Aloha.

Numero Uno – Sorry for the long wait. I have no spare time, and I've been under a lot of stress and pressure and crazy times. Not to mention the dreaded writers block.

Numero Dos – the song used in this chapter is Alone by Bullet For My Valentine.

Numero Tres – reviews keep writers block at bay

Numero Cuatro – At some point in this chapter I skip ahead a little. Sorry.

PLEASE REEEVVVVIIIIIEEEEWWWW!

Chapter Forty Five # Alone #

"So did you do it?"

"Greg-" Tali protested, leaning over him to grab a pencil, remembering the night before.

"You know what I mean, right? Did you do 'it'?"

"Not talking about this with you." Tali shook her head, stubbornly starting to pencil in the image of a face on the blank paper.

"Maybe you don't know what 'it' is." Greg waggled his eyebrows, before bobbing up and down on the spot. "Ah, come on, Tali! Pleeeeaaaseeee?"

"When was the last time you did 'it' with Morgan, huh?"

Greg's cheeks went pink and he froze. "We um...well... We're freshman!"

"Greg, I'm only like, six months older than you!" Tali replied, a small smile on her face.

Greg sighed, and the aroma of Tali's mother's cooking wafted into his nose. He paused, listening to their parents talking before finally asking quietly. "Did you?"

"No." Tali said finally, with a small smile. "We didn't."

They stopped running at the, kissing once more.

Their kisses grew faster and faster, and more and more passionate, until Tali's hands slipped towards Nick's belt and his started to unbutton her dress.

"Stop, Nick, stop!" Tali gasped, giggling.

Reluctantly, Nick pulled his lips away from her skin. "What's wrong?"

"I don't...I don't want to do this. Not now..." She whispered.

Nick's heart fell. "Why not?"

"We don't have protection, for one. Secondly..." She felt like her heart was going to stop. "Nick, I don't wanna have a one night stand with you. I want…."

Nick stopped entirely and she dropped her head to the floor. "I'm sorry, I-"

"Tali. Do you wanna go out with me?"

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"I don't wanna ruin-"

"Please say yes." Nick whispered into her hair.

"Really?" Tali murmured, before smiling. "Yes. Yes!"

They both laughed in relief and started kissing again.

"We'll take it slow." Nick assured her, before grinning. "We sound like forty year olds."

"So are you two officially going out?" Greg edged, grinning at the nostalgic look on Tali's face.

"Yes. We are going out." Tali admitted, and Greg tilted his head back.

"Finally!"

Tali shoved Greg's arm with a little smile. "Stop."

"Okay." Greg relented with a large grin. "I'll stop."

"Thanks." Tali smiled in relief.

"If you pay me twenty five dollars."

Tali glared at him. "Do not make me call Ziva."

"I'm joking!" Greg said hastily. "Duh!"

"Sure you are, Greg."

"Tali, Greg, dinner's ready!" Tali's mom called up the stairs.

"Let's go." Tali declared, leading Greg downstairs.

He glanced at the astoundingly accurate picture of himself laughing cheekily that Tali had created from a few pencil strokes and grinned.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

Life passed for them in a blissful whirl of chaos free months. Tali and Nick's relationship grew, as did Tony and Sara's and Warrick and Catherine's. There was a small hiccup when Anya and Ryan broke up, but it was an easy break-up so the awkwardness didn't last long. With the exception of exam stress, their lives were good.

July arrived with a gorgeous summer Friday, and Morgan had received permission to use the two family cabins for a long weekend to celebrate the Fourth of July.

"So, are you certain that you don't want one of us to come down with you?" Ecklie asked Morgan.

"No," Morgan insisted. "We'll be fine. MJ, Ethan, Tony and Ziva are all eighteen. They're our responsible people. We've used the cabins before, like five times. And we're all gonna be fine."

"Maybe a parent should go along." Ecklie protested, a little weakly.

"Dad!"

"No alcohol. No drugs, no sex." He instructed.

"Of course not." Morgan rolled her eyes again. "Now everyone else said bye to their parents at home. So bye, Dad."

She hugged her father quickly and eventually he left the school parking lot. Mere moments afterwards, Greg came out of the school building, a large suitcase dragging behind him. He spun Morgan around in the air and kissed her.

She blinked, shocked. "Wow…"

"I love you." He beamed.

"Me or holidays?" she asked, amused.

Greg looked shocked. "You."

"I love you." Morgan grinned.

"Oh please, save the mushy stuff until you have a room." Ryan's playfully sarcastic tone marked his and Archie's arrival.

