A/N: Hey, what happened to my reviewers? Anyways, I don't own CSI:, what you don't recognize is mine. If you haven't checked out Cassandra and Jake's appearances by googling the names in chap one of just don't know them in general, I made a manipulation and put it up on deviantart. If you wanna check it out it's titled "Siblings By Popular Demand", under the same name as my penname. Looks like it's the last one on the bottom right… the one with the black and red background. Ha, a little bit of self promotion never hurt. Anyways, enjoy… Oh, and the end of this chap, DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA! Mwa haha… REVIEW!!!! … Please?

That night, Cassandra groaned for the fifth time after hearing a rather loud thud, followed by cursing, for now the eighth time of the night. Jake was been right. Nick ended up having to stay the night at Cassandra's, but it was only an overnight since the only evidence of the event earlier was the bullet in the wall. It was the reason why Cassandra asked to be put on another case instead of forced to stay home, so she could find out what was going on with theirs as soon as possible, even if it meant beating the answer out of Ronnie, Greg or Nick. A few hours before, Nick had made himself comfortable on the couch to turn in, but it was now obvious that it wasn't working out. Why? Because the way he positioned himself on it didn't work well with the size of the couch, so every few minutes, he would fall off, making a rather loud thud, which was what Cassandra was groaning about. She had just managed to drift off for the first time the whole night, and got woken up by the thud yet again. "Nick! Get your ass in here!"

A few moments later, Nick came into the room. "I woke ya up?"

"No, Nicky. I stay up all night staring at the ceilings and wondering what I can use for earplugs every night,"

Nick sighed. "Sorry,"

Cassandra shook her head, then turned around and nodded at the bed. "I'll trade you. You take the bed, I'll take the couch so we can both sleep,"

"No, I can't do that! This is your place!" Nick insisted.

"Exactly. That means I deserve a good night's sleep, doesn't it?" she smiled.

Nick raised his eyebrows and nodded. "Touché,"

"Hm," Cassandra smirked again, then kissed him on the cheek before going into the living room.

"Hey, Cass?" Nick called after another couple of moments, going back into the hallway after her.

"Yeah?" Cassandra called

"How long can we hold Josh for tomorrow?"

"By the sound of it, just the day unless we find more on him," Cassandra replied, turning to face him.

"Damn,"

"Yeah… God, this is weird. Him, a suspect?"

Nick shrugged. "It's always the ones who don't seem capable,"

"I guess so," Cassandra nodded.

"Hey, we're gonna get whoever did this," Nick reassured her.

"I guess so…"

Nick nodded. "Well, I hope I won't keep you up any longer,"

"So do I," Cassandra laughed.

Nick grinned. " 'Night,"

"Night,"

They went their separate ways.

---

Later on, Nick and Cassandra literally ran into the crime lab. They were a few minutes late, and now that Jim had Josh as a possible lead to being the person who shot Warrick, he wanted everyone there on time, and even if they answered to Gil, they were both a bit scared of what Jim might do if they were late. The last thing they expected was to nearly literally run into Greg when they reached the meeting room. He too looked out of breath.

"Late?" he questioned them.

Nick and Cassandra nodded.

"Good. I'm not alone," Greg sighed, then opened the door, where Gil and Catherine were waiting for them. Gil simply raised an eyebrow, while Catherine bit her finger lightly, trying not to laugh.

"You're lucky, he's out right now," she told them.

The other three just mumbled a response, then collapsed in their respective chairs.

After a few seconds of silence, Cassandra looked around. "Where's my brother by popular demand?"

"Who?" Catherine laughed.

Cassandra waved her hand. "Jake. Where's Jake? … I take you wanna know why I called him that. It was his idea. People kept asking if we were siblings, so sooner or later Jake just gave up saying no and started saying yes, then when further conversation went on, he'd say we weren't really siblings, just siblings by popular demand,"

Catherine laughed again. "Cute. Anyway, he had to run back to his place. Said something happened at home. I think… Lynn? Lynn said something happened… break in or something. Told me to tell you that,"

Cassandra frowned. "Oh my God! Is she okay?"

Catherine shrugged. "I don't know. Didn't say. Just told me to tell you he was going to check on her,"

Cassandra cursed under her breath. "You have a case for me yet?" she looked at Gil.

"No," Gil shook his head. "You wanna call him?"

"Yeah," Cassandra nodded.

"Go right ahead," Gil offered.

"Thanks," Cassandra trotted out the door and dialed his number, cursing yet again when he didn't pick up. She settled for leaving a message. "Hey, Jake. It's Cass. Just calling to check on you. Hope you just have bad reception. Gimme a call when you get this, okay?" she hung up and went back into the room.

