My Way is Clear

by Simply Ginger

Nick meets a paramedic after getting injured at a crime scene. In an AU, this is their story. This is not a slash and all the characters from CSI show up eventually.

28. If You Only Knew

Chapter 28 – If You Only Knew

A/N: Over a hundred reviews later. Wow. Just wow. Thanks to everyone who took the time to review.

To everyone who has favorited this story or added it to their alerts: Thank you so much. Lots of love and stuff. Now how bout some reviews from some of you? (Smile)

This is gonna be a long chapter. Be warned.

Three weeks later. It's now mid November and is almost Thanksgiving

"Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose. You can plant any one of those. Keep planting to find out which one grows. It's a secret no one knows. It's a secret no one knows, no one knows. Mmm bop..."

Reaching into the darkness for my ringing phone, I managed to knock a bottle of Anna's lotion off the night stand. It bounced to the floor and hit Cassie who jumped up, causing Draco to jump up and start barking. Danilla arched her back and looked at me before hissing and running off. "Now I know why you hate me." Anna's ring tone was still going off with the backlight from the display providing just enough light to watch the show in the bedroom. I shushed the dogs and after finally finding the phone, I shut my eyes to shield them from the light of the phone's display, "Anna?"

"Hey CSI Man. You're close. It's her work husband."

"Bryan. Why are you using Anna's phone?"

"I'll explain in a minute. Did I wake you up?"

I pulled the phone away from my ear and checked the time, "Sorta. What's up? Where's Anna?"

"I'm not sure anything is. I just thought I'd let you know what happened earlier with Aggie."

"What?" I threw the covers off of me and stretched, "Is something wrong with Anna? You're on her phone."

"Well..."

My heart sank in my chest, "Bryan. What? How bad is she hurt? What hospital is she at?"

"Oh, no. Aggie is fine in that aspect. She's not hurt as in injured and at the hospital or dead or anything. I, well, I may be over reacting here but our engine company had a fire run over at your old apartment complex a little bit ago."

"Damn." I didn't even bother to take a shower. I was getting dressed for work now, "Where's Anna? How is she? What happened? Sit on her. Stuff her in a locker after you sedate her if you have to. Just don't let her leave."

"CSI Man, she's here with Bandit and me watching the Sharks game on TV and doesn't know I'm calling you. I got her phone out of her room while she was busy. I'm outside and away from everyone. Long story short, we had a fire run and went in, put the kitchen fire out and we left. I pulled Aggie aside after we got back and she swore she was fine but I just thought you should know. I've asked her several times since then if she was okay and she kept telling me she was and told me the last time I asked her that if I asked her again she'd smack me." Bryan stopped when he sighed, "I know you can't go through what happened before again and neither can I. Can you stop and check on her before work? I can B52 her if need be."

"You can put her on a war plane?"

Bryan laughed, "A B52 is a shot of Haldol and Ativan. It'll knock her out or I can Propofol her if need be. It's another sedative."

"Only if she leaves." I pulled my shirt over my head and pulled the closet door open to grab my boots, "I'm on my way now." I snapped the phone shut and tossed it on the bed before heading to the bathroom to shave and brush my teeth.

After breaking the speed limit from Summerlin to Vegas, I pulled in front of the fire department to see Anna before my shift started. One of the firemen was outside checking one of the trucks and told me she was inside and was in the shower after having gotten back from yet another fire run. He opened the door for me and went back to his inspection.

When I got to the hall off to the side of the common area, I saw Anna in the kitchen with a towel wrapped around her head as she and Bryan were talking to someone I didn't recognize. Two other firemen were at a table and were in the middle of a chess match. I didn't want to confront Anna about what Bryan had told me until I got her alone. "Something other than Doom?" My eyes were diverted to a man coming out of the closet in the hallway. He walked by us and went to the refrigerator and got a drink before he headed back inside the closet. "Um…"

Anna glanced over her shoulder where I was looking, "That's Lance. We keep him in a closet."

"You keep your co-workers in a closet and you're playing chess?" I watched as one of the firemen made a move and hit the timer on the side of the table, "Did I miss something?"

"We gave up on the Sharks game. They suck right now." Anna smiled, "You're early."

Bryan didn't give me a chance to answer, "What CSI Man? You think this is strange?"

I shook my head, "I just want to make sure this isn't some manic stage before y'all shave your heads and start shooting at planes."

Anna laughed as she pulled the clear plastic clip that she had on the sleeve of her work shirt off and started to twist her damp hair back behind her head, "Lance was probably on a phone call. That closet is pretty roomy actually." She put the clip in place, successfully keeping her hair out of her face, "We were watching the Sharks game but they're losing so we got bored and turned it off. Our Xbox is broken and we are resorting back to the olden days of entertaining ourselves without it. One of the guys on the next shift is bringing his up here for us to use until we can convince the city to buy us a new one." She left everyone where they were and took me into the common area, "You're here early." Anna checked her watch, "You've got a few hours before shift. What's wrong?"

I took Anna's hand and led her outside into the front yard of the station. There was a plastic porch swing on the east end of the building, centered in a flower garden. "How are you?"

"Um…" Anna sat down on the swing and turned to face me after I sat down next to her, "I'm fine, Nick. How are you?"

