Disclaimer: CSI belongs to someone else, who is a lot richer then me.

Spoilers: season seven

After Greg hung up the phone, he knew that he needed to get started on processing what they had found from the office building. He knew that he needed the case to be airtight to make an arrest, especially with the under sheriff's connections to the suspect's family.

He headed into the layout room, where Horatio was piecing together the bomb that had destroyed their crime scene, but not before Sanders got some evidence from the room, including prints, DNA and some photos of the scene.

Horatio was using one of the those photos to reconstruct the bomb. Greg poked his head in to see what he learned from it so far.

"Hi." Greg said from the doorway. He walked over to him. "Making progress?"

Horatio looked up from his work. "Actually, yes. The bomb itself fairly simple. I think that opening the drawer is what set off the timing device." He showed Greg the remains of a charred clock face.

Greg nodded. "That's what I thought."

Lt. Caine continued. "What I found odd was the explosive material used in it the bomb itself. I couldn't identify it, so I gave a sample to your trace tech."

"It sounds like something unique. That should make it a lot easier to prove who made it and tried to destroy us and the evidence." Greg smiled, despite his exhaustion. He knew that they were getting close. He thanked Horatio and headed to the fingerprint lab to drop off the prints from the sample. Mandy would have something to compare them to soon enough.

Then he decided to pay a visit to the DNA lab, with the swabs he had collected from the orignal crime scene. Greg also wanted to check on the samples from Ashley Burns to see if the killer was in CODIS, though Greg was all ready sure that the suspect wasn't.

Both Wendy and Natalia were waiting for him.

"I really hope you guys have something." Greg said.

Wendy nodded. "All I can tell you is that whoever raped her was also the father of her child."

"But no hits CODIS." Greg guessed.

Natalia said, "Not yet, anyway."

"Brass is working on a warrant for Jack Ripley's DNA. In the meantime, could you please compare the blood that I found at the scene to our victim."

"No problem."

Greg thanked the two of them and went to check his photo of the crime.

After the explosion, it was all they had to work with. Sanders graded his iPod and got to work. He studied the photos intently. It looked like the victim had tried to run, judging from the amount of spatter on all the walls and surrounding furniture.

It was most concentrated in one corner, low to ground. Must've been where she lost conciseness. Greg's thoughts were interrupted when someone tapped him the shoulder.

Over tired and all ready on edge, Greg flinched, only to find himself face to face with Nick Stokes. He shut off the iPod and yanked out his ear buds. "Dude, don't sneak up on people. It's not nice." Greg muttered once his heartbeat returned to normal.

"Sorry." Nick apologized. "I wanted to talk to you."

"What's up?"

"I just wanted to thank you for what you and Horatio did earlier. If it weren't for you I'd have never gotten out of there."

Greg tried not to blush. "We couldn't just leave you there. Besides, you'd have done the same thing for anybody."

Nick continued, "Also looks like I'm not the only one who's a little jumpy of late. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'll be better when we solve this, but I'm okay for moment."

"Yeah, you're doing a great job with case. We're just waiting on that warrant.

Greg smiled. "Then I think I'll sleep for a about a week."

A few seconds later, Greg was being paged the front desk

Nick looked at him. "What's that all about?"

"Paw prints." Greg informed him, and headed out to grab Buddy for an experiment. Curious now, Stokes followed him.

His neighbor was waiting for him. "Brought him down for you. By the way, I gave him a bath. He smelled like a skunk that's been dead for a week."

"Thanks, Jimmy." Greg took the leash from him and walked over to the garage with Buddy and Nick in tow.

A/N: I know that I'm little late, but here's the next chapter. I'm also thoroughly annoyed that I caught my mom watching Grey's Anatomy. It took every bit of self control not to grab the remote and well, that just would've been nasty. Anyhow, thanks for the reviews. Please tell m what you think.