"Everything okay?" Nick asked.

"I wish I knew," Cassandra replied. "Had to leave a message,"

"I'm sure it is," Nick smiled.

Cassandra sighed. "You're way too optimistic, you know that?"

"I've been told," Nick smirked.

Cassandra barely got to sit down before Jim came in, nearly kicking down the door as he did so.

Everyone jumped and looked at him.

Jim turned to Cassandra. "How… do you live… with that… jackass?" he demanded through clenched teeth.

"We all wanna know that at this rate," Nick replied, which earned him an elbow to the ribs from Cassandra.

"Why do you wanna know?" she asked.

"Because he wouldn't shut up in the car, took several swings at my officers so either way he's staying in lockup for a while, oh, and let's not forget we caught him cheating on you!"

Now everyone's amused smile faded. They all stared at him, surprised at the last part.

"… What?" Cassandra was the first to ask.

Jim sighed. "Sorry, Cass, but he had his tongue down some other woman's throat. He didn't get the door so we ended up having to kick it down, and that was the first thing he saw… … Don't worry, he's not that much of a loss," he frowned, seeing Cassandra was now staring at the wall opposite her. "Again, sorry, but-"

"No. Don't apologize. I shoulda seen this coming," Cassandra replied. "Don't know why I didn't,"

Nick shrugged. "How could you? I mean, your relationship was already screwed up enough,"

Feeling like he was out of the red zone, Jim spoke up again. "She actually did a bit of fighting with my officers, too. You'll see her soon. She's up for assault on an officer… and better yet, we found a gun at his place… a gun that matches the bullets we got out of Max and Warrick,"

Cassandra sunk lower in her chair. "Great," she said sarcastically.

Nick went to put his hand on her shoulder, but she put her hands up. "Don't… just please… don't,"

"Sure," Nick nodded weakly, then looked at Gil, who nodded towards the door. He nodded and everyone else in the room left, leaving her alone.

--

A couple of hours passed, but it seemed like days. Jim had brought Josh into one of the interrogation rooms and practically threw him down into the chair and told him not to move, then went to retrieve the blonde from another section of the building to bring her into another room. At this point, Cassandra came out of hiding and leaned against the wall, barely wanting to see the woman, but she felt she had to. After a few seconds of waiting, Nick joined her, handing her a cup of coffee. "You okay?"

"Better than I was, thanks," she took the cup and sighed. Jim would be in the hallway in a matter of seconds. She could feel it. Sure enough, she was right. About fifteen seconds later, Jim came back around the corner, almost dragging a blonde behind him. Every so often the blonde would try and pull against him, which only made Jim's grip tighten and pull harder.

Now Cassandra finally got a good look at the blonde, and she could've vomited right then and there. The blonde was skinny, possibly anorexic, had short blonde hair, long legs, and she was wearing a tight tube top and a short skirt that barely even covered what she was made of. "You have GOT to be shitting me…" Cassandra muttered. "Is that…?" she looked at Nick, who for some reason, looked pale.

He sighed. "That's our girl. Heather Denmark. The blonde Brass mentioned," He swallowed. "Damn girl, you had some competition! No wonder Joshy-Boy cheated on you!"

Cassandra sent him a dirty look, but then frowned, seeing that Heather had smirked at her nastily before Brass led her into the interrogation room. She turned back around, she had started to come to terms with Josh cheating on her, and after seeing Heather, she understood why. She shook her head, then looked up, seeing Greg and Jake, who had returned a few minutes earlier and had explained someone tried to break into his house, coming her way, with smiles on their faces. Noticing that Greg was holding something behind his back, she approached them, suspicious. "What're you two up to?"

"Well, he told me what happened…" Jake began.

"And we thought of something that would cheer you up," Greg finished, taking out what was behind his back. It was a baseball bat. Jake also took out his car keys and help them up.

Cassandra took both items. "I don't think bashing him over the head will really help me, even if it would make me feel better, guys,"

Greg grinned. "Nu-uh," he walked a couple of steps towards her so he was in arms reach, then turned over the bat. Cassandra laughed, seeing he had written Louisville Slugger on it in Sharpie marker. The pieces were coming together.

Greg nodded, seeing she was catching on. "Go dig those keys into the side of his pretty little souped up four wheel drive, carve your name into his leather seats, take this to both headlights, and slash a hole into all four of his tires, sister,"

Jake grinned and nodded proudly. "If you don't, I will,"

Cassandra laughed. "I love you guys so much," she put down the bat and keys, then hugged him.