Shortly afterwards, Nick arrived with Tali, followed almost instantly by MJ, Catherine, Ziva, and Ethan.

"Who are we waiting for?" Ziva asked, glancing around the group.

"Uh, Warrick, Sara, I think that's it." Nick nodded.

"So, Ziva is going to drive Tony, Ethan, MJ, Catherine, Warrick and Sara in her seven seater, and I'm drivin' Archie, Ryan, Greg, Morgan and Tali in our seven seater. And we're taking the most of the luggage." Nick announced.

"I'm not sure I feel safe with your driving." Warrick grinned, drawing everyone's attention to his arrival.

"Hey, I've been driving almost all year, as long as you jackasses keep yourselves in gear we'll be fine." Nick teased back.

"Remember the gears can get jammed, Nicky." MJ warned as they started to get into the car.

"Copy that." Nick grinned. "Let's go!"

CSIVCSIVCSIV

"We're all going on a, jolly holiday!" Archie, Ryan, Greg, Morgan and Tali sang.

"Guys, I'm trying to drive!" Nick complained through a grin.

"Sorry Nicky." Tali smiled at him from the passenger seat, and he grinned back.

"I'll tell you one thing, driving a seven seater sure is a hell of a lot harder than drivin' a normal car, you bear that in mind, kids, when you start drivin'."

"Will do, Nick-er-oo." Greg crooned from the back, before frowning. "You have driven this thing before, right?"

"Sure, Greggo. Only about fifty times. My dad thinks that it's best if you learn in more than one type of car." Nick reassured them.

"Are we there yet?" Greg asked grumpily.

"Greg, we've only been driving half an hour." Ryan protested.

"Well how long is the drive?" Greg asked.

Morgan piped up. "About an hour and ten minutes."

"Urgh!" Greg threw his head back against the seat. "I'm bored."

"I would hate to be your mom." Nick remarked.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

"Hey, go careful on the bumps, Zee, I'm pregnant here!" Catherine protested, hugging her 31 week distended stomach.

"Sorry." The Israeli winced, slowing down a little.

"Thanks." Catherine smiled.

"Are you gonna be okay for this drive?" Sara asked, a little concerned.

"I spoke to my doctor, like the amazing, responsible girl I am, and she said it'll be fine as long as I use the bathroom when I need to and don't do anything extraneous."

Warrick glanced over in concern. "You look like you're about to…"

There was a slightly awkward pause.

"Pop?" Catherine asked with a mischievous grin.

"Yeah." Warrick returned.

"Well, thirty one weeks…my little baby is due to be born in less than two months." Catherine smiled.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

They arrived at the pair of log cabins nestled in a fairly quiet area of lake mead at around half past five.

The seniors – Ethan, MJ, Tony and Ziva took the smaller cabin, whilst everyone else stayed in the larger.

"Nice cabin." Greg commented. "So our 'adult supervision' is staying next door."

"Pretty much." Morgan nodded, pulling open the fridge and stacking the food they'd bought with them into it, pausing to take a large bite of chocolate as she did.

"Can we go swimming?" Greg asked. "Pretty please?"

"Tomorrow. Tonight we're having a pizza themed cook off." Sara insisted.

Ryan, Archie and Greg all whooped excitedly.

"Pizza themed cook off? Should I be worried?" Catherine raised an eyebrow.

"Nope." Warrick shook his head. "As long as you can cook, you got nothing to be afraid of."

"Yay…" Catherine muttered sarcastically.

"Rules!" Morgan declared. "All parts of pizza must be homemade. Teams of two. No sabotage. Go!"

Suddenly everyone was off the sofas and out of the chairs as they dashed to collect teams and ingredients.

"Cath?" Warrick offered, his hands full of flour and butter.

Ryan and Archie instantly lunched for the tomatoes, while Greg and Morgan headed for the…well, no one could tell what they were heading for. Catherine and Warrick and Sara and Tali teamed together, leaving Nick to fend for himself.

After they all scrambled for a place in the oven, Sara leaned back against the counter, her hands millimetres away from an almost empty bag of flour.

"Our pizza is definitely the best." Greg bragged. "I mean, vegetarian?"

"You wanna go there?" Sara raised an eyebrow.

"I went there." Greg waggled his own eyebrows.

Sara grabbed the flour bag and flung it in Greg's face, laughing at the shocked expression on it. "Oh yeah, Greg. I went there."

"Food fight!" Ryan yelled happily, squeezing tomato sauce out of the tube and into Tali's face. She gasped, reaching for the nearest item and emptying a tin of untouched sardines onto Ryan's head.

