A/N: I hope everyone had a great holiday. Another round of thanks for all the great comments and reviews. The next chapter is ready, and another should follow late tonight or sometime tomorrow. Enjoy!

Chapter Nine

Faith Alive

Thursday, Early Morning

Jim Brass paused in the open door of Grissom's office and studied the slender shape of Catherine Willows, seated behind Grissom's cluttered desk. Her head was down, resting on folded arms, and the thick red-blond hair was mussed where it fell across her wrists. She had to be exhausted from anxiety alone. Jim knew that he felt as if someone had depleted the reservoir where his energy was stored; how much worse must it be for those who shared even closer ties with Grissom and Nick?

He stood for a time without moving, a freshly filled coffee mug in each hand, debating whether or not to wake Catherine. She made the decision unnecessary when she said without lifting her head, "Whoever you are with that heavenly smelling coffee…I'll be your sex slave for life if you'll share it."

Brass couldn't quite suppress a chuckle. "Better be careful who you make an offer like that to, gorgeous." And he moved forward to place one of the mugs on the desk as Catherine sat up and skimmed her disheveled hair back from her face with both hands. "It's some of Greg's good stuff," he said as she wrapped both hands around the mug and raised it close enough to inhale the fragrant steam. "Guess he figured the circumstances warranted generosity."

"Thanks, Jim." Catherine favored him with a smile that did little to disguise either her fatigue or her anxiety. "I haven't heard anything new, if that's why you're here," she added ruefully.

Brass knew that already. He was becoming regarded as something of a nuisance to the state police charged with responsibility for security at the scene and for relaying information from the remote location. He shook his head and deposited himself in a chair facing the desk, close enough to be able to park his own coffee cup on the edge. "I thought you'd want to know I did some checking into Dan Stevens," he told her. "Turns out Internal Affairs had their eye on him for a while. Way back when that SunWays heist went down there was some suspicion that he knew more about the perps and the missing money than he put in his reports. But they didn't turn up anything definite. Stevens didn't spend any extravagant amounts of money, and his service record had been pretty clean up to that point. So, they dropped their investigation."

"For once, I'd say IA should have been a little more diligent," Catherine remarked sourly, her full lips contorting in a grimace.

"Ain't it the truth? Never thought I'd see the day when I thought they should have pushed harder. Captain Garza is not a happy camper right now. In fact, I'm a little surprised he hasn't shown up down here."

"He's already asked for a copy of everything we have," she replied. "Along with updates as soon as we get new information."

Brass rubbed a hand over his face. "Be careful with them, Cath," he admonished. "They'll start seeing conspiracy theories and have our guys in league with Stevens."

Catherine's expression darkened even more as she nodded. "Yeah. When I talked to Garza's man, Lt. McNabb, his questions about Grissom and Nick were pretty pointed." She flashed a smile that was about as friendly as a tiger shark's. "I told him exactly what he could do with his innuendos."

Brass would have laughed if he didn't know how incredibly risky it was to piss off Internal Affairs. Some of those guys would have been perfectly at home during the Spanish Inquisition. "Just watch your step," he warned again. "You don't want to make enemies in that camp."

He glanced back out into the corridor, which seemed unnaturally quiet. There was something almost eerie about the lack of casual banter and purposeful conversation drifting from the individual labs and offices. "Where are Sara and Warrick?" he asked curiously. "I figured all three of you would be here till Search and Rescue found our guys."

Catherine sipped her coffee. "Warrick's still on the ridge, and Sara's working a case out in the field. She was starting to get on everyone's nerves, so Ecklie insisted that if we're going to be haunting the lab like uneasy ghosts, we work." She rolled her shoulders, whether in a shrug or a move to release tension Brass wasn't sure.

"Work. Is that what you were doing when I came in?" Brass shot her a small, teasing smile.

"I just finished updating the file with the last of the lab reports," she informed him, trying for a tone of offended pride but failing miserably. "Not that they're much help."

Brass sobered, and for a moment he looked down at the floor. He knew from Greg that they had found precious little physical evidence of any importance, and absolutely nothing that would give them a clear sense of what had happened inside the mine. The question that nagged at his thoughts, as it must have haunted the others, rose to the surface before he could even consider stuffing it back into its corner.

"What do you think, Cath?" he asked. "Do you think they'll find them alive?"

Catherine didn't answer immediately. The detective wondered how many times and in how many guises she had already heard that question. He hoped that she was confident enough in their friendship to answer honestly.

There was something unyielding in the look she gave him along with her words. "Until I see their cold dead bodies, I have to believe they're alive."

Brass nodded and pushed himself to his feet. "Keep the faith, eh?" he said as he collected his cup and prepared to leave.

"Always."

"I'm going to head home for a couple of hours," he said. "Give me a call if you hear anything new."

Catherine nodded, and Brass turned toward the door. He felt every one of his fifty-one years, and then some, as he navigated the familiar corridors without really seeing his surroundings. The sun seemed almost painfully bright when he emerged from the building and plodded to his car, and he sat behind the wheel for several moments before finally inserting the key and starting the engine. He'd gone less than a mile before his cell phone rang.

He had to hold the device a couple of inches from his ear as Catherine's urgent voice came over the line. Most of what she said was too rushed and incoherent to comprehend. Two words, though, caught his attention and made the brilliant morning sun seem less an assault than a fitting backdrop for the news: "They're alive!"

To be continued…