"I'll help ya, Jake," Nick pointed upwards.

"Alright!" Jake cheered. "Now, you guys do whatever you need to do. Watch the interrogation, whatever,"

"Will do," Nick and Cassandra went over to the window to see how Jim was coming along with Heather as Jake walked away. However, Nick wished that they hadn't gone over to the window at that moment, mostly because of Heather's reply to whatever Jim's question was.

Inside, Heather snorted. "Why don't you ask the hot guy I saw next to Josh's so-called-girlfriend? He saw Josh and I together before, and apparently, he didn't say anything to her,"

Cassandra paused. "What does she mean?" she wondered aloud.

"Nothin'. Buying time" Nick replied, too quick for her liking.

Heather continued. "The tall, hot, brunette guy. Southern accent. He was staring at Josh and I in disbelief when we were at that club. She was, too, but he saw us before she did and dragged her off. Josh said his name was Stomer… no… Stromer! That was his name! Nick Stromer!"

Cassandra froze and turned to Nick, letting the adjectives sink in, realizing she meant him, then remembered that Nick had told Josh his last name was Stromer. Now Heather was saying he had seen them together before? "Nick, tell me she's lying. Please tell me you didn't see them…"

Nick only glanced at her before he looked back down, refusing to meet her eyes.

"No…" Cassandra breathed. "You knew and didn't tell me?!"

Nick nodded slowly.

"You knew," Cassandra repeated, barely believing it.

Nick turned to her but still didn't meet her eyes. "Cass, I wanted to tell you, but I already told you I thought he was a dirt bag. I saw them, I was gonna tell you, but with all your stress and worry about Max and Warrick, I…" he trailed off, seeing her clench her jaw. "Cass…" he reached for her arm.

Cassandra pulled away. "Don't you dare touch me. You should've told me, even with my situation. I thought you were my friend!"

"I am, Cass! I…held off on telling you so you wouldn't end up getting hurt…"

"Like I am now?!" Cassandra demanded. "Funny thing is, Nick, that my boyfriend's cheating on me, and I'm more upset that you didn't tell me than the fact that you knew he was!" she scoffed. "Nick, I admire you as a person, I really do, but you can be so stupid sometimes! Grissom was right. I do need a few more days off, starting NOW," she stalked off.

"Cassie!" Nick yelled after her. He looked to the side. "Greg…" he mumbled.

Greg nodded. "You go get your girl. I'll find Grissom and bring him back to monitor,"

Nick nodded and ran after Cassandra.

A few seconds later, he made it out of the lab and spotted her a few feet away and jumped the last couple of steps to catch up to her. He trotted the last few feet and grabbed her arm so she had to turn around and face him to get her balance back. "Cassie, I did it to look out for you," Nick pointed out gently.

Cassandra sighed and tried to fight against him. "Why me, then?! Why is keeping your mouth shut about something as important as this looking out for me? If you were looking out for me, you would've told me so I wouldn't be hurting like I am now. Oh! Speaking of, why are my feelings so important, huh?! Why do you care?!" she could've fallen over in surprise at what happened next, not expecting what he did to be an answer at all. Nick took two steps forward, grabbed the back of her neck and kissed her. For some reason that she didn't even know, after a moment, she briefly kissed back, then came to her senses and pulled back.

Nick let her.

Cassandra sighed. "Nick… I just… I just can't do this right now," she walked away without another word, and Nick watched her go, not knowing what else to do.

Jake came out of the building, watching her. "What the Hell did you say or do to her?!" he demanded, glaring at Nick after Cassandra had made it far enough that both of them could barely make her out in the dark.

"I… I dunno. I told her that I didn't tell her about Heather because I was looking out for her, she got mad and asked why I cared… and I kissed her. Happy? I kissed her!"

Jake was silent for a few moments, then started walking towards his motorcycle a few feet away. He opened the storage area on the motorcycle and pulled out a helmet. He looked at Nick and threw it at him. "Put that on,"

Nick caught it, then looked it over. "Why?"

"Because…" Jake put his own helmet on. "You are finding Cassie, and you two are gonna talk things over. I'm your ride, so get on," he swung his leg over the motorcycle and looked back at Nick, seeing that the Texan hadn't moved. "Either I help you, or beat the shit outta you for making her upset. You choose," he smirked, seeing that his threat made Nick get the helmet on and walk over to the bike at top speed. Nick got on behind Jake. Jake looked back at him. "Hold on to me because this thing gets really fast, but again, I have a wife, so absolutely NO gay jokes, or I won't hesitate to shove you off this thing while it's moving, got it?"

Nick nodded. "Got it,"