Pieces5

Johnny, Joy, and James

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, keep them coming! I enjoyed writing this chapter, which explains why it's so lengthy. Hope there is enough Sara/Warrick interaction for you, I'm trying, but there will be more in the future. Enjoy!

Nick, Grissom, and Catherine all stopped in their tracks. This one answer could unlock the entire investigation. "Well?" Grissom urged the lab tech to spill his information.

"Johnny Adams." Greg replied quickly, not recognizing the name instantly, but hoping the others would.

"Why does that name sound so familiar?" Grissom asked puzzled. Nick too thought the name familiar. A minute later it hit him. "We've been looking in the wrong case files." Grissom commented suddenly to Catherine in disbelief. Her eyes opened wide at the unexpected realization.

"So they were after Sara and Warrick." She spoke up softly. The three remaining night shifters sat there as the information overwhelmed them. Often they came across angry and vindictive people that they had convicted, but this time they crossed the line by going after two of their own.

Greg came back with a large box of files. "Damn, I didn't know Sara and Warrick had so many cases together." Nick commented as he gazed upon the files. Grissom secretly agreed, but knew they worked well together, which is why he usually paired them together. He grabbed the file under Adams.

"I remember them." Nick stated quietly. "Open and shut case for Sara and Warrick." He recalled that night well, even though it was over a year ago. He had been exhausted after his shift, one where he and Grissom had spent most of the night chasing a mobile crime scene. He had come back to the lab to find the two of them handing in their paperwork and signing out. He wished he was that lucky, he had thought with a sigh, realizing he had hours of work still ahead. Now he was lucky he hadn't gotten that case. That notion didn't cheer him as he thought of his two friends who needed their help.

"Aren't they still in jail?" Catherine wondered in confusion, she too remembering that case well.

Grissom was silent as he finished reading the report. "Grissom?" Catherine called out to get his attention. "It says here, they were released from jail on Monday." He said looking up to note the same anxious looks in their eyes that he knew were in his.

"For first degree murder?" She exclaimed incredulously. "Lack of forensic evidence." Greg spoke up, walking through the door to make another pot of coffee.

"Are you kidding me?" Nick almost yelled in disbelief. "Sara and Warrick had tons of evidence." The Texan argued. The two of them were compulsive about their evidence, if anyone had a nail tight case it would be Sara and Warrick.

"Cite your source." Grissom demanded Greg. Most of the lab tech's information came from lab gossip or other unreliable sources. He had to know if this was reliable, hoping all the while that it wasn't. The implications of it being true were too horrific to accept.

"Heard it on the 11 o'clock news. The story broke a few days ago. I called Brass to verify. He's on his way." He replied seriously. Even the normally cheerful tech could not find any joy in this case. Horror turned to acceptance as Brass arrived and confirmed the story.

"Shit." Nick swore. They were dealing with two dangerous criminals who would stop at nothing. Apparently their freedom wasn't enough.

'How the hell did that get by me?' Grissom thought to himself. He always knew what was going in on the lab. Then he remembered his most recent case, the one that had forced him to send Warrick and Sara in his and Catherine's place to the policemen's ball. It had been a high profile murder, and if he were honest it had occupied most of his thoughts. He recalled guiltily how he had been irritated at Brass's intrusion a few days ago until he had found out that Warrick and Sara had gone missing. Now two of his CSI's were missing, and he wondered if he were not partly to blame.

"Can we get a trace on Joy and Johnny's number?" Nick wondered. "Find out who they were calling. They had help that's for damn sure."

"I'll get Archie." Catherine decided and rushed out to get the number one audio/visual technician.

"We can run it through the computer." Archie suggested when asked, sitting down to type it in. "Here's the number they called the most: 603-692-8851." He reported, reading the screen. "Last call was on Monday at 12:17 PM."

"About six hours before Sara and Warrick disappeared." Greg declared.

Archie looked strangely ill as he recognized the number. "Can we find out who made the call?" Grissom asked as they waited for the results to appear. Archie was frozen in his spot until Grissom called out to him. "Archie?" The supervisor inquired concerned.

"It came from this building." He stated regretfully as he looked at the rest of the team. They were silent as they waited for him to continue. "Down in final forensics."

"He works in final forensics." Nick spat out, as anger slowly burned its way through him. "The bastard works in our building!" He shouted this time as he paced the room.

"Who is it?" Nick demanded as he forced himself to calm down. Getting angry would not bring Sara and Warrick back any quicker. He had to remain in control so that his emotions would not affect this case.