"Oh my god, that's disgusting!" Ryan moaned, flinging a fish in Tali's face.

She quickly dodged and it flew into Morgan's laughing mouth. She froze, before spitting out the little fish.

"Ewwww! Ryan Wolfe, you are dead, Wolfe, you're dead!" she squealed, lunging at Ryan with a half full bottle of orange juice.

Seconds later, Warrick was carefully guiding Catherine away from a fully-fledged food fight which only stopped twenty minutes later when the oven dinged to signal the ready pizza.

Everyone stopped to grab their pizzas, which all tasted great.

"Oh god. Look at the mess." Nick groaned.

"Let's clean up." Warrick sighed.

"Nah, you and Catherine didn't fight. You two should go have first showers." Greg offered, before going a little red. "In…separate…showers."

"Thanks Greg." Catherine smiled a little fondly. "I get what you mean."

They both headed for the door as the others started grabbing mops and cloths.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

"Yeehaw!" Tali whooped, swinging out over the crystal blue water on an old rope swing, holding Nick's cowboy hat onto her head.

"Hey!" Nick laughed, watching his bikini clad girlfriend fly through the golden Saturday evening sun into the water with his hat on.

"Hey what?" Tali teased as she bobbed up above the water.

Nick ran out along their homemade diving board and bombed into the water, splashing Tali as much as possible.

"Hey!" She protested herself as Nick took the hat from her head and started to place it on his own, before stopping.

His feet barely touched the ground, so he knew that hers didn't. He put the hat gently on her head and gently pulled her towards him, kissing her gently. She wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him again.

"I love you."

"I love you t-"

An ear-splitting scream came from the house and they both turned.

"What the hell…" Nick frowned as a fiery light flashed in the cabin a hundred yards away.

Fire.

The cabin their friends were in.

"Oh my god!" Tali cried as Mary-Jane, Ethan and Ziva ran from the smaller cabin towards the larger, now burning one, and peered in the window.

Nick's eyes widened as black arms dragged his siblings and their friend into the house.

He didn't even think. He dove down into the water, dragging both himself and Tali through the lake towards the shore, before scrambling out and tearing into the trees. He moved so fast that Tali's body attached to his barely seemed to make a difference.

He ducked behind the trees, carefully lowering Tali down to the floor.

"Nick, what's going on?" she whispered.

"I have no idea." Nick whispered back.

"Is your phone…?"

"In the cabin. Yours?"

Tali bit her lip. "Over there, on that rock."

There was a loud bang and another scream. A pained scream.

"Ziva…" Tali whispered. "Nicky, that was Ziva, I know it was her, that was her voice, Nicky!"

Nick wrapped his arm around Tali, and then there was another scream.

"Oh my god, Catherine!" Nick moaned softly. "It sounds like she's going into labour!"

"How'd you know what that sounds like?" Tali couldn't help but ask.

"I was there when Livy went into labour with Melissa and when Joanne gave birth to Casey." Nick replied.

"Nick, there's still nine weeks before she's supposed to give birth, the baby could die, she could die!"

More screaming entered their ears.

"I'm gonna get the phone." Nick whispered. "Stay here."

"No, Nick!" Tali whimpered. "Don't, you could get caught!"

"Someone has to call for help." Nick insisted.

"I'm smaller, there's less chance of-"

"Stay here." Nick insisted.

He kissed her on the forehead and snuck around the edge of the bush, creeping towards the pointed out rock less than two meters from the house.

Tali watched in frozen fear her mind running wild with terrifying images.

Nick falling, bullet holes in his head.

The house exploding, everyone inside.

A man, coming up behind her.

She shook her head and watched Nick slip into the water to swim back to the bushes.

Suddenly the bush behind her exploded and a pair of cold, strong arms wrapped around under her arms, hoisting her right into the air. She started to scream, but a hand clamped over her mouth.

"Where is Nicholas?" a rough voice hissed in her ear. "Point."

Tali shook her head violently, pulling her mouth away from his hand just as Nick's head broke the surface for air.

"Nick, run!" she screamed, thrusting her elbow back into the man's chest.

He grunted and his grip loosened enough for her to wriggle away as Nick staggered out of the water.

"Run, Nick, run!" Tali repeated, on the verge of tears.

He scrambled away but froze at Tali's strangled cry.

"Nicholas James Stokes. If you don't stop right where you are, I will crush her neck."

Nick turned, staring at the man's large muscular arm wrapped around Tali's neck. Tali shook her head as much as she could but Nick had no choice but to stop. He inconspicuously dialled three numbers and dropped the phone to the floor.

