A/N-I want to thank Rainack, CrystallineSolid, burrollie, 101spacemonkey, , and all the other faithful, wonderful reviewers so far. I really do appreciate your feedback. I'm glad you all have been enjoying this rather tough story to read. Now we get to see how this affects our guys.
Nick sat with Greg in silence until he heard the sirens. "That's Brass. I'll get the door." He got up and went to the door. He saw that Greg had reset the alarm. He turned it off and opened the door. He saw Jim Brass getting out of his mustang, followed by Officer Mitchell and Akers in a squad car. A Tahoe pulled up behind them. Brass waited for Catherine to come out of the Tahoe before going up to the door to meet Nick.
"Nick, what happened here?" Brass asked as he entered their house and saw Greg sitting on the sofa. Greg was sitting cross-legged since it was hurting his ribs to sit the way he had been sitting. He was still rocking a little bit and sat staring at nothing in particular.
Brass saw the bruises on both of their faces and the towel wrapped around Nick's arm, with blood seeping through. Catherine stood behind him and could see the weariness in Nick's eyes.
"Jasper jumped me when I came home tonight after I went out for a bit. He tied me up and waited for Greg to come home so he could take him back, he said. He had a gun. Greg came home and found me in the bedroom tied up. Jasper shot me in the arm to get Greg to cooperate and go with him. Greg tried attacking him and Jasper struck him with the gun and knocked him down. He started kicking him. He left him alone briefly and Greg took a chance and got up and struggled with him to get the gun. Greg managed to trip him up and Jasper fell to his back. Greg got the gun from him. Jasper tried to come after him again and he shot and killed him. That's the short of it. Everything took place in my bedroom." He pointed in the direction and Brass went down the hall with Officer Mitchell.
Catherine walked up to Nick and saw his arm. "Paramedics are on their way." She looked over his shoulder at Greg. "How's he holding up?" she asked Nick.
He shook his head. "He's in shock, I think. He really hasn't said anything much since he shot him. Jasper put him through some stuff before he struggled for the gun and shot him." He looked at Catherine. "I'm scared for him. I'm scared what this will do to him."
She placed her hand on his. "He has you, Nick. He'll get through this if you are here for him."
"I'm not sure I'm enough anymore. Not after today," Nick said to her as he looked at Greg, recalling the humiliation that showed in his eyes when Jasper forced him into the blow job.
Brass called out from the room and asked him to come in. Nick asked Catherine to watch over Greg while he stepped out of the room.
He walked to where Brass was. "Say you said Greg shot him…looks like numerous times," he asked suspiciously.
"Jim, the man torments him for months and even today," Nick paused remembering the events that had occurred. "Even today he did it to him and me. He would've killed me had Greg not shot him. Yes, he lost control when he shot him but damn it I would have done the same thing."
Jim nodded in understanding. He looked down at the floor and saw the vomit. "And that?" he asked, pointing to it.
"Greg, after he shot him," Nick told him with a heavy heart.
Brass bent down and saw the duffle bag that Jasper had brought in. He saw duct tape, rope and sex toys in it. He frowned, only assuming what Jasper's plan had been. "Okay. I think Catherine is sending in Ray to help with the scene," Brass said.
"Nick, come quick!" They heard Catherine yell.
Nick ran out and saw Greg struggling to breathe. He was having a full blown panic attack and with his bruised ribs it seemed to make it worse. Nick ran over to him. He could see Greg gasping for breath but not able to seemingly get any.
Greg felt like he was suffocating and could not breathe. His heart was beating rapidly and was feeling light headed. He felt his hands being held and heard Nick frantically telling him to slow down his breathing but he couldn't, after everything that had just happened.
Nick had never seen him as bad as it was this time. He was actually starting to turn blue. "Don't do this to me now, Greg. Damn it breathe!"
Just then the paramedics arrived. They saw the man having trouble breathing and asked Nick to step aside. They took an oxygen mask and tried placing it over his face but Greg batted it away. He didn't want anyone touching him.
"He doesn't like to be touched," Nick told them. "I'm usually the only one who can calm him down."
They let him try to put the oxygen mask on him to help his breathing. "Greg, you need to breathe. Let me put this oxygen mask on you and try to slow your breathing. I know it hurts but your only making it worse." He slowly put the mask over his face and saw that he was trying to calm himself down.
After a few minutes he removed the mask from his face. He was still shaking and sweating but he had managed to calm his breathing. "How do you feel, sir?" A paramedic asked him.
Greg just looked at him and then to Nick. "He's bleeding," he finally said.
The paramedic looked and had not even realized Nick's arm was injured. He started attending to his arm. Nick let them tend to his arm while he watched over Greg. Greg had his arms wrapped around himself again and was staring down at the ground.