"James Conroy." Catherine spoke up as she closed the lab directory.

"Let's find out what we can about this James Conroy before we bring him in." Nick said seethingly. He didn't wait for an answer and headed down to personnel for his file.

Grissom couldn't believe that someone inside the lab had been involved. But it was one of those cases, they had lots of pieces but they couldn't make them fit. "How does he fit into this picture?" he mused aloud.

Catherine grabbed the file out of his hand and skimmed it quickly. "Why would he sell out Sara and Warrick?" Nick inquired in shock, rubbing his hands through his hair.

"Money?" Grissom guessed. "Revenge?" He offered.

"I'd pick the former." Catherine volunteered joining the conversation. "We investigated his sister once. Or should I say Sara and Warrick investigated his sister." She clarified. "Who?" Grissom demanded in bewilderment.

"Joy Adams." She replied simply. "Her maiden name was Conroy." She explained to her male teammates. Finally some of the pieces were falling into place.

"If they were free, what was the purpose of going after Warrick and Sara?" Catherine brought up angrily, snapping Gil out of his reflective state.

"How did the evidence get thrown out of court?" Grissom thought out loud puzzled at how their case had been aborted because of lack of forensic evidence.

"It must have been doctored." Catherine suggested dreadfully. They all stopped at her thought process. As disturbing as it was, unfortunately they could not argue her point, as they had no better theories themselves.

"All the evidence that comes in goes down to final forensics before heading out to the PD for permanent filing." Archie reminded them.

"And I bet James was the forensics technician on his sister's case." Grissom guessed, and Catherine confirmed with a quick glance at his file.

"So Joy calls her brother and promises him a payout to doctor the evidence." Catherine concluded logically. "And then he could call Joy and let her know when to attack."

"They were sitting ducks." Nick declared in disgust, throwing the file back into the box.

"Let's check his phone records for calls he might have made to his sister. Maybe we can prove that he was an accomplice." Grissom

"Do you think he actually called from the lab?" Greg questioned his supervisor.

"If he has the balls to tamper with evidence, then he's cocky enough to think he can make that call and get away with it." Grissom acknowledged coldly. Nick nodded and headed off to Records to get the phone log. Unfortunately there was no damning evidence from the lab phone records of an outgoing phone calls to the Adams.

"Can we check his cell phone records?" Nick wondered, hoping it would lead them in the direction of Warrick and Sara.

"If he uses a CSI phone we can." Archie found his number in the computer and put a trace on it. "What are we looking for?" he asked to the group.

"I don't know." Nick admitted. "A number that is on there repeatedly." He guessed. "Anything out of the ordinary."

"His sister and him most be very close." Archie observed, "According to the phone records they talked almost three times a week for the last year." He reported as he noted as he scrolled down the phone records.

"Well here's the most recent one listed: "429-703-6552." He ran it through the computer. "No matches." He reported. "Must be unlisted." He replied with a sigh. "I'll run it through the Nevada phone book, but it will take some time." The lab tech reported unhappily.

"Don't worry Arch." Nick comforted the young lab tech, knowing how badly he wanted to crack this case as well. "We'll get them back." He declared.

"That's not the number they called from on Monday." Catherine noticed. "If only we knew where that number was." She wished fervently.

"If we find that number, we find Sara and Warrick." Nick declared confidently.

"When did he make that call?" Catherine interrupted suddenly.

"Yesterday." Archie answered hopefully. "He's still in town." He added as he noted the location of his cell phone.

"Well let's go find James Conroy." Brass declared urgently. Maybe they could get the answers they needed.

"Assuming they were after us, let's go over our old cases." Sara suggested. "Who would want us out of the way?" The two were silent as they ran through their old cases in their minds.

"That lady who killed her daughter and her boyfriend?" Warrick suggested.

"She loves that baby way too much." Sara argued.

"But she's smart." He argued back. They had been unable to press charges because by all accounts it appeared to be a double suicide. A fact that had thoroughly frustrated Sara and Warrick at the time. They continued to run through their list of suspects until exhaustion overtook them.

He laid down first while she went to the bathroom. He was almost asleep when he noticed that she had laid down away from him. Warrick sighed, he feared this would happen. "Sara, we should talk." He said suddenly not feeling so tired. He refused to let her push him away and put up her walls again.

"That's not what you said last night." She muttered as she pulled her arms around herself to keep her warm.

"I know." He agreed. "But I don't want it to be weird between us."

Sara broke the awkward silence. "So let's make it unweird." She suggested, forgoing sleep to resolve their current tension.

