A/N: Wow, sorry it took so, so long to update. I looked up one day and realized it's been damn near a year! Time flies man. THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of those who took the time to review! Truly awesome and appreciated. This next installment is tracking N/C as they run through the woods. Chapter five will be going back through the twilight zone, so don't get confused! It will either be following Call through her abduction and ordeal or following Horatio & Grissom as they track their fellows. I've already started on Call's chapter, but we'll see which one flows better. I do hope you enjoy this chapter, please R/R! And stick with me, 'cause we're gonna have some fun!

Cheers

V

Fire Waves

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IV.

The small fire waved, flickering in the night wind. Its orange glow cast small shadows around their camp—if it could be called a camp. Calleigh was small and easily fit next to him under their shelter. She slept fitfully with her back pressed against his chest for warmth. There wasn't much warmth to be had, as she was still cold to the touch. Nick wondered worried that she would soon come down with a fever or worse yet, pneumonia. Their little refuge was almost no use; the Eagle Scouts had never taught him how not to freeze while running for your life and attracting as little attention as possible in the meantime. The wind easily picked through the leafy branches that were propped up against a medium sized tree, making a rough lean-to. As bone weary as he was, Nick found it difficult to sleep. Every creak of a tree, the midnight scurrying of some small creature, or even the tickle of Calleigh's hair on his face made him start. He shifted his weight a little, trying to ease the soreness in his muscles. She made small sounds, almost moaning in her sleep and Nick wondered if she always slept like that or if it was the result of…

No. He would not think about it. Push it away. The mound at the furthest end of the fire drew his eyes yet again. They would have to bury the dead man when dawn broke. There was no way that the body could be left out in the open and be found by creatures, or still worse, men. Nick grimaced. Part of him wanted badly to leave the carcass out here to rot and be torn from limb by the forest animals. The man had almost killed him up on that waterfall and the Lord knew that Richard wouldn't have given a good-goddamn if it had been his body floating down a river. Still, no matter who that man was, or what he had done, no one deserved to lay out like that if it could be helped. Nick just wished he didn't care. Whimpering loudly, Calleigh started awake. Nick could still hear a faint rattle of fluid in her lungs as she breathed. "Hey," he murmured.

Calleigh seemed to have forgotten that he was behind her and jerked away from him, startled. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you?" she whispered turning to him.

"No," Nick answered truthfully "how're you feelin'?"

Calleigh laid down again, facing him. She paused for a moment before answering, studying his face in the orange light. "I'm alright."

Closed guard. This woman had more walls than Fort Knox. Nick had learned this while he dried her sodden clothes over the fire. At first he'd been excited to have someone to talk to, but as he pressed on with questions about who she was and where she was from, Calleigh danced around them quicker than flames flickered in the wind. He still had whatever trust he had gained with her after the river, but it wasn't much. Hell, she'd just evaded as simple of a question as how are you feeling! Nick shifted again and sighed. Her face was a dark, unreadable mask, yet she studied him as intently as one would a map. Her eyes were the most brilliant green, a man could get lost in those eyes. Sharp and intelligent, and weary too, he noticed.

"You should get some sleep," he said, "we have a long way to go tomorrow." He hadn't realized he'd touched her, only brushed the hair back from her face, until she stiffened. Nick's face flushed crimson instantly. What was he thinking? "I-I'm sorry, didn't mean to…"

"It's okay," Calleigh murmured relaxing. "Listen…Nick," she said as if trying out the name for the first time. "I want to thank you for helping me. You saved my life."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise, he'd not been expecting that. "Sure, it was nothing."

Calleigh's lips formed into a small smile, a secretive smile; as if she knew things that he himself did not. "Okay," she whispered. "Get some sleep Nick." Turning away from him again she scooted towards him, pressing her back against his chest.

--

Calleigh felt no remorse for the dead. The sun was barely on the horizon and the morning still held a great amount of the night's chill. Nick had insisted that he do the digging, considering the condition of her hands. She didn't like to think about them. They throbbed nonstop and she believed her left one might be close to infection. He was strange, really. She stood a few feet away from him as he hovered over the turned earth. Nick muttered something and crossed himself. Prayer for the dead man under the earth. Calleigh couldn't bring herself to walk closer, much less pray for him; not after what he'd done. She knew she didn't forgive easily, especially not something as grievous as his crimes. As she dwelt on those crimes her hands throbbed harder with her thoughts, so she tucked them underneath her arms. Nick turned to her with his head hung low; wet earth covering his hands and bare chest. He knew that she wouldn't come near, so he walked closer to her. When he spoke his voice was raw and hoarse. "You ready?"