"I think you should at least go to the hospital to be checked out. You can't stay here anyway. I'll arrange for someplace for you to stay once you get checked out of the hospital," Catherine told them.
"Yeah I know we can't come back here today." He looked at Greg who had lowered his head into his hands. "I think he should be checked out too. He took some kicks to the ribcage." Greg glanced up at him, seemingly lost.
"Okay go with the paramedics, we'll take care of things here. I will stop by the hospital on the way back," Catherine told him.
Nick took Greg's hand. "Come on, let's go and get checked out." Greg just let him lead him out with the paramedics.
Catherine walked into the bedroom with Brass. "I let Nick go to the hospital with Greg. We can question them there. Greg is in no shape to talk right now and Nick is too worried about him to leave his side." Catherine looked down at the body of Jasper Marks. The assistant corner David Phillips arrived on scene to look at the body.
"I see five GSWs to the chest," he told them. "Who shot him?" He asked, knowing it had to be Nick or Greg.
"Nick said Greg did after a struggle with the gun. Nick said he had been tied up at the time," Brass said. Catherine walked over to where she spotted the gun on the floor. She bent over and picked it up.
"Six cylinder, all rounds fired. The sixth one is the one that hit Nick, I assume," she said as she examined the gun and then bagged it.
Brass noticed a hole in the wall behind where the chair was sitting. "Looks like the bullet went into the wall over there. He only had a flesh wound."
Catherine shook her head in sadness. "Greg had to have freaked out seeing him again. Supposedly Jasper planned on taking him again and locking him up. I'm assuming he would have killed Nick."
"Yeah, there is his bag with the tools I guess Jasper planned to use once he had Greg," Brass said pointing to the duffle bag.
"Well at least the creep is dead and can't harm anyone anymore," David said.
"Tell that to Greg, he's still going to be haunted by him for months if not years," Catherine sighed.
At the hospital, Nick sat on the bed next to where Greg sat. A nurse was stitching up his gunshot wound while another nurse just came back with x-ray results from Greg's chest. She handed them off to the doctor on duty. "Well, it looks like you have a couple of cracked ribs and some bruised. You'll have to take it easy and I will prescribe some pain pills for you. I see you've had them before so you know how to treat them already." The doctor waited for Greg to nod that he understood. "Good, then you'll probably want to apply some ice to the bruise on your temple. Same goes for you, Mr. Stokes."
"So we don't have to spend overnight here?" Nick asked.
"No, I see no reason, but I do advise you both get some rest for the next couple of days. I gave a call to Dr. Warren to let her know you are here. I see she has been seeing both of you. Seeing the circumstances you came in on, I felt she needed to be contacted. She should be stepping in soon. For now I will let the nurses finish up here. Take care you two."
Nick looked at Greg, who still had not said much since the shooting. He did seem more coherent now though. He was glad Dr. Warren was going to stop by because he was at a loss of what to do. He still did not entirely believe all that happened himself.
The nurse finished up bandaging his arm and then left the two alone in the room for a while. Nick wanted to say something but he didn't know what to say. He was surprised when he heard Greg speak first.
"I'm not going to be in trouble, am I?" he asked quietly in a childlike voice. He looked exhausted.
"No, no, it was self- defense all the way. You're going to be fine." Nick told him. He didn't want him worrying about anything else. He'd been through enough.
"What about you? Will you be okay with me?" he asked timidly now.
"Why wouldn't I be? This changes nothing," Nick told him.
Tears started forming in Greg's eyes. "But…but you saw what I did…Oh god!" He quickly buried his head in his hands.
Nick's heart was being torn up. He got up and moved over to sit next to Greg on his hospital bed. He cautiously put his arm around his back. "You did what you had to, to save my life. I can't be mad at you or disgusted with you. I would have done the same thing had the situation been reversed. I would have done anything to not have you had to go through that. Do you know how it felt for me to be so helpless to help you when I promised you he would never hurt you again? It kills me inside."
"I told you he was not done with me. I knew he would come back, I just never thought he would bring you into it. I'm so sorry, Nick," he said as he raised his head to look at him. His eyes were red rimmed and puffy.
"All that matters now is he is gone for good. He can't hurt anyone ever again. Now we can honestly try to put this behind us," Nick told him. Greg nodded and started pulling away from him. Nick let him. He knew this would cause a setback but he also knew that now some of that fear would be going away that Greg held knowing Jasper was still out there. Did he dare tell him about the masked man?
Nick went back to his bed and sat down. He had to spare him additional pain and not tell him about the masked man now.
Catherine and Brass came in a few minutes later. "Hey guys, how are you doing?" Brass asked as they entered the room.
"We should be okay. They said we don't have to stay overnight so that is good," Nick said to them.
"How about you tell us exactly what happened?" Brass asked them. Nick looked at Greg a moment and could tell he was not ready to talk. So he started telling them everything that happened again but in more detail, but to spare Greg further humiliation, he left out Jasper forcing him to give him a blow job.
