The drive to the lab was quiet. Nick's own thoughts were focused on the content of Sara's nightmares.

"How did you sleep?" he asked suddenly.

Sara almost jumped, but she was glad for the question.

"Well," she said, "really well. Did you put something in the milk?"

"I was thinking about it," he admitted, "but I thought that if you had another nightmare, you'd want to wake up."

"Thanks."

"No problem," Nick searched for something more to say. He normally had little problem talking to or teasing Sara.

Teasing. "What's the bear's name?" he asked.

"Pig," Sara said.

"It's name's pig?" Nick was thrown by Sara's lack of reaction.

"No, it's a pig. I don't know what its name is. I think I named it Bert. But that wasn't his first name. I mean the name I gave him when I first got him. I found him one day under my bed and I couldn't remember what I had called him."

Nick nodded.

"Why me?" he asked. He had nothing else to go on, so he asked what was really bothering him.

"Why you what?"

"Why did you come to me?" he asked.

To his surprise, Sara smiled.

"Well, it could hardly be Greg, could it?" She asked.

"No," Nick agreed, "but why not someone else?"

"I didn't know Warrick too well, and we weren't getting along. I couldn't tell Grissom, really, and certainly not Catherine."

"But she'd understand," Nick protested.

"Exactly," Sara said, "I couldn't have her understand it. And she'd be anxious for Lindsey."

"Every case makes Cath anxious for Lindsey," Nick said, still arguing against his own helpfulness.

"It's never been someone she's known before, Nick. I couldn't deal with her pity and her sympathy."

Nick nodded as if he understood and continued driving

They collected their stuff from the lab and joined Warrick at the site. It looked like it was a simple hit and run accident, but the victim had bleed profusely and there was a lot of ground to cover. The most important thing was to get the body in as soon as possible for an autopsy.

Warrick glanced at the Tahoe as it pulled up. He went back to work taking photos when he saw it was just Nick. He looked back when he heard two sets of foot steps.

"Sara, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I couldn't sleep," she said, truthfully enough, "So Nick brought me."

Warrick was about to ask how that really made sense, if he wanted to know, but Sara had stepped up to the body to examine her face. She was there one moment and the next she was running down the street.

"Get the smell," she managed to call behind her.

Nick watched her run past before he could follow her. Sara collapsed in the gutter, heaving. She started to take deep breaths and Nick was sure she was trying not to vomit.

"Sara, Sara," he called to her as he got to where she was.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't think it would be good to throw up on a crime scene."

"Good thinking," he said. And more quietly, "The smell?"

"On her."

Without giving anymore explanation, she used Nick's arm to pull herself up and stalked back to the body. Nick followed her.

"Did you get the smell?" she asked Warrick.

"It's not strong enough," he said. "It's not her perfume."

"No, it's the rapist's."

Nick took another look at the body. It was a young woman. She was badly beaten. And even if she had been hit by a car, it had been bad before that. The blood drained from his face and he felt almost like throwing up as well.

Sara didn't look at the body. She stepped wide carefully, heading for the park.

"I want it all marked out, Warrick, please."

Warrick glanced at Nick, questioningly. Nick nodded and followed Sara into the park.

Sara skirted wide around the area. She looked around the ground quickly. She followed the path the victim had crawled. It ran almost straight to the foot of a large tree.

The case-kit went on the ground. The camera came out. There was one clear footprint that deserved several photos. So did the bark on the tree where it appeared it had been rubbed, perhaps with rope.

Nick found Sara methodically analysing the scene. She was systematically working the tree taking fibres and photographs. Rather than questioning her or taking over, he simply joined her.

The site was obviously the site of an attack. The woman had struggled forcefully. There was blood on the tree. Nick took swabs of it, sure that it only the victims, but he wasn't leaving it behind.

Warrick avoided the path the woman had crawled as he approached Sara and Nick.

"I've processed the body, they've taken her for an autopsy."

"I'm going, it's my body," Sara said.

Nick looked ready to protest. Sara raised an eyebrow at him and nodded towards Warrick. Nick acquiesced silently; he threw Sara his keys. She grabbed them out of the air and jogged to the Tahoe.

Warrick looked back and forth between Nick and where Sara had gone. He raised an eyebrow at Nick.

"You came with Sara, didn't you?"

"No, no, no," Nick said, shaking his head, "It's not like that."

"Like what?" Warrick asked, grinning.

"I like my job, I like my life, and I have Grissom's respect. I don't want any of that to change."

Warrick chuckled, "Yeah. Do you want to call it?"

Nick surveyed the scene.

"The woman was walking through the park. Or even the street," he added, looking at the prints in the grass. "Attacker grabbed her from behind. She was dragged to the tree. So she was in the park, over here."

Warrick stepped carefully over there. He ordered it all taped off. He couldn't see any prints. But that didn't mean they weren't there.

"Dragged her to the tree," Warrick continued. "Tied her hands together behind the tree?"

"She was sitting up," Nick said. He had been examining the prints under the tree. "So he tied her hands together and tied her around the waist to the tree as well. Then he raped her, then he left her. She was able to get out of the rope."

Nick took photos of the rope. He picked it up carefully. He had a strange impulse, but one he had never failed to respond to. He wrapped the rope length-wise in plastic before bagging it. Warrick watched him, trying to work it out. Nick shrugged.

"Cross contamination along the rope," Warrick explained, thinking it through. "We'll know if she tied herself up, we may be able to get his saliva if he pulled the rope with his teeth."

"Good," Nick said, pleased with his impulse.

"Have we finished here?" Warrick asked.

Nick nodded, "We'll take what we have to the lab and come back when it's light to see if there are any good prints."

They walked together back to Warrick's Tahoe in companionable silence. Neither was thinking about the case.

"So, why did you arrive with Sara, if you weren't with Sara?"

"She was at my house," Nick said cautiously.

Warrick wasn't about to give Nick any ground. He needed to know everything if he was going back his friend up. Nick knew that Warrick wasn't about to do anything to suggest he was letting Nick steal Sara, but he couldn't break her confidence.

"What was she doing at your house, at 10 o'clock at night, on her night off?"

"Sleeping," Nick said darkly.

"Okay," Warrick let it pass for now.