sparkyCSI - I'm glad they work - I've been having so many issues with these chapters!

UnspokenFaith - it's ok, I'm behind on my updating! Dean? Sorry, Dean's not going to be making an appearance for a long time!

demolished-soul - She does know that, so she's not going to push him! I have today off (Yay!) which is my first in 33 days. (:c) Maddy will be back!

meadow567 - well, I hope this is something near what you were expecting! It has been giving me a headache! lol

CharmedMummy - thank you very much! These chapters have taken a hell of a lot of editing and I think I'm finally happy with them. Once Flack gets over his stubborness, there will be much owing of treats!

RK9 - I think I'm back on track now. I hope. He is, but I think I understand why he is. Or at least, in my head I do! lol. I have no idea if that made sense.

miss wizard of oz - Daylor? They've become a ship now? Cool! And yeah, you can continue to pamper Danny!

Ok, so, still spoilers for 3x08, Consequences. And big thanks to sparkyCSI (for beta-ing) but also for her help, with Aphina, for helping me get my head (which was lost at work) around these next few chapters!

What The Eyes Can't See

Chapter 129: And I can't erase the mistakes that I've made

She was hiding in the ladies bathroom, reapplying her slightly watery makeup when Aiden, Eirik and the ghost… alien… of Kym turned up, causing her to stab herself in the eye with her mascara.

'What are you doing here?' she asked Eirik, blinking back the new wave of tears. 'Where's Maddy.'

'Maddy's getting a bollocking, and she's been taken off this case,' Aiden told her. 'Eirik's stepping in.'

Taylor stared miserably at them. 'Well, you can find someone else. Because I quit.'

'You can't quit,' Eirik told her.

'What are you going to do?' Taylor asked him. 'Sue me for breaking a contact I never signed?'

Aiden smiled patiently. 'Look, I know you're upset-'

'Upset? Oh, you really don't want to go down that road.'

'Look, you can't give up,' Eirik all but pleaded with her.

Taylor's eyes narrowed. 'You knew.'

'Come again?'

'You knew,' Taylor repeated. 'You told me not to give up. You knew this was coming. And you let it happen anyway.'

' Taylor, we know a lot of things, but we can't act on any of it,' Aiden told her.

'Find him, before it's too late.'

Taylor rubbed at her forehead. 'Look, aliens don't exist,' she snapped. 'And even if they did, what do you expect me to do? Nip to NASA, borrow a shuttle, and track down a little green kidnapper? Because I don't think NASA would believe me. Couldn't you give me something a little less extra-terrestrial to go on?'

'Find him, before it's too late,' the alien repeated, before turning into a… bear?

Taylor slammed her head against the mirror, knowing resistance was futile. 'Give me a break,' she muttered into the glass.

'What's the matter?' Eirik asked her. 'This case becoming a little too much to bear?'

Taylor raised her head. 'You so didn't?!'

'I'm sorry,' Eirik apologised with a grin. 'That was a little unbearable, wasn't it?'

Taylor shot him a withering glare as she grabbed her purse, thrust her makeup into it and headed towards the door.

'Someone's a little grizzly, aren't they?'

'You are so lucky you are already dead,' Taylor muttered as she stalked out of the bathroom.

Her unimpressed expression remained plastered onto her face as she returned to the lab and found Stella.

'E.T. back?' Stella asked, noting her mood.

'E.T.? Try Yogi Bear and a ghost who thinks he's the next Jim Carey,' Taylor fumed.

Danny, who had been looking over some evidence, looked up. 'On what planet was that supposed to make sense?'

Taylor threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. 'Great! And now you're in on it.'

Danny looked completely lost. 'Huh?'

'Eirik with the bear jokes, you with the alien ones? God, who did I piss off in a past life?' she moaned.

Danny laughed. 'I still have no idea what you're on about.'

'Taylor's getting visits from little green men,' Stella explained with a grin.

'I am not getting a visit from little green men. I'm getting a visit from a ghost who thinks he's a comedian, with his comedy sidekick who is no longer an alien, but a bear.'

Danny and Stella stared at her.

'They give me clues,' Taylor sighed. 'But instead of spelling it out for me, they give me half the letters and a clue in garbledy-gook. Only this time, the clues are in Pictionary form.'

'A bear, huh?' Danny asked her.

Stella frowned. 'Hang on, Eirik?'

Taylor shut her eyes with a wince. 'Yeah. Maddy told me something she shouldn't have, and now she's getting pulled from the case, so I'm left with Eirik.'

'Eirik as in, Eirik whose funeral we went to last week.

Taylor nodded glumly.

'Hey guys,' Adam greeted them cheerfully as he bounded into the lab. He stopped when he spotted Taylor.

