A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I don't own CSI, blah blah blah. Well, this is the last chapter of this fic next to the epilogue. Nick fans are going to kill me... Review, please. It'll encourage me to update faster, which would help with this ending... heh.

Moments before:

Jake was just about to turn one corner when something ran into him at full speed, the bounced back, gun drawn, ready for anything, except what he saw. Sara was staring at him, mouth agape. "Sara!" he stepped forward and gave her a hug. "Thank God you're okay!" he quickly stepped aside so Catherine wouldn't trample him when the redhead spotted her friend.

Sara gave Catherine a hug as well, then looked from her to Jake. "You find Cassie yet?"

Jake shook his head. "You've seen her?"

Sara nodded. "We had to split up since someone was coming towards us… she went one way, I went the other. Who knows where she could be, now. I mean, I-" she shut up, hearing a distant mumble.

The trio exchanged looks, then Jake put his gun back up. "Both of you, stay here," he ordered, heading down the hallway.

--

Present:

"Turn around… slowly,"

Cassandra winced again, and then her eyes flew open. What the hell was she thinking? She was out of that room, wasn't she? She could take one guy. Without another thought, she brought her elbow back into Ed's stomach. She was pissed off that she missed her main target, but she was relieved that she missed a moment later because she knew the grunt of pain that had come from Ed… and it was far from Ed's. "Nicky?!" she spun around.

Nick looked up at her. "Cass?!" He put his gun back immediately.

"NICKY!" she launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck.

Nick wrapped his own arms around her. "It's okay, I gotcha, you're safe now," he reassured her, then pulled back for a moment. "Listen, Cass, about last time, I'm sor-"

He was silenced when she pressed her lips firmly to his. It didn't take him long to kiss back. They pulled apart briefly.

Nick looked at her, confused about what she had said before and what she had just did.

"I said I couldn't do it now, didn't I?" she answered the unasked question.

Nick nodded. "Guess that works, too." He took her hand. "Come on, let's find the others. I think Jake's close." He led her towards another corner, and sure enough, Jake was there a few feet away.

The man saw them and instantly stopped, barely believing his eyes. "Cass!" he ran over to her, then spotted their joined hands. When he hugged Cassandra, he sent an 'I told ya so' look at Nick, who rolled his eyes. After he pulled way, he nodded towards the other hallway. "Exit's this way. We got Sara, so let's get the Hell outta here."

"That's the best damn idea I've ever heard from you." Nick agreed.

Jake nodded and led the way around the corner, only to see Ed blocking the way. "Who the Hell are you?"

Cassandra glanced over at where Jake's gun was and took it out of its holster. "Not anyone you would wanna meet without one of these on you."

Ed laughed. "Couldn't agree more."

"Hm." Cassandra imitated the beginning of the laugh, then went to shoot him, but a hand came out of nowhere from behind her and grabbed it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, sweetheart."

She frowned. It was female, but it wasn't Catherine or Sara, but she knew it. It was like Nick all over again. "Lynn?!"

Jake, who had also recognized the voice of his wife, turned just as she did. "Lynn, what're you doing here?"

She smiled. "My job, sweetheart."

Jake raised an eyebrow, just as Nick and Cassandra did. "Job?" He looked down, realizing that she was now pointing the gun right at his chest. "Whoa, hold on there. What're you doing?"

"Settling an old score, Jacob. It just took me a while with getting everything set up to this point."

"What?" Jake demanded, then realization hit. "Wait. You did this?! Took them here?!" he pointed at Cassandra.

Nick and Cassandra exchanged confused looks, then looked back at Cassandra. Cassandra stepped forward. "Uh, Lynn? You're uh… not making sense… How could you have done this."

"I have connections." Lynn replied. "Thought you ought to know before I end this once and for all." She moved her arm so the gun was now pointed at Cassandra. The barrel was almost digging into the other woman's stomach.

Nick stepped forward. "Hey, hold on there, what's this about?!"

Cassandra glared at the woman "Exactly."

Lynn laughed. "Figures you would forget."

"What're you talking about?!" She demanded. "I've never been anything but kind to you! How else was I supposed to be? You're my best friend's wife."

Lynn shook her head. "Figures. You don't remember what you took from me."

"I didn't take a thing from you? Lynn, what're you going on about?!" Cassandra demanded. Honestly, she still didn't understand what was going on.

"You took my life!" Lynn replied.

"How?! When?!" Cassandra demanded.

"College, and every year since. Going on seven years with the plan."

Cassandra raised her eyebrows. She's going on about something in college and she did this?

Lynn nodded. "Amazing that one decision can impact a whole life, isn't it?"

