"So..." Sara yawned. All the adrenaline pumping through her body was beginning to subside, and the aftereffects were making themselves known. Her fatigue was contagious; Nick soon found himself yawning and beginning to nod off as well. Suddenly, Nick started and scrabbled to the wall that separated them from the main cavity of the car.

"What're you doing?" Sara asked him, feeling closed-in after Nick scrambled around her to get to the other side of the trunk.

"Shh... listen!"

Nick pressed his ear up to the partition and strained to catch parts of the heated conversation unfolding in the car. He was trying to listen for anything that would give him a clue as to where they were, who they were and where they were going.

"Nick, I don't-"

"Shh!"

Unfolding in the front part of the car was a conversation the likes of which would make mothers worldwide cover their children's ears and tut in disapproval. The foursome had taken off their ski masks and were arguing over what they were to do now - they weren't planning on taking hostages and didn't know to what extent their car-swapping had been in their favour; the feds had lost the trail and nearly given up hope. They were now processing the tire marks, but they weren't expecting any positive results. The gang were now heading back towards Las Vegas to their new headquarters, a large mansion their intrepid leader had somehow inherited. But back to the topic of origin - what to do with the bleeding bodies in their trunk?

"I say we oughta dump 'em," one guy suggested.

"Yeah? Where, genius? Don't you watch T.V.? They can find people just by, like, a hair or somethin'. Besides, the dude was carryin' a piece an' a badge, he's a copper fer sure. They'll be lookin' for 'im, and we can't let 'em find 'im or else we're gonna get it."

"So what do YOU suggest, Rocky?"

"Uhhhh..."

"Wow, whatta guy. So glad you're on our side."

"Shut up, Snake, I haven't heard anythin' brilliant from your pie-hole!"

"Whatever, stupid. How's about we call Petey and see what he's got up his sleeve?"

"No way, man, he'll kill us! We wasn't s'posed to take any peoples, an' now we gots two in the trunk! We screwed up big time, there's no way I'ma tell Petey we got two more people wit' us than we left with."

"So what, we're just gonna show up with 'em at his door and be like 'hey Petey-boy, here's the profits from the robbery, hope ya like 'em'?"

"Okay, so we gotta tell 'im."

"Thanks, Einstein."

"Who?"

"You, stupid."

"But my name's not-"

"Whatever."

"The chick's pretty hot, huh?"

"My name's not-"

"Rocky, for the love of Hades will you SHUT UP? We're discussin' important things here, okay?"

"What, the chick?"

"Yeah, gotta problem? Didn't think so. So anyways, what'll we do with 'er? I mean, once we get rid of the dude, somehow."

There were malevolent chuckles all around, and Sara tensed up after hearing this, having also pressed her ear to the divider between the trunk and the car. Nick put a protective arm around her waist and kept listening, the dirt roads beneath them making it harder to hear.

"How we gonna do that? Thought you said we couldn't dump 'em."

"Yeah true, but what if we kill 'im an' just leave 'im?"

"In Petey's place?"

"Yeah, it's effin' huge, it won't matter."

"Um, it's kinda gross..."

"Don't be a pansy, Einstein."

"That's not my name!"

"Hey, hey, we're back in Nevada guys, we'll be at Pete's place in like, fifty minutes. We better figure out what the hell we're doing here."

"I'ma call Pete."

"No way man! We're dead!"

"It's better if he at least knows we got 'em. 'Sides, maybe he knows what to do, you lot of good-for-nothings."

"Oh shut up Spike, you didn't help at all, either."

"Hey hey, keep it down, I'm tryin'a make a call, here? 'Lo, Pete? Yeah, we got like a thou. Yeah, I know it's not much but this was just training anyways, right? Yeah whatevs. Hey, um, listen Pete, we, uh, we got a bit of a problem here... Well, define "taking care of it"... uh huh. Naw, we - what? Okay yeah we kinda have some, uh, some hostages here..."

