A/N  I apologise for the formatting for this one… it doesn't seem to want to do what I want it to do… hope it's still okay to read though. Enjoy!

"And you're sure it was these two people? With this man?" Nick held up a picture of Grissom and Sara next to the photo of Henderson that was taken off of his driver's license. They stood in the parking garage of the diner that Nick had last seen his two colleagues in. After going through the list of previous crime scenes and giving his report to Brass and air control, he had made his way down to the diner to see if he could find any clues that could help them find Grissom and Sara. He'd found an eyewitness.


The middle aged man nodded, "Positive."

Nick crinkled his forehead at the man, "And he had a knife?"

The man nodded again, "Up to the woman's neck."

"Why the hell didn't you report it before now?" Nick asked, feeling the need to punch the guy out.

The man sighed, "I have… Unpaid parking tickets, you know? I was afraid you guys would catch up with me - hey, I'm telling you now though - you'll put in a good word for me right?"

Nick glared at him and shook his head in disbelief. "Did you see which way they went?"

To Nick's relief the guy nodded once more, "Yup, went straight up that a-way," he said pointing down the street.

"Thank you," Nick said, "You've been very helpful."

"Hey! What about those parking tickets?"

~~

"Grissom, it's no use - you're not going to be able to break it… Ouch!" Sara winced as Grissom brought the rock down on the chain of the handcuffs again.

Since the thunder had not stopped, they had felt relatively safe that Henderson would not hear the noises they were making - but Sara was growing tired. Grissom blew out a disgusted sigh, glared at Sara, and threw the rock away from them as hard and as far as he could.

"Damn it Sara!" he growled at her, then winced as he felt her flinch. "I'm sorry," he added in a more gentle tone, "I'm just so tired… I don't know what to do Sara."

They sat against a tree, drenched by the rain that continued to beat down on them. It was almost completely dark except for when the lightning lit up the sky.

He watched her close her eyes and sigh, "We should get some sleep Grissom -I can't remember the last time I was asleep," she said, her eyes still closed. "He wont find us during the night - with no moonlight he could walk right past and not even realize we were there..."


Grissom shuddered at the thought of Henderson being that close to them and unconsciously began to scan their surroundings. He felt a hand slip into his own and turned back to look at Sara.

"Please?" she asked hoarsely.

"Here?" he asked dubiously, once again trying to see exactly what was surrounding them. In a flash of lightning he saw a muddy ground littered with fallen leaves and twigs - comfortable was the last word he thought to describe it.

"Well unless you have any better ideas - I didn't exactly see a bed and breakfast whilst we were sprinting through here but maybe I missed it," she said sarcastically, letting go of his hand and sighing in frustration.
Grissom frowned at the loss of physical contact - they still sat side by side but holding Sara's hand made him feel less alone out here. He grabbed it, interlocking his fingers with hers, "No, I don't have any better ideas - but these are going to be annoying," he said, referring to the handcuffs.

"It's okay, I've worked it out," she said confidently, moving to stand up.

"Where are you going?" Grissom asked, struggling to find his own feet.

"Well, I just realized sitting under the tallest tree in the middle of an electrical storm is not the best idea we've ever had - plus those bushes over there might provide us with a bit more cover from this rain. Come on," she helped him to his feet and guided him to the smaller bushes she had spied out.

"Okay lie down," she instructed. He sat down and waited for her to join him. She didn't. "Lie down Grissom," she said again, bending over so there was no pull on the cuffs. Grissom sighed and laid down on his back.

Sara crouched down next to him, "Are you relatively comfortable?"

Grissom grunted an incoherent response that Sara took for a yes. She laid down on his left side and rested her head on his un-cuffed arm, practically snuggling into his neck. Grissom held her left hand with his right and placed them on his chest. She breathed a sigh into the side of his neck, making him close his eyes and unconsciously hug her closer to him with his left arm.


"You know if we weren't lying in a pool of mud with the rain pelting down on us, freezing our asses off and hiding from a psychopath whose just spent half the day hunting us down like animals so that he can then kill us... This would be nice," Grissom murmured. Sara grinned and closed her eyes.

After a moment of silence she looked up at Grissom.

"If we don't make it," she said seriously, "will you have any regrets?"

Grissom sighed and frowned, "I'll have a couple," he said honestly.

"Like what?" Sara asked, not even daring herself to hope he'd regret nothing happening between the two of them.

"Sara," Grissom started, "I thought you wanted to sleep..."

"What will you regret? Just tell me one, and we'll go to sleep," she insisted, not feeling the least bit tired anymore.

"I'll... Regret that I couldn't get you out of here - that I couldn't save us. I'll regret dying. I'm not ready to die Sara, I need more time to fix everything - there is too much I still need to do," he sighed and squeezed the hand he was holding. After a pause he turned his head to look at Sara who moved her face away from his neck to gaze into his eyes.

She swallowed - not sure what was going through his mind - scared that she's misinterpreted his statement. She wished she could see his expression but the darkness hid it from her. Her fear got the better of her and she returned her face to his neck. "I'm not ready to die yet either," she mumbled.