A/N: Thanks to all who have reviewed. It makes me feel good when I look at my 'Berry and see the little email icon on the Google app telling me I have emails from people reviewing my story. You all have my eternal gratitude and flower pots around Las Vegas are breathing a collective sigh of relief knowing they're safe from Nick…for now…

Chapter Six – With Twilight as My Guide

I was at home watching TV when my phone rang. "Hey gorgeous. I was just thinking about you. How's the shift going?"

Instead of Anna, a male voice answered me. "It's going just fine, hot stuff. How's your afternoon?" The voice laughed, "Hey Nick. This is Bryan."

"Oh, hey man." I checked the display on my phone to make sure it was Anna's number and it was. "Where's Anna? Why are you using her phone to call me? Is she okay?"

"Not really. Aggie's is sick. She made it through the first day okay, but she's not gonna make it through the last half of her shift. She's throwing up in the bathroom and has been most of the morning. Shift captain floated over a man on one of the engines to be my driver on the ambulance so she could go home, but she asked me to call you to come get her. She doesn't think she can make it home." Bryan paused, "And judging from what I'm hearing coming from the bathroom, I doubt she makes it out the front door." Another pause. "Jesus. How can someone so small have that much to throw up? Sounds like her body is traveling in the future and is throwing up food she has yet to even eat. Anyway, tell her I will bring her truck home for her. It just so happened that a co-worker of Cathy's brought her in to work today. She was planning on stopping by here after shift tonight to get my truck and I was going to get Aggie to bring me home, so her getting sick actually did work out."

Looking at the grilled cheese sandwich in my hand, I put it down after Bryan's colorful description of Anna getting sick. "Thanks for the visual, man. I just lost my appetite." I got up to go find my shoes. "I'll tell her about the truck and thanks. I'll be there in a minute. Tell her I'm on my way."

"Uh, well…" Bryan trailed off. "If she quits puking long enough, I'll let her know."

I found my shoes and headed out to the fire department where Anna was at to pick her up. Bryan heard me pull in and opened the door for me. "She's quit hurling long enough to lie down on the couch." He looked over my shoulder at my truck parked in the fire department lot. "Hope you got leather seats or I can give you a bucket for her."

"My truck has cloth seats, so the bucket's fine." Bryan went to go find a bucket and told me that Anna was in the common area of the station. I found her stretched out on the couch with her hands covering her eyes. "Anna?"

She just picked one of her hands up off her face, "Hey." She moaned and rolled over on her side, "Nicky, shoot me. Oh, God, someone shoot me. I tried to get Bryan to kill me but he wouldn't. Said it'd do no good seeing as our motto is "We save lives, dammit" and we're in a building with so much life saving equip…oh, God…"

Anna bolted out of the room and back towards the back of the station as Bryan handed me a bucket. "Figured you'd need this. She go throw up again?"

"Yeah, she's in the back." I winced as I heard what was going on in the back of the station. "Now I know I've lost my appetite probably for the rest of the week."

Anna appeared a moment later after getting a bottle of water out of the fridge in the hallway. "Ugh. Kill me."

"I am not going to kill you." I looked at her as she leaned against the wall for support. "You do look like death warmed over though." I held out my hand and Anna took it and we went outside to leave. I thanked Bryan for calling me as he walked out with us. He threw Anna's bag in the back seat of my truck as she got in the front seat with her barf bucket in hand. She managed not to throw up on the way back to my apartment, but the instant we got in the parking lot, Anna made a funny sound, grabbed the keys out of my hand and dashed up the walk and unlocked my door and left the door wide open with the keys still in the lock as she made a beeline to the bathroom. I got her bag and puke bucket out of the front of my truck and made my way inside, pulling my keys out of the lock and shutting the door behind me. Setting her stuff on the floor, I fixed her a glass of water and got some crackers out of one of my cabinets.

Anna came slowly walking back in my living room. She had taken off her black uniform shirt and one boot before falling over on my couch. "Please kill me." She pulled a blanket off the back of my couch and cocooned herself in it. "I'm freezing and I can't hold anything down." She curled up into a ball and stuck her hand out from the blanket long enough to take the glass from me and drink some of the water. "Any bets on how long this'll stay down?"

I told her to stick her leg out of the blanket long enough so I could take off her other boot. She did and after I sat down in front of her, she pulled her leg under the blanket again and started to shiver. "Hopefully a lot longer than the station food." I handed her the crackers. "Eat a few. I'll make you some toast after while. Dry toast. No butter."

