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.

38. Her Diamonds

Chapter 38 – Her Diamonds

It bothered me that what was almost an hour or so after Nick was kidnapped that his parents were on the show. Granted, in CSI land, we really don't know how much time elapsed from when Nick was kidnapped to when his parents arrived, but since this is my story, they'll arrive later on rather than right away.

I will try to stick as close as I can to the original storyline, but since Anna is a figment of my imagination, the story won't be just like it was in the episode. Also, some of the events are out of order. I know in the episode, it started with Nick singing, Nick abducted, jump cut to earlier in the day then the lab banter then back to Nick in a trunk. I'm going to go in order as if it was happening in real life and not on TV. Since Nick is underground for the better half of the episodes, POV will also change through the story. As always, POV character is bolded.

It's also implied that Ecklie never split the team up in my story. I never cared much for that storyline but Catherine is assistant supervisor and can boss people around when Grissom isn't available.

It is mid to late May and Anna is just shy of 29 weeks pregnant.

Nick

"Nicholas!"

Anna was in the kitchen holding up the cheese wrappers that I had left on the counter after I made a sandwich earlier. Since she used my full name, I knew that she was about to say something to me about why I didn't throw them away, "I wuff you."

She cracked a smile, "Too widdle, too wate." Anna held out her hand with the cheese wrapper, "This is how we throw cheese wrappers away in the Stokes household. First, we pick up the cheese wrapper off of the counter. Then, we walk to the garbage can and then," She stepped on the lever at the bottom of the can so the lid would pop up, "We deposit said wrapper in the can and that's it. I bet a monkey could do it, so why can't my husband?"

"Because I'm not a monkey?"

Anna groaned at my response, "Right. You're smarter than a monkey. I've got you trained to put the seat down so you don't have to pry my pregnant butt out of the bowl again but yet you can't make the two steps to the garbage can?"

I kissed her as I put my arms around her neck, "I'll do better. I promise." I felt something against my stomach, "And that was?"

"A hard kick." Anna had put her hands on the counter to steady herself as she leaned forward, "A really hard kick. Ouch." She grimaced as she rested her head on her arms on the counter, "Apparently, it's time for Leah's daily pull up routine followed by her Pilates. She's been really active the past couple days."

Anna had decided she liked the name Leah and had started calling the baby by that name not too long ago. We still didn't know the baby's gender, but she was convinced it was a girl. As long as I could still call it Thing, I didn't really care at this point, "That was a kick?" Even through Anna's shirt and the overalls she was wearing plus my shirt, I still felt it when I held her close to me, "Seriously?"

"Yeah. Guess Leah doesn't want you to go."

"Thing loves me?"

"Well, you are her father, Nicky. She probably recognizes your voice by now. Everything in that baby book I've got says that they can."

I thought it was best not to say anything so I just hid a smile, "I'm heading in to work. I'll call you later on and if I can, I'll sneak away for lunch." Anna reached up to hug me and laid her head on my chest, "But I can't promise anything. You're going to do what?"

"Save the planet? Perform brain surgery maybe? Scold my husband for not throwing cheese wrappers away again?" Anna shrugged her shoulders, "I'll be at home with the dogs and cat and will be watching a movie or Wii or something. May take a nap if Leah will cooperate." She put both of her hands on her middle, "But not looking like it. She's been active all night long. She sleeps when I'm awake and practices gymnastics in there when I'm trying to sleep. At this rate, I'll get sleep again when she's about thirty."

"I'll call you when I can. I love you." I put my hand on Anna's middle, "And I love you too Thing. Be nice to your mother and let her get some sleep. She gets cranky when you don't let her sleep." Anna playfully shoved me, "See what I mean." I gave Anna one more kiss and a hug before I left her at home and got ready to head into work.

When I got there, the lab hallways were empty and I went straight to the locker room to dump my stuff inside. Warrick was already in there and was already getting dressed, "Nick. How's Anna?"

"Fine." I opened my locker door and stuffed my bag inside and got my vest out, "She's doing well. Baby is doing fine but he won't flip over during an ultrasound to let us know what it is. Anna's convinced it's a girl but I think it's a boy and so does our doctor. Dr. Lindley caught a glimpse of something and told me when Anna was getting dressed that she thought she saw boy parts but couldn't be one hundred percent sure. My mother thinks it's a boy as well since she's only got one male grandchild. How'd the date go?"

