Chapter 4:

Nick, Sara, and Hailey were waiting in Grissom's office waiting for him and Warrick to come and give out assignments. Sara went in and sat in one of the two chairs Grissom had in his office. Nick offered Hailey the other, since no one was allowed to sit in Grissom's chair, but she told him to sit and she sat on top of him. Grissom walked in, and started with the assignments in his hand although Warrick hadn't arrived yet.

"Nick and Hailey. You guys have two DB's, males, late twenties, neighbor called it in."

Hailey took the paper and held it out for her and Nick to read. "Ocean Avenue?" Hailey asked.

"Yeah, why?" Grissom retaliated.

"That's only a couple blocks from my place." She said thinking that it was just slightly odd.

Nick looked at her. "Better get going." She stood up and he followed her out of the office. Hailey called driver and they got into one of the Tahoe's headed to Hailey's neighborhood. She parked in front of the house and gathered their kits. Nick held the crime scene tape up as Hailey slid under then he followed her. When they reached the house the first officer said it was clear.

"I'll take the inside, you wanna do the perimeter?" Hailey asked.

"Sure." Nick headed off to see what he could find as Hailey made her way inside. There was an officer keeping post inside and directed her to the living room where the two males were.

"Neighbor said they were roommates. One of them usually goes over to walk her dog for her, and no one showed up for three days. She also said that their car hasn't moved either." The officer filled her in.

"Ok, thank you." she said back to him as she entered the living room. A sudden wave of nausea came over her and she was going to be sick. The memory from California came back to her, the reasons she left was right there in person in front of her. She dropped her case and ran outside so as not to damage the crime scene. She ran to the curb by the car and threw up all she had in her system.

She caught Nicks attention when she ran out of the house, and saw her run to the curb and puke. He walked over to her to make sure she was alright. "What happened? The whole time I've known you I've never seen you get sick over a DB." He said trying to make her feel better.

She pulled out her phone and dialed Grissom's number.

"Grissom." He answered.

"Griss, I can't do this." She breathed out.

"What are you talking about?"

"I can't be on this case. You have to give it to someone else." She said, feeling that any moment she would break down.

"I have no one else to put on it and I don't want Nicky processing alone. Is there anyway you can try?" Grissom said.

Hailey took a deep breath, "I'll try but I don't think I can." She said shaking. She hung up the phone and placed it back on her hip. She looked up at Nick who was confused as all hell. She put her head between her legs as she leaned against the car.

"You ok?" He asked.

"I will be. Would you mind doing the scene with me, inside."

"Sure." He said genuinely concerned.

They walked back into the house and Nick saw the two boys in front of him. They were both killed with one shot to the back of the head. Hailey closed her eyes and tried to calm her self down. She walked over to the two boys face down on the carpet. She picked her kit back up and moved closer to the body as nick took the pictures. She knelt down by his head, "It's wet." She looked next to him and saw a disposable glove laying on the floor. She picked it up and got a whiff of peroxide. "He bleached your hair." She whispered. She glanced at the other one who was a blonde, but his hair was dry. "I'm sorry." She said to them. She noticed small hairs on both of their clothing. She picked them up and placed them in evidence bags. Nick was now leaning down to the second vic.

"Did you know them?" He asked, thinking that's why she freaked out.

"No." She said still collecting evidence.

Nick drove back to the lab as Hailey continued to live in her trance. He had never seen her behave like this and it was freaking her out. When they reached the lab Hailey went straight to Greg's lab. She busted through the doors and saw Greg listening to music. She turned the music off and faced him. "I need these processed ASAP."

Greg looked up and saw the load of evidence bags she placed in front of him. "You're kidding right? Sara's jumping up my ass about useless evidence on her case." He said going back to what he was doing.

Hailey walked around the table and squatted down in front of him, turning his chair so as to face her. "Please Greg, I need this done now. I'm asking you as a friend. Please."

Greg looked into her eyes and saw that this was obviously very important. "Alright." He put Sara's evidence aside, and began on Hailey's.

