A/N First off, thanks to my betas for sticking with me – Amorith may think she's taken ages to get back to me but Ash has probably been waiting a lot longer than I was for the next chapter, so don't worry! And also, thanks to the readers who kept bugging me about this chapter – it's really great to hear that you're still interested in reading it!

Wednesday – Day 4, 15.02

The Toronto camp was much more efficient than Boston had been.  Despite the fact that they hung their flag proudly in the middle of their camp, they'd been very smart.  They had two people on sentry duty. Both were on the ground patrolling each side of their camp, and they looked pretty intense.

In order to spy on them properly, the Vegas team had to take up a vantage point in the treetops about one hundred meters away from the guards.  The trees were good because you could see a lot from every direction when you sat high enough and also because humans had a habit of forgetting to look above their own line of sight. The chances of the Vegas team being spotted in the trees were minimal, but they also had a down side. They weren't exactly the most comfortable seats in the theatre.

Grissom grunted quietly as he shifted his position in the tree and tried to concentrate on the scene before him.  It was difficult to stay focussed when the Toronto camp was being so boring and he had a leggy brunette showing off her midriff in front of him. Sara's feet were on the branch below him, but she stood, hanging onto one of the branches above her, effectively raising the t-shirt she wore above her navel. She seemed quite intent on watching the camp, however, and didn't notice the awkward Grissom that clung to his branch for dear life.  He sighed and tried to concentrate again and found his eyes were betraying him by wandering up and down the body in front of him. He almost fell out of the tree when he heard her speak.

"What do you think?" She asked, earning her a bewildered stare from the entomologist. "Of the plan," she clarified and looked down at him, "Do you think we should try and grab the next person who comes out this way for a bathroom break?"

Grissom thought for a moment and scanned the campsite again, "No I think we should wait until we know a bit more about them. We don't have anything to tie them up or blindfold them with so I think we should just lay low while we're here."

Sara sighed, "Okay," she said and looked back at the camp.

Grissom grinned a little, slightly amused at her need for action. "You're very scary when you're pumped up on adrenalin," Grissom said quietly.

Sara gave him an amused glare, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, you just get very physical – you wouldn't quit hitting me the other night," he said and rubbed his arm at the memory.

Sara puffed out a laugh, "Sorry," she said, "I'll try not to do that again."

A moment passed before Grissom answered, "No that's okay, I don't mind."

Sara studied him for a moment, trying to read his mind.

"What?" Grissom asked.

"Nothing," she said and looked away, smiling.

They stayed up the tree for hours, watching the Toronto camp and memorising every detail of their security and sentry.  Occasionally two or more of them would leave the group, obviously going on treks to try and spy out any other camps but they always returned disappointed. Finally Catherine and Greg came to relieve them. They whispered short messages of luck to each other before Grissom and Sara slipped away to leave Greg and Catherine up the uncomfortable tree.

When they were safely out of earshot, Grissom and Sara relaxed more in their retreat.

"So are we going to watch them all night?" Sara asked him as they walked along the leaf-littered ground.

"I was thinking that we should strike at night – test out your theory about people at three in the morning again," Grissom puffed beside her. Even if he didn't get anything else out of this weekend in Canada he would definitely have a fitter body by the end of it.

"You mean that people are at their weakest?"

Grissom nodded, "Yeah."

"So who do we grab? The people on sentry?"

"They would definitely be the easiest targets. We'd need two to over-power each person – keep two of us at camp for security."

Sara pictured it going down in her mind, "It could work, they certainly wont be expecting it," she stepped over a fallen log, "I just hate to leave so little amount of people with our treasures."

"Yeah I know what you mean, but I guess this is all about the risks you're willing to take," he said and stumbled over a half-buried tree root.

"You feeling risky tonight Grissom?" Sara asked playfully and tossed him a grin.

Grissom gave her a look and tried not to grin, "I think it has to be tonight. We're running out of time. Tomorrow might be too late."

"Hmm," Sara agreed and decided to concentrate on where she was walking instead of the possible double meaning to his words.

They arrived at their camp not soon after, passing Nick in the tree and coming to a stop in front of the small fire Warrick was beginning to create in a dug out hole in the earth. After telling him they thought they should act tonight, Sara offered to help Warrick cook the fish that Greg had caught earlier while Grissom went to keep Nick company on sentry duty.