Warrick had told me that he met a woman at Desert Palms not too long ago while he was there interviewing a suspect. He and the woman hit it off and had quite the time, "So I took my girl to that Ultimate Fight Championship on Saturday night."

I sat down on the bench in the locker room as I finished getting ready, "Oh, yeah, yeah, down over at the, uh, Spur?"

"Yeah, and almost ended up getting into a smack down of my own." He started to laugh, "Apparently when you're that rich, you don't even do your own ass kicking. You have a hired hand for ass kicking."

I laughed, "Remind me if I ever strike it rich to hire Chuck Norris as my own personal ass kicking bodyguard."

"Does it bother Anna that you carry a gun?"

"No. She's got her own concealed carry permit so it doesn't bother her. Why?"

"Tina." Warrick shut his locker and took the seat next to me on the bench as I continued to get ready, "You know, Tina doesn't like me carrying a gun. I play down the fact that I'm a cop when I'm with her anyway."

I started to put my vest on, "Tell her you're a copologist. That always makes Anna laugh."

"A copologist. I like it." He bent down to tie one of his shoes, "So, uh, we're standing out in front of the hotel, making out and this guy walks up to me, gets in my face and asks me how she is."

I watched as Warrick put the clip in his gun, checked the chamber and tucked it in his hip holster, "No way."

"Yeah. He was all over Tina."

"So? Throw him a smack down of his own?"

Warrick laughed, "I tell him to get lost and he says 'Make me.'"

I could only imagine what was coming next, "The things we do to protect a woman's honor."

"Yeah. So the guy took a step forward and out of nowhere his big, fat bodyguard looking like Wimpy from Popeye walks up and starts to close in on me."

"Where were the security guys at the hotel?"

"It was at the valet parking, which might as well be in Arizona seeing as how it's so far away from the lobby. This fat boy is looking like he's obviously carrying some sort of weapon and I'm standing there naked as a porn star with my girl since I took mine off to appease her."

"And did you tell them you're a copologist?"

"No, and I doubt they would have cared. One of the guys sounded Russian, like he
was wanna be Mafia. Fat boy was obviously his bodyguard." I had my head down as I snapped my vest and checked my gun as Warrick continued, "So, you know, I wasn't physically afraid of the guys, but something was kind of sinister about them. They were provoking me, but they weren't making a move. It was almost like they were waiting for me to make a move. Say if I smacked big-mouth, fat boy would've come over and stabbed me or something. Even fat boy was vibing me not to take the bait."

I checked my gun and shoved it into my holster, "And?"

"Well, valet finally brought Tina's car up." Warrick slammed his locker and sat down next to me, "So, I maneuver her around these guys and I put her in her car and I turn my back to them and let them talk this smack as I'm calming Tina down and tell her everything is fine. She drives off and I walk away towards my car. I called Tina later on and I tell her straight up that if she got any problem with me being a cop, she needs to get over it because now I'm packing no matter where we go. That was too close."

We left the locker room and headed upstairs to get our assignments. Catherine met us in the hallway, "Just who I was looking for. Grissom, Greg and Sara are already on call out and I'm on my way out as well. Grissom asked I give you two these." She held out two pieces of paper, "So, I've got an assault at Stripperama and a trash run at Flamingo and Koval. I'm too busy to play favorites, so duke it out."

"Duke it out?" I held up my fists like I was ready to hit Warrick, "Nah. I wouldn't want to take you." I felt around in my pocket until I found a quarter, "Flip for it?"

"Yeah, you better flip that coin."

Warrick shot me the bird as I flipped the coin in the air, "Call it in the air."

"Heads."

I caught it and we both looked at it. It came up heads, "You win."

"Have fun at the trash run. Make sure you shower before you head home. I'm sure Anna would love to get a good smell of you."

"You know, I'd do two out of three, but you got a gambling problem."

"Ass." He gave me the finger again, "Go. Dig in the trash. It's your lucky night."

