Nick shouldn't have gotten optimistic about his case. It turned out that the Vegas Crime Lab wasn't the only place with a busted central air unit. "At least I'm not in the desert," he muttered as he fumed a deck of cards for prints. "And at least there's no Grissom hovering over my shoulder, making sure I'm doing it all right." Nick always wanted a solo case, but now that he had one, he realized it wasn't all he thought it would be. A grey spot that looked like a smudge appeared on one of the cards. "Aha," Nick said, carefully tape-lifting the print. He turned around to put it back into his field kit and nearly hit his head on the blackjack table. Someone was hovering over his shoulder.

David Phillips, the slightly-twitchy coroner was standing behind Nick so closely that Nick could've raised a hand and smacked David on the nose. He stood up, breathing heavily and clutching his ribs. "S-sorry Nick," said David, "But there's something you might want to see."

David led Nick from the blackjack tables down a long row of slot machines. He turned left onto another row, hastening his pace. At the end of the third row, David pointed to the end; there was something on the floor that looked horribly like -

"Oh, crap," Nick cursed, folding his arms in protest as though he wasn't going to believe it.

"There's a third one, too," said David miserably. He pointed to another row and sure enough, there was another body there.

Nick's face went pale. This felt horrible like his very first case. Except that this time, he was by himself. "These...are they part of this murder?" David shrugged. Nick was a bit panicked - there was no one left at CSI to cover for him, or help him out. "David!" he said in annoyance. "How come a full casino didn't notice these other two bodies here? Was it just assumed that they were all part of the same case??"

David looked taken aback. "Hey, don't kill the messenger," he said. "If you need some help, call Grissom, don't look at me. It's not my job to find out the who or why - I just find out what killed 'em."

Nick shook his head in disbelief. "No, no, no!" he said, even though he knew saying this wouldn't make his problems disappear. "David, how am I supposed to solve something like this one my own?" David shrugged again, and decided to go get his guys to collect the bodies before Nick went crazy on him. Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. "Screw this," he said. "Screw a solo case. I need backup. I'm calling Grissom." And before he could stop himself and think about how this might be brought up in the future, he dialed his supervisor's number.

"Grissom," came a voice from the other end.

"Gris, I need backup," said Nick desperately into the receiver. "Is there anyone at all available?"

"Nick, come on," said Grissom haughtily. "You've always said how you wanted an exciting solo case, so I got you one." He chuckled.

The corners of Nick's mouth twitched. Oh, so this was just one of Grissom's ironic jokes? Was he trying to prove a point that he thought Nick couldn't handle a solo? Well, he wasn't going to fall into Grissom's trap. "Oh, exciting, hmm?" he said, restraining his anger. "Well, if you find one person possibly trying to solve two cases at once amusing, go ahead and laugh. Laugh your head off. And when it comes off, mail it to me. I can do this on my own if I have to. I don't need your stinkin' help. Goodbye Grissom." Nick pulled the phone away from his ear to label hang up, but heard his boss's voice again.

"Two cases? What do you mean?"

Nick got back on the line. "Yeah. Two cases." His anger was dissolving, and he began to feel stupid - how could Grissom possibly know what David found?

There was a pause. Then came a small static noise as though Grissom blew into the receiver in a sigh. "Okay, Nick. Give Greg a call. I'm sure he'll appreciate it." Then there was a click as Grissom hung up. Nick snapped his phone closed, then reopened it. He put the earpiece to his mouth in thought. What's Greg's cell number again?

"Oh, yeah," he mumbled, and dialed the number. It rang. And rang. "I could be wrong," he said to himself as an answering machine picked up. He clicked his phone closed again and looked up, shaking himself out of a daze. "David!" He called, "let's wrap it up. I need to get back to the lab."

"Just finishing," said David as his crew lifted John Doe #3 onto a stretcher.

As Nick drove back in his car, he checked the outside temperature in the rearview mirror. 105°. Damn, it was hot.

He was welcomed back into the lab by the sole fan that was blowing in the hall. Even this was better than the stuffy casino crime scene. He went to the DNA lab to drop off the things he needed processed. "Hi, Mia," he said to the lab girl.

"Hey," she said back, but didn't look up from the microscope she was staring into. "Just put the stuff on the desk and I'll get to it when I can." She gestured with her hand towards the desk that was piled with files and bottles and bags.

"Backed up already?" Nick folded his arms. "Guess Grissom and Catherine got here before me."

"Not exactly," mumbled Mia. She looked stressed out - her hair was coming out of her ponytail and her face was flushed. "I guess Sanders is out in the field after all. Grissom said he'd take Sara and Warrick of my hands, but both of them dropped off their stuff by me."

"What?" Nick was confused. Greg was working already? Then why hadn't Grissom told him that? Wait. He smiled to himself. Maybe this was Grissom's plan all along; he had put Greg on the field to discreetly tell Nick that he thought he had the potential of solving two cases at once. It was so discreet because Gris didn't want the others to get jealous...but no. He was getting egotistical again, Grissom would never do a thing like that, it was highly illogical. His smile faded. Then why was Greg gone?