"Bryan told me." I pulled Anna into a hug, "I'm so sorry, honey. I am so, so sorry."

"About our Xbox being broken?"

"No."

"About the Sharks losing? Nicky, it's not even mid season. They'll turn it around."

"No, no…" I let Anna go and caught her eyes, "The apartment fire earlier. Bryan called and told me."

I could tell by the look she was giving me that she was clearly confused, "Um, okay. CSI gonna investigate because a woman put a sack full of groceries down on a stove that was on and it caught her apartment on fire? Why did he call you? That's the captain's job. God save us all if Bryan gets promoted to captain."

"No. Work with me here, hon." I shook my head and hugged Anna again, "Because of where it was. Bryan called me to let me know what was going on. He said it was at my old complex and he was worried about you."

"Nicky, I'm…"

I cut her off, "I know you probably had bad memories about what was going on and I'm just so sorry. So very sorry, but I'm here now and I wanted to make sure you were okay. I can't handle losing you again. Just give me the bottom line. Give me the truth, straight up, no chasers. How are you? Do we need to go somewhere together for a few days or something?"

"Can I speak now?" After I said yes, Anna folded her arms across her chest as she leaned against the chain holding the swing to the frame, "I'm fine and I'm not leaving except in about twelve hours when my shift is done. Then I'm going home, to our home, where I will wait on you."

"So you're…"

Anna sighed, "Fine. I didn't even realize where we were until we pulled into the complex. I didn't hear the address when we got the call. Our driver got the address. Bryan, Lance and I were too busy getting our gear on at the station as we were leaving. I had a moment in the back of the engine when I passed our old building, but my training kicked in and I did my job and we left. I didn't stand in the middle of the parking lot, drooling like a blithering idiot or anything." She leaned over and kissed me, "I am fine. I promise you, I'm just fine. Bryan should have never called you. He got you all worked up over nothing."

"I'm glad he did. Were you planning on telling me about the fire?"

"Yeah. I was when I saw you." Anna planted her foot under the swing and started to rock back and forth on her end of the swing. Seeing that as my cue, I moved towards the middle of the swing so Anna could lean against me. She did and I started to rock us both in the swing as she continued, "Nicky, I'm not that person I was. I was a scared, insane wreck. I'm not that person anymore. If I had to go another hundred years without having to step foot on that property, that'd be fine with me but we got a call and I had to go. It's in my area. If you're worried about me leaving again, I'm not going anywhere. I told you when you came to see me at my sister's that I was sorry for what I had done to you and I'd never leave you. I told you I'd marry you and I meant that. Bryan should have never called to warn you about what happened. He thought I was downplaying what was going on in my head with the call and where it was and there wasn't anything going on then and there's nothing going on now."

"Anna, I'm just worried about you. I haven't had a call back to that building since all of that happened and I'm not sure I could handle going. I'd hand the assignment off to someone else. I'm just not sure I could face going back to that complex, knowing what happened to you and how you almost died on me there."

She turned around and kissed me again, letting her fingertips trace down from where she had them on my neck, across my cheek and down to my lips, "I'm fine. I promise you. I'm totally fine. It wasn't easy for me to go back, but I had to. Once I got inside and was doing my job, I forgot about what happened. I was so focused on what was going on, that it wasn't until I got outside and started to help roll the hoses that I saw your building a second time. I felt something twinge and shook it off. We got back to the station and I took a shower and then you stopped by. Did you reserve the chapel time?"

"Way to deflect but yes, I did. We are all set for May 10th at three in the afternoon. My parents and sisters will be here. My brother is requesting the time off today but he won't know until next week if he got it or not but told me it shouldn't be a problem." I moved my foot and started to swing again, "What about your family?"

Anna shrugged her shoulders "I don't know. I told them. I called my parents. They were curt and to the point, offering little in the way of congratulations or support. My sister didn't answer the phone. I left her a message asking her to call me and she hasn't yet. I know my parents told her so I guess that's her answer on coming." After looking up at the night sky for a moment, Anna continued, "I asked my dad to give me away. You want to know what he said?"

I took one of Anna's hands in mine, knowing that what she was about to tell me was far from good news, "What?"

"He said 'I'll have to see if I can get the time off.' His youngest daughter is getting married and his reply was that? He must really hate me. I've known the only reason I was in my sister's wedding was because she was my sister, but really?"

Kissing the back of Anna's neck, I didn't quite know how to respond, "Well, you have my brother and Bryan, right? I'm sure someone would oblige you and didn't Bryan's dad volunteer?"

Even though we were still outside, Anna kept her head down, trying to hide the fact she was crying at work, "Yeah and I am closer to Bryan's dad than my own dad but still. Nicky, he's my father and he basically told me no."

It broke my heart to see Anna's own family hurt her like this. My family was hurt by my decision to move to Vegas but they accepted it. Anna had been gone from Arkansas a while but her parents and sister still held a grudge. I learned that the hard way when I went to pick her up, "Hon, if I have to, I'll get the undersheriff to walk you down the aisle or have an Elvis lookalike do it. You can do that pelvis walk Elvis did down the aisle or what about one of our horses? I can see you riding down the aisle."