"Yippee-ki-yay. I'm sick and on my death bed and I'm being force fed prison food. I hear they serve peanut butter in prison." Anna took the cracker package from me and ate a few of them before reaching for her water again.

"I hate peanut butter. I don't touch the stuff, aside from which, aren't you allergic to peanuts anyway?"

"Oh, I am. Feeding me peanut butter would be a sure fire way to make sure I die. At least I don't have to worry about you having peanut butter here and trying to kill me at the hands of Mr. Peanut. Just the though of it makes me…" She threw the blanket off and ran to the bathroom again.

When she came back in the living room, I saw Anna had changed out of her uniform and into one of my t-shirts and a pair of her own sweatpants and settled back down on the couch and ate a few more crackers before mummifying herself again in my Texas Longhorns blanket that I kept on the back of the couch. She did manage to keep the crackers down this time as we started to finish the movie I started when Bryan called. She fell asleep in the middle of it and woke up just as it was going off. "You still don't look good." I felt Anna's neck. "Your fever's back and it feels like it's higher. I think you need to go to the doctor." Anna complained she was cold so I brought her another blanket. She wrapped herself up in the second blanket as we watched TV, but when she started shivering even after being under two blankets, I told her again she needed to go to the doctor. She started to argue with me, but I cut her off after feeling her neck again. I stood up and pulled the blankets off her. "We're going. Now. I'm not having you die on me." I went back to the bedroom and got the Texas Longhorns sweatshirt she was wearing earlier out of my closet and gave it to her. She put it on over the LVPD shirt of mine that she was wearing and wrapped one of the blankets around her like a robe. I figured she'd argue with me over going, but apparently, she was too sick to argue and knew she needed to go with me. I got a bottle of water out of the fridge and handed it to her. "It's late. The doctors' offices are all closed." I got my keys and my phone and opened the door. "I'll take you to the walk in clinic that I've been to before." Anna didn't argue as she slowly made her way to my truck. She was leaning up against the truck with her forehead on the passenger side window, still holding the blanket wrapped tightly around her as I locked the door to my apartment and hit the button to unlock the doors to my truck. I helped her in and we started towards the clinic.

We got there and made our way inside so she could check in. She took a seat against a far wall in the corner so she could prop herself up. The receptionist handed me a clipboard and told me to get Anna to fill it out. I took the seat next to her as she leaned on me, putting her head on my shoulder. I filled in as much of the info as I could and handed it to her so she could fill in the insurance information and sign it. She filled in the remaining boxes and signed it and handed it back to me. I took it back to the window and the receptionist cheerfully told me that someone would call her in a minute. I glanced up at the clock above the TV before I sat back down. It was almost nine and she was still waiting and shivering next to me. "Do you want me to go get the blanket out of my truck?" She shook her head and I put my arms around her and pulled her in my lap as she leaned against me and sighed.

After another half hour passed before Anna was called to be seen. After the nurse massacred Anna's last name, she led us back to a small exam area. She took Anna's blood pressure and temperature and said she'd be back in a minute. After requesting a blanket, Anna got off the exam table and again sat in my lap, leaning against me as she closed her eyes and we waited on the doctor to come in. An orderly dropped a blanket off and I wrapped her up as best as I could with her being in my lap and not wanting to move much.

An hour and some blood work and x-rays later, we were back in the same little room, still waiting on the doctor to come back in. Anna was close to falling back asleep in my arms when the door opened and the doctor walked in. "Miss, um…" He stared at the form with Anna's name on it. "Um. Miss Gee-geen-deet? Did I get that right?"

I nudged her and she held her head up and dropped the blanket to the floor as she stood up, not even bothering to correct the doctor who just butchered her last name. "Close enough."

"I'm Dr. Shelton." He picked up Anna's chart and started to look through the paperwork. "Looking over your blood work here, looks like you've probably got a touch of the flu with a case of strep throat." He put her file on the table and pulled out his prescription pad. "We need to pull one more x-ray as one of the ones they took earlier didn't come out and do a throat culture to make sure, but it's going around. I noted in your chart that you're a paramedic?"

Anna nodded. "Yes, I'm with the LVFD."

