Author's Notes:

This is my second story which revolves around the lives of Sofia Curtis and Nick Stokes. While it's not a sequel to my first story "Line of Duty" the timeline follows shortly after it and contains a lot of spoilers to my first effort. I've tried to expand the plot a little this time and include a few more team members, but the slant is still definitely SoNic, my favourite paring. I hope you enjoy it, please R&R.

Chapter 1

"What have we got?" Grissom asked as he walked under the yellow crime tape before stopping on the steps of Nevada Mutual Bank.

Detective Sofia Curtis looked up, finished issuing instructions to a uniformed policeman and then turned to answer, "Armed robbery."

Dressed in a baby blue button down shirt and navy slacks, she kept pace with Gil Grissom as he entered the bank and looked around slowly.

Sofia continued, "Five men, dressed in black coveralls and ski masks and armed with AK-47s and handguns, entered the premises at fifteen forty two. They corraled the customers and subdued the staff before emptying the cash tills. The whole thing was finished inside ninety seconds. It looks like the manager may have put up some resistance, he was shot."

"What's his condition?" asked Grissom.

"He's DOA. His body's been transfered to the morgue, Jim's informing the family now," replied Sofia, stony faced.

Grissom paused, curling his mouth, "Hmm, sounds like they're escalating." He circled the room dropping bright yellow plastic markers beside cartridge casings as he went.

Nick killed the engine of the department issue SUV and ran a hand over his tired face before he sluggishly reached for his evidence kit. He and the team had been called to yet another bank robbery scene, their third this week. The Sherriff had pulled everyone onto this case, it was high priority as it was causing a media frenzy. All time off had been revoked and the Graveyard Shift was working days until this case was solved. Catherine, Warrick and Greg were still processing the evidence from yesterday's heist which left him, Grissom and Sara with the latest one. He pushed his way through the crowd which had gathered, a mixture of curious onlookers and pushy reporters. As he reached the yellow tape which marked off the scene he looked up to see Sara approach from his left. He slowed down his pace until she caught up.

"Hey Sara," Nick called.

"Hey Nick," Sarah replied, "Another robbery, who the hell are these guys?"

"I don't know, but I sure hope we catch these bastards and soon. Word is they opened fire on this one."

"Shit, the Sherriff's not gonna like this," Sara replied grimly.

They entered the building together, taking in the scene. The inside of the bank was open plan with a low ceiling, beige industrial carpet, to their right was a wood veneer counter which ran the almost the length of the room, in front of that was a queuing area marked out with black cordon tape. To the left of the counter was a brown wooden door which led into a small office. That's where Nick and Sara found Grissom, who was crouched over a large red blood patch on the carpet, taking pictures.

"Hey Grissom," called Nick, "Where do you want us?"

Grissom looked up, "Sara, you take the office, Nick you take the witnesses, I'll take the bank floor."

With a quick nod Nick made his way towards the left wall of the bank where Sofia was busy interviewing witnesses.

Sara made for the office, but not before glancing over her shoulder to glimpse Nick greeting Sofia. She paused briefly, taking in their body language. Sofia moved away from the witness she was questioning and turned towards Nick, smiling broadly as he approached. She couldn't hear them speak from her position, but she didn't need to. The words weren't important, it was the eye contact, the subtle touches, how Sofia's face lit up as they spoke and how she laughed gently at one of his quips, holding his gaze and tilting her head seductively as she did. Although they hid it well, Sara was sure there was something going on between them. She was a trained observer and the signs were unmistakable. Watching them together like this made Sara's heart sink and her eyes betrayed her saddness briefly before the professional mask came down once again. Composed now, she turned and entered the office, evidence kit in hand, glad of the distraction.

Sofia sighed as she mentally planned out the rest of her shift. There were eight witnesses to canvas before she would head back to the morgue to get an update on the bank manager's autopsy. After that she would need to check in with the lab to see what they had pieced together from this and the other bank robberies. This was the fifth robbery in the past two weeks and it was obviously the same crew. The MO was identical each time; each bank was hit between two and four pm by five masked men, they tended to go for banks with open plan spaces and a corden queuing system – easier to pen in and control the customers. Each robbery was over in less than ninety seconds, and they only ever went for the cash tills, never the vaults. While there was plenty of security footage, it didn't give them much other than the method. None of the men had any identifying features and they wore gloves so there were no prints or transfers. There was however an obvious leader, one man who orchestrated proceedings each time. He was slightly shorter and bulkier than the other four.

