HOUSE OF CARDS

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise, as much as I might like to.

Author's Note: Huge thanks to all of you who are reading and reviewing this story.

Warrick and Greg headed for the DNA lab as soon as they'd left the break room. Neither of them spoke as Greg ran the test to compare the DNA of the man Sara had shot with the man who had raped and murdered young Caroline Flynn.

Greg frowned. "Not a match to the rapist." Frustrated, he slapped the piece of paper onto the desk.

"Damn." Warrick picked up the paper and looked at it for himself. "Damn."

"So... what was that guy doing in the warehouse, then?"

"Oh, who knows. From what Nick said he had to have been high on something. Anything could have been going down in that warehouse before the girl got raped."

"So now what?"

"Now we work it as any other case. Everything Nick and Sara collected last night is in the evidence vault. We start from there and see what we can do."

They collected the box from the vault and took it into an empty room where they busied themselves laying out the contents of the box on a table. There wasn't a lot: a few samples that needed to be run through Trace, the clothes Caroline Flynn had been wearing, a few things Sara and Nick had found around the warehouse.

"It's going to be a long night, isn't it?" Greg asked.

"Uh huh." Warrick gathered up the samples for Trace and handed them to Greg. "Go give these to Trace, and I'll pack this up."

"Well, that was a waste of time, then."

"We're going back to that warehouse, man."

Brass insisted that if they were going back to the warehouse, they were having officers at every entrance. Greg wanted to know what the chance was of there being another gun-brandishing madman on the scene, but Warrick kept silent, Holly Gribbs always in his mind. Nick could have died last night. He wasn't taking any risks.

The warehouse was empty and echoing and shadowy, despite the lights and the armed officers hovering in every doorway. Warrick marched in, remembering Holly, remembering Nick. He saw the two bloodstains on the floor: one from where Caroline Flynn had died, in the far corner, curled up, her clothes ripped - he'd seen the photos - and one from the man, still nameless, who had died by a bullet from Sara's gun. There the man had fallen, so Nick must have stood there, against the wall, unable to move, watching the man coming closer and closer. And Sara had stood where he was now, and pulled the trigger.

Warrick shivered. He was guiltily glad that this hadn't been his case last night.

As they had no way of knowing which areas had been processed they had to start over, and hope that nothing crucial had been disturbed in last night's mayhem. Warrick was grateful for the steady, familiar work when everything seemed to be falling to bits. Nick had been held up with a guy with a gun, Sara had killed a man, the Sheriff and IA were going through all their personal files, dredging up the mistakes and failings of long ago...

He'd known he'd never forget Holly Gribbs, but he'd started to believe he could move on from her shadow. He had no doubt that Nick thought the same about what had happened with Kristy Hopkins, or Catherine the DNA lab. Everything they thought was over had been brought back to hang over their heads like an anvil until someone in some office decided to let the anvil drop, or to put it away again until next time.

Warrick worked the area where the man had died, because he'd rather Greg not. He wasn't sure why, but as he worked around the bloodstain, he thought about Holly, and realised that the pain and the memories weren't going anywhere.

"Hey." Nick had let himself into Sara's. She was curled up on the couch, a cushion in her arms. Nick knew she kept a teddy bear in her closet. She'd only brought it out a few times and he didn't ask about it.

"Hi," she murmured, trying to smile and putting the cushion down. They looked at each other across the room. Sara sighed. "I'm sorry about this morning."

Nick let a tiny smile flicker across his face. "Still hard to say things like that, isn't it?"

"Don't wind me up, Nick."

"Okay."

After a few minutes of rather awkward silence, Sara stood up and crossed the room. Nick didn't move, hard as it was; didn't even flinch when she stopped just inches from his face. He looked for the signs of tears, but didn't see them. For a moment they stood, looking at each other, and then Sara half flung herself at Nick and buried her face in his shoulder. "I'm really sorry," she muttered.

More relieved than anything else, Nick held onto her. For a moment he thought she was crying, but then she pulled her head back and looked at him. "I am sorry."

"I know."

"Are you all right?"

Nick shrugged. "Sure. Are you?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"Did you talk to Kim?"

"Yeah."

