Once again apologies for the long time it's taking me to update. I'm glad to see you are enjoying the story.
Carpe Diem
By HalinaRenata
Chapter 4: Ratio decidendi
Four Days Ago
Grissom and Catherine almost didn't believe Sara when she said the gunmen were still in the house, she'd seen them and they were threatening to shoot Greg if they didn't get off the site of the house immediately. They looked at each other dumbfounded but they knew truthfully Sara wasn't one to lie or exaggerate. Grissom looked up at the house and then back at Sara who seemed slightly unnerved by what she'd seen. Taking a deep breath, he went into action, ordering everybody in and around the house to get back on the road.
"Hey, hey, Gill, what's going on?" Brass cried in outrage, walking up to them from the reporters as the remaining CSIs and police officers along with David walked from the house.
"The gunmen are still in the house."
"You want me to get SWAT?"
"No!" Grissom shouted before he could stop himself, watching as Brass' face turned into one of suspicion. "Greg's still in the house. They have him."
Brass' eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Oh, well, that's great. The rookie CSI gets trapped in a house with two psychopathic killers. The media, the public, oh and even the sheriff, are going to love this one." He surveyed the area briefly. "Didn't Greg wait for Topps, the officer who was checking the upstairs, to tell him it was clear?"
"I don't know yet. Maybe they have him as well." Sighing, Grissom looked back up at the house but was unable to see any activity coming from inside which worried him more. Sara was the only one who had seen what had happened. "We need plans of this house. I want to know what room they're in." Brass nodded and left with the remains of his police force.
As they all dispersed Sara stood on the road looking up at the house. Now everybody was behind the yellow tape. Brass and several police officers could be heard trying to get rid of the reporters and neighbouring onlookers. SWAT and the paramedics would undoubtedly be arriving soon. The high profile case had just become even greater.
"What about Greg?" Sara asked quietly, unable to imagine what was going in the house right now. She tried to quell the feeling of fear as she remembered the scene on the stairs; Greg's terrified voice and the gunmen, one of which seemed to have a very short temper and little control over himself. She, like the rest of them, couldn't imagine what was happening inside. "Grissom, he doesn't even have a gun. He was never trained to use one. He doesn't know how to handle this situation."
Grissom didn't say anything but he knew Sara was right. With the least amount of experience, this was probably the worst thing that could happen to Greg. "Catherine, Warrick, I need you to take all the evidence back to the lab and..."
"You're making us leave and go back to the lab?" Catherine interrupted, incredulous. "While Greg's in there?"
"We need to know who the gunmen are. You can come back, we just...we need something to go on. Preferably who these men might be and why they killed the de Marinez family."
Catherine and Warrick left grudgingly. David stood beside nervously before coming forward. "Is there no way to get to the bodies out back? I mean, maybe it will help a bit…"
"No, Sara said, they wanted everyone off the perimeter. As much as I want those bodies at the morgue I'm not risking Greg or that officer just to transport them. They'll have to wait a while."
Sighing, Grissom moved and stood beside Sara, gazing at the house. It seemed odd, the silence surrounding it. They weren't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Signs of life or any activity from Greg would give them something and positive thinking was the only way forward to motivate them in getting Greg out of the house. Yet at the same time, there was always the possibility of a scream, a cry, the resonance of the feared sound: a gunshot.
Sara sighed, feeling guilty as she crossed her arms. "I didn't even ask if he was okay. I just left." In frustration, she pulled the phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. "I can't just stand here and watch and do nothing."
Grissom put a hand over hers to try and calm her shaking and obvious worry. Inside, he was in turmoil as well but he was the master of composition. He could maintain repose and hide the fear and the worry. "Let me," he said, taking his own phone out of his pocket and searching for Greg's number. As the ringing began to sound in his ears, he could only pray Greg would pick and hear something good down the other end.
Greg focused on breathing. Keeping his eyes closed and his body still, he counted in his head each breath he took. For a few seconds, there was complete silence except for the sounds of his breathing and the dull thud of his heart hammering. Greg had felt vulnerable from his position on the floor but he did not dare move in case he provoked the gunman. It was at that moment, he realized the severity of the situation.
"Luca!" he heard as the other gunman returned. Luca's gaze immediately left him and turned to his counter part. "What are you doing? Leave that kid alone, you can do what you want later; help me look for this thing upstairs. I think all the cops have moved off."