Anna started laughing as she turned around, "And that is why I love you. You're always the positive one. You're the definition of the best thing to ever happen to me. You're the reason I get through life when it's a total mess. As much as you deny it, you're the quiet hero. You're good at stepping in at the right time, lending your efforts, never asking for a reward in return."

"Thank you and I love you, too." I kissed Anna as I got ready to change the subject, "I figured you'd ask me about the wedding chapel by now."

"I was getting there, but can we go back in? I'm about to freeze and it's about to storm."

"Storm?" I looked up at the sky but it was too dark to see anything.

"Yeah, it's a weather phenomenon that happens. You know? The skies gray and rain falls." Almost as if it was on cue, a clap of thunder rumbled in the distance, "Oh, and that happens during a storm also and I swear I didn't plan that."

"I'd be worried if you did." I looked at Anna who was in her short sleeved dark navy blue LVFD shirt with her black BDU pants, "And your coat is where?" I stood up and held my hands out to her. She took them and pulled herself up. "Did you forget it gets chilly this time of year here?"

"Coat is at home. I didn't grab it but I will next shift. I'll be back on the ambulance and not wearing my turnouts when we get a call which kinda makes a coat about as useful as a screen door on a submarine." Anna took my hand and lead me back inside through the same door we just exited out through, "I think the initiation is about to begin."

"The what?"

Anna smiled, "You'll see."

When we got inside, everyone was in the kitchen. Bryan was standing off to one side with another fireman I didn't recognize, "But you said I could lead." The new fireman was pleading with Bryan about something. "You told me it was my turn."

Bryan started laughing, "I know I said you could lead, but I didn't say I'd follow."

I cleared my throat, "Do I even want to know?"

"CSI Man, welcome back. I was just about to come get you. You're just in time to see this new probie undergo his mandatory fire department initiation ritual. You can be our impartial arbitrator witness."

I looked over at Anna, "For what?"

"Nick Stokes, this is Steven Boucher. Steve, this is my fiancée, Nick Stokes." I held out my hand and shook Steve's as Anna took her spot next to me. "Steve is our fresh meat."

"Excuse me?

"He's our probationary fireman. He has to complete his initiation before he can get his first paycheck." Bryan smiled, "And don't think we don't have it in with HR."

I was watching both Bryan and Anna, trying to figure out what they were talking about, "And that is?"

Bryan held up a bottle of hot sauce before tossing it to Steve, "Bottom's up, Probie."

Steve looked at Bryan, trying to decide if he was serious or not. "Drink that?"

After reaching in the cabinet behind where Anna and I were standing, Bryan unscrewed the top on a bottle of hot sauce and prepared to take a drink. "Bottom's up, Probie."

I watched Anna shake her head as Bryan downed the whole bottle of hot sauce. He slammed the empty bottle down on the counter and let out a gasp. "Whew. I still got it." He shook his head and wiped his mouth. "Your turn, Probie. Do it."

"Any advice I should know before doing this?"

"Yeah." Bryan picked the bottle up and handed it to him, "Having a good sense of humor and a poor sense of smell is always good in this job. Now drink."

Steve looked at the bottle again as he took it from Bryan, "Cheers." In one movement, he broke the seal off the bottle and took one drink before he started coughing. "Damn." As I watched him try to gag it down, I realized that Bryan never took off a safety seal on his bottle but Steve did. "How did you do that?"

"Like this." Anna reached in the cupboard behind us and got out another bottle of hot sauce when Steve stopped drinking. "Oh, come on. It's not that hard. Watch and learn, grasshopper." Like Bryan's bottle, Anna's bottle didn't have a safety seal on it either. She unscrewed the cap and finished her bottle in about the same time Bryan did it. "Nothing to it, Probie. Bottom's up or you'll never hear the end of it."

Anna, Bryan and I watched as Steve managed to choke down half the bottle. After cursing a few times, the rest of the fire department was standing behind Anna and me, egging the new guy on. "Done!" He proudly slammed the glass bottle down on the counter. "Jesus, next time I'll do the underwear thing." He shoved his chair back and got a bottle of water out of the fridge. I laughed to myself as he downed the water before he took off to the bathroom with the other four department members laughing the whole way as they followed him out.

"Ah, I love probie hazings." Bryan laughed and left Anna and me in the kitchen.

"Lot better than what y'all did to me. He got off easy considering what I had to do for a month." Anna smacked him in the back of the shoulder as he walked by. "As the station's master of the bull poo, either you're going soft in your old age or you're losing your creativity." Bryan didn't say anything as he left the kitchen to go check on the new guy, "Not what I expected him to make Steve do. He'll get his station nickname now and that's what any new hire wants."

"I want to know what they did to you for your hazing. Aside from which, isn't hazing illegal?"

"It's not really hazing. He'd still be a member of the department whether he drank that stuff or not. Aside from which, you've told me the stories of frat hazings you went through for college. What was the story about the trout and the Corn Flakes stuck to your head?"

"I can't believe you remember that." I had told Anna the story about having to walk around with a fish in the pocket of my shorts for a week as part of frat hazings and waking up after a party on the front lawn of the house we lived in with a box of Corn Flakes stuck to my head. "Touché. Point taken. I'll shut up now."

