Title: In Shock
Author: Nicksfriend
Rating:k+
Spoilers: For Gedda
Disclaimer: Bottom line...they belong to CBS and to those who make millions
Author's note:This is my fifth CSI fic. I actually jumped when the Undersheriff shot Warrick; I did not expect it...but I could see that it could have been survivable.
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I know I should be adding a chapter to my other fic...In God's Hands...but here I am writing another chapter for In Shock. I will need to come clean at the end of that fic...I will tell you why I started writing fic and why I wrote In God's Hands...I have two fics that I really want to write and one is actually based on facts, the title will be 'Listen' but it will be a while, so on with this chapter. Let's get started...
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Greg had received the phone call from Catherine, Warrick had been shot and had died a short time later at the hospital. The meetings had gone great so why didn't he feel great? He knew why because his friend Warrick was dead.
His first thought upon hearing the news was how would Nick handle this? He new that the friendship that these two shared went beyond work, it was more of a brother type thing.
Now he was arriving at the lab and all he wanted to do was help process the evidence. He wanted to help catch whoever had killed Warrick, he wanted to be part of it, and he wanted the comfort of being around those who he considered his family.
As he walked through the doors to enter he saw Sara arguing with another officer, something about her not being allowed in the lab because she no longer was employed with the LVPD.
"Hey Sara, is there a problem?" he asked not seeing Grissom around.
"This officer won't allow me to enter because I'm no longer an employee." Sara was ticked, her temper flaring at the officer.
"Well, you are a friend of mine and I'll vouch for you. She's coming in with me." Gregg explained showing his badge.
The officer conceded and allowed her to enter,"She is to only stay with you, no wondering around unsupervised." He warned.
Sara turned to the new cop and gave him a stare that would give lesser men the shivers but he stood his ground,she understood, obey the rules or get tossed out of the building.
"Thanks Gregg," She was attempting to calm herself down as she walked towards the lab area with Gregg.
"What's with him?" She asked once they reached the area where Wendy and Hodges were working.
Gregg shrugged his shoulders,"Guess everybody's stressed from the shooting, just let it go." he walked over to Wendy, Sara followed.
Wendy and Hodges looked up and gave Gregg a sad look, words were not spoken,it was a difficult time for all the staff.
"How can I help?" He asked as he pulled on a lab jacket.
"Well, we do have some new evidence just in from an explosion at the bus terminal." Wendy pointed at the new bags of evidence.
"I want to work on Warrick's case." he looked up and saw that Hodges was already shaking his head.
"What?" Sara asked before Gregg could get the question out of his mouth.
"No can do, only Ecklie's team is allowed to work on the murder case. We get the explosion." He remarked as he eyed the detonation piece in front of him."
"McKeen's orders." Wendy backed it up, feeling the frustration of not being able to work on a fellow worker's murder case, especially since it was Warrick.
Gregg nodded, he actually knew the rules but didn't know that McKeen was running the show. "I'll start running the evidence."
He was about to get his gloves on when he thought he would ask where Nick was, seeing that he was nowhere around,"Where's Nick?"
"Grissom thinks Pritchard took him from the explosion site." Sara said matter of fact like.
Wendy stood up."What did you just say?"
"Nick went to the bus terminal, they thought Pritchard was there, it ended up that they shot the wrong guy but Pritchard possibly took Nick from the site, Grissom let me out here to start looking at the evidence, they have a tag number and are running it now."
Gregg turned and gave Sara glaring look,"Why the hell didn't you tell me this outside?"
"Because if we want Nick back then we're going to have to run this evidence, anyways Grissom went to chase a lead." She looked slightly remorseful for the overlook.
Wendy was about to explode but this was not the time or place, she knew how Nick had felt when Sara had left without even a good-bye. An eight year friendship ignored by the cold and uncaring Sara Sidle but Nick always took up for her and defended her actions regardless of how much she had hurt him.
Wendy sat back down, she would deal with Sara later, right now she needed to find a way to help Nick.
Wendy and Hodges, though disappointed in Sara's actions, went back to work. Hopefully they would receive some news regarding Nick soon, but for now they had a job to do,it could save Nick's life. The evidence is what they had to concentrate on for now.
Gregg continued to glove and started to work,"Don't touch any of the evidence Sara, remember you quit, it would be considered tampered with if you do,so don't!" He warned as he opened a bag and went to work, his feelings towards Sara would be dealt with later.
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Pritchard looked back at his captive, he was out again, the blow to his head from the explosion must've caused some damage. He looked up into the rear view mirror and spotted what looked like a cop car.
This could be a problem, especially if one of the CSI's had found his clothing in the vacant apartment. "Dammit." He cursing as he spotted a second car joining the chase, but still no lights, no sirens.
