Note: This is pat of the continuing story a group of people at tv .com is doing together. The following chapter was written by Maisy. Any reviews will be passed on to her. Enjoy!

Note: Chapters edited for grammar and spelling by Trace but all writing is by the stated author. Thank you.

Chapter 11

Nick walked into the trace lab his arms piled high with boxes. He barely made it to the table before he began to lose his grip. Hodges looked up from the microscope and gave an irritated sigh. "Stokes, what is all that?"

"What do you think it is," Nick scoffed, "your birthday present? It's evidence. You need to process it for trace."

Hodges gave him an arch look. "Since when do I do the processing? You process the evidence for trace, and then you bring that trace to me for analyzing."

"Look man, I've got a ton of work to do, and I have to meet Grissom when he gets in. Why do you think I'm here so early?" Nick patted one of the boxes. "Just do a little at a time and you'll get through it.

Hodges turned his head to hide a grin. "Something tells me that Grissom might be a little late tonight."

"Hodges, what are you talking about?" Nick said with exasperation. "Since when has Grissom ever been late?"

"Let's just say he might have certain distractions these days." He watched Nick puzzling through that piece of info. Taking pity on the poor uninformed lad, he relented. "Just leave it there. I'll get to it when I get to it." He went back to his microscope.

Nick shook his head. "Hodges, you don't know anything. I'll..." Nick was interrupted when Greg came sliding through the door.

"Is Grissom here?" He asked, his breath coming in quick rasps.

"Not yet. Why, what's wrong?" Nick forgot about Hodges as he turned toward Greg.

"The report just went out. Dr. Lurie escaped. They were transferring him, and the bus he was on was in an accident. They don't know what happened yet, but when the dust settled, he was gone."

Nick and Hodges exchanged looks. Hodges picked up his phone, all his previous smugness gone. "We'd better call Grissom."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The entire night shift plus Ecklie sat around the conference table. "Okay, here's what we know." Ecklie started. "The bus was headed down the Expressway, when a tractor trailer jackknifed in front of it. The driver swerved to avoid a collision, but the bus tipped over and rolled into the median. By the time the rescue workers reached the bus, they found only the driver.. He's in stable condition at Desert Palm." He passed around some photos of the scene that day shift had taken. "There was some blood on one of the seats and the window beside it, but no trail outside of the bus."

"Where exactly on the Expressway did this occur?" Grissom asked.

"Just past the North Rancho Dr. exit." Ecklie sighed.

"So he could have gone just about anywhere." Sara said with a guarded expression.

Grissom watched her as Ecklie droned on. Finally the meeting was over, and Grissom steered Sara into his office once everyone had disappeared. He closed the door, and locked it. The blinds were already drawn. He pulled her into his arms, and held her. She didn't cry, but she snuggled into his arms, and sighed.

"What do we do now?" She asked, her voiced muffled by his shirt.

"Wait. Brass is on it. They'll find him soon." He pulled back to look at her. "Now, what do you say we get to work? The sooner this night goes by, the sooner we can go home."

"I'm all for that." She whispered leaning up to brush his mouth with hers. "I can't wait to get home."

TBC...