"Figures." Anna started to smile as she remembered, "As for what they did to me, I started a month or so before Christmas. Every shift, I had to dress up as a Christmas character. One shift I was Rudolph, complete with felt antlers and plastic red nose. The next I was an elf then I was a Christmas tree with working lights and for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I was Mrs. Claus and Bryan was Santa." Anna laughed again, "I got some strange looks pulling up to a scene dressed in a blinking Christmas tree costume while wearing pointy shoes but everyone else had on their LVFD uniforms."

"I would have paid to see that." Anna had explained one mystery, but not the mystery of the hot sauce and I had to know. I knew she was a strong woman, but I had never seen anyone do that before. "Okay. I know you're talented, but how? I can't take more than a shake or two of that before I'm like that cartoon character with the smoke coming out of my ears."

"You tell anyone this and I'll make it look like an accident." I watched as Anna pulled another bottle of hot sauce out of the cabinet. "You happen to notice that the bottle we gave Steve was new? He took the seal off while Bryan and I didn't?"

"Yeah I caught that part."

Anna handed me a bottle out of the cabinet behind her after I stood up and followed her to where she was standing, "Drink."

"Hell no." I started to hand the bottle back to her.

"Nicky, just trust me. One drink."

Going against what my head was saying, I obliged. I shut my eyes and took a quick drink and it didn't register on me what it was at first. "I don't get it."

"Station secret." Anna took the bottle from me and took a long drink before handing it back to me. "The bottles Bryan and I drank were these. We switched the hot sauce for tomato juice. Looks the same. Same color and consistency without all the side effects like the burning mouth or the bubonic ass plague later on. The bottle Steve drank was real hot sauce. Normally, the probie would back down and wouldn't do it and we'd tell them, but with Steve, he wasn't backing down which made it even better. His brother is a medic over across town at station 22. He's got the family name on the line if he didn't finish this task."

"I'll have to keep that one in mind for someone at the lab. "I pulled my arm up to check the time, "I gotta go but before I do, you promise me you're okay?"

"Nicky, I'm fine. I promise you. I'm just fine."

"Call me if something happens and you need to talk or anything. Promise me you will." Anna said she would as I leaned in to kiss her, "I love you." I leaned down to kiss her again as she followed me outside, "I'll call you later if I get a chance but if anything happens with you and you need to talk, call me or if I don't answer, call dispatch and have them get a message to me. I mean it."

"Nick, I'm fine." Anna returned the kiss, "You know where I'll be until tomorrow morning and then guess what."

I shoved the door to the station open and Anna followed me out, keeping the door propped open with her boot, "I give up. What?"

"For a CSI you sure aren't very quizzical. Cathy has been dying to take me to this bridal shop just off the strip. She's convinced she saw the perfect wedding dress for me there and has been begging me to try it on since we got back from Texas. I figured I'd finally oblige her."

Smiling as I watched Anna's expression, I pulled her into a hug, "I'll want to see it."

"You will. On May 10th as I'm being escorted down the aisle by Bryan's dad or Bryan or whoever I pick."

"Spoil sport."

Anna pulled away from the hug, "It's bad juju for you to see my dress before the big date, so don't even. You'll see it soon enough."

I told Anna I'd talk to her later and left her where she was and headed to the lab to start my shift. Parking my truck, I grabbed my phone and keys and went inside. I hadn't been inside a minute before Hodges stopped me needing something. I left him and hurriedly started to walk towards the conference room, "Nick?"

"Yeah, Mandy?" I hadn't even gotten to the conference room to start my shift yet and people were already stopping me. Hodges stopped me in the hall on my way in and told me to stop by later and now Mandy was stopping me.

She handed me a report, "I dusted that business card you gave me that Catherine found at Melissa Steel's house inside her car. I did get a print off of it, but not in the system. I went on and put it in AFIS just in case. Could you give this to her? I know you're about to head into briefing or whatever it is you call it and I'm swamped from swing."

"Yeah. I'll let her know." I left her and continued towards the conference room and hoped I wouldn't get stopped again or I'd be late.

Greg and I got assigned to a robbery case at a gas station. We were there a couple hours and had gathered all the evidence we could find and headed back to the lab to start processing. It was a slow night apparently as Catherine and Warrick were in one of the labs finishing up on their case. I had just sat down in one of the labs, waiting on Mandy to get back to me with fingerprint results when Grissom came in, but didn't bother to sit down. He stood at the door as he held it open with his left hand, "Alright, just got a call from Ecklie. He's pulling everyone off what we're doing now and going to the scene of that MVA on the highway about an hour ago that swing is working. Crash is out east of Summerlin in Greensfield. Vegas PD and FD have been called in for mutual aid. Bus crash versus dump truck versus small passenger car. Multiple fire departments are on the scene and they've requested all the help they can get. Last victim count was fifty plus. Everyone here needs to help when they can, where they can but don't get in the way of life saving. All of you, let's go."

About an hour after Grissom's announcement, Greg, Catherine and I were pulling up to the scene. To save time, the three of us rode together. Grissom, Sara and Warrick pulled in behind us. It was almost an hour's drive from the lab to the small town we were in, but with us breaking the speed limit nearly the whole ride there, we managed to make it to the small town of Greensfield in about half an hour.

