Title: Lesson Learned
Author: High_Striker
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: None
Summary: Grissom realizes he made a serious mistake, and he can only hope that Nick doesn't have to pay the consequences. Set at the end of the episode Who Are You.
Warnings: Near Character Death, (It's not a surprise if you remember the episode.)

***

"Why do you care so much about the floors? I mean, Amy paints them every spring. It's no big deal."
 
Everything was reduced to a blur on his way back to the house. He'd calmly given the officers orders on what to do, but his mind was racing so fast that he wasn't entirely sure what exactly it was that he'd told them. By the time he reached the door he already had his gun in hand and he felt sick at the cold grip of the handle.
 
His hand went for the doorknob, and he hoped it wasn't locked. Grissom clenched the knob tightly in his hand, twisting it and then inching the door open slightly with his gun raised. He didn't feel any relief at the fact that the door had been unlocked; his mind was already far past those thoughts, and his eyes were immediately scouring the dark foyer for any signs of where Hendler or Nick might be found. Making sure the room was empty, he slowly pushed the door as far open as he could, grateful when it didn't swing shut on its own.
 
It felt like he was moving at a snail's pace as he took a few tentative steps into the house. The dead silence was terrifying, and he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his entire body. His heart was pounding in his chest and it seemed like anyone would be able to hear from a mile away.
 
Everything looked just like it had when he'd taken Mr. Hendler out with the officers, and he told himself that it was a good sign. At least there was no sign of a struggle. There had been no gunshots and no shouts or screams, and that made it a little easier to hold the fear back. Except that he knew Amy Hendler had stabbed Fay Green, and if she had snuck up on Nick, then the younger man might not have had the chance to make a sound.
 
Moving further into the house he kept his gun up and he checked every room as he silently moved past it. He turned a corner, and saw Nick's case in the short hallway where they'd last seen each other. Grissom paused as he approached the open kit. If Nick had been a rookie he might have passed it off as carelessness, but Grissom knew better. It was confirmation that something was definitely wrong, Nick wouldn't have left his kit open with Mrs. Hendler still in the house, he would have either closed it or kept it with him. Grissom's eyes darted about the hall, wondering which room to check first, and he wished he'd had far more experience clearing crime scenes.
 
He was finally standing at Nick's toolbox, when his eyes landed briefly on the photographs on the wall. Hanging right there in front of him was a photo of the Hendlers with all kinds of mountain climbing gear. The site of the climbing picks made his blood go cold, the curve and the serrated edges of the picks could easily match the weapon that had been used to kill Fay Green. The image of Nick being stabbed with such a weapon and lying in a pool of his own blood made Grissom feel sick. He'd processed so many murders that it was a terrifyingly easy image to conjure in his mind.
 
It felt like he'd been in the house for hours, even though he knew that not even a single minute has passed since he'd opened the front door. He was just about to move further down the hall when he heard her voice.
 
"Jason was in Reno. I came here to tell Fay that we would be together again one day."
 
"Mrs. Hendler, put the gun down."
 
Grissom froze. Any relief he might have felt from hearing Nick's voice was gone at the sudden knowledge of what was happening in the next room. He had always paid a lot of attention to voices, and the fear choking Nick's voice was all too clear. Grissom had never heard Nick's voice sound like that, and it made it horribly obvious to Grissom just how dangerous the situation in the next room was.
 
"Do you know he was engaged to me when he met her?"
 
There was a pause, and Grissom could picture Nick standing in the next room shaking his head. He didn't move; the last thing he wanted to do was startle either Nick or Amy Hendler. Knowledge that one single, tiny mistake could end in Nick's death nearly had him frozen in fear.
 
"There was blood… everywhere. No one else could see it… but I knew it was there. A dead body is so heavy."

"Mrs. Hendler, I'm a good listener." Grissom felt his own throat tighten at the sound of Nick's voice. He could hear the trembling, and he had the distinct feeling that Nick was crying. "You got to give me the gun."
 
"I can't! I'm sorry."
 
"No, wait…"
 
The sound of desperation in both voices was growing, and that set Grissom in motion immediately. Thoughts of Holly Gribbs' dead body lying in her own blood already haunted him, and he hadn't even seen her body in person. That didn't change the fact that he'd seen such scenes countless times before, and seeing Nick like that would definitely be more than he could handle. The thought that her death could have been prevented had always pained him. Now, he couldn't believe that he'd been the one to repeat the same mistake that had gotten Holly killed when it had been just over a month since her death. He clenched his jaw, and hoped that Nick wouldn't have to pay the ultimate price for this mistake.
 
"But you arrested my husband."
 
"Wait!"
 
He turned the corner, swiftly but silently, so that he was standing in the doorway, and let his eyes take in as much of the scene as quickly as they could. He'd hoped that Hendler would be facing the door; then there would be less of a chance that his entering the room would startle her. Nick's attention was directed solely on the gun aimed at his face, and Grissom couldn't fault him for that. "Mrs. Hendler." He almost cringed, his finger ready to pull the trigger in case he'd startled her badly enough that she'd pull the trigger and end Nick's life.
 
