I can keep apologizing for the lack of updates, but I'm just not sure when it'll get better. Thank you so much for the reviews, they make my day.

Jess, thank you. You're still the best.

Enjoy chapter 8 and if you have a minute please let me know what you think of it.

Chapter Eight

Lost

It had been over 72 hours since the disappearance of Ashleigh Adams and they still hadn't found anything to help them find her. Bringing the parents in for questioning hadn't helped, the only thing they had found out was that Ashleigh was adamant on being a 'big girl' and that meant going to the bathroom alone. Occasionally she would forget to tell her parents that she was going and they blamed themselves that they hadn't discovered that she was gone sooner. Catherine, who had been in charge of the interview, had unsuccessfully tried to convince them otherwise – children did things like that and no one but the perpetrator could be blamed for this crime.

Sara and Nick had both hoped that the handkerchief would be the one piece of evidence that would break the case, but as it turned out it wasn't. They had successfully gotten DNA off it and Wendy had run the tests but the perp wasn't on the register. The oil stain Nick had collected on the secondary scene hadn't given them anything probative either. Witnesses had tried to describe any cars they had seen in the parking spot, but that just meant that they had four different model cars to look for; an impossible task considering that none of said witnesses had noticed the licence plate numbers. There was no reason for them to do so. The lot hadn't had surveillance, the only place in Vegas that didn't – of course a paedophile would choose a place like that to take a kid.

So in short, they had nothing. They had nothing that could help them find the little girl.

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Sara rubbed her eyes. They were watering up from staring at the computer screen for hours. She and Archie had been trying to triangulate video surveillance from the store across the street from the park, but it wasn't working, too many trees were blocking the view. Next step was trying to find something that might show a reflection of the parking lot, but she wasn't hopeful – this kidnapping seemed to have been planned very carefully. Besides, this was the second time they were looking at the tapes. She looked up when someone else entered the room.

"Archie, you look like you could use a cup of coffee." Catherine smiled at the tech, nodding her head towards the break room.

"Yeah, I really could." He got up and left them with one last look at the tired brunette.

"Hey." Catherine stepped further into the room. "You look tired. You been home since this case started?" She asked, sitting down in Archie's chair.

"I slept on the couch in the break room a couple of times." Sara said, looking back up on the screen.

"That's not what I asked, Sara." Catherine looked directly at her. "You need to go home and relax, get some sleep, forget about this for a little while."

"Yeah? You been home yet?" Sara countered, still looking intently at the frozen screen.

"I have." Catherine nodded, reaching out turning Sara's chair so she was facing her. "And I'm going back home again now. Come with me?"

"I need to finish this."

"Sara," Catherine's voice turned softer, "this case is cold. Gil already assigned new cases to Warrick, Nick and Greg. There's nothing more we can do right now."

"It's a little girl, Cath!" Sara got up from her seat and turned away from the blonde.

"I know, hon." Catherine got up placing her hands gently on the shoulders in front of her. "And the minute we get something – anything to go on we're opening it up again, but there's nothing here." She moved her hands down and slipped them around the brunette's waist pulling her against her own body. "Come home with me and sleep?"

Sara relaxed into the body behind her. She knew that Catherine was right, but it was hard to accept that there was nothing more they could do for the little girl. She hadn't seen the blonde for most of the 72 hours that had passed; she hadn't even taken the time to call her.

"I'm sorry Grissom hung up on you." She said out of the blue.

"What?" Catherine took a small step back from their embrace.

"When I called you at the parents house. I wanted to talk to you but he hung up, so I figured you were busy or something." Sara missed the contact from Catherine's body.

"Oh." The blonde stepped back to her previous spot. "No, he hung up on me. And I guess I'm a little late with that hug." She said holding on a little tighter.

"I should have called you back." Sara mused. "I was just…"

"Hey guys." Nick interrupted them stepping into the room. "Sorry, am I interrupting?"

"No, it's ok Nick." Sara stepped out of the embrace. "You have anything new on the case?"

"No, sorry." Nick shook his head, glancing at Catherine trying to judge whether or not he actually was interrupting. "Grissom gave me a new case to work."

"Ok." Sara ran a hand through her hair. "We have nothing here either." She said sadly, looking at the screen. "Nothing like this should happen to any child." She said strongly.

"I know." Nick nodded looking down, but not before Catherine noticed the tears in his eyes.

"We did everything we could with the evidence we have." She said, moving over to rub his back gently, remembering what he had told her had happened to him when he was nine. "There's nothing more we can do for now." She said to both of them. "You're not helping her by working yourselves to death with evidence that's not there. Nick," she looked at her watch, "shift ended 20 minutes ago. Go home, get some sleep and we'll see you tonight."