Catherine was looking at Greg who was looking at Nick with gratefulness. "Greg, Nick's told us his side of what happened, but we really need to hear your side too."
He lifted his eyes to Catherine. He sighed heavily knowing he had to talk eventually. Knowing Nick left out the worst part made it easier for him to try to tell them what happened. "I came home and nothing really seemed out of the norm except that maybe Nick was playing music in his bedroom, but then I needed to go into his room to talk. We still are trying to make plans for Christmas. Anyway I walked in and saw Nick tied up and Jasper standing by him with a gun pointed at him. He said he came back for me. I knew he would I just never thought he would threaten Nick." He looked nervously at Nick. Nick gave him a small smile to encourage him to go on.
He proceeded to tell them how he wanted him to take off all his clothes. "He wanted to humiliate me more, in front of Nick this time. When I didn't cooperate he shot Nick to know that he meant business. I took off my clothes and he had me…" He was about to mention give him a blow job but then he remembered Nick left that out. "He had me turn around so he could see all the marks and scars he left on me. He said I would be his forever this time. He would take me and no one would ever find me. I had to do something; I couldn't take being under his control again. I quickly turned around and punched him and tripped him up by surprise and he went down. I got on top of him and tried to get the gun away. I managed to get it from him. I got up and he told me I didn't have the guts to shoot him. Then he moved suddenly to grab me and I shot him."
"You shot him five times, Greg," Catherine said to him.
He looked nervously at Nick. Nick promised him he wouldn't be in any trouble. "I don't really remember shooting him so many times. I was kind of out of it at that point. I just know I couldn't be collared like an animal again and subjected to his abuse." He felt his heartbeat speed up and started shaking again as he thought about the possibility of being under his control again.
Nick noticed his breathing starting to become more rapid. "Hey, it's okay. Remember take slow breaths. You look like you might have another panic attack and with your ribs you want to take it easy." Greg met his eyes and nodded and he tried to concentrate on calming himself down.
"You know, that's enough. Your stories match and the guy was a scum bag creep who had it coming, just don't let anyone tell you I said that," Brass said to them. He didn't want to put them through any more trauma than they already suffered.
"Thanks Jim. We appreciate that," Nick said for them.
"No problem. You two just get some rest and try to move past this. I'm going back to the station now." Brass said goodbyes and left Catherine in the room with them.
"I'm so sorry you two had to go through that. If only we could have caught him before. Anyway, since you two obviously cannot go back to your place tonight, I used one of my connections and got you two a room at the Tangiers," she told them.
Nick smiled a little. "You didn't have to, Catherine but I guess your connections are useful at times."
She smiled back. "Anything for my two favorite CSI's. You take care of each other. The day shift can help us out for a while again; they owe us for the years we had to cover their asses, so take your time in coming back to work. There will be a cab waiting for you downstairs to take you to the hotel. I'll leave you two now. Oh and the room should be under your name, Nick. Enjoy!" She said and gave him a hug. She looked at Greg then who was still shaking some. She took his hands in hers and he looked up at her. "Things will get better now. You take care, okay?" He nodded. She smiled and left them.
Nick looked at him when she left. "We'll leave once Dr. Warren comes in to see us." He paused and looked through the door window. "Speaking of, it seems she is here."
The dark haired doctor came in. "I wish I was seeing you all in a better situation. I heard what happened. How are you two holding up?" She could see Greg was jittery and looked like he was in a bit of shock still. Nick seemed worn and worried for Greg.
"We've been better. But things can only look up now that the source of our problem is dead," Nick told her.
"Greg, how about you?" She asked him.
He looked at her. "I guess what he said," he said with a weary voice.
She reached in her pocket and pulled out a couple of pills. "Greg, I think you should take these. It is a sedative that will help you relax some. I heard about your bad panic attack and I can see you are still shaking. These won't knock you out but they will help calm you down for now. Then tomorrow make sure you take your other medication. If you do not think it is strong enough, I can prescribe something stronger."
He looked at the pills in her hand before he took them from her. She poured a glass of water for him from a pitcher that was sitting on a side table. "I think the Xanax is okay," he said to her after he took the pills. He wanted to stop shaking and freaking out. If pills helped him, he was willing to take them.
"That's good. I think you two just need to get some rest for now and if you need me, you can call me. I would like to see you two in the next couple of days to check up on how you are dealing. Right now everything is still so fresh. I'll give you some time to think." She looked at Nick. "You know how to reach me. Take care, both of you."
They both said thanks to her and watched her leave. Nick stood up and gazed at his shaken boyfriend. "Let's go to that hotel and try to get some rest. I know I just want to lie down for a while. Are you ready to go?"
"Yes," he answered softly and then got up and followed Nick out of the hospital.