Chapter 2

Nick was mumbling under his breath as he entered the locker room. "Dare I ask?" Sarah inquired as Nick walked past her still grumbling.

"I wouldn't it I was you." Nick snapped at her. Sighing Nick sat next to Sarah on the bench. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired is all; I had a little trouble sleeping." He laid a crooked grin on Sarah that made her smile in return.

"I feel your pain my friend. All these doubles and triples are really messing up my sleep cycle too." Sarah agreed.

"If only." Nick half whispered as he left the locker room. On his way to the break room to get his assignment Nick kept his head down so as to not be noticed. He almost made it too.

"Nick, got a minute?" D. B. inquired as he nodded for Nick to come into his office. Nick reluctantly followed. "Take a load off." D. B. waved at the chairs in front of his desk. "You know I'm not one to pry, but you look like you've got something heavy weighing on you. Is there anything I can help with?"

Nick cautiously took the offered seat as D. B. spoke. D. B. was nothing like Grissom in that he did notice when something was off with one of the team. Nick was still trying to get used to that out of his supervisor. It did make it more difficult to give his pat answer, but he could try.

"I'm fine." Nick simply stated. This earned him an inquisitive eyebrow from D. B. That action he didn't miss getting from Grissom, and liked even less from D. B. only because he always felt obliged to elaborate. Nick left out a deep sigh. "Remember that friend that I introduced around the other night?" D. B. nodded. "Well, we had some bad blood that broke our friendship up back in college, that's why I hadn't had any contact with him in years." Nick was hoping that this would be a good enough explanation. He was mistaken.

"How bad was the blood?" D. B. questioned.

Nick stared at his hands, playing with his ring contemplating how much of their history he should tall. "It was really bad, like attempted murder bad." Nick figured that if their reunion really was a sham on Brady's part, someone should know the entire story.

"Wow that is some serious bad blood." D. B. simply stated true to form. "So, do you believe that he's gotten over it?"

"That's just it, I don't know. He seems genuine, but He was really pissed at the time. Not that I blame him, it's just he was mad at the wrong person. It was Emily or whatever she calls herself now that he should have been angry with, not me!" Nick didn't realize he was beginning to raise his voice. "She screwed with both of our heads and it's me that he tries to kill over it!" Nick jumped out of his chair so suddenly it almost fell over and begins pacing back and forth. "Brady and I were almost like brothers until she came into the picture. She screwed with his head so bad that he tried to choke the life out of me! Hell I'm still angry about it, why wouldn't he be, huh?" Nick didn't really expect an answer; he was more talking to himself by this time than to D. B.

"Well Nick, maybe he got some counseling, or maybe this is a farce. You won't know until you talk to him about it. Hey, listen, we're pretty light on cases for a change. Why don't you call this Brady guy and take him up on the offer to buy you dinner, go have a big stake or something. If we need the help I can always call you. Talk to him though; find out for your own piece of mind what he really wants." D. B. gave Nick a sly grin.

"You know what? I think I will, I can make it an early night after that and maybe get some real sleep tonight. Thanks Russell." With that Nick headed back to the locker room before heading out.

"Hello Brady? This is Nick. That offer still stand? Yeah. Good. How about you meet me at the Palermo in half an hour? Oh yeah? Steak sounds great. No, can't say that I do. Ok, text the address to me and I'll meet you there. See you then." Nick was feeling better about rekindling his friendship with Brady. Maybe Russell had been right, maybe Brady had gotten counseling or anger management or something.

Nick pulled over when he got the test from Brady so he could put the address into his GPS then he was off to meet Brady and try a restaurant he'd never heard of that was having an all you can eat stake night. "It must be one of Vegas' very well kept secrets." Nick thought to himself. But Brady always did have a knack for finding secret deals back in college. Brady knew all the bars that gave you free whiskey shots for A's, bowling alleys that had free bowling at three in the morning and just about anything else that they could think of. So an all you can eat stake place was to be expected from Brady.

Half an hour later Nick was second guessing himself as he found himself on a desolate road with no street lights and no sign of any business. "In five hundred feet you will reach your destination, your destination is on the left." His GPS announced. "Ok, so my destination is a shack in the middle of nowhere?" Nick asked no one. Nick pulled over as his GPS instructed and looked at the text that Brady had sent him to make sure he put it in right. While he was comparing the addresses he didn't see the dark figure exit the shed and span the distance to Nick's truck in just a few long strides. The sudden light from the dome light blinded Nick for a brief second, just long enough for the dark figure to yank Nick from the driver's seat and slam him against the back door of the Jeep, smashing the window on the third try.

Nick woke up with a throbbing headache in a pitch black room that smelled like a few dozen rodents had lived and died there. Nick tried to sit up, but much to his regret, he found himself unable to move. He tugged gently at the restraints that held his wrists and ankles at first. Then he had a flash of the box and panicked for a few minutes, thrashing about to no avail other than tearing up the skin on his wrists from the bindings. Nick stopped struggling when he heard something shuffling in the corner of the room. Hoping it wasn't one of the rodents he smelled Nick called out to the unknown observer. "Hello, who's there?" Nick demanded.

"Feel like you've been kept in the dark Nick?" Brady hissed. "It doesn't feel too good now does it?"