Hailey thanked him and left the room, Nick close on her heels. "Will you please tell me what's wrong."

Hailey found Grissom in the layout room with Catherine. "Griss I need to talk to you."

"Can it wait a few minutes?" He asked in the middle of a case with Catherine.

"I'm sorry, but it can't."

Grissom led Hailey, who was followed by Nick, into his office. She turned around and shut the door before Nick could get in. "Isn't Nick on the case too."

"This is personal." She stood in front of Grissom. He hadn't seen her look this frightened since she first arrived. Since their families were close he took the job of looking after her, and she had become the daughter he never had. "I think it's time I told you why I left California."

Grissom had known her family for a long time. Her father was not a nice guy. He hit his wife constantly, and Grissom feared for her and Hailey. He was living in California at the time, and Hailey's mother begged him to take Hailey to his house. He begged her to come as well but she didn't. Years went by and Hailey knew about what her father did to her mother but she tried to put it aside. Grissom had gotten an offer to work for the crime lab in Las Vegas, and at the time his mother wasn't doing very well, so he took the offer. He wanted Hailey to come with him but she was almost out of highschool and she refused to leave. In turn she went back to her parents house. Grissom had threatened Hailey's father that if he ever laid a hand on Hailey again, he would kill him. He knew he should have reported it but her mother would have denied everything. It was to late for her but not for Hailey.

Grissom leaned against the desk, urging her to continue. "When I was a sophomore in college, I met this guy Jacob. We were together for a year and then he proposed. Lynn and Dan," she said referring to her parents, "were real happy because they still think that girls are here to raise families." Hailey took a deep breath. "A couple months went by, and he became controlling and abusive. He didn't want me hanging out with my friends, especially Ryan and Patrick because they were boys." She could see the anger in Grissom's eyes. He feared that she would get into an abusive relationship because of her father. He never understood why some men thought it was ok to beat women. Hailey was starting to cry, something Grissom rarely ever saw. "He killed them. He killed them because I was friends with them. I saw the bodies, I saw my two best friends on the floor with bullet holes in the back of their heads." She cried out angrily. Grissom wrapped his arms around her trying to comfort her. "I left to come here. I left Jacob and now he's back." He knew that her parents had disowned her because she broke off her engagement, and he had to admit he was slightly happy that she was coming to live with him and that he didn't have to worry about her anymore, but he didn't know why she broke it off.

"What do you mean he's back?" He asked confused.

"The scene Nicky and I were at tonight was posed the same way. The same mo. Face down next to each other one shot to the back of the head." She cried into Grissom's shirt. "He's back and he wants me."

Nick knocked on the door. "You haven't told him?"

"No!" She cried out. "It's bad enough I'm telling you. Everyone I get close to winds up dead."

"It's not going to happen again Hailey. I promise you. I would never let anything happen to you." Grissom said determined to keep his word. "Do you still want to be on this case."

Hailey thought about it for a minute. They never could prove that Jacob killed Ryan and Patrick, or whoever did. "Yes." She said determined to find the person that killed these two innocent boys.

"Stay here calm yourself down, I'll think of something to tell Nick." Hailey nodded her head thankful that she knew such a wonderful man like Grissom. He kissed the top of her head and walked to the door.

Grissom came out of the office and looked at Nick. "Is she ok, what the hell is going on?" Nick said, wanting answers.

"She fine now. You're going to be working this case with her, but you need to know that in some ways it's very close to her. Just don't ask any questions about it." He said as he left.

Nick was irritated that no one was telling him anything. But he made it a point to solve the case, then maybe he could figure it out himself. He walked down to the lounge and waited for Hailey.

Grissom returned to the layout room to see Sara talking with Catherine. He walked in and picked up the map that he was looking at before. "So I was at the scene, doing a second run through and guess who shows up." She said aggravated.

Grissom looked up. "Look Sara, you can't work every case by yourself."

