nickngreg | Fic: Life Changes 20/29 (Reply)

TITLE: LIFE CHANGES
RATING: PG-13 for this chapter
PAIRINGS: Nick/Greg
WARNINGS: Very adult content and language
SUMMARY: A casual remark can change a life
SPOILERS: None
BANNER: Created by Bflyw
DISCLAIMER: If you don’t recognize it, it’s mine. Otherwise, everything belongs to Bruckheimer, CBS and Zuicker.

Previous chapters can be found here

Time passed as it always does but Nick Stokes wasn’t aware of time passing. For him, time had stopped when Judy burst into the conference room with tears streaming down her face. There were so many things that Nick didn’t and never would remember about that terrible day. He never fully remembered what she said. He heard robbery, hostages, and 4 dead at the scene, another died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital but she had said, “robbery at Carlisle Drugs’ and a great bell began to toll in Nicks mind. Instead of peals, the bell said Greg, Greg, Greg. He didn’t know he had stood up so abruptly, the chair he was sitting in flew backwards and landed on the floor. He was out the door and running for his life; running to Greg because Greg was his life. How Catherine at almost 60 years old and in 3 inch heels managed to catch him was a mystery no one ever explained. She was hanging on to him and screaming for Warrick. Suddenly, both Cath and Warrick were holding him so tight they almost had him on the floor.

Nick could not understand why they were trying to keep him when he wanted to go so badly. He knew they were his dearest friends and he couldn’t hit them but he wanted to; oh God how he wanted to take his fist and pound them both until they were raw meat and couldn’t hold him back.

He was aware Cath was calling his name and talking to him. He could hear her say, “Nick, we aren’t keeping you away but you can’t drive like this. You will kill yourself too and we need you. Let us drive you.”

He managed to nod his head, knowing the way Cath drove they would be there in half the time it normally took. Cath was yelling for her purse and keys; she was telling Warrick his shift had to handle the scene it was their case but he could not work it. Warrick was too stunned to even answer her but Marcie was there, with Cath’s purse and keys and she was telling Cath she would take Warrick’s team and her own. She reminded Cath she would need someone to relieve her because Nick wasn’t going to be taking his shift. Cath said she would send someone and to keep 2 CSI’s clear to go to the hospital to get evidence just as soon as she knew what had happened.

The next thing Nick was aware of was being in the back of Cath’s SUV. Warrick was fastening him into the seat belt and had both arms around him holding him tight. He must have needed the comfort because he realized he had Warrick in a death grip and couldn’t seem to let him go. He heard Cath yelling into her car phone for a police escort to Desert Palms ASAP. He heard the sirens before they even got out of the parking lot.

He was trying to function but all he could think about was before; before this, before time stopped, before his heart broke.
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Cath had been Asst. Director for 2 weeks and Nick had been Graveyard supervisor for one when he got the e-mail announcing a supervisors meeting to be held every 2 weeks at a rotating time slot so no one would be inconvenienced too often. The 4 of them would be discussing staffing, lab problems, cases and anything else they wanted to talk about. Marcie Jepson was day supervisor. She was a transfer from Ann Arbor, Michigan and had been with the crime lab for almost 4 years. She was intelligent, well trained, cool and calm in an emergency and a real asset to the place. David Light however, was a horse of a different color. He had been with the lab before Catherine and even before Grissom. He was rigid in his insistence to detail and running everything exactly by the book. He was the thorn in Catherine’s paw for sure.

Catherine started the meeting by asking for David’s input first making sure to give him his marks for his long years of service. He, of course, replied that there wasn’t anything that needed changing; change just to be changing was not good. Catherine tried very hard not to roll her eyes, smiled and asked for Marcie’s input.

Marcie shook things up considerably by bringing up the state of the garage facilities. The lab was over 20 years old and so much had changed since it was built. If they had 3 or more cars in the garage at one time, it was a nightmare to try to process them; especially if the process required a tear down.

“And add to that, the window and doors and I understand someone even brought in a tree once” she said with a pointed grin in Nick’s direction.

‘Ah yes, Nick wanted to know if a body had been soaked in gasoline and then burned under the tree; so he cut it down and brought it to work with him.” Catherine and Nick shared a smile at the good memories that case brought up.

Catherine had been making notes the whole time Marcie was talking and finally laid her pen down and said, “I know you’re right. I’m just not too sure what we can do about it.”

“Well, you know the little do-nut stand next door? I know the owner. Her husband is not well and I bet if the city were to make a decent offer she would be willing to sell. The shop is little but there is a huge driveway and parking lot back behind. We could put up a new facility there and have room for an outdoor holding area and this close to the PD, it would be easy to provide round the clock guards on all evidence.” Marcie stopped talking to let Cath catch up with her.