'Adam,' Danny nodded back.

'Hey Danny, you remember that rust stuff you found in the alley?'

Danny looked at him in amazement. 'Rust stuff? Rust stuff? Respect the time it took me to collect that and at least call it trace.'

Taylor laughed. 'Defensive much?'

'Can it, Liz.'

'Liz?'

'Yeah. You know. Roswell. Liz Parker? She saw aliens everywhere?'

Stella cleared her throat. 'Adam. The rust stuff?'

Adam blinked. 'The trace contained traces of molasses and non-human blood.'

Taylor held her hand up. 'Please tell me it was bear blood.'

Adam's mouth hit the floor. 'How did you know that?' he asked in disbelief.

'Thank you,' Taylor mouthed to the ceiling.

Stella poked Adam in the side. 'You were saying?'

'Yeah,' he continued, still staring in amazement at Taylor. 'North American Grizzly Bear, to be exact. But wait, there's more,' he frowned and looked at Taylor. 'Do you know what I'm about to say about this as well?'

'Adam?' said Stella prompted.

Adam nodded and led them over to the evidence he had been processing. 'The blood on this rock is a match to Cyrus Menlo, but it's also a match to the blood found on these leaves,' he told them.

'Both human blood, right?' Danny asked him.

'Right,' he picked up the leaves, 'and if you put them together like this…'

Taylor stared at it. 'You've got one leaf with a hole in the middle of it?'

Adam nodded. 'A hole probably made from a spike or something with a jagged edge. Right? Huh? See where I'm going here?'

Whereas Taylor stared blankly at him, Stella was catching on. 'Bear blood, molasses, leaves with human blood on them, a spike and a jagged edge… you're talking bear trap.'

Adam clapped his hands together in excitement and pointed at her. 'Yes, you win the washer and dryer.'

It seemed Danny was almost as confused as Taylor was. 'Whoa, help me out here. You're telling me Cyrus Menlo was caught in a bear trap?'

Adam nodded at him. 'Yeah.'

'Great,' Danny muttered.

Taylor sighed. 'Well I suppose a bear trap makes more sense than aliens. Although I would like to know how many bears they expected to catch in the middle of the city.'

Adam gave her another funny look. 'It's the only conclusion we can arrive at with this evidence,' he told her defensively.

Danny shook his head. 'So Tanaka sets the bear trap, leads Cyrus Menlo down the alley, Tanaka goes into the warehouse…'

'And BANG!' Adam yelled, making Taylor jump. 'Tanaka gets shot. Cyrus steps out, steps in the trap, Tanaka bleeds to death inside the warehouse.' He looked over at Danny and grinned. 'Moral of the story? Stick with bowling.'

Danny burst into laughter.

Taylor looked helplessly at Stella who just shook her head in amusement.

'Ok,' said Stella. 'Let's say we buy that story. First of all, why didn't Tanaka just lead him into the trap? He didn't need to go into the warehouse. More importantly, if Cyrus Menlo were stuck in a bear trap, how did he get out of the alley?'

'Aliens?' Taylor suggested.

Danny rolled his eyes. 'The rust stuff. There was directionality. There were drag marks. So he could have dragged himself outta there with the old and rusty bear trap still on his leg.'

'That is just wrong,' Taylor muttered as her stomach began to churn.

Stella frowned. 'But we've checked all the hospitals and emergency rooms. His family haven't seen or heard from him. I mean, if he got himself out of the alley, don't you think he'd go for some help?'

'Not if he just whacked somebody,' Danny shrugged.

Taylor stared at him. 'He has a bear trap attached to his leg. What do you think he did? Rented a room and twiddled his thumbs?'

'Which still begs the question,' Stella interrupted. 'Where the hell is he?'

Danny sighed. 'I say we go back to where we know he was last. Let's look over the evidence from the alley.' He turned to Adam and smiled. 'Thanks for confusing us.'

'You're welcome.'

------------------------------------

'I see a look of victory. Who are we taking down?' Taylor asked, seeing the pleased expressions that were creeping over Danny and Stella. The three had remained in the lab, analysing evidence. Well, Danny and Stella had been analysing the evidence. Taylor had been staring miserably at the side, not noticing the looks Stella and Danny were sharing, as she replayed the arguments with Flack until she had glanced up at Danny's exclamation of 'Boom!'

Danny looked up at her. 'Daryn Kramer. 1282 Lafayette.' He looked over at Stella. 'That's two doors down from the crime scene. '

Stella smiled. 'See these little pieces of paper? They were crinkled together like an accordion.' She squished them back up to show Taylor.

'Please tell me you've not managed to work out what happened from some scraps of paper?' she asked in disbelief.