"Damn. No wonder they needed the help." Greensfield had their own paid fire departments and police department, but they were not equipped to handle a catastrophe of this magnitude. As I looked around the scene, I got my first look at the crash. The guard railing was gone on the left side of the road. Skid marks were all over the highway and debris from the cars started where the crime scene tape was strung. As the three of us were walking to the scene, I counted four ambulances and six fire trucks from the Las Vegas Fire Department as well as ten ambulances from three other departments, including two from Greensfield FD, two makeshift heliports marked off by road flares for the Angel Rescue choppers to land and over a dozen fire trucks from four cities that were nearby.

"What happened?"

I turned to watch as Greg was wide-eyed and looking around, trying to make sense of the situation. "This is catastrophic." He continued to slowly turn as he took everything in. "It's just...damn."

"This is your first time on the highway?" Greg hadn't been a CSI for long, but I knew that this was probably one of the worst wrecks we had all seen. "You gonna be able to handle this?"

"Yeah I can handle this and no, it's not really my first time out this way. I've been out here before, but this is…" He couldn't finish his statement.

Warrick picked up his field kit and started to walk under the crime scene tape, "Get used to it. Kids come out here, then drive 7000 miles an hour, trying to beat curfew to get back home. They don't care who gets in their way as long as they get home before mommy and daddy get mad."

"You're here." I turned my head behind us where the voice was coming from. A man in fire department turns outs was coming up behind Grissom. "Gil, thank you for doing this. Tell Ecklie I said thanks." He turned his attention away long enough to yell at us to make a path as two of the medics that were on the scene ran by us and to the areas marked off by flares. They hastily loaded an injured victim into the waiting helicopter before running back into the scene. The fireman apparently forgot we were here until he watched as the medics ran by again. "Short story, bus crash was caused by a speeding Nissan Maxima. The driver of the Maxima was a DOA as was his passenger. From what we heard from some of the witnesses, the Maxima was trying to pass on a double yellow and didn't see an oncoming dump truck. The Maxima cut over in front of the bus, cutting off the driver and sending the bus into the back of the Maxima, spinning the car around and into the dump truck's lane as well as several other cars in the vicinity of the highway. This is one huge mess. The bus driver was one of the DOAs. The fog we had earlier didn't help. We had a massive pileup behind that with over ten cars. Another four DOAs in that. We've got help from several departments, plus ours, and not to mention all three Angel Rescue choppers are here plus we got two more on their way from Northern Clark County Air Rescue. I'm the battalion chief on scene. Just help out in any way you can. Don't get in the medics' way and just do what you can."

I watched as the battalion chief took off running in the opposite direction from where we came from, leaving us standing at the edge of the chaos. "Well, let's do what we can." Grissom took a deep breath and lifted up the yellow tape barricade that was crudely stretched a cross the highway between two patrol cars. Grissom and Sara took off towards the northern most area of the crash. Catherine left heading east of where we were. Warrick was already under the tape and held it up for Greg and me as we started walking straight ahead.

As we passed towards the center of the scene, I could see the tarps laid out for the makeshift triage areas. I had to turn my head to keep from looking at the probably two dozen bodies that were on the black tarp. The coroner's office was going to be swamped from this scene alone.

"Help me. Please." I looked in front of me to see a woman in a ripped blue dress running straight towards me. "My son. I can't find him. Please. Help me."

I froze momentarily as I looked at the tag on the lady's neck. She had already been triaged and was tagged yellow, which was one level below critical. The crudely written note on her tag was head trauma from the bus crash and underneath that in smaller letters was '1 dxsn.' I grimaced at knowing that meant the son she was looking for didn't survive the crash. "Ma'am, you need to stay back on that tarp. The ambulances are coming to get you as soon as they can." I looked up in time to see Anna and a medic I didn't know running by me. Anna had what appeared to be a young child in her arms and the medic she was running with had another child. I stopped and watched as she ran underneath the yellow tape and handed the kid off to one of the helicopter pilots before stopping to direct someone back over to the tarps. "Anna?"

Anna stopped in her tracks and turned around, "God, Nick. I didn't even know you were here. What have you been assigned to? We're j…" She stopped mid sentence when another paramedic from Greensfield FD ran by her. "Rabbit! I said he gets to go next…" She trailed off as she ran by Warrick, Greg and me and yanked another child out of his arms. She ran back by me once again to get another child she was working on as she handed off that child to the medic in the helicopter before coming back to me again. "Talk about trial by fire. What have the two of you been assigned to do?"

"Nothing. We just got here. Where do you need us?"

Anna didn't say anything and instead, took off running again after someone started yelling for a medic. I didn't know what else to do so Greg, Warrick and I followed her until she got to the overturned bus. "Damn it." I saw Anna reach down for something in the kit next to her feet. It wasn't until she stood up that I saw her tossing a black triage tag on top of an older man's chest while two cops nearby watched. "Take him to the black tarp. Damn it." Anna turned around and started to walk off. "He's the ninth one so far I think." She shook her head and kneeled down to start working on another victim from the bus crash.

Anna got him worked up and had torn a red triage tag off and had put it around his neck. "You two, help. I can't get him to the tarp on my own."

Warrick and Greg helped move to the man to the red triage tarp. Anna went back to work on another victim after they got him laid out on the tarp. He was barely conscious and was in a tremendous amount of pain. Anna had tied a tourniquet around the man's upper thigh to slow the blood flow to an open fracture of his lower leg.