"Kick the phone away." The man ordered and Nick obeyed, raising his hands into the air.

The man dragged a gun from his back pocket and jammed it at Tali's head.

"Walk into the cabin. Now."

Nick nodded slowly, walking back towards the house. Tali was pushed along behind him, shuddering in the breeze.

As they were pushed past a large black SUV, the man shoved Tali into the burning house and slammed the door shut.

"Wha-" Nick cried, before a sickly sweet cloth clamped over his mouth and he passed out.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

"Oh my god!" Catherine whimpered as MJ pushed her hair out of her face.

"The van drove away!" Archie coughed. "Nick inside."

"Argh!" Warrick yelled, finally kicking down the backdoor.

"Everybody out, now!" Ethan ordered, coughing on the smoke growing in the room.

"Hello?" A voice choked as someone started banging on the living room door.

"Tali!" Ziva cried, limping over to the door, ignoring the stabbing pain in her leg from the gunshot.

"Wait!" Greg cried. "If you pull it open quickly, we'll all die, the fire will react with the-"

Ziva interrupted with a fiery anger. "If I don't then-"

"Just open it slowly!" Greg replied just as angrily.

She did so, and Tali slipped into the room, coughing as she did.

"Took Nick!" she gasped.

"Out, everyone!" Ethan repeated, pushing Ryan out of the door. "Warrick, get her out of here, now."

Warrick nodded, scooping Catherine clean off of the floor. She moaned, clutching her stomach, but Warrick headed out of the door anyway, closely followed by everyone else.

"I'll call 911." Tony declared, pulling his hidden cell out from his pants pocket.

"Oh, Jesus, Nicky!" MJ stared at the empty space where the SUV used to be.

"Whadda we do?" Sara vocalised their panic.

"What happened?" Tali asked, her eyes brimming with tears.

"All along he wanted Nick." Ethan sounded beyond tired.

"Why?" Tali's voice cracked.

"We don't know." MJ insisted, tears tracing down her cheeks. "Oh my god!"

"Argh!" Catherine groaned again. "Oh my god, argh!"

"Relax, Cath, relax, I got you." Warrick soothed her.

"Get her inside the other cabin." Ethan suggested.

"My dad's gonna kill me." Morgan mumbled.

Greg hugged her tightly.

"What do we do?"

"Guys, there's music playing in here…" Warrick announced, confused. "An' writing on the walls."

They all filed in. Scrawled on the wall were four words.

For you, Judge Stokes

"Uh oh." Greg swallowed, recognising the lyrics.

"I hope you're unhappy and hurting inside
I want you to choke when you swallow your pride
Lay in your coffin and sleep with your sins
Give me the nails and I'll hammer them in

Right now

This time you won't be heard
You are gonna burn
It's funny how the table, how the table turns

You fake (fake!) your damn nation
You pray (pray) for salvation
'cause your heart is made of stone
You can die and rot alone."

"That doesn't sound very good." Ryan noted.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

Catherine clenched her teeth, biting down on another scream.

She was in the hospital, in pre-term labour, terrified for her friend.

No one had heard a thing from Nick.

That wasn't her only trouble.

"Scuse me." She grabbed a nurse's hand. "Is my baby gonna die?"

The nurse forced a smile. "We're doing everything we can. Just you relax now, stressing isn't going to get you anywhere."

As she walked away, Catherine heard the nurse calling for the doctor.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

Nick opened his eyes. He was so uncomfortable, it was so dark…

He sat up and smashed his head on something glass.

"Ow…"

He stretched his hands and his arms out, before realising that he was in some sort of box, barely three feet across, the top of it only inches above his head.

"Hello?" he called, his voice shaking.

He started feeling around in the box, and came across a, a glow stick, an old tape recorder and to his surprise, what felt like a gun. He snapped the glow stick and pressed play, hoping that he could keep his head cool.

"Hi Nicky James Stokes. You wondering why you're here? Because you're father ignored the evidence. Because that's what asshole judges do. So, breathe quick, breathe slow. Put your gun in your mouth and pull the trigger. Any way you want, you're gonna die here. Okay?"

Nick's breathing and his heart beat increased to the rate of a hummingbirds heartbeat.

"Hello? Hello?"

Nick finally started to scream. "HELP ME!"

R…..E….V….I….E….W

I literally have no time.

Reviews help writers block.

Was it worth the wait? Any theories? Like my grave danger twist, or was it too cheesey? Tell me, please! :)