Sorry for the wait, things have been really busy lately, what with work, my little brother's 18th birthday and everything. I think this chapter will certainly make up for it though. Enjoy!

Chapter Four: Children in Jeopardy

Moving the paintbrush in his hands in slow gentle strokes across the fence, Bradley cautiously watched his step father in the garden with his cousins, feeling his stomach churning, every time Gary looked at them. His Aunt Kayla had stopped by with her three children, wanting to talk to his mother about something.

While he was stuck doing chores around the ranch, his step father kept the children entertained, keeping a close eye on his ten year old cousin, Freddie. He was almost relieved that Gary wasn't doing anything to him, but he worried about Freddie, feeling as though it was his fault if anything did happened to him.

"Hiya sweetheart, I gotcha some lemonade." His Aunt Kayla suddenly appeared, handing him a tall glass of fresh lemonade over the fence. "So, how have you been? Have you seen your father lately?" Bradley shook his head, taking a small sip of the cold drink. "Well, you know his number if you wanted to talk to him, honey. He's never too busy for you."

"Aunt Kayla, when are you goin' home?" He abruptly asked her.

"Tryin' to get rid of me?" She chuckled; brushing back her hair, as the wind suddenly blew against her. "Don't worry, we'll be leavin' soon. Your mother's just gonna give me her recipe for the extra hot chilli she made you guys, then I've gotta drop Freddie off at soccer practice."

"Did my Dad tell you about Tayla?" He curiously asked, as his mother had told him this morning that she was missing, but none of the other details were mentioned.

"No, but your mother did. It's awful, isn't it? I hope they find her soon. I know your father wouldn't let anythin' happen to her, but I'm very worried about her. She's just a little girl." Kayla glanced over her shoulder, hearing her children giggling. She immediately smiled as she watched Gary playfully tickling her four year old daughter, Mindy, not noticing the grimace across her nephew's face. "He's very good with children, isn't he? I hear your sister's about to have another baby."

"She's not my sister." Bradley snapped at her.

"Right, sorry. I meant step sister." She corrected herself, looking at the clone of her little brother. "I guess Gary's gonna get the chance to be a grandfather again though. He'll like that. He's good with you, isn't he?"

Bradley wanted to shout it out to her, hoping she could stop Gary from touching him again, but decided against it, thinking of how his mother and father would look at him if they knew.

Instead, he forced the answer, "Yeah," giving her a weak smile.

"Well, I'll see you later, sweetheart. You're doin' a good job with this fence, you'll have to come over and do mine." His Aunt Kayla cheekily remarked, before turning back for the house, giving Gary a wave as he lifted her eldest into his embrace. "Don't get too attached, Freddie, we're leavin' in a few minutes."

"Ooh, but Mom!" The ten year old complained.

"No buts, young man. We have to go." Kayla warned him, before stepping into the house, getting the recipe off Samantha. She struggled to round up her children afterwards, as they were havin' so much fun with their Uncle Gary.

After driving around endless miles of fields, Bryan finally found the house, pulling his car up on the gravelled driveway. He glanced back at the children in his car, realising that the two of them were fast asleep from the long drive. He had barely managed to stay awake himself, relieved to finally be here, as he could finally get some sleep.

"Tayla." He gently shook her, startling her awake. "C'mon, we're here. Get out." He climbed out the car, pulling open the back door to let her out. "This is our new house. Whaddya think?" He asked her, lifting her sleeping sister from the back of the car.

Tayla cradled her sore arm against her chest, struggling to walk through the gravel barefooted, towards the front door of the new house. Once Bryan had unlocked the door, she took a step inside, looking around the eerie looking house. There wasn't any furniture, the walls were peeling and badly painted, and the ceilings were lined with thick cobwebs. On top of that, there was a bad smell wafting through the place, as if something had died there and was still rotting.

"C'mon, inside." Bryan ushered the child further into the house. He followed Tayla through the house, taking a look around for himself. "Okay Tayla, you can have the room at the end of the hall. I'll getcha a better bed and stuff. I know that one looks a bit shoddy, but it'll do for now. Your sister will have to share with you, until I get a better job." He set Willa down on the tatty old sofa in the next room, kicking at a dust sheet left on the floor. He cringed as a cockroach crawled out from under it, wondering how many more of them he would find in here.

"I don't like it here." Tayla complained, holding her bruised arm against her chest. "I wonna go home."

"This is home. This is where we live now." He explained to the little girl, taking a look around the rest of the house. "It's all we've got for now. I'm gonna go into town and get some food and things, stay here with Willa for a sec."