He made his way to the break room where he found both Sara and Warrick in a friendly conversation. They waved as he came in. Nick was confused by the calm looks on their faces.

"Aren't you two supposed to be working?" asked Nick, flabbergasted. By the look of how comfortable they were, they had been there at least 10 minutes. Nick looked at his watch and saw it had only been about 2 hours since he was last here.

"Man, my case was one of the easiest I've ever had," said Warrick. "Dead man found in a lake. 'Bout ten feet away there's a real nice boat. On this boat, we find fingerprints that match the vic and his brother - Mick Suthers, I think his name was. Anyway, in the interrogation room, I found blood and skin cells under his fingerprints. I brought it to DNA to see who's blood it was - but I just learned from the coroner- " Warrick pointed down the hall to a double-doored office "-the vic's COD was drowning. PLUS, there were fingernail marks on his scalp. Doesn't take me five minutes to put two and two together. I'm just waiting for the results to come back from DNA."

"Wait, wait, mine was the real joke," said Sara, taking a bite of an apple. "I had 'the kidnaping of Erika Boley.'" Her voice became slightly muffled as she chewed the apple. "When asking questions after looking around a bit, I discovered that Erika Boley was a lost barbie doll. I said 'Look, kid, I'm not a lost and found.'"

"So, what did you bring back to DNA?" Nick asked. "Mia told me she got some stuff form you."

"Oh, crap!" Sara sat up so fast that she choked on the apple. Then she laughed. "I better take it back, I don't actually need it anymore. And it seems as though she's go her hand's full with little Greggy working on the field."

"Speaking of which," said Nick as Sara raced past him, "how do you know Greg's out in the field?"

Warrick shrugged. "Naturally assumed," he said.

"Why wouldn't Grissom tell you where he was? If he was gone on a case, you would have known in advance, wouldn't you?"

Sara came back in, still chomping down on her apple. At Nick's words, he chewing slowed down a bit. "Maybe..it was an emergency," she said. "He might not have had time to call us. Grissom needed...Greg's...help..?" The chewing came to a complete stop when she realized what she was saying. There was a moment where they all just stared at each other. Then Sara shook herself free of her idolatry, and said "No. He must be off on a case."

Nick was doubtful. He looked around the room, trying to think straight. "Even Grissom...doesn't know he's gone." Nick worded this sentence carefully as to not trigger to many questions. But lucky for him, they were both too anxious to find that information suspicious. At these words Sara raced back out of the room. The boys followed, wondering where she was off to now.

They found her prying around in Greg's lab. She hastily opened cupboard after cupboard in a desperate search for any clues as to where he was. She stopped at the desk an kneeled down next to it. "Look at this book," she said, pointing at The Pancake Murders. "Greg was reading this before, right? Look how it's splayed out - if he was going to go on a case, he would've closed it. He was going somewhere he thought wouldn't take long."

"Look, he probably stepped out to get a snack," said Warrick. "You don't need to make yourself nuts, Sara. I'll call him." Warrick dialed the number.

A faint ringing sound came from the desk. Sara took a pen from her pocket and used it to lift up the book. A small silver cell phone was buzzing under it. Warrick closed his phone, staring. "He's not supposed to leave the lab without it..."

"Do you think he's still in the building?" asked Nick. With a last look at each other, the boys spread out around the Lab, looking in every room and office for their spiky-haired coworker. But no such luck. Nick and Warrick walked back to Greg's office back to Sara, and shook their heads in disappointment. Sara was looking just as downcast as they were, and she held something in her arms to tell them why.

"I found his field kit," she said, opening a metal case that was filled with CSI tools. "And he only has one. He wouldn't go on a case without it. He couldn't."

"Well, let's not jump to any conclusions now, Sara," said Nick in a would-be soothing voice, but he was also filled with a little panic. "He's just a kid after all. He could forget."

"No!" said Sara, avoiding Nick's eye. "I've been here for nearly an hour. He would have to come back by the, wouldn't he?" She closed her eyes. "Oh, this is all my fault. I said the other day that I wanted him to disappear. I didn't mean it, I just meant...oh.."

"No one's blaming anyone for anything," said Warrick. "We just need to calm -"

"Nick! Warrick! Sara! You should all be working!" Grissom came up behind them so that he parted his way through the office entrance. He saw Sara with her head down, holding the field kit like it was her childhood toy. "Sara, come on now, and get up. Are you getting emotional about the kidnaping of Erika Boley I gave you?"

Sara looked grimly back at her boss, and brushed a stray hair away from her face. "No, Grissom. I'm done with that case. I have a new one - the kidnapping of Gregory Sanders!"

Note: Is the new lab girl's name Mia? I think it is...that's what took me so long on this chapter.