Hannah Tanner sat quietly in the interrogation room with her hands folded, as if she was praying. Next to her was her lawyer to the left and then Quentin on the right: represented by the best that money could buy, which could not help her and her brother. However, lawyer Janis Lauder sat between the two, sorting through papers in her briefcase as they waited for Brass to come in and ask his questions. She was the only one talking and was stoutly telling the police that the Tanners were innocent and were framed.

Maggie and Nick watched from the outside, the others having opted to take the rest of the night off to write reports in their respective offices (Grissom and Sara locked up in the former's office, rumors already in the lab about them) save for Greg, who was staying in the lab, discussing the case with Wendy and Hodges. Ecklie, masterfully taking care of the reporters, had retired for the night after dealing with the media for some hours, stating that he wanted everybody's reports on his desk later on in the morning.

"Why does he have to pull the whip on us this time?" Maggie wondered out loud as Brass entered the interrogation room.

"Who, Ecklie? I don't know. All I know is that he's isn't getting his report from me on time." Nick smiled mischievously, as if he had something else up his sleeve, but then nudged Maggie in the side with his elbow. "Hey, it's starting. Let's see what's up."

"So, Ms. Lauder, I can see you're representing your clients' rights," Brass began coolly as he sat down, facing the trio. "Now, let me set down the story for you, just in case you and/or your clients have some obscene objections and denials to it."

"Ouch," Maggie said when hearing Brass' introduction.

"Detective, if I may, my clients have done no wrong and were under distress, as they were pushed into this scheme," Lauder began as she put her paperwork in order, neatly stacked away. "They were forced into this by Earl and Calvin Tanner, their cousins and the so-called 'guards' to your co-workers."

"Oh, really now?" Brass raised an eyebrow. "Tell me this then, Ms. Lauder. Why did Lynda Gloucester point to your clients as the masterminds behind this so-called 'kidnapping' of former C.S.I. Ursula Kearns that would have killed not only Margaret O'Keefe, but also most of the crime lab of Las Vegas, including Gil Grissom? They were also planning to exterminated the whole Police Force as well."

"A prostitute and the low life of society," Lauder dismissed with a wave of her hand. "She might be playing with you, like she does with everybody else. This is Vegas, if you remember right, Detective. Most prostitutes need the money."

"This one didn't," Brass pointed out. "Since most of this ring has been arrested – those at the Sunset Park, which was everybody, might I add – she has been living comfortably with Karen Tanner and her children, who all have been released from protective custody. Before that, she was living on the streets, but also trying to save money for school."

"Another lame excuse, Detective." Lauder crossed her arms. "You have no evidence against the Tanners, so release them. You've got nothing on them."

"I've got more than confessions from a prostitute and a wife…soon to be ex-wife, Quentin, so expect another lawyer soon." Brass smiled. "There is D.N.A. evidence connecting not only Ursula Kearns – née Tanner – to the murder of Eric Jacobson, but also solid evidence from tape recording around Hannah Tanner's underground tunnel around her home. We have evidence from the White Sands Motel that all of the siblings were there, phone call recordings…we have everything, Ms. Lauder, and if your clients still don't wanna talk, the D.A. isn't going to be kind enough to cut them a deal, like he did with their cousins."

"You're bluffing!" Hannah exclaimed, banging the metal table with her hands' fists. "Calvin and Earl have yet to say anything. You're bluffing, Detective, and I can see it."

"Shut up," Lauder told Hannah. To Brass, she added, "Ignore her."

"Since this session is being recorded, I don't see any reason to ignore her," Brass replied, smiling still. "We also couldn't ignore the explosion in the middle of the lake at the Sunset Park. It's been diffused, of course, but how could such a large quantity of explosives gotten aboard on boat like that?"

Both Tanners were quiet, so Lauder answered for them. "Again, Detective, we'll go over this again. Their cousins were behind the whole thing. Why can't you just accept that and question them again? Seems like the D.A. won't cut them a deal when these two are the ones who need it…if they did anything at all!"

