Running From Monsters Chapter 11/?
Title: Running From Monsters Chapter 11/?
Author: CSI_Niteowl
Pairing: David/Nick
Rating: PG -13
Warnings: slash, language, mentions of child abuse,
Spoilers: None
Summary: David goes to the doctor and the lab. ( I hate summaries. I suck at them.)
Disclaimer: I don’t own CSI or its characters. If I did there’d be much more Nick, David and Greg screen time. I do, however, own the original characters that came from my twisted mind.
A/N: Thanks to everyone that’s reading and reviewing this story. Reviews make me extremely happy!
Previous chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
David glared at Nick and Mary as they sat in the waiting room. They had both insisted on coming. David had argued for an hour that they didn’t need too. He wasn’t five years old, for heaven sake. Had they listened to him? No. Mary had that ‘I’m tuning you out’ look she would give him when she was a teenager and he was trying to bestow on her his extensive knowledge. And Nick? Well, he had that stupid grin plastered on his face, the one he always gets when he knows he’s going to get his way. Damn them both.
“Do you ever worry your face will get stuck like that?” Mary asked.
“Who would know the difference?” Nick grinned. “He’s almost always glaring at someone.”
“I so graciously let you come with me and this is how you act?” David huffed.
“Graciously?” Nick shook his head. “If that was gracious I’d hate to see difficult.”
The door to the doctor’s office opened. “Mr. Hodges?” a red head nurse said.
The three of them rose. “Oh, hell no. You both are not coming with me.”
“Okay, calm down. I’ll stay out here.” Mary sat back down.
“I’m coming with you.” Nick said.
“Fine.” David rolled his eyes as they followed the nurse.
They waiting in the exam room for twenty minutes before the doctor graced them with his presence for five minutes. He wanted an x-ray of the hand so that was another fifteen minutes of waiting. Finally the doctor came back in and informed them that the hand would be fine. By then David was fuming at having to wait so long. It wouldn’t have mattered if the doctor said he was going to live forever. David still would have scowled at him. That is until he said those two magic words, pain medicine. When he uttered those words David could have jumped for joy. That is if he would actually do something like that. Instead he mumbled a thank you as the doctor walked out of the room.
“Somebody’s happy to get some drugs.” Nick smirked.
“Can we get it filled on the way home?” David asked.
“Sure babe.”
*********
David was getting a bottle of water out of the refrigerator when Nick asked him what he was doing.
“Getting water.” David walked over and started to pick up his medication.
“You’re not going to take that, are you?”
“No, I thought I’d leave it on the counter and stare at it till my hand stops throbbing.”
“You can’t take it yet. You want to have a clear head when we talk to Grissom and Brass.”
“I do?”
“Yes. We’ll take them with us and as soon as you’re done you can take them.”
David sighed and shoved the bottle of pills in his pocket. “Let’s get this over with.”
“You want to come?” Nick asked Mary.
“No, I think I’ll stay here and unpack a few things.”
“Here.” David walked over and handed her his keys. “In case you need to go somewhere while we’re gone.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re letting her drive your car?” Nick was floored.
“Why not?”
“You won’t let me drive it.”
“That’s because whoever taught you to drive didn’t have any sense.”
“I’ll be sure to tell my dad that.”
“Don’t bullshit me. There’s no way Bill taught you to drive like that.”
“Well, he only gave me a couple of lessons. It was mostly Pam.”
“That explains everything.” David shuddered at the memory of Nick’s sister picking them up at the airport.
Nick sighed. “Come on. We don’t want to be late.”
“Remember the rules?” David asked Mary.
“Yes sir. No picking up boys, no speeding, no eating or drinking in the car, no loud obnoxious music, don’t pick up hitchhikers, refill the gas tank and most important, lock all the doors as soon as you enter the vehicle.”
“You forgot no talking to strangers.” Nick chuckled. “Did you ever have any fun?”
“That he knew about? No.”
“I don’t even want to know.” David grabbed Nick’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“By the way, who taught Mary how to drive?”
“I did, of course.”
“Of course.” As Nick started to close the door he looked at Mary and whispered “You poor thing.”
*********
“You okay?” Nick frowned.
“Yeah, I just want this all over with.” David stood in Grissom’s office looking out at the lab. “Why did she have to tell me where he was?”
“It’s not too late to change your mind.”
“But you think I should?”
“I think it’s the only way you’re going to be safe.”
Thanks for being here with me.”
“Where else would I be? We’re going to get through this together.”
You know if it wasn’t for you I’d leave here after this is all over with.”
“If that’s what you want we can go.”
David turned. “You would do that?”
“Don’t you know I’d do anything for you?”
Overwhelmed, David put his arms around Nick, holding him as close as he could.
“We’ll make it, baby.” Nick said as he wrapped his arms around the other man. “You got to believe that.”
David nodded.
“Here they come.” Nick felt him tense up. “I love you, David.” he whispered as Grissom and Brass entered the room.
******
David was in the break room drinking coffee. He had spent over an hour talking to his boss and Brass. He was trying hard to forget what was going on down the hall. They were briefing the rest of the CSIs. He sighed as he seen Jacqui and Bobby heading his way.
“David! What in the world happened?” Jacqui stared at his hand.
“Hello to you too.”
“No time for that.” Jacqui got right in David’s face. “What the hell is going on? You’ve been in the boss’ office forever and now all the CSIs are gathered in the conference room.”