"I wonna go home!" She whimpered.

"Be quiet!" He slapped her round the side of the head, before he knelt down to her level, holding her little arms in his hands. "No more complaining, just keep your mouth shut and do as I tell you, okay?"

Through her tears, Tayla managed to give him a nod, flinching back when he finally let her go.

"Okay, there's no phones around here for miles, so you won't be able to call your Daddy again. I'm your new Daddy. Nick doesn't want you anymore. If he really loved you, would he let me just take you away from him?"

"He does love me." She spoke softly, cowering back against the wall behind her, so Bryan couldn't reach her.

"No . . . he doesn't." Bryan shook his head, yelling, "Fathers say they do, but they never really do. They don't give a shit about you, and yours is no exception. I'm your new Daddy now, and I'm gonna love you and care for you, the way a father should." He slowly made his way towards her, kneeling down in front of her. "Say I'm your Daddy, honey. C'mon, say I'm your Daddy."

Tayla shook her head, keeping her back to the wall behind her.

"I'm your Daddy now, Tayla. Nick doesn't want you. It's already been a day and he hasn't come looking for you. You know why? Because he doesn't want you anymore. But I do. Say I'm your Daddy, Tayla." He grabbed her arms again, aggravating the injury to her arm even more. "Say it!"

"You're NOT my Daddy!" She sobbed, struggling to pull out of his arms. "My Daddy loves me. He's coming to get me."

As she continued to protest, she forced Bryan's hand to slap her again, waking the baby across the room from her shrieks. "See, this is why your Daddy never wanted you in the first place. Fathers like well behaved children, who do as they're told."

"I wonna go home!"

"Shut Up!" Bryan yelled at her, climbing to his feet. "This is your home now. Stay here and look after your sister. I'll be back in a few hours." He turned for the front door with his car keys, locking the door behind him, so she wouldn't be able to get out while he was gone.

Tayla waited for the car to leave, before she slid down the wall behind her, pulling her knees close to her chest as she started to cry, praying that her real Daddy would come and get her.

Just like he promised.

Watching his bed mate peacefully sleeping beside him, Greg started to wonder what it would be like to be a father himself. He didn't think of himself as father material, especially not to a newborn baby that would completely depend on him for life. But a child, he thought he might be able to handle. He'd get to play with him or her, teach them all sorts of interesting things, like the tricks of opening Christmas presents a day early, without anyone catching you.

Quickly leaning across Nick as his phone started to ring; Greg grabbed it, snapping it open against his ear. "Hello?" He whispered, climbing off the bed.

"Greg, it's Warrick." The man's voice answered. "I managed to get a clean shot of Bryan's car as he left the parking lot; I've got make, model and the licence plate number. Ecklie's sending me home, since I've been on for a while now, so you wonna come in and take over? I've been going through these traffic cameras for hours now."

"Sure, I'll be there in ten minutes." Greg snapped his phone shut, then grabbed for his clothes off the end of the bed, leaving Nick a note, as he didn't want to wake him up. He knew that he needed his sleep, now more than ever.

As soon as he arrived at the lab, he headed straight for the break room, grabbing himself a coffee. He found Warrick in the AV lab, getting briefed on what he had found so far, before he was left to go through the footage himself, trying to follow Bryan's car to wherever he had taken Tayla.

"Hey, I was just about to call you." Sara stepped into the room an hour later, taking a seat beside the younger man. "So, how's he doing?"

"Finally sleeping. I don't know how he's doing emotionally. How would you be doing?"

"Right." She nodded in agreement, leaning against the desk in front of her. "Well, I've got some good news that might cheer you up. I just got off the phone with an officer from Los Angeles. Apparently, Bryan stopped by his mother's house with two children last night, needing a place to stay. He told his mother that their mother just dumped them on him, but Mrs West wasn't convinced, because the children didn't have spare clothes, shoes or diapers. As soon as Bryan left, she called the cops."

"Let me guess, they didn't get him?" The younger man guessed, rubbing his sleepy eyes open.

"No, he was long gone. Mrs West told them that Bryan had been in a car accident. She said that Tayla and Willa had a few cuts and bruises, but they were fine. We're lucky she even called, turns out she has a weakness for children too."

"How long ago was he in LA?" Grissom overheard, stepping into the AV lab with them.

"Mrs West said that he left at two in the morning. He's still in the same car though, so he should be easy to track." She hoped, looking round at him. "Did you and Catherine get anything else?"

