A/N Thanks to my beta's again, and everyone who keeps on reviewing – you guys are awesome!!
"Sneaky, little pricks!" Graham Henderson cursed to himself viciously, throwing a tin container down in disgust. "They took my back-pack right from under my nose!" he thought to himself before kicking the same container violently into the small stream of water he had fallen asleep next to.
"Right," he exhaled sharply, "if they want to play – I'll play," he grumbled to himself as he opened a duffel bag and began to take out his assorted weaponry. He looked through the trees that surrounded him, suddenly paranoid that they were closer than he first suspected – watching him, laughing at him. "Animals," he muttered and finished gathering his weapons before striding purposefully in the direction that Sara and Grissom had fled just minutes before.
~~
Grissom tried to control his breathing as he and Sara dove to the ground behind some bushes, wincing for the millionth time from the pain the hand-cuffs were inflicting upon his wrist. He grabbed at Sara's arm, pulling her closer to the ground and towards him. She was also breathing hard from the full on sprint they had just undertaken. She looked down at the bag in her hand and opened it, quickly dumping its contents onto the ground in front of them. They both found it difficult to assign the right words to the objects in front of them due to the panic and alarm bells raging in their minds. Grissom blinked and tried to concentrate. Chocolate, duct-tape, a hand gun, some sort of small metal balls (no word for them), some paper and a small metal key. A key! Keys to the hand-cuffs! He exhaled quickly as he grabbed for the keys, just as Sara grabbed for the gun. They glanced at each other, both sporting slightly amused and quizzical expressions.
Sara held her breath as Grissom inserted the key into the small hole on the cuffs. She couldn't believe it when she felt the hard metal around her wrist loosen.
"Oh thank God," she whispered as Grissom removed them from her wrist completely. He just nodded, lightly grazing her wounds with his fingers before snatching back at the hand cuffs and throwing them back in the bag.
He looked back at the gun in Sara's hand, "That could come in handy."
She grinned, "I was actually hoping for a phone. Something tells me this isn't going to be much help."
Grissom shrugged and looked back at rest of the discarded objects, "you said you were hungry right?" he picked up the block of chocolate and ripped off the paper – offering her the food. She broke off a bit and sighed as she felt the sweet flavour dissolve in her mouth.
"Never has chocolate ever tasted this good," she said and grinned at him as he nodded his agreement.
"I don't think I want to know what these are," Grissom said, picking up one of the metal balls, "they look like they might hurt."
"You thinking of the latest victim? All those bruises on her body – from memory they were about that size."
"So what are you thinking? Sling-shot maybe?" Grissom suggested, raising an eyebrow at her.
Sara nodded, "Yeah maybe." She picked up the pieces of paper and unfolded them. "Well, I am 99% sure I know where we are," she said and showed him the map.
"Charleston," he stated unnecessarily.
Just then Sara heard a noise from somewhere not too far away, and swung violently around, scanning their surroundings. Grissom snapped his head around too and then met Sara's eyes, asking a silent question.
"I think we should keep moving," she whispered, beginning to get up again.
"Wait," Grissom whispered back at her. He threw everything back in the bag again and slung it over his shoulder, "we may need this stuff later."
Sara nodded, still grasping the gun tightly, and looked around again, "Come on, lets get going."
Grissom stood up, remembering that he wasn't physically attached to Sara anymore, and grabbed her free hand, "This way," he said simply, and began to lead the way through the forest.
~~
"It takes all three of you to check out a single car now?" Brass asked pointedly, smiling slightly at the sheepish expressions on the faces of Catherine, Warrick and Nick.
"Oh shoosh Jim," Catherine mock-glared at him, "you know why we're here – I'm riding with you!" she ordered, pointing to the chopper behind him.
Brass grinned and nodded, "and what about you two?" he asked Nick and Warrick.
"We're gonna join the ground search crew," Nick stated, a hint of determination in his voice.
"Okay," Brass raised an eyebrow, "so who's gonna process the car scene? It still has to be done Catherine."
"We know that," Catherine smiled wryly making Jim crinkle his eyebrows.
"So who's processing it?"
"I am," came a voice from behind him. Brass swivelled around, coming face-to-face with Greg Sanders.
He raised his eyebrows and turned slowly towards Catherine shaking his head, "I'm not gonna say anything," he sighed and motioned for her to follow him to the chopper.
Catherine grinned and slapped Greg on the back as she walked past him, "You know you probably wont find a thing – but either way, I have complete faith in your abilities!"
Greg puffed out a laugh, "Just keep telling me I'm helping Grissom and Sara by doing this – that's all I need!"
Nick and Warrick grinned and waved goodbye as they ran back to their car.
"Later Greggo!" Nick yelled out the window as they passed him in the car.
Greg rolled his eyes, "yeah yeah," he said as he turned towards Grissom's car – his new crime scene.