A/N1: A special thanks to Grace (graciebutterfliedgsr) for the help in the beta department as well as to Miss Becky (BeckyCSI) for telling me that she enjoyed my insanity.

A/N2: My favorite quote: It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person –"Always do what you are afraid to do," by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The new question of the day is: What animal would you choose to come back as if you were reincarnated? You may give an explanation, if you wish.

A/N3: This chapter is dedicated in part to my mom because the songs/bands mentioned are what I grew up listening to as a child. This chapter is what you get when you're listening to Bruce Springsteen at 2 a.m. in the morning and you have headache. Hope you enjoy my insanity.

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of CSI or its characters. Damn you, TPTB!

Earlier that evening (again)…

"You two!" Greg exclaimed as he stumbled into the bar, pointing at Nick and Warrick, who were both sitting in a corner booth and nursing a beer. About fifteen minutes earlier, he had received a text message on his cell phone from Nick stating to meet him and Warrick at a bar that was located a couple blocks from work. He didn't think he had ever been happier to receive a text from another person. In his mind, he was thanking his lucky stars, while outwardly he made sure that he looked appropriately upset at having to end the meeting with Ecklie. He made his apologies as quickly as he could and left without a backwards glance.

It was nearly five o'clock in the evening, meaning he had spent over two hours in Ecklie's company. Two very miserable hours.

Both Nick and Warrick greeted him and gestured for him to take a seat. Nick signaled a waiter and ordered a beer for him.

After the waitress returned with his drink, Greg repeated, "You two owe me BIG time. I feel dirty… like I need to go shower." He shuddered visibly as he continued, "I just sat and listened to Ecklie talk about how he was God's gift to the world for over two hours…"

Nick interrupted, "Greg, you did a great job. Seriously, man, we appreciate you saving us from getting caught. If you hadn't been so quick on your feet, then Warrick and I would be up the creek without a paddle right about now. We already decided that we're going to have to take you out for a drink some night."

"Oh, no. No, you owe me so much more than that! You did not have to listen to Ecklie telling you about his childhood. Yeah, he went all the way back to the beginning of his life… I don't think I'm ever going to be able to erase those images out of my mind. Did you know that August 23, 1954, was the day the world became a better place?"

Warrick and Nick traded confused glances. Both were wondering what the hell Greg was rambling about. "Uh, no. Why?" Warrick asked.

"Well, that's the date that Conrad Eugene Ecklie was born. After twenty long hours of labor, he came screaming into the world a full nine pounds. He was a big boy, his mother said. Next, he proceeded to tell me all about how he became known as the best hall monitor in his elementary school, and how he had the most citations in the history of hall monitory at his school. He also gave me some long story about how he was cheated from winning the election of Student Council President. According to him, some little prissy girl baked chocolate chip cookies and bought her votes. That was in eighth grade. In high school, apparently, he was cheated as well from becoming homecoming king…"

Up to that point, Nick and Warrick had been listening without any interruption to Greg retelling the horror story of having lunch with Ecklie, but neither of them could hold in their laughter any longer when he got to the part about how Ecklie thought he should have won homecoming king.

"See –don't laugh!" Greg exclaimed. "I had to listen to this and more. And I had to pretend that I cared, that I was interested. During his entire self-centered speech, I had to nod and smile. God, my teeth hurt from gritting them in an effort to keep from showing a look of absolute disgust…"

"Sorry, Greg…" Nick began.

"Damn right! You two should be sorry! And, well, I'm not sure if sorry cuts it. When Ecklie began making derogatory remarks about Grissom and Sara… well, I didn't know if I could take it anymore." He decided against mentioning that Ecklie had a few unkind things to say about the two of them as well. Actually, Ecklie had things to say about everyone; it seemed that once Ecklie had a 'captive' audience he would not shut up.

Greg continued, "So finally in an effort to try to preserve my sanity, I began picturing that there were empty soup cans on top of Ecklie's head and that I was Wyatt Earp. I then 'shot' the cans off the top of his bald head…"

Nick was almost afraid to ask, but he had to know. "Um, how exactly did you do that?"

As Greg explained how he 'shot' the cans off Ecklie's head, he became more animated. "Well, see I would squint and blink either my right or left eye and lean my head one way, depending on the angle needed to shoot the can," Greg said as he tried to demonstrate what he was talking about.

Again, Nick and Warrick looked at each other. "The kid is insane. But he did save our asses so he's an insane genius," Nick thought to himself.

"Didn't Ecklie notice?" Warrick asked.