Nick frowned and slowly, subtly started to reach for his walkie-talkie.

Unfortunately, Lynn caught it. "Don't bother. It's no use getting help. I have others on your group. They're on their own, as are you." She poked Cassandra more with the gun. "Get in that room. Now." She nodded behind her at an open room. "All of you."

Jake, Cassandra and Nick all looked at each other. They knew they didn't have much choice. They all went in and turned back to her. Jake, who had been attempting to process everything, turned to her.

"Seven years. We've been married five…" He didn't know just how he made the connection, but he did. "… You used me to get to her."

"It should've been obvious after a while." Lynn replied.

"All this time…" Jake breathed.

"Pretty much. Seven years of planning, sweetheart. You helped a lot, so thank you,"

"You bitch!" Jake spat, standing up.

Lynn smirked, then belted him across the face with the back of the gun.

"Jake!" Cassandra yelled, watching as he fell to his knees because of the force. She got next to him and pulled him up, supporting him with her arm and hip.

Jake looked at her before spitting out blood. "You're gonna have to do better than that to take me down, darlin'. You should know that." he told Lynn. All the feelings he had for her just deteriorated after moments. Something told him she was telling the truth. If it was one thing he knew, it was that his close friends came before people who he once knew who ended up being fake. Unfortunately, he had known a few, so he hated to imagine it, but this came as no surprise.

"Fine." She shrugged, then pointed the gun at Cassandra again. "Since what we had just went out the window, the next closest person to you is her, so I'll kill two birds with one stone."

Nick finally spoke up. "Is that really gonna solve anything, ma'am? Come on, this is about somethin' that happened in college? Is that really necessary to get upset over something that happened a while ago?" he asked. "Put down the gun, ma'am. Let's talk about this calmly, huh?"

Lynn laughed dryly. "Jake did say you were the negotiator. Too bad that stuff doesn't work on me."

Nick raised an eyebrow. She was insane. That was the only explanation. She was crazy and had kept it in check up until this time, when she had her chance at whatever she wanted to do. He didn't like the situation one bit. Hell, he knew the other two didn't, either.

Lynn studied him again. "Aw, but you're protecting your girl. I'd appreciate that and admire you if your girl wasn't who I as after."

Cassandra shook her head. "Lynn, come on. He's right. We can work this out. What is it that I uh… did to you that ruined your life? Steal an old boyfriend? Had something that you wanted to be the only one to have it?"

"Both, actually."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow. She didn't even remember seeing Lynn around college, but she figured play along as much as possible. What could she have done? Dated Ken? Miles, maybe? Wear some crazy outfit one day? "Do tell."

Lynn sighed. "Cassie… Cassie, Cassie, Cassie. That's why you should've stayed a geek like your sister compared to going into cheerleading. Cheerleaders always ignored the obvious. You see, that's where it all started. You took the cheerleading spot from me freshman year. Cheerleading was my life. I had friends from it, a boyfriend, I was popular, I had connections with all the right people. And what do you do? Take it from me. My whole life changed after that. Then you grew up and go into forensics for a job. A waste of a spot you should've been proud to show off, and you go into a field where you should keep that buried.

Cassandra stared at her, then couldn't help but snort. A cheerleading spot? She had kidnapped her and as it was playing out was going to attempt to kill her over a cheerleading spot? "You've gotta be kidding me."

Lynn smirked back. "I kid you not. You see, you took what was dear to me, now I'm going to return the favor." Lynn giggled. "I want my hatred to go right to your core, Cassie." she pointed the gun at the woman. "You know what's sad? I have to admit, I actually started to like you. Maybe we could've been friends if this didn't have to end this way."

"In your dreams," Cassandra spat. "Something would've come up that ended it. That's what always happens."

Lynn smirked and pointed the gun at her. "Have it your way," she cocked it.

Cassandra couldn't help but laugh. "Go ahead. Shoot me. It may make you feel better, but I swear to you, it's not gonna mean the end. It's only gonna get worse."

"Cass…" Nick warned.

"No, Nick. She wants to do something about that, let her do it." Cassandra replied. "Go right ahead. Stomach, between the eyes, whatever floats your boat. Get it over with."

Nick could barely believe Cassandra. He prayed she was getting somewhere, or at least had a plan. He wouldn't be egging the woman on if he was in her shoes.

Lynn shook her head. "Again, you fail to pay attention to the obvious. I said I wanted to take something dear to you away, just as you did for me. I said wanted to get to your core. You ruined my chance at having a happy time in my life, now I'm gonna take your possibility away from you, too."

