Disclaimer: I do not own CSI, nor any of its characters.

"Greg, go to Archie and tell him to find me that phone call from the mother, get a trace on it. Nick, I want you to get in contact with student housing at the university; I want to know who lived in that house for certain. Also, if you can, ask if they have any cameras around the area; if they do, get them and send them to Archie. Warrick, go see Brass and the deputy that was supposed," Grissom bitterly bit his tongue on that word, he just couldn't stress it enough, "to be with her. Catherine, you and I are going to the crime scene." There was slight solace in Grissom at that moment only because that once each member of the team received their assignments, they were out the door. He didn't have to tell them that they needed to go at that split second, they just did. There was enough on his mind right now, he didn't need the extra adage of loosing precious moments.

What didn't sit well with Grissom – well, one among numerous things – was how he knew exactly what to do. It played out like a rehearsed play, only this time two roles were reversed. He hated that he had to treat this like Nick's case, but strangely glad that he now had the experience. Perhaps the only reason why he was so relieved at that was because he didn't know what he'd do with himself had he not. Nick was important, more than important, but if Sara had gone missing first, Gil might have gone on one ugly rampage. The only thing he could do now was return to what he knew, rather than what he felt.

"You know, Gil," Catherine said uncharacteristically softly as she joined him in sliding in his Denali, "I heard a lot of 'I's and 'me's back there."

Grissom said nothing as he started up the engine and pulled away from his space.

"We're all in this together, Gil. We're all worried about her."

No we're not, Catherine. She didn't understand, hell, he didn't understand. He felt guilty in more ways than one. Obviously because he was the one that sent her on the assignment, secondly, and much less so, because he felt like he, himself, was being violated.

"I know you might be closer to Sara than anybody else, but that doesn't change the fact that we're all one-in-the-same, you know? I know I felt the same way as you when Nick was taken."

"No you didn't, Catherine," Grissom shocked himself by how loud he had put his voice, he could only imagine how she took it. He paused to regain himself as best he could before continuing, "You didn't put Nick on that case, he and Warrick took that amongst themselves. You weren't to blame for putting him there. But me…I gave her that case personally. I could've taken it, could've given it to someone else, to anyone but Sara."

"You couldn't have known what was going to happen."

"I might have well signed her death certificate, Catherine," Grissom lowered his voice to a barely audible level. Anyone could tell that guilt was eating him inside-out.

"Don't say that, Grissom, we're going to find her. If worse comes to worse, I can just go to Daddy Warbucks again." Leave it to Catherine to pull even the tiniest of grins from his face at the worst of times.

The light-hearted moment was cut short by a loud ringing echoing through the cab. He reached down to pick up his phone, looked at the screen quickly, and pushed it to his ear just as quickly. "Have something for me, Greg?"

"But of course. Seems like the Vermontian…Vermartian…the mom from Vermont wasn't a mom from Vermont at all. The call was made from a pay phone on the old strip."

"Good. Ge-"

"If you're going to tell me to get down there, don't bother. I'm on my way."

"Thank you, Greg." He felt like a fool as he disconnected his end. "How could dispatch miss that?" Grissom said to himself, but aloud to make Catherine slightly confused.

"Miss what?"

"The call was made from inside the city."

"The only reason I could think of is either they didn't pay attention or they figured it was a cell phone; even if they're out of the state, they still have the area code of the region it was activated in."

"At least we have a suspect." At the very least.

-------------------------

While Greg was making some progress, Nick seemed to have hit a stand-still. "I'm sorry, Mr. Stokes, that house isn't technically on campus so we don't have any record of who owns it or resides in it."

"And there's no way you can find out for me?"

"I'm sure someone from the crime lab would have a lot better luck than a clerk at the university."

Nick huffed at the indirect insolence the woman had. Didn't she care? Even though the girl didn't know Sara, she should at least appreciate the gravity of the situation. Someone was gone, possibly in terrible danger, life-threatening even, and all she could do was turn her nose up at him. Even without knowing this woman Nick already hated her, especially since he could have been someone else working his own case.

"One more thing."

"Yes?"

"Even if it's not technically on campus, are there cameras around that area?"

"Well I think that it leads to a road near the football stadium, there are cameras in that parking lot."

"Could I get copies of those?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to talk to the head of security, who will have to talk to Dean Summers about releasing them."

Nick sighed softly, oh the bureaucracy of it all.

"Hey Grissom," Nick put his phone on speaker as he drove through the large campus to the security offices, "student housing has nothing to do with that house. It's a little off campus so they can't get the records of who owns it or anything." He paused letting Grissom get out some mild frustrations. "Of course I have good news for you…well maybe. I'm headed over to see the head of campus security. Hopefully our kidnapper took one of the roads near the stadium, cameras all over that place. – Yeah. How's that crime scene going? – Blood? Sara's you think?" Nick bit his tongue immediately after closing his mouth. That wouldn't be the best thing for Grissom to hear; but then again, he wasn't the most optimistic man, so maybe he thought it was hers too. "Yeah, I hope it isn't, either, Griss."

-------------------------

"Ya know, Deputy, I keep on hearing your story and I just keep having that one question you can't answer," Jim had already lost his patience with him the second he walked through the door. He wanted to be understanding, everyone did, but it was difficult. "Why did you leave Sara Sidle alone?"

"I-I thought she'd be okay just for a while. I thought the suspect would be more important to have."

"Did you get the suspect?"

"…No. He got away from me."

"So we don't have a suspect or a CSI. Does that sound like something that goes well on a record? You never leave those CSIs alone, I thought you'd get that after what happened on the Stokes case." Brass huffed and lowered himself in the chair opposite the deputy. "So, go through what happened when you go back."

"I entered the house with my gun holstered, thought the threat was gone. My foot kicked something by the door so I looked down – it was Sidle's brush with her fingerprint power on it. I noticed a few drops of blood near it so I drew my gun and went to the living room. I called out for her a few times and when she didn't answer I went upstairs thinking she'd gone to process…hoping. When I didn't find her up there and since her car was still there, I radioed for back up. Left the house and went around the perimeter."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Warrick crossed his arms as he stared the deputy down from the other side of the glass. It wasn't fair, how come they couldn't have taken that guy? He left the scene, he deserved it. As much as he wanted a suspect, he sighed because he thought the guy was telling the absolute truth. He had worked with the guy some, he was nice, never did anything unusual. How was he supposed to call Grissom and say he has nothing? Warrick was sure that everyone else, including Greg, had something to give that wasn't useless. He knew that Grissom was already distraught, even with how hard he tried to hide it, and this news would make him worse.

"Griss, man, the deputy didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know."

"Potential suspect?"

"If you're talking about him, no, but he did say something about a suspect he was chasing at the scene. It's the reason why he left Sara. If we can find that guy, easier said than done, we'd have a great suspect."

"Wait until Nick gets back with the tapes. Until then I want you to go to Doc Robbins and take a look at the drive-by victim."

"Isn't that your and Greg's case?"

"I have a feeling that it was planned to get us separated."

Warrick blinked and stood there stunned. It was a little far-fetched, but it made some sense. He wasn't sure what the deal with that DB was, but he'd heard it was truly unique. "Sure. I'll call Doc and have him get it ready for me."

"I'll be there to take a look when I'm done here."

"Yep. Later."