Greg laughed. "Yeah, right. Ecklie was too busy reminiscing and telling me about how great he was so he didn't notice at first. He really wouldn't make a good crime scene investigator, that's for sure. He's way too self-absorbed. It's all about Conrad Ecklie, and no one else matters. Anyway, I actually had trouble not grinning too big. I rocked that game! But he did notice –finally –after I had been playing the game for like forty minutes. He asked why I was squinting and blinking so rapidly –at this point, I had changed weapons to an automatic so I could fire faster… so yeah I just made up an excuse and said that I had an eyelash stuck in my eye."

"So he bought that then?" Nick questioned.

"Hell yeah he did. Still, you guys owe me for all that misery. I say that you both have to name your first born after me. I think having a little Gregory Stokes and Hojem Brown running around would be nice."

"Yeah, keep dreaming," Warrick scoffed.

"Okay, fine... I also like the names Eric and Kyle. And if you had a daughter, then you could name her Erica or Kylie… I wouldn't mind."

"Greg!" Nick said, exasperated.

"Okay, okay. But I don't think it's too much to ask," he protested. "You guys didn't have to put up with listening to Ecklie. You got to do the cool spy stuff –speaking of snooping, you guys better have made the pain that I suffered worth it. Did you find anything?" Greg asked.

"You could say that," Warrick said, both his voice and face not displaying any emotions.

"Come on, guys. Tell me!"

Nick couldn't help but grin. He and Warrick had decided before Greg got there that they would pretend at first that their search had been futile, but he couldn't keep a straight face. He was way too happy about what they had found. "Yeah, we found something…" and continued to fill Greg in on what they had located in Ecklie's office. "We made copies of everything. Warrick and I read some of it in Ecklie's office, but for the past hour we have been reading through all the other documents we discovered."

When Nick finished speaking, Greg was completely silent for about five minutes, a record for the young CSI. "Holy shit," he finally said.

"Yeah, my sentiments exactly," Nick agreed.

"So have you decided what to do next?" Greg questioned.

"We were waiting for you actually. Nick and I agreed that you should be in on the decision-making process," Warrick said.

"Really? Wow, thanks. That means a lot," Greg said. "Okay, let's start deciding where to go from here…"

For the next half an hour, the three friends debated and threw out ideas on how to best use the information they had uncovered in Ecklie's office.

"Okay, so we're all agreed?" Nick asked, looking at Warrick first and then Greg to get their acquiescence.

"Sounds good," Warrick said.

"Yep, sounds good," Greg seconded.

When Nick noticed Greg squinting, he asked, incredulous, "Greg, are you trying to blow soup cans off of my head?"

"Uh, yeah… sorry. It's kind of addictive once you start. I'll try to stop…" Greg tried to appear properly chastised.

"Yeah, do that because you're kind of creeping me out," Warrick said.

Ten minutes later, they finished paying their bill for their one beer each (they had to work later that night, after all). "Come on, we have things to do and people to see," Nick said as he stood up from the booth and headed toward the bar's exit.

"By the way, Greg, did Ecklie ever give you any career advice since that's what you asked for in the first place when you got him out of the lab?" Warrick asked as he followed after Nick.

Greg let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, he told me that I should strive to be just like him, and good things will come to me."

Both Nick and Warrick burst out laughing at the irony of it all as the three of them headed back out into the evening…

xxx

Later that evening at Grissom's house (again)…

"So, tell me again why thousands of women do this?" Sara asked, although she was having a hard time moving her mouth to form the words.

"Hey, try not to move your lips so much. You'll cause cracks," Catherine warned. She had long ago perfected the art of speaking through her teeth with her lips barely moving.

"Cracks are bad, I assume," Sara said aloud. She and Catherine had put on facemasks. Her face felt like it was made of stone. She couldn't believe that she had allowed Catherine to talk her into it. This was so unlike her, but she did say that she would 'go with the flow' for the evening.

They had already finished watching Love Actually. Catherine had let the waterworks loose a few times during the movie, and she knew that Catherine had kept glancing over at her (trying unsuccessfully to be inconspicuous) to see if she would shed some tears. She might have shed a couple, but thankfully Catherine hadn't noticed because she was too busy crying herself. She couldn't help but get a bit emotional when it got to the part where Colin Firth's character learned another language so that he could propose to his love interest. It was sweet.

They had also already eaten a couple slices of pizza and drunk a couple of beers.

