Thanks again for the reviews guys.

I'm still not quite sure if this story is going to involve something happening to Nick ( although I do love to read those stories he he) or if it's just going to be about his and the gangs emotions. What do you guys think?

Warrick stayed with Nick all night, they mostly just talked, not about anything in particular and not about the second voice on the tape. Warrick felt that Nick needed some normality to hold on to. After a long night Nick could no longer keep his eyes open and he drifted off to sleep on his couch. Warrick walked out of the living room and came back a minute later with a blanket, he draped it over Nick before sitting back in the armchair and letting himself fall off to sleep.

Morning arrived and Warrick was woken up by at knock at the door, he slowly and carefully got up making sure he didn't wake Nick who was still in the land of nod. He got to Nick's front door and opened it to see Sara standing in front of him.

"Hey girl"

He opened the door and Sara walked in.

"How's Nick?" Sara wasn't sure why she had asked the question, she knew that he wouldn't be alright, who could be with what he had been through.

"He's asleep now, but he's had a pretty rough night…"

Warrick sighed and sat back into 'his' armchair, Sara walked over after closing the door and sat in the chair next to him. Although they were there to help Nick there was an awkward feeling in the air, as if they were intruding on his life. They sat for a while both just watching Nick, watching his almost hypnotic breathing, hoping that he could at least be free of his troubles whilst asleep. Sara turned away from him and looked to Warrick who didn't move until she spoke.

"Grissom told us about the tape…about the second voice."

"Yeah…" Warrick let out a sigh "it's not fair…Nick was getting back to normal…well at least as normal a life as he could get back to after…"

It had been almost 4 months since Nick had been taken and still noone could bring themselves to say 'kidnapping', it was always referred to as 'incident' or, like Warrick, people steered away from mentioning it all together.

Sara nodded, she didn't need to say anything to show she knew exactly what Warrick meant, everyone at the lab knew it, everyone wondered how much more Nick would have to suffer. He'd already had more than his fair share or troubles.

Archie stared at the screen, nothing was on it but his eyes were glued, transfixed on it's blue glow. He couldn't get Nick's face, the face of horror and fear, out of his mind. The minute Grissom had told him to keep the tape between them he had a bad feeling, but it was Grissom how often was he wrong. He sighed as he finally took his eyes away from the screen, he shook his head watching as everyone in the lab got on with business as usual. As he did he wondered how long it would take Nick to be back to his old self, how long would it be before he could look at him without feeling hurt and betrayed. Archie dreaded the first meeting between himself and Nick. What would he say What could he say?

Grissom sat alone in his office, Catherine had already left after telling him to go home but he had stayed, he found his office the most comforting place to be, surrounded by his vast insect collection and his masses of books covering more subjects than a small library. After an hour or so of Catherine leaving, the lab began to rumble with noise as the day shift began their work. Grissom decided to finally head home. He picked up a few folders and headed of out of the lab.

As he walked up the path to his town house he noticed that his door was slightly ajar he paused and looked around. Nothing apart from the door was unusual, the man from across the street was out walking his dog and the newspaper kid was pedaling away on his bike. Everything seemed normal but Grissom felt something was off. He cautiously walked up to his front door and slowly he reached out with his free hand to push the door open. It creaked rather ominously and Grissom felt the hairs all over his body stand up on end. His eyes darted from object to object in his home before entering. After what seemed like a lifetime Grissom took a step inside, still cautious but a little less nervous. Maybe he had left the door open he thought to himself as he closed the door behind him. He shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind, he walked in and placed his folders on his coffee table. He was about to get a drink from the kitchen when something caught his eye, something that shouldn't be there, something that Grissom knew wasn't right. He bent down and picked up the piece of paper bringing it up to his face to read.

You can't protect your people.

Well there we are, another chapter done and dusted. I put that last part in to make it a possibility that there could be some Nick related action...or anybody related action really, but this is a Nick centered story sooo...

Anyway, hope you liked that chapter, next one will be on its way soon.

Liz : )