Fic: Life Changes 22/29

[jayceepat.livejournal.com]

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



They were bringing Greg back to his bubble after his 3rd excision. Nick looked at the grey, shrunken form of his partner and knew that Greg would not survive another trip to hell with Jannings.

He had to face the fact that the man he’d loved for 10 long years was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it. He was sitting beside the bubble too numb to even cry when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and heard someone drag a chair up beside him. He looked over into Grissom’s intense blue eyes.

His relationship with Grissom had improved since Greg’s ordeal had begun. Gris had never been emotional during the months and months they had fought for Greg’s life but he had always been there. Doing whatever was needed whether it was taking Nick’s shift at the lab or doing his shopping. He had even done the laundry and cleaned their house when Nick was at the hospital with Greg.

A couple of days ago Nick had come back from a rare trip to the bathroom to find Gris taking pictures of Greg’s wound. He was about to find out why.

Gris didn’t waste time on platitudes. He put his hand on top of Nicks and said, “He’s not going to make it through another one of these.”

Nick couldn’t answer; just nodded his head.

“I have an idea. I don’t know how you’re going to feel about this but I believe with all the years of my study and training that it will work.”

Nick looked up at him and said, “Gris, it doesn’t matter how I feel. If you have an idea that you think will work I’m more than ready to listen.”

Gris thought for a second and when he spoke, it was obvious he was going into his ‘lecture’ mode. “You know that there are many medical treatments that haven’t been used for centuries but now, are being investigated again. The early Native American’s were treating wounds like Greg’s when your ancestors and probably mine were just beginning to learn to use tools. They used maggots. Maggots are wonderful creatures; they seem to have been designed with only one purpose in mind; to eat rotting flesh. They eat until every single speck of infection is consumed and then they drop off. They never touch clean, healthy tissue. It just doesn’t appeal to them and most researchers agree that the patients treated with maggots do not experience any pain from their attentions; other than the pain that already exists from their injuries of course.”

Nick had listened to every word and weighed each and every one of them carefully. “So you are suggesting that we use maggots on Greg’s wound? Where would we get them and how would we get them into the bubble and how are we going to know if they are working?”

Gris held his hand up and said, “Slow down; one question at a time. I have been in touch with a colleague who has been working with maggots for the last 8 years. I’ve sent him pictures of Greg’s wounds from the moment the infection first showed. He is convinced that the surgery is excessive and is draining Greg’s strength and putting undue stress on his already limited resources. He breeds maggots in sterile conditions for medical research only. He has agreed to provide us with as many as we need AND he can have them here in less than 5 hours from the time I call him. They will be packed in sterile containers. We put the containers under the UV lights they use on the instruments they sterilize to work on Greg in the bubble. All we have to do is sterilize the outside of the containers. The inside and the maggots are already completely clean. Once the outside is safe, we can introduce the container into the bubble, open it up and let nature’s cleanup crew do their work.”

Nick looked up as the door opened and Jannings, the man he’d come to hate more than anyone else on this earth came in the room. Jannings ignored Nick, which was nothing new but this time, Nick was fueled with hope for the first time in weeks. He got up, grabbed Gil by his elbow and almost dragged him from his chair over to Jannings. He said, “I want to talk with you.”

Jannings didn’t even look at him, just replied, “I don’t have time for you now.”

Nick actually reached out, grabbed the man by his arm and pulled him away from Greg’s prison and swung him around to look at him. “You will make time and you’ll do it right now. All you’re doing is butchering my husband. You’re not helping him and Dr. Grissom has an alternative treatment in mind that we want to try.”

Jannings almost sneered at them. “Oh so DR. GRISSOM thinks he knows more about Mr. Sander’s condition than I do. Of course he does. After all, I’ve been his doctor for 5 months now and DR. GRISSOM has done what? Oh that’s right. He’s taken your place as night supervisor of a bunch of civilians who crawl around on the floor picking up hairs with tweezers. That’s a sterling recommendation. Now, let go of my arm and let me examine my patient.”

Jannings sarcasm every time he said “DR. GRISSOM” was so evident it could be felt in the room.

Nick dug his fingers into Jannings elbow looking for the nexus of nerves that he knew would cause him extreme pain and numb his whole arm in seconds. When Jannings let out a hiss of pain, he knew he’d found the place and pressed his thumb in. “Now you listen to me you homo-phobic bag of shit. Greg is no longer your patient. If you get out of here right now and never come near this room again, I’ll let things go and get another doctor to take care of him. If you give me any trouble at all, I’ll bring charges against you for malpractice, sexual harassment and unnecessary surgery. We’ve documented Greg’s injuries and the hacking you’ve done and we have reputable people in the medical community who will testify that you are a butcher and have no business ever treating any patient again as long as you live.”

