Author Note: SEE I didn't take a year this time to update this story! I'm so proud of myself lol, hope you like the new chapter!

If you see any mistakes, just close your eyes and reopen them, they won't be there. If they are still there than ignore them they will go away eventually, lol.

To Mma63, SuzSeb, jdcocogirl, thank you for taking the time and reviewing my story much appreciated!

Chapter 3

Brian Wilcox looked at the long road ahead of him. He had been working for twelve hours, he was ready for bed. Not only that, he was done doing this job. In fact after he was done with the load he had to drop off, he was quitting.

He was headed for California and he wasn't going to look back. Done with Las Vegas. Sin City. More like debt City. It seemed such like a great bright idea to move to the city that was an adult playground. Slowly but surely a machine here, a poker table there, a stripper named Trixie and you're hundreds of thousands in the hole. Losing everything you worked so hard for is taken away in just a snap of the fingers.

So while cleaning himself up he decided he had to leave before the city actually killed him. Which he was convinced it was going to do in the long run. This place was not healthy for someone like him.

Blinking his tired itchy red eyes, he thought he saw something in the road. But he decided it must be his mind playing tricks on him. As he grabbed for his coffee he looked down for a moment than back up.

"Jesus Christ."

He slammed on his brakes but it was too late. The momentum he had going was too much for the big rig and since they couldn't stop on a dime, he inevitably ran over what he was trying to avoid.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no." He began chanting under his breath. He couldn't believe this. "Please don't be what I think it is." He began praying his heart out hoping whoever would be listening would take it upon themselves to work a miracle and it be a awfully big deer. Putting on his hazard lights he climbed out of the semi-truck.

Running towards the mangled object he stopped. He took a few steps and he knew right then and there he was going to throw up. Running to the side of the road he lost his lunch.

Detective Brass stared at what use to be a young blonde woman. At first glance he thought it to be Ellie. They had similar features and just for one second his heart skipped a beat. But he knew she was not in Vegas and more than likely wasn't coming back anytime soon.

"Hey, what do we got?"

Hearing a familiar voice he turned around to see Sara Sidle walking up, along with Warrick Brown.

"I thought the day shift would get this one." Brass spoke, a little surprised to see the nightshift.

"Well courtesy of Ecklie, they were over-loaded with the triple homicide." Warrick replied to Brass's curiosity of them being there.

"Like you're not overloaded with work,' Brass spoke out in defense of the nightshift. When it came to them, he was a bit more protective. Mostly because he use to run the show and not to mention he had more ties with the night crew.

"That's what we told him, but whoever listens?" Sara turned and looked at the dead body, singling the end of the conversation about why they were there.

Brass and Warrick both turned their attention to the victim lying in the road. "Female dead body, apparently the truck driver," pointing to the man using his truck for support by leaning up against it. He definitely looked as though at any moment he was going to be sick, again "didn't see the woman lying in the road and ran her over."

"She had no identification on her so as of right now she's Jane Doe."

Sara nodded her head and wondered where this one was going to take them. "I'll take the body." Sara spoke up. Warrick nodded his head.

"Okay, I'll take the truck and road."

Brass took his cue and left as the two CSI's began investigating the crime scene. Sara had begun to process the scene around the dead woman, taking snapshots of her body. Not allowed to move the body until one of the ME's got there, Sara still looked the body over. There were many cuts and bruises visible on her arms and even face. Her hands were dirty, and scrapped up. Her stockings were ripped with mud caked onto her knees, and her shoes were missing as well. Whoever she was, she was definitely hurting before she died.

From what Sara could see in the way the body was positioned, the scraps did not look like the normal defensive wounds that one would get defending themselves from an attack of some sort. There were no marks as though she had been held down by someone or something. 'How did she get so badly injured and end up here.'

Warrick walked back over to Sara who was looking down at the ground around the victim's body. "So what are you thinking?"

"I don't know, it looks like a typical body dump, but of all places…why here? Why not try and hide her better?" Sara shook her head, "Something is off and I can't place my finger on it."

Sara Sidle looked off into the distance, her mind racing and wondering, 'who are you, and where did you come from?"

(20 miles away)

Nick Stokes was almost in a state of panic. He wasn't dead, but he wasn't alive either. He was stuck in limbo, between both worlds and he was in a state of confusion. There wasn't an actual guide book to escape from this kind of hellish nightmare.