With the door closed and their voices receeding, only then did Greg feel safe to let his muscle he didn't even realize were tensing relax and his breathing finally slow. He relinquished in stealing himself a few moments of peace and considered what he had gotten himself into and the ways out. His only thoughts were 'what would Grissom do?' He had always believed Grissom knew the answers to everything and every situation. Yet, Greg didn't know where to start. Should he work out where he was? Try to contact Grissom or Sara outside? Try and escape whilst he could? But escaping meant taking the boy with him and he didn't want to risk his life as well.
Turning round onto his stomach Greg pulled himself up to his knees in front of the child. "Hey," he said quietly, almost a whisper at the terrified child that had pulled himself up against the wall. He couldn't have been more than six. His dark eyes were widened with fear and glistening with unshed tears, visibly looking how Greg felt inside. "It's okay," he tried to assure him in the softest voice he could. "You're gonna be fine. What's your name?" The boy didn't answer, just continued looking at him in a scared fashion, like he was scared of him as well. "Are you Alex?"
This time the boy nodded and gave a little bit more trust by not shying away to the wall.
"Well, Alex, my name's Greg, okay? I work with the police department and I'm going to try and get you out. Do you know who the men are?" Again, he received a shake of the head. Greg wasn't entirely certain what he was trying to get from the young boy. He prayed he wouldn't have to tell Alex that his parents and grandmother had been shot and were now dead. "Well, do you know why they're here?"
"They're looking for something," he answered quietly.
Confused, Greg straightened up and looked around the room. It was fairly sparse. The walls looked as though they had just been painted and a carpet or linoleum had yet to be put down. In the far corner, opposite from the only window there was a desk with computer screens depicting certain areas around the house. Greg rolled his eyes as he realized he'd found de Marinez security system. Getting to his feet now, he walked over to the flashing screens. The house was empty. Occasionally, he could see the two gunmen in a room, rifling through some cupboards. Outside, he saw all the people that were involved in the case lined up on the road as instructed.
"Do you know what?" Greg asked quietly, looking over his shoulder.
"It's shiny," the boy whispered back. Fear crept through his innocent sounding voice and Greg felt a pang of pain in thinking that a child had been caught up in these proceedings. It only added to the burden of pressure. "Who are they?"
"They're--" Greg paused. "I don't know yet."
Just as he was about to turn back to the boy, he heard a ring, which frightened the living daylights of him. Jumping briefly at the sound, his shaking hand immediately dived into his pocket to retrieve the phone before the gunmen could hear it. He didn't even check caller ID before he pressed it to his ear and whispered hurriedly. "Hello?"
"Greg!" he heard the sharp voice at the other end.
"Grissom!" Greg reply of relief sounded more like a sigh. He felt less alone. "I'm so glad you called."
"Are you all right?"
Greg looked around him quickly and swallowed to try and appear brave. "Yeah, yeah, I-I'm fine. I've found de Marinez's son, Alex. He's here in the room with me. They must have just taken him from his room or something instead of killing him straight away, I don't know exactly."
"Greg, I need you to calm down. Take a deep breath. Now, can you tell me what you know and where you are?"
Greg put his elbows on the table and ran one hand through his hair, doing as instructed. "There's two of them. One of them is called Luca. I didn't catch the other's name or their last names. The boy doesn't know them but they're here looking for something. I don't know what that is either. Err...that's all I know. They've left the room to go and look for it somewhere upstairs again."
"Okay, Greg. Now do you know where you are inside the house?"
Greg stood up and walked towards the window carefully to look out. He guessed he was in an extension part of the house considering the wall of the main building came across, cutting out most of his view of the road and the people on it except for a few sporadic onlookers. "I can't see much. I think I'm in a corner part of the house at the front. There's only one door. I found de Marinez's security system and where he must watch everything that's going on."
He heard Grissom sigh down the other line. "Great. Well if you're stuck in there with them it means they can see whatever we're doing. So any surprise plan we have to get inside the house would be ruined…unless you can disconnect it."
Greg's eyes widened. His professionalism was slipping from his grasp like sad between his fingers. "What! I don't know anything about wires! You have to get to me somehow." He stumbled back to the desk, breathing heavily again; panic overtaking him when he couldn't think of a logical way out of this situation and neither could Grissom. He closed his eyes, ran a hand across his forehead and attempted to slow his heart rate down to a reasonable level but it was failing. "Grissom, you have to get me out of here, please. They might actually shoot me or the kid. They've already killed one of the cops that was clearing the area upstairs, I...I saw his body."
"Greg..."
"One of them is a manic, Grissom!" He managed to restrain himself from shouting asto not alert the gunmen or scareAlexalthough the temptation to do so to get his point across was overwhelming.
