During my writer's block, which I'm still going through by the way, I dabbled in writing Nick's story. Well, not story exactly, more like… pieces of his story. It seems a lot of you guys hope that Nick isn't dead. And as I read the reviews, which I greatly thank all of you for, I started to think of Nick and what he was going through. His story is written in parts and they don't really make sense. They will when all of them are done, they will make sense. They're not in chronological order, but I will label the coordinating time to Him and Her. I hope to have the next chapter done soon. Thanks y'all! -Ellie

Descent Into Darkness

Part One: Hideout - (Edee going into labor)

The wind howled and lashed out against the defiant world.

Nick shuddered as the wind blew, causing the leaves to rustle and brush up against his cold, bare skin. He didn't dare move or breathe in fear that the fury of the winds was not going to be the only thing that would become angry. His eyes slithered along with the snake as it made it's way down the tree and onto his arm. Nick waited for the rattler to make it's way off of his body.

It did, two minutes later. Nick let out a silent breath and tore his eyes away from the disappearing snake to the world outside of his hideout. He heard distant voices of people speaking a foreign language. He waited for what seemed like days until the voices faded like the snake, but he knew they would be back. They had always been back, searching the wild nature for any sign of him. The American. The American agent they couldn't allow to get beyond their borders.

The sun began to sink and he laid back, resting his sore body against the tree. He'd been here three days now. He had managed to scrub up little meals from the animals that passed him by during the night. He didn't like to think of what he ate, instead he imagined what they would be if he was at home. His training had taught him to survive by all means.

I wonder what she's doing. Is she at home thinking of me? God, I hope she hasn't heard about me. She'd be heartbroken.

His thoughts had fluttered to his fiancée and the child she carried within her. He wondered where she was, what she was doing. He missed her so much. His thoughts in the past few days had always been on her. She and the baby they created together were the reasons he was trying desperately to survive. He needed them as much as they needed him.

The sky turned an array of yellow, orange, pink, purple and dark blue. Nick would have considered it beautiful, if he had been sitting at home, with his arms around his pregnant Edee. But he wasn't and he saw no beauty in the sunset. The colors blended into one another, so much so that the beginning and ending of one wasn't distinct. Just like his days. The more he spent camped out in this place, the more the days became blended. It was becoming more difficult with each day to distinguish between day and night, between yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Voices drifted to him from somewhere deep within the recess of his mind. Kay, telling him she was so in love with Benji she could no longer sit and watch him give up his entire life to booze. Harrison confessing a love for a woman to Nick, breaking both brothers hearts. His mother crying over the joyous news of his engagement and Edee's pregnancy. His father's deep voice, laughingly telling him jokes about fatherhood. They all jumbled and became one conversation.

Nick closed his eyes and concentrated on Edee's sweet voice. Her sweet whispers the night before he left. All the other voices drifted away until only Edee was present.

Remember me, sweet girl. Remember me and pray for me. I'll be home soon. I promise you.

He wanted to open his eyes, but it became a struggle, a battle. He knew he had to open them. It had been a mistake to close them, but he had been tired and the voices had been so loud. Now he wanted to open his eyes, wanted to see the world and continue on. But he couldn't.

No! No, Nick, you must open your eyes. Don't let the darkness win. Don't let it take you.

But his eyes didn't obey. His lids stayed closed, hiding his beautiful dark eyes. His battle inside himself couldn't be seen in his relax features. He didn't hear it when voices were no longer merely in his head, but in the physical world around him. His eyes didn't open when they found him hidden behind the bushes, draped in the Army's camouflage.

Part Two: Prisoner - (a few days before Lucas shows up)

He wanted to scream but the gag in his mouth prevented him from doing so. The taste of the filthy rag caused him to want to be sick, but he swallowed hard and willed himself to be strong. He couldn't show any weakness. He'd trained for years for this sort of circumstances. He could survive their torture.

Nick looked around the small, bare room. The dirt floor was hard beneath him and the stone wall was rough against his aching back. He forgot how long he had been held captive. His first few days had been a hazy memory thanks to the drugs they kept injecting him with. His enemies had already started in on their brain analyzing. They wanted to know everything he knew. He had carried out his mission and they wanted to know what else the secret American covert had in store for them. Apparently, the rat they had within the U.S. government didn't have enough clout to find out more than the mission he had been sent on.

The snitch. He wondered who the snitch was. It had been a secret mission, no one knew of it other than the Marines assigned to it and their boss. So somewhere along the lines, someone decided their loyalties lied elsewhere.

He hoped Lucas had made it out safe. He hated to think of his best buddy suffering through this agony.

God, he prayed, let him be okay. Let him be safe and sound.

The door to the prison he was kept in opened and a man stepped in. Nick didn't struggle, even though he wanted to, and waited with gritted teeth as his captor walked up to him. He felt it more than saw it. The large, gruff hand of the enemy raising to strike him. He willed his mind to go somewhere, to remember his last few days with Edee as his body endured the brutal beatings from captor. His mind lifted from his body so the pain didn't register. While the man's fists and feet contacted with his bruised and broken body, he had left the small cell. Edee's beautiful smile was all he could see.

Nick knew when the man stopped hitting him. And felt the prick of the needle on his arm as he was injected with yet another drug. He knew not what they were, just that they kept him disoriented. He had no fears though, of releasing his country's secrets. Nothing these men could get anything out of him.

I'll be back soon, Edee.

He hadn't realized he had fallen asleep until he felt the jab of a foot in his right side. He struggled to wake up and sit. The pain seared through him. He had no time to think about his pain. Two soldiers of a foreign country gripped his mud crusted, blood stained uniform and lifted him up, shoving him in front of them as they forced him to sit on a chair.

He was no longer in his prison. He was now in a large room, metal with many technological equipments. He stayed silent as they stuck him with more needles, taped sensors and other gadgets onto him. They hoped to break him for answers. There was no breaking one of the United States' best men. He sat back and resisted their probing into his mind. All they would ever find would be baseball scores. He had loved baseball as a child and had memorized every statistics he could. The government had taken that and worked on it. A slow smile crept onto his face. Try as they might, he would never be weak enough to surrender.