"It was Ursula's idea to get the explosives," Quentin finally talked. When Lauder tried to get him to shut up, he said, "No, I'll say it. We all hate Maggie O'Keefe for what she did. I was a friend of Jason Napolitano, Detective. I was his stage manager, for God's sake! And when I heard that he was killed by that…that monster…I could not stand by and let her get away with it. I loved Karen and wanted to take care of her, so I married her. Well, I forced her, since she needed help with the kids, and I planned it all after that."

"So we've figured," Brass replied in a bored voice.

"If Ursula had not become close friends with her, we would have had a better chance to succeed," Hannah added. "She became chicken after we put the plan into action. She didn't quite like the idea of a kidnapping, since it was copying Jason's plans from way back when, but she went along with it when we told her that we'd get her kids back to her. Her husband…Kearns, what a name that was…accused her of being abusive. I mean, how can you call somebody abusive when they spank their children? I would have done the same, had I the chance, but our other sibling hid her children well and her husband's parents would not tell us where they were. I'm only glad those two are dead now."

"So, this is just a repeat of what I've heard?" Maggie asked, just as bored as Brass.

"Brass just needed admission of guilt from them, since the cousins confessed their deeds," Nick confirmed, moving closer to Maggie and holding her by the waist, standing behind her, smelling her hair (It's just as I remembered it!). "We traced the explosives and they came up with a dead end, so we think it's from Quentin Tanner's Mafia connections. However, I don't see any of them coming to his defense."

"Probably pissed off," Maggie replied, enjoying every moment of it.

"Who knows? We're getting nothing from the Mafia, so you're possibly right."

"But we can't assume, like Grissom has always told us."

"We can safely assume, though, that the Tanners are getting prison time…for a long time, I'd say. I don't think they would bother you for a while."

"I sure hope so, Nick…"

"You sound sad."

"You've noticed." Maggie turned around as her sarcastic comment seemed to have punches her partner's stomach, pushing Nick's arms away from her waist as she spoke. "I lost somebody who I thought was a friend and, Jesus Christ, her funeral is next week and her sister-in-law, who is oddly the executor of her will, is coming to see me. Yeah, I just got the call because Ecklie called the next of kin, which was her, and I got some number from Montana from somebody named Claudia Kearns, who is taking care of her children too. Oh, and did I mentioned that I'm back here, with nothing to gain or lose, nowhere to go and living with my brother…again? I miss my son. I haven't seen him in days really and –"

Nick put his right pointing finger on her lips and silenced her. "Shh. You have many things still. You have Michael and Chris and his bunch. You might have Eddie and Grace and whatever bunch that they have. You have everybody at the lab here, as always."

"But do I have you?" Maggie dared to ask, her heart beating faster.

Nick responded by shoving her gently to a dark corner of the observation room and spontaneously kissing her on the lips. He was very surprised when she kissed back just as passionately and then he deepened it, feeling that she accepted that too. Then, when he dared to release Maggie from it seconds later (before anybody saw them, especially the people in the interrogation room), he wrapped his arms around her again and asked, "Do you think so now?"

"If you say so," Maggie replied, sounding happier than she had in days.

"If you say so," Nick assured her.

"We're both consenting, Nick –"

"Then come back to me. Move back in with me. We can find a bigger place for Michael."

"We need to talk. This is going too fast for me," Maggie confessed weakly.

Nick looked at her hard, but then softened the gaze. "I understand," he replied slowly. "We do need to talk about a lot of things before we could do anything else."

"Confession time?" Maggie joked as tears fell down her face…happy tears, she knew…and an image of long ago – from when they first were together – came true. When she thought that she would never go back to Nick Stokes again, she was wrong in many ways. Denying her feelings was wrong too, in a sense, but it also led her to where they were now.

"Later," Nick replied, letting her go. "Come on. I think we need to finish those reports before Ecklie puts us down on as lazy on our records."

"As if he hasn't done that before," Maggie smiled as she exited the room with Nick, taking his hand as they walked into the hallway together.