A/N: My first review and it was greatly appreciated! At my astute reviewers advice, I have cleaned this up a bit for clarity. And the action will kick in in the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

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Nick and Grissom loaded up the Denali with their equipment. Since they weren't really sure what they would find the truck was stuffed with electronic equipment, some lab glassware, and miscellaneous pieces whose purpose Nick wasn't even that sure of. He hesitated as he felt the keys in his pocket. Would Grissom want to drive or would he want him to drive? He saw his boss walk to the passenger side with his large leather bag on his shoulder so Nick walked around to the driver's door and got in. They pulled out of the parking lot and headed out, Mapquest directions in hand. Nick's hand immediately went to the radio controls, then pulled back in case Grissom wouldn't like the radio on.

Damn! This is weird. Why am I so paranoid about hanging with Grissom? We've handled hundreds of cases together and it's never freaked me out so much.

He knew why though…he had felt so badly about letting his boss down. When he and Warrick saw the news reports referring to "sources at the Crime Lab" leaking information on their case, his heart had dropped into his stomach, and his stomach dropped somewhere down in his nether regions. Stupid! Kenny had seemed so harmless. Realizing that they were leaving the downtown area and their eyes already had less to look at on the roadsides, Nick punched the radio on and fumbled for a song he thought Grissom wouldn't find too offensive.

One hour down, and the side of the road was desert as far as the eye could see. Scrub trees and the occasional agave cactus. Grissom hadn't said more than two words so far, and Nick wasn't encouraging any talk. He punched the scan button compulsively. If a song came on he liked he'd listen for a few bars, but then he thought it might bug Grissom so he would forward past it, limiting their selection to inane golden oldies and news. As they got further away from Vegas the stations got harder to find and the scan would sometimes take a full revolution before stopping on a religious station playing Christian music, or an easy listening station playing Mariah Carey and Celine Dion.

"Nick. You do realize that we will eventually run out of range of most radio stations, especially once we hit the mountains?" Grissom asked with a cocked eyebrow. "You know, silence can be golden."

"Sorry, Gris. Guess I just like music while I'm driving."

"Did you bring any CDs with you?" the older man asked.

Nick tried to run through the discs he had in the truck. Didn't think Gris would like Alan Jackson or Dwight Yoakum. Definitely wouldn't like Tool or The Beastie Boys. REM ? Nah. The Eagles? Maybe?

"Ummm… yeah. Do you like The Eagles?"

"Nick. I was a college student in the 70's. You couldn't not like The Eagles."

Nick tried to keep the grin from his face as he pictured Grissom in graduate school. Long hair and side burns. Butterfly collar and flare legged jeans. Then he mentally amended the picture to put Grissom in a corduroy jacket with leather elbow patches and a pair of round Beatles glasses. He then tried to picture him sitting on campus under a tree, studying an anthill, and taking the occasional hit off a joint.

"Nick?" Grissom broke into his reverie. "Are you going to put in the CD or what?"

"Umm, yeah. Sorry. It's in that case there if you'll grab it." He watched his boss open the case and begin to look at his music selection. He saw Grissom studying the spines, looking for familiar names and finding none. Then he pulled The Eagles Greatest Hits out of the case and stopped at another CD.

"You like the Moody Blues?" he asked with a skeptical look on his face, as if he thought the younger man might have included it just in case his boss was ever looking.

"Yeah. I like them a lot. You?" Nick asked equally skeptically, as if the older man was patronizing him.

"Yes, Nick. I do. You know they wrote an entire album based on Dvorak's New World Symphony."

"Yeah! Days of Future Passed. An amazing album," Nick said with a smile. "We can play that one next."

Maybe this wasn't going to be such a horrible trip after all Nick thought with a mental shrug as they drove off to the beginnings of Glen Frey singing "Take It Easy"…Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy …