First things first, thanks to all my wonderful reviewers! You guys are great, as always. Since you all tend to read all my stories, I can post this once…hopefully :P

Short rambling here, in order to clear up some gender-confusion. I purposely don't put my gender in my bio because I find it interesting to listen to ppl try and guess my gender. Not that I particularly enjoy being confused with the wrong gender, I find that it provides wonderful entertainment sometimes. Yeah, I'm weird, but I do believe we've established that already :P

Okay, so…I am an 18 yr old female, single, in case anyone is wondering. I graduated almost a year ago from HS, and now work full time as a lab tech, and as many of you may be able to guess, I tend to work over time as well. I spend most, and sometimes all of my free time writing, and yes, I do write fast, as you can assume by my recent and frequent updates. Drives my mom crazy, she says I need to get a life, but I'm enjoying it quite well. Hmm…I think that pretty much covers my current life for now, email me if you're at all interested because I don't want to put you to sleep, honestly I doubt you want to hear it.

Okay, short rambling over. Onto the story now. We're almost done, roughly five chapters left, give or take a few.

Chapter Fifteen: Double AA

"Deep Breaths."

Greg nodded, holding the oxygen mask in place as he drew another deep breath as instructed. The medic had a hold of his other hand, fingers pressed against his wrist, scribbling notes down on the chart that was balanced on his knees.

In front of him, Sara paced back and forth slowly. She had been doing so ever since the paramedics arrived, chasing her away to get a better look at him, even though Greg insisted he was fine.

His gaze focused beyond Sara to the cabin that was still smoldering. It had taken fire crews nearly half an hour to get here due to road conditions. By then the cabin was fully ablaze. Greg shook his head, wiping his eyes again as the burning sensation continued to irritate them.

"It doesn't make sense," Sara said, coming to a stop, looking at him. "Why would ammonia be up here in the first place? More importantly, how did it get up here?"

Greg pulled the mask away from his face, "Well, ammonia can be transported in liquid or gaseous form. It's easier to transport as a liquid, in gas form it's more likely to combust, or leak. It has to be held under high pressure during transportation. My guess is whoever got it up here knows a thing or two about chemicals," he suggested.

The medic leaned over, tapping on the mask. Greg brought it back up, nodding at him before turning back to Sara.

"Well that doesn't really help. Everyone here has some knowledge in Chemistry. That's not a surprise. Would ammonia be used for anything up here? I mean, we're assuming this was intentional, is it possible that it was just a slip up?"

Greg shook his head, pulling the mask away again. "I don't know. I suppose it's possible, but I don't know. Too many strange things have been happening around here."

He turned back to find the medic watching him again, and eyebrow slightly raised. Giving him a small awkward smile, Greg put the oxygen mask back on. "Thank you," the medic stated firmly, turning his attention back to his chart.

Sara glanced over her shoulder as both Randolph and Stiles came up the hill their way. She gave them a short nod as a greeting. "How's Candi?" she asked. Both she and Greg had been able to pull Candi out after the main explosion, the flames spread quickly, but more in an upward direction than outward. After the initial blast, finding the trainee had been relatively easy.

"He took a pretty good hit," Randolph said softly, "second and third degree burns to the face and neck, his thick clothing helped protect the rest of his body for the most part. They're flying him out to East Moreland Hospital in Portland. They'll keep him there overnight, and probably fly him home to a more local hospital tomorrow. What about you two?"

Sara shrugged lightly, "I'm fine," her gaze turned back to where Greg sat in the snow.

"Mr. Sanders has inhaled only trace amounts, enough to cause irritation, but nothing serious," the medic explained. "Still, keep an eye on him for at least the next twenty four hours, anything comes up, don't hesitate to bring him in. If it has caused any internal problems, we'll know within that time."

Stiles nodded, "You two are lucky you didn't get burned," the detective told them. "The fire spread pretty quickly."

Sara agreed, sitting down next to Greg as the medic started to pack up. "You okay?"

Greg nodded, "Yeah, although it doesn't matter how many times I say that, someone is still going to demand that a doctor checks me over anyways."

She laughed, shaking her head. "It's because you're stubborn, and you enjoy lying."

"I do not enjoy lying," Greg shot back, rolling his eyes.

"Oh man."

They glanced up at the approaching form, still laughing. It died down as the man reached them.

"You two can't catch a break huh?"

"Hi Tom," Greg gave him a nod. "I guess not, run of bad luck."

The older CSI gave him a smile, "Yeah? Don't rub it off on me."

Stiles cut in, shaking his head. "Why are you here? This hasn't been announced as a crime scene yet. As far as we're concerned it's accidental."

"I'm not here about the explosion initially, I'm here about the DB that was found."

"DB?" Sara asked, looking up at him. "In the house? That can't be, there were only three of us in there at the time, and we're all accounted for."