He turned around and yelled, "Stokes, we have company, I need you to wake up!" He was starting to panic,not knowing who had hired him to take out Gedda, these cops could kill him and Stokes and call it an accident.
He placed his foot on the gas, still no response from the unconscious man in the backseat. He would have to try and lose the two police cars. His survival instinct kicking in full force.
He quickly changed lanes noticing the two police cars changing with him, it was going a race to the diner. He hoped that they would make it, if this cop was willing to kill him,then wouldn't he also attempt to kill this girl if she could identify him?
He quickly switched lanes again, maneuvering his vehicle in front of an eighteen wheeler, giving himself some cover with the larger vehicle."Stokes, I really need you to wake up!" He yelled back again but this time he heard a groan come from the backseat.
"What the hell?" Nick asked as he felt the car jerking to the right, Pritchard had taken an exit with his lights turned off, the truck behind them giving them a slight tap, caused the back of the car to skid back and forth,the tires trying to find the pavement again. He quickly buckled his seatbelt and looked out the back window, two cop cars following.
"Pritchard, maybe we should just pull over." He yelled at the man who was trying to correct the vehicle's wild movement.
"Stokes we are dealing with a crooked cop, we really don't know who we can trust right now. I can't take the chance that these guys won't shoot us both."
He corrected the steering wheel and the tires found the road again, spinning dust and rock into the air, he quickly made a U-turn and drove back up the exit ramp passing the two other cops and steering the vehicle back onto the main road into the path of several vehicles almost hitting one of them.
Nick was trying to get his bearings, his head still hurting but not as bad as earlier."Where are we?" Pulling himself back up into the seat after being tossed about even with his belt in place.
"Almost back to Vegas, but I know a short cut to the diner." His lights still off, the cop cars nowhere in sight.
"Hang on Stokes we're going for a ride!" Pritchard drove the car off the road again onto a small dirt road, leaving the main road behind. The car bounced hard again and the tires were kicking up the dirt. The absence of light creating a problem for him in keeping the car on the road.
Nick was worried, his chances of getting back to the diner were getting slimmer, either Pritchard would kill him with his driving or the killer cop could get to them first. He glanced out of the back window and was actually relieved that nobody was following behind them. If only he had his cellphone, he could direct Grissom or Catherine to the diner."Damn,this is crap." He mumbled to himself,feeling as though the killer had the upper hand and that somehow he was letting his best friend down.
He had to get to Stephane,he had to know the truth, was she a pawn also or was she part of the plot to kill Warrick?
Pritchard let out a howl,"I think we lost them Stokes!"
"Just get us to the diner. We need to find Stephane." He looked out the window and silently wished that Stephane wasn't involved in his friend's murder,that she was actually just another person used by Warrick's killer to get what he wanted.
"We'll be there in about twenty minutes Stokes." he looked in his rearview mirror and saw the look of anguish on his captive's face,a feeling of guilt washed over him for what he had done. He would make it right though, he would help to catch the killer.
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Grissom pulled up to the Galley and exited his car, seeing that the scene was still sealed off by yellow tape. He walked up, gloved, took his knife and cut the red seal on the door and walked inside. He pulled out his flashlight, and started shining it around the room, seeing nothing that really caught his attention, he continued over to Gedda's desk.
The desk was in chaos, drawers open, pulled out and tossed to the floor; odd in itself, CSI's usually didn't leave this type of mess.
He bent down and aimed his light towards the desk, seeing nothing of interest he lowered his head to look underneath.
He reached up with gloved hands and felt around to see if anything felt odd and it did, it was loose, as if the lower part of the desk had been removed before. Laying the light down he reached up with both hands and removed the underneath of the desk, a key fell to the carpeted floor.
He picked it up and focused the light from his flashlight onto the small piece of metal, examining the numbers which were small in size, it was a safety deposit box key. He took out a small bag and placed it inside. He then took the light and reexamined the area and was about to stand when he saw something odd.
He again took the light and flashed it on the desk, a small compartment that would've gone unnoticed if the lower part of the desk was still intact, he again reached up and pulled the small area out and he saw it, a brown inner office police envelope, as he looked inside he found a copy of Warrick's personnel file. Again he took out a bag and placed the new evidence inside.
Whoever got a copy of Warrick's file had to have a key to his office. This someone had access to the crime lab, Pritchard didn't have this type of access.
He quickly gathered his new evidence and started towards the door. He needed to find Nick and get the evidence back to the lab. He was almost to his car after resealing the door when he heard a car drive up, it was Ecklie.
"Gil, what are you doing here?" He demanded.