"Yes," she replied. How peculiar, would he waste a tear on that monster trapped in the ground? He paused as if waiting for her to say something. What could she say, I'm sorry? She wasn't and it burned her that he thought she should be.

Nick wiped his nose on the back of his wrist as he walked over to their lean-to to retrieve his shirt. "It's just that… that I hope, I pray none of us is beyond redemption," he blurted.

"I know you do," Calleigh surprised herself in replying. Suddenly she began to trust in him; something that she found hard to do with people even under normal circumstances. How could she not trust a man who would shed tears over a person who had aided others in causing him such great pain? Their fire smoldered leaving thin wisps of smoke to waft away in the air. Together they kicked dirt over the remains to ensure that it was put out. Calleigh took a deep breath and immediately began coughing. Damnit, her lungs would not stop burning! Nick looked at her concernedly, hovering close until her coughing abated. He frowned, no doubt about to ask how she was doing again. The man never let up.

"I'm okay," she breathed. His frown only deepened, but he nodded and pushed his head through the shirt.

The feeling of being watched never seemed to leave them. Nick set the pace as they headed through the forest. Calleigh couldn't help but look over her shoulder every few minutes. She had a strong desire to run and it was hard to keep herself from tearing headfirst down the mountain. Unfortunately, she had little energy enough as it was and charging through the forest was dangerous and would probably lead them aimlessly in circles. The sun was not yet at its peak, but it was becoming more and more clear to Calleigh that even though they were going down the mountain, it was getting colder. How was that possible? Her foot caught on a bramble, sending her face down to the soil. Instantly Nick was there pulling her up again.

"You alright?" he asked. He was extremely close; Nick held her under both arms so that she was pressed against him and forced to look up. His eyes were such a nice hazel.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Nick nodded still holding her, studying her face. What was he trying to find? "Don't mind me; just falling around like a drunk," she laughed feebly. His hands were strong—he was much too close.

Abruptly he released her. "We need to find food. Whatever I ate last was gone yesterday." Apparently, her stomach was in deep agreement with, as it rumbled loudly. Nick loped off through the woods, scanning the trees and ground for something edible. She mimicked his actions, running her hands over the thick brush. Growing up in Louisiana, she and her brothers had romped through the woods behind their home as children, so she had ample opportunity to learn what was good to eat in the forest. Once as a small girl, she and her siblings had eaten small, shriveled fruit off of a tree and ended up with intense diarrhea and stomach cramps for days. Though they all looked back on it now and laughed, Calleigh had no desire to repeat that incident.

Peeking out from beneath a deep green shrub, was a small but prominent yellow head of a flower. "Dandelions," she smiled. She pushed the undergrowth aside and was happy to find a small crop of the wild flowers growing beneath.

"You can eat those?" Nick asked walking up beside her. His hands were full of berries which he held out to her.

"'Course, people eat 'em all the time. It's the latest thing for posh restaurants to serve the leaves with greens for boocoos of money. You can drop the red berries, the dark blue ones are good." They had a handful of berries each and four dandelions between them. The berries were small with a tough outer skin that when chewed, sprayed bitter pulp into their mouths. Refreshingly soft and light, the dandelion heads tasted like sweet sap. Its tart leaves, mixed with the sweetness of the flower, helped to wash away the hard bitterness of the berries. Their meal wasn't much, but Calleigh was grateful for the small kick of energy it provided.

Nick wiped his hands down the sides of his pants, smearing them in dark blue. The skin surrounding the gash beneath his hairline had turned a deep, almost black purple overnight. It looked nasty and Calleigh winced at the thought of it. Nick turned and caught her eye. "What?"

"Nothing…it just looks bad," she said pointing.

He fingered the bruised skin tentatively. "Nothin' I can't handle. I got worse, believe me," he said grimly. Calleigh nodded, but didn't respond; she was sure they both did. She stood up on the log they had rested on and looked up at the sky. Nick stood next to her, their arms touching lightly. Why were men always so warm? She wanted to lean into him to soak up the small radius of heat that he emanated.

To the south of them, in the direction they were headed, deep gray clouds billowed and advanced north. "A storm," she whispered. No wondered it was getting colder the lower they hiked. Miles south the tree tops swayed and shuddered as if forced down by an invisible hand. As she looked on a shiver ran down her spine; out of the mass of clouds shadowy tendrils of darkness snaked and crept north like sentries. Calleigh swallowed with difficulty. "We need to get moving as soon as possible," she told him without taking her eyes off of the clouds. "That storm'll be on us in less than three hours." After living in Miami for more than seven years, she knew something about storms. Over the years she'd lost count of the tempests and squalls that came roaring off the ocean to moor in South Florida. They had three hours if they were lucky.

Nick turned to her. "How fast can you move?"

