8. What the hell?

"Ms. Walker?"

The three turned to see a man from the front desk holding a letter.

"That would be me." She smiled taking the letter from him.

"What is this?" Sara asks looking at the letter.

"I told the home to forward any mail that I might get, but wow, I didn't expect anything this fast you know? Especially this late at night. How weird."

Ashley slit the letter open with a finger and unfolded the letter. Catherine and Sara went back to talking not wanting to read over her shoulder.

"Oh my god." Walker gasped and dropped the letter on the glass table.

"What's wrong Ashley?" Sara looks at Ashley then looks at the letter and shows an equally shocked response. "We need to get this to the print lab."

"Wait wait. What does it say?" Catherine asked setting down her coffee cup.

Ashley started to read it out loud:

Dear Ashley Walker,

You are a very clever little girl. Most girls your age are busy chasing boys and shopping, but not you, you are busy on my trail eh? I know you will only be here on this case for two weeks, but you should stop while you are ahead. I'm much too dangerous, your squad should resign from this case and pretend it never happened, the outcome of you not complying with my wishes will result in serious harm to you or your squad members. Trust me Ashley you will be better off if you convince your superiors to forget about this case. I know how the politics of a crime lab work, make this case disappear.

Your friend

P.s. I hope that your headaches won't bother you so much in the future.

"It's okay Ashley. We're going to call Brass, we'll get Grissom in here, and then we'll take this to the lab. Don't worry everything will be OK." Catherine said gently patting her back.

Ashley nodded her head, almost in tears. She took a deep breath and fought back the tears and followed Catherine to Grissom's office.

Catherine explained the situation to Grissom who then explained it to Brass who walked in shortly after.

"Catherine, take the note to the labs. Ashley take a seat.." Grissom turned to Ashley speaking as gently to her as he could manage.

They sat in an awkward silence until Ashley spoke up, still fidgeting, hands in her lap.

"Am I still going to stay with you or will I be sent back to the group home?" She looked up sadly at the two.

"I doubt it, I'll need be here in case the labs turn something up . If someone offers you'll be able to go home with one of them." Grissom spoke.

"Call me Jim or Brass, no need for formalities among friends." He smiled.

" What is going to happen about the letter?" She spoke.

"Well, we have your fingerprints from when you first wanted to join here. Then we'll exclude your prints from any prints we find, if we find any we'll run them through the database. Other than that we will be keeping tabs on the evidence collected at the hotel."

"Can I go observe at the print lab?"

Brass spoke up and smiled kindly as he nodded. "Sure thing kiddo."

Brass, Grissom and Walker made their way to the print lab where Warrick was using Ninhydrin on the letter. Walker opened the door and watched him work. The rest of the team was also crowded in the room.

"I've got a couple prints. No telling if they are yours or the senders."

"I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to mess up the evidence. I wish I'd have known. I'm sorry." Ashley looked at the group.

"Hey hey hey... Ashley. It isn't your fault, there is no way you could have known. It's not your fault." Nick spoke up cutting off Grissom.

"Don't worry about it kiddo. If anything, it was good that you got this letter, gives us a chance to get to know this guy." Brass commented.

Walker nodded and forced a small smile despite her stomach twisted in knots of worry inside.

"Come on. You can stay with me tonight if you want. You've had a rough day and you need a good night sleep." Nick smiled recieving looks from the rest of the group.

"Thank you Nick." She smiled at him sighing softly.

"Can I talk to you for a minute Nicky." Grissom stated rather than asked. "Ashley you can go grab your things and meet Nick back here."

Walker smiled at the bunch and left the room feeling a bit left out of the team. Being sent out of the room while someone has a conversation about her was certainly nothing new.

"Are you sure you want to take her home Nick? I would have rather it been Catherine or Sara, there might be some controversy if you take her home." Grissom looked sternly at him as they walked out to the hall.

"I'm positive. Y'all are busy doing this and certainly can cover it. Catherine already has her girl at home and Sara isn't going to want to leave for hours. Ashley needs to go home now. Just look at her she's exhausted probably starving to death she doesn't need to be pulling an all nighter. It'd be the same if you took her home too." Nick shot back with a sigh.

"No it wouldn't. You're a young guy Nick. People could take that the wrong way." Grissom sighed not wanting to fight a battle he was going to lose. "Tonight and tonight only. From now on it's Catherine, Sara or myself keeping her for the night."

"Thanks Grissom." Nick smiled and headed off down the hall to find Ashley.

Ashley walked into the locker rooms where she grabbed her belongings and headed out towards the labs yet again where she was met by Nick. The pair walked out to the car with only a few words spoken between them about the dinner they'd forgotten about hours before.They sat in an odd silence as Nick started up the car and headed out of the parking lot.