Here's chapter eleven! Sorry it took so long for the update.
It was about nine hours later when Nick finally woke up. It was daytime now, he could tell because dayshift was there in the lab. He sat up, and looked around and saw Catherine sitting there in the break room. "What are you still doing here?" Nick asked, barely keeping his eyes open.
"I didn't want to abandon you, I'm your ride home."
"You didn't need to wait, I could've found a ride."
"Just let me take you home."
Nick allowed Catherine to take him home, and thanked her when they got to his house. He walked in his house, alone for the first time since the shooting. It didn't affect him, although it was a little weird to be alone after all this time. He was glad, he felt free, not like anybody was watching his every move just to tell him to be careful. He was so tired of people, he just wanted to be alone forever.
He had just sat down on his couch when, his phone rang. He got up, and answered it. "Stokes." It was the DA's office, they wanted to schedule a date to prep him for the trial. They knew he hadn't gone back to work yet, and wanted to schedule for as soon as possible. They scheduled for late that day. Nick didn't like this but he didn't really have a choice, he had no excuse to not go.
Nick had a lot of time to be in his house and do nothing, it gave him a lot of time to think.
It was later that day, and the DA was in his office waiting for Nick to come. He was two minutes late. He must be running late. Ten minutes. There must be a lot of traffic. Fifteen minutes. He should be getting here soon. Twenty minutes. Did he forget? Thirty minutes went by before he started to think Nick wasn't coming, he called his house, but nobody picked up. Well, maybe he's on his way, give him five more minutes. Five minutes later, Nick still wasn't there, and he called the lab to check to see if he had stopped by work.
He hadn't. The lab receptionist asked Sara, who had been there working overtime like always, if she had seen or talked to Nick. Sara told her she hadn't, but she would stop by his place to make sure everything was alright. The receptionist informed the DA of what Sara told her, and they both hung up.
Sara arrived at Nick's house ten minutes later. She knocked on the door, but there was no answer. She waited about a minute before she let herself in with the key he had given her, when she helped repair his house after the shooting. "Nick!? Are you here?" She called out, then entered the living room and saw Nick sleeping on the couch. She went over to him, and tried to wake him. "Nick, wake up." He didn't move, Sara knew something was wrong, she called 911. "Something is wrong, I don't know what, but we need paramedics." She gave them the address, and her name and everything they needed to know as quickly as possible. Then, hung up and turned her attention back to Nick. "Nick, can you hear me, Nick?" She took his pulse, and he had one, which was good news. Then she checked his breathing, he wasn't. "Nick! No, come on!" She started to perform CPR, and he wasn't responding, then the paramedics arrived, and Sara had to open the door for them. She led them to Nick on the couch, and they put him on the stretcher, and took him to the ambulance. Sara rode in the back as they speed off to the hospital.
They arrived at the hospital with Nick breathing again, but still not awake. They rushed Nick into the emergency room, and Sara went to the waiting room. She didn't call anyone, she didn't know why. It only took them about a half hour until she was able to talk to Nick.
"Hey, how are you doing?"
"Okay, I guess. What happen?"
"I was thinking you might be able to tell me."
"I don't know, I was eating my regular sandwich I always make, then the next thing I know it I'm here. What happen?"
"You weren't answering your phone, I came by to check and make sure you were alright. You don't remember anything? What time did you start to eat your sandwich?"
"Uhh, it was just before I went to the DA's to prep for the trial, so about four. Is somebody coming after me?"
"We don't know. I have to call Catherine, and we can investigate this."
"You haven't called her?"
"No."
"Can I just go home, and we can forget this ever happen?"
"What? No. Don't you want to know who's trying to hurt you?"
"Does it really matter? Nobody believed me last time, y'all just thought I was crazy."
"We don't think you're crazy, we just couldn't find any evidence to support your story."
"And this time is going to be different?"
"If you just ignore this, we're going to end up finding your body at a crime scene."
"Would that be so bad?"
"Nick!"
"We all have to die eventually. Some just earlier than others."
"I'm calling Catherine."
"You said it yourself. When it's your day, it's your day, you know. I'm not afraid."
Sara walked out of the room and called Catherine, and she and Greg were at the hospital almost immediately. They talked to Nick for a while, then they left to investigate his house after Nick begged them to leave him alone.
They were at his house, and found the sandwich Nick was eating, and also the water bottle he had with it. They took samples to the lab for processing. Then they searched through the rest of his house. They couldn't find anything that seemed unusual.
"With everything he's been dealing with, you'd think he'd be on some sort of medication. I know I would be." Greg said looking for pill bottles.
"He refuses to see a psychiatrist. I know he needs to see one, and believe me I've tried to get him to." Catherine said.
They took the samples back to the lab for processing. They found it wasn't the sandwich, but the water bottle that had been tampered with. There were traces of some heavy duty pharmaceuticals on the rim and cap of the bottle. It was a mixture of many different drugs that did not go well together.
Greg collected all the other water bottles in Nick's house, and found two other bottles with the same deadly mixture on it. They had a flashback to a case a long time ago with a similar situation where, the guy laced the water bottles in the store.
Sara was sent to talk to Nick. "Where did you buy your water bottles at?"
"I don't know. Wherever they were on sale, but I bought those a long time ago."
"How long ago?"
"Back when y'all let me go to the store by myself."
It was a dead end. They weren't going to find out where he got the bottles, and no other victims had turned up so, they had to assume Nick bought all the water bottles that were drugged. They still took finger prints, and DNA from the bottles, and sent them to the lab for processing. They were determined not to let this person get away with it this time.
Nick was released from the hospital the next day. They still hadn't figured out who had drugged him. The incident was at just the right time for the trial against Ben Thomas to be postponed. Now, Nick was going to have to go to Texas to testify against Laura first. It was coming up in just a few days.
They interrogated Ben, and the Texas PD interrogated Laura. They wanted to know who they hired to kill Nick, because without him, the prosecutor's case would be weak, and they might be able to get away with what they did. Especially Laura.
So, what do you think? It's a lot easier to write if I have suggestions so, if you have any I'd love to hear them!
