"So, we heading back to the lab now?"

"Yep, thanks to your amazing detective skills, Nicky"

"Well, what can I say?"

"Yeah, man, don't you go getting big headed on me now, we got Ecklie for that." Warrick joined Catherine and Nick next to the car. "We got everything?" he asked, before climbing into the driver's seat.

"Hey, my car." Catherine protested

"Well, you and 'Nicky' need to be separated so you sit next to me and Nick, you get in the back. You can't be flirting on the job" Warrick stated in a mock voice that he was surprised the others obliged to.

Although Catherine wasn't going quietly, "Yeah, right War, you just wanna sit next to me."

"You arguing with me?"

"Course not" she teased, playing along.

Then Nick said from the back "Maybe it's you two that need to be separated"

They all cracked up laughing, forgetting about the case, forgetting that one of their friends was affected and forgetting their problems, if only for the 15 minutes it took to get back to the lab.

Then it was back to work.

By 6 in the morning, all the evidence had been put around the lab in its respective areas, all had been introduced to Alyssa and everyone was working full force on the case. That was all, except Greg. It was forbidden to work on relative's cases and he understood that. He also felt that he was more use to comfort Alyssa. If only he could find her…

Neither Jackie nor Hodges had seen her and he was beginning to get afraid that she had gotten upset over the argument they had had earlier that morning. He had thought they understood each other, but as he had explained the case to his sister he got the distinct feeling she was trying to hide her anger. Whether it was towards him, or their mother, it didn't matter; he just had to find her.

He thought of walking out to the step where they had been talking earlier, but was stopped when he heard the sound of Alyssa's voice coming from the AV lab. He turned around and walked to the doorway, he saw Alyssa and Felix talking together in the otherwise unoccupied room.

He was going to leave them be, but when what Felix said caught his ear he just had to stay and listen to the rest. It felt awkward eaves dropping on his sister, but curiosity was always a virtue in their family.

"So, Lyss, how much longer are we gonna keep Greg a liar?" he had asked, taking her hands

"What do you mean, Fel?"

"Do you wanna go out with me…wait, before you answer…I know now isn't the best time, but I figured, if Greg is never gonna let up, I may as well take the beating for a reason, right?"

Alyssa's cheeky smile returned to her face, "Is that only reason you're asking me out?" Felix returned the smile,

"No, course not. I've liked you as more than a friend for a while now…but now seems right…you know."

"I know, but…er…" she thought about what Greg had said, and what he would say "Can I think about it first?"

"Yeah, course, I'm not gonna force you to do anything you don't want" the tone of his voice wasn't defeated at all, and she knew he meant it.

They both got off their seats and hugged, it was then that Greg realised he should get out of the way before they found out he was listening in.

Sara walked past after returning from the print lab, Greg found her as the perfect cover and immediately jumped over to her and began talking about any topic that was in his head,

"So, you gonna burn me that Britney Spears album or what?" not realising what he'd said he looked over his shoulder and saw Alyssa and Felix walking in the opposite direction, apparently with out seeing him. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to a very confused Sara.

"I didn't know you liked Britney Spears, Greg." She raised her eyebrows "Something I might wanna know about?"

"Sorry about that. Can you keep a secret?"

"Greg…it's me…"she said, implying that she could, in fact, keep a secret and she asked again, "Something you want to tell me? Anything to do with your new found Britney Spears obsession?"

"Sara…" he said in a quit-it-or-else voice

"OK, OK, what's up?"

"The Britney Spears thing was just a cover; I was eaves dropping on Alyssa and Felix" he didn't even bother to cover up that he had been eaves dropping.

"Felix? That tall guy that's been attached to Lyssa's hip since he got here?"

"Yeah" a tone of distain in his voice "That's the one. Anyway, I was listening to them, and he asked her out" he stopped expecting Sara to feel the way he did, she was quite the opposite to what he wanted,

"That's really sweet! Did she say yes?" Greg looked at Sara in disappointment, she had always stuck up for him; he hadn't expected her to be so happy about something that he wasn't.

"No, she said she had to think about it." Then as an after thought he added "She better come to me before she does anything stupid."

"Greggo," she took up a look of pity, realising that Greg was afraid of losing his sister as well as his father in the same day, "It's not stupid. Their both young and seem to like each other very much. I told you my story earlier, I was robbed of my childhood because of what my mother did, nobody should ever be subjected to that pain, I wouldn't wish it upon Ecklie, even. It'll be good for her and you can always come to me if you need, you know that. I promise you, I'm not about to run off on you. 'Kay?" she put her arms around him to prove her point.

Her arms worked like magic and when she pulled back from Greg he had a smile on his face.

"Dinner and a movie then?"

Sara gave him a don't-even-go-there look and then walked past shooting over her shoulder "Jackie got the prints off the knife, two sets, one matches your mother, the other unknown. Thought you should know" she rounded a corner and was gone, leaving Greg alone in the hall.

Grissom sat in his office going over the processed evidence. Nothing was jumping out at him. He put his fingers to his temples, getting frustrated.

"Why can't we ever just have an open/shut case? I need to find out who did it, for Greg, for Alyssa, for Sara." He paused his train of thought for a moment, realising what he'd just thought. He wasn't doing it for the family of the victim, he was doing it all for Sara Sidle; the woman he loved.

"We need those finger prints. That's what the whole case rests on. Who do the finger prints belong to?" he stood up, intending on going to find Jackie, see if there was anything he could do, it wasn't often he felt helpless; it was usually due to the ever growing pile of paper work on his desk. He couldn't do it now though; he had to work on this case, nothing else.

He stepped out of his office and ran straight into Sara.

"People seem to be doing that a lot today." She stated, remembering her meeting with Alyssa.

"Sorry, listen, do you know how the print search is going?"

"Yeah, Jackie's run them through every system under the sun twice, and come up empty. She's running them through again though. We need to find out who owns them; it's the only evidence we've got that can't be dismissed in court. The killer left behind nothing; they were either a pro, or very lucky, and the mother's not giving anything up, it's like she doesn't even care."

"Well she did hire someone to kill her husband…she can't've cared that much to begin with."

"But the fact that told Alyssa to run…I dunno, it's like she wanted to protect her. That counts as some form of care."

"Weird form."

"Mmm…uh, didn't you want to talk about something earlier?"

"Oh, yeah, it can wait" No it can't you idiot, tell her now "How about after we crack this case?"

"I better get back to work then."

She left Grissom to his thoughts of how he was going to break the news to her. He had long forgotten the idea of helping out in the print lab and went back to his office, vaguely thinking of going over the case file again.

oOoOoOoOoOo

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Um…this chapter seemed a little out of character to me, for some parts, but it was the only way I could make it work! Tell me what you think! It's easy, just REVIEW! lol! All you have to do is press that little button down there…see it? The little 'go' button. Just click on that, and write what you think of the story! 2 minutes tops…unless you have a dodgy computer like me!

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