Cassandra narrowed her eyes in confusion, trying to figure out what she meant, which put her guard down, so it alarmed her when a gunshot went off. She snapped out of her state then looked down, expecting a burning pain and a red spot somewhere, so she was even more surprised when she realized it went to her left. Her head reeled. Lynn had missed after that whole thing? She hadn't even moved like she had planned to. She had wanted to get Lynn's anger up and guard down so she and Jake could take her down. She realized if she didn't move fast, her chance would be gone. She was about to lunge when a group of thoughts came into her mind. It began to race as Lynn's words began to sink in. She wanted to take a possibility of being happy away from her. How would she do that? She froze when she found out just what Lynn's plan was. She heard something hit the ground behind her. Lynn hadn't been aiming for her. She had been aiming for… "NICK?!" she turned to her left and gulped when she saw Nick on his knees, seemed to be gasping for air. She saw a hole in his vest. The bullet had hit him square in the chest. "NICK!" she dropped to the ground as he went down fully. She slid in front of him, taking his head between her hands. "Oh God. Oh God. Oh God…"

"Good. You figured it out." Lynn smirked.

Jake paused, noticing that Lynn's attention was now fully on Cassie's reaction. It's now or never. With a grunt, he got up quickly and launched himself at her, tackling her to the ground. He slammed her hand against the ground, causing her to drop the gun. He turned and kicked it away. "I got 'er, Cass!"

Cassandra only risked a quick glance and nod at her friend before looking back at Nick, noticing his eyelids were drooping. "Nicky, no! Stay with me! Stay with me!" she ordered, already sobbing. She saw that blood had started trickling out of his mouth as well. "No. Not you. Stay with me, do you understand me?!" she cursed her 'Skill of being there for people when they were seconds away from death' as Jake had called it. She looked back at Jake, and saw that he was thinking along the same lines as him. She turned back to Nick. "Don't leave me," she grabbed his hand.

Nick coughed. "I don't think I'm makin' it outta this one, Cass. I think I've had it… with luck," Nick choked out.

Cassandra shook her head. "Don't talk like that. No, you're still a lucky bastard, and you're gonna stay that way.," she sobbed.

"I'm sorry Cass," Nick breathed.

"For what? Nick, no. There's nothing to apologize about!" Cassandra shook her head, then leaned over more when his eyes closed. "Nick?! No, no, no! Come on, wake up." She begged, taking off his vest. She looked over the wound. She swallowed hard, seeing that there was a very high probability that the bullet had hit something important. "No…" she breathed, then looked down at her hands, which were now covered in his blood and swallowed hard again, trying to choke back more tears. This can't be happening.. "No, you bastard! Wake up! Wake up!" she shook him with no avail. She sobbed harder and cradled his head, resting her forehead on his, barely noticing that the door behind her burst open.

"L.V.P.D!"

Jake took over for her, seeing Brass was the one on the other side. "Boss!"

Jim looked over and froze for a moment, seeing Nick, then saw Jake, still pinning Lynn down. He looked at one of his officers. "Get her." he ordered.

The said officer went over to Jake and pulled out a set of handcuffs. He cuffed Lynn and pulled her to her feet with Jake's help. "Sir?" he looked at Jim.

"Get her in a car. I want full security on her at all times, too" Jim ordered. "Jake…"

Jake swallowed, looking at Jim. "She said you guys were being watched as well. How'd you…?"

"The gunshot scared the one holding us. Knocked him out. He's already outside. The others are coming, but…" he looked at Nick. "That may not be the wisest idea."

Jake nodded.

Lynn, who was being dragged off by another officer, looked back at Jake. "Baby, don't let them take me! You love me! Don't let them do this,"

Jake advanced on her, ignoring Jim's warning step towards him. "Listen, you conniving, evil, senile bitch. Whatever we had is now gone, and if Nick dies, I'm gonna do everything in my power to make your life a living Hell so you're the least bit prepared for what you have to deal with after you die," he snarled. He reached down and took his wedding ring off. "By the way, these rings were only twenty five bucks each at a pawn shop," he tossed his ring over his shoulder so it went down a storm drain. He smirked maliciously at her, barely believing what he had just done himself. He barely remembered ever being angry as he was as he was at the moment.

"You BASTARD!" Lynn screamed at him.

He ignored her.

The officer started dragging her away. Lynn dug her heels into the floor to have him stop briefly so she could face Cassandra, who hadn't even moved from her position, hunched over Nick. "It's like you said, Sidle. It's not over." She snarled.

"Watch me care." Cassandra replied, standing up and walking between Lynn and Nick's body, as if preventing further damage.

