The Search by SLynn

Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine.

Spoilers: Everything up to 'Nesting Dolls' in Season 5 although I doubt seriously I drag all that up.

The Last Day

They took two SUVs that morning.

As soon as shifted ended, just a minute after eight, the six of them set out. Brass, Catherine and Sofia in one car, Warrick, Nick and Sara in the other.

It was quite a long drive, something they'd never noticed before. Maybe it was the anticipation. The fact that everyone was so positive that today was the day. The search had been extended when the DNA match came up positive late last night as belonging to Greg. Ecklie had been notified and on the verge of coming along with them but some quick thinking on Catherine's part, the subtle mention of a press conference, changed his mind.

They were driving on country one-oh-eight, a fairly desolate two lane back road. To further slow them down, they were only going about thirty to thirty-five miles an hour. They didn't want to take the chance that Greg and Grissom might be traveling just off the road and miss them entirely.

The two-way rang in the car Warrick was driving.

"Yeah," Nick said talking into it while still looking out his side of the vehicle.

"Sofia spotted a side road about a quarter of a mile back," Catherine's voice came through. "We're turning round up here and taking it."

Sure enough, as Catherine said it Brass pulled the first SUV over onto the side of the road before flipping back in the other direction.

"Do you want us to follow?" Nick asked.

"Yeah Nicky," Catherine answered. "Looking at the map it's about where that trail should have led out too. Brass thinks maybe with Greg hurt it slowed them down. That they might still be on it."

"We're right behind you," Nick replied before setting the radio back down.

Warrick was already following Brass' lead by this time and about where Sofia had said it was, they saw the road.

"How'd you miss that?" Nick chided Sara since it was on her side.

Sara said nothing in return, just gave him a fleeting but amused glance.

The going now was even slower. Even though they were in rugged vehicles the road was in such bad shape that their speed was reduced to just about ten miles an hour.

Just as they were about to call it quits and abandon the path the road got better and the beginnings of a fence appeared. Another five miles down the road and they spotted something unexpected. A house.

Both SUV's pulled up to it and immediately stopped.

"Doesn't look like anyone's home," Warrick said to Brass as he got out of the SUV.

Brass shook his head. The place was abandoned; it was pretty easy to see. It was a pretty typical looking two-story farmhouse with peeling paint and an overgrown yard.

"They might be here," Sofia offered, "If Greg was really hurt they might not have been able to go any further."

Catherine and Brass headed up to the front door as Sara and Sofia head around back. Nick and Warrick went the only direction left, off towards the barn.

Brass was relieved it had worked that way. He assumed if they were still there they were in the house. And if it was bad, he'd rather he saw it first even if he wasn't entirely sure how Catherine would take it.

"Windows have been wiped," Catherine noted.

Sure enough, it was easy to see that fairly recently some of the dirt on two of the windows fronting the house had been cleared off as if someone had looked inside.

Brass tried the door and it came open without any effort.

"Well, they were here at some point," Catherine said walking straight away toward the silver case next to the couch.

Brass didn't answer; he was going from room to room looking for the worst before Catherine could find it. Catherine didn't seem to notice, she was opening the case as she squatted beside it, looking for what might be missing.

"Found Greg's iPod," Catherine remarked to a Brass that was no longer there. He'd already made his way upstairs.

Turning round now she stood and with an inquisitive look.

"Jim?" she called.

"Catherine," she heard in reply, "You might want to see this."

Catherine made her way up the stairs, two at a time, worried. Brass was at the end of the hallway upstairs, looking into the room before him.

He turned to her and she found that her voice didn't quite work.

"It's not them…"

"No," Brass cut in hastily, "No Catherine, it's not. It's just, I don't know what it is."

Catherine moved past Brass to have a look. The room was in disarray. The walls around the bed were covered in dried blood splatter. On the bed itself was the skeletal remains of the victim, the skull was nearly crushed.

"Wow," Catherine let out, still not entering the room, "this has got to be ten, fifteen years old at least."

"At least," Brass echoed. "Did you find anything downstairs?"

"Yeah, I…"

"Catherine," Nick's call interrupted. They both turned at the sound of his voice coming from the top of the steps.