"What do you suggest?" He asked suspiciously. One minute he was sure he would have to twist her arm to talk to him, and now she was the one who was in control. He sat up and turned to face the brunette that he realized he didn't know all that well considering the four years they had known each other.

"Tell me about your grandma." She decided softly, leaning against the wall to listen. The stories she had heard had mostly been second hand. She had known his parents had died when he was little, if he wanted to talk about them he would, but she wouldn't ask.

His eyes softened at her request and he leaned back next to her to share with Sara the most important person in the world to him. She watched as his eyes lit up as he talked about his grandmother. She wondered what it would be like if his eyes were to light up that way about her. She shivered involuntarily, though not from the cold. Warrick didn't know that though as he put his arm around her and pulled her close.

"Enough about me." He decided after talking non-stop for about fifteen minutes. "Tell me about your family."

"Well," she began not as nervous as she feared she would be. She wasn't ashamed of her family, it's just that they weren't' as close as anyone else's families seemed to be. Maybe that's why she had been drawn to Grissom in the first place.

"I grew up in San Francisco with my sister and brother and my parents. My parents were both hippies back in the day, though now they run a Bed & Breakfast. My sister Tiffany is more like them, and my brother Jason and I are very different."

"I don't understand why they wouldn't be proud of you. They're your parents." He asked in confusion, remembering their conversation from days ago. He couldn't believe they had been gone for four days already. Though the circumstances were far from ideal, he couldn't complain about the company.

"Different agendas." She replied. "My parents don't care about material things. They have a 'Que Sera' attitude, and they don't understand why Jason and I are so driven to succeed." Sara explained.

"If they figure it out will they please let the Las Vegas crime lab know?" He teased her, referring to her work ethic that was infamous throughout the lab. He was rewarded with her bright smile but she didn't concede his point.

"I like to work hard." She said in her defense. "For me, it's not about the money; I care about my victims."

"We all do. But sometimes you've got to let it go." He advised. Warrick had witnessed her involvement in cases that stretched her to her emotional brink. He knew the dangers of being too one-dimensional, if all you had was your work, it was easy to get consumed and burned out.

"I speak from experience Sar." He admitted. "It doesn't matter if its work or gambling, or even a relationship, but just one of those things isn't going to completely fulfill you." Sara dwelled on his advice. "It does for Grissom." She protested weakly.

Warrick rolled his eyes as to say, 'that's all you got?' "Then why was he so eager to spend time with Lady Heather?" Warrick questioned. "He keeps denying the fact that he needs things that work can't give him. "Besides he's not normal." He joked. Sara couldn't argue that point.

"I don't want to be like that." She confessed quietly. "I thought I did once, but not anymore." Tears flowed down her face. "You're not like that Sar." Warrick disagreed with her. "I know there's more to you than work." He reminded her.

"I just wonder if anyone's missing me out there." She revealed her insecurities to this man who had managed to break down most of her walls. She found him insightful and understanding of her in a way that no one else had ever been.

"Grissom and Greg are working all hours to find us and I'm sure Nicky and Catherine are out of their minds with worry." Warrick said to soothe her fears.

"And if I weren't here, I would be going crazy. I wouldn't be able to sleep, knowing you were missing and knowing I never told you how I felt." He disclosed tenderly as he brushed her disheveled hair away from her face. Though they were both pretty filthy from not showering for four days, he still found her beautiful.

"And how do you feel?" She whispered hopefully, looking straight into his green eyes. She almost gasped when she noticed that they lit up, surprised that she realized he really cared for her. His next words confirmed her feelings.

He paused before answering. "I'm crazy about you." He declared boldly. "You drive me to distraction sometimes. When you're this close to me, I can't barely think." He confessed openly. His thoughtful and kind words touched her. This time the tears the flowed were tears of happiness. He removed his one hand from hers to tenderly brush the tears away but he didn't pull it away from her soft cheek, holding it there as he gazed at her intently.

"We don't have to think now do we?" Sara said as she gathered up all her courage to kiss this man who she admired greatly. His answer was lost when she placed her soft lips on his and the two forgot the horrific situation they were in as they kissed their tension away.

They broke apart a few minutes later, and when Warrick laid down to get some well-needed rest, Sara didn't hesitate to climb into his arms. She laid her head on his chest, the sound of his heart beating lulling her to sleep. Warrick took a final minute to enjoy the serenity of this moment, holding this woman in his arms, and hoping he'd never have to let her go. A small smile was on his lips as fatigue overcame him and he fell into a peaceful slumber.