disclaimer: don't own Hawk Nelson or any of their songs, and unfortunatly, never will.

a/n: didn't plan on the story taking this direction, but hey, what can i say, my fingers have a mind of their own. oh yeah, this is caleigh's pov.

The next night was tense at the lab. Lucy kept badgering me to tell her what had happened while she was gone, and when she wasn't, I was preoccupied with avoiding Brooke like the plague. Sara noticed how stressed I was.

"You really need to calm down, Caleigh," she said.

"I can't. I'm so scared that Brooke is going to say or do something to me," I replied.

"Try singing a song," she suggested.

I looked at Sara for a second just to make sure I had heard correctly, "Sing a song?"

"It helps me." Sara replied.

"Ok, umm, this is awkward. Let's see. I took a walk down a country road, I know, this might sound dumb maybe but I was all alone." I glanced over at Sara to see if she approved, it seemed like she did so I kept going. "If you think that I'm going somewhere, take my hand I'll lead you there, don't want to have to call you up from a pay phone."

Lucy came up to me, more like cornered me, in the break room. She looked like she wanted answers that I didn't want to give.

"So," she started smoothly, "anything interesting happen while I was gone, yesterday?"

"Nothing much. You have fun on your date?" She could tell I was trying to talk around it.

"Caleigh, we've known each other for two years, I'm one of your best friends, I know when something's wrong. So tell me what happened between you and Brooke." It was a point blank question. I was deciding weather I should keep stalling or not when Brooke came in. She glared at Lucy before turning to me.

"Listen, about yesterday," she said trailing off waiting for me to say it was no big deal. I don't know how she could have expected me to shrug it off like it was nothing. It was then that Sara came to my rescue.

"Caleigh, homicide in Henderson. Let's go." I gladly followed Sara out of the break room and away from Brooke and Lucy.

"So, what was going on in the break room?" Sara asked me once we reached the Denali.

"Lucy wanted answers, Brooke wanted forgiveness. I didn't want to give either," I replied as Sara's cell rang.

"Sidle. Why don't you just drive over on your own, we'll meet you there. No reason. I won't start without you, you don't have to worry about that. Bye." Sara closed her phone. "Cath's going to be working on this case, too. She and Lucy will meet us there."

"Great, Lucy's going to badger me the whole time." I sighed.

"Just stick close to me. If it seems like she's pushing to hard I'll send you or her to grab something, okay," Sara assured me.

"Okay," I replied, gladly accepting the offer.

Catherine had Sara work the upstairs while she and Lucy worked on the main level. It worked out great for me because Lucy had no reason to come upstairs. After a while, Catherine and Lucy went back to the lab to get some samples tested while Sara and I finished processing upstairs.

"Did the attic get cleared?" I asked.

"What attic?" I pointed to a place on the ceiling where a string was hanging down. "One of the ones that you pull down the stairs." She stated. "Wait a second. There's blood on the string." She carefully took a sample before tugging on it.

"What are you doing?" I asked, panicking.

"Well if there's blood on the string that leads to the attic, I'm betting that there is evidence in the attic." I knocked her hand aside.

"What if it wasn't cleared?" I asked anxiously.

"Of course it's cleared," Sara remarked.

"What about the Quick-Mart, remember that?" I asked.

"Yeah, well I'm betting that's not going to happen to me twice in the same week," she said tugging on the string to get the flight of steps to come down. She checked to make sure there was no blood on the steps before continuing up.

"Hey, Caleigh, can you bring my kit up here?"

"Do I have a choice?" I asked.

"Not really. The kit." I climbed the stairs with her kit. Sara's flashlight was the only source of illumination.

"Aren't you going to turn on the light?"

"I tried, it's burned out." Just then I felt someone breathing on my neck.

"Hey, Sara, I know we're on good terms and everything, but you're a little to close for comfort."
"What are you talking about?" She asked, confused.

"You mean, you're not standing behind me?"

"No."

"Then who is?" I almost screamed. Sara turned her flashlight towards me. I turned my head to see who was behind me, and this time I screamed without hesitation.