Wow, it's been a while! Writer's block is a bitch! I really hope some people are still enjoying this story, I write it for you guys! To anyone who reads, enjoys, favourites, follows or reviews this story, you should feel very loved!

I hope there aren't any mistakes in this chapter, I'm drawing together some strings :-)

Read. Enjoy. Review.

Chapter Thirty Five # One Way or Another #

Loeila kissed Lindsey on the cheek and ran into day care with barely a look back. Reuben followed her in, instantly racing over to the chalk board to join his friend Mettie.

Lola however went outside. A little girl she didn't recognise was climbing onto the swing when a boy ran up to her. He tried to push her off of the swing but she pushed him away.

He went to push her back but Loeila got in the middle.

"Go way, Robin." She scowled, hands on her hips. Robin made a face and scrambled off, and Loeila smiled, hopping onto the empty swing next to the little girl.

"Hi."

"Hi." The little girl returned with a shy smile.

"Are ya new?" Loeila asked in interest.

"I haben been heeya befowa." The other little girl nodded her blonde head.

"Well its fun here." Loeila insisted. "Dere are some boys lie Robin who dust be mean and try to push deir way 'round bud da rest ob us are nice."

The little girl's shy smile grew a little bolder.

"Dat boy ober dere inside – da one climbing on the blackboard. Dat's my brover, Reuben." She pointed through the window. "Das his fend Emmett, bud we all call him Mettie. De little one wiv the blonde hair is Jasper, his brover. Dere mommy is called a Twilight because she lies da Twi-hard films."

She could see the other girl getting nervous at all of the boys, that consequently outnumbered the girls five to one, and reached out with her hand, touching the other girl's arm. "Don' worry. You be fine. I'll look after you."

The girl smiled back. "Fank you."

"Will you play on da climbing frame wib me?"

The other girl shrank away. "I...done know how..."

"I'll teach you!" Loeila sang, pulling her new friend over and teaching her how to do it all, except the monkey bars, which neither child could reach.

By the end of the day, the two little girls were firm friends.

When Greg came to pick the twins up at the end of the day, he noticed how close his daughter was to the new girl.

"Who is that?" he asked Mrs Langer, the head of the day care centre, "The cute little girl playing with Lola?"

"That's the new girl; she lives in a foster home. Her name's Blake, Blakelynn DuBois."

CSIVCSIVCSIV

Morgan clapped her hands together, drawing the attention of everyone in the layout room. "I think I may have figured out who is killing all of these pageant directors."

"How'd you do that?" Nick asked, crossing his arms.

"Well, when he killed Alana Parker he screwed up. Hodges found trace from a latex glove and a blood smear on the crown he used to slash her throat, and he didn't notice it when he put it on her head. DNA belongs to a man called Cody Jennings, forty nine, from Brooklyn. I did some research and found out that Cody had four daughters, and I came across a hell of a motive. Cody's wife Marina was a great love of pageants, she entered Lily, Ella, Holly and Penny into pageants from when they were six months old. Lily, the oldest was sixteen when Penny first went into the pageant system. And Lily committed suicide on the day of her sister's first pageant. There were self-inflicted scars across her breasts and her buttocks, the only places unnoticeable in even the swimsuit competitions. Her father claimed that the pageants had killed her, that they'd destroyed her self-confidence, made her feel not good enough. In response, Marina took the kids and filed for divorce, claiming that Cody beat her. She found a sympathetic judge, got divorced quick and clean… But the story of the girls doesn't end there. Holly was raped at the age of fourteen on the way to school, it turned out that she was turning tricks to get money for a nose job. Ella was constantly told how worthless she was compared to her sister, and she went the same was as Lily but she survived, and is still in a psychiatric hospital today. Finally, Penny was abducted from a pageant when she was eight. Cody was institutionalised after he beat up his wife for "killing their daughters". And he got out of the psychiatric hospital two weeks before our first pageant director was killed." Morgan explained.

"That's… awful." Disgust marred Sara's pretty face. "I can almost sympathize with the guy..."

