Disclaimer: I own a copy of this week's TV guide, which has some CSI pictures, but that's about it.

Author's notes: Not much to say...I really appreciate all of the replies I got for the last chapter, you guys keep me writing, even when I'm just running on fumes. A special thanks to Emmithar and Ravyn, because Emmithar keeps me awake with her stories (after working a shift and a half and going to class), which then promotes insomnia and then writing, even though I know I must be awake again in 4 hours. And Ravyn's reply made me decide to continue with this story, even though I was thinking of starting a new one. All in all, everyone's replies keep me going and forbid me from losing interest until this is complete. You guys are great!

Speaking of complete, I'm only predicting 2 more chapters...

Please read and reply, and maybe I'll be able to get another chapter out by the start of the weekend.

Jenny

Eight:

"What do you mean you don't know what happened? Where she is? Didn't you hear her leave? Didn't Rory tell you when she woke up that Lindsey wasn't in bed? Don't you keep the sliding lock shut at night, something she can't even reach?" Lindsey asked, her voice rising with panic and frustration, feeling like wanting to throttle her sister.

Warrick placed his hands on Catherine's shoulders, somehow knowing she was about to jump on her sister, and whispered soothingly to her, "Calm down, we need to hear what happened, we're going to find her."

"There's no sign of forced entry." Detective Lange said, walking towards Catherine and Warrick, "Does Lindsey have any reason to want to run away? Any problems in school or at home?"

"Of course not!" Catherine exclaimed, her eyes wide with tears, "Lindsey's a happy little girl, sure, she's had her share of problems, but she's not one to just take off without telling anyone."

Catherine's sister spoke softly, interrupting Catherine's nearly hysterical response, "Rory says Lindsey was sleeping when she got out of bed. She and I were in my bedroom, watching cartoons, and I went to check on Lindsey, and she was gone. No, I didn't lock the sliding lock, because I know sometimes you like to come and peek in on Lindsey during the night. I checked with some of Lindsey and Rory's friends in the neighborhood, no one has seen her since last night, she can't be far."

"I don't think this was a kidnaping, I think Lindsey just wandered off without telling anyone." Warrick said gently, pointing out Lindsey's dirty pajamas on the bedroom floor, "Her pajamas are here, her shoes aren't, her little backpack purse that she always carries is gone. She probably went outside and forgot to let an adult know. If she was taken, they wouldn't have given her time to change."

"We've got officers looking for her, and we'll page you if we hear anything." Detective Lange said gently to Catherine. He had worked with her on several occasions and he hated to see her so distraught, "Just be glad that you're one of us, Catherine, otherwise we would have to be going through the entire process from square one. We'll have her home before nightfall."

Greg sat on his sofa, a glass of whiskey in one hand, the bottle in the other. At the moment, he was trying to decide which he should drink out of. He had never been a heavy drinker, but when the occasion warranted it, he could out-drink any other CSI on graveyard. He had three categories of alcohol; beer was for casual and social drinking, just to have a good time, gin was for tense situations and wanting to unwind, sometimes he'd drink gin after a long or particularly heart-wrenching case, and whiskey was for the very serious situations. This classified as one of those serious situations.

Nick had answered Sara's phone, he was at her house, taking care of her when she was upset, being the friend that Greg had become so used to being. All because he opened his big mouth, told her about his feelings for her, then took off like a scared little boy.

As the alcohol began to work on his tired body, his mind drifted to the conversation he had with Sara before he left. She wasn't ready for a relationship...was that exclusive to him, or to all men? Did she blow him off because she had a crush on Nick? Was she afraid of how their relationship would be? They both knew it wouldn't be a problem at work, Catherine and Warrick made their relationship no secret and they were doing just fine. Was it because Nick looked at her with the same longing eyes that Greg did? Was she trying to choose? Was she trying to let him down gently?

A third of the way through the bottle, he had worked up the courage to call her again. It had to have been a misunderstanding, or maybe something was wrong and Sara couldn't have answered the phone. Either way, he was going to talk to her, and he was going to get some answers. Taking another gulp of liquid courage, he pressed her speed dial number, leaning back against the couch cushions as he waited for an answer.

After four rings, Nick's groggy voice answered, and Greg slammed the phone down, this time anger filling his veins instead of sadness. Flinging the phone across his living room, cord and all, not caring if he ripped the wires from the wall, not caring that he made a dent in the wall, not caring that his phone would now not work. He was livid, his entire body trembling with rage. Deep inside, he knew that most of his emotion was from the whiskey, but that part of his brain quickly stopped functioning as he took a swig from the bottle in his hand, slamming that down on the coffee table and stumbling to the counter to grab his wallet and keys. He was going to go to Sara's and see what was going on, and nothing was going to stop him.

