A/N: For the rest of this story, as before, i own none of what you recognise, so don't sue me, i don't have much money anyway, you wouldn't sue a girl for her grad money would you?

so yeah, this update is everything, see you at the end.

Chapter 10: Answers

Grissom's POV

I stopped by to say goodbye to Nick and Tim who were sharing the McDonald's I had left, when Greg had screamed, Nick waved 'goodbye' over his shoulder, when I stepped into the room, not turning away from whatever he and Tim were working on, on the two tables between them. Tim laughed, as I turned to leave the room, and I turned back, he waved, as if he was waving to a child, so I shot a glare, in his direction, and left.

At the lab, Warrick, and Danny had finished going over the bomb components, had pieced it together, enough that they were now preparing some test bombs, to be blown in the desert. "What do you have?" I asked.

"We're almost done, do you want to come with?" Warrick asked.

"No, I'm heading over to see what Cath has gotten from the brother, good job, guys, get this done, see if you can connect this to Jason, or Jesse, the Sheriff is going on in an hour and a half, to issue a warning to the public about Jason Maverick, see if you can get something for him on the bombing by then."

I walked back out of the lab, and drove to Ecklie's house, Cath was still there, I knocked, and Ecklie let me in. "What's going on, why are you guys harassing Justin, he didn't do anything."

"I know, but his brother did, and we need to find his brother," I told him.

I was led into the living room, and I sat next to Cath, "Justin, there was a picture we found, folded in metal, protected from the blast, of three young boys," I pulled out the evidence bag, "Does this look familiar?"

"Yes, that's me and my brothers," Justin said.

"What is 'the way?'" I asked.

"I can't tell you, I've been forced into secrecy, I left the way a long time ago, but I've never been willing to go through the removal ceremony, and am still considered a member, one of your Team, Nick Stokes was born into one of the higher up families, he's never been under the control of the elders, so if you ask the right questions, he can answer," Justin replied.

I nodded, and asked, "Would your brothers hide with the people involved in the way?"

"No, Jason was born a collector, he was sent out at the age of twenty, and isn't allowed in the home of any member," Justin said, "If Jesse was in contact with Jason, then he wouldn't leave him to fend for himself."

Catherine and I asked questions for another twenty minutes, mostly specific questions about the way, some of which Justin replied that he couldn't answer, those questions I wrote down, to ask Nick, and some of the others we asked.

After twenty minutes, Justin told us that he was tired, so we left, Cath told me she was going to pick Lindsey up from school, and run some errands with her, "We need some family time, Grissom, I know it's a big case, but I can't neglect Lindsey either."

"I understand, go ahead," I told her, "Just be sure to have the interview notes filed, before you go home."

I drove to the hospital, in Nick's room, I could see him leaning over the tray tables, Tim on the other side, he was covering the table with his body, all I could see was the end, and I couldn't see anything on it. I started to walk around, and saw that Tim's right arm was moving rapidly across the top of the table, Nick's was moving similarly across his table. "What are you two doing?" I asked.

"Nothing," Nick jumped, and pushed whatever he was doing to Tim who slid it into a large binder, I caught sight of pencil lines, before it disappeared.

"I just need to ask some questions, pertaining to the lab explosion, I was talking to Justin Maverick, he's Jason Maverick's younger brother, and Jesse Maverick, Justin's twin is the man we suspect of blowing up the lab, anyway, there was a message folded in between some metal, talking about 'the way' Justin said he couldn't say much, forced into secrecy, but you might be able to answer some questions, Nick."

"What kind of Questions? Because even I have things I'm not able to say."

"Alright, oh, before I forget, I picked up your messages from work, and checked your machine," I handed Nick a stack of papers.

"'Call me, D' 'Why haven't you called, D' 'Where are you, D' 'I'm going to fly in, as soon as I'm done work, if you don't call me, D' and from work, 'Call your dad' 'someone named D called' wow, D is really worried." Nick said, and reached for the phone sitting on the table between him and Tim.

Nick dialled a number, when the person picked up on the other end, he spoke rapidly, and hung up, then dialled another number, this time, he started singing into the phone.

"Hey dad, look at me think back and talk to me, did I grow up, according to plan?

And do you think I'm wasting my time doing things I wanna do?

But it hurts when you disapproved all along

And now I try hard to make it I just wanna make you proud.

I'm never gonna be good enough for you,

can't pretend that I'm alright and you can't change me, 'cuz we lost it all

Nothing lasts forever, I'm sorry I can't be perfect

Now it's just to late, and we can't go back,

I'm sorry I can't be perfect ..."

When he stopped singing, he said, "Call me when you don't care what I've done, and that I'm scarred, otherwise, don't bother."

"I take it you don't get along with your dad?" I asked

"He's the one that gave me this," Nick pulled the opening in the hospital gown around, and showed me his hip, it had an intricate looking tattoo with scars crisscrossing over it."

"The tattoo?" I asked dumbly.

"No, he tried to get rid of the tattoo, because I left 'the clan' the problem with that is, the tattoo symbolizes my clan, and that cannot be gotten rid of, so it's still there."

"What is 'The way?" I asked.

"It's probably a clan, but I'm not sure, there are so many of them, some are basically families, others are like governments, where they control their people, I don't know exactly, but I know that there are all kinds, if you give me some time, I can check with some sources," Nick said.

Nick's POV

"What is a collector?" Grissom asked.

"Can't answer that," I said.

"I can," Tim said, "I had a brother, died when he was twenty, or that's what my parents said, had a funeral and everything, I was ten, and ran into him a month later, he explained it to me, he was a collector, my parents always told him that he couldn't let me get attached to him, but come on, it doesn't happen, a kid loves his older brother, always, but it's hard to explain, without you knowing the whole story, Grissom, Take a seat, this is a long story."

