It was a long drive for Nick, back to the lab. His mind was racing with contradicting thoughts. Are they sending me away because they don't think I can handle this? No, no you're just being paranoid. You can't start getting paranoid. Have they noticed I'm paranoid? Nick was having enough trouble focusing when an all too familiar song came on the radio.

It was Christmas in Las Vegas

When the locals take the town –

With a flash Nick was underground, an eerie green light surrounding him, the walls were closing in on him, and the ants were coming, they were going to eat him alive!

Nick carefully switched off the radio and pulled his car over. He knew he couldn't be driving when he was affected like this. He hung his head in his hands and tried to steady his breathing and, in turn, his racing heart. He refrained from taking a pill to calm himself down. He had them there with him, but it was recommended that the person taking them refrained from driving and he still had a ways to go to get back to the lab.

"You're safe." He told himself calmly. But no, that wasn't right. The walls were far too close; he knew there was supposed to be more room than that in this vehicle. The interior had been reduced to half its size while he'd been thinking. He was going to be crushed!

Nick scrambled to open the door and collapsed onto all fours on the side of the road. Nearby there was a small bush, some sort of desert cactus, and Nick managed to crawl towards it before he began throwing up.

"Why can't I do this?" Nick wondered about whether he had made a mistake in coming back to work as his breathing slowly became more regular. He felt he was ready to stand up and made his was back toward the car he'd left on the side of the road with its door ajar. He found a water bottle in the back seat and used it to wash the taste of vomit from his mouth. Come on Nick pull yourself together.

Nick had never been one to give up. When he'd decided to go back to work everyone he knew, including his doctors, had doubted whether he could handle so much stress again and he had assured them that he would be okay. He would not be made out to be a liar. He just had to stay calm. That was it. And remember to delete that radio station from my stereo.

Catherine was still kicking herself at the scene of the crime for allowing Nick to see what he'd just seen. He had looked so shaken when he left; she hoped this wouldn't put Nick back even further in his therapy.

"I never should have let him come," she deliberated aloud. She was so sure that she'd been thinking to herself she was surprised when Grissom answered her.

"Well you did and there's no use kicking yourself for it now. All you can do is help him to get though this, as your supervisor he's looking to you now for support and encouragement."

"Insightful." Catherine was slightly taken aback by this unsolicited display of emotion from her colleague. Grissom usually kept things so guarded, she'd never heard so much advice out of him before tonight. "Have you – uhh – always thought this way?"

"Yes." Grissom responded with his usual smirk, as if daring her to challenge him on the subject. Great now Grissom was deciding to revert back to his usual cryptic self.

"Well either way I think I'm going to follow Nick to the lab and make sure he's doing alright. You're okay finishing up here aren't you?"

Grissom smirked at her once again and gestured around him. The scene was alight thanks to the people crowded around, most of them police officers that had recently finished digging the hole they were currently sharing with the DB.

"I'm sure I'll manage." Grissom joked but he realized what Catherine was doing. She was taking care of her team members; that was her job now. And not yours. But now wasn't the time to start feeling sorry for himself. He'd known this day was coming for years and, at least now, he had the support of his friends to rely on. Now it was time for him to focus on the investigation at hand.

Just as Grissom turned around to check the scene again for anything he might have missed something struck him. Catherine was walking away and had almost left the ring of light when Grissom called out for her.

"Hey, Cath, I think I'll come with you!" Grissom turned his back on the victim's body and looked instead towards his supervisor.

"Grissom someone has to stay behind," Catherine called behind her shoulder, without turning around.

"I'm almost done here and I need to check something back in the lab. There's not much else we can do here I think we've found everything we're going to find. They're just getting ready to bring the body in for the autopsy anyways. And besides," he finished, "you gave Nick your car remember?"

Catherine was forced to admit that all of Grissom's points were true and therefore climbed into the passenger's side of Grissom's Tahoe and waited for him to climb out of the hole where the dead body was still laying in its original position.

It only took Grissom a few moments to leave the scene and climb into his SUV. Something was nagging at the back of his mind. There was something off about this crime scene, something he couldn't quite place, but it was there all the same. He had to check something at the lab to be sure. He patted his pocket to make sure his own little piece of evidence was still there. He was still trying to put his finger on what was bothering him as he started the vehicle and pulled away from the scene slowly, so as not to spray dirt and rocks at any of the other parked cars.

Catherine wasn't talking and Grissom was so entranced in his own thoughts that both of them were completely shocked when they heard a resounding BOOOOM, indicating that the small hole where the body once lay, was now a much larger crater containing several bodies.