Grissom shook his head, taking another step into the room. "Did Bryan's mother give them anything else? Like, does Bryan have any other friends or relatives in the area?"

"They're looking into it, they're gonna fax anything they do find over. Mrs West is being very helpful to them, she hasn't held anything back. I already sent them pictures of the kids and Bryan." Sara assured him, looking at the concerned look in the man's eyes. "We're doing everything we can, Grissom."

"I know, but it still doesn't seem like enough." He turned his wrist to look at his watch, sighing softly, as it was almost lunch time. "Sara, you should go home and get some sleep. We need someone to be awake later. I've just sent Catherine home. Ecklie's team are gonna pick up the slack on all our other cases."

"Okay." Sara nodded, watching him walking away to go and check on the evidence he had processed, before she turned to look at what Greg was doing.

"Hey Sara, did you get the mother's address?" The younger man curiously asked her. She nodded, handing the report over to him, with the address printed across the middle. "Thanks, I can follow his car from there; it's been... nearly nine hours since he left there, so he's got a pretty big head start."

"I know." Sara nodded in agreement, resting against her elbow on the table, while she watched Greg working his magic on the keyboard.

Greg looked round at her as she suddenly rushed to put her hand over her mouth, giving her a curious look. "Sara, are you alright?"

Sara tried to answer him, but had to rush to climb to her feet, hurrying for the nearest sink.

Concerned, Greg climbed to his feet, following in Sara's footsteps towards the sink, where she had just thrown up the milky looking substance. "Sara?"

"I'm alright." She spoke softly, running the tap to clear it away. She swished her mouth out with some water a few times, before she turned to look round at him. "Seriously, I'm fine."

"Really?" Putting the evidence he had in front of him together, Greg asked, "Are you... pregnant?"

"No, I'm not... no, I'm not pregnant." She assured him, starting to think about it herself.

She had never even considered the possibility of being pregnant. She had only been sick twice, and it wasn't exactly in the morning. She thought it was because of the situation she was in, but she never thought of the possibility of actually being pregnant.

"Excuse me a minute." Stepping around Greg, Sara hurried towards the locker room, grabbing her jacket. She desperately needed to find out the truth, so she took Grissom's advice, leaving the lab to get the answers she needed.

Waking up in the younger man's bed alone, Nick searched for a clock, realising that it was almost three in the afternoon. He quickly kicked back the covers, scrambling out of bed to grab his clothes off the floor. He found the note from Greg as he was getting dressed, deciding to head home to get a change of clothes, before he went to the lab to join him.

On the elevator ride out of Greg's apartment, he checked his phone for messages, finding one missed call from his sister Kayla and a text from Greg, asking him if he was awake yet. He decided to text his sister first, asking her what she wanted and whether her kids were alright, before he called Greg.

"Sanders?"

"Hi, it's me. Yes I'm awake and yeah, I gotcha note." He smiled into his phone. "Did you find anythin'?"

"Yeah, I've got good news. Bryan decided to visit his mother in Los Angeles, so we got another lead. She was very cooperative with the cops, since she was worried about the kids. Bryan was in a car accident halfway there, but the kids were fine, his mother said they had a few cuts and bruises, but they were mostly just tired." Greg reported, taking another sip of his cold coffee, in an attempt to wake himself up. "I've been working on the traffic cameras and stuff since. Archie's here helping me now, so we should get twice as much film covered."

"Are yah tired, G?" He smirked, hearing the younger man yawning through the phone.

"Maybe a little, I've been up for nearly two days now. But I'm not giving up."

"I appreciate that Greg, but don't kill yourself." He cautioned him, unlocking his truck with the keys from his pocket. "I'll be there soon. I was just gonna head home to take a shower and change my clothes. Thanks for lettin' me stay last night."

"You're welcome." Greg smiled into his phone, turning to look at Archie as he tapped him on the shoulder. "Oh, I gotta go. I'll see yah in a bit."

"Yep, see yah." Nick snapped his phone shut in his hands, before he climbed into his truck, suddenly feeling very hungry, as he hadn't eaten in a few hours. He didn't want to stop to get some food too, as his daughter was still out there somewhere, scared, tired and hungry.

Three things he was supposed to be able to protect her from.

Lifting the screaming baby from the old sofa, Bryan tried to feed her the bottle from his hands, but her little hands pushed it away in refusal. She continued to scream, squirm and cry, making him feel completely helpless, as he didn't know what to do.

