Grissom slowly turned his gaze back to Lindsay's sallow form on the cold autopsy table. He surveyed her blank, expressionless face, down her reddened, sliced neck, over her blood-tanned shoulders. Deep purple bruising lit up her shoulder blades like the 4th of July. It broke him up to see Lindsay like this. It hurt to see how it had affected Catherine. His team was like his family. Was his family, and now one of them had been shot down. An attack like this felt personal to him, and he needed to be on edge now to catch the bastard who did it.

Grissom's eyes ran over a crescent shaped cut, barely visible underneath the heavy swollen patches.

'Doc, look at that,' Grissom murmured, leaning in for a better view.

Doc Robbins looked up from the incision he was making and followed Grissom's pointing finger.

'Looks like there's something in there,' Grissom said, grabbing a pair of tweezers from the tray and leaning over further. Expertly steadily, Grissom pushed the tips of the tweezers into the wound and gripped the small shard. Pulling it out, he turned it in the light, examining it carefully.

'A shard of nail,' the doctor said, also looking closely, 'A thumbnail, judging by the position of the wound.'

Grissom nodded, dropping the shard into a sample bag. 'I'll get Sara in to look at it.'

'Hmm, where are all your team?'

'At the hospital.'

'Why aren't you there?

'They seemed to be fine without me,' Grissom replied, staring absently at Lindsay's face.

'What about Catherine? Doesn't she need you?'

'Nick,' Grissom said bluntly.

'And...Greg?'

'Sara.'

Doc Robbins nodded awkwardly.

A few moments of discomfited silence passed before Grissom flinched into action and moved towards the door. Once outside, Grissom fished in his pocket for his cell and flicked it open, scouring the contacts for Sara's number.

'Hello? Sara?'

Grissom could hear a breath travel down the line, like a short laugh, before he heard a reply. 'Yes?'

'I need you to come in and look at a piece of thumbnail that was in Lindsay's shoulder.'

There was a pause before a reply, 'Ok, I'll be there A.S.A.P.'

'Thanks,' Grissom replied, snapping the phone shut.

--

'Grissom wants me to look at some thumbnail,' Sara said, looking at the phone for a moment before slipping it back in her pocket and looking at Greg.

Greg nodded, 'You better go then. Save the day.'

Sara seemed to contemplate over Greg momentarily.

'I don't want to leave you...but it's Lindsay...'

Greg took Sara's hand in his and squeezed it gently. 'I'll be fine,' he reassured her, 'I'm sown up, got my nice bag of...blood here...' He looked up at the now half full bag hanging on the IV stand, narrowing his eyes slightly before turning back to Sara. 'I'm good.' He nodded again.

Sara lips curved into a brief smile before she bent over and kissed Greg's forehead gently.

'Lindsay needs you,' Greg told her.

'Okay, see you soon.'

Just as Sara was turning to leave, Greg grabbed her wrist gently.

'Hey, thanks for staying with me before, Sara.'

She nodded, 'That's alright.'

Biting her lip, she returned to the bedside, pressing a tender kiss to Greg's lips before leaving.

--

Nick watched Catherine as she slept peacefully, her hand in his own, held to his lips, his elbows propped on the side of the mattress. Warm tears were gathered in the bottom of his eyes, unwillingly to fall over the edge and tumble down his cheeks.

He didn't know why the tears were so persistent. Catherine was safe, she told him she loved him...well, might do...and he was happy now that he knew she wanted him there...so why did the tears keep coming?

Nick pressed his lips to the back of Catherine's hand, lingering there, watching his fellow CSI sleep. Of course, she was more than a CSI to him, so much more...but time would tell whether they would go further together.

--

Sara scrutinized the bit of thumbnail underneath the lab light, Grissom looking over her shoulder.

'So, how are you holding up?' Sara asked, feeling uncomfortable in the silence.

'I'm alright,' Grissom lied, contemplating the truth silently. He felt alone and lost. Catherine had tried to commit suicide, and he felt now like he'd been snatched from his safe zone and was being dangled over the edge of a cliff by a thread. Catherine was the confident one, the fiery one. It almost scared him to see her like that. And what made it worse was that his team seemed to have paired off and left him behind with the jars of dead creatures and plant that resided in his office.

He should have gone to see Catherine. He should have checked up on her, seen how she was doing. But it seemed that Nick had barred the door for him, being so close and emotionally attached to her. It was like he didn't even have time to put his foot in the door as it slammed shut. Obviously, it wasn't intentional, but it wasn't Grissom's place to invade upon them either.

Suddenly, he was snapped out of his silent reverie by Sara's voice.

'You ok Grissom?'

Grissom shook his head of the thoughts and looked down at Sara's concerned face. He nodded.

Sara turned back to the nail she had been studying uncertainly. 'Well...I've found some skin traces attached, I'm pretty sure they're not Lindsay's. So we might just have our killer.'

Grissom nodded and watched Sara move to one of the computer screens.

She began processing the sample. A few minutes later, Sara suddenly froze.

'Wh...'

'What is it Sara?'

'Um...I found...a match.'

'Who is it?'

'But...that's not...'

'What?' Grissom asked again, looked closer at the screen.

'W-Warrick Brown,' Sara stuttered.

Erin's turn!!! Haha. Reviewwwwwws pwease! xxx