Chapter Thirteen- Questions Afterward
Thanks to cgfan, KWillows, csiwillows, DrusillaBraun, FoxyWombat, LizzieH1313, CocaCola1052, fallinidentity, ACertainJustice, and obsessedwithstabler for their reviews!
Special thanks to Sergeant Happy Bunny…in case you don't know. I didn't write this update by myself. He helped me and we made a game out of it.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Archie we lost Catherine." He said into his cell phone.
He heard frantic typing of keys.
"I can pull up her last known location, but other than that you're gonna have to go by what the evidence's been telling you from the other bodies." He said, as an image showed up on Warrick's screen.
Warrick looked closely. "Archie can't you bounce it off another network or something?"
"I can try, but I can't guarantee it'll work."
"Don't matter. We need a miracle."
"I think I just got you a mini one." The lab tech replied.
Warrick smiled a little when he got the signal back. "Olivia's two blocks from here. Step on it."
Greg slammed his foot down on the gas and they surged forward.
"Makes sense they're here." Nick observed.
Elliot glanced at him, his eyes worried, but relatively calm…for the time being.
"What do you mean?"
"It's secluded, but relatively close to civilization. It's so obvious that it's unobvious." Grissom answered for him, looking older than he ever had.
Warrick motioned for Greg to stop the van.
"The signal's in that warehouse," he said, pointing to an old abandoned building about half a block away.
Elliot would have sprang out of the van immediately had Alex not held on to him.
"Calm down Elliot. Going in there guns blazing won't help Catherine or Olivia." She said.
He paused, letting all the others get their guns ready as Alex handed him a bullet proof vest with an you-better-not-get-yourself-killed look.
He flashed her a quick smile and was gone. Alex turned to Nick who was following him. Her eyes said it all, and so did his. Quick kiss and he was gone as well, leaving Alex wringing her hands with cold and worry.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
He was with them. Catherine was weak at this point. He had broken her already. Now it was down to the other girl.
"Your time's out darling." He said to her, grabbing her by the arm. Olivia tried to interfere, but was thrown across the room.
Catherine struggled. Olivia lay unconscious and as she struggled she felt the outline of a gun in his pocket. Fear filled her body. She struggled harder. He lost his temper and slammed her against the wall. She slumped to the ground just as Olivia tackled him from one side. They went down wrestling. Olivia for the gun. The perp for control. He managed to throw her off of him and smiled at her from on top of her. He ran his fingers through her hair, but stopped when her golden brown locks became tangled around something. He moved his hand to behind her ear. The feeling of cold metal touched his hand. He retracked his hand to find a shiny metal disc in his palm.
"Clever." He said with a sick smile. Then he slammed his foot down on it. "Let's see if your friends can find us now, Detective."
Olivia stole a glance at Catherine. She wasn't moving and blood was pooling out of a nasty head wound. Smith pulled out a shiny knife from his back pocket.
"I was expecting her to die first, but you're the one stupid enough to think you can trick me." He said coldly, holding the knife so that she could see her own wild-eyed expression in the reflection on the blade.
He smiled knowing what she saw. A deer caught in the headlights seconds before it would full the momentum of a manmade machine.
She screamed.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Nick and Elliot were side by side with Sara and Grissom right behind them, watching their backs. It all came down to this moment. Elliot motioned for Grissom to come forward, which he did, gun pointed to the ground. Halfway through they split. Sara and Nick to the left, Elliot and Grissom to the left. Silently they moved throughout the building…canvassing it. Coming closer to what they came for.
A scream broke out through the silence.
Grissom surged forward bursting through a door at the end of the corridor. Elliot was right at his heels. Running as if their lives depended on it.
Catherine had her back toward them, laying completely still on her side. Blood was pouring out of a head wound and forming into puddles on the cold cement floor.
"Freeze!" Elliot yelled at the man standing before her. "NYPD!"
He turned around and Elliot froze. His arm was wrapped around Olivia's neck, holding a shiny silver barrel to her head while blood trickled down her neck.
"Drop the gun or her brains get blown out." He said almost calmly.
""Elliot don't you dare drop that that gun!" Olivia screamed at him. "You do we're all dead!"
He covered her mouth so silence her.
Elliot slowly lowered his gun to the floor, while Grissom did the same. Robert Smith gave him another sick smile.
"Now back up slowly." He ordered.
Grissom's eyes were latched onto the fallen form behind Smith. He could see a slight rise and fall but he couldn't be sure. Was he imagining that Catherine was still alive, because he so desperately wanted her to be?
Elliot's eyes were completely focused on Olivia's. They were talking without words. In sync with each other completely. Mind and soul. Tears filled both their eyes, knowing the risk of their plan. It had to work. She fell limp against her captor. In surprise, his grip loosened. She ducked to her left just as Elliot drew a spare gun from his back pocket. A loud blast. Olivia squeezed her eyes shut as she was showered with brains and blood. A figure pushed past Elliot.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Grissom knelt down beside Catherine, checking her pulse. It was weak, but it was there.
"Stay with me." He whispered softly. "Stay with me. I'm begging you."
He enveloped her in his arms. Holding her close. She was cold and he wrapped his jacket around her.
Her eyes opened and her lips moved but no sound came out. But those clear sapphire eyes told him everything he needed to know.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Behind them, they were caught in an embrace. Tears out of both their eyes. Tears of relief, and aftermath of pent up frustrations, fear, and worry.
