AN: I don't own any of the CSI:NY Characters or any of the show's storylines that I may refer to from time to time, but the rest of the plot is mine.

8. A Breakthrough

"You mean I didn't tell you? Kat's my girl!"

Danny stared at the couple. Stella suddenly waved her finger in front of her "Wait what did you call her?"

"Kat, its my street name, he teases me with it" Laura answered. Danny caught on to where Stella was going with this. "Stella, the note!" She nodded. "We need to go to the lab now" Laura and Don looked confused.

"You haven't seen the stuff from the Grand Central Locker yet, its been puzzling us all afternoon, do you know what was in there?" Stella half explained.

"No, Mark wouldn't tell me" Laura confirmed as they gathered their things and prepared to leave.

Back in the lab a short while later Danny entered with the evidence box and Stella fished out the bags with the note and the key and hands them to Laura. "What can you tell us?"

Laura looked at the items and rocked on her feet as the door opens and Don enters, she looked up at him then eased herself onto a stool, never taking her eyes off him. "It's a key to my apartment, he wants me to know something is there."

"What?" asked Stella. Laura shook her head. "I don't know."

"We need to find whatever it is" added Danny. Laura tore her eyes away from Don as Stella spoke "If you don't mind us taking a look around Flack can take you home to get some sleep." "... I should go with you, I'll know what it is when I see it." Laura suggested, her exhaustion now showing in her voice as she struggled to make coherent sentences. Stella nodded and they repacked the evidence into the box, then left with Danny.

Laura lay her head on the counter on top of her crossed arms. Don rubbed her back, "We need to go ... Laura?" She forced herself to sit up "I'm sorry, ... I just ... I'm just so tired" He looked at her sympathetically "I know, we'll do this then you can get some sleep". Laura nodded and stood up but almost collapsed, Don caught her then wrapped an arm around her and escorted her out.

As they approached the door to Laura's apartment they noticed it was slightly open, Don, Danny and Stella pull their guns. Don pulled Laura back as she was about to open the door, and he carefully pushed the door to reveal her lounge in a mess where furniture and papers had been tipped over or out. Her DVD collection was scattered across the floor too. Danny and Don quickly checked the rest of the apartment, before letting Laura through the door, she was barely able to stand through exhaustion and shock. Don wrapped his arms around her as he pulled out his phone. "... How did they know? ... We've got an apartment Mark and I used for the op?" she asked, confused at the crossing of the case to her personal life. Don requested uniforms to attend the scene and informed dispatch that CSI were already there. He also requested information from them of any 911 calls in the last 2 days concerning the building. He turned to Laura "We need to know what they were looking for"

Laura looked up at him, her eyes were distant, she was having trouble focussing, he had to ask her the question again, before she told him she didn't know. Stella rested a hand on her shoulder. "can you take a look around, see if you find anything?" Laura nodded and took a deep breath and yawned. Then she staggered around the apartment. When she returned to the lounge Stella asked who knew Mark had a key to her apartment. Laura looked at Don before she answered. "No one, I didn't even know he had it."

"What could he possibly want to hide?" asked Stella. Laura yawned and rubbed her head. "Information" was the simple answer Laura gave her, then added "but you got that from the bar."

Stella screwed up her face "But we haven't got everything, we don't know what was on the memory stick because we don't have the encryption key"

Laura looked up "... That's what he's hidden here, ... my dvds"

Danny looked around the room there were hundreds of dvd boxes, a mixture of home made and commercial ones "how can we tell?"

"Look for-" Laura started but was cut off by Don "-The Horse Whisperer " everyone looked at him questioning how he would know, he looked at Laura "... it's your favourite movie"

They all looked round for a moment then Laura picked up a box "... here it is" she opened it and found 2 disks inside. She handed the 2nd disk to Stella who placed it in an evidence bag.

"I'll get this back to the lab for Adam to work on. Danny you finish up here. ... Flack, get Laura out of here, take her someplace safe where she can get some sleep" Stella went into command mode again a new surge of energy now they had a lead.

"I should come with you to help" Laura looked at Stella, who shook her head "Not tonight, you can barely stand you're so exhausted, get some rest and we'll start over tomorrow."

Don wrapped an arm around Laura's waist. "Stella's right Kat, you've done all you can now, let them do their thing, when they've got answers then we can work it. ... Stell, we'll be at mine, call us when you know anything?"

"You got it." She took a last look around the apartment before leaving. Don lead Laura out after her, leaving Danny to finish processing the apartment in case it gave them any more clues.

Thanks to Soccer-Bitch for my regular reviews, I'm glad you like it.