"Tayla!" He called out for her sister. He knew she was here, as she was still sat in the same spot when he returned home from the store. "Tayla! Tayla, come and get your sister. Do you know how exhausted I am?"

Climbing to his feet as there was still no response; Bryan set the screaming baby down on the sofa again, before he rushed to search the house, finding the back door open.

"Tayla! Tayla!" He screamed into the garden, feeling his heart pounding, as he thought he had lost her. "Tayla! This isn't funny! Get back here, or you're in BIG trouble!" He threatened, looking out at the emptiness of the back yard.

Just as he was about to turn to tend to the baby again, he spotted the small figure of the little girl, running through the long fields of corn ahead of him.

"Tayla!" He yelled, more furious this time.

Tayla refused to turn around, running as fast as she could on her bare feet, which was very painful on the hard ground.

"Tayla! Tayla! Come back here!" Running across the field after her, Bryan jumped the fence she managed to squeeze under at the end of their new garden, picking up his pace in the next field to catch up to her.

Unfortunately, with his longer legs, Bryan covered more ground than her in a shorter amount of time. Tayla glanced over her shoulder as she heard his heavy footsteps, realising he was just a few feet away from her now.

"Tayla! Tayla!" He desperately shouted after her, taking a short cut towards the path, so he could cut her off.

"Nooo! Let me go!" Tayla kicked and screamed, as he managed to grab hold of her jacket.

She fought against him, screaming in terror as he tried to pull her back towards him. Before he pulled her any closer, she managed to wriggle out of her jacket, running towards the fence ahead of her. She just managed to squeeze through the bars of the black metal fence with her tiny frame, leaving behind her torn jacket in Bryan's hands.

"Tayla!" Bryan screamed after, angrily throwing her jacket to the ground. He tried to climb the bars of the black fence himself, but it was too high and the bars were too close together, surrounding the whole edge of the road.

He watched the child running across the dirt road ahead of him, spotting a bridge on the path in front of her, that crossed the river into the small town.

"Damn it!"

He thought about going back to the house to look after Willa, but he couldn't just leave Tayla out here alone, so he tried to look for an opening to follow her.

Once Tayla crossed the river, she hurried towards the small store ahead of her, taking a moment to breathe, before she spotted the phone box outside. She had managed to swipe some quarters from Bryan's jacket when he wasn't looking, so she ran towards it, leaning up on her tiptoes to knock the phone off the hook. She checked over her shoulder to make sure Bryan wasn't behind her, before she leant up on her tiptoes again, forcefully pressing the numbers to ring her father's cell.

After taking a shower and changing his clothes, Nick decided to go for a quick jog, calming his nerves, so he could keep his mind focused on searching for his daughter. He was always at his best after a long jog, shoving his feelings of guilt and loneliness deep down inside of him, so he could find Bryan and make him pay for taking away his little girl.

Running up the drive as he heard his phone ringing, Nick quickly unlocked the door, grabbing his forgotten cell phone off the counter. "Hello?" He answered, kicking the door shut with his foot.

"Dad, it's me."

"Oh, hi buddy." He took a seat at the counter, trying not to sound too disappointed that it wasn't his missing child. "Whatsup?"

"Did Mom ask you if I could come and stay with you for a while?" Bradley asked him, anxiously checking over his shoulder to make sure Gary didn't come in. While his mother was out at the store, Gary had been put in charge of looking after him, which usually led to one thing. Luckily, Gary had a lot of work to do today in his home office, but he wouldn't like it if he found out that Bradley was calling his father.

"Uh... no, I don't think she did. But now isn't really a good time, buddy." Nick tried to let him down easy. As much as he wanted Bradley to come and stay with him, he would prefer it that he was out of harm's way. "Your Mom told you about your sister?"

"HALF sister." Bradley snapped at him, taking a seat on the stairs behind him. "Why is everythin' else more important than me?"

"There is nothin' more important than you, Bradley. Now... just really isn't a good time. I won't even be around to be with you anyway. You'll be flyin' over here to spend some quality time with my TV. When Tayla is found, I'll talk to your Mom about you comin' over." He suggested, checking the time on his watch. "Darlin', if it were any other time, you know I'd love to have you here with me, but now isn't..."

"I get it!" His son cut him off, snapping his cell phone shut.

Nick dropped his head into his hands, wishing he could change the circumstances to please everyone his life. All he seemed to be doing lately was letting down the people he loved.

