Nicks mind wanders back to a rainy night just over a year age. This wasn't the night his romance started in fact this night belonged to another man entirely.
It was pouring rain the night they found Sara trapped under a car. Nick first thought when they found Sara was how lucky she was. The night's rain had kept the bugs from feeding off Sara. She was barely conscious when they found her. Grissom ran to grab her hands she spoke the only words that they would hear for days. "Love you." The rest of his memories of that evening are a blur of lights and sirens fragments of moments. Nick can't really remember how they got her out from under the car or how the whole team got the hospital but they managed somehow.
His next clear memory is at the hospital the whole group of CSI and Brass are standing waiting for news on Sara. The doctor, a tall solemn man in white coat, enters the lobby of the ER and began talking to them. The doctor spoke of words like shock, crushed pelvis, broken tibia, broken femur, Nick vaguely remembers the word wheelchair in doctor's speech. Nick's brain could barely take in this info his mind keep playing the very first thing doctor said. His mind replays it over and over again in a loop. "If she makes it through the next few days." Over and over "If she makes it" over and over again till finally just one word just bounces around his head "If if if."
Hours later Grissom came to talk to them. Grissom had ridden in the ambulance with Sara he had stayed by her side while the rest of them had stayed in the waiting room. "She is in shock and hasn't woken yet. It's a waiting game now we might not know for days." Grissom pauses a second he seems almost in tears. "You should all go home. I'll call if there's any news."
Nick remembers the others leaving but he stayed for hours he just sat in the waiting room. He knew he had no reason to stay. Grissom wanted time alone with Sara but Nick felt unable to leave. He knew the horrors she had ahead of her. He knew the pain of being trapped unable to get out afraid every breath would be your last. At some point Greg came back he had changed Greg sat down next to him. They sat silently waiting for news.