"I thought you looked familiar. I also work at Desert Palms in the ED from time to time." He turned back to the prescription pad in his hand and started writing. "Around sick people as often as you are and it's basically a lock that's what you've got." He tore off the first sheet and started writing on a second sheet. "Here are some prescriptions for an antibiotic to clear up the strep throat and some prescription strength pain killers and flu medication for the aches that the flu is causing. Take some aspirin or Motrin for the fever and come back in two days if the fever hasn't broken or if gets any higher. I'll get the nurse to come in when she gets a chance to take you back to x-ray, then after that, someone will be in with the discharge papers and we'll get you on your way."

"Drugs, radiation and more blood. Goodie." Anna turned her attention back to my shoulder as she sat back down and laid her head on me again. The doctor handed us the blanket before he left.

I was holding her while she rested when my pager went off. "le Damn." I reached under the blanket and got it off my belt. Pushing the button, I read the text. "419 at 12215 Culver Park Road. Meet Sara and me there. Grissom." I clipped the annoying pager back on my belt. "Double le damn."

Anna moved her head off my shoulder and started to get up from my lap. "Go, Nicky. It's okay."

"No, they can wait. I'll call Grissom and tell him I can't come in tonight. I need to take you back home."

She got up on the exam table and went to lie down. "Nick, it's okay. I'll call Cathy to come get me. It's after time for your shift to start anyway." She pulled her arm out from under the blanket long enough to check the time. "It's well after eleven. Go. I understand you have to go. It's okay. I'll call someone."

"I hate to just have to leave you like this."

Anna assured me she'd be okay and she understood I had to leave and she promised she wasn't mad at me. The nurse came in again and said she needed to pull some x-rays one more time and do some more blood work, then after that Anna could probably leave. After apologizing profusely for having to leave Anna like I did, I told her I'd check on her later as I left the building.

I got back to my apartment and switched vehicles and headed to the address that Grissom gave me. Two LVPD cars were parked in the driveway and someone had put crime scene tape up across the front lawn. After showing my ID to one of the officers guarding the driveway, he lifted up the tape and allowed me to go in.

"Nick, you're here. Good. Victim's name is Audrey Malone. She's in the back bedroom. Sara's about to go back there and start processing as soon as David gets here to take the body out. I want you in the kitchen first, then in the bathroom. Dust for prints. ALS the usual suspects for the blunt force trauma. There's high velocity spatter all over the room. Someone beat this girl to death. Keep your eye out for the murder weapon. We haven't found it yet."

I got to work in the kitchen and started dusting for prints and collecting samples for trace of something oily all over the kitchen floor. I finished up in the kitchen and made my way to the bathroom. I went to open my kit and realized I was out of fingerprint powder. I told Grissom I was out and went back outside to get more fingerprint powder out of my truck when my phone rang. I was so busy getting stuff out of my truck that I flipped it open and didn't even bother to look at the caller ID. "Stokes."

"Nick?"

I pulled the phone away from my ear and saw that it was Anna's number calling but again it wasn't her voice speaking to me. "Yeah?"

"Hey, Nick. It's Cathy."

"Cathy, hey. Thanks again for going up there with Anna. Some days I hate this job. How's Anna?"

"She's asleep. We're finally getting to go home. The docs gave her something for the pain and a shot of antibiotics and it pretty much knocked her out as soon as they gave it to her. She had to be carried outside. Anna stirred a bit in the car on the way home, but I told her that I'd call you and for her to sleep on our way home. We're just leaving the clinic now."

I checked my watch, "That took a while. It's after 2:30. What'd they say?"

"Flu and strep throat for sure. Anna and I are on our way back to your apartment. I said I'd stay with her in town until you got home. I hope that's okay. Doc wanted someone there in case she had an allergic reaction to the meds he gave her at the clinic and since your apartment is a lot closer than our houses, I told her I could stay with her after we were finished at the clinic."

"Yeah that's fine. I hate to have to cut you off, but I've got to head back in. I'll check on you later, ok?"

Cathy said that was fine and I hung up as I made my way back inside, fresh jar of fingerprint powder in hand, and started in on the bathroom. I had just started to process when Grissom came in the bathroom.

"Nick, you're off the case."

I looked up from the bathroom counter I was dusting. "But I'm not done yet. I just got the place dusted and was about to lift for prints. I've still got to process this room and ALS it."

Grissom grabbed me by the arm and led me outside. "Look, there's a possible conflict of interest here. I can't say any more than that, but I need you to go back to the lab and wait on me."

"Why?"