"What's your name?" Anna ripped off a piece of surgical tape and stuck an IV in the man's arm, "I have to start an IV. You've got a compound fracture of your leg and the EMT said you have spinal trauma."

"Scott. Scott Steel." He tried to get up to see what Anna was doing but the EMT next to me slipped a c-collar around his neck before he could. "I'm so cold. What's going on?"

"It's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better." Anna handed me a bag, "Hold it up." I took the bag from her and as soon as I took it from her, I felt the cold liquid from the bag. I didn't know a lot about Anna's job but this IV solution was colder than it should have been. She turned her attention back to the man in front of her, "This is cold, I know but like I said, it's gonna get worse before it gets better."

Still struggling against the restraints, Scott was still trying to look to see what Anna was doing, "What do you mean?"

"I am literally putting ice water in your veins. Tell me if you start getting sleepy."

"What? Why?" I could see from my vantage point that Scott's face had changed from concern to sheer terror, "What is it?"

Anna was busy tying off something but looked up, "That would be bad. That means your heart is stopping."

"What..."

"Listen, I have to slow your breathing and heart rate down to keep you alive." Anna tied the straps on the backboard as two flight medics, one of whom I recognized as Hank, came over. "The icy saline solution will do just that. I'm putting you into hypothermia right now to help. Do you want to be able to walk again?"

The man nodded, "I play hockey."

"Then you'll thank me later on. These two flight medics are taking you straight to the hospital."

Anna told Hank and his partner what she had done. "IV started of cold saline..."

"Anna!"

"What?" She turned around to see who was interrupting her.

Greg, Warrick and an EMT ran up behind us. The EMT's shirt was covered in blood, "Anna, got a kid. Something wrong with his neck. Mom said there's blood everywhere."

"Damn." She ripped a piece of tape off the roll hanging from her stethoscope and stuck it on the sleeve of her shirt as Hank turned to leave with his partner and the injured man. I handed the bag of fluids to Hank and watched as they ran towards the chopper. After the EMT yelled again, Anna jumped up and grabbed her kit and started walking backwards to where the kid was as she shouted for one of the other EMTs or medics to help her. "I need a warm body. I'm gonna need some help over here!"

"Nick, go. Help Anna." Warrick bent down next to where another medic was as I got up and started to run after Anna. "Greg and I got this."

By the time I got to her, Anna was already kneeling down next to the passenger seat of a mangled Ford Taurus. There was a crack in the windshield and the mother was frantically trying to get Anna's attention as she started to assess the situation. "Please help him. Lady, help him! You've got to help him."

"That's why I'm here, ma'am." I stood watch behind Anna as she put on a fresh pair of gloves. "What happened?" She threw me a fresh pair out of her kit as she reached in for some antiseptic and some clean gauze. "Nick, put those on." I caught them as she turned her attention back to the kid. "Hey kiddo. Can you talk?" The kid started to shake his head. "Alright. That's okay. Listen, we're gonna take care of you. I promise." Anna reached for her scissors as she started to rip the boy's shirt with one hand. When the rip got to the collar, she used the scissors to finish the cut. "Neck wound. Looks like debris from the crash hit. Nick, shine your flashlight over here." I pulled it out of my pocket and aimed it at the kid's body. "Some blood, looks like a deep cut but nothing in it. His pupils reactive." She threw something down on top of her kit and got some more gauze out. "Mom, we're gonna have to move him and get him flat on the ground. I'm gonna stay right here until we can get somewhere better." She stood up and looked at me, "Go find a medic. I don't care who it is." She turned me around to face away from the car. "Go find someone and tell them I got a severe neck injury with a possible compromised airway and this kid has got five minutes tops before he JFOs. Now go!" She shoved me towards the ambulances parked behind the crash scene. I left Anna as she was telling the mother to help her wrap some gauze around the kid's neck in an attempt to get the bleeding stopped.

I found a flight medic who was helping victims on the green triage tarp and told him what Anna told me. When he heard what I had to say, he dropped what he was holding and took off in a sprint towards where Anna was. She looked up in time to see him coming. "Shrapnel from the explosion. Airway's compromised."

"Intubation may be necessary." He moved the gauze up to see the kid's injury. "He's our next. Let's get him on a backboard, peds c-collar and get ready for transport."

Anna and the other medic pulled the kid out of the car. As soon as they got him on the ground, his eyes rolled back in his head and he started to shake. The mother started shrieking. I stepped in front of her and let Anna and the other medic do their job. After intubating the kid and giving him something to stop the seizures, the medic stood up with Anna and they started towards one of the rescue helicopters.

"I need a medic!"

"FML." The flight medic told Anna he got this and she looked up to see where the voice came from.

As she looked around, she spotted a uniform who was standing next to a man on the ground. Grabbing her field kit and throwing a bloody pair of gloves at a red biohazard bag as she ran, I followed her, unsure of what I needed to do to help. The officer was looking pale when we got to him and was thankful he didn't have to stare at the body any more, "Kid's been burned."

"Was he in the wreck? I don't see any accident related injuries." Anna dropped her kit to the ground and dug in for a fresh pair of gloves.

