Summary: The virus breaks out in Las Vegas and the team are forced to believe in what is being said in the news. It's not long before Grissom starts his own experiment to see if he can cure the virus once and for all but not before all hell breaks loose.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or the 28 days later series, I never will and it makes me sad to keep saying it D: I don't have a beta so all mistakes are mine.

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It was pitch black, faint sounds of movement came from all directions of the parking lot. Sara and Grissom carried the crates of lemons toward the back entrance of the lab, they had no hands free so moving quickly and quietly were their only option if they wanted to get back to his office alive.

"I get the lemon idea but how exactly are you going to use them? You can't exactly inject them with the juice, I don't see any other ways around it." Her voice was faint, he could sense her fatigue. By now she must be only running on adrenaline and coffee.

"Remember that case we had a few years ago with the frozen meat bullets?"

"How can I forget, that was around the same time when you sent me that plant. What did the card say? Oh yeah 'From Grissom'" Her eyes rolled at the lack of expression on the sentiment but was still touched by the meaning.

"Are you knocking it? I told you I wasn't good with words. Anyway, we're going to do the same thing but with the lemon juice."

"Do we have any Liquid Nitrogen handy?"

"I happen to know Ecklie has a secret stash of the stuff in his office, the problem is getting in there."

"And you know that how?"

"I got bored once and snooped around when he was off sick." Sara's eyes widened at his response as he snickered at everything else he had uncovered in his office.

"So you do have a naughty side!" 'Did I just say that?!' She thought.

"There are plenty of things you don't know about me Sara."

"Am I going to find out?" She knew the answer to that but if it kept him talking then she felt safe.

"Depends…" He loved tormenting her.

"On what?"

"On whether we live…and if you reveal a few things about yourself too." Grissom was sly when he wanted to be and felt it was the last thing to do just to keep his sanity in check. He'd never had a brilliant sense of humour but it was enough to get occasional laughs out of his team although since the surgery on his hearing a few years back, his perspective on all things animated had gradually died down. Grissom's age was showing more and more. Sara still wasn't amused. Clearly laughing wasn't an option anymore. At least he'd got a couple of giggles out of her. Unlike himself, humour didn't keep her spirits up. She barely ever made a wise crack let alone pass off a joke. Either way he still loved her other quirky habits, whether it was reading then re-reading her forensic journals or if she stayed up to listen to her police scanner.

By the time his imagination had finished wandering through all the possible innuendos that had been said during cases, sentences that only barely made sense to each other, Grissom and Sara were back in his office with the others after Jim had removed the barricades in their way. Somehow amongst all the stress and angst, Catherine was lying asleep with Warrick while Greg and Nick shared stories about how some of the gore flicks they had watched made no more sense since they became CSI's. No matter how many times he had entered Grissom's office, Brass never could quite get his head around the number of specimen jars and their contents. His face was priceless.

"You're gone for over an hour and a half and all you bring back is a few cases of lemons? I know you have your weird fetishes but this tops the lot." Jim stated.

"It's not a fetish Jim, I like to call it wishful thinking. I spent time explaining my theory to Sara and I'm in no mood to explain it again. Just trust me on this." Grissom didn't even attempt to make eye contact, he stumbled further into the room setting down the crates.

"Okay touchy! What are you going to do with them?"

"Squeeze out the juice. Freeze the juice with Liquid Nitrogen. Mould them into bullets. Shoot the bastards. Leave Las Vegas. Come back when the state has been cleared. Simple."

"What should we do to help then?"

"You can squeeze the lemons. I'm going to grab a few more things I need. Sara? Up for another trip?" Brass's grin soon left his face at the thought of manual labour.

"Of course. Where to?" She replied still amazed at Warrick and Catherine's napping positions.

"Ecklie's office, then the Ballistics lab."

"Right. Let's go."

They left turning in the opposite direction of where they had arrived. Heading for the stairs that lead to the assistant director's office. An unusual sight stood before them as Ecklie's door was closed. He liked to keep it open, no one cared to know why but Grissom and his team always thought he liked to listen in on conversations. They didn't put it past Conrad to not eavesdrop it was just another annoying power he possessed, much to the entire lab's disgust. Even the sheriff avoided all possible contact with the man, he was just another kiss ass.

"What do you think happened to him?" Sara queried.

"Who's to say he's not in there?"

"I'll go with the fifty odd dead bodies lying around the place."

"Doesn't mean he's not alive."

"I'm holding onto hope here!" Sara scared him into believing that she wished death upon people. He hoped she never had done the same with him, for that matter he didn't want to find out. He'd given her enough reasons too.

"Do you seriously hate him that much?"

"Do you seriously like him a tiny little bit?" She retorted.

"Touché."

"What if he's turned?" She broke the lingering silence again.

"He turned way before all this happened, anyway I'll give you the option of offing him." The death glare opted at him gave him the choice of letting her kill him or pulling out his gun and taken care of himself. The smirk on her face made his worries wash away.

Grissom's hand gripped the cold metal handle and slowly turned it. The squeak of the aluminium object made them both cringe but the feeling soon dispersed as the visible blood spatter came into sight. The rather large room didn't look a mess apart from the few pieces of paper that lay scattered beside Ecklie's desk. Something had happened in there even though there was no sign of a struggle.