"I'll explain later. Nick, just go. Leave the stuff you've collected with Sara and go back to the lab. Wait in my office. Go to the morgue and watch Robbins on the autopsy from Greg's case or do whatever you want, but just stay away from this case. Understand?"

I had no idea what was going on, but after giving Sara the evidence in the bin I had collected, I got back in the truck and went back to the lab. I started out in the break room, but doing nothing bothered me. I got up to go to Grissom's office to call Anna to check on her when Captain Brass stopped me in the hall. "Good, you're here. Come on."

"Come on where?"

He looked at me. "Look, I need to ask you some questions on a professional level about the scene you were at. It's best we do this in private."

"Would someone please tell me what is going on here? Grissom throws me out of the crime scene and takes the evidence I collected. He tells me to stay away from this case and now you're here being just as cryptic and want to question me? Jim, tell me."

He walked into Grissom's office and shut the door after I came in behind him. Turning on the overhead lights, he threw a picture on the table in front of me. "The home invasion turned bad we were just at? So what?" I pulled the chair out behind Grissom's desk and sat down. "What's this got to do with me?"

"This is why we had to pull you off of it. Look at the third picture."

Brass put the case folder on the desk. I opened it and flipped to the third picture. A bloody shirt was on the floor underneath the dead girl. I got the magnifying glass from Grissom's desk and held it over the picture. "Oh my God." I focused on the lettering on the shirt and it was one of Anna's work shirts. "That's Anna's. What the hell is her shirt doing there covered in blood?"

"That's why we're trying to figure out. Earlier tonight, I sent a sheriff's office deputy out to her house to pick her up. Uniform said no one was home. Where is she, Nick?"

"Anna? My Anna?"

"Yeah. Your Anna." Brass looked at me. "Where is she?"

"She was headed back to my apartment with a friend of hers. I took her to the 24 hour clinic on Pendleton Avenue. I had to come in to work when I got the page and she called a friend of hers to come get her. Her friend just called me right before Grissom threw me out of the house telling me they were on their way home."

"Alright. Look. We'll be sending uniforms to your house to pick Anna up and bring her in now that I know where she is. You need to wait here as well."

"Uniforms? No. No you're not." I got up from the chair quick enough to send it crashing into a bookcase behind me. "Anna had nothing to do with this and I won't let you treat her like a criminal. No uniforms. I'll go get her."

"Nick, you need to stay away from this. You're involved with Anna and though I believe you that she had nothing to do with this, you need to stay away in case something happens or something does come from all of this. I know you want to help her but remember this, you could hurt her more than you'd be helping her by getting involved."

"Jim, I don't know what the hell's going on here, but if some of the lab rats put you up to this to scare me or something, it worked. Anna has been sick the past week and left work after I went to get her. She's been at the clinic all night long and was at work before that."

"Can anyone verify that?"

"Damn it, Jim. I can. Her partner from work can as well as the other guys at the station. I was with her until I got the call. I left her there in the room and she said she'd call someone to pick her up."

Brass gathered the photos up and put them back in the case folder. "We'll need to verify this with someone other than you. I need someone else who isn't personally involved with both Anna and this case to verify her whereabouts. Look, Nick, this isn't anything personal. I'm with you. I don't think Anna had anything to do with this, but you know it's routine. I'll find out if she's on her way here now. Why don't you go up to the reception area and wait on her? Bring her back here to Grissom's office and have them overhead me when she's here." He turned to leave, but stopped. "And if she needs a lawyer, get her one."

"A lawyer? For what? She didn't do anything."

"I know, Nick. I believe you. You know as well as I do that I have to say that and I have to offer. You know that. Let me know when she gets here."

I pulled the chair back away from the bookcase and sat down again. Putting my head in my hands, I started to analyze in my head what I saw at the crime scene. I tried to think if there was a connection between Anna and the dead girl. Could Anna have been to an ambulance call at the house, got blood on her shirt and left it behind? Did the girl fight Anna at a previous call, ripping the shirt off and in the essence of time, it got left behind to save the girl's life? I shook the thoughts out of my head, knowing there was no way she'd leave her shirt behind at a scene like that. She knew the rules as well as I did when it came to biohazards. If Anna got blood on her clothes at a scene, they had to be bagged and tagged, just like medical waste from the ambulances. I started to play different theories in my head as I waited. I was thinking someone stole one of her shirts from the department. I needed to ask Anna where the locker rooms were and who had access and if anyone could just walk in off the street and take one of her shirts.