Cath was very pleased. This was just what she was hoping for. She told Marcie she would get on it as soon as the meeting was over and she thanked her for her ideas. Marcie just nodded but it was so clear by the happy smile on her face that she appreciated the acknowledgement of her input.

Cath turned to Nick and said, “OK big boy; you’re going to have to come up with something earthshaking to top that one.”

Nick leaned back and said, “Well it’s not earthshaking but I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. The one thing that kills us all, especially the graveyard shift is burnout. Too many doubles and triples and when we do get some time off, we’re so damn tired all we can do is sleep and come right back and start in all over again. It’s hard to have a normal life; hell it’s hard to have a life period with this load.”

Cath had started nodding around his second sentence as had Marcie but she was quick to point out to Nick that there wasn’t any money in the pot for more CSI’s; at least right now.

Nick said thoughtfully, “Yeah I know that but maybe we could use what we’ve got a little better. Right now we work 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week. Our shifts run midnight to 8.00am; 8.00am to 4.00pm and 4.00pm to midnight. What if we worked 10 hours a day, 4 days a week? That would give us 3 days off. I know there will still be doubles BUT if we changed the shift hours so that Grave was 10.00pm to 8.00am; days would be 6.00am to 4.00pm and swing 2.00pm to midnight. There would be a 2 hour overlap at the beginning and end of every shift. We could keep track of new cases and spot similarities a lot faster. If we catch something on grave that requires speaking to someone during the day, instead of waiting until 8.00am and working a double….”

Marcie eagerly interrupted Nick, “Days could take the interviews. We’d have all the notes your shift took, you could pinpoint certain questions you wanted answers to and we would have twice as many people working on each case which means twice as much skill and education devoted to each case. Nick, it’s a great idea. I know my people will be all for it.”

Catherine suggested a 2 week lead time for the change so they could get more feed back. She knew she would have to run the idea by Conrad and there would always be a small percentage that simply couldn’t change hours because of classes or childcare but the majority would jump at the chance. She noticed that David was not joining in the general discussion and politely asked him for his thoughts on the subject.

His response was that his shift didn’t need any help on their cases and they were already carrying too much to take on anything else. He didn’t want to work 10 hours a day and none of his people would either. They had always worked 5 days a week and there was no reason to change now just because some CSI’s wanted a little more time with their ‘boy-friends’. He looked right at Nick when he said that.

Nick was counting to 100, doing his multiplication tables and trying to think of all the animals he could that began with the letter ‘A’. Anything to keep from smashing the homo-phobic bigot right in his pretty, white, false teeth.

Catherine and Marcie both said the same thing at exactly the same time. “You’re damn right I want more time with my boy-friend."

Marcie added, “I want a chance at a normal life and this is the best idea anyone has come up with yet to let me do the work I love and spend time with a man I may be in love with.”

Catherine added that she would always listen to any ideas for improvements AND reasons why they might not work. What she would not listen to and she looked David right in the eyes when she said, “I will not listen to any reason that starts, “We’ve always done it this way and we can’t do it any other.”

Nicks suggestion was implemented 2 weeks later and the cooperation between days and graveyard was almost immediately noticeable. Swing was a different matter. When Catherine had enough of David Light’s sniping and back stabbing and complete refusal to cooperate with his fellow supervisors, she called him in her office and told him he could get with the program or get out. His shift had the lowest solve rate of all 3 shifts; just barely 53% and she was beginning to think it was his attitude not the skill set of his team. When David complained to Conrad and was told that Catherine and her ideas were the future of the Las Vegas Crime lab, he took early retirement. Cath moved Marcie to swing and put Warrick in as day supervisor. That was after she had gone to Conrad and told him he was going to have to draw up another relationship agreement. She was spoiling for a fight and was amazed and a little disappointed when Conrad said, “No problem” and agreed to be responsible for Warrick’s evaluations and promotions.

Nick had enjoyed the supervisor meetings after that. They were a time for planning, evaluating personnel, discussing cases and coming up with new training and emergency plans. He never thought he would be the reason for their first real test of their emergency plan.
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He was aware the SUV had come to an abrupt stop. Catherine had the back door open and was trying to help Warrick get Nick’s seat belt undone. Nick almost fell out of the car in his haste to get inside to his husband; to Greg. He didn’t notice the ambulance parked just beyond their truck, its back doors open and covered with bloody handprints or the trail of bloody footprints from the ambulance to the door of the ER.

The three of them burst through the doors and stepped directly into the reception hall of Hell. Blood, screaming, people running around…in the midst of the mess, they found Jim Brass. Catherine took one look, grabbed her cell phone and speed dialed Annie Brass.

