Chapter Twenty Four

What's next…

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Warrick and Grissom returned with Lindsey. Although she was very frightened from her ordeal with Ken. She was going to be physically ok. They took her to the hospital to be checked out just in case… Meanwhile, Ken was also in the hospital recovering from his injury when Brass shot him in the neck. Brass had known he was going to maim but not kill Ken and pulled the gun without the real bullet, just the immobilizer. In actual fact, Ken was going to be fine, but most likely going to be in custody for a very long time.

Meanwhile, the other bad guys had escaped and no one knew where they were. Charlotte was still recovering from her jump from the 23 storey of the Tangiers and whenever they could get some time (in between Charlotte's sleeps) the CSIs would go and talk to her. She wasn't saying much because she was so doped up.

Oscar, Al and Rudy were plotting their next move. They were now seething with anger. "They shot my grandson!" Al seethed. "I want to see Jim Brass pay dearly for what he did to my grandson"

"Hey Al, Ken is my son. What we gonna do? Break into the hospital and get him out? If we show our faces they'll put is back in custody" Rudy said.

"We made bail dufus, they can't touch us until the preliminary or whatever the hell it is"

The men laughed. "Imagine that us, mass killers got bail, I don't know how we pulled that off. Any normal dude would still be in jail waiting" Oscar staid.

"We got good lawyers and good families" said Al. And the three men talked about their next move. They never mentioned going to see Charlotte once.

Their bail terms were just that they weren't allowed to leave the state. Their prelim was supposedly going to start soon, but one never could tell.

Oscar Riddler and Al Johnson, the two that were actually related to Ken went up to the nurse at the nurse's station.

"We wanna see Ken Jonson" Oscar said.

"Room 302" was the reply. The nurse didn't even look up.

They walked into the room where Ken lay in the bed hooked up to monitors. He did not look good.

"Ken?" Oscar said looking at his son.

Ken did not open his eyes. His breathing was very shallow.

Oscar left Ken's room and stormed angrily over to the nurse's station, butting rudely in a long line of people waiting.

"What is the matter with my son, why the hell are their tubes running in his body and what is with all the machines."

"Hey buddy get in line, wait your turn" said a man who was at the end of the line.

"Shut up, I am more important that you. I am Oscar Riddler"

"So what? Get your ass to the back of the line and wait your turn."

Because it was a hospital and there were many people around, Oscar certainly knew he couldn't retaliate the way he wanted to and went to the back of the line. When it came to his turn though he was not pleased.

"Nurse, just to let you know, when I approach and butt in line, I don't care to be chastised to go to the back, I am more important than anybody else, just so you know that."

"What may I do for you sir" the nurse asked.

"My son Ken Johnson, why is he hooked up to tubes and machines?"

"He was shot sir, he needs the machines to keep him alive until he is stabilized"

"He was alive and breathing when he was brought in"

"Well his condition has gotten worse" the nurse said. "he is due for his pain meds soon"

Clearly the conversation was over. He was still unsatisfied with the answer. After checking in with Al, who was watching Ken's progress, he went it ICU where Charlotte was. That area was a little more difficult to get into.

Warrick and Nick were sitting at Charlotte's side trying to get her to talk. A cop was stationed outside her room and the nurse at the station was not taking any nonsense from Oscar, no matter if he was her husband.

"I wanna see Charlotte Johnson" he told her.

"No sir, Ms. Johnson is not allowed visitors, she is in grave condition"

"Why is there a cop stationed outside her room?"

"She is being questioned by some people"

"Well stop that right now, they do not have my permission to question her"

The nurse produced a court order. "This says they are allowed to talk to her. She has a lawyer present"

"What are you talking about? Our lawyer is not with her!!"

"No, we appointed her a lawyer, a very good one in fact"

Warrick was exiting the room and saw Oscar Riddler standing by the nurse's station.

"Nurse call 911, and lock down this hospital right now. This man is a danger to society"

Warrick knew that Oscar was not going anywhere as he was on the 5th floor and they had to get to the ground to escape. Even if Oscar called his cronies, they wouldn't escape either as they were on the sixth floor visiting Ken.

One of the other stipulations of their bail was they couldn't go anywhere near Charlotte or the hospital she was staying at. Charlotte was in protective custody.

Nick, stayed inside the hospital room by Charlotte's side. Charlotte was battered, bruised and talking very little, but somehow she was progressing and progressing as well as she could, giving her situation. The prognosis, according to the doctor was that Charlotte would never go back to normal. She would always need care and considering her past she'd be going to a hospital (instead of jail) for a very long time. She was paralyzed from the waist down and had limited mobility in her upper body. She had also lost a lot of her memory.

When visiting hours were over Warrick and Nick left Charlotte's side, promising to return to talk the next day. They headed down to where Ken's room was in order to talk to him. They had heard the kafuffle that Oscar had spewed earlier about Ken being hooked up to monitors and being in such grave shape that they wanted to check it out for themselves.

"Excuse me ma'am, where's Ken Johnson's room"

"Ken Johnson is no longer here" was the reply.

The two men looked at each other and were just about to ask where when their beepers went off with a message.

Ken Johnson is in the morgue.

They thanked the nurse and hopped in their vehicle back to CSI.