She made her way over to the group of witnesses and begin her questioning. She was halfway through the first interview when she saw Nick approaching. Shit, what am I going to say to him... I look like hell! They had been seeing each other on and off a little over the past few weeks. She thought things were going well but then he stopped calling and she hadn't heard from him in over two weeks. It had been a rough few months after the shooting at the Fischer scene, she was badly injured and she nearly didn't make it through surgery. She pulled through that but then faced an uphill battle and weeks of rehab to defy the odds and eventually recover. She could still remember how she felt walking into the department on her first day back. The medical staff and her mother didn't think it could ever be possible. At one stage she didn't think it was possible herself. But there was one person who refused to give up, one person who stuck by her and supported her every step of the way. That person was Nick Stokes. They had spent hours upon hours together and had shared everything. Even after she got out of hospital he kept calling over to check in, kept helping her with her recovery. Slowly that friendship had developed into something much deeper and she was sure he was the one, only now he had stopped calling. She couldn't understand it, what had changed, had she done something wrong?

Sofia excused herself from the witness and turned to greet Nick, smiling nervously. He looked good dressed in dark jeans and a black vee neck teeshirt under his CSI vest. It was silly, she suddenly felt like a teenager crushing on the highschool jock.

"Hey Sofia," Nick called cheerily. On seeing the cocked eyebrows from the uniformed officers he quickly added, "Umm, I mean Detective Curtis," and scratched the back of his head sheeplishly.

Sofia chuckled at his awkwardness, she was relieved to see she wasn't the only nervous one.

"Hey Stokes," she replied. "I'm just collecting witness statements. Why don't you start on the other end."

"Sure thing," said Nick before lowering his voice, "So, how've you been? I haven't heard from you in a couple of weeks. I was getting a little worried, everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. Look this isn't really the right time for this..." started Sofia.

"Oh, right, of course," Nick replied quickly. "Will you be by the lab later, maybe we can grab a break together?"

"Sounds good," smiled Sofia. "Look, I gotta get back to it here. But later, definately."

They held eachother's gaze for a moment before finally turning their attention back to their work.

An hour later, Sofia could feel her frustration rise, threatening to bubble up to the surface. The witness statements had revealed nothing of use, no extra detail that might shed some light on these robberies. She finished at the scene, checking in with Grissom before she left. Nothing noteworthy from his preliminary findings either. It was going to be tough to get any kind of a break on this one. Sighing heavily she left the building, ignoring the gathered press as they shouted questions at her.

Checking her watch, Sofia decided to head back to the lab first, Doc Robbins wouldn't be finished the autopsy of the bank manager for a couple of hours yet. Her first stop was the AV room.

"Hey Archie, please tell me you got something," she said more in hope than expectation.

"Hey Detective, I've been pouring over this footage for hours, I've got nothing," replied Archie, frowning.

"Okay, thanks Archie. Call me if you get anything."

Back in the layout room Warrick was updating the Vegas street map with extra pins, marking out the two most recent robberies. Sofia smiled and nodded a greeting to him as she entered.

"Hey Sofia," said Warrick. "I've mapped out all five robberies, they're all in North Vegas, all of them are along or just off North Las Vegas Boulevard. I can't see a pattern in the order that they're being hit, but the gang are definitely going for a particular layout. All the banks are on the smaller side, with less security, open plan floor, corden tapes for the customer line, and easily accessible counters.

"Is there anything else we can use to try and predict where and when they're likely to hit next?" asked Sofia thoughtfully.

"I can't help you on the when, but there are two banks in that area that fit the profile," said Warrick as he handed her a manila folder.

At that moment Sofia's pager beeped. Cursing softly she thanked Warrick before leaving. The page was from the Sherriff, he had called a meeting back at base. This wasn't going to be pretty. She cursed again when she realised that she'd have to miss her date with Nick. They'd just have to wait until this case was over before they could make and make any plans. Without looking back she left the lab and made her way to the Sherriff's office. It was going to be a long night.