A/N: Apologies for the delay again, it's that time of year where everything is just nuts here. I do hope that I haven't lost many readers! Many thanks to my betas Ash and Amorith, I can't do this without you two! And once again – to all those who review, I love you all, thank you.

Wednesday – Day 4, 23.15

The four CSI's crouched together under their spy-tree. The rain hadn't let up at all, keeping them nice and drenched in their soggy clothes. They all wore beanies except for Grissom who'd been the latest of the group to inherit Nick's overly popular backwards hat.

They all stood hunched over and squinting, as if this stance would somehow protect them from the unrelenting storm.

Nick and Sara's teeth were chattering continuously and they both grinned at each other and rolled their eyes in the light of the small flash light that Warrick was holding with trembling hands.

"Okay," Grissom breathed out, "Nick and Warrick – you've got the one on this side of the camp. Sara and I will take the one on the other side.  The element of surprise is on our side, so lets not ruin that. You'll have to make sure he's gagged before anything else because we don't want him waking up any of his friends by shouting out. Is everyone clear on their part?"

He looked at each of them nodding their heads and went on, "Good. We've got the radios with us if anything goes wrong, but hopefully we wont need them. Ready?"

"How will we know when you're in position?" Nick asked.

"Four clicks on your radio. If we run into trouble and can't grab our guard, we'll click twice. When we're ready to strike we'll click five times. You guys do the same," Grissom said and sniffed away the water on his nose. He turned to Sara, "Let's go."

Warrick and Nick watched them disappear quickly into the shadows and turned towards the camp.

"Okay," Warrick let out a sigh, "We should get closer to get a better look at what we're dealing with."

Nick nodded and started to move forward, followed closely behind by Warrick.

Quite a bit of time passed as Warrick and Nick waited to hear from Grissom and Sara. They sat in silence, drenched from head to toe, watching the Toronto camp and it's guards. 

Nick glanced at his watch, "We better make a move quickly if these are the two we want. They're changing over in 30 minutes."

Warrick nodded, "Although, if we get two who are still just waking up then they might be more out of it. Easier for us."

"Do you think that's what they're waiting for? The change over?"

"It's possible. They should be at the other side of the camp, they're probably thinking up something."

Nick puffed out a deep breath causing Warrick to look at him.

"You okay?" Warrick asked.

"What do you mean?" Nick frowned.

"You just seem a little… tense."

Nick rolled his eyes, "If you want to know the truth I'm a little wired, and a little anxious to just get this over with. I hate this waiting around."

"Well," Warrick sighed and looked back towards the Toronto camp, "Something tells me we'll be waiting for a while yet. Grissom and Sara – well, they're the masters when it comes to patience aren't they?"

Nick grinned and glanced back at the guards.  To his surprise they were both in the same area, talking to each other.  One of them nodded and watched as the other walked straight into the surrounding forest.  There was a crackle on their radio – two clicks.

Warrick sprung to his feet quickly, "They're in trouble, damn – this would be the perfect time – the guards are separated!"

"Should we call them up?"

Warrick hesitated, "No, I don't want to risk them being heard."

"Well we can't just sit here and do nothing, what do you think has happened?"

Warrick sighed, "Hell Nick, I don't know. Two clicks – they can't go through with it. I know as much as you do man."

"So click them back five and tell them we're still going ahead – we can get this guy all by himself."

Warrick looked back at the single guard walking miserably through the campsite by himself.  He didn't know if it was the poor lighting or what but the guy looked very small. Warrick felt very confident.

He clicked the radio five times and looked back at Nick, "Let's go."

Thursday – Day 5, 1.17

Grissom cursed for the fourth time in five minutes as he heard his walkie-talkie click back at him five times.

"I can not believe we got lost, Sara," he fumed at her and stepped over a rock.

She sighed heavily; somehow she just knew he was going to blame this on her. They'd decided to take a wide arc around the camp and ended up making a wider one than they'd thought. When they tried to back track she had a feeling they were only getting more and more off course and finally they'd realised that they wouldn't be able to help Warrick and Nick with the kidnapping.

"At least they're still able to go ahead with it without us," she mumbled and slipped over a log. She swore as she re-opened the gash on her hand she'd made in her hasty exit from their original sentry tree.

Grissom turned around and glared at her dark figure, crouched down next to a log. His anger at their abandonment of Nick and Warrick drained away from him and a new sense of guilt came flooding in. He crouched down beside her, his heart skipping a beat as she flinched away from him.

"Hey," he said quietly, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said curtly and moved to stand up. A warm hand on her shoulder kept her down and she looked at him questioningly.

"Let's just sit for a while, for all we know we could be walking in completely the wrong direction."

She sighed and wriggled into a comfortable position, her back leant up against the log. "Sorry," she said on a sigh.

Grissom shook his head, "It's not your fault. It's not yours, not mine – sometimes thing's just happen," he sighed and leant against the log as well, "If we both weren't so stubborn we'd have realised we were lost a long time ago."

After a moment of sitting in the rain Sara decided to break the silence, "So. What are we going to do?"

Grissom shrugged, "Wait until Warrick and Nick are freed up to contact us on the walkie-talkies?"

"And tell them what? We're lost, in a place that looks kind of like the Canadian wilderness. There's a couple of trees, oh – a rock, and some logs… come find us guys!"

"Okay, you make your point," Grissom relented, "I don't think we can do much until light, then we'll have to work our way back to the river and figure out how far away from camp we are."