Grissom was amazed at the change in Nick’s attitude. He’d gone from a resigned, miserable barely able to speak grieving spouse to an aggressive, protective alpha male. Grissom prayed that Jannings would realize how close he was to losing the use of his arm forever and back off because there was a world of difference between his friend saying that he felt the pictures showed excessive surgery and the same friend testifying in open court that Jannings was a….what had Nick called him…oh yeah…’a homo-phobic bag of shit.

Jannings was in so much pain he could hardly speak. Grissom finally managed to get Nick’s attention enough to get him to turn loose of Jannings arm. The bag of shit was white and shaking. His arm was not working too well and he cradled it against his body. He almost spat at Nick. He told him he wouldn’t touch his faggot slut again if he was dying. He started out of the room and turned at the doorway and said, “The disgusting freak is going to die anyway. He’s too weak to recover from this surgery and I made sure I was very thorough when I cleaned out his diseased flesh.”

Nick looked at him in horror and said, “You’re admitting you’ve deliberately violated your Hippocratic Oath and caused Greg’s condition to deteriorate? What kind of a monster are you?”

Jannings face took on a pious expression. He said, “I’m not the monster. I’m a good Christian. You and that disgusting, stinking thing you have unnatural relations with are the monsters. You’re an abomination in the eyes of God and all normal people. You and your kind are a disease in our society and should be eradicated.” He opened the door and started out and then turned back and said, “And don’t try to damage my reputation. It’s just your word against mine and no decent person will believe you or your Dr. Grissom. He’s probably another one of you.”

The door slammed shut behind him. Nick turned and looked at Grissom. There was so much pain in his eyes that Gil had to look away for a second before he said, “Come on Nick. We need to make a telephone call and get some worms in the air.”

Nick swallowed and said, “Yeah and we need to get security in here to make sure that filthy piece of shit doesn’t come near Greg again and we need to see the hospital administrator right away.”

Gil asked Nick if he was going to press charges against Jannings. He shook his head slowly and said no; Jannings was right. They had no proof. But he did need to get another doctor assigned to Greg immediately to evaluate the medications Jannings had been giving him. He was afraid Jannings had been doing more than just excessive surgery.

Gil smiled at Nick. He told him to get on the room phone and call Bobby Dawson and his partner Steve. They were both off and he was sure they would be more than happy to guard Greg. He was going to get on his cell and get his friend moving and then they would go to the administrator together.

They waited beside Greg until Bobby and Steve walked through the door. Nick had filled them in on what had happened and they were both ready to kill anyone who looked cross ways at their friend. Nick thought about patting them down to see if Bobby had snuck any of his beloved guns into the hospital but decided he didn’t have the time. He told them not to let anyone but Nancy and Sharise, Greg’s nurses that had been with him from the beginning, near Greg or touch any of his IV’s, tubes or tend to him in any way. He told them to ask the nurses what they were going to do to Greg and they could tell both women what had happened. He was pretty sure that anyone who came near Greg would need to change their shorts when Bobby and his partner got through with them. He and Gil headed for the administrator’s office.

Mr. Haskell, the hospital administrator was busy according to his red-faced, embarrassed secretary. Nick and Gil looked at each other and nodded. Nick leaned over and said gently, “Is he talking with a doctor?”

She nodded too upset to even answer him.

Nick smiled and said, “Ok, you’ve done exactly what you were told to do. What happens now is not your fault and we will make sure you don’t get any grief for my friend and I just barging into his office.”

With that, Nick and Gil walked over, jerked the door open and sure enough. Jannings the jerk was sitting across from Haskell waving his arms around and looking indignant. When he saw Nick and Gil, he started blustering and telling them they had no right to just bust into the administrator’s office. They were having a serious discussion regarding hospital protocol.

Nick looked at the one man he wanted to beat the life out of and said he just bet they were. He turned to Haskell and told him he had fired Jannings as Greg’s physician and he wanted a new doctor assigned to his case immediately. Furthermore, he wanted every single order for medication Jannings had ever prescribed for Greg re-evaluated and he wanted it done now because they were going to be starting a new treatment on his partner the minute it arrived at the hospital.

