Disclaimer: You guessed it. I own nothing. CSI included. So if you sue, you get nothing. See how that works?

A/N: I won't bore you with idle chit chat this time around, and that's because I don't have anything idle to say. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially Sunset for the props. And without further ado, chapter nine.

Chapter Nine: Just a little Q&A

Inside a suite at the Bellagio, Nick and Sara were processing their scene. It was your standard B&E and they could've processed it with their eyes closed, though neither was willing to try such an approach. Grissom would hardly approve.

Nick finished printing and photographing the en suite bathroom that he swore was nicer than his apartment. He walked back into the main room where Sara was spreading print dust on an armoire, her back to him. He watched her for a moment, under the illusion that he was getting some supplies from his kit, and decided to pick her brain.

"Hey Sar?"

"Yeah?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him before turning back to the armoire.

He busied himself collecting swabs and the like from his kit. He made his voice casual, although he doubted that he wouldn't arouse some suspicion. "Have you noticed anything different about Rick and Cath?"

She gave him a longer look. "No, not really. Why?"

Nick shrugged. "I dunno. It just seemed like something was...off?" he said, the last word coming out as a question.

Sara turned to him, print brush in one hand, powder in the other. "Off? Nick, what're you getting at?"

He shrugged again, not meeting her gaze. "Nothin'. I was just wondering."

"Nick," she said and he looked at her, finding raised eyebrows and a smirk. "Did you really expect that to work on me?"

Nick gave her one of his heart-stopping grins. "I was hopin'."

She grinned back. "Not a chance. What's on your mind, Nick?"

Nick quickly went over his options. He'd never betray Warrick's confidence by telling Sara what he knew. However, his suspicions could be confirmed, or at the very least given more direction by what Sara may know or had inadvertently picked up on. A few seemingly innocent questions wouldn't cause any harm, he was sure.

"Well," he began, closing his kit and facing Sara, "it just seems like there's something different about them, ya know? Can't place my finger on what it is though."

Sara made a face Nick knew meant she was thinking, replaying snippets of their lives in her mind for hints of odd behavior. "I don't know," she finally said, a slight frown on her face. "I mean when they first got back from that case in no-man's land, things were a little awkward, but they seemed to get over it pretty quickly."

"Yeah," he nodded. "I noticed that too...Hey, about how long ago was that? Two months? Two and a half?"

Sara shrugged. "Two and a half, close to three. Why?"

Nicks reply didn't come quite quick enough.

Her eyes widened a bit and her mouth opened in an 'O' of realization. Nick could just see the lights go on behind coffee colored eyes. "You think something happened with them, don't you?"

Nick frowned slightly, "I didn't say that. I just said-"

"You just said enough to try and get information out of me."

Nick said nothing, which was enough for Sara.

"You do think something happened. What? They got cabin fever? Had it out 'cause they went stir crazy? Or something else?"

Nick had another kind of fever in mind entirely, one of the jungle sort, but he just shook his head. "Sara, stop jumping to conclusions. All I said was that they seemed like there was something different about them."

"Yeah, but you were trying to pump me for information. And trying to be subtle about it too. C'mon. Nick, that by its self is suspicious."

"He shook his head again. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do. You're a horrible liar, Nick. Now what's going on.?"

Nick decided to take another route out of the hole he'd dug himself into. "Look, Sar. I don't know about you, but I'm going to finish processing the bathroom."

Sara stared at him, her eyes squinted slightly. "Ok. But," she gave him a sweet smile, "this conversation is not over." Nick offered no acknowledgment and left the room, admonishing himself to learn to keep his big mouth shut.

Sara grinned at his retreating back, taking pleasure in the knowledge that she'd succeeded in getting under his skin, if nothing else. She turned back to her dusting, but due to the mindlessness of the task, her thoughts were focused predominately on the conversation she'd just had.

What was Nick being so evasive about? If it had just been a fight, as she'd originally thought, then she didn't see the point of the secrecy. So, no, whatever it was dealt with something much larger than a little tiff. But what?

She watched the dust fall from her brush onto the red-brown lacquer of the armoire, thoughts idly running through her mind. She was in the midst of lifting a palm print when it hit her.

"Oh my God," she exclaimed, jerking suddenly upright. Later she'd be glad that the print had already been transferred to the tape.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Catherine and Grissom's presence at the scene turned out to be perfunctory at best. Within minutes of their arrival, it came over the radio that they'd found the car matching the descriptions given by a dozen eye witnesses and with plates matching the partial license number one especially observant stander-by had remembered.

The driver had apparently driven himself to the hospital soon after fleeing the scene, having discerned that his left arm had been broken in the crash. Brass was already there waiting for clearance from the doctors to take him to the station.

Gil had deemed staying at the scene a "waste of time" due to the amount of cases on both their desks and was ready to leave soon after doing the prerequisite collection of evidence.

Catherine was in no disagreement with his pronouncement, despite the fact that it was a little odd that Grissom was in a hurry to do paper work. But she wasn't going to say a thing. If he wanted to do his own paper work for once instead of finding some way to pawn it off on her, then who was she to complain? She simply packed her kit and climbed in the truck.

Grissom climbed in as well, placing his kit on the back seat. "Did you want to stop somewhere before we went back to the lab?"

She glanced at him, an eyebrow raised. "Uh, no. I'm good, thanks."

Grissom merely nodded.

Those were the only words spoken between the scene and the lab. Not that either of them noticed. They were both lost in their own thoughts.

"I'll get you if something else comes up," Grissom announced as they walked through the doors of the LVPD Crime Lab.

"You know where to find me," she answered and they went their separate ways, he to his office, she to hers.

On her way she passed Nick and Sara, who appeared deep in conversation.

Catherine sent a "Hey" and a wave in their direction and it seemed to her that Sara stared at her a second longer than necessary before answering. Nick mumbled a reply and didn't quite meet her eyes.

What's going on with those two? she wondered, allowing herself to speculate whether they had a little something going on between them before shaking her head.

There were no secrets in this lab.

Realizing the irony of that specific thought she smirked, hoping that her particular secret stayed that way for a while, or at the very least, until she figured out how she was going to handle the situation.

A/N2:And there you have chapter nine. Hope it was to your liking. You guys have had such nice things to say so far and I'd hate to disappoint you. And this time I even have a teaser for you:

"Hey...Warrick. It's me." There was a pause and Warrick stood stock still wondering what exactly it was Tina had to say.

"I, uh, I just wanted to give you a call. See how you're doing." She paused again, and Warrick wondered why it was that he hadn't hung up. "Look, I know you have no reason to wanna hear from me but, I...I just wanted to let you know...

And that's where I shall cut you off. I told you guys you're too smart. I can't give you too much or you'll know what happens. See what being smart gets you? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Edit: I was reading this to someone over the phone the other day and was appalled at the sheer amount of mistakes, typing errors, wrong word tenses, etc. that were in this chapter alone. I've fixed the ones that I saw but that doesn't change the fact that I posted a chapter, and probably the entire story so far, riddled with errors. Apparently, my going over it after I've finished a chapter isn't enough. So, that said, if there is anyone out there interested in doing a little beta work then I would really appreciate it.