In the silence that followed, Nick tried to forget all that he felt that day and tried to concentrate on Sara. He had a number of questions buzzing round in his head, and he'd learnt that often it helped to ask the hard questions sooner rather than later. Before he could gather up his courage and form the words, Sara had leaned in and kissed him.

Nick hesitated. He knew what she was doing, because he'd done it himself in the past, but his lips responded without instruction from his mind. He felt Sara's hands run down his back, and he kissed her harder. Maybe she had the right idea. Maybe they could just... forget.

Later, he lay sleepily amid the tangled sheets of Sara's bed, looking at her lying on her stomach, her head cushioned on her arms. She was facing Nick with her eyes closed, and she looked more peaceful than she had since this whole thing had started last night. Remembering what he'd wanted to ask her, Nick was reluctant to break the mood. He could cuddle up to Sara right now and go to sleep, and risk repeating the past. They'd been in this position last night, and look where they'd ended up.

Carefully, he put his hand on Sara's head, and ran it down as far as the small of her back to where the sheet covered her. She opened her eyes and gazed at him. "Mmmm?"

Nick looked into her eyes, forced himself not to get lost in them, and considered everything. "Can we talk?"

"Sure."

"About this morning - "

"I said I was sorry."

"I know. I know. Look, Sara - " Nick sighed. He hadn't expected this to be easy, but... "I just want to know where I stand. This morning, you were shouting at me and telling me to go away. Now..." Lost for words, Nick waved a hand between their bodies.

"I said I was sorry."

Frustrated, Nick, who had propped himself up on one elbow, let himself drop down onto the bed. "That's not the issue. I just want to understand."

"You know I love you." Her voice was troubled, and her eyes had drifted away from his.

"Oh, Sara." Nick closed his eyes for a moment. "I know. I wasn't doubting that. I just want to know what you were thinking."

Sara turned her head so her forehead rested on her arms and Nick could no longer see the expression on his face. "Have you ever felt totally trapped?" she asked her pillow. "When it seems like everything bad is just closing in on you and you have to get away?"

Nick shook his head, knowing perfectly well she couldn't see him. "No."

"Well, that's what it was like."

"And I'm part of everything bad?"

"No... but when it gets like that, I have to be alone. I have to run and run because that just makes it all go numb. That's why I used to drink," she admitted after a pause.

Nick touched her head. "That's what I don't understand," he said quietly. "I'd rather be with someone when I feel bad."

"So you'd rather I didn't run away this morning?" Sara's voice wasn't as harsh as Nick might have expected, and she turned to look at him again.

"I'd rather you didn't run away at all. But Sara, if you have to run, please just tell me. Don't yell at me."

"Sorry."

"Stop apologising."

"Sorry." Their eyes met, and both grinned, then Sara went solemn again. "Are we all right, Nicky?"

"Yeah. You know, we'll get through this, hey?"

"Yeah. I just... every time I think I've got it all straightened out in my head I think about something else. Some other aspect of the whole mess." She yawned. "Sorry. I've been running."

"I know," Nick said, as soothingly as he could, moving in so their bodies touched. Sara closed her eyes and leaned her head against Nick.

"I was thinking about Caroline before you came," she whispered.

Caroline? Nick searched through his mind, and remembered. Caroline Flynn. The girl who had been raped and murdered in that warehouse and had started this whole thing. "Hey, whoever's working the case'll get the guy. Maybe..." Nick decided not to mention the man Sara had shot.

"I know. But I promised Caroline - " Sara paused, and swallowed. "I promised her I wouldn't give up till I found him. I just wish I could work her case."

Nick pulled her close, and wondered what to say. That bit about having promised Caroline was unnerving, and it wasn't the first time something like that had happened. Sara's issues with rape victims sometimes kept him awake, and considering the issue had sometimes made him almost physically ill. He'd been there himself, and she knew it, and the fact that she wouldn't talk about what had happened to her - because Nick was convinced something had - was more upsetting than he liked to admit. "There's nothing you can do," he said feebly.

"That's what I hate."

"I know." Nick dropped kisses on Sara's head as she yawned again. "Go to sleep, honey. I'll be here as long as you want me."

TBC...

Sara opened her eyes. "And I'll be here as long as you need me."