Tom let out a sigh, "The DB was found below the floor boards. Firefighters found it, called it in. This is very interesting though," he indicated, pointing back to the cabin. "Both your previous vics, we were able to make a connection among them. Both of them died from asphyxiation due to inhalation of high levels of ammonia gas. Their necks were broke postmortem, and our third vic here has a broken neck as well. It won't take long to examine, but I can probably guarantee that his death is quite similar."

"Asphyxiation from ammonia gas?" Greg asked, "I knew it could make you sick, kill you toxically, but through suffocation?"

He watched Tom nod, flipping through several papers. "At low levels, ammonia can cause irritation to the eyes, nose and throat. As levels increase, it can cause swelling of the tracheal tract and obstruction of upper throat as well as serious damage to the eyes."

Stiles shook his head, "Are you telling me that someone is using ammonia to kill people?"

Tom gave him a grim smile, "I'm just here to collect statements."

Sara shook her head as they walked through the door, taking off her coat and hanging it on the rack. "Can you believe this?" she asked, pulling off her gloves and hat as well. She kicked off her boots, watching as Greg sat down on the couch, not bothering to take anything off.

"I can understand by how they died that it's being seen as accidental right now, but how do you explain the broken necks and different locations? All three had to be moved, you can only suffocate from ammonia in poorly ventilated areas. Obviously a mountain top has plenty of ventilation, so they died somewhere else, and someone stashed their bodies."

Sara nodded, sitting next to Greg. "What do the victims have in common? Besides the fact they all died the same way."

She watched him shrug. "I don't know, we don't have the clues, we're working blind." He let out a groan, leaning back and rubbing his head with one hand. "My head hurts," he complained.

"I'll call for some help," Sara said quickly, standing.

Greg looked up as she moved over to the kitchen, shaking his head. "What? No, no I'm fine, I just need some of my meds," he reassured her.

"They said to call if anything happened," she warned him, but at least she had stopped.

"It's okay," Greg told her, moving to take off his coat. "I just have a headache, I'll go sleep it off. I'm tired anyways, probably for the best."

Sara nodded, "Okay, if you're sure," she commented dryly, watching him.

"I'm sure," he answered, shaking his head as he laughed. He gave her a small smile, still seeing that it wasn't convincing her. "Don't worry," he told her quietly, walking over to where she stood.

"When that fire…" she looked up at him as he came to a stop in front of her. "I thought…I mean," she fell silent again, pushing her hair back from her face. Greg took a hold of her hands before pulling her into a hug.

"You're okay," he told her, resting his head against hers. He could hear her laugh.

"It's not me I was worried about," she pulled away for a moment. "I was so afraid that you were hurt, I couldn't see you right after it happened."

Greg hugged her gently once again. "I'm okay. Tired, cranky, but okay." He let out a fake snore, provoking her into a laugh.

"Alright already," she laughed, pushing him away slightly. "Go get some sleep so I don't have to listen to you complain anymore."

Unable to sleep that night, Sara found herself on the couch, curled up under a blanket, watching Greg from a distance. He had slept soundly for the first time in days; it made her feel guilty somewhat. Letting out a sigh she turned her attention back to the small radio she held in her lap.

World news had been on for roughly ten minutes, it was good to be able to catch up on what was happening again. She wondered dimly how the lab was doing, she didn't want to admit it, but she missed everyone. It would be nice to be back, she was looking forward to it. Did they miss her and Greg she wondered. She wouldn't be surprised if they didn't, after all it was probably a lot quieter without them.

Sara laughed quietly at that thought, sinking back into the pillow she had stolen from the bed. Her attention turned back to the radio, listening as the announcer droned on.

"A young woman is dead after a hit and run today, officers are on the look out for a black Ford, and a male in his thirties, believed to be an ex of the victim. New reports today show that the Double AA killer may be back at it again after another body was found in the mountains."

Sara frowned, turning the volume up some more as the report continued. "Authorities will neither confirm nor deny this factor. So far a total of four bodies have been recovered, all of which that showing the same death pattern the Double AA killer used nearly twenty years ago."

"You mean they have a name for this guy?"

Sara glanced up, frowning as she turned the radio down. "You're supposed to be sleeping," she told him.

Greg laughed, "Not tired anymore," he answered quietly. "Why didn't Tom say anything about the Double AA Killer?"

"Just because we're certified field agents too doesn't mean we're best buds. Tom's following regulations, you're not supposed to talk about cases to random people."

"I'm not random," Greg argued, sitting up. "I'm just me."

Sara shook her head, "You know what I mean. Maybe the library will have some information."

Greg nodded, "It'll be open in not too much longer," he told her. "We could get something to eat and head right over there."

Sara agreed, giving him a smile. "Let's go."

TBC