Ch. 19

Krisalyn was cuddling her toddler in her arms with tears in her eyes. For all this time she had thought her little girl was dead and now here she was sleeping in her arms. She kept glancing towards the door waiting for Nick to come in but he hadn't shown up yet. Krisalyn frowned as an uneasy feeling built up inside of her. She didn't think there was much that could keep Nick Stokes away from his family but especially not away from the daughter he had just met. She glanced down when she felt Ella move and then moan in her arms. She stroked her blonde hair back and whispered comforting words to her little girl until she finally settled down.

Grissom was standing in the new crime scene area with the shocked police officers standing around him. It was a tough case to work when it involved police officers. Upon arriving at the scene it had looked like only two people may have been hit but it was quickly found out that both officers, one a CSI, and the perp were hit by bullets which caused an angry commotion. Not only were they looking the man who had kidnapped a young child and made a mother believe she had gotten her baby killed but he had also shot at two cops, everyone at the scene was hoping he would make it so that he could rot in that jail cell slowly with the stigma of child pedophile.

"Well folks this is a second crime scene that we need to work. Nick, I know you need to get to the hospital and check on Ella, make sure that you check on Warrick's condition for us as well." Grissom said with a nod in Nick's direction.

"Sure thing Grissom." Nick said as he took out his keys and headed away.

Nick walked into the hospital room and noticed Krisalyn rocking Ella back and forth in the rocking chair. He smiled as he walked over and knelt in front of her. He noticed that she had been crying and reached up to place his hand on her cheek so she would look up and notice him standing there.

"Hey." She whispered softly.

"Hey, how is she?" Nick asked a little confused as he noticed Ella seemed to be hooked up to some machines he had never seen before.

"They say that she should be able to come home soon but they want to monitor her closely since it seems like she has been heavily medicated for a while now." Krisalyn said and then frowned.

"What?" Nick asked her simply.

"I was going to ask you that question. You seem to be somewhere else right now." Krisalyn said with an arched brow.

"As I was about to leave the scene the kidnapper showed up. We got into a foot pursuit and then there was a shoot out. The kidnapper is in critical condition, the patrol officer was pronounced DOA here at the hospital and Warick took a couple of bullets." Nick said with a sigh.

"How's Catherine taking it?" Krisalyn asked as she stroked Ella's hair.

"I don't know. She wasn't around when they took Warrick away and I haven't seen her here yet although I am sure she is here." Nick said glancing out towards the hallway.

"Do you want to go down to emergency and see what's going on?" Krisalyn asked with an arched eyebrow. She knew it must be tough not being down there to see what was going on but at the same time she didn't want Nick to leave her here alone. She needed someone there to help her deal with this. There were so many emotions running through her at the moment she didn't know how she was going to be able to handle it all.

"Nah, I think everyone would understand if I stayed up here with you and our daughter." Nick said as he reached out and stoked his daughters hair back again.

"I can't believe she's real." Krisalyn said with tears in her eyes. "What I don't understand is why she is here in Vegas. I don't understand how this is connected to our case either."

"I don't know either." Nick said as thoughts started running through his head. As much as he wanted to stay there he needed to get back to the lab and run some things pass Greg. Since Warrick wasn't going to be there he would use Greg to try and figure this out. He had a feeling the answer to all his questions was staring him in the face and if he just looked hard enough he might be able to find it.

Nick was sitting in one of the conference rooms with Greg staring at the board in front of him. He wasn't sure what it was but there was something staring him in the face.

"This guy is obsessed with Krisalyn and I. Our daughters' death is faked and then she is brought here to Las Vegas. No one knew she was mine and Krisalyn hasn't worked out here. We worked together back at her lab so why bring her out here?"

"Someone knew that she was eventually going to have Ella buried out here? Someone close to her who knew that Vegas was where she would head to make her daughter's dream of seeing the white tigers come true?" Greg asked.

"That's a possibility, so it would be someone who worked with her out there. I remember she told me she didn't really hang out with anyone outside the lab." Nick said confused.

"All right so could we call Krisalyn and ask who knew about her burying Ella out here in Vegas?" Greg asked glancing at some of the gruesome crime scene photo's.

"No, she's busy keeping Ella calm. What about the victims are there any connection between them and Krisalyn?" Nick asked.

"Not that we can tell. We haven't gotten any of the reports or background from other states but I don't understand why Krisalyn would be the target in those cases." Greg said confused.