"But I'm on a new case." He tried to protest.

Catherine looked down at the file he had placed on the table. "A B&E. It can wait, go home."

"But the scene…" Nick tried.

"If you haven't processed the scene yet, bump it to dayshift. We've covered enough for them in the past."

"I processed it already." Nick mumbled. "Hey, Sara, what about buying me the breakfast you owe me then, since Catherine doesn't want me in the lab?"

"I…" Sara avoided looking at Catherine.

"You owe him breakfast?" Catherine asked, noticing the blush spreading on Sara's face. "Why?"

"You haven't told her?" The expression on Nick's face was a mix between the kid on Christmas morning and the kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Oops." He said with an apologetic smile thrown Sara's way.

"Told me what?" Catherine moved back towards Sara.

"Nothing really," Sara looked over at Nick. "I think we'll do breakfast later. I should get home, get some sleep." She moved to leave the room.

"Just where do you think you're going?" The tone in Catherine's voice stopped her dead in her tracks. The blonde had a feeling that she wasn't really going to like what the bet had been about, but she still pushed the subject. "Why do you owe Nick breakfast?" She repeated her question. When Sara didn't answer she turned her attention to Nick. "Nick?"

"Uhm." Nick glanced over at Sara. "It was just a stupid bet to get a little distanced from the case really."

"Yeah, I kinda figured as much." Catherine carefully placed her hands on her hips, sending the two her sternest look. "What was the bet about?" Neither of the two answered her, but started edging closer to the door. "We're not leaving this room until one of you tells me," she knew she was contradicting her earlier statements, "so one of you better start talking."

"Hey, Sara." Archie walked back into the room not noticing the tension. "An Officer Taylor told me to say hi and ask if you have changed you mind about dinner." He told her with a smile and a wink.

"What?" Catherine realized that her outburst was a little too forceful when Archie, who didn't know about her relationship with the brunette, looked at her strangely. "You two made a bet to see if you could get someone to ask Sara out?" She moved towards the door while talking. "That's just great!" With that she quickly left the room.

"What just happened?" Archie asked.

Sara looked at the two of them before smacking Nick on the back of the head. "Thanks a lot guys." She said and followed Catherine out the door.

"I'm sorry!" Nick called out after her.

"What just happened?" Archie asked again looking at Nick.

"It's just been a hard case, man." Nick looked down the corridor after Sara. "I'm gonna head out too. I'll see you later." He left a confused looking Archie alone in the room.

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Sara rang Catherine's doorbell for the second time. She had just missed her in the CSI parking lot. She wasn't really sure why the blonde had blown things out of proportion, but she was going to fix it. Ringing again she silently cursed when no one answered the door. She knew Catherine was home because her car was parked in the driveway.

"Catherine?" She shouted banging her fists against the door. "It wasn't what you think it is!" She banged a little harder. "Would you just let me…" Suddenly the door flew open. "Explain?" She finished lowering her voice.

"I'm listening." Catherine crossed her arms over her chest, but didn't make a move to let Sara in the door.

"Nick said that the guy would ask me out and I said he wouldn't. We made a stupid bet, because these cases get to everyone and we needed to get a little distance to it. It was a stupid bet and I lost."

"Ok." Catherine nodded her acceptance of the explanation. "Why didn't you just tell me that?" She looked up at her.

"I don't know. I just didn't think it was a big deal." Sara shook her head. "I said no." She added.

"I got that from what Archie said." Catherine looked down at her feet for a minute before looking back up at Sara. "I don't know if I can keep doing this dance, Sara. You let me in, you push me away. I need more, I need to know you're with me, I need…" She sighed. "I need some time to clear my head, get my thoughts in order."

"Ok." Sara nodded, her entire body had frozen at Catherine's words.

"I'll just…" Catherine sighed again. "I'll see you at work tonight, ok?"

"Yeah." Sara nodded again. "I'll just… I'll leave." She started backing up.

"Sara, please get some sleep." Catherine stepped out of the house following her retreat.

"Sure." Sara nodded for the third time. She felt as if things were going in slow motion. She realized she had reached her car and fumbled in her pockets for her keys. "I'll… bye." She breathed out and jumped in the car. She sat there for a few minutes trying to get her body to cooperate, all the while more feeling than seeing Catherine still watching her from the door.

Finally she had enough control to back out of the driveway and drive away. She didn't know where she was going, but just kept driving around the city. She was vaguely aware that she shouldn't even be behind the wheel with all the hours she had been working on very little sleep, she'd heard the tales of the doctors who had ruined their or others lives doing that. But somehow she knew that if she stopped, she would break down.

Was Catherine breaking up with her? Had she ruined the relationship - a relationship that had hardly started yet - already?