"Another list of amazing reasons why Kristy is never going into a pageant." Nick said gruffly. "How about James O'Shea, does he fit in or…"

"It looks like Jennings tried to frame O'Shea in the first case, but then decided against it. The nurses at the psychiatric ward said that his sense of justice was always very strong. O'Shea was the prime suspect in the disappearance of Penny Jennings." Morgan finished.

"Sounds like a very strong theory, but how do we find Jennings?"

"Moreno's on it." Morgan nodded.

"But why would he come after Kristy? O'Shea, I mean…"Nick asked.

Morgan swallowed. "Because…he's a paedophile, Nick."

Nick ran a hand over his face. "I want to talk to him."

"I don't think-"

The door flew open and Moreno burst in. "O'Shea's gone."

"Gone?" Nick cried. "How?"

"He's dead." Moreno said shortly. "Hung himself in his cell."

Nick sighed. "Is it bad that I feel relieved?"

CSIVCSIVCSIV

Kristy sipped at her pineapple juice and stared into space.

"Kristy?" Eli asked, skipping up towards her.

"Mmh?"

Eli frowned. His little cousin wouldn't even make eye contact with him. "Kris?"

"Don' call me that!" she cried, leaping from the chair and running away into the living room.

Stunned, Eli stood frozen in place.

He turned, slowly, and followed her into the room. She was sitting on the couch, her legs dangling off of the edge. She looked as if she'd been posed, she sat so still.

"What's wrong?"

"Go way!"

Eli's frown deepened. "It's my house."

"No, is Uncle Grissom an' Aundie Sara's house! Is no yours!"

Finally, Eli put his hands on his hips. "Kristy, why won't you talk to me?"

Kristy's lower lip trembled. "I wan'…"

"What?" Eli pressed softly when she didn't continue.

"I wan' a mommy!" she cried suddenly, bursting into tears.

"Oh…"

"You hadda mommy an' Reuben and Lola had a mommy an' ebeyone has mommys sept from me an' I wan' one!" she wailed.

Eli climbed onto the sofa next to her. "Is this because of the man?"

She just kept crying. "I no wan be confuseded, Eli!"

"Well it's simple, Kristy. We love you and we're gonna look after you like we did today. And you don't need a mom because you have all of us. But, we could maybe get you a mom."

"How?" she asked, sniffing.

"I think it's time Uncle Nicky gets a girlfriend." Eli said with a devilish grin.

Kristy's eyes widened. "A preddy one, a nie one!"

"Exactly!"

"One dat loves me!"

"Right!"

"How we fin' one?"

Eli considered for a fraction of a second, then his eyes lit up. He peeked into Grissom's room to check that the older man was still on the phone to the publishing company to arrange a Chinese edition of his book, then beckoned for Kristy to come onto the computer.

"This is Grissom's internet access, mine has blocks!"

"What we doin'?"

"You'll see. Name, Nick Stokes. Age…how old's your dad?"

"Uh…older dan me?"

"Age…40. That'll do. Now, profession…"

"What's dat?"

"Job. CSI. Interests… What does your dad like to do?"

"Football!"

"Football, my dog and my little girl." Eli said aloud as he typed. "Enter email address?" he shrugged and typed in his own.

"Alright, I'll speak to you soon…" Grissom's voice came from the bedroom and Eli and Kristy scrambled around. With a few swift clicks, the eight year old deleted the search history and joined Kristy in front of the TV.

Nicholas Stokes had no idea that he had just been signed up to

CSIVCSIVCSIV

Al Robbins walked down the corridor towards autopsy, ready to prepare and examine the body of James O'Shea, who was currently lying on his table.

He opened the door.

"What the hell?" he stammered.

The body was gone, and blood covered the area around the table. A hooded figure crashed into him from behind, and he yelled "Security!" at the top of his voice.

He froze when he looked into the man's eyes, the same eyes that had stared at him from DB Russell's case file.

The last thing he saw before his universe went black was the endless barrel of Cody Jennings' gun.

review if it's worth it :)