Nick rotated his head, trying to crack his neck, his entire body stiff from falling asleep on the sofa. Sara laid curled in a ball next to him, a thick quilt covering both of them, her brown hair spilled out of her ponytail and covering the small couch cushion she was using as a pillow. He stretched and shook her gently, "Sara? Wake up, Sara!"

Sara blinked open her eyes and stifled a yawn, "I fell asleep?"

"We both did, the movie's over." He brushed a hair from her face, "Look, I know you need a friend, but I've really got to get home. I'd love to stay, but we both need rest, in our beds, before work tonight and it's already close to noon."

Sara stifled a yawn, standing up and twisting her back, trying to work out the kinks in her muscles, "I'm okay, thanks for staying with me. It meant a lot to know I can still count on you."

"You can always count on me, Sar," Nick said softly, giving her a tight hug, "Don't worry about Greg, he'll come around and things will get back to normal. Just remember that you want to keep him as a friend, even if you don't want to date him. He'll understand, he's a good man. If he's still avoiding you tonight, I'll talk to him, okay?"

Sara let her eyes close as she tried not to melt in the warmth of his hug, "Thanks Nicky, you're the best. Catherine would have me over there talking to him right now, you know that right?"

"And that's the reason that I stayed with you." Nick laughed, grabbing his car keys and walking to the door, "Get some sleep, I'll see you in a few hours. I'll call you if we decide to get dinner before shift, to see if you're interested."

Sara thanked him again and locked the door behind him. Yawning loudly, she grabbed the quilt from the sofa and pulled it behind her as she staggered into her bedroom, asleep not long after her head hit the pillow, which still smelled an awful lot like Greg.

Catherine and Warrick drove down Winchester Avenue for what felt like the billionth time in the last 4 hours, when, in all actuality, it had was only the 25th or 26th. They had been circling a three mile radius around Catherine's sister's house since the detective had left, making a loop towards Lindsey's school once every hour, trying to find any indication that Lindsey had been in the area.

Warrick was just about to suggest they widen their search area when Catherine exclaimed, "There! On the sidewalk, that's Lindsey's change purse."

Warrick pulled over and Catherine jumped out of the car, rushing over to where the change purse laid, the snap that fastened it to Lindsey's backpack broken. Warrick shook his head, putting a hand on Catherine's trembling arm, "It looks like it just fell off, I'm sure she's fine. We know she was here, let's branch out a few miles in this direction."

"Where do you think she's going?" Catherine wondered, shivering despite the hot, stifling air outside, "She doesn't have any friends in this area, our house and the office is the other way, her school's back towards CSI...what is she thinking?"

Warrick narrowed his eyes, turning in a complete circle while focusing on every object he could see. All of a sudden, a triumphant grin broke across his face, "Get in the car, I think I know where she went."

Moments later, they were pulling up to Fountain Memorial Cemetery, where in the distance, they could see Lindsey's blonde head laying against a marble tombstone.

Catherine jumped out of the car, running to Lindsey and shouting her name. When she finally reached her daughter, she noticed the tear marks on her 10 year old daughter's face, "Oh, sweetie. I was so worried about you, you can't just sneak off like that!"

"I wanted to see Daddy," Lindsey sobbed, her voice slightly muffled by Catherine's shirt, "You told me I could come see him whenever I wanted to, and when we came yesterday after dinner, you were already at work, and we only stayed for a few minutes because Rory had a tummy ache, and we had to go, and I didn't want to go, I wanted to see Daddy. I miss Daddy."

Catherine stroked Lindsey's hair as she sobbed, torn between wanting to yell and punish Lindsey for taking off without telling anyone, for putting herself in danger, for walking nearly 3 miles to the cemetery at her young age, but on the other hand, listening to Lindsey's heart wrenching sobs broke her heart all over again, the pain over losing Eddie had been bad enough, but Lindsey's pain was a million times worse.

She lifted Lindsey, despite her age, and held on to her tightly, "I'm so sorry you miss him, baby, I know how hard it is for you. And I'm sorry that you didn't get to spend a lot of time here last night, but sweetie, he's always in your heart, you don't have to come here to connect with him."

"Did you love Daddy?" Lindsey asked, pulling away, her sobs now just loud sniffles and gasps, "When he died?"