"And you may not believe it," I told him.

"Try me," Grissom sat in the chair.

"There are different types of people in this world, some use magick, some have special talents, and most of those are born into or are chosen by clans," I said, "clans usually get along, but sometimes, someone offends someone else, and there is a fight, the fights usually end as soon as someone gets hurt, on either side, because the clans are fairly small, one death could account for ten percent of the clan,"

"There are some bigger clans, numbering in the hundreds, but not many," Tim said.

"I know of four, the large clans sometimes have little battles, where members end up getting hurt, they're bigger and more serious than the smaller clans, though everyone tends to follow the same sets of rules which include do not be found out. So I'm breaking some rules," I told Grissom

"But that shouldn't matter, considering who you father is," Tim said

I looked over at Tim, and caught sight of someone step into the doorway. "Mr. Grissom, Warrick is in talking to Greg, and told me I'd probably find you here," the voice was male.

"Danny, you and Warrick finish with that bomb?"

"Yes we did, he said he wanted to visit Greg on our way back to the lab," the Danny guy said.

"Well, how did it go?"

"We've got one additional lead, the bomb at the lab was enclosed in something, that suppressed the blast, it wasn't metal."

"Then what was it?" Grissom asked.

"We don't know, plastic would have melted in the blast, but would have left traces in the debris, there was no sign of an additional metal casing, so we're not entirely sure about what it was."

"Do you have pictures," I asked.

"Oh, sorry, Nick, this is Danny Messer, Danny, Nick Stokes, he's one of my best CSI's." Grissom said.

"Thank you, Grissom. It's nice to meet you Danny, do you have pictures from the lab, and test bombs?"

"Nick, you're on leave," Grissom said.

"So, I want to see what he's talking about," I replied.

Grissom nodded, and Danny put a folder on the tray table, Tim leaned over, as I opened the folder, it was full of pictures, the first ones were from the lab, the damage was much less than I expected, there were others from the test explosions they all had a larger blast radius, Tim pulled back the pictures of the explosion at the lab, the table we had been working on had been pushed away from where the wall had been, the pictures had orange cones from where they had found each of us, but the walls on either side of the office were nearly intact, like the office had been a tunnel, not the epicentre of the explosion, I looked at Tim, he nodded, he had the same idea.

I called Caita, she answered on the third ring, as normal, "Caita, would you do some research for me?" I asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?"

"Because this could cause a battle, with another clan, a larger clan."

"Who?"

"I'm not sure, I only know that it's a larger clan, because the members don't know that there is more than one clan."

"Give me the information, I'll do what I can, without getting caught," Caita replied.

I agreed, and told her who it was I wanted information on, and what I knew, we talked for a minute, while, while she made sure she had it right, then we hung up.

"There are three possible ways the bomber could have done that, the first they would have needed hours of prep, at the site, the second could only be botched by someone really inexperienced, the third could only be attempted by someone really experienced," Tim said.

"So this guy is either really weak, or really strong?" I asked

"Right, either way, he's dangerous, he's to weak to handle what he tries to do, and that's when people get hurt."

"Another problem, could be, if this guy is strong, he could be able to intentionally hurt someone," I said.

"Exactly, there is no way that anyone not specially trained should approach these guys," Tim said.

"But who has that kind of training?" Grissom asked.

"The FBI, and soon, you, Grissom," Tim told my boss.

"No, Tim, Grissom already has the bad habit of going off on his own to confront suspects, we don't need him going after such dangerous men alone, we'll call a couple of my guys," I said, then without missing a beat, I added, "the men I know are police officers, from around the states, only two of them are FBI."

"How hard is it to train someone to be able to protect themselves from these guys?" Grissom asked

"I can train one person, that's all I can do, until I can get home," Tim said.

"I could train five, if I could get home," I told him.

"Alright, so you both want to go home," Grissom said.

"Nick's place is about as good as mine," Tim replied.

"It's the supplies that's the problem, not the ability, come on, Tim, you know my father, one thing he taught me, as a child was how to conserve energy, I could do forty of them, with the right supplies."

"What kind of supplies?" Grissom asked.

"Supplies that only a clan member could get, hey, Tim, he's limited in what he can do, without supplies, right, let's blacklist them," I said.

"Blacklist? Can we do that?"

"He took a cheap shot, blowing up a clan leader's place of work, I'd say I should be able to order a blacklisting."

"But will everyone follow that?" Tim asked.

"They should, people around here know me, and they know what I'm capable of."

"And what are you capable of?" Grissom asked.

"My father's clan, the 'Elda aron' is the second most powerful clan, my sphere of influence is almost to the extent that I'm self sufficient, apart from any clan besides my own," I said.

"Tell me more about the Clans, and about collectors?"

"The clans are often hundreds of years old, with the same families running them, but if a child is born into a leader's family, and is weak, they don't often get put into the succession for the leadership of the clan," Tim said.

"My older siblings all have my families' tendency to be weak, my father is the leader of a very democratic clan, he's the strongest, on the council, and that's saying a lot, due to my family's tendency to be weak, and the strength of the clan."

"How do you determine the strength of someone?" Grissom asked.

"There are different ways, to determine the strength of someone, a lot of it is relative, because different people are strong in different areas, personally, I'm strong, in Fire and air things, while Tim is stronger with water, and earth,"

"So it's a lot like Wiccans?" Danny asked.

"No, Wiccans stemmed from the powerless removed from the clans, they wanted power, but they have none, some of the powerless stay around the clans, help keep them hidden, others leave," I replied.