“And they all look pretty serious.” Bobby added.
“I’d hope they always look serious when they are discussing a case.” David tried to sound uninterested.
“So they are discussing a case and it has something to do with you!” Jacqui exclaimed as if she’s won the lottery.
“Glad this makes you happy.” David grumbled.
She frowned. “Come on, Dave. I really am concerned. Does this have anything to do with your mother?”
“Drop it, Jacqui.” Nick ordered as he walked in.
Jacqui never backed down when she was worried about her friends but one look at Nick and she decided it would be wise to shut up.
“Grissom wants you in the conference room.” Nick told David.
David sighed..
As they walked down the hall David felt like everyone was staring at him. He wondered how many of them hoped he’d done something to get fired. Probably most. Maybe he had. After all, he’d known about a murder and kept silent about it for years.
“Hey.” Nick put his arm around his shoulder. “It’s going to be fine.”
“I hate this.”
“I know and I’m proud of you for going through with it.”
As soon as they entered the conference room all eyes fell on David. He wanted to turn and run but Nick put a hand on his back and steered him to a nearby chair.
“Nick said you wanted to see me.” David said to Grissom.
“We have a few more questions.”
David nodded. “Sure.”
There was an awkward silence as if nobody wanted to start. David couldn’t help sigh with relief when it was Nick that broke it.
“Do you ever remember your mom or brothers mentioning Vegas?”
“No. Not that we ever talked much.”
“What about Mary?” Grissom asked.
“She was just a kid.” David said defensively. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“We still need to talk to her. She may have heard something that she doesn’t remember.”
“Well, why the hell would she want too? No, you’re not talking to her.”
They were all a little stunned at his reaction, everyone but Nick.
“David, she not a kid anymore. You don’t need to protect her. Nobody here is going to hurt her.” Nick assured him.
David glared at Nick. Logically he knew he couldn’t stop them from talking to her but emotionally he was ready to risk everything to protect her. “Whose side are you on?”
“I’m on your side, David.” Nick sighed. “We’re all on your side. It’s standard procedure that we talk to her. You know that.”
“Fuck procedure.” David stood and opened the door. “None of it ever happened. I made it all up. So just drop the whole damn thing.”
“Don’t lie, David.”
“I’ll do whatever I have to to keep Mary out of this.”
“You know neither of you will be truly safe until your brothers are put away. Do you want to live like that? Is that what you want for Mary?” Nick tried to reason with him.
“We’ve survived this long. We’ll be fine.”
“No, Davey we won’t.”
David turned to see Brass and Mary standing in the hall.
“She was at the desk asking for you.” Brass said in answer to David's glare.
“I’m so sorry, Davey.” Mary cried.
“What’s wrong, angel?” David hugged his sister.
“I… I didn’t know. I never thought… oh god.”
“Hey, calm down. It’s going to be okay.” David wiped the tears off her face. “Tell me what has you so upset.”
For the first time Mary noticed the other people in the room. “I’m sorry for interrupting.” she muttered.
“You’re not. Actually we wanted to talk to you.” Nick said, earning him an angry look from David. Ignoring it, he introduced Mary to the team.
“Anything I can do to help.” Mary said. “That’s why I’m here. I found something.”
”What?” David asked.
She took a deep breathe. “The first day I was at Brenda’s I caught her going through my suitcase. I thought she was looking for your address or phone number. I didn’t even think she was capable of walking. I checked to make sure she hadn’t taken anything but nothing was missing. After that I keep my stuff locked up. It just creeped me out, you know?”
David nodded. The idea creeped him out too.
“Anyway, I decided to do some of my laundry and I found this.” She pulled an envelope out of her purse. “I knew I had to bring it here right away.”
David reached for the envelope but she handed it to Nick instead. He opened it and pulled out three pictures. The first picture was of the desert.
“Think that’s Vegas?” David asked, peering over his shoulder.
“Could be.” Nick handed the picture to Grissom. The next picture was of Teddy and Johnny. They were each holding a shovel and grinning from ear to ear.
“Bastards.” David whispered.
“Davey, don’t look at the last one.” Mary pleaded.
“Shit.” Nick exclaimed. He tired to hide the picture but David had already seen it.
David grabbed it from Nick. The picture showed a laughing Johnny and Teddy holding up Petey’s broken and beaten body. The room was spinning and he felt like he was suffocating. He flung the picture down and blindly started running. He ended up in the men’s room puking his guts out. He felt a cool paper towel being pressed to his forehead.
“Baby, I’m sorry you had to see that.” Nick said as the other man leaned against him and started sobbing. He felt helpless as he slowly started rocking David. “I love you.”
After a few more minutes David sat up. “Is this nightmare ever going to end?”
“Yes. As horrible as those pictures are they may be our best chance of finding Petey. Once we do we’ll put those bastards away forever.” Nick promised.
“Do you think we could go home?”
“Yeah. I’ll get Mary and we’ll go.”
“Wait.” David went to the sink and splashed his face with water. “I’m going with you.”
“Okay.”
“Nick.”
“Yeah”
“Thank you.”
Nick smiled and kissed him. “We’re going to get through this together, remember?”
David nodded. “Let’s find Mary.”
They didn’t have far to go as Mary was standing outside the men’s room door.
“I’m sorry, Davey. I should have given the pictures to Nick when you weren’t around.”
“It’s okay, angel.”
“I’ll go tell Gris I’m taking you home.” Nick said.