, APB now! I'm calling Ecklie. And that son-of-a-bitch better give us anything we need to get Nick back. What are you waiting for? Move people, we have a hot scene here!" Catherine stepped outside to call Ecklie, secretly thankful that Greg was able to keep his head in the game when she hadn't. She made a mental note to bring that up in his next review.

"Conrad, I don't care if you write me up, fire me or burn me at the stake. But it's going to have to wait. I need every available resource I can get my hands on. The suspect in our case has Nick. I know what she's capable of. We don't have much time, Nick's already been hurt by this monster more than you know." Catherine wasn't going to let Ecklie and his almighty dollar get in the way of getting Nick back. But she wasn't going to give him the gruesome details either.

"Name it and it's yours Catherine." Was all Ecklie could say. He knew there had been more to this case than what the Graveyard shift supervisor was giving him. But if he had learned nothing else from Warick's death it was that they were a family. And they too care of there own.

"Thank you Conrad." Catherine was both surprised and relieved by his reaction. "You can start by having Archie pull up every traffic camera within a ten square mile radius of Nicks address. We don't have a vehicle description, but we have a picture of her. Tell Archie I'll e-mail it to him. And we have some evidence coming in that will need run for prints and DNA."

"I'll clear every lab you need of cases and have them standing by. And Catherine?" Ecklie stalled. "Bring Nick back."

"I plan to. I'll talk to you soon." Catherine hung up with a slightly different feeling for her superior. Maybe people can change more than she thought.

"I have everything collected that I think she may have touched. I found this," Mandy held up a syringe. "Under the nightstand. I think she drugged him. I'm going to run it as soon as I get to the rest of this dropped off." Mandy placed the evidence bag with the syringe in the box with the rest of the evidence she had and put it in the Denali with the other boxes before heading to the lab.