"What if she was? What if this guy started practicing on other victims to make sure that when it came down to it he could impress Krisalyn? What if the first set of victims have no connections?" Nick asked starting to get a theory. "What if those whole thing was building up to Las Vegas?"

"Then we have a serial killer who has one target." Greg said staring at Nick. "Why Krisalyn? What could it be about?"

"Let's get her old case files from her previous department. This could be about an old case that she worked and someone she had prior contact with. Also let's see if we can get evidence lists or copies of anything from all the other crime scenes. Grissom, Sara and Catherine are going to be at the hospital for a while with Warrick." Nick said as he stared at the board. It was all starting to make sense to him.

Krisalyn watched Ella sleep in her crib and sighed. It was almost unbelievable that after everything she had gotten her baby girl back. She knew that most people probably were going to doubt that she had no idea it wasn't her little girl that she buried but she didn't care. As long as Ella was here, with her mother, like she belonged she didn't care what people thought. Sighing again she stroked her back and felt her pager vibrate and frowned. No one would dare try and page her to any type of crime scene right now so she didn't know what this could be about. Slowly she got to her feet and left the room to glance at her pager. She didn't recognize the number but had a feeling it wasn't someone she wanted to talk to at the moment.

Greg walked back into the room and noticed that Nick was staring at the board with a frown on his face.

"Krisalyn's case files are all on the computer. They are going to give us enough access to view them but only for a short period of time. They figure since we are talking about a serial killer that we don't want to wait for them to fax us paperwork or even mail it." Greg said as he pointed at the computer.

"He's going to go after Krisalyn soon. His whole plan is falling apart and things are looking bad. We weren't supposed to find Ella, she was the bait. Now that Ella is safe and back with us he is going to need to get to her when she is vulnerable and not thinking clearly. Call Grissom and tell him to send Sara up to sit with Krisalyn, he is going to attempt to lure her away tonight." Nick said turning around quickly.

"Nick, do you think it's a cop?" Greg asked pulling out his cell phone.

"Without a doubt it's someone we know." Nick said nodding his head.

JJ walked into the room and sat down at the table. She waited until both men turned and looked at her. She smirked and crossed her arms in front of her knowing that neither of them were happy to see her sitting there.

"What is it that you want?" Greg asked sharply.

"Down puppy, I wanted to let you know that I got a phone call from Sara saying that Warrick was out of surgery and that he was stable. Catherine is sitting in with him now." JJ said rolling her eyes.

"Thank you now if you'll excuse us we have work to do." Nick said wanting Greg to make his phone call but not wanting to be alone with JJ.

Greg dialed Grissom's number on his phone, knowing he couldn't leave JJ with Nick.

"Grissom." Came a gruff answer.

"Send Sara up to Krisalyn and make sure she goes nowhere. Nick thinks our guy is going to attack tonight." Greg said simply before he hung up.

JJ continued to stare at the two men who glared at her. She knew that she had no chance with Nick but she also knew that she could end their search and help them with this case.

"You think that you can stop this guy from getting your fiancée?" JJ asked Nick simply. "I think that you are dumb and blind to think you have a chance to stop him."

"What do you know?" Nick asked straightening up and glaring at her even more.

"I know more than you think. I know that no matter what you do and no matter how much you think you can save her, Krisalyn is going to die and it's going to be a slow and painful death." JJ said with a shrug.

"Are you the one we are looking for?" Greg asked confused.

"Puh-lease. If I was the killer why would I sit here in a police station and talk to you like this. I am just someone who is smart enough to analyze the evidence and piece together enough to know she pissed the wrong person off and they are gonna kill her." JJ said rolling her eyes.

"Screw you." Nick said simply as he glared at JJ. "No matter what you think Krisalyn isn't going to die. We are gonna get married and raise our daughter together."

"News flash Ella is dead." JJ said snottily.

"News flash they just found her alive. Why do you think Krisalyn isn't here herself?" Greg said with a smirk.

JJ gulped and looked at Nick for confirmation, and saw it on his face. It was different when she was just trying to steal him from Krisalyn, but a kid? JJ knew what she had to do and she slowly got up. She knew who the killer was all right and she was going to try and stop him. She may not have a heart when it comes to certain things but when it came to kids she couldn't stomach causing them any harm.

He was getting angrier and angrier as he waited for Krisalyn to respond to his page. He knew that someone was getting to close to him. It was time to play his hidden card and he was going to do that as soon as he got all his players into place. It was almost time for the grand finale and soon Las Vegas would be under siege with only one way out, to deliver him his target.