A/N: Thank you for the great opening comments and for adding this one to your alerts. This mystery is just getting started!

cdl and guest: thank you so much for taking the time to comment and welcome to my crazy world of writing.

How in the hell had he lost two whole days?

He needed a plan. Normally, he would never outright lie to Pride but he needed time to be able to assess his predicament. So, he came up with a halfcocked story about following up on a tip from Ross P. regarding a cold case that they had a few years back. It wasn't the best story he'd ever come up with but for the moment would keep Pride off his back.

"I didn't mean ta go off the grid, King."

Pride gave him a simple nod and said something about calling next time before directing Brody to drive him home. No mention of the truck.

The ten minute drive back to his place was a quite one with the exception of Brody trying to probe him about the details of the supposed cold case he was working.

He tried to remember the details of one that he and Pride worked but his mind was still fuzzy. "Ya got any Advil?" he asked earning a look.

"In my purse," Brody said, wondering why he couldn't make it the couple of blocks to his garden style courtyard apartment "But there's plenty in your medicine cabinet."

"Ya went through my medicine cabinet?" he asked as he started to dig through the contents of her signature Michael Kors tote. Normally, he would think that it was rude to be going through a woman's purse, but he needed to find a way to escape the anvil that had been dropped on his head.

"You were missing, off the grid or whatever." Brody reminded him, as she snatched her purse out of his hands and tucked it in beside her. She was pissed that Pride had seemingly let her partner off with a warning.

Chris was relieved when they pulled up to his place and saw the truck sitting in his usual parking space. The only thing was it shouldn't have been there, at least not today. And so the plot thickened. If the truck was here then how had he gotten to that hotel?

He thanked Brody for the ride and started for the gate, hoping she would leave. But as luck would have it, she was on to him.

"Not so fast." She said into his back as they entered the courtyard and went into the house through the back door.

Chris raised his eyes heavenward as she grabbed his elbow, wanting answers. Answers, he did not have.

"You lied to Pride. Now, he may buy your story but I don't."

"And why is that?" he lowered his eyes to where her hand lay on his arm giving her a clear signal to let go.

She quickly retracted the demanding hand, crossing her arms over her chest. She was angry, not to mention it was downright reckless and stupid to go off the grid without letting anyone know, especially during the middle of a case.

"This isn't like you, Chris." She watched as he pursed his lips, sensing he wanted to say something. Eyes widening, she looked at him expectantly. So many things just were not adding up, the three day old clothes for one. There was a time during Madi Gras when he'd done something similar, but it certainly wasn't habit for the man.

"Maybe you just don't know me as well as ya think." He tossed out watching her eyes drop. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I really need ta take a shower before I get back ta work."

"Ut…uh…I'm not leaving," Brody held her ground. There was something going on with her partner and she was determined to find out exactly what.

"Suit yourself," LaSalle shrugged, heading for the bedroom. He hoped that Brody wouldn't follow. He needed to find a way to get to his kit so that he could swab the bite marks on his side and run it for DNA. Whoever had left them there might be able to offer an explanation as to why he was missing two days of his life. But the only problem was he would need to go back outside to the truck to retrieve necessary equipment.

Doing an about face, he turned back to the living room, where Brody had taken to one of his muscle cars magazines.

"That was fast."

"I left my shaving kit in the truck." He said without thinking.

Brody's eyes shifted back and forth. "You live here. What is your shaving kit doing in the truck?"

Since Savannah died, he had done just about anything he could to avoid going into his bedroom and having to look at the dreaded spot in front of the window. Routinely, he kept a change of clothing and his shaving kit in the truck. It made it easier for the nights he sought the company of other women to just to have a place to crash so that he could avoid having to come home at all.

"I didn't know how long I was going to gone, so I took it with me."

Brody smiled a like a cat who had just eaten a canary. Gotcha. "But your truck has been here, parked the entire time."

LaSalle's face suddenly changed. Whether he liked it or not he was busted. Stammering, he hastily tossed out an excuse, "Well…I ended up ridin' with Ross P at the last minute."

Brody pursed her lips in such a way that her bottom lip was almost sticking out. "That's interesting since Ross P doesn't own a car."

"He borrowed one." Chris countered.

