Shiloh had little time to be worried though, as she'd no sooner completed her list of worries than the car had stopped and they were at a house. She clapped her front legs to the sides of her head so that the noise would be muffled, squeezed her eyes shut as best as she could. Two male voices crept their way through the fine hairs but she couldn't make out all of what they said. Shiloh cracked one of her eight eyes open to see she'd transferred hands from Grissom to this new dude – and he certainly looked like a dude; it was a word Shiloh had picked up from her favourite Friend, Chandler Bing – and was now going into the pretty little house.

When she opened the rest of her eyes, she saw slate-blue walls, and lots of soft looking furniture. There was a big TV on the one side of the room, lots of pictures, and a red and black quilt on the back of the sofa.

Not bad, she thought. All we need is a computer and we'll be set.

Then she landed on a nice high kitchen counter, and did a little turn around to get a view of the rest of the world she'd landed in. It was different from Grissom's but not in a bad way. All of a sudden, she saw the face of the dude, who must have been this Nick person Grissom was talking to before, and when he flashed a mile-wide grin Shiloh's fear melted and even her little spider heart went thump-thump.

"Hey little buddy. You're chillin' with me for a few days while Grissom's away on a conference." Nick pressed a finger up against the glass but didn't tap on it, as per his boss' instructions. "My girlfriend Renee will be back soon from her own conference so don't you go thinking of pulling any tricks and escaping while she's home. She might be tempted to beat you with a baseball bat."

Shiloh understood this. She'd watched enough TV to know that a lot of people, especially girl people, didn't like spiders so she knew to be on her best behaviour which meant staying in the playpen…while this 'girlfriend' was home.

"I have to go to work now, so loud parties, long distance calls and little spider orgies are out of the question."

Once he was gone, Shiloh crept up the side of her tank, carefully open the lid and hopped out. She was itching to find the computer; she wanted to play a card game very badly. The closest thing she could find was the thing that looked like what Grissom called his 'laptop', which never ceased to amuse Shiloh, and thankfully it was only a few feet away on the other end of the counter. She looked at it, tentatively pushed a button and wasn't disappointed when she heard the whoosh of the machine's breath. It had woken up and the screen turned on without any help. Then, as Shiloh went to press on the buttons, one of her feet slipped and she saw the little arrow on screen move. Intrigued, Shiloh carefully moved her foot around on the tiny square, delighted as the little arrow continued to move with her.

Now why doesn't Grissom have one like this for me to play with? There's no mouse just this little slippery pad thing that I can use.

After about forty-five minutes of Texas hold-'em, Shiloh carefully shut off the machine, so as not to arouse suspicion, and toddled over to the couch in search of a remote. She wasn't disappointed when she learned that Nick had cable, but there was a separate remote for it so juggling between volume and channel meant cozying onto the couch with a remote under two of her feet. One pressed the up arrow on the cable remote while the other rested lightly on the volume of the other; the cable was gently nudged aside when Shiloh landed on an episode of Friends that centred on the plight of Chandler Bing in search of a way to propose to his girlfriend Monica. It was one of Shiloh's favourites and made her smile inside when at the end Monica tearfully agreed to be Chandler's bride. Shiloh fleeting wondered if Grissom would ever ask Sara the same question, but this thought was interrupted by the sound of an engine being shut off in the driveway. Quick as lightening, Shiloh shut off the TV, nudged away the remotes and scurried as quick as her legs would carry her back up to the counter. Just as soon as she'd landed back in her tank, the door opened and a beautiful redheaded woman wearing purple-framed glasses and a warm looking sweater came through the door, cursing lightly.

"Goddamn bags in the way," Renee murmured as she dropped the plastic grocery bags on the floor by the kitchen counter. She paused in toeing off her shoes as she saw the tank with the furry creepy-crawler in there. "Hello there," she said warily, "you must be Shiloh."

The spider scooted forward a little in her cage, making Renee leap backwards. Shiloh sighed inwardly; the girlfriend was not scared of spiders, she was downright terrified. Pressing a friendly foot against the glass, Shiloh stretched upwards hoping to reassure this kind looking woman she was far from the devil incarnate. Deciding to just sit and watch her, in order to learn how to approach Renee without scaring her, Shiloh turned herself around in the tank and watched as Renee put away groceries and sang along with the radio she'd turned on. The woman had a nice musical voice that Shiloh liked. Listening to it, she found herself quite drowsy and within minutes, had drifted off to sleep.

The following morning Shiloh awoke to a brilliant stream of sun coming through the windows, through the glass of her tank. Through the air-holes in the top she could smell a fruity scent, one that initially made Shiloh want to throw up last-night's crickets since it reminded her of Sara. But then Shiloh remembered that her new 'project' – meaning Renee – had put bananas and mangoes on the counter near her tank. The smell of the mangoes was making Shiloh hungry, and she wasn't disappointed to see her breakfast crickets already deposited by her plant. As she munched away, she could see the red-head sitting at the desk – no wait, she wasn't sitting, she was slumped over, face first near the computer.

That's not how humans sleep. They sleep lying down on couches in front of TVs. Alarmed, Shiloh dropped her cricket and tapped her front legs on the glass hoping to draw the girl's attention. When this didn't work, Shiloh knew it was time for drastic measures, the kind that would make her a hero if she ever had any grand-kids.

Dropping her cricket, Shiloh bumped the door of her cage and hopped out, moving stealthily along the counter, and then hopped down onto the table. Taking even more care, she gently walked onto Renee's arm and tried to shake her.

Please wake up, please wake up.

In about three seconds, Shiloh wished the lady had stayed asleep.