Instead she swung around to face him. Never in his life had he had a gun pointed at him before. Not like this anyway, training had been different, since there'd been no real threat from any weapons then. He'd passed that training with flying colors, and his mind rapidly recalled every bit of information that it could. Except, nothing could have prepared him for how terrifying it was to be the one looking down the barrel of a gun. At least he had his own weapon. He wasn't defenseless, and that thought kept him from losing his calm façade. At least she wasn't pointing the gun at Nick anymore. Grissom's eyes flicked towards Nick just in time to see his hand reaching for his own gun at his waist.
 
"Nick, don't move." He held back a wince at his sharp tone, but he didn't want Nick to do something rash, and by the way the younger man's hands were trembling he had a strong feeling that he'd made the right call. Another part of him just wanted to spare Nick from having to draw his own gun, and to spare him any pain that he'd feel over shooting the woman standing between them. He was glad that Nick listened and didn't draw the gun, and he shifted his attention back to Hendler, because dwelling on the sight of tears in Nick's eyes was only going to distract him.
 
"Please. I don't want to fire my gun any more than you do." It didn't take any effort to emphasize the sincerity in his voice, because the absolute last thing he wanted was to ever have to kill anyone. "For five years, you've been washing the blood off your hands. Let's put down the guns."
 
By the tears in her eyes he could tell that his words had hit home. Once her hand started to move down the relief began to hit, and he was immensely grateful that he had been able to say something coherent when he had been running on nothing but pure fear and adrenaline. He moved closer to Hendler, and after a moment he reached for the gun. He let his eyes glance away from the weapon towards Nick once he was fairly certain that the threat had been resolved. Nick was already turning around to face the wall though, but Grissom still caught a glimpse of tear filled eyes before they were completely out of his sight. He'd always thought Nick's eyes were bright and warm. It was almost as if they had defined the word friendly. It hurt to see them so red and filled with fear now.
 
He focused his attention back on Hendler long enough to gently take the gun from her weak grasp; he was still scared that any sudden movements might make her draw back and shoot one of them. Once the gun was firmly in his own hands he let his attention drift back to Nick once more.
 
"You okay, Nick?" His voice was still steady, and it was the most comfort he could offer while Mrs. Hendler was still in the room with them. Even if he could offer more, by Nick's posture he wasn't sure anything more would have even been welcomed by Nick.
 
"Yeah."
 
Nick's voice was still shaky, but despite the strong presence of fear in it, Grissom could also clearly detect the relief that was present as well. Grissom paused for a moment, as he watched Nick try to regain his composure. It took a moment, but he finally decided that Nick deserved the chance to pull himself together. At the very least Grissom knew he wouldn't want anyone else around to see him if he'd been the one in Nick's position. The last person that had seen him in tears was his mother, and that had been decades ago. He certainly wouldn't have wanted any coworkers to see himself in such a state.
 
"Come on." His voice sounded strange to himself as he began to lead Amy Hendler toward the front door. Without the adrenaline pushing him he suddenly felt almost sluggish, and he just wanted to pass the woman off to the officers outside and then get home. It felt as though he'd aged a full twenty years in less than five minutes.
 
The sight of numerous sets of flashing red and blue lights outside let him know that more officers had arrived while he'd been in the house. Brass was standing among the various officers, and the sight of his wide, concerned eyes made Grissom feel better about how things had been left between them. A few officers immediately moved in, and Grissom just stepped back as they took Hendler the rest of the way to one of the squad cars. Brass didn't waste a minute before he was moving in towards Grissom.
 
"Nick?"
 
The fear in Brass' voice made the reality of what could have happened sink in even further. "He's okay." It was the fact that Brass still cared, despite all the tension and anger from earlier that same day, which let Grissom's voice work even though he just wanted to hide from the world for a little while to recoup.
 
Brass immediately moved to enter the house, but Grissom managed to hold him back before he said, "Maybe we should give him a few minutes. It… it could have been bad."
 
Grissom wondered how he would have done in a similar situation. How he'd have felt if he thought his own life was going to end so abruptly. After a moment he pushed those thoughts away and moved towards the fleet of vehicles, because if he couldn't go home then he at least needed to find a place to sit down somewhere well away from the house.
 
It wasn't long before the rest of the team arrived at the scene. Catherine and Warrick headed straight inside, while Sara stood back with the few remaining officers. Grissom sat still, watching it all from the car, while he hoped that Nick was doing better.
 
When the three finally exited the house, his eyes went straight to Nick. It was terribly clear that the younger man was still unsteady, but there was a hint of a slight smile on his face at whatever it was that Warrick was saying to him.
 
Suddenly Grissom felt sick again, and he couldn't fight off the thought that they'd nearly lost Nick. They clearly hadn't learned from their mistake with Holly, but he sure as hell hoped this would do the trick. At the very least he'd learned the lesson, and it would be a cold day in hell before he let something like this happen again.
 
The End...
 
A/N: This isn't the story that I posted about earlier on my personal journal. Instead this one just hit me while I was considering the other story and how this episode might play into that story. I realized that I'd never read a story about Grissom's point of view of this scene (or at least not that I can remember, because it's been a long time since I've been highly familiar with the stories of this fandom), so I figured I'd give it a shot. It'll be a long time before the other story sees the light of day though, because there are a lot of kinks in the plot to work out, and I've barely even started figuring out where I want it to go. On a final note, no slash in this one, but I just had to bring Warrick in for that last little bit so it's still there in its own tiny little way.

***