"So the two of you could do what exactly?" She flashed the magazine at him. "Go out joyriding?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but it's really none of your business." He despised the fact that she was trying to interrogate him in his own home about things that were none of her concern.

She heard the rising tension in his voice and decided to take a step back. Obviously, she had hit some sort of nerve. Whatever, Chris had been doing for the past two days was clearly going to remain a mystery until he decided to share.

"Well, I'll just see you back at the office then." There was a slight in hinge in her voice that reflected hurt. She thought they were closer than this. Having given him Emily's chain for the medallion Savannah had left for him, she hoped that they had formed a bond, but she guessed that she was wrong.

Chris rolled his eyes in defeat as she started to walk away. "Brody, wait. I didn't mean to snap at ya." He said, giving her an apologetic, little boy look.

She wanted to say something sappy to the fact that it really hurt that he was choosing not to open up to her but instead, she respected his choice, taking note of his eyes. There was something different about them today but at the moment she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"It's fine," she said dismissively.

Chris waited a reasonable amount of time, making sure she was gone before heading out to his truck and retrieving the kit. Once back inside, he haphazardly, tossed it onto the kitchen table and tugged off his shirt. Propping his left hip, onto the table edge he pulled a DNA swab free from its wrapper and twisted the cotton filled tip into the imprinted bite marks. He was just about finished, when Brody suddenly burst back in startling him, causing him to nearly drop the swab.

"Your eyes are dilated." She blurted out before taking notice of what he was doing. "What are you…?" she moved closer, focusing on his exposed side. "Are those teeth marks?"

She no longer cared about waiting until he was ready to share as she moved in for a closer look, gently poking around the affected area. Whoever had bitten him had managed to sink their teeth in deep.

"What the hell happened to you, Chris?" Over the last couple of months, she had tried very hard not to meddle in her partner's unconventional grieving process of women and whatnot but given the fact that he was trying to collect a DNA sample from his own flesh it was obvious that the bite marks hadn't come about with his consent.

"That's what I'm tryin' ta figure out." He replied, as he carefully packaged up the swab. When he was finished Brody reached out and grabbed his chin.

"Look at me." Brody leaned in raising her irises to him. Normally, his eyes were very dark blue but today his pupils were so large that it blocked out the normal cheerful, serene, hue that she often found herself attracted to. She tried to think about all the possible reasons that his eyes could be dilated during the middle of broad daylight, but couldn't come up with an answer that she wanted to accept.

"Put your shirt back on." They were going to see Sebastian.

LaSalle made a face, he knew what she was thinking and to an extent he would need to see the forensic lab geek to get his DNA swab tested but he wasn't sure that he wanted anyone else to know about his predicament. "I have an idea, just lem'me grab a quick shower and then we can be on our way."

"Chris-"

He threw his hands up in defense. "Five minutes."

Brody stood in the background, giving her partner a disgusted glance as he flashed a pretty female phlebotomist his best grin, thanking her in a flirtatious manner that only he could deliver.

"Thank ya, again for this, Jennifer," he smiled as she wrapped a rubber strap above his elbow and probed his arm for a suitable vein.

"This might hurt a bit," Jennifer quipped, licking her lips as she stuck him for the blood draw. "So you wanna come over sometime later this week? I put a new toothbrush in the bathroom for you."

He was still grinning like a fool when he and Brody walked back out to the car with the blood sample.

"You know, I was going to have Sebastian do that." Brody said, tugging the driver door open as LaSalle stepped off the curb and circled around to the other side.

"Yeah, but Jennifer's a lot prettier."

"So you and Jennifer then?" she hinted, pulling the seatbelt over her shoulder. "Is it serious?"

"It's not what ya think," he replied, his happy grin changing to more a somber and mournful expression.

Brody turned on the ignition and checked the mirrors. "Then help me understand, Chris."

He turned his head, staring out the window, "It's not somethin' I really want ta talk about." He replied as the Bluetooth suddenly came to life with Pride's voice filling the cab.

"Chris, Brody, where ya at?"

Uh…the two agents exchanged wide eyes and dumbfounded non-verbal glances as they tried to come up something plausible.

"We're on our way to the lab to double check the lab results from Percy and LaSalle's case." Brody tossed out flustered.

"We'll be quick about it." Pride's voice came back. "We've got a problem."