"Has he spoken to you yet?" Warrick asked and motioned after Grissom's retreating form.

Sara thought for a moment, "I guess so – or at least he began to and I distracted him enough to go off on a tangent. The thought was there."

Warrick puffed a laugh, "I got this big talk about how I should only be doing this job if I was sure that's where I wanted to be. I think he's worried we're all going to bail on him.  If you'll believe it, I think he actually likes us," Warrick said wryly, earning him a small grin from Sara.

"He likes some better than others evidently," she said and began preparing the fish.

Warrick gave her a puzzled look, "What do you mean by that?"

Sara looked at him surprised, "Oh, well – you're his favourite, didn't you know? And he's recommending Nick for the promotion, and we all know how close he is with Catherine. I think he looks at Greg as a sort of prodigal son sometimes."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Warrick said raising he hands, "You don't think Gris likes you?"

Sara shrugged, "It's hard to tell sometimes. Sometimes it's just like old times – back before I came to Vegas. Others…" she trailed off and gave him a pained look.

"Sara," Warrick said, the awe still evident in his voice, "Grissom likes you. Trust me when I say this. Now, I know I don't know about your history with him before Vegas but you were obviously friends – what's changed?"

She shrugged again, "I don't know when it became so hard. One day we were having fun, the next day it hurt just about every time I saw him."

Warrick shook his head, "You guys are hopeless."

"What do you mean?"

"You've got it bad," Warrick laughed, "Almost as bad as he's got it and it's making you both blind."

Sara frowned, "It's more complicated than you think Warrick."

"I'm sure it is," Warrick said, completely serious, "But I don't think your feelings are complicated are they? And in the end – what else matters?"  He let the question dangle and walked towards the cave.  When he came back with the fry pan Sara was still sitting and thinking in the same place he left her.

"It gets to a point when you just feel as if you're making a fool out of yourself by showing him how you really feel, because he doesn't ever respond when I initiate anything. There's only so much humiliation I can go through without losing respect for myself," she said and looked away.

Before Warrick could answer she stood up and sought out her sleeping bag inside the cave, returning only when she heard Grissom's voice signalling he was back at camp.

Wednesday – Day 4, 19.48

The rain began to beat down on them again just as the sun slipped over the horizon.

Grissom, Nick and Warrick huddled in the shelter of the cave, all feeling immensely guilty for leaving Sara in the tree on sentry and Catherine and Greg up their tree overlooking their rival camp.

"So we're still going to try it tonight?" Nick asked, voice raised over the resounding noise of the rain.

"We have to make our move tonight – even in this rain!" Warrick answered loudly and wrapped his sleeping bag tighter around himself.

Grissom nodded, "Especially in this rain – it'll be the last thing they're expecting."

"If we take out the two on sentry though, we can have a look around their camp for treasure's too right?" Nick asked and took a sip of his warm coffee.

"I don't think they'd be stupid enough to leave them lying around like Boston did, but we could probably grab that flag of theirs," Warrick said.

Nick nodded and shivered as the sound of thunder came rumbling towards them.

Grissom looked pensive as he glanced out the opening of the cave and at the faces of his younger co-workers.  "I hope this place doesn't flood," he said to no one in particular.

Warrick looked at him sharply, "We're high enough away from the river aren't we?"

Grissom shrugged and stood up, walking towards the pot of boiling water they were huddled around, "I hope so," he said as he began to pour the hot liquid into a large cup.  He added some coffee and powdered milk, "I'm going to go and take this to Sara," he said and squinted at the rain outside.

"Better you than me," Nick grinned.

Grissom was interrupted in the middle of his next sentence when a sopping wet Greg and Catherine came stumbling into the cave.

Warrick got up immediately to get them towels and handed them over quickly.

"Thanks," they panted as they tried to dry themselves off a little.

"Sorry, we couldn't sit there anymore – it was horrible," Catherine said, "They packed up everything and have disappeared into their tents…"

"Have they left anyone on sentry?" Grissom asked as he began pouring her and Greg cups of coffee.

Catherine nodded, "Yeah – they've still got two, but they're not very happy!" She looked around, "Where's Sara?"