"I love you." He whispered, intertwining his fingers with her hair.
She was captured in his warmth. He gave her security and she had been so afraid that she was going to lose it. She nestled her face into his neck, muffling her answer. Three words that would never sound the same to her ever again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
They heard the gunshot. Everyone… inside and out.
Alex dove for her cell phone. "I got a gunshot at 453 Lockwood Street. Harlem. I need am ambulance ASAP and if you don't put a rush on it I'm gonna prosecute you and put you away for twenty years of your life!" She yelled into the phone.
Casey was already out the door. Greg at her heels, gun drawn.
"Casey!" He yelled, grabbing her arm.
"Liv's in there!" she yelled back, struggling against his grip.
"I know but we can't risk you getting hurt." He argued back. He pulled her into him and whispered. "It's okay. She'll be fine. You stay here."
She resisted and opened her mouth to argue, but she knew better. She had to stay. Sadly she was a lawyer, she couldn't barge into a crime scene with no police training.
"Be careful." She said, surprising herself by giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Always." The young usually goofy CSI was serious. Then he headed into the dark building gun drawn.
The redhead made her way back to the truck. The others were staring at screens, yelling into two-way radios. Alex sat in the corner, yelling at the 991 operator. Casey went to her and gently pulled the phone from her grasp.
"Easy Alex. They're on their way. The sirens are close."
Alex paused to catch her breath. Casey was right. They were close and when they pulled up, Warrick surged forward to lead them in the right direction.
All the lawyers could do was pray that everyone they cared about would come back to them safely.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Mercy Hospital
Grissom had his head down in his hands. The bright letters on the wall still said surgery. Catherine was in the ER. The head wound was nasty and by the time she had reached the hospital she had been shivering and crying out his name in pain. All he could do now was wait. Wait for an end or a beginning, at the moment he had no way of knowing. I can't do this again. He said to himself, thinking of all the people who had left him in the past. He didn't want to add Catherine to the list of the people who left without saying good-bye.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Olivia please just let them check you over?" Elliot begged as Olivia fought the doctors to get away from her tooth and nail.
She had changed out of her bloody shirt and jeans and into a well fitted blouse and black slacks.
"I'm fine. It's just a scratch." She argued back.
Elliot placed a hand on her shoulder. "For me?"
She gave in. She could never deny him when he asked her that way. "Fine."
They came at her with needles.
"AH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" She screamed.
Greg pulled down a doctor mask. "Psych." He said, laughing at her expression.
"Greg!" Olivia and Elliot yelled.
"Oh shit…" Greg mumbled as he sped out of the room, with Olivia racing after him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Alex's eyes were distant. Her face didn't show it, but Nick could easily tell something was bothering her.
"Hey you…what's up?" He asked in that soft southern country boy twang that sent a shiver down her spine.
"Nothing. It's just….forget it." She said.
Nick met her eyes. "I won't."
"It's just Smith died. I wanted to hang his ass in court and make him pay for what he did." She blurted out.
"Maybe he did get what he deserved."
"Death was the easy way out for him. I would have put him in jail for the rest of his life and then stuck the needle in his arm myself." She said bitterly.
"Is it good for you to be so bitter?" He asked softly, tilting his head to one side.
She looked back at him. "Nicky, I've learned the hard way not to be naïve about things. We win a case, we get a perp off the streets, but in the end we still lose."
Nick couldn't argue with that. "At least now we know he'll never hurt anyone else."
Alex agreed. "Not seeing him convicted for what he did may not mean closure for his earlier victims though."
Nick squeezed her hand. "Then you're going to have to tell them how it happened. Perhaps the evidence will be enough to cover the grounds of a confession."
She kissed him on the cheek, but said. "Not a chance."
She stood up to go and talk with Casey about contacting the families of the former victims. She paused in the doorway.
"Since the case is over, I guess you'll be heading back to Vegas." She said softly, sadly.
Nick looked down at the floor, anywhere but the sad blue eyes that he knew would be looking back at him.
"I don't know."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Are you always this cynical?" she asked.
"Are you always this annoying?" he asked.
Back and forth they went. It only started with Munch saying a comment about government conspiracies to mess up all forms of communication in the world. Sara thought it was retarded and she told him so.
"I know lots of people who don't find me annoying." She retorted.
"The ones that are threatened or bribed don't count." He said with a grin.
She made a face. John Munch was the first man she could not outtalk. Perhaps that was just as well.
Fin saw this exchanged and shook his head. A thought of Sara and Munch having kids crossed his mind. It scared him. The child would be setting up protests against the government by the time he was two and the combination of both the CSI and the detective's nature were not at all appealing to Fin.
"Lord, help me if they get married."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"How is she?" Warrick asked, handing Grissom a cup of coffee.
"Don't know yet." He said, taking it and cradling in his hands, not drinking.
He looked like hell and he knew it. The light went off on the big surgery sign. A doctor emerged.
"She crashed twice." He said softly.
Grissom drew in a sharp intake of breath, grief in his eyes. The doctor broke into a smile.
"But she made it. Either she's deadly stubborn, or she's got something to live for." He said.
Grissom felt himself smiling as well. Thank God. He thought. Thank God.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A few more chapters and this one's done! I'm sorry to not have a trial scene with this. Maybe I'll write a fic starring the ADAs. Who would read it though?