A jolt of irritation mixed with shame went through her. She'd been having difficulty catching her breath during the hike. It was a struggle not to cough and though she refused to fully acknowledge it yet, the dizziness she felt was not from hunger, but fever. Calleigh bit off a reply. "As fast as I need to." She was slowing him down and she knew it. Damn her lungs for burning and damn him for noticing it. "We need to make as much headway as we can and then make camp."

Nick nodded and cradled his left side. She'd seen him do that a few times already and was sure that he must have a bruised rib or two. "Mmm-hm, but if it's coming as fast as you think it is maybe we should start up a camp now. We're barely making a mile an hour; the forest is too thick. Whaddaya think?"

Calleigh could feel his eyes on her. She knew what she thought. She wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible and if they only made one more mile today then it was one more closer to home. She was not being rash, she wasn't. "I think we should get moving Nick, the sooner the better. Making camp's fine before the storm, but we run the risk of one of them finding us while we wait for the storm to hit. And I don't want to take that chance; I think the further away the better." A sensible argument if she said so herself.

"I don't either," he agreed, "but Calleigh if you push yourself too har—"

"I'm okay right now," she forced herself to look him in the eye and smile. "So let's make the most of it while we can." They were going to get off of this mountain come hell or high water. "Shall we?"

--

Leaves and dry branches blew past as the storm began to announce its presence. It had been well over an hour since their meal and Nick's stomach was cramping in hunger. She stumbled again, but this time Nick pretended not to notice. Something was definitely not right with her, but she'd made it known in so many ways that she did not enjoy being coddled. The forest was a never ending stretch of trees that enclosed them on all sides. Its canopy of trees bent and swayed in the wind. Far off, in the middle of the storm, Nick could here some of the tree limbs snapping under the pressure of the wind. They couldn't put off making a shelter any longer, especially since anything they put up was apt to be blown away.

"Calleigh, we need to stop and look for a place to hole up." Nick heard her stop and braced himself for the onslaught.

"Okay," Calleigh replied. Nick wheeled around, eyeing her suspiciously. "What?" she asked.

"Nothin', hey are you alright?" He noticed that she bristled whenever he asked this, but he couldn't help himself. "I mean I don't know how you're holdin' up, but I could use a little rest myself."

She stood there small and pale, hugging herself. Instead she smiled weakly at him and nodded. "I could do with a sit down."

Nick led them to a fallen tree that was covered in thick green moss. With a sigh she sat down wearily. As much as she tried to put up a strong front the strain was evident in her eyes. Except for the creaking of trees, the forest around them seemed to go dead silent. Not a bird chirped, nor a squirrel chattered, nothing skittered unseen in the underbrush. It seemed as if everything was awaiting the impending storm. In the eerie silence Nick could hear her uneven breathing; it rattled with every breath. Slowly he put the back of his hand to her forehead. To his surprise she didn't move away, but seemed to lean into his touch. He nearly gasped at the feel of her skin; it was on fire with fever. Their eyes met and he suddenly understood why she kept evading his questioning concern and why she had been so adamant about pushing them when they should have stopped. Looking into her eyes it was plain that she knew she was ill; she kept pushing them because she wanted to put as much distance between them and their captors while she still was able.

Nick smiled sadly and cupped her cheek. "Calleigh…," he sighed. She shook her head softly, but returned his sad smile.

"Let's find ourselves a hole," she said.

Nodding, Nick gathered himself to stand up. "Alright, but you stay here." Calleigh frowned, but this time she didn't argue with him.

--

Outside in a small cave the blizzard raged and two survivors huddled together for warmth and assurance. One cradled the other while the other clung tenaciously to consciousness. Despite the heat that they shared it was not enough to keep them from shivering in the cold. The night lengthened and the storm persisted, Nick noticed a change in his companion. Her head hung low on his chest and Calleigh only shivered occasionally; sporadic convulsive type shaking. Any strength that her muscles had left to shiver and create warmth was waning in the wake of her progressing fever. Nick could feel the heat coming off of her in waves, but her skin was cold and slick with chilled sweat. Twice her whispered her name into her ear, but she was limp and unresponsive.

His muscles burned in exhaustion and he fought to stay alert in the dark. Somewhere above their cave a wolf howled into the night, as if urging the storm on. Nick glanced fearfully towards the sound, willing himself not to panic. Inside was black as pitch and only the hard thumping of his heart, her warm shallow breath on his forearm and the cold stone beneath him where the only assurances he had that they had not, in fact, descended into hell. As she slipped further into unconsciousness, Calleigh began to moan and mumble in her sleep. Nick pulled her further into his lap and with his lips pressing against her ear, he began to pray.

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