Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with CSI. If you don't know that, then I'll pray for you.

A/N: So this chapter is mainly about the friendship between Brandi and Kaitlin. There isn't really any Nick and Kaitlin in this chapter. Sorry. The rating has been bumped up to M because of some mention of sex and some language. Next chapter it will get worse and only more mature after that, so I am just covering my butt here. So please review and please enjoy it! Your humble author.

Kaitlin walked into her house and looked around. There bottles everywhere. There were bottles of tequila, rum, gin, vodka, beer, and whiskey. The last bottle she saw confused her. Who had been drinking whiskey? She had only known one other person who drank Jack Daniels and that had been her ex-boyfriend.

She dropped her purse by the door and walked into the kitchen. Luckily the mess had been somewhat contained to the kitchen. She sighed and began to throw away bottles. Some of the bottles were still half full and she capped those and placed them in the fridge. Once all the bottles had been thrown away she saw a Styrofoam cooler sitting on the dining room table. When she took the top off, the smell of alcohol was strong. There was a red liquid sitting inside and Kaitlin knew instantly what it was.

Brandi walked into the dining room, her hair disheveled and her make-up all over her face. She ran her hand through her hair as best she could and looked over at Kaitlin, putting the lid back onto the cooler.

"Hey, Barbie." Brandi walked over to the dining table and stood beside Kaitlin.

"Hey, Teresa." Kaitlin looked up at Brandi.

They had always called each other by those nicknames ever since the first day that they met. Brandi always thought Kaitlin looked like a Barbie doll and Kaitlin always thought Brandi looked like Barbie's sister or cousin Teresa.

"Hey, Brandi, who made the jungle juice?" Kaitlin indicated the cooler sitting before them,

"Oh, Matt did. He thought it might be interesting to mix every single type of alcohol together to see what it would taste like. That's why I look like this right now. Very bad idea on his part, although; I guess I should've known it was a bad idea when he wasn't drinking any of it himself."

"Matt was here?" Brandi nodded her head.

"Like, my Matt? Matt Jacobs?" The one I went out with for almost three years?"

"Well, technically he isn't your Matt anymore, but I think he would let himself be your Matt if you wanted, and yes he was here last night."

Brandi lifted the heavy cooler off of the table and walked with it into the kitchen. She set it onto the newly clean counter top and then looked up at Kaitlin.

"Now, don't give me that look, I didn't invite him over." Brandi responded to the look Kaitlin was now giving her.

"Well then, what the hell was he doing here last night?"

"I don't know, he just showed up. He was probably here looking for you. Besides, what's it to you if I hang out with Matt? It's not like I'm gonna be hooking up with him or anything."

"I don't know why I care so much. I guess it's just weird."

"Well, he was our friend before the two of you decided to get together."

"I know. I just can't look at him the same after what I did to him."

"It's not like you freakin cheated on him or anything; you just told him you didn't want to marry him."

"Yeah, exactly! How would you feel if the guy you loved asked you to marry him and you told him no. I mean we were at that age when you're supposed to get married. People who are 27 get married! They don't continue to get drunk every night, play beer pong till six in the morning, smoke hookah, or experiment with jungle juice. We are supposed to be married, having children, working real jobs! I mean we're thirty fucking years old, and this house looks like it belongs to a fraternity!"

"Woah, woah, woah! What they hell is up your ass this morning? Where is all this coming from?"

Brandi walked out of the kitchen and toward the dining room table. She took Kaitlin by the hand and sat her down. She looked her in the eyes and instantly knew something was wrong.

"How long have we been friends?" Brandi knew the answer, but she was trying to make a point to Kaitlin.

"Uhmm, since we were 17."

"Exactly. Now, knowing that, why would you try to hide something from me?"

Kaitlin looked up at Brandi. How could she know? They didn't have a house phone, and she was pretty sure that Brandi didn't know anyone from the LVPD.

"How did you know I was hiding a secret?"

"I've known you forever, Kaitlin. I know when you are hiding things. Everytime you have something bothering you, you just yell about something else that doesn't really bother you. You have always done that. So, besides the fact that you think our biological clocks are ticking, what's wrong?"

Kaitlin took a deep breath. "You know how my father died the other day right? Well I got called into the station yesterday to answer some questions they had. I thought it was just to wrap up loose ends or something, but it wasn't. They basically told me that when I was younger, my alleged parents, kidnapped me from my real parents."

Brandi let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She looked at Kaitlin and didn't know what to say. That was some deep shit Kaitlin had going on.