After the movie, they had painted their toenails. Catherine insisted that she paint her nails although it was something that she had never bothered with in the past. Catherine had brought an entire assortment of OPI's finest colors. She said that the brand had the best names of nail polish. Uh, like it mattered? Catherine had picked out 'Thrill of Brazil' while she had picked one at random. It was called 'Hot Pink Pagoda'. She had never considered herself to be a fan of the color pink, but looking at her toes, she did think that they looked good. She wondered briefly, would Gil think that her newly painted toes were sexy? She would have to remember to ask.

Following the nail painting, Catherine had said that it was time for facemasks. She had brought two different kinds. Catherine had chosen the one called 'Rose Garden' while she chose the other, 'Jasmine'.

"You know what, Catherine? You look like a ghost," Sara said, trying not to laugh. Catherine's face was white.

"Well, um, you sort of look like the Hulk with your face green like that!" Catherine countered.

"The Hulk? Oh, God. I'll just say now that I'm thankful that you didn't bring a camera…"

"Oh, I did bring my camera! Thanks for reminding me, Sara" Catherine said as Sara groaned. "Hold on… let me get it out. We'll take a few pictures of us with the masks on… it will be fun," she said as she got up from the couch. A few minutes later, she had an annoyed look on her face. "Damn it. The freaking batteries died. Do you have any extra around here?"

"Uh, no. Not that I know of. Maybe we'll look later…" Like when she didn't have a clay mask on that made her look like the Incredible Hulk. "Isn't it about time to wash this gunk off our faces?"

Catherine checked her watch. "Yeah, you're right. We're a couple minutes behind schedule."

Together, they headed to the guest bathroom to wash off their 'gunk'.

Catherine towel-dried her face and then caressed it. "See, doesn't your skin feel soft… kind of like a baby's butt?"

Since she hadn't actually touched a baby's butt (or remembered touching one), Sara wasn't quite sure how to answer the question. "Uh, my skin does feel soft," she admitted. "So what now? We've done our nails and our face. Anything else you have planned…?" she asked, although she was a bit afraid of the answer.

"Well, we could always braid each other's hair, but I don't think either one of us has hair long enough…"

"Thank God for that," Sara said, under her breath, slowly backing away with a look of horror on her face.

Catherine couldn't help it and she burst out laughing. "Sara, I was kidding. Honest. Why don't we go make those brownies you mentioned earlier? I could really go for some chocolate right now."

"Sounds good to me as long as you make them. I'm afraid I would mess them up," Sara confessed as she followed Catherine into the kitchen.

"Here, you can just watch me, and I'll give you some cooking tips if you want…"

While she watched Catherine find the necessary bowls and pan to bake the brownies in, she grabbed a couple of beers out of the refrigerator for the two of them. She felt like she might need a bit more fortitude for anything else Catherine may have planned for the evening.

Fifteen minutes later, the brownies were placed in the oven. The box said it would take an additional thirty minutes for them to be ready.

"Why don't we listen to some music while waiting for the brownies to cook? Then we can watch Bridget Jones' Diary and stuff our face with chocolate brownies," Catherine suggested.

"Sure. You said you brought some c.d.'s?" Sara walked over to the stereo and took out the c.d. she had been listening to the other day; it was Damien Rice's O.

"Yeah, Lindsey showed me how to make a mixed c.d. a while back. Got to love technology," Catherine said as she found the c.d. in her bag that she had brought over.

Sara took the disc from her and read the words on the front. "Mom's Sing Along, Dance, and Act Insane C.D.," Sara said out loud with a hint of laughter in her voice.

Catherine let out a small laugh. "Yeah, Linds wrote that. Got to love your kids –or so they say. I told her that I wanted a mix for when I clean house. I'm definitely not a domestic goddess or anything, and music seems to make cleaning toilets and scrubbing bathtubs go faster and more bearable. And, yeah, I might like to dance as I clean…"

Sara smiled. She could definitely see Catherine doing that. She remembered that she would always put on music when she cleaned her apartment, too. "Well, I'm interested in hearing what's on here… or maybe should I say scared?"

"Very funny. It's just some classics," Catherine replied as Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" blasted out through the stereo's speakers.

"Oh my God. Wow. This song is old."

"Hey, now! It's a good song. You can't help but dance to it," Catherine said as she began dancing.

Sara just stared in wonder at her friend.

"Come on, Sara. Join me?"

"Uh, I don't know if I'm that great of a dancer," Sara protested.

"Just watch me and do what I'm doing. It's all about the hip action –that drives men crazy…" Catherine said as she began putting a bit of extra 'oomph' into the swing of her hips and began snapping her fingers in time with the music. "Just feel the music."