After checking the time on his watch again, Nick struggled to his feet, hurrying down the hall to his bathroom. Just as he was about to step under the warm spray of his shower, he heard his cell phone ringing again. He hurried back to the kitchen with his towel in his hands, searching for his phone on the counter.

"Bradley?" He immediately answered, securing the towel around his waist. He listened to the silence, hearing the soft whispers of panicked breathing. "Tayla? Tayla, is that you baby?"

"Daddy." She whimpered.

Nick sighed in relief, grabbing the house phone off the wall to call the lab, so they could start a trace. "Yeah honey, it's me. Where are you?"

"I don't know. I'm scared. Daddy, can you come get me?"

"I will, baby. Just stay on the line." He raised the other phone to his ear, getting Judy at the front desk to put him through to Archie to start the trace.

"Daddy, can you come get me." She sounded more desperate this time, anxiously looking around; making sure Bryan hadn't caught up to her yet.

"Of course I'm gonna come get you, honey. I promise." He assured her. "Now baby, I need you to help me find you. Is there anythin' around you? Are there any people around?" He asked her, holding the phone closer to listen to her short choppy breaths.

"I don't know, there's a shop." She looked out the window of the booth towards it. "Daddy please, don't let him take me again."

"I'm not goin' to, honey. I'll be there as soon as I can. Do you know the name of the place you're stayin', a street name or number?"

"It starts with a U." She vaguely remembered, after seeing it on the drive over. "It's like a desert."

"U... Utah?" He tried to think. "U, T, A, H. Is that it, honey?"

"I think so. Daddy please, come get me!" She pleaded, continuing to anxiously look around her.

"I will, baby. I will. I promise you. I'll be there as soon as I can. Now baby, is there somebody around you or a number on the payphone?" He asked her, trying to remain calm himself, as he searched for a pen and paper. "There's usually a number along the top, right by the receiver of the phone, can you read it for me?"

Leaning up on her tiptoes, Tayla struggled to read the numbers on the top of the payphone. "8 0 1... 4 8 6..."

"Okay, 801, 486... there should be four more numbers, baby. Can you read the last ones for me?"

"7 8... Daddy, I can't, the last ones are scratched out."

"That's okay, that's okay. Just stay there and stay on the line, okay?" He listened to her breathing a moment, before grabbing the other phone, giving Greg the phone number to trace, hoping he could find the location with the first few numbers. "Are you hurt, baby?"

"No." She shook her head, looking down at her bruised elbows and knees. "Daddy, I wonna come home."

"And I'm gonna bring you, sweetie." He whispered, brushing away his own tears. "Baby, is there anyone in the shop? Someone who can stay with you, until I get there..."

"Daddy, I don't want to. I want you."

"I know you do, baby, and I'm gonna come and get you. But I can't be there right now." He spoke softly to her, wishing he could get there somehow to hold his scared little girl in his arms. "Sweetie, listen very carefully. I need you to do somethin', so I can find you. Okay?"

"Okay." She nodded, wiping her tears away, with the back of her hand.

"I need you to leave the phone on, while you go in the store. Tell whoever is behind the counter that you've been kidnapped, and you need them to call the police for you. Once the police arrive, they'll take you to the nearest station and I'll come and get you from there." He slowly explained to her, knowing she was seven and could easily forget something. "You got that. Repeat it back to me, so I know you've got it."

After sniffing back her tears, Tayla whimpered, "I leave the phone on... go inside... tell them I've been kidnap . . . and call police."

"That's it." He nodded into the phone, wiping his hands across his own eyes. "I'll be there as soon as I can, baby. You know I will, I never break a promise."

"I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, baby." He whispered back to her, listening to her resting the phone against the side of the booth, before he heard the door squeak open. He sniffed back his tears again, before lifting the other phone. "Greg, please tell me that you got a location."

"Uh huh, Archie's getting a location on the payphone now. We should have it for yah when you get in."

"Okay. I freakin' love you, G." He whispered, before hanging up, hurrying to get dressed again, so he could meet Greg at the lab.

Tayla burst through the doors of the little shop, looking around for the front counter, doing just as her father instructed. "Are you alright?" An aged looking man spotted her, stepping around the counter to take a closer look at her. Removing the small pair of spectacles from the bridge of his nose, he slowly approached the shivering child, looking at the blood and dirt covering her dress. "Where's your Mommy and Daddy, little one?"

"Vegas." She spoke softly, still cradling her arm against her chest. "I need the police . . . I've been kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?" He asked her surprised.

Tayla nodded, pleading, "I want my Daddy."