"That sounds easy enough," Sara agreed, "I hope we can find the river," she mused and looked up at the sky, squinting slightly as the rain showered her face, "And that we don't catch pneumonia," she shivered involuntarily and shuffled a little closer to him.

Grissom sighed and waited for inspiration to strike.

Catherine's mouth dropped open as Warrick and Nick came staggering into the cave, hauling another man between the two of them. The unidentified man wore a beanie pulled over his eyes, his hands were bound together with rope and he'd been gagged.

She looked from Nick to Warrick and back again, trying to decide on a place to start. 'What the hell' seemed pretty good and she just began to speak when Warrick cleared his throat and motioned for her to be silent.

She shut her mouth, but her eyes were still full of questions.

Warrick and Nick sat the man down in a corner, being careful not to hurt him. Warrick motioned to Nick to stay with him and then stood up and waved at Catherine to follow him out of the cave.

When they were far enough away Catherine stopped, "What the hell, Warrick?"

He couldn't help the boyish smile that crossed his face, "Calm down Catherine, he came voluntarily," he grinned.

"What?"

"We told him we were the competition co-ordinators and asked him if he wanted to have a chance at winning his lab even more money by moving on to the next level."

Catherine shook her head at him, still in shock, "He believed you?"

Warrick shrugged, "Yeah, the guy didn't make one peep on the way back here, oh and…" he pulled a flag out from under his jacket, "ta-da!"

Finally Catherine had to grin, "I can't believe you, where's Grissom and Sara?"

"They're not back yet?"

Catherine looked around, "Do you see them anywhere?" she asked him sarcastically.

Warrick frowned, "They signalled to us that they couldn't go ahead with their end of the plan, so Nick and I decided to grab this guy anyway – I was hoping they'd be back here."

Catherine shook her head, "Nope, last we saw of them was when they were leaving with you guys," she squinted in worry, "You don't think they're in trouble do you?"

Warrick sighed, "I don't know," he pulled the walkie-talkie off his back pocket and put it to his mouth, "Griss? Sara? Can you guys hear me?"

The walkie-talkie crackled, making both Sara and Grissom jump with a start. They'd been getting sleepy, hugging each other for warmth and listening to the gentle patter of rain falling through the treetops. The mechanical crackle brought them both out of their dream worlds.

"Griss? Sara? Can you guys hear me?" they heard Warrick's voice, distorted.

Grissom grabbed for the radio, "Yes! Warrick, we're here, er, copy."

Sara tried unsuccessfully to repress her grin and looked at the radio intently.

"Where are you guys? Over." Warrick asked.

Grissom glanced at Sara before he answered, "We uh, er, we don't really know where we are. We got lost, over."

There was a brief pause, and then a laugh, "You what? Is it bad? Are you both okay? Over."

"We're fine, just cold and wet. We're going to wait for a bit more light and then try and navigate our way to the river, we'll contact you if there's any problems, over."

"Okay, Griss, I hope you guys are okay in this weather, over."

"Yeah, we'll see.  How did you and Nick go?" Grissom asked.

"Successfully, we've got one back here now. We'll start the interrogation soon, over."

"Good luck, over."

"Thanks, you too, over and out," Warrick clicked off.

Grissom sighed and glanced back at Sara who was shivering again.

"We're going to have to keep moving, we're getting too cold here," Grissom said to her.

Sara nodded and gingerly rose to her feet. She looked at the early morning sky; it was gradually becoming lighter.  She sighed and turned back to Grissom, offering him her hand. He took it and pulled himself up, smiling at her in thanks. She smiled back at him and waited for him to start leading the way. When he didn't move, and kept his hand in hers, she glanced nervously away and tried to think of something to say.

"So," she croaked out and turned back to him, "which wa-"

He cut her off by leaning in towards her, his forehead resting on hers. Her breath caught in her throat as he nudged her face with his own and then paused. He wanted to kiss her, but this was as far as he was going to go with the initiation. And she knew that.

Without thinking of much else other than, 'Oh my God', she closed the tiny gap between them and kissed him.

His lips were as cold as her own, but when he opened his mouth she could feel the warmth of his breath and tongue. She closed her eyes and sighed, gripping the front of his shirt into bunches with both hands. A million different thoughts began to race through her head; Oh my God, Grissom is kissing me, This is finally happening, This is so surreal, I'm so cold, He's so warm, It's raining, This is so bizarre, We're kissing whilst lost in the forest… in Canada, Grissom is kissing me, Oh my God, This is nice, This is good, What's he thinking? Is this what he wants? Oh God… I'm kissing Grissom, this is…

She slowly pulled away from him and found his eyes. She breathed out a nervous laugh and swallowed. "Okay," she managed to say, "That was…"

"Wrong of me…"

"Unexpected."

She looked away and released his shirt, taking a step back.

"What?" she asked, her arms coming to fold protectively in front of her. She saw him hesitate and search frantically for the right words to say.

"I'm sorry," he breathed out. Wrong words. "I mean, I.. Uh, er, I'm not sorry, I… well, if you didn't want to then…"

She studied the stuttering mess of a man in front of her and couldn't help the small grin that appeared on her lips.

He visibly relaxed when he saw the glimmer of amusement in her eyes and sighed, "I've… wanted to do that for a while," he shrugged and looked at the ground, an embarrassed smile gracing his features.

He sensed her coming nearer and watched as her hand reached out and slipped into his own.

"Come on," she said, "Let's try and find this river."

TBC