"Greg!" Grissom shouted, snapping the younger man back to reality and ceasing his panicked rambling. "I'm going to get you out of there, I promise. But I need you to calm down and keep a level head. You must not do anything too rash that will put you in danger, all right? This is not field practise anymore but I know you are capable of making the right decisions." Greg shook his head to himself, not believing in himself. "Hold out and protect yourself and the boy, I'll..."
Greg didn't hear anymore. He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was too heavy to belong to the boy. Somewhere in the distance, he heard Grissom calling his name like a faint sound of hope too far away to make a difference. As he turned around slowly, his eyes widened as he saw the shadow of the gunman behind him. "Shit, I...," he started to say.
The phone dropped to the floor with Grissom still calling him and suddenly he was pushed back against the wall facing the gunman, Luca, again. Greg didn't make a single sound, but stared at Luca, the phone loosely in his hand.
"Tony. Take the phone." Behind him, Greg could see Tony pick up his phone, look at it for a brief moment before turning it off and placing it on the table. The hope Greg had in Grissom was shattered. His attention focused back to Luca as he turned to face him again. "You shouldn't have done that, kid. Who were you talking go?"
He was roughly spun around to face the wall, a hand in between his shoulder blades keeping him in places. "My—My boss."
A hand swept down his body and reached his back pocket but didn't go straight in. Greg closed his eyes and tried to fight off the feeling and horrible thought of the gunman enjoying lightly touching him up. A hand remained on his hip momentarily before slipping into his back pocket and slowly pulling out his wallet. Greg pressed his forehead against the wall, closing his eyes. Any second now the moment would be over and he wouldn't feel so vulnerable.
"Gregory Sanders. CSI." Again, he was turned around to face Luca. "You're not a cop."
Greg shook his head, words failing him again. "N-No. I'm a crime scene investigator, forensics. I just collect the evidence, that's all."
Tony came forward and pushed Luca out of the way to step in front of Greg. Before he knew it, a picture was being thrust into his face. "Did you come across this in any of your collecting down there?" Greg looked at it closely. It looked like a chain, a golden necklace to be precise with an intricate design on the thick oval shaped pendant hanging from it. He searched his memory for a few seconds, trying to remember what he saw during his brief time downstairs in the living room.
"No, I haven't seen it. But I'd only just come in and was looking around. I hadn't collected anything. What is it?"
"Something very important," Luca replied vaguely.
Greg raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Is it worth that much that you had to kill a family and a cop?"
Greg was answered by a fist slamming into his stomach. An involuntary yell of pain escaped from him and he heard Alex whimper slightly in the corner. Greg fell to his knees with his hand clutching his stomach and his body tense to try and fight off the pain. Luca's face only smiled again, only less cruel and twisted as he knelt down in front of Greg and looked at his pained expression. It was one of mirth and seeming loss. "Its value isn't monetary, boy. Besides, I thought you weren't a cop, so stop asking all of the questions."
"That was unnecessary, Luca," Tony remarked pointedly but he made no move to help Greg. He sat by the table in front of the camera, obviously in deep thought. "We have serious shit to think about now if we're gonna get out of here."
Gasping and placing his hands on the floor, Greg waited a few moments for the pain to subside. Then he looked around carefully, his eyes resting on the picture of the necklace again. The two gunmen seemed to be in thought, talking to each other, presumably over what to do and where to find the necklace. He remembered Grissom's words. Do what he had to protect himself and the kid. Alex was still sitting quietly in the corner. "What about if I help you find it? Would you let us go, then?"
Tony turned round and pointed the gun at him lazily. "Just sit down there and shut up, all right? I don't want to hear a sound from you."
Luca smirked. "I wouldn't mind hearing a few sounds from him…possibly in that position as well."
Greg instantly got off his hands and knees and sat against the wall, ignoring how his stomach protested from the sudden action. Looking beside him at Alex, he took into account that the boy was scared but unhurt. He looked up at Greg, as if expecting everything to resolve itself in a few moments.
With nothing to do, he sat and analysed to surpass the dull thud of pain and his fear. Luca, he thought, was absolutely insane. It wouldn't surprise him if the man had a criminal record. He seemed irrational and quick tempered and Greg hated the way he looked at him, in a twisted lustful manner. Tony, on the other hand, seemed more in control, the only person who could hold Luca on a leash. He appeared tired and unwilling to get themselves into a further mess but at the same time had an edge of sharpness to him that Greg didn't want to come across.
A nudge beside him indicated Alex was shifting. As the young boy's head felt onto his arm sleepily, Greg smiled sadly and put his arm around him. "I'm scared," the boy admitted, pressing his face into Greg's forensic jacket.