The officer shook his head. "Car dropped him off here. One of the other officers saw it. Body dump. Guess the driver figured he could sneak this guy in." I watched as Anna started working. The officer groaned and started to sweat, "I'm gonna be sick."

"Smile." Anna didn't even look up from her kit. "If you're gonna puke, smile."

The officer turned to face Anna but when he saw the burned body, he groaned again and turned around, "Excuse me?"

"Smiling suppresses the gag reflex which makes you keep from hurling and if you do need to hurl, go over there somewhere."

Anna got a fresh pair of gloves out of her kit and put them on as she kneeled down beside the kid. "I know you're in pain but I need to know how you got burned."

The kid shook his head and groaned. "I don't know."

"The fire. Tell me about the fire. How did it light? Was it fast? Slow? What'd it look like? Burn fast? Slow burn? Explosion? What?"

The kid shook his head, "I didn't see it."

I knew this kid was lying to Anna so I decided to try to threaten him. "Look. You see this vest I'm wearing?" The kid nodded. "I'm not a cop." I pointed to Anna, "She's not a cop. The only cop here isn't paying attention to you. He's too busy hurling his guts out all over the interstate. I don't give a damn what you were doing. I need to know what you were messing with so you don't kill us all. Now answer her question."

The kid shook his head again. "I didn't see a match. Bryce just threw it down in the water fountain and it..."

"Damn." Anna looked up.

"Water. We need water." It dawned on me what the kids were using at the same time Anna figured it out. "It's phosphorus, right?" Flashing back to a course on meth labs Warrick, Henry and I had taken, I remember the instructor going on about phosphorus being used in meth labs and how unstable it could be if someone had it on their body or clothes. "We have to neutralize it, right?"

"Yeah, we have to neutralize it or we're all dead." Anna started to look around and pointed at the officer with the weak stomach, "You! Can you get me water? Lots of water like a low pressure hose or something from the trucks." She stood up and pointed to me and another cop, "You two with me, now." As the officer left to go get the water, the other uniform and I followed her to the ambulance. "Hold these." She handed him a box of gauze while she pulled a couple bottles off a shelf. She handed me a third bottle and reached up to get the fourth and handed it to me and we ran back to the scene.

"Now what?" The other officer had come back with the hose. "Hose him off?"

"No, no. Don't hose him off just yet." Anna tore the tops off the bottles. "Okay. Nick, when I start pouring the bicarb, you pour also. Get it all over his body and clothes." She looked up at the officer, "Then you spray him gently. Kink the hose if you have to." I watched as Anna started pouring her two bottles over the kid as I followed her lead. "Start the water but gently." The officer let go of the hose to start the gentle spray of water. "Just like that." Anna looked up again, "Bryan! Where the hell did he go? Bryan, dammit!" He came running over after she called him a second time. "This kid's got to go now." The kid moaned in pain. "Listen Junior. I know you're hurting and I promise you that when we get this neutralized I'll give you a shot of morphine with a Versed chaser but if we don't do this, you'll blow us all up." The kid nodded and Anna turned her attention back to the officer holding the hose, "That's enough water." The weak stomached officer turned the hose off and threw it on the ground and doubled over when he started to gag. Anna looked up at him and told him to step back. "Dude, you're about to..." Anna didn't get a chance to finish before he threw up. "Puke."

Bryan looked over at the officer throwing up before turning his attention back to Anna and me. "Chemical burns from the wreck?"

"No. Officer said he was a body dump. Phosphorus. Nick and I did the bicarb thing to neutralize it. Second and third degree chemical burns."

"Kid, you got lucky. You've got a one way ride to Desert Palms. Let's go." Bryan helped Anna roll him on a backboard and as gently as they could, strapped him after he was wrapped in burn dressings. "You wanna say how this happened? Meth lab?"

The kid raised his hand and gave Bryan the finger, "Go to hell."

"Never smart off to someone who can choke off your air supply." With a little more force than necessary, Bryan tightened the last strap, "Got it?" The kid groaned in pain as Anna shoved the drugs into his IV line. "He's out. Let's go."

Anna and Bryan called into dispatch as they started towards their rig. Anna looked over her shoulder at me once more before she slammed the back of the ambulance after Bryan got in.

Warrick had left to go help one of the other paramedics, leaving Greg and me watching as Anna and Bryan left. "Nick, promise me one thing."

"What?"

Turning away from the ambulance as it left, Greg and I started back towards the remains of the bus, "Promise me that if I ever get that bad, pull the plug. Pull it with both hands."

Greg didn't give me a chance to answer as he went to go help Warrick with the bus as I started taking overall photos of the area. I helped as much as I could until things started to quiet down. One by one, the coroners from day and swing shift plus Doc Robbins took the victims that didn't make it back to the morgue. Grissom and Sara started in on the Maxima. Catherine took control of the dump truck, leaving Greg, Warrick and me to process the bus.

After staying on the scene for almost sixteen hours, Grissom excused all of us to go home and take a nap. By the time I got home, I was so tired I could barely make it up the driveway without running over one of our horses. Anna was already at home after being at the scene longer than I was. She didn't even wake up when I got into bed next to her.