"No, hey, you know what?" I held up the coin and tossed it at Warrick, "You keep this. It's bad luck."

He started to toss the coin back to me, "You sure you won't need it?"

"Nope. I'm not the one going to a strip club. Anna won't get mad at me if I go on a trash run outside." I started to walk off as Warrick shoved the coin down in his pockets, "Later, man."

"It was Christmas in Las Vegas when the locals take the town. Theresa hit a streak and laid her waitress apron down. She was playing penny poker over at the old Gold Spike. She's tired of Texas hold 'em, so she switched to let it ride."

Half an hour later, I was singing along to a song I hadn't heard on the radio in ages when I got to the crime scene. Officer Michaels was watching me drive up and when I got out, I caught the smell of decomp. Michaels obviously smelled it also and had to gag, "Nick."

I put my camera around my neck and got my field kit and started walking towards where he was, "Michaels. What's going on out here?" He was a little pale, "You know you could make some of the DBs in the morgue jealous."

"Been trying not to get sick. An anonymous 911 caller reported body parts in this area. I rolled and found this." He pointed his flashlight down at some intestines in a bloody puddle on the concrete in front of where we were standing, "I'm about to be sick."

"Hmm. Tasty. I prefer my chittlins stump whooped though." Michaels threw up as I put my kit down and snapped several photos from my vantage point. "I was only kidding." I got my gloves on while he was still throwing up beside his car before I went back to processing the scene. Trying to get an overall feel, I got a couple of evidence markers out of my kit as I stood up to continue my overall assessment.

"Have any idea how long it's going to take you to get this stuff out of here? I can't stand the smell."

I took another photo from a different angle but was still about fifteen feet away from the entrails, "Well, I can't move the, uh..." I couldn't think of a way to describe it, "The body? I think?" It technically wasn't a body, but even in the event we worked a scene with body parts, the coroner still had to clear the scene before we could move it. "I guess you could call it that. Until the coroner releases the scene, we can't do anything. It's a busy night and it's probably gonna take a while, man." I moved a foot or so away from my original position so I could take another photo. "I've got a call in though."

"Great." He looked like he was about to get sick again, "Hey, you mind if I step away for a second? I need to get some fresher air before I throw up again."

I had enough of Anna throwing up at home from morning sickness and Michaels revisiting what he had for lunch started to make me queasy. "Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, take your time." He quickly walked away, leaving me alone with the evidence.

The pavement was wet but I didn't notice any footprints in the mud surrounding the scene. As I started to take overall photos, I thought I heard something moving behind me, but when I turned around, the only person I saw was Officer Michaels, still doubled over behind his car, throwing up, "Wimp." I turned my attention back to the scene as I started to lay out scene markers. On the fifth one, I finally got to the entrails. When I moved in closer to photograph it, something didn't sit right with me. It was almost as if they were posed.

I took more evidence markers out of my kit and started looking around the area. I heard Michaels continue to cough as he threw up again behind his squad car. As I walked around the lot, I found trash, but it might have been evidence and I grabbed another marker and set it down before taking more photos.

With Michaels finally stopping coughing, I looked around the area again from where I was and saw tire tracks on the concrete. Turning to judge the distance between the innards and where I was, I made a quick judgment that these marks could have been from the vehicle that dumped the evidence that was making Michaels revisit what he had for lunch. Playing it safe, I dropped another evidence marker and took more photos.

As I started back towards Michaels, something else caught my eye. I approached and saw it was an evidence bag leaned against a fire hydrant. Looking around for the officer to ask if he bagged it, he was back doubled over, throwing up. Anna was getting sick quite regularly from her morning sickness, but even on her worst days, I had yet to see her throw up as much as he had. Putting my flashlight down, I pulled out a pair of gloves from the pocket of my vest and put them on to pick up the bag with the Styrofoam cup inside.

The rapid footsteps behind me caused me to drop the bag with the cup inside and turn around. The shadowy figure approaching got closer and I froze.

Catherine

"Nick is missing. Let's go."

I threw my pen down on my desk and ran after Grissom. He was already halfway down the hallway before I caught up to him, "What?"

