- First off let me apologize a million times to you guys that I haven't given you any updates in a long long time

- First off let me apologize a million times to you guys that I haven't given you any updates in a long long time. Thank you all who have kept reading my story and are waiting for the end. I had a baby 6 months ago and am just now getting time to sit down and write again. I hope you like the ending. And again sorry for such a delay in getting it published.

Case Closed-

(in the apt. of Nick Stokes)

Nick finished stuffing his last shirt into the duffle bag on his bed; and with one quick zip, his life here in Vegas had come to a close.

His father was paying for professional movers to come in and pack up all of his belongings for him. This gave Nick the opportunity to leave as soon or as late as he wanted to. Nick, however, chose to leave now, hoping to avoid confrontation and arguments with his close friends. He would come back after emotions had settled down to say his goodbyes. And it wasn't like he couldn't ever see them again. They were just a short trip away.

As he made his way to the front door, bag in hand, he bumped into his accent table in the hallway, knocking over a picture frame.

He bent down to retrieve the fallen photograph and let a deep and sorrowful sigh release as he turned it over and saw the entire CSI team standing together for a picture from Catherine's Christmas party she threw three years ago.

Nick popped open the back of the frame, removed the cardboard back, and retrieved the photo from inside. He folded it up, put it in his pocket, and exited the apartment for the last time.

Climbing into the waiting cab out front, he didn't even once look back as if to say goodbye. His eyes were focused ahead, on starting over, Vegas never even existed to him as he rode away in silence in the rain.

(CSI lab)

"Hey Griss!" Catherine threw a hand gesture as she passed him in the hallway.

"Catherine… staff meeting, my office … two minutes… let the other's know" Grissom said as he turned and kept walking down the hall towards his office.

"Will do.."

………………….

Grissom sat behind his desk, glasses on, and holding a single letter in his hands. The rest of the team filed in and he looked up from his paper.

"What's up Griss?" Warrick was the first to speak

"I've called you all here because of this…" Grissom tossed the paper toward the front of his desk as his CSI's gathered around to read.

"This looks like a resignation letter Griss…." Catherine noted as she was in mid- read.. "Who…." But she cut herself off as she read the signature at the bottom of the page.

"WHAT" was all that Warrick managed to say as he too reached the end.

"I know" Grissom replied "I thought that maybe when he told me this afternoon that he was leaving that he must have been just stressed out. But it's the real deal… that's his letter…and he's gone."

"Gone… what do you mean gone? Just not working here or what?" Everyone could tell the frantic burst of emotion and adrenaline behind Warrick's voice as he questioned.

"When I dropped Nick off this afternoon at his apartment he said he was leaving and going back to Texas.." Warrick smacked the doorframe beside him and clenched his fists.

"He wasn't even going to say goodbye!" Warrick asked

"Nick said that he couldn't handle the goodbye's right now…" Grissom just shook his head slightly not knowing what else to say.

"Well he's gonna get one whether he likes it or not" Warrick quickly turned and started down the hallway.

"WARRICK!…..warrick wait!… I'll go with you." Grissom took a few quick strides and caught up with him. And they exited the building together.

(back in the cab)

The rain was coming down so hard that Nick could barely look out the window. The sun had just gone down and the world outside look like a dark black hole. Nothing but desert and rain on the back road they took to get to the highway.

Nick's thoughts were wandering far when all of a sudden the cab driver yelled an obscenity and jerked the wheel to the side rather aggressively while trying to slam on the brakes.

Nick braced himself, holding onto the door and seat in front of him as the driver lost control on the slickened road and the car careened down an embankment on the right. Nick wasn't sure it was over and as soon as the thought crossed his mind the cab went into a barrel roll, furthering them from the road and welcoming almost certain injury.

With one final flip onto the roof of the car, it came to a hault.

Shattered glass, fender pieces, and other entrails of the car laid scattered about in the dark. And the ringing… oh the ringing… constant and head throbbing.

Nick undid his seatbelt and fell to the roof of the car. This awful ringing in his ears. He knew he had to have at least a concussion. He laid in pain as water and mud started to enter into the cab. He wished he could stop the ringing in his ears, just hold his hands up and stop it… knowing nothing would come of it, but hoping for just a moment of mental comfort Nick threw his hands up and covered his ears cradling both sides of his head.