Jannings got this patient long-suffering expression on his face and nodded wisely at Haskell. “See, I told you; completely irrational. Absolutely no idea of the potential damage he could be causing the patient. I believe Mr. Stokes need’s some psychological attention and of course DR. GRISSOM should be forbidden to set foot into the patients room again.”

Nick started to answer the bag of shit but Gil, put his hand on his arm, looked calmly at Jannings and asked, “Why do you think I should not be allowed to see Greg?”

Jannings was so pompous by now, if you stuck a pin in him he would have sailed around the room like a punctured balloon. “Well, it’s obvious you just regard him as some sort of guinea pig; fodder for your ‘friends’ experiments.” The nasty slant he put on the word ‘friend’ made it very evident that he really wanted to say ‘fuck buddy’.

Gil smiled at Jannings, reached in his pocket and took out a small device he used to record his thoughts at crime scenes when he didn’t want to take time to write down notes. He sat it on Haskell’s desk, turned it on and said, “I’m not the one who has been violating my sworn oath to ‘first do no harm’.” He pressed play and the words were remarkably clear. They started with Jannings “I don’t have time for you” and went through to the moment the door slammed as he left Greg’s room.

Haskell’s face had started changing the moment the recorder started and by the time it went silent, he was almost purple with rage. He stood up and leaned across the desk right into Jannings face. “You filthy, lying bastard. You homo-phobic….” Haskell was so angry he couldn’t think of what he wanted to say.

“Piece of shit” Nicky suggested.

“Thank you Mr. Stokes. You homo-phobic piece of shit. You’ve put our profession in danger, this hospital in danger and I might could forgive you that but you put your patient in danger and I will never forgive you for that.”

He pushed the intercom button so hard, he broke his fingernail. “Mrs. Parker, get security up here right now.”

Jannings started spluttering and yelling that Grissom had invaded his privacy by recording a private conversation. He was going to sue him, Nick, the freak Nick was screwing and the hospital for tolerating that type of disgusting behavior on their property.

Haskell started grinning before Jannings had come to the end of his rant. “Oh please, do sue us. I can hardly wait for you to make a complete fool of yourself and admit in a court of law that you deliberately subjected a man that the entire state of Nevada considers a true hero, to radical and unnecessary surgery. When we are through with you, you won’t be safe anywhere and there won’t be anyone willing to lift a finger to help you if you get attacked by a concerned citizen trying to bring you to justice.”

His door opened and 2 of the biggest guys Nick had ever seen walked in the office and reported to Mr. Haskell. He smiled and said, “Gentlemen, Dr. Jannings is leaving the hospital; for good. Let him take his clothes out of his locker and then escort him to his car. Remove his badge, scrape his parking stickers off his car and let everyone in security know that if they see him on the sidewalk outside the hospital, he’s fair game.”

He looked at Jannings one last time and said, “I’m showing you more mercy that you showed Greg but I promise you, if I hear one word against Mr. Stokes or Mr. Sanders or any one of their friends, we will press charges against you for assault and we will use the tape to elevate the charge to turn it into a hate crime. Do you understand?”

Jannings glared at him and didn’t say anything.

Haskell roared at him, “DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”

Jannings jumped a foot and said yes he understood. The security guards each grabbed an arm and Nick was so happy to see him visibly wince when his left arm was grabbed. He was dragged out of the office. They could hear him complaining about the rough treatment all the way down the hall.

Haskell dropped back in his chair. He just put his head in his hands and looked down at his desk. Finally he looked up at Nick and Gil. He told them he was genuinely sorry but he realized there just weren’t any words to let them know how badly he felt about the whole thing so just tell him exactly what they wanted and he would see that it happened.

Nick told him he wanted a new doctor, he wanted every facet of Jannings treatment of Greg examined to see if it was really warranted. He also wanted security on Greg’s room until they were sure Jannings was out of the hospital and would not be able to come back. Gil took over and told him about the medical maggots currently winging their way to Desert Palms. Haskell interrupted him to ask where they were coming from. Gil told him Dr. Robert Jarvis was a friend who had been doing research in using maggots to control suppurating wounds for some time now. Haskell raised his hand and said, “That’s enough. Dr. Jarvis reputation as a researcher is well known in our profession. I will have security waiting downstairs when the messenger arrives with your package and Mr. Stokes, when my two favorite hard-asses get through giving Jannings the bum’s rush, I will have them assigned as Greg’s personal body guards until you feel he’s safe.”
*********************************************************************************
Nick and Gil were back where they started, sitting beside the bubble just waiting for something to happen. After all the drama and emotion, Nick was drained. He was still sick with fear for Greg. The fact that Greg’s fever was rising and he was now babbling nonsense that couldn’t even be called words was not helping. Gil tried to help keep Nick calm but his own fears for the young man he had watched develop from a brilliant off-the-wall DNA tech to an equally brilliant CSI were over whelming and he was becoming more and more afraid that everything they had accomplished that afternoon was too little and too late.