“Annie,” she cut off Annie’s cheerful greeting, “get a clean change of clothing for Jim and get to Desert Palms right away. Jim is fine, he’s not been hurt but he needs you and clean clothes.” Catherine didn’t even say good-bye, just snapped the little phone shut and stuffed it back in her pocket.

Jim was the main cause of all the screaming. He was currently being held down and not too successfully I might add by 3 security guards and 2 large male nurses. He was so covered with blood it was clotting on his pants and dripping down on his shoes. His hands were caked with blood; in fact the only clean place on his whole body was the tear marks on his face. He was crying; Jim Brass was crying; at first with rage. When he saw Nick, he stopped fighting and started crying with such a hopeless sorrow that Catherine felt her own eyes tearing up.

He held his blood caked hands out to Nick and said, “Ah Nick, I tried so hard to stop it but the hole was so big and blood was just gushing out of it. I grabbed the arteries and held on to stop the blood but they were slippery and the EMT’ s kept trying to get me away from Greg. You know he died in the ambulance Nicky, He died twice and they got him back but when we got here and they took him out of the ambulance and brought him inside, they wouldn’t let me keep my hands on him and Nicky, he died here in the hall.“

Warrick and Catherine both reached and caught Nick before he hit the ground. ‘Rick managed to get a chair over and they slowly lowered him into the chair. He was sobbing now. Big shuddering sobs that caused his whole body to convulse but Oh God, there was no sound. He cried hard enough to shake the chair but made no sound at all.

Vartann came through the door at a dead run with 3 uniforms right behind him and almost skidded to a stop when he saw the group in the middle of the room. He had been picked to replace Brass as Chief of Detectives and probably could have gone the rest of his life without this scene. He managed to say in a somewhat normal voice, “Hey Jimbo, what kind of a ruckus are you stirring up here?”

Jim looked up at the sound of the familiar voice. He had moved over to Nick and was kneeling beside his chair still crying his silent and sorrowful tears. Nick had a strangle hold on his suit jacket and Jim didn’t seem to mind.

Vartann walked over to them and knelt down beside Jim and asked him if he would let him take him somewhere and get him cleaned up. Jim started shaking his head immediately and said, “No, No…you have to arrest these people. If they had let me hold onto Greg’s wound, he would still be alive. I had stopped the blood. They could have fixed him.”

Annie Brass came through the ER doors just before a very large, loud, man in scrubs came through the treatment room doors. He was pissed. He was demanding to know what the hell was happening to his ER and who was causing all the commotion. He stopped momentarily at the sights, sound and smells that confronted him. The room was full of sick people, blood covered people, hospital security guards, hospital personnel (all too scared to do much. They were brave people and used to emergencies but there was a room full of people who all had guns and these folks were not stupid).

More and more uniforms had been arriving while all this was going on. The head pharmacist at Carlisle’s was an excellent witness; calm and able to tell the story accurately. They knew the faceless body was Detective 3rd Grade Jacob Campbell and they knew that Greg Sanders had probably given his life trying to stop Jacob from being shot. That the 3rd robber had shot and killed Campbell anyway did not change any one’s mind. One of their own was dead and another one of their own had died trying to save him. They were all coming to the hospital to pay their respects and mourn their dead.

Catherine was one step away from taking out her gun and shooting the loud mouthed idiot who was screaming at them. Annie was talking quietly to Jim. Warrick had managed to pry Nick’s hand off Jim’s jacket and was holding both his hands in his while he just held his friend and tried to wrap his mind around everything. Annie was telling Jim he needed to get a shower and get cleaned up; they had to go see LeAnn Campbell, Jacob’s wife, no, Jacob’s widow.

A quiet but forceful voice behind Catherine said, “Annie, you’re going to have to wait a few minutes. Jim is a walking pile of evidence. We need to process him and take his clothes.”

Catherine knew the voice but couldn’t believe she was hearing it here. She turned to see Grissom standing just behind her. She just looked at him and said the most obvious thing in the world, “What are you doing here?”

He told her he had heard the first reports on the TV in his office at the University and knew they would need all the help they could get. He offered to process Jim first and then Catherine could tell him what else she needed him to do.

The loud mouthed idiot let out a bellow that got everyone’s attention. He looked around and told them he was Dr. Aram Parsighian and he was the head of ER at Desert Palms and right now, he wanted order in his waiting room. He told the hospital security guards and the male orderlies to get the regular patients into another area at once and get them triaged. He told Brass, Grissom and Annie to stay right where they were and then he asked which one was Nick Stokes. Nick was not able to answer. Nick was not even in the room anymore. Catherine had a horrible thought dash across the front of her mind that without Greg, he might never be there with them again. Warrick spoke up and said that Nick was right here.

Dr. Parsighian walked over, knelt down in front of Nick and took his hands out of Warricks and into his own. He called his name over and over and finally reached up and slapped Nick in the face; not too hard, just enough to get his attention.