"Brass called. The officer assigned to the scene with Nick on Koval said he was there one minute, gone the next. We're not taking any chances. Let's go."

Grissom picked up speed and before we were outside, he and I were both sprinting in the halls at work, shoving people out of our way as we ran.

When we got to the crime scene, it was full of LVPD cars. Grissom and I both got out of his Tahoe and started towards Brass who was giving a uniformed officer the once over, "Think! Did you see anybody else in the area?"

The officer shook his head, "I didn't see anything, sir. I mean, I only took my eyes off him for a couple seconds. The smell. It was horrible. I was throwing up over there."

I followed to where Michaels was pointing while Brass continued yelling, "You're not supposed to take your eyes off him ever."

Leaving Brass and Officer Michaels where they were, Grissom and I passed by the two of them as we made our way to the initial crime scene. "He's been gone maybe twenty five minutes." Brass stood next to me while Grissom took out his flashlight and shined it on the bloody innards on the concrete pavement next to evidence marker that Nick had left out. "He got sick at the scene and said the smell made him vomit. When he looked up, Nick was gone."

Grissom wasn't paying attention. He was looking to the side of the innards and found the tire marks next to another evidence marker. After standing up and giving Brass and me the silent treatment, he continued down the evidence trail, passing more tire marks and several more evidence markers. "This isn't ours." He squatted down next to a small yellow cone. "The markers Nick laid out were red. This is yellow and it's number four. Nick laid out evidence marker four up there." He pointed his flashlight beam up at the evidence marker by tire tracks. I stepped forward and put my bag down and took out a couple of gloves. Grissom got up and moved on down the line that Nick had left.

I got my gloves on and picked up my flashlight to examine Nick's vest. When my light hit it at an angle, I noticed something white. Reaching in my kit for some tweezers, I got it off and saw that it was white fibers, "Grissom! I got some white fibers on Nick's vest." When I held it up for him to see, a faint scent of something caught me, "Alcohol? Something alcoholic?" Being stumped by what the smell was, I put Nick's vest and the fibers into two different bags.

When I signed the tape on the seal for the bags, I looked over and saw Grissom near a fire hydrant. Picking up my field kit after giving the bagged evidence to an officer, I saw him staring at the hydrant, but a bagged Styrofoam cup in an evidence bag caught my eye. He noticed it at the same time I approached and I could tell by his look that he was trying to figure out what it was. "Something's off."

I put my kit down as Grissom takes out a pair of gloves and puts them on, "Why'd you bag that?"

"I didn't."

I knelt down next to Grissom and looked at the bag, "It's the wrong color tape. No initials on the seal. That's not Nick's evidence. He's smarter than this."

"Maybe it's a message?"

"Yeah. But of what."

Grissom got lost in his own thoughts as I started to look around. "I'm gonna go check the dumpster." Leaving him where he was, I left my field kit beside the dumpster and used it as a step to climb inside. It was empty except for a few pieces of paper and some empty cardboard boxes. I snapped pictures of everything before I got out, "Dumpster's clean. No apparent blood or body parts. Couple of boxes inside, but nothing on them. If the kidnapper brought the entrails in a box, he had them wrapped in something and that something isn't in there."

Grissom was pointing to the innards, "Take a look at this. This seems contrived to me. The blood pool is too perfect. There's no splatter. Like somebody placed these entrails and poured the blood around them."

The more I studied the blood pool around the entrails, the more I agreed, "It was a plant. A lure. To grab Nick." I looked over at David who had just arrived on scene, "David, get this stuff to the doc.

He approached slowly, "Look, I'm… I'm really sorry I didn't get here sooner. Maybe if I had ..."

I cut him off, "We're going to get him back, David."

"Catherine?" I looked behind me and saw Ecklie ducking under the crime scene tape and heads over to where we were, "Grissom, Catherine. I want you to know, as far as I'm concerned, lab's only got one case tonight. Same for the rest of the department. I've called in every available body from the other shifts to help."

Grissom looked to where Ecklie had come from and saw more LVPD cars as well as Clark County Sheriff's Office personnel and a few other people from the crime lab's day shift, "Thanks, Conrad."