I was still lost deep in thought when the overhead system interrupted me, telling me I had a guest. I left Grissom's office and made my way up front and Anna was leaning back in one of the chairs. Anna's color was still as pale as she was earlier. She was resting her head against the wall with a strange woman standing next to her. "Anna?"

"What's going on here?" She stood up and started to walk to me, but she stumbled a bit. The woman behind her caught Anna and with her help, they slowly walked towards the door I was holding open. I let the door go to help Anna. Realizing I had never met Cathy before, Anna introduced us. "Oh, this is Cathy, Bryan's wife. Cathy, this is Nick Stokes."

"I gathered that's who you were. Nice to meet you." Cathy held out her hand for me to shake it and I did. "Someone needs to tell both of us what's going on. Anna called after you left her at the clinic. Bryan is still at work, so I dropped Cody off at the sitter's and left to come get her then when we get back to your place, two police officers tell us they need us to follow them here."

The receptionist handed me two visitors' badges. "Put these on and come with me." I handed the badges to Anna and Cathy. "Judy, tell Brass they're here and to come to Grissom's office."

"Yes, sir." She reached for the microphone and alerted Brass via the PA system that he had a visitor in Grissom's office.

"Nicky, what's going on?"

"Anna, I have no idea. Come on in here and sit. Brass will be here in a minute and he'll explain."

Anna dug a Kleenex out of her pocket and blew her nose. She motioned for Cathy to give her the water bottle she was holding. Anna unscrewed the top and took a long drink before putting the top back on and sitting on the couch in Grissom's office while we waited on Brass to get here.

The door opened and Brass walked in. "So would you please tell me what the hell is going on? It's almost four in the morning and I feel like road kill."

Brass pulled a chair from behind Grissom's desk and sat down, facing Anna and Cathy. "Anna I presume?"

"Yeah. That's me. This is Cathleen Brooks, one of my best friends. Now what's going on?"

Brass looked at me, then at Anna. "Did you want a lawyer?"

She coughed and then sneezed. "For what? Having the flu in a government building?" I had to hide a smile at her smartass remark. "The only thing I want is to know what in the name of all things purple I'm doing here at this time in the morning. I'm sick and I want to go to bed."

"We'll make this as short as possible. Mind if I record this?" Anna shook her head and Brass got a portable recorder from his pocket and pushed the record button. "This is Captain Jim Brass with CSI Nick Stokes, Anna…" He looked at her, "How do you pronounce your name?" She said it for him. "Thank you. Anna Gigandet and Cathleen Brooks. This is Wednesday April 29th and it is approximately 3:50 AM." He opened the folder and handed a picture to Anna but stopped himself before he handed it to her. "Now are you sure you don't want a lawyer?"

"Since I know you need this recorded on tape, I'll say it again and slowly. I. Do. Not. Need. A. Lawyer." Anna sneezed again. "That work?"

"Yes. That'll do." Brass handed Anna a box of Kleenex off of Grissom's desk. "Take a look at this, please."

He handed a picture to her. She took it and looked at it for a moment before speaking. "Other than a random house, what am I looking at?"

"This is a crime scene Nick was at earlier. Do you recognize the house?"

Anna shook her head and got a Kleenex out of the box as she handed the picture back to him. "No. At least I don't think so."

"Do you work only as a medic on one of the ambulances, or do you work on the fire trucks also?"

"I'm a dual role provider. I'm primarily assigned to one of the ambulances, but I usually catch an engine shift once a month or so. Just depends on the staffing for the shifts. Why?"

Brass pulled out his notebook and started writing after taking the picture back from Anna. "Is there a chance you could have had an ambulance or a fire call at this address?"

"Considering the house it still standing and not a charred shell, the fire call is probably a no. But about the ambulance call there, I don't know. I answer, on average, thirty calls a shift. I work two days a week for 52 weeks a year. You do the math. That's a lot of calls, so I don't know. Maybe." Anna motioned for Brass to give her the picture again. He did and she stared at the house again. "The only way to know that for sure would be to check with central dispatch or my shift captain. His name is Zach Seeley." Anna coughed and then sneezed. "He'll have the records. The dispatch super's name is um…Tonya…Crap."

"Tonya Lewis. Her son plays soccer with Cody. Bryan introduced me to her one of the last games that Cody was in."

"Thanks, Cathy. Tonya Lewis would be the one to ask about the dispatch tapes or the records if I've been there in the past on a call. Zach would have the paperwork and narratives that we did if there was a run."