Greg shuffled further down against the wall so he was eye level with the boy. "I know you're scared. But I told you, it's going to be fine. I do this stuff all the time."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's no sweat." Greg wondered how unconfident his voice sounded to a six year old boy. Alex continued looking at him. "It's all right," Greg whispered, rubbing his shoulder. He could find nothing else to say. No promises. No concrete reassurances. Just that for the moment, "It's all right."
Alex nodded in full understanding and Greg sighed, leaning his head back against the wall and taking a deep breath. The way he saw it, the odds weren't in the gunmen's favour. They had two hostages. One would be disposable. But if he could get Alex out to safety they would only be left with one hostage to leave the building with and therefore wouldn't dare kill him. Greg had never really considered himself courageous before. Anything he thought of right now came straight from action movies. And although he himself didn't want to be left alone with the gunmen, he could hardly risk the life of a six year old boy.
More than ever, he wished he had more of Grissom's advice right now.
"Greg!" Grissom cried again down the phone when he received no answer. "Greg!" The younger CSI had stopped talking to him. He heard some kind of whispered plea and then an unfamiliar voice, presumably the gunman's. Suddenly the dial tone was in his ear. They had been cut off. Frustrated, Grissom looked back at the house again, praying that Greg wasn't in any serious trouble.
"Grissom?" Sara asked tentatively. "Is he all right?"
"He's scared," was all Grissom said. There was no point in sugar coating the truth but there was no point in worsening the situation they were in. He walked over to Brass who was by one of the cop cars with a large spread of paper in front of him. He looked over at it seeing the outlines of the house in front of him, remembering what Greg had told him a few moments ago.
"So...where are you?" he talked to himself. Greg had said they were at the front of the house but there had been no movement through the windows that they had seen so far in the main central block of the building. Moving past the parked cars and the people, Grissom went to one side of the house that looked like an extension further back from the rest of the building like a wing. A movement in one of the windows confirmed his suspicions and he nodded at it to Brass. "There. That's the room. Greg said that's where de Marinez's security system was."
Brass rolled his eyes. "Great. So we can rule out the element of surprise."
"We've also got two hostages. Greg said Alex de Marinez was there with him. He also said that they'd shot and killed an officer. I'm guessing that was Topps." Grissom looked up and down the street. It was in a fairly quiet neighbourhood. Looking at the house opposite, Grissom squinted at the windows. "How far can a SWAT man shoot to wound someone through to the de Marinez house?"
Brass smiled wryly. "Wouldn't hurt to try, seeing as we have no other options."
Half an hour must have gone by. Greg was beginning to feel rather tired. His eyes were drooping. After waking up at (for him) a godforsaken hour and running on no sleep, with the addition of having a gun pointed at him and several adrenaline rushes, the stress was beginning to take its toll. Sleep sounded appealing. That way he would be able to escape the reality of what was happening to him right now. His head rested on the hand was propped up by an elbow on his knee. Hardly comfortable but it would suffice.
"Hey!" someone shouted by him. "Stay awake. I'm not carrying you if we're moving."
Greg blinked, adjusting his thoughts. "Moving where? You have a street full of cops and probably SWAT men by now. How far do you think you're going to go?"
He shut his mouth as soon as he saw that Luca was preparing to stand up and possibly strike him again but Tony's hand pulled him back to his original sitting position. As calmly as he could, Tony said "Listen, kid. One way or another we're getting out of here, with or without the bracelet..."
"Tony, you said you'd help fi..."
Standing up, Tony whirled on Luca. "Shut up! It's obviously not here, Luca. If de Marinez was smart, he probably sold it or gave it to some other cheap girl. But we've cleared this house and it's nowhere. We—or at least I—have to think about getting out of here." Luca said nothing although it was evident he was unhappy. Tony now turned back to Greg. "And you're going to help us with that."
"You think you're going to walk out of here just because you have me as a hostage? You're going to have to do better than that."
Tony remained stoic. "They will this time."
Greg did not like the implication of this sentence but said no more. Further off, Luca have barely registered what had been said except that the search for the necklace was no longer continuing. Standing up in agitation, he paced for a few moments, Greg watching his every move before he moved towards then and crouched down on Alex's side. Once again the picture of the necklace came out. "Think, kid. Do you ever remember seeing this at all? Do you have any idea where it would be? Think hard." He grabbed Alex's arm and shook him slightly for emphasis.
Alex shook his head, beginning to cry. "I haven't seen it."
"You must have done, you little brat. Think! Did your mom ever wear it? Did you ever see it in a box?"
Alex pressed further into Greg, trying to shy away from the harsh questions. He shook his head again. "I've never seen it. Mommy never wore it and I wasn't allowed to look in her cupboards."