Warrick arrived at the scene with his siren on and lights on his Tahoe flashing. After getting out of his truck, he lifted the crime scene tape and approached us, "Hey." Snapping on a pair of rubber gloves, he looked around, "What do you need me to do?"

"K9 officers." Ecklie started to retreat to where he came from, "Someone call the K9 officers!"

The officer and the dog arrived a few minutes later and Warrick volunteered to trail them. I followed behind as I watched as the officer held out the bag with Nick's vest in it towards the scent dog, "That's it, boy. Here you go. Here you go." The dog stuck his nose in the bag and started to wag his tail. When he put his nose to the ground, he immediately caught the trail and started to walk around the parking lot, with Warrick and me behind the officer, "That's it. Whatcha got? Here you go."

With us following, the dog made a direct line towards the fire hydrant, but when we got there, the trail must have stopped. The dog whimpered and sat down. The K9 officer looked glum, "He's lost the scent. Might be as far as it goes."

When the dog barked again, I saw Warrick looking at something. When I realized what he was looking at, I saw a large patch of dry concrete next to the hydrant, "Yeah, there was some sort of large vehicle here." He got out a tape measure and measured the width and length of the dry patch of concrete. Leaving the tape out, he grabbed his notebook and opened it. "Cath, you got a pen?" He started to dig in his pocket but before I could bring him mine, he froze, "Oh damn."

"What?" I started to approach him, "What?"

Warrick pulled his hand out of his pocket, "Nick's bad luck coin. We flipped for who got this case."

"Catherine." Grissom was behind me, "Ecklie wants you to go back to the lab and meet with Doc Robbins on the entrails."

"Fine." I left the two of them where they were and broke the speed limit getting back to the lab.

Doc Robbins was already looking at the entrails when I got there, "Catherine. Any word on Nick?"

"No. Nothing yet. Anything on the guts?"

"Well, there are a lot of intestines here, but no appendix, which made sense when I saw this." He used a scalpel to show me what he was talking about, "A cecum."

That meant that they weren't human, "They're dog entrails?"

"Yeah."

"That's not going to help." I turned to leave, "Thanks."

"I'm sorry." I shoved the door open when Doc Robbins called out to me, "Has Nick's family been informed?"

"No, that would be my job." I told him I'd keep him informed about Nick and left to go find Grissom.

He had already started in pulling case files from the archives when I found him, "We need to call Nick's parents and Anna."

"Anna." Grissom's look was solemn, "We need to bring her here just in case. I have no idea why Nick was taken. I don't know if this is a revenge thing or what, but we need to be safe and bring Anna to the lab or to the PD to keep an eye on her. If this is revenge like it was with Nigel Crane, whoever this is will likely be going after both of them together. Catherine, you stay here and run point while I'm gone. I'll go get Anna if you'll call Nick's parents."

I beat him to the door, "No, let me go get Anna. She's pregnant, her husband is missing and no offense, she needs a little more help than you can give her. Emotions really aren't your thing."

"I can deal with her, Catherine. I'm the supervisor. I'll go."

I refused to budge from my position by the door, "No. You'll treat Anna like another victim and she's not. She's family. You may not see it but I do. We both know what will happen when we tell her. Anna will lose it when I tell her what happened to Nick and neither she nor I need you giving her the silent treatment on the way back from their house or treating her like you do victims at crime scenes. You never have been good in situations like this and you know it."

"Fine." Defeated, Grissom started to walk back towards the AV lab, "Just take Mitch or someone with you."

"I'll go." I turned and saw Ecklie standing behind me, "Since I'm the director of the lab, I think it's best if I go, too."

I did not want Ecklie going along with me. Last thing I needed was an audience when I told Anna. This was bad enough having to tell her what happened to Nick on a good day, but the last thing she or I needed was a room full of people to watch her break down and lose it, "Anna doesn't know you that well."

"I know she doesn't know me that well, but I am the lab director, Catherine." Ecklie started walking next to me as we left the lab, "It's my duty. You can do all the talking since you know her better than I do."

I knew better than to argue and given the circumstances, I wasn't in the mood to argue with him over something so trivial, "Fine."