Brass wrote what Anna said in his notebook. "Okay. Good." He took the picture back from her. "Nick was working this scene with Supervisor Grissom and Sara Sidle earlier. CSI Sidle was processing the bedroom where the deceased was." He handed Anna another picture. "This is the deceased. Her name is Audrey Malone and this is her driver's license picture. Recognize her?"

Anna took the picture and looked at it, "Not off the top of my head, no. Why? Why am I being asked about a dead girl and a crime scene Nick worked? What's this got to do with me?"

He took the picture back from her and put it back in the case file. "Nick, if you need to leave the room, now's the time. I can't have you interrupting and interjecting in what I'm about to say. If you start in, I will have you removed. Got it?"

"He stays here with me. Period." Anna got another Kleenex out of the box and blew her nose before tossing the Kleenex in the trash next to the desk. "Or I will request a lawyer and jam you up."

I looked at Brass and shrugged my shoulders. "You heard her."

"Anna, while CSI Sidle was processing the scene, she found this shirt in the bedroom. The spots on the front are blood drops from a high velocity spatter." He handed her the photo and she took it from him. "This is why you're here. We need to know how your shirt got there and a run down on your whereabouts for the last several hours. According to Grissom, the killer held the weapon in their right hand and struck the victim until she died."

Anna sneezed again. "First of all, I'm left handed. Ask anyone that knows me or give me a pen and I'll write out a sonnet for you to prove it. Secondly, I don't know about the shirt and thirdly, as for my whereabouts, my partner Bryan can vouch for me from yesterday up until I left when I got sick. Then after that, ask Nicky. He was with me most of the night at his house or at the Quick Aid clinic on Pendleton Avenue. Nick took me up there about nine I think. He got me checked in and stayed with me until a little after eleven tonight when he got the page. I called Cathy right after he left to come get me. Cathy got there about midnight I think." She turned to Cathy who nodded. "She's been there with me ever since. We stayed there until about two and I got released and Cathy took me home back to Nick's but when we got there, the officers told us to come here."

"Can anyone verify where you were during the thirty minutes after Nick left and the time before Cathy got there?"

I got up quickly again, sending the chair crashing into the bookcase a second time. "Brass, this is insane. Anna didn't do this."

Brass stood up to face me. "Nick. I told you. You can't interrupt. One more and I'll have you thrown out. Got it?" He pulled the chair back towards me and I sat down in front of Anna and Cathy again. "I need the names of anyone who can verify you were there."

Brass got his pen out and started to write as Anna rattled off the people who saw her. "Let's see, I don't remember all the names but there's Nick, the receptionist at the desk who's name was Rita, Kenneth who was the orderly who brought me the blanket, Marie who was the x-ray tech who took the first set of x-rays, William who's a nurse there, two more orderlies who helped me back to the room but I can't think of their names, Helen who was the phlebotomist who took my blood, Trina who was another nurse in the x-ray room, Dr. Shelton, and then Cathy." Brass had stopped writing but Anna wasn't done. "Oh, and the sick kid in the hallway with the balloon, his mother, the lady in the x-ray room with the beehive hairdo, her daughter and another doctor as well as the night janitor. I do remember his name was Mark." Anna stopped listing the names so she could sneeze. "That enough, or need more?"

Captain Brass shook his head, "Uh, no, that's plenty. Did you happen to notice if this place had video cameras? Surveillance?"

"I'm sure there were cameras, Captain. They've got controlled narcotics. Places like those are just prime areas waiting on someone to jump over the counter and hold someone at gunpoint and demand narcotics. Check the tapes."

Brass shot me a look, "Thank you Nick, but I was asking the other Anna." He stopped the tape recorder and stood up. "Look, I don't see that there's going to be a problem here but we need you to hang around until we can verify some of this."

"I'll confess to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby and the JFK shooting if you'll find me somewhere so I can sleep." Anna fell over on her side and brought her legs up to her chest. "Please?"

Brass looked over behind me when he heard the door opening behind where I was standing. "Gil. We're just about done here."

