A/N: Warrick's p.o.v. is a flashback, so it's italicized.

Chapter 6: A Death in the Family

(Mandy)

"Someone help!" she screamed, trying to open the locked door. "God, this can't be happening!"

She looked over to the security camera that was watching her.

"What do you want?!" she yelled, throwing her hands in the air. She ran a hand through her hair as she sat on the floor. She had no idea how long she had been in the room, but it couldn't have been that long. She had friends, family, people who would notice if she wasn't around.

She closed her eyes and attempted to calm down. When she reopened them, she almost started crying as she noticed she was still stuck in the tiny room. It was almost like a prison cell, except it was a hundred times creepier.

She couldn't help but start crying again, turning to the camera as if blaming it.

"I'm just a fingerprint analyst! I don't carry a gun, and I don't collect evidence at crime scenes! Whoever was put away, I just ran the prints!" she yelled, her sadness turning to anger.

The silence that followed her outburst seemed to mock her, which only made her more scared and confused. As she started to aimlessly walk the perimeter of the room, she flinched mid-step at a loud bang. The sound was unmistakable…a gun had been fired. What if someone had just killed someone else…or themself?

The door creaked open an inch, thankfully interrupting her increasingly worrisome thoughts. She slowly pushed the door open halfway and peeked out to the left and right before noticing a doll on the ground, propped against the wall like it was sitting. Everything about the doll was exceedingly creepy: the white skin, the red spirals on its cheeks, even the messy black hair. The creepiest aspect, however, were its eyes: completely black except for red, pinpoint irises.

Then there was the simple, yet disconcerting outfit: black tuxedo, white shirt, white gloves, red bow tie, red handkerchief tucked neatly into the breast pocket, and finally, the red shoes.

She decided to head down to her left, where she heard the shot come from. Bafflingly, there was no door, just a big, black '?' painted on the wall. She turned around and returned to the world's creepiest doll, quickly passing it as she continued to the right of 'her room'.

She froze once she heard voices, quickly looking for a place to hide. As she turned around, she heard someone call out her name. She turned around again, faced with a handful of her coworkers.

"Catherine? Oh my gosh, you're bleeding!" she announced, stating the obvious.

"I'll live. That is, if we ever get out of here." Catherine replied. Nick helped her along as Warrick approached.

"You okay, Mandy?" he asked.

"Physically, I'm peachy. Mentally, though, not so good." What are we doing here?" she asked.

"We think we were kidnapped by a Jigsaw Killer copycat." Nick replied.

"You guys are able to think? I can barely keep myself from curling up in a ball and crying for my mom." she paused as Nick words hit her. "You said Jigsaw? Does that mean…were you guys tortured?"

"Catherine had it the worst, but we're okay." Nick said, trying to smile reassuringly.

"Well what happen…never mind, I don't want to know." she said.

"No you don't. Listen, what's down there?" Warrick asked, pointing behind her.

"Nothing. Dead end." she said.

"Damn. This place is so annoying! It's like every other turn leads to nothing." Nick said, helping Catherine turn around.

As they continued back the way the group of three had come, Mandy remembered the gunshot. "Hey, did you guys hear a gunshot earlier?"

"Yeah." Warrick replied, a little too quickly.

"Well what happened?" she asked, noticing the three of them start to look like guilty perps.

(Warrick)

"Hold on, Nick, I'm going to get you out!" he yelled, swatting away some creepy crawlies on the glass coffin. His friend looked up at him, sheer terror in his eyes.

'This is too soon after he was buried alive…it's going to set him back in his recovery for sure.' he thought, kicking away a tarantula as he raised the rebar. "Look away!"

Nick did so, and he smashed the lid of the box. Being sure to act quickly, he undid the leather straps across his friend's knees, stomach, and shoulders.

"I don't think I can do this again." Nick said as tears streaked hi pale face.

"You can, Nick, you have to. Catherine needs our help. You hear me, man?" he asked, grabbing Nick's shoulders. "Catherine's hurt." he added as he looked into his best friend's eyes.

"She's here?" Nick asked, seeming to forget about the spiders and worms and other bugs covering the floor.