There was a shout from the other line audible even to Sara's sensitive hearing in the trunk.

"Okay okay okay! What do we do? ...Pete? Uhh, what about... THE BASEMENT! It's perfect! It ain't finished, right? So we gots lotsa poles 'n stuff to tie 'em up to? Great. So then what? You've killed people before, right? Is it better to leave 'em where ya killed 'em, or hide 'em? Right. Okay, well, we just got outta California, so we'll be awhile still. Yep. See ya in like, forty-five minutes. Yep. Ciao."

"Well?"

"Good ol' Jackson's got our backs again, boys."

"Damn. For a minute I thought we were toast."

"Nah, Petey's gonna take care of everythin' for us."

"Sweet deal."

Sara's stomach lurched and she fell away from the wall. Silent sobs wracked her body and tears began to fall incessantly down her cheeks. Nick came away from the wall as well, and drew Sara's shaking body close to his to offer as much support and comfort as was possible in such circumstances. Tears of his own mingled with hers as he pressed his cheek to hers and whispered to her in sympathy; it was a strange and devestating feeling to know that you were going to die so soon. Sara brought her hand up to her face and tried futilely to wipe her face dry, but her tears kept coming and there was little she could do. She felt so vulnerable and afraid, and so extremely disgusted that anybody could do this to another living being, to take away what made them equal; their life.

Nick remembered his conversation with Grissom, and how, despite the situation, Grissom had managed to stay true to his emotionless self and had told Nick what to do in these cases. For once, Nick was glad of Grissom's cold-fish approach to life. Nick urged Sara gently out of the way, rolled to face the back of the car, and took a forceful swing with his leg at the area of the taillight. If he'd managed to kick it out, their kidnappers could be pulled over for not having it working, and they could alert the arresting officer as to where they were. Nick wasn't sure if he'd kicked it hard enough, so he wound up and tried it again. There was a distinctive thud, and a noise like glass breaking. Good enough, Nick supposed. He turned back to Sara.

"We need to make a plan."

Sara didn't respond. Nick had changed from panic-stricken to alert and take-charge in seconds, trying to protect Sara, but Sara couldn't even manage to stop shaking. She sniffled and checked her breathing, but she still shook pitifully. Nick realized she was in no state to think of planning ahead, but he knew if they didn't it could spell out their doom. He gently wiped her tear-streaked face with his sleeve and she struggled to suppress another sob. He wrapped his arms around her and she recoiled slightly. Hurt, Nick backed off, but was surprised to find Sara reaching out and seeking his touch again. Suddenly realizing he must have accidentally touched her wound, his arms carefully encircled her again, and she let out a sigh in his ear. He stroked her hair.

"Are you alright?" he whispered.

Sara sniffled. "Could be better," she whispered back.

"Don't worry, Sar, I won't let 'em hurt you," he promised, hoping against hope that it would be true.

"Can we open the trunk?" Sara asked weakly.

"What?"

"Can we open the trunk?" she repeated, hoping she didn't sound stupid for asking.

"We can try," Nick responded, turning away from Sara to feel along the hatch for something that would grant them freedom. He felt a latch, and a mechanism that kept the trunk closed, and he pushed and prodded along the edge of it but it remained stubbornly closed. He slammed his fist in frustration, but nothing moved aside from the blood rushing to the point of contact on his hand. He rubbed his sore hand, disappointed that he couldn't manage to free them.

"Looks like we're stuck," he sighed sadly.

"Well, what can we do to escape once we get to where we're going?" asked Sara, recovering slightly and trying to wrap her head around what was happening and what was going to happen.

"We can dummy up and escape when they try to carry us into the house," Nick suggested.

"So, we can pretend we're still unconscious and then just, what, get up and run away? Don't you think they'll follow us?"

"That, and, you're in no condition to be running anywhere," Nick pointed out. It was true; Sara's wound had left her too weak to do anything but rest.

"So now what?" Sara asked defeatedly.

"I guess... I guess we wait."

A/N: Review, por favor