Disclaimer: We don't own anything. Yet. Emphasis on the 'yet'.

Notes: Everyone, thank witch for the speedy update. I was perfectly willing to let another week go without updating, but she kept talking me into writing, so...

Hehheh, only joking, witch.

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Chapter 6

Greg Sanders shuffled his feet and tried to take a breath of the tension-filled air in Grissom's office. The fetal pig seemed to laugh at his plight as the supervisor sat behind his desk reading and rereading through the printout. His fingers sweated as he fingered the phone in his pocket, wanting nothing more than to just call for Catherine and bail - only he couldn't do that. Right now, it felt like Grissom would snap at him if he so much as breathed in his direction.

Grissom read the results, pursed his lips, said a mere "Okay, thanks" and sat down, motioning that Greg could go. The infamous "Grissom mask" was set firmly in place as the lab tech scuttled out the door at record speed.

Inside, Grissom felt… rather bittersweet. He felt relieved that he was not Jason's father and that he wouldn't have the responsibility of raising him. Deep down inside, however, Grissom knew he wanted to be a father. It was only a matter of time before he could admit that to himself. His mother would jump for joy at the news of being a grandmother. The circumstances would be rather surprising to her, but she would finally have a grandson to spoil!

Now, Gil had only one thing to figure out – who had killed Lee Nha? And why?

Okay, two things.

Minutes later, Grissom left his office. Thirst and a need for caffeine made him head for the break room, even though he knew Jason was sleeping there and he might bump into him.

The coffee pot was full, but when Grissom swirled the liquid inside, it made a sluggish squelching noise, and he immediately set the pot back down, thinking he had even heard it growl.

"Over here, Griss." The entomologist turned at Nick's soft call. "I made a new pot."

The Texan was seated by the "chofa", keeping an eye on the sleeping boy. He handed Gil a warm cup of coffee, and turned back to Jason. Almost casually, he said, "He woke up a while ago. Had nightmares."

Grissom tried not to choke on his coffee. For once, he didn't succeed.

"Yeah?" he managed, when the spluttering died down.

"Yeah. So I clocked out. Thought I'd take him home with me now." Nick turned to look at him. "And while I'm there, I thought I'd go through the diary I found at the scene. It's Lee Nha's."

His boss was silent for a moment, before he whispered, sotto voce, "It was Lee Nha's… take good care of it, Nick."

The CSI 3 nodded. "I will, Griss. Trust me."

In his normal voice, Grissom nodded and sipped his coffee. "You wouldn't be here if I didn't trust you, Nicky."

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Bags filled with Cap'n Crunch, Mac N' Cheese, and more kid food filled Nick's car and he and Jason went to Nick's apartment. Nick suggested they stop at the house/crime scene to pick up some clothes and supplies, but Jason had almost began crying at the thought. Nick mentally berated himself in the head for not thinking of that earlier, and so they stopped at a Walmart Supercenter to buy clothes and food. He didn't think frozen food and stale pizza was a good diet for a kid. Catherine had agreed.

Upon arriving at Nick's place, they put the food away and Nick gave a quick five-cent tour. Jason loved everything, asking as many questions about everything as his little mouth could form, but he really got excited when he spotted the set of encyclopedias Nick had received for his sixteenth birthday present instead of the Porsche 911 he'd wanted.

"Wow!" Jason ran to pick out one of the large volumes, but stopped when the small print and big words stared up at him. He frowned, and complained, "I can't read this yet!"

Seeing how disappointed the boy was, Nick deduced correctly that he was still tired. Gently, he offered, "I'll read you a bit, then we'll put you to bed, okay, little man?"

He was relieved when he got an eager nod. "Okay."

Nick brought Jason to his guestroom, the room his nieces and nephews used when they came to visit their Uncle Nick. He read the first page of the encyclopedia to the little boy, stopping to explain as much as he could whenever Jason threw a question at him. Finally, Jason became sleepy again and Nick helped him to bed.

With that done, he got Lee Nha's diary out of his backpack, and opened it to the first writing-covered page. Thinking about the woman who had given birth to and raised the incredible young boy currently sleeping in his guestroom, Nick couldn't help but wonder.

"Who are you, Lee Nha?" he muttered. "Who are you really?"

Somehow, he hoped the answer lay in the diary he now held in his hands.

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Back at the crime lab, Warrick, Grissom, Sara, and Brass gathered together in one of the conference rooms to discuss the evidence. Catherine tagged along as well, anxious to learn more about the case. Since her own case had been wrapped up and tied with a bow for the DA, Grissom allowed it.