"Yes, and she needs our help. We're no good to her if we're in here. That means facing your fear." he said, wishing he wasn't being so blunt about this whole traumatizing experience. He didn't want to push his friend too hard.

"She…" Nick trailed off, looking like he was trying to sort something out in his head. "She needs us." he finished, looking a little more focused.

"Yes! Yeah, man!" he said, smiling. "Are you up for some bug squishing to get out of here?"

"I'm…yeah, let's go." Nick said, still extremely pale, but starting to look like himself again as the tears stopped. As he helped Nick stand up, he heard an almost pitiful moan from the Texan, which made his gut clench. He led Nick out of the room as fast as he could to make the bug exposure brief.

They hurried over to Catherine, who was barely clinging to consciousness by the time they reached her.

"Hey, Catherine, I'm back." Warrick said softly as he kneeled down b her. "Look who I found." he added once she looked at him.

She turned her head, giving a weak smile as a greeting. "How are you doing, Nicky? You don't look so good." she said.

"I'm okay. Better now, now that I know you're good." Nick said, giving a small, but genuine smile.

"Nick, stay with Catherine, I'm going to go check out the third room." he said, heading to the last ID. It belonged to Bobby Dawson, the ballistics expert. Still clutching the rebar, he opened the door and saw Bobby lying on a stainless steel table, with some kind of shackle-like restraints around his hands and feet.

"Help! Get me out of here! Please!" Bobby begged, looking from Warrick to the ceiling. He followed Bobby's gaze and saw four circular saws mounted to their own respective beams.

There was a tape player on Bobby's stomach and he played it.

"Welcome back, Warrick Brown. We know we told you that your sins would be forgiven if you escaped the room, and they were. Now it's time for a lesson, one you know all too well: you can't save everyone. These three rooms will prove that. Two of the three occupants will be rescued by your hand, so choose wisely. The third, however, will be killed, and there's nothing you can do to stop it, so choose wisely."

He already saved Catherine and Nick, which meant Bobby was already doomed; he was dead before Warrick even knew the game.

"Come on, get me out of here!" Bobby yelled, panicking. The saws revved to life and began their descent down. "Come on, man, please!" he yelled, eyes glued to the saws.

Warrick looked around the room and saw a padlocked shackle under the table. That was his clue.

"Where's the key?" he asked, continuing his search. The whine of the saws was relelntless, and starting to drive him crazy.

"Bobby, where's the damn key?!" he yelled, looking to see if it was glued to the underside of the table.

"Warrick!" Nick called. He got up and turned to see Nick and Catherine in the door way, the former of whom was pointing at one of the saws. Warrick looked up and saw the key tied to one of the beams. He climbed onto the table, being careful to avoid the saws, and removed the key from its string. After unlocking Bobby's right hand, a bright light started to blink above them and the saws started to move down faster.

"Hurry up!" Bobby pleaded, clawing at his other hand's shackle. Warrick unlocked that one and the saws moved down faster, the whining indicating they were spinning even faster. He slid down to the feet shackles and fumbled trying to unlock the first one, wasting precious seconds. He knew he was running out of time and once he freed Bobby's right foot, the saws plunged down with incredible speed, amputating Bobby's left foot from his leg. Blood spattered on Warrick's face, but he barely felt it as he stared in shock at what happened to Bobby's leg as the gun guy screamed in pain.

"No!" Warrick yelled, dropping the key as the saws stopped and retracted up to the ceiling. Bobby had passed out from shock, and was a hundred times paler than Nick. "Oh, god, I'm sorry." he whispered, staring at the severed leg. It was only halfway up the shin, and a considerable amount of blood was pouring from the stump.

"Warrick…" Catherine choked as he checked Bobby's vitals.

"He's in shock, but he's still alive." he said as Nick and Catherine came forward.

"If we don't get out-" Nick started.

"I know! But he'll be fine, he has to!" Warrick snapped as he started to haul Bobby up.

(Mandy)

"The shot I heard…that was a mercy kill." she said after the three of them explained the story about Bobby Dawson.

"We, uh…" Nick trailed off, clearing his throat.

"We were able to get as far as my first…test, but the blood loss was too much. There was a gun in the next hall, and I… I shot him." Warrick said, putting a hand over his eyes.