Everyone stared at Cassandra, hearing the news. It wasn't that they didn't want to see Sara, it was that none of them expected her to be back so soon and for such a thing when she wasn't even a suspect.

"Two days from now?" Gil repeated.

Cassandra nodded. "She said it's the least she could do after leaving all of you like that," she explained.

Everyone was silent. She had a point, 'she' meaning Sara. They all knew it would probably be awkward seeing her again, but none of them seemed to care.

"Tell her we'll be waiting," Grissom suggested, but it seemed more like an order.

Cassandra nodded. "Will do,"

Everyone else nodded, at a loss for words otherwise.

--

That night:

"Being here, is like… so cool!" Ronnie said, walking up to Cassandra's door. Cassandra had invited over for coffee and a movie while sharing stories about Sara, and Ronnie had gladly accepted. They had just said goodbye to Nick before starting up the driveway.

"Geez, Ron, it's just my house!" Cassandra laughed.

"But it's still cool being here, I've never been invited over by a coworker!" Ronnie replied.

Cassandra laughed. "Keep acting like that and it's no wonder no one invites you over"

Ronnie made a face at her.

Cassandra smiled. "Okay, let's just get inside," she made her way to the door

"Gotcha" Ronnie followed.

The two barely had time to get inside before two men came out of nowhere and grabbed them from behind.

Across the street, Nick heard Cassandra cursing a mile a minute, and Ronnie scream. He quickly slammed the trunk shut, then ran across the street. "RONNIE?! CASSIE?!" he got inside the door, seeing four outlines of people. Two were Cassandra and Ronnie, but the other two were holding the women. "HEY!" he yelled, but when he saw more of the situation, many questions came to his mind. He was pretty big, so why wasn't one of the intruders going after him unless they hadn't seen him? Why did Ronnie go from screaming her lungs out to just breathing fast? And why the hell was Cassandra laughing hysterically when one of the intruders had one of their arms around her neck?"

The one holding her finally spoke up. "Fear me, Cassandra Sidle, for I am adorable! I shall crush you with giant hugs and smother you with kisses to the cheek, and make love to you over and over again, though it would make my wife very unhappy"

Nick twitched. Either Josh had a change of heart and was just plain stupid for admitting he had a wife, the intruder was a stalker, or just plain mental.

"Jake Thompson, you jackass! Let me go! Max, is that you?!" Cassandra asked between fits of laughter.

"… Maybe" the second intruder, who was holding Ronnie, replied after a moment. He finally noticed Nick. "Hey, we have an intruder, Steph" he shook Ronnie gently.

"I'm not Steph!" Ronnie pointed out.

The second intruder paused again. "…You aren't?"

"No, she's not, Max" Cassandra replied.

"Cass, what's going on?" Nick demanded, still confused.

"Hold on," Cassandra told him. A moment later, the living room lamp came on illuminating the room. A man with reddish brown hair was holding Cassandra, his arm around her waist and head on her shoulder. Nick had seen him around the crime lab before, but didn't know his name. The man holding Ronnie had dirty blonde hair, and unlike the first man who was smiling, he was staring at Ronnie with a confused expression. "Nick, meet my best friend Jake Thomson, who is the equivalent to Greg in my circle of friends, and that is my foster brother Max Schmidt" she punched the brunette's arm, showing indicating he was Jake and pointed at the blonde, indicating that he was Max. "And Max, this is my friend Ronnie"

Max's arms instantly dropped. "Sorry, miss. Thought you were another friend of my sister's"

"And THAT is why you shouldn't do that anymore, Jake! Especially in a new house!" Cassandra replied. "Lemme go!"

Jake opened his arms to let her get away. "Sorry, killjoy"

Cassandra stepped away from him and walked between Nick and Ronnie. "Guys, I am so sorry. These two have known each other for years since I introduced them, and they live to play very evil pranks on me!" she glared at Max and Jake.

"Guilty as charged" Max nodded. He looked at Ronnie. "I really am sorry. I thought you were her friend Stephanie. Steph is used to this by now"

"As long as you're not really trying to kill me, I'm fine. I've had several close calls," Ronnie replied.

Jake chuckled. "Yeah, I guess we were outta line in your new place. I'm sorry too." He looked at Nick. "Please tell me you're a new guy and no more Josh,"

"Sorry. No. I'm Nick Stokes, I work with her, nothin' more. Josh is still around. Funny, it sounds like you don't like him, either" he raised his eyebrows suggestively at Cassandra.