It was a measure of how over-wrought they both were that when the door opened, they jumped like they’d been shot. A thick shock of bright red curls showed around the door jamb followed by an earnest young man. Nick who was always the soul of courtesy was too upset to even try to be polite. He just growled at the kid that this was a restricted room and he had no business being there to get out. The kid came on into the room and said, “I guess you must be Mr. Stokes. I’m Dr. Lambach. I’m going to be taking over your partner’s case.”

Nick’s jaw dropped open, he looked at this kid who looked like he’d wandered away from the grownups and without even realizing how it sounded, said, “My God; how old are you?”

Dr. Lambach smiled, which made him look even more like a curly-haired little cherub and said, “I’m a younger than most of my colleagues but Mr. Stokes, you ought to be used to that. I’ve been studying your partner’s medical records for the last hour and I see where he was way ahead of his contemporaries and look how good he turned out. I figure you of all people ought to realize that age has nothing to do with competency.”

Nick had the grace to look embarrassed; especially when he heard Gil let out a strangled snort/gasp that could have been aborted laughter. The cherub turned towards Gil and walked over and stuck his hand out and said, “You must be Dr. Grissom. It’s really an honor sir to finally meet you. I’ve been to two of your symposiums and I don’t know anyone else in the world that could lecture on the ‘Timeline Appearance of Death Watch Beetles’ and hold the attention of everyone in the room.”

Grissom took the young man’s hand and told him he was glad to meet him also. Then he gave him a stern look and said, “Under normal circumstances, we would be more than willing to give you the benefit of the doubt but I don’t know how much Mr. Haskell has told you about why you are taking Mr. Sanders case. For that matter, we don’t know why you are taking Mr. Sanders case.”

Dr. Lambach nodded his head, dragged over a chair and said that was fair. They had every right to know if he was informed enough to care for someone who had been injured as badly as their friend had been. He told them briefly about his background, his credentials, (which were pretty impressive) and that he had a personal recommendation from Dr. Jarvis. He’d been working long distance with Dr. Jarvis for the last 2 years assisting him with his research. Mr. Haskell had held nothing back about the reason for his taking over Greg’s care. He ended with saying, he had carefully gone over every order on Greg’s file and there were some items he was concerned about. He wanted to do a physical examination of Greg before the maggots arrived and he wanted to talk with his 2 chief nurses and get their thoughts on Greg’s condition and the quality of care he had received up to now. He looked expectantly at Nick and then fell silent; waiting for Nick’s decision. Nick looked at Grissom and at his slight nod, he told Cupid (Lord the kid looked exactly like one of those chubby little angels with the arrows of love on Valentine cards) to take care of his husband.

Dr. Lambach almost leaped out of his chair and eagerly approached the bubble. The smile left his face as he got his first look at his patient and as he checked the instruments and gauges and examined the fluids draining out of Greg’s body; his face began to look older and sadder. He’d just finished taking Greg’s temp when Nancy and Sharise entered the room. He took them both over in the corner and they talked quietly for several minutes. Then they all approached the bubble and he began giving orders. He wanted the temperature in the bubble lowered by 5 degrees, he wanted alcohol baths started at once, and he wanted his IV solution to be increased to 15% saline instead of 5. He also asked when Greg had last been fed. Nancy and Sharise looked at each other and then said, he hadn’t been fed in almost 30 hours. It was the first time Nick and Gil saw the young doctor get mad but it wouldn’t be the last. He told them to get a concentrated feeding and administer it before they did anything else. He also wanted his patient’s bedding to be changed as soon as the feeding was done.

He walked over to Nick and Gil and took a few deep breaths and apologized for his behavior. He said any doctor worthy of the name knew that the patient’s physical needs had to be met in order to give him the strength to fight his illness. He also told them that it wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been because both nurses had been sneaking Greg feeding solution every chance they got and trying to keep him clean and comfortable. He said, they knew what an SOB Jannings was and they had tried to sabotage his miss-treatment of Greg every chance they got.