"So where did you find the Liquid Nitrogen?"

"Behind his bookshelf is a safe with a pin code, guess how long it took me to crack it." She moved over towards the bookcase and pushed it aside revealing a silver safe.

"An hour?" Another game to play. 'Does it really matter?'

"One minute." Her eyes widened.

"Really? You could get into his safe just like that?"

"I used common instinct and I wasn't really looking for anything, just something to use up my free time." One corner of his mouth turned upwards at the other things he found within the depths of Ecklie's office.

"The code?"

"1"

"Yeah."

"2"

"Err…" She could see where this was going. Pressing the buttons milliseconds after he'd spoke them.

"3"

"Can I guess the last one? I'm going to take a hit and say 4."

"Got it in one!" His whisper rose above the normal sound barrier and he quickly shut himself up.

"He is such a retard!" Sara shook her head at Ecklie's stupid mind. 'I knew he was losing his hair, I didn't think his brain was going with it.'

A couple of tins were sat at the back of the safe behind some of his less admirable trophies. Sara pulled them out and handed one to Grissom. A faint noise came from outside of the office just as they were about to leave.

"Got your gun?" Gil whispered.

"No and you left yours with Jim."

"Can you see a blunt object anywhere?"

"There's a golf bag over there." She pointed to the bag that occupied the back space behind the door.

"Grab a nine iron."

"Huh?"

"I'll get them." He slowly walked over towards them, never taking his eyes off the door.

Vocalisation echoed in the eerie room and it wasn't coming from either of the two CSI's. Both peered into a visual expansion trying to decipher who and what it had come from. Not taking any time to investigate the noise, Grissom passed Sara a golf club and trod quietly over to the door.

"Gil?" Grissom stood straight from his slightly crouched position.

"Conrad?" Ecklie appeared in front of the two looking slightly puzzled.

"What are you two doing in my office? Scratch that, what's with the dozen dead bodies covering the hallways?" His hostility was significantly present.

"It's a long, long story. Where have you been?" Grissom spoke up.

"I don't think that's any of your business. What are you doing in here?"

"Stealing your Liquid Nitrogen." Sara quipped with a light sneer.

"How did you know it was in here and how'd you figure out the code?"

"Right now really isn't the best time for questions, stay close and follow us. Once we get to my office we'll fill you in."

"There better be a good enough excuse for this because finding ways to fire you two is getting easier."

They manoeuvred out into the hall and wandered down the steps when Sara's aggravation got the best of her.

"Seriously Ecklie, 1234?! Are you fucking retarded as well as bald!"

"Excuse me Miss Sidle?" He stopped in his tracks trying to decide whether he had heard exactly what she said.

"You heard me!"

"Sara be quiet, this isn't the best time." Gil's eyes rolled but a tiny bit of amusement beamed on his face.

"I just want him to know how much of a gimp he is!"

"Let him know when this is done and over with, please." A number of her comments made no sense but in no way were they not true, well, in the sense of Conrad Ecklie being a complete prick.

"Passing off an opportunity to take digs at me Gil? This must be some serious problem." Grissom had always hated his smarminess and once again turning around to smack him straight in the face never looked more attractive.

"Well if the corpses donning as our new carpet didn't give anything away then I guess you really are retarded!"

"You go Griss!" Sara's voice was faint although it still managed to be said at the most audible time.

Grissom couldn't help but laugh at Sara's outburst, everything she said was true. That was another thing he loved about her, she always spoke the truth even if it did land her in trouble on occasion. They had made their way to the Ballistics lab to grab a bullet clam mould. A few minutes later they had arrived back at the office. A few disgusted glances were passed between the occupants as they noticed the lizard following the two. Catherine was just beginning to stir as Warrick still held her in his arms, wide awake.

The group filled Ecklie in on all the facts and events that had happened in the past 24 hours. The amount of faces he had expressed was amazing considering the only face the graveyard shift ever saw was 'I'm a pissed off wanker.' They shared the plan to the whole team gaining a few different responses, mostly from Greg explaining how much he'd love to blow out a guy's brains.

An hour had passed and most of the lemons were squeezed badly but enough juice to make over 80 bullets.

"Too bad we didn't have a decomp, this would have eradicated any sign of one!" Nick said trying to get some conversation out of his co workers, none of them seemed interested except from Sara. She reencountered her first memories of Hank and how she had stunk of rotten flesh and organs. 'That's all behind me now, I have a new start as long as this all goes to plan.' She thought.

Grissom handed out ten of the bullets to each person in the room. They all decided it would be safer to venture out of the building when it was daylight. Sleep was the best aid for any of them now and luckily Gil's fridge had some snacks that they all could feast upon until they got out. Sara and Grissom cuddled up in one corner of the room as did Catherine and Warrick. Everyone else found a spot to prop themselves up against a wall and drifted off to an awaited sleep.

Still unsure as to what tomorrow would hold in store for the team.

TBC

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A/n: This would have been up yesterday but my laptop got a temporary owner for the day. Anyway's it's here now and it's longer than the rest of the chapters. I would really like your ideas, the help is really needed at the moment as my inspiration is slowly running dry D: Either way Review please. I appreciate anything I get. Thank you!