Stella nodded. 'They were stripped from the box because of friction underneath. The box was dragged.'

Taylor frowned. 'Surely there would need to be pressure on top?'

'Like Cyrus Menlo's unconscious body?' Stella suggested. 'It's a quick an easy way to get him out of there.'

'So you're saying Cyrus Menlo was unconscious and dragged from the alley?' Danny asked.

'Yeah,' Stella confirmed.

'But what makes you think it's Daryn Kramer? Anyone could have grabbed this box and used it,' Taylor asked.

'Right. That's why I love this job so much,' Stella grinned. 'Okay, you see this black trace right here?' she pointed to a fingerprint. 'Black cocaine.'

Danny smiled back. 'Wow. Maybe we should ask Daryn Kramer some questions.'

'You took the words right out of my mouth.'

Danny frowned. 'Did Mac clear you for questioning suspects?'

Stella arched an eyebrow. 'I'll be sitting behind a desk. That's hardly field work.'

Danny shrugged. 'Just checking.'

The two of them left, leaving Taylor, who headed to the break room. She wasn't surprised when Eirik turned up again with Kym, who was back to being an alien. 'Start with any lame jokes and I'm squishing you into one of those containers with a fume hood,' she warned her dead friend's replacement.

'Taylor, I didn't want this.'

'Find him, before it's too late.'

Taylor frowned and slumped onto the couch. 'I realise that I'm going to get that sentence as a reply to my question, but is there any chance we could focus on who killed you, rather than your friend?'

'Find him, before it's too late.'

'I tried, Don,' she muttered. 'Alright. Aliens.' She watched the ghosts disappear. And then she stared laughing so hard that she started to cry. She was getting visits from aliens. Aliens who were talking to her?'

When she calmed down, and wiped her face, she decided to find Adam. The alien was giving her nothing to go on with who killed him, and trying to talk to Flack would be like writing her own death sentence. So she hunted Adam out. If nothing else, watching him and Danny was actually kind of cute, and she was certain he would actually find it fun to see how aliens related to this case. If only she could get him to look for the extraterrestrial without letting on why.

He was in one of the labs, pouring over a rock, when she walked in.

'Hi Adam,' she greeted him cheerfully. 'Whatch'ya doin'?'

Adam looked at her suspiciously. 'Why?'

Taylor shrugged. 'I'm bored?' she offered.

'Running an analysis on a piece of rock,' he told her after weighing her up. 'Does Mac know you're in here? Because I don't want to get in trouble for letting a reporter snoop around.'

'I'm not a reporter,' she informed him coolly. 'My current article is on eBay scams – internet fraud. Nothing to do with paintballs and aliens.'

Adam looked sharply at her.

'I meant missing people,' Taylor hastily corrected herself.

'You know, it's funny you should say aliens,' Adam mused thoughtfully, staring at the rock in front of him.

'You're still on about aliens?' Danny asked, walking into the lab, shaking his head. 'You paged, Adam?'

Adam's excitement suddenly skyrocketed as Danny joined them. 'Check this out. It's a piece of the moon.'

Taylor blinked. 'A piece of the what now?'

'A moon rock,' Adam told them – Danny was just as surprised as she was. Adam nodded. 'Yeah, this rock is from the moon.'

'From the moon?' Danny repeated.

Adam continued to nod – jiggling slightly from his enthusiasm. 'From outer space!'

'Get outta here! Wow!' Danny exclaimed, picking the rock up to examine it. 'How did a piece of the moon end up out there in the alley?'

'Aliens?' Taylor asked hopefully, earning her a strange look off both men.

Adam frowned. 'I don't know. This stuff is illegal to have. And somebody went to a lot of trouble to get it. I mean, I've seen this stuff listed on eBay before, you know, and most of it isn't real, if it is, short of going to the moon, they'd have to steal it from NASA.' He turned quickly to Taylor. 'You can't quote me on that!'

Taylor patted him patiently on the arm. 'Don't worry. I won't.'

Danny looked between the two of them and shook his head. 'Something happened in that alley, and I don't think it had anything to do with anything in the warehouse.'

'Two cases in the same case?' Taylor stared at him. That would explain why Kym was more concerned about finding Cyrus, rather than finding his killer.

Behind them, the computer beeped. Adam looked over at Danny. 'That would be whatever you left running before you disappeared.

Danny walked over to the computer. 'Got a match on that print I lifted on the box in the alley. Huh?' he stared at the result. 'Not what I expected. Print is from a woman.'

'Not from an alien, then?' Taylor muttered in disappointment.

Adam turned to her. 'I'm sorry, but what is this obsession with aliens?'

'I'm waiting for someone to collect Danny and take him home,' she told him, deadpan, earning her a smack upside the head from Danny.