"Sentry," Nick said simply.  He backed away quickly when he saw the fury in Catherine's expression.

"Sentry? You guys left her alone up that tree in this?" she motioned violently outside.

Grissom, Nick and Warrick looked at each other sheepishly.

"I was just taking her this," Grissom said weakly and lifted up the cup of coffee he'd made.

Catherine rolled her eyes at him, "You're hopeless!"

Grissom glared at her, "Hey! She said she didn't mind! I offered to do it for her, we all offered to do it for her but she told us no! It's not like we just left her up there, she's under a tarp – we made a shelter!"

"Since when is Sara going to show you a weakness?" Catherine demanded of him, her hands now on her hips.

Grissom opened his mouth and tried to think of something to say. He couldn't, apparently, and he just stood there stuttering.

"Give me that" Catherine said and motioned for the coffee.

Grissom pulled it away from her, "No – I'm taking it to her, I told you I was taking it to her."

Catherine, obviously cheery from her time spent in a tree getting drenched, opened her mouth to say something else but Warrick stepped in.

"Okay, shut up both of you! Catherine, Grissom's right – we couldn't have done the sentry duty for Sara even if her leg was broken and she was bleeding to death internally. You know how tough she is," he said softly.

Catherine sighed and looked past Warrick to catch Grissom's gaze, "I'm sorry for yelling at you, I'm tired and wet and annoyed and in pain and I know how much it sucked being up a tree in this weather. If it wasn't for Greg keeping me company I'd have been miserable and depressed so I just don't think it's a brilliant idea to leave Sara up there all alone."

Grissom looked at her with an expression of understanding and she smiled back at him. Friends.

"I'm going to take this to Sara," Grissom said carefully, raising the coffee cup, "And I'll stay with her until everyone's ready for the raid," he added and nodded at Catherine.

"What raid?" Greg asked as Grissom ventured out into the cold, wet night.

"We're still going ahead with the kidnapping plan," Nick said, "We're going to do it tonight – do you two want to stay here? You both look kind of beat and we need two people to stay here and guard our treasures."

Greg glanced at Catherine who'd found her way to the nearest log, "Yeah, I'll do sentry."

Catherine glanced up at him and smiled gratefully, "Oh Greg I love you."

Through the darkness, the wind and the rain, it took Grissom a small while to find the tree that Sara was parked in. Luckily the coffee cup had a lid to keep the cold water out, and to keep the hot liquid in when Grissom began to awkwardly climb the tree.

"Grissom," Sara said, obviously surprised to see him. The tarp had held well and had kept most of the water off of her, though she still looked freezing and her clothes were still damp.

He gave her the cup of coffee and came to sit beside her, "Hi."

She accepted the coffee gratefully and breathed in the steamy air after taking the lid off, "Oh thank you," she grinned at him.

He simply grinned at her, "You okay up here? Tell the truth."

"Yeah I'm fine, a little cold – but I'm fine," her teeth chattered as she spoke but she didn't appear to notice.

"Sara, you're freezing aren't you?" Grissom frowned and put an arm around her. She immediately tensed up, but he took no notice.

Sara sipped at her coffee and looked out into the night.  There was hardly any reason for her to be up there at all; the visibility was atrocious. 

"We're going to make our move tonight," Grissom said into her ear. His warm breath made her skin tingle and she breathed in a deep breath.

"At the Toronto camp?" she asked, mentally kicking herself at the stupidity of her question. Yes, at the Toronto camp. This man did annoying things to her normally intelligent mind.

"Uhhuh," Grissom murmured, "You, me, Nick and Warrick. I don't think Greg and Catherine are up to it, they're back in the cave now."

Sara nodded, "Yeah I saw them come by."

"So is that okay with you? You're fine to grab one of these guys?"

She frowned at him, "Sure, it's just a game isn't it?"

Grissom nodded, "Yeah, I just hope the two guards realise it."

"They will," Sara said confidently.

They heard Warrick and Nick coming towards them before they saw them. Greg was with them too. He climbed the tree quickly, anxious to get under the tarp as soon as possible.

"I've come to take over!" he announced and squeezed onto the platform next to Grissom. "Good luck you guys," he called after them as they slid down the tree.

"Bye Greg," Sara called back as they began their trek into the darkness of the night.

TBC