Warrick began. "Both NIBIN and AFIS came up with hits. We got a bullet used in an assassination attempt five years ago, and I even found the .22 said bullet came from – it belonged to a Mr Maynard from Rhode Island, he claims his gun was stolen back in 91, but its bullets have been showing up in random unsolved murders across the country."

He tossed a folder onto the table, and continued, "AFIS tossed out a fingerprint from that unsolved murder I mentioned…we never found the assassin it belonged to, but someone stored the print on the computer just in case."

Sara put in her two cents: "Lee Nha worked as an accountant for a Mr. Lanyon down at Lanyon's Groceries. Said she was hard working and a whiz with the books. He claims to be home alone during the murder. Mr. Lanyon does seem to have a thing for our victim, however, Lee Nha kept away from him. "

Grissom piped up: "Greg got the DNA results from the cigarette. It's saliva from a woman, but not Lee Nha's DNA. The boy did say she never smoked, so that checks out."

"Unless the cigarette was thoughtlessly tossed by a passerby, we have to assume our assassin is a woman," said Brass.

"Remember, Jim, we don't deal with assumption here," Grissom chided Brass lightly while the others rolled their eyes.

"Anyway," Jim continued, ignoring Grissom, "The neighbors know squat since they were asleep. They only said that Lee Nha and Jason Chang were nice quiet people that didn't make trouble. The two pretty much kept to themselves, so we don't know if they had any problems. Forensics accounting looked over the books and they can't see anything out of the ordinary."

"So, what we have is bullets attached to random murders nation wide- no gun- fingerprints that match to an unknown killer, DNA which may or may not be the killer, no evidence that she could be stealing which could have given us a motive, and a horny boss whose pick-up lines were rejected. Not to mention we have a little orphan who may or may not have seen anything." Catherine, having said this in one breath, now needed an oxygen tank.

"Take a breather, Miss Glass-Half-Empty," Warrick joked with a huge grin on his face.

"I opt to have another look at the crime scene- maybe something new will come up that we didn't see before," Sara suggested.

"Good point, Sara. However, we'll do it tomorrow. It's the end of shift and we'll see things even better when we're refreshed. Get some sleep, people." Grissom rose from his seat.

"Oh," he added as an afterthought, "Nick's looking through Lee Nha's diary, he said he'd call if he found anything."

The others all looked at him.

"Lee Nha had a diary?" asked Catherine. She looked around at the others. "Who's up for a drive to Nick's?"

Grissom didn't know whether he was amused or not as everyone there raised their hands.

He took out his keys, and sighed. "This is off the clock, mind," he warned.

"Yeah, but you'll still make the department pay for your petrol," grinned Brass.

"Nick's going to have a fit," chuckled Sara, grinning, as they all filed out of the conference room together.

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Cramped. Dark. Silence. The sound of the loud gunshots had long dissipated, and yet, something still lingered in the air.

Footsteps. A soft clicking noise that grew closer and closer…the door to his room creaked open, and he hunkered down even more, as though by making himself as small as possible would help him not be found.

A shadow fell across the floor, blocking the light from the hallway. A snort sounded, and Jason trembled violently, whimpering.

Then someone called his name, and he gave a cry, releasing the scream that had been fighting its way out of him.

"Jason!"

The little boy woke to see Nick hovering over him, and he lurched at the CSI like a drowning man would a life preserver, sobbing his little heart out.

All Nick could do was hold him, gently soothing him and letting his presence chase away Jason's fears.

Outside, the morning sun was bringing in the dawn of a new day for the city of Las Vegas.

Not for Lee Nha, though. And not for Jason.

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Shout - outs:

gelf - Witch's ffdotnet profile is here: http / www . fanfiction . net / witchbsword.Take away the spaces. For CSI, look up the author kegel - she writes stories which witch proofreads and she hasn't been getting many reviews. Drop a line and make her happy, eh?

SpectralLady - Surprise! Hehehe...

Charmed-angel4 - You want a spider? Ugh. Go find an exotic pet shop and buy one with your leprechaun gold...and you didn't hear that from me.

love2readfanfic - Well, I updated...hope you enjoyed it!

Jenna - No doubt? There's always doubt...keep in mind though, that a son doesn't have to be biological...

bubblecat - Well, Nick did find him under the bed... and yeah, I think most five-year-old boys think tarantulas are cool...

Right! Drop a review, people! Chapter 7 coming soon! We hope!