With a good hard tug, the other officer, now joined by Jake, dragged her outside just as Gil and Sara hurried in

"CASSIE!" Sara threw herself at her sister when Cassandra slowly made it to her feet. Sara hugged her tightly. Cassandra hugged her back with equal vigor. They hugged like that for a while until Jake came back in and touched Cassandra's back, which made her turn to him and also hug him.

Sara looked over her sister, then frowned when she saw red on Cassandra's arms, hands and chest. "Cass, you're bleeding… and crying," she added, seeing Cassandra's eyes were still glossed over.

Cassandra opened her mouth to reply, then found she couldn't and pressed further against Jake, crying into his shoulder.

Jake looked at Sara, catching the woman's confused look. "…It's not her blood," he murmured, then nodded at Nick, who was now being put onto a gurney by two EMTs.

It took Sara a couple of extra minutes to see what Gil did right away when he walked in. "Oh my God… Nick… what happened?"

Cassandra shook her head, finally able to speak. "Lynn shot him. She made it seem like she was gonna shoot me, then said that she was gonna take away something dear to me, then shot him,"

Both Gil and Sara made similar noises that were between a gasp and sharp inhale.

Sara hugged her again and Gil put a hand on her back to comfort her. "It's gonna be okay. He's a strong C.S.I." Sara assured her. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Cassandra didn't have the heart to argue.

The group got out of the building, but their cars as well as ambulances and bystanders were still around outside. Cassandra changed her shirt to try to lessen the image of Nick lying in front of her bleeding out of her head, because she knew it wasn't going to leave her for some time. However, moments later she was already up on her feet, searching for Nick. One of the EMTs practically had to wrestle her into a seat to examine her, despite her arguing that she was fine. She finally gave in and let him do his job and clean her up, but during the time, her attention was focused on a young, pretty pregnant blonde woman in the crowd of bystanders. She was looking around frantically and looked terrified. When the EMT dismissed her after bandaging her up, Cassandra went over to the woman. "Can I help you?" There was just something about her that spoke volumes.

The woman whimpered. "My husband. I don't understand. I looked for him. Checked his cell phone. He's in there somewhere. Is he okay?"

Cassandra frowned. "I can find out for you. What's your name?"

"Claire. Claire Richmond."

Cassandra froze.

"What's your name… full name?"

"William "Bill" Richmond."

She looked down after the conversation with Bill came back to her. "He was telling the truth." She murmured.

"What?" Claire asked.

"Uh… nothing. Just wait here, okay? I'll see."

Claire nodded.

Cassandra walked off, and timing couldn't have been better, because she met Jim, who was dragging Bill behind him about halfway through her trek back to her people. "Bill!" she hurried over to him.

Bill went wide-eyed. "Miss. Sidle! You're okay!"

Jim paused. "Wait, this is Bill?"

Cassandra nodded.

"I've been trying to tell you that!" Bill insisted.

Jim cleared his throat. "Then I'm sorry. It's just my job. I can't believe the words of suspects much."

Bill nodded after a moment. "I understand."

"Good." Jim nodded before walking away.

Cassandra looked at Bill. "I guess I really do owe you thanks."

Bill shook his head. "Don't thank me. I should've helped you earlier than I did."

"But you still helped me anyway." Cassandra insisted.

Bill blushed. "How're your friends? I take you met up with them."

Cassandra frowned. The image of Nick was back and as intense as before. "One of them got shot… I don't think he's gonna make it."

Bill opened his mouth. He looked genuinely upset. "I'm so sorry."

"You didn't pull the trigger." She replied, then forced a smile. "Hey, I have something for you."

"Huh?" Bill asked.

She took his hand and led him towards the crowd, but the second the man got a glimpse of blonde hair, he had already took off running to see his wife. She smiled when he hugged her. She turned back, hearing gravel crunch behind her. It was Jake approaching her.

He sighed, stopping beside her. "…Hey."

"Hey."

He looked down. "They're uh… taking Nick to the hospital. Warrick's already in the ambulance, but he and I asked the driver to wait a minute for you to go with them. They're waiting for you now."

She smiled at him and a new set of tears formed. She hooked her arms under his, and he pulled her fully against him before kissing her cheek. "Take care of yourself. Don't worry too much." He instructed.

She nodded. "You too. Don't do anything stupid. You may be down a wife, but you still have a bunch of friends and family who love you and will be lost without you."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, sis." He assured her before squeezing her once more. "Go on. I'll catch up later."

It was her turn to give him a kiss on the cheek before she murmured her thanks and headed for the ambulance that Warrick was sitting in.

Jake watched her go. "… Hang in there, Nick. Hang in there for her. You're the best damned thing that's ever happened to her. Don't screw that up and leave her." He mumbled before heading towards Jim.