The next shock came when they changed Greg’s bedding. When they rolled Greg gently up on his right hip to pull the fresh sheet under him, Sharise let out a loud ‘OH NO’. All of them ran over to the bubble and everyone saw what had shocked her. Greg had a bad bed sore on his left buttock. It was as infected as his original wound and because of the weight he’d lost, it was almost down to the bone. Nick clenched his hands and tried to stop the tears he could feel rolling down his cheeks but when Grissom, show no emotion Grissom, put his arms around him and lead him away from the containment sphere, he just laid his head on Grissom’s shoulder and sobbed out loud.

Lambach was cursing softly as he and the nurses worked to make Greg as clean and comfortable as they could under the circumstances. After they got him changed, fed, the temperature lowered and the new solution going; the young doctor and the two nurses put their heads together and tried to figure out how they could get Greg’s weight up off the bed sore. It was a dilemma. He had the colostomy bag in his right side. His left side was just one big open pussy wound. He had a catheter in his penis draining away the dark greenish yellow urine. He couldn’t be turned any way at all. And they had to leave him flat so the maggots when they got there had complete access to all the surface area of his wound.

Nancy said somewhat hesitantly that David had talked about making Greg some pads out of some sort of gel filled material.

Nick had stopped crying and was mopping up his face and eyes but her remarks caught his attention. “Which David” he asked.

Nancy said softly, “David Hodges. He works at your lab. You know him.”

Nick said, “Yeah I know him but I’m not sure how you know him.”

Nancy told Nick that David was there almost every day but he usually came when Nick was gone. She said she’d asked him once if he was afraid of Nick and he said no, he just wanted Nick to have as much time as possible with Greg. But he was there a lot in the evening before he went to work and she was usually Greg’s night nurse. Nick shook his head in wonder. Jannings was a slime ball and Hodges who Nick thought didn’t care about anyone had been sitting with Greg at night for months and never told anyone he did it. God, talk about evening the scales. He picked up the room phone and dialed the LV lab. He told Judy he needed Hodges right away. When David picked up the phone, Nick said, “David, I hear you’ve been working on some support for Greg? “

If Hodges was surprised it didn’t show in his voice. He just drawled in his snarky fashion, “So”.

“So, we need whatever you’ve come up with as fast as you can get it here.”

It’s a tribute to the man that he didn’t ask a single question just said, “I’ll be there.”
*************************************
Hodges, his pads, the maggots, 2 uniformed officers, Goliath One and Goliath Two and a couple of security escorts all arrived at the hospital room at the same time. Hodges and one of the security escorts were having what appeared to be a game of ‘tug of war’ over a huge package. Hodges wanted it and the guard didn’t want him to bring it in the room. In fact, both security guards and the two Goliath’s really didn’t want to let David anywhere near Greg. It took Grissom, Nick and the good doctor to convince them that Hodges was not a possible assassin; he was friend, good friend, good friend bearing gifts. While Hodges, the 2 security guards and both Goliath’s were arguing in the doorway, the uniformed cops were trying to get Grissom’s attention. Finally, one of them put his fingers in his mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Everyone stopped and his partner took advantage of the silence to announce the arrival of the worms. They had come in on a private jet. Grissom had called Jim to tell him what was happening, Jim had called Vartann and Vartann had assigned a police escort to wait at the airport for the jet to arrive. The cops grabbed the container, ran for their car and went full out for the hospital, lights flashing and sirens blazing.

The young doctor grabbed the container, told Nick and Nancy to bring Hodges up to speed on the need for the pads and he and Grissom got the container ready for it’s UV sterile light bath. While Grissom was making sure every single centimeter of the surface of the container was completely bathed in the rays, Dr. Lambach was using piles of gauze pads to blot and soak up the pus and fluid leaking from Greg’s injury site. Finally the container was deemed sterile, Grissom pressed the button that pulled all the air out of the pressure chamber and when it was at zero, the inner door opened and Lambach dropped the contaminated pads and the gloves he’d pulled on over the automatic arms that extended into the chamber into the disposal chute. He pulled new sterile gloves over the robot hands and carefully opened the container. He took a pair of sterile tweezers and every so gently, began to pick the white, wiggly angels of mercy up and place them on the wound. Every so often, he had to stop, blot more pus, get rid of the pads and the gloves, re-glove and continue placing the maggots. At last every one of them had their own place at the table so to speak. Nick, Hodges and Nancy looked at each other and just shook their heads. Hodges said, “Good lord, they look like proud parents whose baby just figured out how to get something out of the tit.”