"I don't expect to. But there are two people I don't work well with and you keep putting them on my cases." She wined.

Grissom didn't know why the team in San Francisco recommended her. At first he thought that maybe she had a hard time adjusting, but it had been two months and nothing changed. "Sara, Warrick is one of my top five CSI's," He joked counting all of them as his best. "He's good at what he does and maybe when you two work together you can learn from each other." Sara stormed out obviously not getting anywhere in the conversation. She decided that this continued she would leave. She was going back to San Francisco, to her old team.

She walked into Greg's lab and saw Nick and Hailey talking to him.

"Those hairs you got from the vic's clothing turned out to be a dead end."

"No DNA?" Nick asked.

"Not exactly." Greg was about to continue but he saw Sara storm in.

"Did you get the profile on the blood from the glass I found?" She said annoyed.

"Not yet, I'm working on it though." He turned back to Hailey.

"Get to it then." She spat.

"Excuse me, but Greg is in the middle of something, when he's done he will get back to your stuff." Hailey said back to here. She had enough problems of her own and she was in no mood to deal with Sara.

"No one was talking to you." Nick and Greg could sense something was building up, and whereas Greg took a step back, Nick held his place ready to jump in and separate them. "And anyway," she said looking at Greg. "How did her stuff get done before mine."

Greg stood there not knowing what to say. "Because I told him I need a rush put on it." Hailey spoke up. "It was my fault, you wanna pick a fight with someone, start with me." She said getting all up in Sara's face. When Hailey first came here she was a sad story in the defending part, but Warrick started giving her lessons, and now she knew how to throw the right punch.

"Grissom's not going to be to happy about that." She said smiling.

"Yes please do tell Grissom, I'm sure he has nothing better to do than worry about your petty little problems." She snapped.

"You have no right to talk to me like this."

"I can talk to you as I please I don't give a rats ass."

"You think just because you slept with Grissom to get your job here, that you're all high and mighty." Sara said not backing down.

That was all Hailey needed. She took her fist back and knocked Sara right in her jaw. "Say another word bitch. I will beat your ass down." At first the two guys were stunned that Hailey would throw a punch but quickly they jumped in. Nick, being stronger, had Hailey by her arms, holding her back, while Greg jumped between them separating them. "Let me go, I swear to God I will knock her out."

"Let it go Hailey." Nick said.

"No, she's asking for it. Running my name through the dirt. I worked hard to get here, and I'll be damned if she's going to ruin it." She said struggling to get free.

Nick picked her up by the waist and carried her to the locker room, a few doors down from Greg's lab. "Take it easy Hailey." He said letting her go, blocking her way out.

"I swear to God-" was the only part Nick understood as Hailey paced back and forth yelling, and he assumed cursing, in Italian.

She finally sat down and took a few deep breaths. "Better?" He asked.

"For now." she breathed out.

Nick had made sure that Sara wasn't in the lab when Hailey and he returned to Greg.

"Now what were you saying before?" Hailey asked.

Greg knew that now wasn't the time to make a comment about what happened just a few minutes ago. "Well the hair you found, I ran it through the system and it linked the hair to a cold case two years ago in California. Hailey put her hand on the table to steady herself. She was right, the crime scenes were linked.

"What about the other case?" Nick asked Greg.

"Two boys were killed two years ago, case was unsolved."

"Yeah." Greg added. "Well your hair links to the other two Victims in the cold case."

"Ryan Macky and Patrick Ross?" Hailey asked.

"Yes ma'am." He said.

"Thanks Greg." Hailey said as she left the room.

Nick followed her out. He placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "If you don't tell me what's going on I'll tell Griss to take you off the case." Nick said demanding answers.

Hailey slowly turned around. "The two victims in California, were my two best friends." She told him the gist of it.

"Hailey, I'm so sorry, I had no idea." He explained.

"Look, I just want to get through this case ok?" She said to him. "I don't want your pity and I don't want you leaking this out to anyone. I just want to solve it."