I dreaded this. I didn't have to ask Ecklie how he felt. He dreaded this as well. I knew in my career I had told hundreds of people that their loved ones were dead and though Nick wasn't dead, he was missing and it wasn't any either, especially considering how close we were. We all knew the chances of getting Nick back alive, but for everyone's sake, including Anna's and Nick's parents, we had to remain positive. That was the hard part. We knew the statistics. We knew the odds. We dealt with them every day and today, this statistic and this set of odds was hitting too close to home.

Driving faster than necessary and getting a few comments from Ecklie about my breaking the speed limit in a company vehicle, I made it out to Summerlin and pulled into the driveway. I had Ecklie get out of the truck to open the gate and when he got in after he shut it, I parked behind Anna's truck. I stared at the back of her truck, unwilling to make the first move. Ecklie sighed and opened the door and when the dome light came on, I unbuckled my seatbelt and took a deep breath and prepared myself for what was to come next.

Anna

I saw the flash of headlights through the windows and seeing that it was a Tahoe, I moved the cat off my lap so I could get up to greet Nick, happy he found time and was coming by to check on me. Checking the clock above the TV, it was late, but too early for him to be home from work for the night. The baby was not cooperating and I couldn't sleep and had settled in on the couch to try to rest, but it wasn't happening. I pushed myself off of the couch and went to the door, but rather than hearing the key in the lock, I heard knocking, "Nick, did you forget your key again?"

I opened the door and instead of seeing Nick, I saw a grim faced Catherine and Conrad Ecklie standing behind her. I felt a chill run down my spine as I put my hand over my mouth, "No…" I let go of the door and started to back away. My breathing became heavier as I felt my heart rate go up, "God, no."

The two of them stepped inside and Catherine led me to the edge of our coffee table and told me to sit down, "Anna." She looked at me as she knelt down in front of me, "You need to come with us."

"No!" I started crying as I fought to get up, but Catherine held me down, "No! He can't be dead."

"Anna!" Catherine hugged me, "Nick's not dead but I'm afraid I have bad news." She broke the hug so she could look at me. "Earlier tonight at a crime scene, Nick was abducted. That's all we know right now."

I felt the blood drain out of my face, "He what?"

"Abducted." Conrad Ecklie sat down on the edge of the sofa and faced me, "Nick was assigned to a case with a LVPD officer. When the officer got sick at the scene, he turned his head to throw up. When he looked again, Nick was gone. The officer thought Nick was crouched behind a dumpster looking for evidence and didn't think anything of it until he started to look for Nick and didn't see him."

I couldn't process what I was being told, "So you know where he is, right?" I stood up, "He's at the station or at the hospital? How is he?"

"Catherine…" Conrad's face was pleading with Catherine to help him.

"Anna, we don't know where he is." Catherine told me to sit back down again and I felt the gentle pressure of her hands on my shoulders as she pushed me down, "We're working on finding him. We promise you, we will. I need you to come with us though. We don't know who took Nick or why but as protocol, any time an officer is hurt in the line of duty, we bring their family members to the station just in case. We're taking you back to the lab."

I felt a cramp in my back and put my hand on the spot that was hurting, "Catherine, please." I was crying pretty hard and couldn't speak. She helped me up and after she got my phone and keys, she and Conrad helped me outside to the Tahoe. Conrad said he'd sit in the back seat so I could sit in the front and he helped me sit down then he handed me my phone. I stared down at the black screen as Catherine got in, "Nick's parents?"

"They don't know yet. I'll call them when I get back to the lab."

"Here." I handed Catherine my phone, "Their numbers are in here." I kept my eyes closed as we left our house. "Nick…" His name left my lips in such a bone chilling whisper. It was almost as if I was cursed for even mentioning his name, but I couldn't help it. Nick is everything to me, and now my everything was gone. I put my head in my hands and cried the entire ride back to Las Vegas.

Nick

My head was throbbing. As I tried to get my hands around in front of me, I couldn't move. It took me a moment to realize that they were bound behind my back. The aching pain of the plastic zip tie cutting into my wrists only added in to the pain my head was giving off. With every beat of my heart, the throbbing in my head plus the aching in my wrists hurt even more.