The old man looked at the visible injuries to her tiny body, including her dirt covered feet, before reaching out his gentle hand to her. "Come with me, poppet, we'll getcha home." He led her round to his counter, lifting the phone from under it, to call the police. He looked up as the doors suddenly burst open, giving the strange looking man a curious look. "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for my daughter." He panted, making his way towards the counter, where he spotted Tayla stood beside the old man. "There you are Tayla! What have I told you about running off?" He forced a smile towards her, reaching his arms out for her. "I told you not to run away from Daddy. C'mon, I'll take yah back home to your sister."

As the child gripped the little man's hand tighter, trembling against him, the old man wasn't at all convinced that this man was her father, as she really didn't seem to want him anywhere near her. "I'm sorry, sir. I can't let you take her." He finished dialling 9-1-1, raising the phone to his ear to speak to the operator. "Yes, I need the police. I have a kidnapped child here..."

"You don't wonna do that grandpa." Bryan warned him, before he swung his fist at him.

The disoriented man fell back against the shelves behind him, blindly reaching for his bat under the counter, that he kept handy for these types of situations. But Bryan saw it first, taking a swing at the old man's ribs, sending him to the floor.

Tayla's scream ripped through the shop, desperately wanting this nightmare to be over.

"C'mon, Tayla." Bryan reached his hand out for the terrified little girl.

"No!" As the child refused, he forcefully gripped her little arm, dragging her along behind him. "No! Help! Help me! I want my Daddy!" She screamed, fighting against his grip.

Bryan dragged her outside, holding her in his arms as he knelt down to her level. "I swear kid, if you don't stop doing this, I'm gonna have to get rid of you, and I don't mean dumping you on the side of the road." Pointing to the river in the distance, Bryan threatened, "I'll sink yah to the bottom, where no one will ever find you."

Tayla gave out a shriek as he lifted her onto his shoulder, carrying her kicking and screaming back to the house.

Luckily, the old man was injured, but not dead. From the floor, he managed to reach for the phone just a few feet in front of him, giving them a detailed description of the man who just attacked him, and the child he had abducted.

"8-0-1 is definitely Utah." Greg hurried into the layout room, where Grissom was talking to Catherine, setting down a large map he had found of the area. "The prefix 4-8-6 is in this area here, in Salt Lake City." He circled the area with the red pen in his hands. "Based on Tayla's description of the area around her, she could be anywhere in this area." He circled a smaller area.

"That narrows it down." Catherine sighed in relief, thinking they had to search the whole of Utah.

"There's loads of little towns in that area though, she could be in any one of them." Greg broke it to her. "There's houses, motels, farms..."

"Is that all Nick got from her?" Grissom asked, sounding very concerned.

"Yeah, that's all she knew. She's seven." Greg reminded the older man.

"Can't we get them to put up road blocks or something?" Catherine suggested, leaning against the table to look at the map. "We have pictures of Tayla and Bryan to send them; it's only been a few hours, so they can't look that different. We can stop anyone from leaving the area, before we find them."

Grissom nodded, then looked towards Greg again, "Where's Nick? Why isn't he here?"

"He wants to drive over there." The younger man explained. "I can't stop him. If she were mine, I'd probably do the same."

"Me too." Catherine agreed with him, looking towards her boss beside her. "So, what can we do? Besides sitting here, looking at maps?"

"I'd suggest going with him, but Ecklie would be furious." Grissom pointed out to the two of them, smiling as he saw the look in Catherine's eyes. "Alright then, my car or yours?"

"Mine, it has a nicer smell to it." She chuckled softly, before looking at the younger man in the room. "Are you coming, Greg?"

"I..." Greg thought about it a moment, then shook his head. "I'm going with Nick. I'm scared of what he's gonna do to Bryan when he finds him."

"Hey!" Archie hurried into the room, with a Cheshire grin plastered across his face. "I got a trace, and the address on the store she called from."

"Thank you." Grissom grabbed it from his hands. "We better get a move on. I'd suggest flying, but we don't have..."

"Nick just called." Brass suddenly cut him off, hurrying into the room. "I've got one chopper at the ready to fly you guys over." Grissom smiled in relief, feeling as though things in this lab were finally going right for a change.

Thanks so much for your reviews on the last chapter. I'm glad you're enjoying this story. I'm really enjoying writing it too, which is always a good sign. Let me know what you thought of this chapter, and I'll try and get the next chapter posted as soon as I can :D

Have a Great weekend!

~ Holly