When he had seen himself he was at awe in his own appearance. At first he thought himself to be dead, and that terrified him beyond belief. But he then noticed the steady rise and fall of his own chest. So after he confirmed he was still alive, he started questioning himself. How this could have happened to him? Was this normal? How does one step back into their very own body? Is there coming back from this, and if he did, would he remember this?

Then the denial began to creep in it's ugly head. Nick began believing it was all a dream. He would at any moment wake up in his bedroom. Sweating and a desire to drink a lot of water but nonetheless, safe and comfortable in his very own bed.

But the nightmare just continued on and no matter how much he wished and willed himself awake it wasn't happening. He was struck in his own personal hell, and it looked as though he wasn't going to escape from it.

He sat by his vehicle wondering what he could do. There was always hope that the

woman would flag somebody down, or she got to a phone and they were able to get a rescue team in and voila, he's saved!

Then slowly Nick got a bad feeling he couldn't place, one where you tried to put your finger on it but just couldn't quite grasp it. What if she didn't make it? What if she died from the internal bleeding she most likely sustained from the car crash? He'd eventually succumb to his wounds and that meant he'd never be discovered, and nobody would ever know what happened to him.

It didn't take much too visualize the box with his name on it, and being put on the shelf with countless others that were also unsolved cold case files. The horror of never knowing what happened to one of your loved one is not something Nick was willing to put his family through, or his coworkers. He could only imagine what it was like for families that would never find out what happened to somebody they loved. Knowing this wasn't an option he decided he had to at least try. It never hurt to at least try, and it wasn't like it could get any worse.

Nick sighed and looked up at the hill, not having much of a desire to walk up it again. Closing his eyes he imagined himself anywhere but there. Sara was the first person that popped into his mind. He could picture her with that usual stoic look on her face, always thinking. But when a soft smile would form on her face, it would lighten her entire appearance making Nick himself want to grin.

Knowing that wishing himself somewhere else was childish because it didn't achieve a damn thing. Nick reopened his eyes ready for the task ahead of him. Only he was no longer near or by his vehicle. In fact, there wasn't a tree in sight.

"This is getting trippy."

He was staring at a long road that went straight and at first Nick was convinced this was the light everyone was talking about. 'Funny, always thought it look more heavenly not like the Nevada desert.' Then it hit him. Nick recognized the road. It was the in the direction towards the state park, and where his body and vehicle was located.

Turning around his eyes widen when he recognized two very important people in his life. Sara Sidle and Warrick Brown what looked to be processing a scene. He wanted nothing more than to run over to them, find some way to get their attention, tell them how badly he needed their help. But he knew it was completely fruitless. Jogging over to cover the space quicker he began to slow down to make sure when he walked up nobody walked through him. As long as he could help it, Nick was definitely not fond of people being capable of going through him. It made him feel as though he was no longer alive and he was some kind of mishap ghost.

Nick got his mind off of it by looking down at the scene they were almost done with. The body was being moved so that meant the coroner had released the body. Nick first spotted the blonde hair and if he could feel it, he pretty much knew his gut would have dropped right then and there. It was the woman from the car crash. She didn't make it.

Her eyes were closed and she had a pain expression written across her features. She looked different from the last time Nick had seen her. It was gruesomely obvious she had passed out from the agony of her wounds, and the semi, not seeing her in time, had ran right over her. That also meant if she was here, she had not gotten help; Nick was on his own.

Nick's thought process was interrupted when Sara walked up to Warrick. "I'm going to head over to her house, maybe I'll find some clues there."

"Okay, I'll go with the body see what they can tell me." Warrick responded walking away.

Nick was at a lost as to who to follow. Both were going there separate ways and that meant he had to choose. He looked at both and a sense of frustration came over him. This couldn't be happening, nobody knew he was standing right there! With all his emotions running full force he turned and yelled,

'SARA!"

He couldn't believe it, she stopped. It had to be some kind of coincidence, he just did it at the right time and she was about to turn around and say something to Warrick. But she stood there almost as she was listening. With a shake of her head as though she just discredited herself, she continued on her way.

Nick knew it was his only chance. He didn't have much to lose, and if there was some slight possibility she had heard him then he had to try. Nick got into the back seat of the vehicle that held Sara and Detective Brass. Shaking his head, knowing nobody could hear him, it still made Nick feel better by simply saying, "Let's get this show on the road." As though they were responding to him, Brass put the squad car into drive and they took off away from the crime scene. Leaving the only connection Nick had to the car crash behind them in a body bag.

TBC…

Love to hear from you,..until next time ;)