His heart skipped a beat… the ringing had been muffled. Was he going insane from shock and injuries or was this really real? He lifted the palm of his left hand off his ear and the ringing was magnified. Quickly he clamped it back down and it was muffled again.

Nick took in a few excited breathes and started smiling and laughing aloud. He could hear!

"I CAN HEAR!" He shouted with joy and let himself laugh with pleasure. Now back to the more important matter at hand though. Great that he could hear, but he was bleeding from a deep cut in his side and the muddy water was rising into the cab.

He knew he needed to check on the driver, he hadn't heard anything from him, but who could with that loud ringing going off. Nick managed to get himself into a sitting position and scooch toward the front.

"HEY BUDDY CAN YOU HEAR ME!" Nick screamed about the ringing, but no answer.

He slithered his bloody hand into the front and onto the neck of the driver who was tangled into the steering wheel. Realizing the ringing was actually a constant force being applied upon the horn. Pressing two fingers in, he felt for a pulse, and just as he was hoping against it, he could feel no life in this man any longer, he was dead.

Nick sat back taking a breath in. As the initial adrenaline was wearing off, he was beginning to feel the aches and pains in his body, and a shiver ran up and through him as he was now sitting in a puddle of muddy rain water.

'I've got to do something' he thought to himself.

He fumbled clumsily into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

"AGHH!" There wasn't enough reception to make a call. He ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes; letting the negative thoughts begin to enter in.

Nobody would know he was gone until tomorrow when he didn't show up at his father's house, and by the time they found him he would already be dead from loss of blood or drowning as the steady flow of water continued to rise around him.

Nick was feeling more alone than ever now.

"God… are you playin tricks with me?" He looked up. "You give me back my hearing and now you're going to let me down out here all alone….. why! ….why?" Tears filled Nick's eyes and began to pour, he reached up and wiped away the snot that was running from his nose.

He put his hand inside his jacket to try and warm it up as his other hand was occupied holding the gouge in his left side. He felt something crinkle as his fingers searched for warmth. He pulled out the item…. he had forgotten about the picture he put in there earlier.

Nick smiled to see a familiar face in his time of need. If only they were really there and not just on a photograph. And it was then and there that he realized what a fool he had been to leave without saying goodbye.

They were his co-workers, his best friends for the past several years… they were like family and he had just consumed himself with self pity and ran away from them when all along they were trying to be there for him. Thinking about it now with a clear mind, he couldn't believe what a fool he had been not to say goodbye. And now he would never get that chance.

The thought of death re-entered into his mind and the picture was dropped beside him into the water as he let the inevitable fear consume him.

(inside warrick's denali)

The Denali came to a screeching hault outside of Nick's apartment complex.

"I'll go check inside and see if he's here.. you wait in the car" Grissom gave a firm order to Warrick who was hot headed to get on his buddies case.

"okay.." was all he said.

No more than three minutes later Grissom returned to the car.

"So?… did he leave already?" Warrick was impatient in his voice.

"No one answered the door and one of the neighbors said they saw him take a duffle bag and leave about an hour ago."

"Where was he going? Did he drive himself? Was he going to the airport?.." Warrick was about to raffle off even more questions when Grissom threw up a hand in surrender.

" I honestly don't know.. the neighbor did say that he got into a cab. Whether he's flying or driving is beyond me!"

"Well we've gotta figure out something…" Warrick pondered to himself.

"I've got it!" Grissom chimed in… "Call into dispatch and have them run a trace on his cell and we can track him on the GPS"

"Great idea Griss…" Warrick had hope back in his eyes and called it into dispatch.

They waited a few minutes and then it popped up on the screen. Nick's location flashed in bold bright green.

" That's odd…" Grissom stated. "He isn't moving… and according to the GPS he's just off the road there." Grissom pointed with his finger onto the screen.

"Nicky's in trouble.." Was all Warrick said and pressed on the gas to get there fast.

(road where the cab strayed)

The Denali smoothly handled the curves of the wet road in front of Warrick Brown. Grissom had a slight look of fear as he gripped onto the door and was hoping for Warrick to slow down about ten or twenty.