Nick slowly raised his head and looked at the figure in front of him. He knew he was talking to him but he couldn’t hear or understand what he was saying. He shook his head hard and words began to come through.

“Are you Nicholas Stokes?” He nodded his head yes. “Mr. Stokes; you’re listed as Mr. Sanders next of kin, is that correct?” Again Nick nodded trying not to go away again as those words ‘next of kin’ echoed in the huge vacancy in his body where his heart once was. “Mr. Stokes; your husband is not dead. Do you understand me? He’s not dead.”

Jim let out sound that was so full of pain it hurt everyone’s ears. “No you’re wrong. He died on that damn thing coming in the hospital. I heard them say they’d lost him again and he wasn’t responding.”

Dr. Parsighian nodded his head. “Yes sir you are correct but when we got him back in the treatment room, we were able to get his heart started again.”

Nick grabbed the doctor by the front of his scrubs. “Where is he? I’ve got to see him. Where is he?”

The doctor put his hands over Nicks, not trying to get him to let go of him but rather just holding his hands in his. “You can’t see him right now. The minute we got a heartbeat, we sent him upstairs to surgery. He’s got a lot of very good doctors working on him right now and we are fighting for him with everything we know. How long have you two been together?”

Nick tried to answer but words just weren’t coming so Warrick answered. “They had their commitment ceremony 8 years ago but they were together a year before that.”

Aram nodded his head and turned back to Nick again. “You have to realize Mr. Stokes that every minute we keep him alive is a small miracle and a victory against the angel of death. If you are a religious man, you must pray for him. If you love him, you must fight for him with everything you’ve got and you also have to realize that if God grants you the greatest miracle of all; Mr. Sander’s life, your troubles are just beginning. He will never walk again. His hip joint is completely gone. It may be possible to create a new titanium ball joint but the chances of him being able to put much weight on it will be small. He will wear a colostomy bag; probably for the rest of his life. He may have to have a port inserted in his stomach to pump liquid formula in. It depends on how much damage there was to his internal organs. I saw massive damage to the upper intestine which I’m sure will have to be removed. Are you prepared for all this? Knowing this, will you pray and fight for his life?”

Nick looked Aram Parsighian right in the eyes and said simply, “I will fight for him.”

Dr. Parsighian earned Catherine Willows eternal devotion and gratitude when he smiled at Nick, patted him on the cheek and said, “Good. Then we need to get you and your friends moved out of my waiting room to a more comfortable and secluded area. I need to get this place cleaned up and back in business.”

In the next hour, miracles did happen. Brass got processed and slowly Gil and Annie managed to get him back into his old ‘Brass Balls’ persona and then into a shower and some clean clothes. Annie Brass was hell on wheels when she needed to be and Gil realized that she was the perfect mate for Jim. She was on the phone the whole time Jim was in the shower. Between her and the good doctor, they got things organized. There was a ward on the 4th floor being remodeled. They got the workmen out, chairs, couches and tables in and Annie mobilized her Wives of Police Officer’s club, (often referred to by cops with a death wish as the “WOPO”s .) They brought books, magazines, a huge 40 cup coffee maker, several large electric tea kettles, coffee, sugar, cream, tea, honey, coolers full of iced drinks and sandwiches and snacks.

As the news got out that Greg was not dead; more and more officers showed up at the hospital. Dr. Parsighian had arranged for updates on the progress of the surgery to be delivered to the waiting room at regular intervals. About 7 hours into the surgery, he came to tell them that using a laser, they had managed to control the bleeding enough to clear the field and see what other damage had been done. He said they had completed the hook-up of the colostomy bag which had helped control the constant possibility of infection and they would be ‘running the intestines’.

As he turned to leave, one of the officers asked him if there was anything at all they could do besides just wait and pray. Aram turned around and looked at the room full of men and women in blue uniforms and the detectives in their wrinkled suits and said yes there was. He told them that Greg had lost more than half his body volume of blood before they even got him on the table. It was especially difficult because Greg was A-negative; not the rarest blood type but still somewhat uncommon. They needed as much blood as they could get and A-negative would be golden. He was amazed when 12 people raised their hands and said they knew they had A-negative and where did he want them. The odds were astonishing. To have that many people in one room with a blood type that only 10 to 12% of the world’s population shared was astonishing. He called a nurse and had her take them down to the lab at once.

Time drug on and on and after 27 continuous hours of surgery; they put a plastic covering over the horrendous wound in Greg’s side and moved him to ICU. They had him completely enclosed in a plastic bubble to keep down the chances of infection but they allowed Nick to come in and look at him through the bubble. He watched Greg’s chest and barely, just barely saw a shallow breath followed by another and then another. Greg was alive and as long as he was, Nick would fight for him until he was able to fight himself.