I started to recognize where I was. The dark, confined space was a car trunk. Resisting the urge to panic, I let my training kick in. Observing what was going on, I started to listen to where we were. I could tell we were on pavement because the ride was smooth. I didn't hear any other noises so I assumed the road we were on was deserted but for this time of night, that wasn't unusual. The car trunk I was in wasn't that small, but for someone my size, it was cramped. I was guessing I was in a mid sized car, maybe a Chevy Impala? I didn't see the mandatory trunk release handle on the inside of the trunk that all new cars were equipped with. Either my kidnapper disabled the fluorescent handle of the release or the car I was in was too old to have one. I tried to kick but my feet were bound. I was hog tied in a trunk. "Damn."

My head hit the top of the trunk lid when the car made a sudden swerve and I heard gravel crunching underneath the tires. I made a mental note that we made a right turn off of a paved road and onto a gravel road. I kept listening for any sounds. I heard nothing but gravel crunching under the car tires.

I felt my gun still in the holster on my side, but with my arms behind my back, I couldn't free myself to get it.

The car came to a stop and I heard the car door open and after a moment, I heard gravel crunching again as someone opened another door and slammed it, but no one came for me. I began to formulate a plan in my head about how I was going to get away. The kidnapper would have to open the trunk. I tried to bring my knees to my chest to kick at the kidnapper as soon as he opened the trunk, but in the small confines of the trunk, I couldn't get anything accomplished. I began to furiously rub my hands against the carpet of the trunk, hoping that I'd give myself a rash and some blood or skin evidence would be left behind. As I waited, I felt the burn on my wrists and knew that I had given myself a blister. I moved down ever so slightly and started to rub my hands against the trunk fabric in two more spaces just to ensure that I was leaving enough trace behind. I had to make sure my team could find out where I was.

Anna. My breath caught. What if he got Anna? The second car door opening…Did my kidnapper have Anna? Was that why he opened the second door? To let her out? I started to panic and my breathing came more quickly when I heard the footsteps approaching the edge of the car trunk. The electronic lock clicked and the trunk lid opened. It was still dark and when it opened all the way, all I could see were trees. Lots of trees. The face of my kidnapper appeared in front of me and as I brought my legs to my chest to kick, he pushed his arms down on my chest and held something over my mouth. I tried to fight, but I couldn't.

Anna

"Anna." Grissom put his hand on my arm and pulled me quickly inside the lab. Not even bothering to stop at Judy's desk for a visitor's badge, he brought me through the main door and into his office. He was pulling me so fast, I couldn't keep up and stumbled. Seeing me stumble, another LVPD officer took my other arm and with both of them dragging me, I was lifted off the ground as they rushed me away from the front of the office.

Three LVPD officers were already in the office and moved to a post outside the door as one of them held it open for me. The fourth came in and remained by the door but was looking out the windows. Something was terribly wrong here and I felt like throwing up, "Grissom?"

"Sit."

"I don't want to sit. I want to know where my husband is."

"We don't know." I could feel the room start to spin as Catherine led me to a chair in the office before I fell over. "We're working on that right now. Sara, Greg and Warrick are still at the scene Nick was at where he was taken. I came back to the lab to go over Nick's old cases as well as traffic cam footage from the neighborhood and I sent Catherine to go get you. Did she tell you anything?" I wasn't sure my voice would work right so I just shook my head, "We don't know much about anything. All we know is that Nick was at a scene for body parts in an alley. The officer assigned to him got sick and when he threw up, Nick was taken. Just to be on the safe side, we brought you here to keep an eye on you in case this turns out to be some sort of revenge plot like with…"

"Nigel Crane." I started to shake as another pain hit me in the back. I knew the man was dead and knew he wasn't a threat but his sister wasn't. "Renee…Renee. His sister, Renee something. I don't remember what her last name was. Where is she? Have you made contact with her or figured out where she is?" I knew Nick had told me he had forgiven her for what I had done to Nigel and from what he told me, she was going back home, but it was approaching the anniversary of Nigel's death. "It's close to the anniversary of Nigel's death."

"On it." Catherine stood up and left the room, leaving me alone with Grissom. He told me some more about the case but with little to go on, there wasn't much he could do to calm my fears.