"Same thing you are Conrad, looking for evidence that will find Warrick's killer and Nick's abductor." Grissom answered as he placed the new evidence in his car.
"We've gone over this area with a fine tooth comb, we found everything that was possible to be found." He was angry at Grissom for overstepping not only his authority but McKeen's."And what the hell are you talking about Nick's abductor?"
"Pritchard took Nick from the bus terminal,I thought McKeen was keeping you in the loop?" Grissom was curious as to why Ecklie didn't know about Nick.
"I didn't know Gil, really I'm sorry. Have you heard anything?" Ecklie liked Stokes, he felt of all the CSI's that Nick would go places, his father a Supreme Court justice in Texas, he had a lot of political pull.
Grissom continued to get into his car,"No we haven't heard anything yet but Conrad, I did find a couple of things, it might be best if you ran them through," He trusted Ecklie to do the right thing, he might be a lot of things but he was honest when it came to evidence.
"Did you find something?" Ecklie now curious as to the new findings.
"Your team missed this." Grissom pulled out the bagged key and the bagged personnel file."It was in a secret compartment underneath Gedda's desk.
"We all know that Pritchard is the killer Gil. Are you looking for proof?" Sarcasm dripping from his lips.
"Someone tried to kill Pritchard this evening, I think that he might have just been a pawn in a bigger cover-up. I believe this goes higher than both of us, that somebody is pulling the strings, calling the shots." Grissom handed the bags of evidence to Ecklie.
"I'm going to find out who it is because when I find him, I will find Warrick's killer." He started the engine and pulled out of the parking area leaving a very stunned Ecklie behind holding the new evidence.
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Pritchard drove his car into the same alleyway Warrick had been found, Nick jumped out of the back immediately not waiting for the car to come to a complete stop.
As he approached the diner he saw Stephane's car parked in front. He needed to know if she was in any way responsible for Warrick's death,he wanted to know if she was part of the plan.
Pritchard followed behind Nick, the place crowded with police,"I don't think this is a good idea for me to be here,I'll wait in the back."
Nick looked at the man and nodded,"Might not be a bad idea, just don't go anywhere."
"Where would I go? I'm a wanted man." Pritchard replied, fearing for his life.
As Nick walked into the diner he drew immediate attention, he felt it was his worn appearance and the gash in his head but the officer's almost immediately reacted to his presence.
"Nick, you okay man?" One officer greeted him at the door.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Confused to why all the commotion.
"Where's Pritchard?" Another officer asked,the APB had said that Stokes had been abducted by someone fitting Pritchard's description.
"Listen, I need to find Stephane, the red headed waitress, do you know where she is?" Nick asked ignoring the questions being bombarded at him.
The officers pointed towards a table where she was standing, Nick nodded his thanks leaving the stunned fellow officer's standing, confused as to his actions.
"Stephane, I need to talk to you." Nick's voice cracking with emotion.
"Oh my gosh, what happened to you?" she asked as her hand went to the gash in his forehead. Taking his arm and leading him towards the back to sit down, her break room empty other than them.
"Listen I need to know something Stephane, the night the man was shot in the alleyway, did you speak with anyone? Did anybody ask about Warrick or about my friends at the table?" He grimaced as she busied herself cleaning around the wound.
"Yeah, a man in a suit. Why?" She asked as he reached for the first aid kit,"You need stitches, this is bad."
Nick took hold of her wrists to still them,"Listen, this is important. Tell me what he looked like."
"You're scaring me." The frightened look on her face proof of the terror she was feeling.
"Sorry Stephane." he let go of her hands,"I just need to know what he looked like, it's important."
She rubbed at her wrists and continued to assist the wound in his head," He was tall, brown suit, gray hair. He seemed important." Describing the man to Nick as he allowed her menstruations to his head.
"Did he give you a name?"Grimacing as she cleaned the wound and bandaged it.
"No, he told me to let him know when your friend left so he could tell him some good news. He waited back here, I thought he was another cop." She had finished and was now assessing his other scratches on his face and arms.
"Could you recognize him if I showed you a picture?" Wondering to himself if it would be safe to take her back to the station, and then it dawned on him. The man in the garage, the Undersheriff,his worn look, his brown suit, his gray hair, could it be possible? Could Mckeen be the one who had killed his friend?
"Stephane, you could be in grave danger if you stay here, I need to take you some place where you'll be safe." He grabbed her arm and started to go out the front but then reconsidered,"Where's the back door?"
A terrified Stephane pointed towards a door in the back,they both headed towards the door, Nick hoping that Pritchard had stayed where he left him.
As Nick opened the door he was face to face with the Undersheriff, Pritchard lay on the loading dock, a bullet to his head.
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