Catherine held Lindsey tighter, "I loved him enough to marry him, and he gave me you, and I love you more than anything, so of course I loved him."

"I'm sorry I scared you." Lindsey whispered softly, her breathing ragged as a fresh wave of tears began, "Don't be mad at me Momma."

Catherine rubbed Lindsey's back, closing her eyes and sighing, so relieved to have her daughter in her arms, so relieved that none of the awful scenarios she had imagined had come true. "Lindsey, I was worried sick, I thought someone had taken you, you could have been hit by a car, you could have gotten hurt or lost and we wouldn't have been able to find you! I was scared to death. If you ever, ever do that again, I'll punish you for the rest of your life, do you hear me?" She squeezed Lindsey a little tighter, not wanting to let her daughter go, "We're going to go home and have a long talk about this, do you understand me?"

Lindsey nodded, picking up her purse and placing a few yellow flowers she had picked from her Aunt's garden on the grave, "Bye Daddy."

Cather fought tears as she led Lindsey to Warrick's car. Lindsey turned to Catherine, her eyes wide, "How come Uncle Warrick's with you?"

"Umm..." Catherine looked at Warrick, her eyes wide with alarm, "Uncle Warrick and Mommy are dating, you know that."

Lindsey nodded, her arms folded across her chest, "But why is he here now?"

"He was helping me look for you." Catherine said, opening the car door for Lindsey, "We had your Aunt and your Grandma looking for you, the police looking for you, Uncle Grissom looking for you. Warrick was with me when I found out you weren't at your aunt's house."

Lindsey nodded, her lips pressed tightly together as she obviously concentrated on her thoughts, "So, when are you getting married?"

Her innocent question had Catherine and Warrick both spitting their coffee out in surprise, their eyes connecting with each other's, then with Lindsey's.

"It's just the three of us tonight." Grissom said as he handed Sara and Nick each a slip of paper, "Catherine and Warrick spent the day looking for Lindsey, who left Catherine's sister's house this morning without telling anyone. Lindsey's fine, but Catherine and Warrick are exhausted, so I told them to stay home. I've been trying to call Greg all afternoon, but he isn't answering or returning my calls," He turned to Sara, "Wasn't he staying with you?"

Sara nodded, taking a sip of her coffee, "Until last night, he was. We had a long night last night, he probably overslept." She didn't want to admit it to Nick or Grissom, but she felt a surge of panic whenever Greg's name was mentioned. She couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong, he had promised to call her or drop by, but he hadn't, and he wasn't returning her phone calls either. She knew he was upset about what happened the previous night, but she didn't think he'd be petty enough to shut everyone else out.

Grissom nodded, sighing, "Well, we're short handed until he comes in. I'll continue calling and paging him. Nick, you've got a suspicious circs in the Orleans hotel. Sara, decomp found near Lake Mead. I'll be working an armed robbery at a jewelry store off the strip, no fatalities, some critical condition. Page me if you need me." His pager started to buzz as it vibrated against the table, and looking at it, he hurried out of the room.

"My first night back, and I'm stuck with a decomp." Sara moaned to Nick, "Where's Greg when you need him?

Greg. Just mentioning his name sent a shiver up her spine. She'd have to try and call him again. Maybe even stop by his apartment...it was only a few miles out of the way, and her decomp wasn't going to spring back to life anytime soon. A half hour or so wouldn't really make the stench any worse.

"I'm going to run by Greg's apartment and see if I can recruit him for assistance." Sara said as they walked into the parking lot together. "Nothing to bring two friends closer like decomposing flesh and melting body fat."

Nick smirked, "I know you just want to check up on him, and I'm all for it. Not calling in is odd for Greg. Call me and let me know he's okay." He shouted after her as she walked past him to her own vehicle, "Oh, and Sara?"

"What?" She responded, turning from her door to look back at him.

Nick flashed her a huge grin, "Don't forget to bring some lemons back with you, so the whole building doesn't have to suffer from your case."

"You know what Nick?" Sara asked back, a smirk on her face, "Kiss my ass, okay?"

Nick raised his eyebrows, making kissing noises and causing Sara to roll her eyes and unlock her door. Guys, they were just so immature. She glanced at the clock, pulling out her cell phone and dialing Greg's apartment number. Busy signal. She tried his cell phone, no answer. "He's probably on the internet." She sighed, deciding to drive to his apartment, just to make sure.

To Be continued, if you'd like..I'm easily bribed with replies...