"You must know where it is, think, anywhere! Anywhere! For God's sake, tell me something useful!" Luca's temper suddenly snapped again and lifted his hand up as if to backhand the boy.
Immediately, Greg stood up and grabbed hold of Luca's wrist before it came down, seemingly hard enough to dislocate the young boy's jaw. "Hey, hey!" he shouted, his eyes flaring now and feeling Alex dug on his jeans lightly. "He's six years old. Do you really think he knows where his mom and dad keep all the valuable stuff in the house? No one tells their kids that. Hitting him is not going to help."
Luca pushed Greg's shoulder and slammed him into the wall, coming so perilously close that Greg was trapped between the man's body and the plaster. He winced at his hand was pushed against the wall, hurting the bones. He wanted to turn his head away but kept his eyes on him, willing to cause a scene; enough of a distraction. "Do I look like I was asking you? You wait your turn for something to happen and questions to be asked."
Greg smirked slightly to irk him more, not sure where this new found confidence was coming from, but certain it would end up with some form of injury. "Maybe you should have asked de Marinez where it was before you stupidly blew him away. But I suppose you always act before you think, huh? Bet you're kicking yourself now."
Luca pushed him further into the wall so the back of his head hit the plaster. Greg winced again but kept focused, watching Luca's face cloud with anger. "I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself."
Tony sighed from where he stood by the side of the window, staring out at it tiredly. "Luca, just leave him," he said tiredly, but forcefully.
Greg pushed back. "Maybe you should have just got out whilst you could. They're not going to let you out of here. Not when you have someone part of the police department as a hostage and shot another. And they're not just going to let you go." Greg pushed back harder to give himself some room and antagonize Luca further, which seemed to be working. For a moment, he wondered how sensible this plan was.
"Hey, that's enough now," Tony started to say but was interrupted by Greg swinging his arm and catching Luca in the shoulder sending the man backwards. Now in an uncontrolledrage Luca came forward along with Tony and he suddenly found himself on the ground with Luca on top attempting to hit him and Tony trying to prise them apart. Greg put up his hands to protect himself but he looked up, seeing Alex sitting further away, a look of horror and fear imprinted on the child's face.
"Run. Fast," he whispered, hitting back at Luca again.
The boy evidently hesitated. But from the corner of his eye, Greg thankfully saw Alex getting to his feet and start running as Luca delivered another blow to the side of his head that almost rendered him unconscious. The world swam dangerous in front of Greg's eyes for a second and moved spastically but he tried to shake his head and roll onto his side when he realized the weight of the two gunmen was no longer on him. He heard footsteps and then a cry of alarm coming from one of them. As he looked up, his eyes widened in horror when saw Luca aiming the gun in the direction of the open door where Alex had just run.
"No, stop," he cried, getting to his knees to try and distract him again, despite the excruciating pain in his head. Hopefully, he could knock Luca to the ground again and either stop him from shooting or make him miss. So long as the boy reached the end of the corridor round the corner, he was safe.
But he was too late. Just as he, stumbling, reached Luca there was a sharp sound. The silencer made the shot from the gun sound like a mere loud clap in an empty room. But it was enough. Greg watched horrified as the boy, who had almost made it round the corner gave a small cry and dropped to the ground with a yell. He gave no sound after that and for a moment there was silence.
Greg chocked, unable to take his eyes off the boy. He lay there unmoving, not even crying. The bullet had obviously hit him fatally. Greg slumped down on his knees and put his palms to the ground, feeling the tears come to his eyes instantly. He felt sticky blood drip down the side of his face and splash on the wooden floor like a teardrop. He was dead. Alex was dead. Luca had shot him because he'd listened to Greg and run. All around Greg the world seemed to stop still; his hearing muffled, his eyes blurred and his head fuzzy with incomprehension.
"What the fuck did you do that for?" he faintly heard Tony cry, whirling round on Luca in a rage. "How many people are we trying to kill?"
"We have killed two," Luca spat. "Eddie was responsible for the rest. Besides, that boy should never have been born. And we were gonna get nothing out of him." He looked down at Greg, whose eyes were still transfixed by the sight of Alex de Marinez further down the corridor. "Besides, the whole police department will want him back. A cop is more useful than some kid. They won't risk his life. He's far more useful."
TBC...
Thank you so much to:
Ayod (I think you are right. Thankfully I wasn't trying to hide what happened) remoob1513, Rezuri, Joelle4, Zelrika, Guardian6, Halacanno, cheggly, Joralie, lj, Sillie
Your reviews were very encouraging XD