The vehicle quickly began to slow and Grissom peered out the front window and took in all that Warrick was seeing as well.

Massive tire marks were screeched across the road and disappeared off the embankment. And there was an awful loud blaring ring coming from the mountainside.

Warrick stopped his car completely and put his hazards on. Both he and Grissom were equipped with flashlights and quickly ran over and shone them down the hill.

They gasped as they took in the sight of the shredded cab laying on its roof at the bottom, and at the water rising quickly around it.

"I'll call an ambulance and put out some flairs" Grissom called as he ran back toward the denali.

Warrick knew it looked a bit dangerous and that he would probably regret this later, but he began making his way down the hill toward the wreckage. He had to get to Nick, to know he was alive. That he was okay.

Inside the cab Nick saw flash's of light crossing the cab from one end to the other. It looked like flashlights, and joy once again re-entered into his life.

"I'm saved.. I'm saved" he whispered to himself…"HELP!" HELP!" He tried to cry above the sound of the horn.

Warrick could faintly hear a voice cry out as he slid and stumbled and barely made his way to the bottom without hurting himself. He slid the last few inches into the side of the cab, covered with mud and eager to find his friend.

"NICKY!" Warrick cried as he got down, hands and knee's in the mud and flung/pried open the back door of the cab.

He saw Nick sitting up and huddled against the opposite side, shivering in the 4 inches of water around him and grasping his side. Warrick threw the flashlight onto his friend to be greeted with tears and a smile.

"Nick!" Warrick smiled back. Then realized that there was another person in the car.

"He's dead!" Nick shouted.

Warrick nodded in acknowledgment and reached up and pulled the dead cabby off of the steering wheel.

'Ahh… silence' Nick thought to himself.

"You okay…" Warrick started to ask and then remembered his friend was deaf so he began to sign him.

Nick took his free hand and grabbed Warrick's and stopped him though.

"I can hear…" He began to cry again "I can hear man!" He started to laugh and to cry tears of relief as his friend butted his head up against his own and pulled him in for a much needed hug.

They both could hear the approaching sirens and knew help wasn't far away. Warrick took his coat off and put it around his friend and then sat next to him in the cold wet cab knowing no matter how much he wanted to he couldn't get Nicky out all by himself and take him safely to the top of the hill. Help had arrived though and they both knew that he was going to be okay.

(next day at the hospital)

The elevator doors opened up for Grissom and he stepped out onto the third floor of the hospital. He saw the rest of his team walking toward him in the lobby area, smiling and talking with eachother.

"Hey Griss" Warrick smiled and nodded toward him. "We all just finished sayin hey to Nicky… about to go grab a bite to eat… wanna join us?"

"Ugh… maybe… in a minute. I've got some unfinished business to take care of first." He smiled and tapped an envelope that he had been holding in his hand.

"okay well we'll wait downstairs for you."

…………….. ………….. ……….

Grissom opened up the door to room 260B. Nick turned his view from the sunshine in his window and smiled up at his boss from the hospital bed.

"Hey Griss… was wonderin if you were gonna stop on by sometime.. I noticed you didn't come with the rest of the guys" Nick gave a smirk and looked down at his hands. "Look Griss… I…. I need to ask you something."

And before Nick could get another word in Grissom handed him the envelope.

"Whats thi…"

"Just open it." Grissom replied and made his way back toward the door to leave.

Nick smiled and felt the warmth of life re-enter into his body as he held in his hand his resignation letter.

"Somehow it just didn't make it to the proper office…" Grissom smiled and opened the door to leave.

"Thanks Griss" Nick said with a slight choke in his voice. " I don't think anyone else could've gotten me through all this like you have. I'll never forget" Nick smiled and tore the letter as Grissom exited through the door. "I'll never forget becoming your friend either Nicky" Griss whispered underneath a smile. And he turned and walked back toward the elevator's to leave.

THE END! … hope you guys enjoyed. Sorry if wasn't up to your expectations. It's the best I could do so I hope you didn't end disappointed or anything like that. Reviews and criticism are most welcome. Try not to be too nasty though  … you guys are a pretty good crowd of readers though. Thanks for reading!