"Wow, and I thought the biggest worry of your life was that time you thought you were pregnant." Kaitlin laughed at Brandi's joke.

"Hey, look at me. I love you, ok? I may not know what the hell to do right now, but you can always tell me things like this."

Kaitlin nodded.

"So, do they know who your real parents are?"

"Yeah, I'm supposed to meet them sometime. They live out in Louisville and they are on their way down here right now."

"Wow. So let me do this whole friend thing right now. You're gonna be okay. You are gonna get on with your life because you are an amazingly strong willed girl. Whatever you need, I'll be there for you. As for the whole Matt mess, you weren't ready to get married yet. Maybe you loved him, maybe you didn't, but who knows. There is no set age for marriage, and people our age aren't having kids or else there wouldn't be as many men for me to sleep with. When it's time for you to get married and increase the number of annoying rascals in this world, you'll feel it. Also, beer pong is a very fun game and the reason we have to play it till 6 in the morning is because it takes me until three to get drunk enough to where I kick ass at the game. Hookah is a great way to chill out and relax. However, you are right about the jungle juice thing, that was a bad idea. I'd empty that thing out if it didn't have four different bottles of alcohol still in it"

Kaitlin laughed. She didn't know why she felt she couldn't talk to Brandi. She supposed she was just in a crappy mood yesterday. After all, taking out her anger on her pictures was much better than taking her anger out on Brandi.

"So, what did you do last night, emo girl?"

"I destroyed most of the pictures in my room, then I went out and got dead drunk at a bar."

"You didn't destroy the picture of us and Hugh Hefner did you?"

"No." Kaitlin chuckled.

"Well, that sounds like a fun night. Did you meet a guy or anything at the bar?"

"No, well just this cop guy who is investigating my kidnapping and my kidnapper-dad's murder."

"Did you fuck him?"

"What?"

"Well, did you have sex with him?"

"No! Why would I do that?"

"Is he ugly? Is that the problem?"

"No! He's actually really good looking."

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is, is that he is investigating my case. I can't sleep with a guy who is doing that. First off, I think it's illegal and second, I don't just have sex with random guys."

"Oh, right that's me." Brandi laughed remembering her many conquests.

"You know, Kaitlin," Brandi lectured coming out of her memories, "Having sex with a hot guy always makes me feel better about my problems."

"Is that what last night was about?"

"Oh, no. Last night was him being hot and me being needy. Last night was fun." Brandi stated with a smile on her face.

"Oh, yeah? That good, huh?"

"Are you that deprived from sex that you need to hear about my flings?"

"No, I was just curious."

"When was the last time you had sex by the way?"

"That's none of your business." Kaitlin blushed. She stood up and began to walk toward her bedroom hoping Brandi would drop the subject, but Brandi just followed her toward her room.

"Was Matt the last guy you had sex with?" Brandi wondered. She hoped not. That had been three years ago.

"Why does it matter to you?"

"I'm just wondering if I need to get you laid or not." Brandi stated matter-of-factly.

"Look, I'm fine. Don't worry about my sex life, and just drop the subject. Why don't you go take a shower and I'm gonna clean my room."

Kaitlin stepped into her room and closed the door behind her.

Nick stepped into the cold halls of the Las Vegas Crime Lab. He had just finished changing in the locker room and he was ready to get to work.

Nick walked into Grissom's office and looked upon the tired looking man in front of him. Grissom peered up at Nick and sighed. Nick knew this wasn't good.

"Is everything ok, Gris?"

"It's nothing. I'm just tired."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

Nick knew his boss was hiding something, and he guessed that it probably had something to do with Sara.

"So what's going on with the Hennessy case?"

"Mia couldn't match the beer bottle to either of the female inhabitants of the house and the DNA she did find on it came back unknown."

"Did you pick up any fingerprints off of the bottle?" Grissom questioned Nick, hoping that there would be some break in the case.

"Yeah, Warrick dusted for prints and found two. One came back to the wife, and the other came back unknown, probably from the same person the unknown DNA belongs to."

"Well, are you bringing the wife in?"

"Brass is bringing her in from the holding cell she's temproraily been placed in."

"Well, go in there and find out what her prints are doing on that bottle."

"I will." Nick said as he stood to walk toward the door.

Nick walked into the interrogation room, where Brass was standing in the corner and Kaitlin's "mom" was sitting in a chair. Nick closed the door and walked over to a seat across from her. He set his folder down on the table and looked up at the woman.

"Mrs. Hennessy, I'm Nick Stokes, I'm with the Las Vegas Crime Lab. I just have a few questions concerning your husband death."