The one thing I liked about Grissom was he didn't feel a need to keep silence from overtaking the room. Catherine came back about half an hour later with my phone and told me Nick's mother wanted to talk to me. I held the phone to my ear as I started crying again, "Mom?"

"Anna, oh thank Heavens. Where are you? Catherine called me and said you were safe but wouldn't tell me anything about you."

I started to sob even harder, "I'm at the crime lab. Catherine came and got me. I don't know how much she's told you about Nick's kidnapping but they don't know who did this or who's behind it so they brought me here just in case."

"Good. Good." I could tell mom was fighting back the fear in her voice, but she was still close to breaking, "I don't want anything to happen to you or my grandson. Bill and I are on the first flight out of Dallas. We're leaving in about an hour but our flight isn't for an hour after that. After we get to the airport, it'll be about a three and a half hour flight. We'll call you when we land. I gave Catherine our flight information. Sweetie, I know it's hard, but Nick will be found alive. He won't leave you or that baby."

"God I hope so." I let out a heavy sob, "Mom, I can't do this without him."

"You won't have to. I've got to go. We're packing now and we'll see you soon. I love you, Anna."

"Love you too, mom." I hit the end button on my phone and shoved it between the couch cushions and cried.

"Grissom, I found this out about Renee." Catherine handed him a printout. "She was killed about a year ago in a tornado in Georgia."

My head shot up, "What?"

"Tornado came through the rural area where she lived." She handed me the news article, "Her whole family was killed when the entire town they lived in was basically wiped off the map by an EF4 tornado. She's not behind this. That was a lead we were exploring, but now, we don't know anything."

"Get your hands off of me!" There was a scuffle from the hallway, "Get your hands off me. Someone help me."

"Security!"

Two different voices were going at it in the hallway. "Anna, stay with Catherine." Grissom got up and left the room, leaving me in his office. While we waited, I saw Sara and Greg walk by to one of the labs in the back. Catherine told me to stay put as well while she went out into the hallway to see what was going on.

Getting bored with just sitting still, I opened the door to Grissom's office and looked out in the hallway. The four officers had left to help with the scuffle up front. David Hodges was in the reception area with Grissom and Warrick and they were arguing with someone. I couldn't tell what was going on from my vantage point, but I inched closer to the door.

"Hodges, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

He slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and held up a brown bubble mailer envelope, "Gilbert Grissom, LVPD regarding Stokes."

I started to cry, "Jesus, no."

Grissom heard me and turned around, "Anna, get back in the office."

"No!" I shook my head, "No! What is it? What do you have?"

David handed him a pair of gloves and he put them on and started to feel the envelope, "There's something in here, but I don't know what it is." He walked by me and as he walked by Catherine, she started to follow him, "No. Let me. Anna, stay back."

David, Catherine, Greg, Warrick, Sara and I stayed in the hallway. Grissom went into the AV lab and sat down and with his back to us, he opened the small envelope. He picked it up and shook something out, but I couldn't tell what it was from my viewpoint. He got up only to return a moment later with a laptop and hooked something up to it. I watched as he dug around in one of the desks until he produced a tape recorder as Warrick opened the door slightly and went in. When Grissom didn't say anything, the rest of us came in. Catherine stood in front of me to shield me from whatever it was on the computer screen. As Grissom hit the button the tape recorder, the song "Outside Chance" by The Turtles started playing.

A PowerPoint presentation started on the laptop and as Catherine stepped forward, I saw that Grissom had put a small flash drive in the side of the computer. I couldn't tell from where I was what it said, but I did manage to catch part of the message.

'One million dollars or the CSI dies'. The screen went white and another message popped up, 'You can only "WATCH."'

Grissom hit the button on the page and when he did, a shot of Nick appeared. He winced when the bright lights hit him and started to fight wherever he was. "Oh, shit." Catherine looked at Grissom, "He's buried underground."

"Jesus, no!" Seeing that, another wave of nausea hit me. This one was so hard that I found the nearest trash can and threw up. This can't be happening to me. To us. Jesus, why us? "Nick…Oh, God. Nick."

A/N: Reviews go here. :)