"What have you got?" she asked, momentarily forgetting the mess.

Brass excused himself and made his way downstairs to call the coroner on the radio. Old or new scene, a dead body was a dead body and it was time to let everyone in on it.

"Barn was a dead end. Sara and Sophia found a water pump in the yard, looks like it was used recently. Also got some more footprints. You might want to hurry if you want to see them for yourself, it looks like rain again."

Catherine made her way downstairs with Nick, passing Brass at the car to where the other three stood out in the front yard.

"They're headed that way," Sofia said, pointing further down the road. "Back on the trail. Two sets."

Sara was snapping photos and scanning the horizon, as if she might be able to see them there.

The footprints were easy to distinguish as they were set in dried mud. Doing a mental calculation, the last rain being three nights ago, they'd had to of set out two days ago sometime after that. Sometime before the sun had hardened it back into dirt, giving them near perfect imprints.

"They must have started heading that way at least two days ago," Warrick said now, putting Sara's thoughts into words.

"What is that?" Catherine asked. The pair of tracks on the left had an odd circular mark just next to the left foot. A deep one.

"The crutch," Sara provided before snapping a few photos of it, "Greg hurt his leg, that's the indent of the crutch."

"He must be leaning heavy on it then," Warrick agreed, "Check how deep it is?"

"Right print is also deeper then the left," Nick said looking closer himself, "he's putting a lot of his weight on his right leg."

"At least he's still walking," Sofia said earning an almost harsh look from Sara that only Nick saw.

Sofia saying that had forcefully reminded her of Greg's notebook. Particularly his last entry. The notebook she still had on her, despite it being evidence. The one she'd read it more then a few times through by now, could nearly recite parts if pressed.

"Looks like he's barely touching the ground with his left foot," Warrick supplied.

"Well if those are Greg's," Catherine said moving to the other set, "These are Grissom's. He's matching him stride for stride. Even impressions. At least he's not hurt."

They all felt the first drops of rain beginning to fall. There was no time for casting plaster but there really wasn't a need. The photos were enough especially since they planned on finding them today. This was the best indication they'd had. Proof positive that they were still alive and moving and now with direction.

The rain was trifling, a mere annoyance, but enough to move everyone towards the house.

"David's on his way," Brass told Catherine as they reached him still standing outside on the porch.

Everyone but Catherine reacted to this. Each asking questions in turn wondering why the coroner had even been called.

"Calm down," Catherine said finally, "there is a body upstairs."

"You're kidding," Nick said reacting first.

"No joke," Brass returned with a shake of his head.

"So they stumbled onto a murder scene?" Warrick asked a hint of a mile on his lips. This was just too good.

"Looks like it," Catherine said walking back into the house. "And I think they processed it."

Catherine led them over to Greg's case and pulled out the sealed bags she'd originally thought were from the original db but now knew differently. They were each labeled in Grissom's hand and sealed ready for processing.

As Brass led Warrick and Catherine back upstairs to review the scene, the other three took their first real look around downstairs.

"This chair was moved," Sofia said causing Nick to look up sharply from across the room where he'd been going through Greg's case.

"What?" he asked and Sara smiled at him and shook her head.

"She wasn't talking to you," Sara said leaning over to him, "Sofia talks to herself. You'll get use to it."

Nick gave Sofia a fleeting glance and sure enough she was still across the room looking at the chair and not at either of them. Looking back at Sara he shook his head. His look clearly said that he doubted he'd get use to it and Sara nearly laughed.

"Fireplace was lit. Someone slept there," Sofia continued oblivious to Nick and Sara's sidebar. "Got some bandages."

Sara walked over to her now. Sofia's voice had raised towards then end, the only indicator she ever gave that she was in fact speaking to someone else. Sure enough, there were the end parts of tape and gauze, like someone had tore off the excess and left it there. Plus a fairly bloody t-shirt and wadded up duct tape, obviously used.

"Must have used it for a bandage," Sofia said bagging the shirt first with gloved hands. "That's a lot of blood."

Sara nodded and tried not to think about it. Nick had joined them now, curious at the exchange, blanching a little at the blood.

"Uh guys," Catherine said coming up behind them.

They each looked over to her in anticipation.