"She can stay in my office." Grissom opened the door so he could come in. "And I doubt if you were even alive when JFK was shot or when the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped, but nice to offer. So sorry about this, Anna, but it's procedure." He went in a closet at the back of his office and handed her a pillow and a blanket. "You can stay here. Nick, you can't be alone with her. Not until this is done. Catherine, Jim or I will need to be here with you if you're in the room with Anna." He started to lead me out of the office as I looked over at my shoulder at Anna. She had taken the pillow and blanket and had curled back up into a ball as Cathy was draping the blanket over her. Grissom led me outside and stopped. "Look, I don't know what's going on here. I'm with you and with Brass on this. I think Anna's shirt was planted. Did she mention losing any or anything?"

I tried to think, but came up blank. "I can't think of anything off…oh wait…" I remembered the cleaners and the lost clothes from earlier. "Anna dropped some of our clothes off at the cleaners. Where's that picture of her shirt again?" Grissom flipped through the file Brass had given him and showed me the photo. "Can I ask her a question, or do you need to do it?"

"What's the question?"

"I just need to ask her what shirts she dropped off at the cleaners. Anna had to have some buttons sewn back some of her shirts and some on mine too, but she also needed a senior medic patch put on her shirts. She got promoted not too long ago. The shirts were picked up by accident or misplaced. She said she went by there, but the clerk had told her I picked them up but I didn't. I left my name and number hoping someone would return them, but no one ever called." I stared at the picture again. "These are her class A uniform shirts. They don't wear these unless they're at an event or court. Rest of the time, they wear those black shirts with the BDU pants. You've seen her."

Grissom took the picture back from me. "Just to be safe, stay out here and let me ask her." Grissom went inside and squatted down on the floor in front of Anna. She took the picture from him and stared at it before she answered the question. He stood back up and came back out to me a few moments later. "You were right. She said this is one of the ones that she left at the cleaners. She said she has two long sleeve shirts and two short sleeve shirts and she dropped the two short sleeve shirts off at the cleaners. She said the senior medic patch under her name was the one she needed added and in this picture, it's sewn it on. It looks like someone's trying to set her up for the murder." He looked through the glass door at Anna. "You can go in there, but I trust you enough not to discuss the case with her. Nick, you know the consequences if something were to happen. You'd lose your job and be arrested too."

"I know that and you have my word." I opened the door and turned to thank Grissom, but he was already walking down the hall towards trace. "Feeling any better?" Anna shook her head and wrapped the blanket tighter around her body. I pulled the chair Brass was sitting in front of the couch. "Cathy, you can go home if you want. I'll stay with her."

"I do need to go get Cody." Cathy picked up her purse and I told Anna I'd be right back. I left her on the couch as I took Cathy back up to the reception area. She handed the badge back to Judy. "Nick, what do you think is going on here? Anna didn't do this. You know it."

"I know she didn't. You know she didn't. The girl was killed earlier in the day and Anna was at work, with me or at the clinic with one of us and probably over two dozen surveillance cameras. One of the other CSIs is going through the video surveillance footage from the clinic. I'll let you know what happens and thanks for helping me with Anna. Sometimes I just hate this job for calling me at the most inopportune times."

Cathy left and I went back to stay with Anna. She was asleep on the couch in Grissom's office. I went back to the locker room and got some sports magazines from Greg's locker and headed back to Grissom's office to stay with Anna. As I flipped through the magazine, I didn't even notice when Brass came back in. "Nick?"

I jumped, "Yeah." I stood up. "How's it going? Any news?"

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." He and I left the room so we wouldn't disturb Anna. "Well, Sara and Greg looked through the surveillance footage from the clinic. You and Anna are in a lot of the shots. Apparently that place has more cameras in use than most other buildings. Video footage confirms that both of you were there until you got the page. We got a shot of you leaving just after the page and right after that, we got footage of Anna in a chair in the hallway for about half an hour until her friend got there. She never left out of the camera's line of sight until her friend got there. From what Greg said, her friend never left Anna's side the entire time they were there and they were on cameras in multiple locations the rest of the night until they left and Cathy took her back to your place and we intercepted. Looks like she's off the hook and the story checks out, but we still need to find out who killed Audrey Malone and why they tried to make it look like Anna had something to do with it. We're going to check with the shift captain after while and check into Anna's reports with the fire department and find out what's going on there to see if there's a connection." He looked over my shoulder at Anna, still passed out on Grissom's couch. "Gil said you can take her home, Nick. Tell her I'm sorry about all this and I hope she feels better." He put his hand on my shoulder as he left Grissom's office.

I woke Anna up and carried her out to my truck and took her home to my apartment, wondering the whole time who was trying to set her up.

A/N: Obligatory begging for reviews line goes here. Happy Friday everyone!