"Please, call me Amy and ask any question you want, I don't have anything to hide."

Nick snorted as he thought about the fact that she had hidden that she had kidnapped her daughter.

"Well, now, you did hide the fact that you had kidnapped your daughter."

"In my eyes, we didn't kidnap her."

"Well, in your eyes, what did you do?"

"Mr. Stokes, are you married?"

"This isn't about me." He stated harshly.

"I'll take that as a no. Well, my late husband and I couldn't have children. Both of my fallopian tubes were blocked and there was nothing we could do about it. When we saw Katie, we just knew that she was what we had always wanted. She looked so beautiful and perfect. Her parents weren't around and so I walked up to her and just took her with me."

"It sounds an awful lot like kidnapping to me."

"Well, not calling it kidnapping helps me sleep at night."

Nick scoffed.

"I love my daughter, Mr. Stokes. She is smart, beautiful, and a very resourceful girl. She is going to be fine, and when the time is right, she'll understand what I did."

"I highly doubt that she'll understand, but that's not why we're here."

"So, why don't you quit pussyfooting around and talk about why we're here."

"We found a beer bottle near the backdoor to your house. We asked you if it was yours and you denied it. So, I'm gonna ask you again, is this your beer bottle?"

Nick slid the picture of the bottle across the table to her. She stared down at it, and shook her head.

"No, that is not mine." She smiled back at him.

"Well, we found your prints on the bottle. Care to explain that?"

"I can't." She stated simply.

"Well, your prints ended up on that bottle somehow."

"Well, that beer did not come from my house. My husband was the only one who drank beer, and he only drank Bud Light. That beer is a Miller Light, my husband hated that beer." She said this sentence as if it would settle the matter, but Nick wasn't convinced.

"Ma'am, I think you know damn well how that bottle got into the backyard. Did you need a little courage before you decided to shoot your husband?"

"You can ask my daughter, I was upstairs with her when he was shot."

Nick remembered that this had been true. When he had taken Kaitlin's statement at the scene, she had said that the mom was upstairs with her. He sighed.

"So, how did it go with the wife, Nick?" Catherine looked up from the table they were all sitting around.

"Not good. She claims she has no idea how her prints got on that bottle."

"Do you think she did it?" Warrick asked looking over at Nick.

"I don't know, man. When I took her statement and Kaitlin's at the scene, they both agreed that they were upstairs together when Mr. Hennessy was shot. There is no evidence against it."

"Well, it still doesn't mean she didn't have a part in it somehow." Greg piped in.

"No, it doesn't. So why don't you all go home for the night, because we're not gonna get anywhere else on this today. I'll see you all back here tomorrow, except you Nick."

"What? Why?" Nick was confused as to why she was singling him out right now.

"Tomorrow's your day off. I'm not gonna call you in unless we absolutely need you. Enjoy your night off, Nicky." Catherine winked at him. She chuckled as she walked out of the layout room.

Nick stood there staring at the bright table. He sighed as he remembered that tomorrow really was his day off. He felt glad. He really did need a break from all this. It was physically draining him, and he felt a strong emotional connection to it. He knew that was because of his feelings for Kaitlin.

He jumped as he heard his cell phone go off. He looked around the room for it, only to realize he still had it clipped to his side. He pulled it off and checked the caller ID. He knew the number even though it didn't have a name. He had sat all morning memorizing that number. How did she get my number? He thought as he flipped open the phone.

"Stokes." He stated casually, pretending not to know who was on the other side.

"Hey, it's Kaitlin. How are you?"

"I should ask you that."

"I'm alright. As good as to be expected under the current situation."

"That's good. So what's up?" He tried to remain evasive.

"Well, my roommate and I have the night off tonight. It's the first Saturday in about a year that we haven't worked, and she wants to celebrate. I was wondering if you wanted to come over. There's gonna be a lot of people here and she knows how to throw a party."

"I don't know, Kaitlin." His heart was telling him to tell her yes, but his mind was telling him to say no. He knew what would happen if alcohol was involved when he was around her.

"No, come on. I want to say thank you for you taking care of me yesterday morning."

"Well…"

"I promise I won't dance this time." He laughed. He hoped that wasn't true.

"Well, in that case…"

"Hey, that's not nice." She countered back.

"Alright, you talked me into it."

"Really? Great! Just stop by anytime after 9. Okay?"

"Alright, I'll see you tonight."

"Perfect. Bye."

"Bye." He closed his phone shut and clipped it back to his belt. He moved his hand to his forehead and massaged his temples. This was a disaster waiting to happen and he knew it.