Sara thought, "Well, I can always blame it on the alcohol –it loosens your inhibitions. And if dancing drove guys crazy, then maybe I can pick up a few tips to try out on Gil. I need to get him to change his mind about the whole 'no sex until my memory returns' policy."

By the time Seger had ended, Sara had begun tentatively copying Catherine's moves. When Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" began playing she let loose completely and decided to not be self-conscious. She began to just feel the music like Catherine had suggested. "I use to love this song," Sara shouted over the music.

"Yeah, me too. It's the song that gave Courteney Cox her big break."

"Courteney who?" Sara asked, still dancing.

"You know she played on Friends? Monica?" Seeing Sara's blank look, Catherine continued, "Oh, never mind."

When John Mellencamp's "Hurts So Good" came on Catherine picked up the remote control and began to use it as a microphone, causing Sara to burst out laughing.

They were both singing along to the song so at first neither of them heard the phone ring. Finally, Catherine said, "I think that's the phone," as she made her way over to the stereo to turn down the volume.

Meanwhile Sara made her way to the phone. Laughing a bit at Catherine's antics (she was still dancing), she answered the phone, "Hello."

"Hey, honey. Is that U2 I hear playing in the background?" Grissom asked.

"Yeah, you're correct. Catherine brought over some c.d.'s that she made, and we were listening to them while we waited for the brownies to bake. How are you?" she asked, smiling as she sat down on the couch. She was happy to hear from him.

He paused for a moment. "I'm more concerned about you. I don't want you overtiring yourself, sweetheart. Is Catherine taking good care of you?"

"I'm fine. Promise. And I don't need Catherine to take care of me, Gil. I can do that myself. We're just having a girls' night."

"Oh, a girls' night?" He wasn't sure what that entailed. It was some sacred tradition that had remained a mystery to every single male on Earth. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the details anyway. "It sounds like you're having a good time. Hey, hold on a second…" Sara could hear another voice in the background and then Grissom came back on the line a few moments later. "Hey, hun. I need to go. I miss you, and I'll try to call you later if I have a spare moment."

"I hope everything's fine. I miss you, too."

"Bye, sweetheart."

"Bye," Sara said into the phone before she hung up. She remained sitting on the couch. Hearing his voice made her think of how much she missed him.

"You said that you hoped everything was fine. Was something wrong?" Catherine asked.

"Oh. Um, I think I heard Nick telling Gil that they were about to go arrest some guy, and he was needed…" Sara said, frowning.

Catherine could tell Sara was missing Grissom so she tried to re-distract her and cheer her up again.

In a few minutes, they were laughing again.

"You know if we had a pole then you could teach me some of your exotic dance moves," Sara said. Oh, shit. Did I just say that? I cannot believe I just said that out loud! She blamed it on the fumes from the nail polish… the alcohol… the fact that she was missing Gil. She had a headache coming on, too. Headaches were known to cause someone to become loopy. Right?

Catherine looked at her, startled. "Well, you could always install one in your bedroom…" Shit! I probably shouldn't be giving Sara any ideas. She blamed it on the alcohol.

Sara appeared to consider it for a moment and then said, "I don't know if Gil would approve of me drilling a hole in the ceiling…"

Catherine laughed. "Come on, our brownies should nearly be done."

"Hey, Catherine… anything done or said tonight will be filed under the premise, 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas', right?"

"Oh, yeah," the blonde quickly agreed.

The night was still young, after all…

A/N4: I know that after this chapter this is probably the worst time for me to say this, but I really just need to take a 'break' from Memories. Please, don't start freaking out and think that I'm going to abandon this story because that's FAR from the truth—promise! I started this in November, and I never dreamed that I would still be writing it! So I just need to take a step back and evaluate the story and where I see it going (I'm a planner). I have what I want to happen in my head, I just need to make sure it will mesh well with what I have already. I foresee Memories as being a long WIP.

A/N5: In preparation for posting this chapter, I put on both my raincoat and rain boots. I expect vegetables to be thrown at me (please, no rotten ones)! I assumed that what was in the folders would be revealed but my writing got away from me. Maybe you still enjoyed the chapter? I hope so. Do let me know. I know it's a bit insane, but that's what came to me. Next chapter promises to be eventful: slumber party continues/ends, what's in the folders will (finally!) be revealed, Grissom and Sara will be reunited (yeah!), and possibly the introduction of the new character… Oh, sneak peeks are still happening so why don't you push that little purple button?