We slept soundly until Grissom called to let me know that he was giving Warrick, Catherine and me the night off because of the wreck last night. Anna and I woke up and headed into Vegas to catch a show at one of the casinos and have dinner afterwards. She and I talked about some of the wedding details and on our way back home, she wanted to stop at Little Chapel of the Flowers to let Olivia know about our date and to pick out which chapel she wanted.

The next day, it was back to work. I came in to the lab and Sara was already at work. "Did I miss shift?"

Sara shook her head, "No, Ecklie needed help and of course, I volunteered. Greg and Warrick just left here minutes ago headed to the scene."

"And you are tearing up a couch, why?"

"We're trying to find bullets in this." Sara turned around, holding up sofa cushion batting. "This is nasty. Do you have any idea how many germs are in this? Dead skin cells. Bodily fluids. I'm going to need to bathe myself in alcohol wipes when I get out of here."

"Someone tried to murder a couch?" I watched as she pulled a utility knife out of the side pocket on her jumpsuit and tore into the fabric on the back of the couch. It was kind of ugly with the print pattern on the fabric being something I remembered seeing in my grandmother's house when I was younger.

"Well, it does fall into the ugly category and should be put it out of its misery, but not quite. Ecklie found this earlier at the 419 that he gave me. The person sitting on it was murdered. He didn't find the bullet in the floor or the walls, so while he's still at the scene with one of the swing shift guys, I'm in here checking this."

Sara went back to rooting in the foam of the cushion as I watched, "Good luck with that. You do know that Bobby Dawson has a metal detector, right?"

"He does, but it's not here. Swing used it on a call out and they haven't brought it back." Sara put the cushion down, "Believe me, if it was here, I wouldn't be rooting through foam and God only knows what else trying to find the bullet."

"Good luck with that. Oh, and Sara?" She turned around and looked at me, "That shade of lipstick looks good on Ecklie's butt." Sara flipped me the bird and went back to digging for the missing bullet in the mountain of foam and fabric in front of her. "Rock steady."

I left Sara where she was, up to her elbows in foam from the cushions as I went to go find Grissom.

Catherine and I caught another easy case. We were done relatively early and I was on my way home to see Anna. She was off work and was going to be off work for the next three days because of her schedule. When I got home, she was lying down on the couch with Danilla on top of her, purring loudly as she slept. "Hey Nicky."

As soon as Anna spoke, the cat woke up and hissed before she took off towards the back of the couch as Cassie and Draco came galloping in the room. We had wood floors in the house and Draco had learned to slow down as not to slide into the wall, but Cassie didn't learn that lesson just yet and when she tried to stop, she skidded into the bookcase next to the wall, sending Anna into a fit of laughs, "You would be laughing at my dog." I put my keys and phone on the shelf next to the picture of Anna and me that my mother took while we were in Texas. I had picked Anna up like a baby and was threatening to drop her in the hot tub on the deck at my parents' house when my mother came out, camera in hand. When she called to us to turn around, she snapped the shot and said she'd email it to us later on. True to her word, by the time we got back home, I had an email from my mother with the picture attached. Anna I knew had a copy printed up and put it in her locker at work as well as one copy for the shelf that was on the bookcase. "Miss me?"

Anna nodded her head and yawned, "Was beginning to wonder if I'd make it. It's hard work being off like I was today. Your day go okay? No major mishaps or anything like the other night?"

"Nope. Not a thing. Still slow. We finished up on the bus crash stuff and started in on a case Cath and I caught earlier. She told me to tell me she wants to know if you bought your dress yet."

Anna smiled, "As a matter of fact I did."

"Where is it? What's it look like?"

"It's white. That's all I'm saying. Other than that, I'm not telling you. It's not here and it's not at Bryan's." Anna reached over and kissed me, "I knew if I left it over there, Bryan would get you a picture of it somehow and I'd have to beat him. You'll see it soon enough. It's the dress Cathy took me to look at and I love it."

"I'm sure I will." I sat down on the edge of the couch after taking my boots off. "Our first Thanksgiving. Should we make plans or something?"

Anna thought a moment, "Spaghetti sounds good to me. If you want to make a big turkey, feel free too, but it's just us."

"Plus the dogs."

"Touché. Us plus the two dogs and Danilla. They'd have the entire turkey devoured in a few seconds. Remember the scene in A Christmas Story when the Bumpus hounds pay a visit and eat the turkey?"

"Point taken. I don't have to be at work until that night and you're off until the next day, so we should do something. Buffet?" Most of the casinos in town would be doing a turkey themed buffet for Thanksgiving. Warrick and I had eaten at the one at the Monaco a few times and it was decent. "Monaco has a pretty decent buffet. That work? You, me and some turkey?"

"Sounds good to me. You?"

"Well, I think it would be a hell of a lot better than the highlight of my day being spending it with a decomposing corpse when I have to go to work."

The look Anna threw me made me laugh, "Really? Spending Thanksgiving with me is more fun than a decomposing corpse. I'm glad I rate so highly."

AN: So what's the bus crash got to do with the story? Stay tuned…It'll all make sense soon.

Weather Channel has another 9 inches of snow predicted for tomorrow which means I'll be home from work which means...More Nick and Anna. What I wouldn't give to be snowbound with George Eads...Yum. Me and him all alone and...Oh, never mind. [Smile]

Any reviews are always welcome even it is just a 'I like it, please update soon' which is better than nothing.