Disclaimer: Same as Usual

Title: City Lights

Chapter Five: Forgotten But Not Gone

The Apartment Complex sat on a hill over looking a small neighborhood in the outer parts of Vegas. The grass had not been cut in what seemed like over a month and the smell of an overfilled garbage dump polluted the air. Young children could be seen gossiping under a tree while the adults in the area talked quietly close to the doors.

Soon, the attention of the little girl in the corner of the area glanced quickly at the road and noticed a black vehicle pull into the driveway area of the complex. She slowly stood up and watched as two men existed the vehicle and stepped inside the main area of the apartments.

"Mommy!" The young girl cried as she ran over to her mother and pulled on the bottom of her shirt.

"Yes dear?" the mother asked as she brushed her child's dark hair away from her eyes.

"Two men just arrived here! They don't look like they are from around here! Are they with the police?"

The mother's brow raised as she quickly looked away from her child and at the vehicle. "I'm not sure honey."

"Will they be able to help us?"
"No one will probably ever will." The mother said as she gave a fake smile to her daughter. "Don't worry about it. Daddy wont hurt us anymore. I'm sure he's going to stop…"

Gil Grissom and Warrick Brown entered the lobby doors of the apartment only to be greeted by a man on a cell phone. The inside looked much different than the outside.

"Can I help you?" the man asked as he placed his cell phone in his back pocket and looked at the two CSI's.

"Yes, does a man by the name of Mark Grimman live here?"

"Mark Grimman? Well, let me take a look." The man said as he spun around in his chair and scooted over towards the computer. "How do you spell last name?"

"G-r-i-m-m-a-n,"

After moments of silence the man nodded his head and spoke, "Lives in room number 503. A Jared Almostio is also currently living there as well."

"Do you know anything about these two men?" Warrick asked as Grissom began to examine the lobby area.

The middle-aged man looked at Warrick suspiciously. "May I ask why?"

"Oh, my name is Warrick Brown and that," Warrick said pointing over to Grissom, "is Gil Grissom. We're both from the Las Vegas Crime Lab."

"Your name is Sam Rejad correct?" Gil asked as the man behind the counter pointed to his nametag on the desk.

"That is me but why would the crime lab be here at my place? We have done nothing wrong."
"As of now we're not so sure about that. Mind if we take a look around?"

The man, Sam Rejad looked at the two oddly. He wasn't so sure if he liked the fact of some Crime Lab coming through his own apartment. "Fine. But make it quick."

After weeks of recovering in the hospital, Greg was finally able to get back to work. It had seemed like months since Greg had been in the crime lab when it was really only weeks. He pulled his car into an empty parking spot in front of the crime lab as he then got out. His gaze glanced over towards the empty spot where Nick's car usually sat. Slowly, Greg closed his car door and walked silently over staring down at the ground. For some reason Greg felt like it was his entire fault. It was his fault that he ran, his fault that he was shot, his fault that they took Nick, his fault that Nick is now alone. But he knew Nick was tough, Nick was brave, and Nick wouldn't give up.

"Welcome back," Sara said behind him.

He quickly turned around and looked at Sara. "Yeah, nice to be back."

She eyed the spot where he was standing at and sighed. "Ni-"

"Sara," Greg said interrupting her. "I already know about Nick. I've heard you, Catherine, Warrick and Grissom talk about it in my hospital room."

"I know. You're not easy to fool."

He looked at her questionably. "What?"

"When we began to leave I turned around and I noticed your eyes opened for a second and then closed. I knew you must have heard what we were saying."

Sara watched as Greg became silent and turned his gaze away from her. She was right and there was no point in denying anything. He felt horrible inside and wanted to be left alone. It wasn't his normal self and he wasn't sure how he was going to be able to get use to that.

"Sara," he said quietly as the CSI looked at him. "Can I be left alone maybe? I need some time to think."

"Uh yeah of course. See you later Greggo." And with that she patted him gently on the shoulder before turning around and leaving Greg to stare at Nick's empty car space.

POW. Brass and his fellow officers busted down Mark Grimman's door, not bothering to explain to the other residents what had just happened and quickly entered the room, the two CSI's quickly following.

"Look everywhere!" Brass ordered as he drew out his gun and searched around the messy room.

There was dark red curtains hanging in front of the window, a TV was on and there sat an empty beaten up couched across from it. The kitchen was a mess, dishes and food scattered everywhere.

"Man, how can this guy live here?" Warrick asked as he stepped over a pile of dirty clothes.

"PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD!" Brass yelled as a man quickly emerged from a closed closet and fell to the ground, hands covering his head.

"What-"
"Don't talk." Brass yelled as the man quietly went back to resting on the ground.

"Mr. Grimman?" Grissom asked as he stepped around the cops and Brass and looked down at the man.

"I ain't done anything." Mark protested as two officers pulled the man up to his feet, hand cupped.

"Well, we can't prove anything yet so if you can just cooperate with us we'll be done with this in no time." Grissom said smiling while Mark just glared at him.

"This is all I got. Nothing else."
"I understand that Mr. Grimman. We're just going to have a look around while you and Mr. Brass have a conversation."

Brass walked over to Mark and placed a hand on his shoulder and looked at Grissom. "Oh trust me Gil, we'll have a very long talk."

"Whoa, Gris, Check this out over here." Warrick said as Grissom smiled at Mark before walking over to the other CSI. "It's the walkie-talkie he had earlier."

"Take it to the lab. We'll pay Archie a visit."

Archie turned around in his seat as Warrick and Grissom arrived later that day. He had taken the walkie-talkie Warrick handed him and managed to find something that the two of them might want to hear.

"Got something?" Grissom asked as him and Warrick both took a seat on opposite sides of him.

"I kept on this device for a while and someone has been trying to get a hold of Mark really badly. They keep talking so I managed to record everything they've said but I think you'll want to hear this more. I recorded it an hour before you guys got in here."

"You punk! Where the hell are you? ANSWER THE DAMN WALKIE-TALKIE ALREADY. That stupid CSI guy won't survive much longer and I don't want him to die before we finish PLAN X. WEASEL, YOU BETTER GET YO ASS DOWN HERE NOW!"

"CSI as in Nick?" Warrick asked as Grissom quickly stood up.

"We've got to find more about this guy. This is the only way to Nick."

"I found a piece of paper that was smudged pretty badly so I got the lab to figure out what it read."

"And?"

"36543 Vineyard Road."

Grissom's brow rose. "That's far."

"Road trip."

(I know it took me a while to update this but here you go! Enjoy!)

BlondeNeko