"David's going to be awhile getting here and Warrick and I were thinking that maybe someone should keep going down that road. See if maybe Gil and Greg didn't get that far."

"I'll go," Sara said nodding already.

"Me too," Nick seconded.

It was pretty much as she'd expected. Catherine turned to Sofia now, waiting for her to decide.

"I'll stay," she said shortly, "You don't need more then two people and since this is a scene…"

"Okay then," Catherine cut in with a nod. "Here are the keys and you've got the radio. Call back if you need anything."

Nick and Sara both nodded and headed outside.

"I'm driving," Nick said reaching the drivers side first, keys in hand.

Sara didn't argue just got in on the other side and buckled in.

They continued down slowly, just as they had before, each looking as they went out their respective sides. Nick keeping the SUV around five miles an hour to ensure they didn't miss a thing.

"So how far do you think they got?" Nick asked after several minutes of silence.

"Two days lead?" Sara questioned back, "No telling. I mean, we don't know how often they stopped. The weather has held since then so they could have gotten a descent distance."

"Yeah but the only thing is that on the map, this way leads through a wash."

Sara nodded.

"And with Greg's leg…"

"Let's not talk about it," Sara cut him off curtly.

Nick cast her a glance and then nodded, continuing to look and drive as best he could. The road wasn't bad at first but as the afternoon wore on and it began to get darker and darker it got worse.

A few times they stopped and investigated sites that looked promising only to find nothing significant.

It was fully dark when the road came to an abrupt end.

Nick and Sara both got out and shook their heads in disbelief.

"Well," Nick said shaking his head, "that's it. We can't drive across that. This thing is tough but we'll get stuck in the sand out there."

Sara took out her flashlight and began to scan the area.

"Check this out," she said waving Nick over. "Looks like we've got fire."

Nick nodded.

"They were here at least one night," he said after taking out the camera and snapping a few shots. "What time have you got?"

Sara rubbed her arms it ward off the cold before checking her watch.

"Just after nine."

"We should get back," Nick said and she reluctantly agreed.

Again for the first few miles, faster then before but still not up to speed, there was silence.

"Are they going to make it?" Sara asked. She didn't look at him as she spoke, just stared straight ahead at the darkness past the headlights.

"Yeah, they are."

"Are you always this way? This hopeful?"

"Have to be. There's no point in thinking about the worse."

Sara nodded. She wished she could be that way.

After another fifteen minutes or more of silence the two-way rang. It wasn't the first time that night, Catherine and Brass had called on and off throughout the night to check in on them.

"Yeah we're on our way back," Sara said into it in anticipation of the question.

"That's great Sara," returned Brass' voice, "but that's not why I rang. We're heading out."

Nick looked over at the radio in surprise. The line was open so they both could hear him and he'd assumed they'd wait at the house for them.

"Okay," Sara said also surprised at the change. "We'll see you back at the lab then. We're probably a half hour from the house."

"Don't bother," Brass said and there was something different in his voice. "Go straight to Desert Springs Hospital. Just got a call from dispatch."

Sara felt her heart jump and Nick stopped the car suddenly.

"And?" she asked startled by the shake in her voice.

Brass didn't seem to hear it. Neither did Nick. He was too drawn to the radio to make out the difference.

"An Officer Brown picked them up on the five-oh-five about half an hour ago."

"Are they okay?" she asked now.

"Seemed to be," Brass returned and she thought she heard a door slam. They must be getting ready to leave. "Didn't get to much detail but they'd been found walking on the side of the road headed towards town."

"That's… that's…"

Sara took her thumb off the button and shook her head. She couldn't get the words out so she handed the radio off to Nick.

"Sara?" came Brass again on the line.

"Hey, it's Nick," he said taking over, "We're on our way there now."

"Good," Brass said. "We'll see you there."

Nick put the phone down and turned to her.

"You okay?" he asked and watched as she nodded and wiped her hands across her face.

"Fine. I'm fine. Do you think you can get this thing going again?"

Nick let out a short laugh and complied.

"Let's go see our friends," he said giving her one last smile before heading back down the road.

"Yeah," she said smiling now in the darkness of the cab.

Mentally adding, 'let's hurry.'