The next morning:

Cassandra and Sara both looked up when they heard the doorbell ring. Earlier, Sara had come over to keep Cassandra company when Nick had headed out for the crime lab. They both glanced back at each other.

"Who could that be?" Sara asked. "There's no way they're off shift, unless… I'm not even gonna say it, in case…" she trailed off.

Cassandra nodded. "Stay here," she went to the front door. "Yeah? Who's there?" she called, making her way over to the window to try and see out.

"Brad Pitt… … … Geoffrey Rush plus a few pounds… and uh… … Tom Cruise and Luke Wilson's love child,"

Cassandra snorted when she recognized the first voice, then the two people's voices whom had just asked "What?". However, she made sure that it was just the three, then went back to the door and opened it. "A, Jake, you look nothing like Brad Pitt, B, Brass, nowhere near Rush,"

"Thank you," Jim growled.

"Oh, really?" Jake smirked, then started waving his arms as if dancing, just as Brad Pitt had done in "Burn After Reading".

Cassandra laughed, then pushed his arms down. "Sweetie, no. Just no," she glanced at Nick. "Though that was spot on for you,"

"Yeah, yeah. I used the Tom Cruise thing before in a case… but Luke Wilson's new…"

"And right," Cassandra nodded. "Come in. What're you guys doing here?"

"I'm your new protection detail!" Jake said proudly.

"Checkin' up on you guys," Nick added.

"Delivering good news," Jim replied.

Cassandra pointed at Jake. "Good news like his, or something different, 'cause if it's like his, I'm gonna tell you to skip telling me right now,"

Jim laughed while Jake gasped as if he had been offended, but he also made it obvious he was joking. "No. We cleared your house. You're free to go home, now. We got some new evidence that got us a new, promising suspect,"

Nick blinked. "Wait, what?"

"She's moving out," Jim smirked.

"No, not that part! You found a suspect? Why didn't you tell me?!"

Jim sighed. "Because I didn't know if you were gonna get all dark and go back to the crime lab to beat the crap outta the guy like you did with Little Cassie," he replied, putting his hand at waist level to indicate he meant the little girl and not the one in front of him.

Nick grunted a little bit, surprised he actually agreed.

"Who's our guy?" Cassandra asked, taking a sip from the glass of water she had.

"Some guy Josh Summers," Jim replied.

Cassandra spit out the water. "WHAT?!" .

Nick just raised his eyebrows and smirked as if he had expected to hear the name

Jim blinked. "You know him?"

"He's my boyfriend," Cassandra replied.

"You know, the one I mentioned," Nick added.

"Oh, right. 'Joshy-Boy'" Jim nodded. "Now I remember. I knew he sounded familiar… then that may excuse his fingerprints all over the place and that time he was over by the crime scene and got annoyed at us when we wouldn't let him by,"

Nick furrowed his eyebrows. That didn't seem like Josh. He looked at Cassandra and noticed she had an expression that made him figure she was thinking along the same lines.

"Oh shit…"

Everyone looked over at Jake, who had cursed.

"It's good that your house is cleared because I think this place is about to become a crime scene," he replied, all in one breath as he looked out the window.

"Huh?" Everyone else asked, but apparently, Jim was the only one to see what he was talking about, because a moment later the man had barked "EVERYBODY DOWN!"

Before the girls knew it, they were both facedown on the ground. Jake was on top of Cassandra and Nick was on top of Sara. Another moment later, the glass of some of the windows shattered with a few loud bangs. After the bangs stopped and there was a short time of silence, Jake rolled off Cassandra just as Nick had with Sara.

"All of you, stay down!" Jim ordered before running out the door.

"What did we miss?!" Cassandra hissed after a while. "And is he insane going out there alone?! Those sounded like gunshots!"

"I saw a flash down the block, then saw the outline of a guy, put two and two together, it was a muzzle flash. Brass saw 'em too, I guess. That's why we got you guys down. As far as his sanity… I dunno," suddenly, static came from his walkie-talkie at his belt, followed by Brass yelling that he was in pursuit of an armed suspect and wanted backup. Jake cursed again, then looked at the other three. "We're not going anywhere,"

"No complaints there, man," Nick shook his head.

"Figured," Jake nodded. "Damn it, he shouldn't be alone!"

"He'll be fine, Jake. It's Brass, after all," Nick assured him.

Jake groaned a bit.

Nick glanced at his phone when it rung. He saw it was Gil so he immediately picked up, and was just about to say they were alright when the yelling started.

"Thank God!"

"… Cath?" Nick blinked.

"Yeah. Nicky, what's going on? Are you alright?! I heard where Brass was and I realized he's a block down from where you live, and with what's going on with Sara and Cassie… are they alright, too?"

"We're fine, but that may change shortly," Nick replied, then heard sirens in the background. "… Maybe we'll be a hundred percent fine after all. Look, I gotta go,"

"No, Nick, wa-" Catherine began, but Nick had already hung up.

Within minutes, a few cop cars were around the area. Catherine had also shown up, making sure their teammates were all right while Jim and Jake were being questioned. Nick, Sara and Cassandra were all sitting on the back of an ambulance that had showed up, but since no real injuries were found, they had been cleared.

"What happened?" Catherine asked.

Nick shook his head. "I didn't see anything. Jake saw a flash, then the guy holding the gun, and then Brass did. Brass said hit the deck so I did. Took Sara with me,"

Sara and Cassandra nodded. "Same with us. We didn't see anything," Sara added.

Catherine smiled. "I'm sure it's gonna be fine. You're okay. That's what matters," she hugged all three of them at once.

Jim appeared from the side of the ambulance. "We lost the bastard," he complained. "… You guys alright? Sorry I left you,"

Nick shook his head. "It's fine. We're okay,"

Jim nodded. "Good… well, Summers is still in custody. He couldn't have done this,"

Nick put his arm around Cassandra. "Sorry, Cass, but…" he looked back at Jim. "That doesn't mean he couldn't have had someone do it for him,"

Cassandra shook her head and leaned into him. "If anything I'm starting to agree,"

Nick gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Cassandra sighed. "I want this guy taken down,"

Jim nodded. "We all do, Cass. Don't worry. We're gonna find him,"

Cassandra smiled weakly at him.

Now Hodges and Greg showed up. "Hey, Cassabrass is together!"

"Toldja!" Jake called from somewhere a few feet away.

Cassandra snorted. "Cassabrass?"

Greg nodded. "From sassafras. Cassandra, Cassa. Brass, Brass. Together, Cassabrass,"

"How creative," Cassandra laughed.

Greg looked at Hodges. "Ha!"

Hodges' shoulders sunk and he pulled his wallet out from his wallet, handing Greg a twenty.

Cassandra raised an eyebrow.

Greg grinned. "We bet that if I got you to laugh and get out of your depressed state, Hodges would give me twenty bucks,"

Nick chuckled, then looked at Cassandra. "The thought that counts?" he suggested.

Cassandra laughed. "Him, I don't mind," she looked at Hodges "You, sleep with one eye open,"

"Why am I always the one who gets the blame for the negative thing?!" Hodges whined.

"Because it's always you who does it?" Cassandra replied.

Hodges paused. "… Good point,"

Nick frowned. "Wait, he just listened to you saying that?" he let his arm drop, only to bring both of them come back up so he was holding her shoulders. "Teach me!"

Cassandra laughed, then looked over at Jim when an officer approached him and whispered something in his ear. "What was that about?"

Jim smirked. "Well, he may've not been here to do this, but let's go see what our Joshy-Boy has to say about this,"