"Like him? You know how many times I've been tempted to throw him out the window?" Jake asked, then nodded at Cassandra. " I'm more protective of this one than Max here is"

"Aw come on, that's unfair!" Max argued.

Nick sighed, finally reaching the decision that these guys were harmless. Cassandra had no sign of faking being happy about seeing them, and they wouldn't ramble on if they were really against them. She didn't even seem worried about Jake holding her loosely around the waist. "Well, this is interesting. I could've had the cops on your ass for no reason"

Jake laughed. "Well, that would be interesting for the boys to hear"

Nick tilted his head. "Huh? How so?"

Jake pulled a police badge out of his back pocket. "I'm LVPD myself. If you're one of Cassie's new coworkers, that means you're CSI, so if you feel more comfortable… " He handed the badge over to Nick. "It's real"

Nick couldn't help but laugh when he found it indeed was. No wonder he had seen him in the lab before. "You're LVPD and you pull this on poor Cassandra and… what's her name?"

"Stephanie. An old friend of mine" Cassandra replied.

Jake shrugged. "It keeps us occupied" he took his badge back from Nick when Nick held it back out for him. "So, how's my Cassie holdin' up?" he let go of her and sat on the couch.

"I'm fine, and I'm not yours. Lynn is. Speaking of Lynn, where is she? You two are barely apart!" She looked up when a redhead came out of the hallway.

"Is it safe to come out yet?" she asked.

Jake smirked. "Speak of the devil!"

Cassandra shoved him playfully. "Nick, this is Jake's wife, Lynn,"

Nick shook Lynn's hand.

Lynn observed him for a moment. "Ah, making friends already are we, C.J? Cute friends, at that," she pointed out, using Cassandra's other nickname since she was Cassandra Jane.

"Hey!" Jake objected playfully.

Cassandra laughed. "Sorry, Jake. You have some competition now! Anyway, Lynn, these two are my new coworkers, Nick…" she glanced at Nick, who nodded his approval. "Stokes, and Ronnie" she finished.

"Hi," Lynn nodded politely, a southern drawl coming through in the greeting.

Obviously it interested Nick. "Ah, finally, an accent that sounds like it's from home? Where are you from? Tennessee?"

"Nope. Texas, born and bred," Lynn replied. "Well, until I met Jake and we moved out here to bother this one" Lynn poked Cassandra's arm.

Cassandra smiled at her.

Nick nodded and smiled. "What part of Texas?" he asked.

"Austin," Lynn replied. "City girl all the way, too," she added.

Nick laughed. Again, thanks to the way they met, he had his doubts about the men, but Lynn was already making a bit hit for him. "Can't argue with that,"

Jake shook his head. "No, you can't. So anyways, C.J, what's new? Find any interesting dead bodies?"

"You have no idea," Cassandra sighed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jake asked.

"One involved Sara," Cassandra replied.

Nick went to open his mouth to point out that she shouldn't really be talking about cases with three people not involved, but then remembered seeing Jake's badge. Having one cop there seemed to be enough.

Jake nodded. "Yeah, I heard about that. Your sister okay?"

"She's fine, as far as we know, we just don't…" Nick began, but was cut off when he heard Jim's voice come out of nowhere. It only took him a moment to realize it was coming from the walkie-talkie Jake had attached to his belt loop.

"Sergeant Thompson, you there?"

Jake hit a button. "Yeah, Brass. What's up?" he asked, glancing at everyone else.

Jim's voice came back up, slightly jumbled because of the connection. "I just had one Hell of a drive, and it was only a block. I thought we were gonna get off early like two C.S.Is Nick Stokes and Cassandra Sidle did, but I was wrong. Some guy sped right by me, then dumped a body right outta their car!" Jim replied. "I need Stokes and Sidle back here. Willows and Brown are already on their way. I need you to help out your guys find the bastard who did this!"

"Well then, I think you calling me first this way just saved you a trip, sir" Jake replied.

"Why is that?" Jim asked.

"Hiya Brass," Nick said calmly.

"Nick? Is that you, what they Hell are you doing around Jake? I didn't know you knew him!"

"They just met, Brass. We'll be right there!" she looked at Jake, and before they knew it, all three of them had quickly excused themselves from Lynn and Max, simply saying 'Get comfortable, we'll be back soon', and they ran out the door, not hearing Jim's mumbling about Cassandra being there as well.