Chapter 41

JJ was rubbing the back of her neck, knowing that all the tension in her body was probably causing more than a few knots to appear in her neck and shoulders. Nick was currently asleep upstairs, where she was supposed to be but her mind just wouldn't shut down, not tonight. She hated knowing that the female victim had suffered worse than any of the previous victims ever had. It was almost like he was getting more and more frenzied, like something had made him so angry that he had to take it out on someone else in a very angry, bitter, painful, torturous way. JJ felt nothing but guilt at the thought that this could be happening to all these victims, because of something insensitive or humiliating that she could have done to someone else when she was a child.

She had been trying to use what she could to track down her old 'friend', just to make sure it could be him or to maybe even just apologize, especially if it turned out it wasn't him at all. JJ knew that she had to figure some sort of way to get in touch with the killer, to get him to slip up or just flat out tell her what this was all about, because she really had no idea. As she thought through everything she realized that she had to have known, deep down, subconsciously, that she was the main target for this killer. She just didn't understand why he had brought Nick into the whole thing the way that he had. JJ didn't understand about drugging her, having Nick get her pregnant and then making sure she was unable to remember anything about that, so much so that another woman was able to claim Ella as her own daughter without JJ being able to dispute it.

Suddenly she felt someone else's hands taking over and pressing harder into the knots in her body and she nearly jumped out of her skin, startled. When she turned quickly, which caused the hands to fall away, she saw Nick standing there with concern written all over his face. "You very nearly scared me to death. I have my gun close by Nick, what if I had just turned with my weapon and shot you without looking first?"

"Hey, relax JJ." Nick said softly, holding up his hands in a mock surrender. "You are so tight in your shoulders and neck, I can already tell that you most likely have a bunch of knots and we both know how bad those can get for you. Why don't you and I go into the living room, I can rub your shoulders, neck and back, and hopefully get those knots out, while we either talk about whatever is on your mind or we can put on the television and either watch late night TV or a movie?" Nick suggested as he smiled at his wife, still in so much shock that he had finally gotten JJ to marry him and that they had a beautiful daughter together.

"Okay." JJ said nodding slowly. She knew that she wouldn't be able to think straight, or ever get any sleep or even function until those knots were out because she was having a hard time holding a pen because she got that tingling in your arm, the feeling you usually get after you wake your foot up after it's fallen asleep. She knew it was because the circulation would get cut off and then suddenly the blood starts rushing through there.

They went into the living room and she settled on the couch, her back to her husband as he settled onto the couch behind her. He was lying back and she had settled between his legs with her legs stretched out in front of her, that way they were both technically lying down, but her back was to him so he could rub her shoulders, neck and back. They usually laid that way when she would lay with her back settled on his chest and his arms around her, and she figured that after he was done with rubbing everything out, she could lay back and they could just cuddle, and they would most likely fall asleep that way.

Grissom was staring at the evidence in front of him, wondering what it could be that he missed, because in his gut there was this feeling that there was something so obvious in front of him that he hadn't seen yet. He wasn't sure what it could be, but he had to find it because there was no way he could go home and sleep, not with this thought in his head, making his mind spin with ideas and suggestions to himself on how to figure out whatever it was.

Grissom looked up when he heard footsteps entering the lab area where he had the evidence lined up in front of him. He saw Sarah standing there and the look on her face made it very clear that she knew what was on his mind, she always seemed to know what was on his mind. She knew how he thought, she knew how he processed things and it was like she was in his head most of the time when it came to his ideas.

"You aren't going to get anywhere by staying here like this and staring at the evidence. You have the next couple days off for a reason, they don't want the team to get burnt out and after that horrible scene they are worried about how we are going to take things, so they have ordered us to take some down time and try and get ourselves back on track." Sarah reminded him and then she gave him a small smile. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Grissom really didn't want to leave but he knew she was right. If he stayed and kept looking at everything then he was really going to push things to hard. He knew that his mind was shutting itself down slowly, mainly because it was overworked and exhausted, just like he was, and he knew that if he got some rest and took some time for himself, he could probably come back to everything with a clearer head and find whatever it was in that pile of evidence that was bothering him. He started to put everything back away, making sure that he resealed it and initialed everything, keeping the chain of evidence intact. He didn't want anything to get thrown out of court on a technicality based on something so simple, no matter what.

Catherine was smiling as she saw the way Ella was cuddled with her favorite stuffed animal and her favorite blankie, while Lindsey was lying on her side facing the bed Ella was sleeping on, almost like she was looking over Ella and making sure she was all right. Catherine hated to admit it, but her daughter was pretty much grown up, not an adult yet, but she had the maturity level to be pretty close. Catherine was very proud of how much Lindsey was doing to make Ella feel safer and better, since she was away from her mommy and daddy again and it had to be super scary for her after what happened to her for so long in the wrong hands. As a mother herself, Catherine knew it had to be so hard for JJ not to have Ella close, especially after all that had happened in the past when it came to Ella and the family JJ and Nick were trying to make together. Catherine had also informed JJ and Nick that recently, Ella had made it clear she was going to be a big sister and that mommy and daddy were going to make sure she got a baby brother or a baby sister, soon.

Catherine turned away and left the door open a crack, like she always did and then she walked down the hallway to the guest room. When she quietly pushed the door open she was shocked to see the light was on and Warrick was wide awake, reading a book and ignoring the television that was in the room. Catherine managed to get a good look at the title and sighed, knowing that it was about tough to see forensics. It was clear that Warrick felt the same way that Grissom did which was shocking to her. She knew that Warrick looked up to Grissom, something a lot of CSI's actually did. But she never thought he would go so far as to read a book about forensics that were hard to see with your own eyes.

"Warrick…" Catherine started but when he looked up, she could see the excitement in his eyes. He was reading the book not just to help Grissom out, but because he wanted to be more involved in helping to stop this serial killer. She didn't have the heart to tell him that reading that book wasn't going to get him anywhere really, because their evidence was so messed up and so out of context that Catherine wasn't all that sure that it was going to be useful at all.

"Don't start right now. Grissom called me and he asked me what I thought about evidence hiding in plain sight, and I told him what I thought and that I would look into some things. This author, he wrote loads of forensics books explaining different techniques and different processes and if this killer is possibly using a special technique to hide evidence from us, then we need to do whatever we can to find it." Warrick stated and Catherine knew he was right and so she just nodded and sighed before she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

JJ and Nick were sitting at the table going through the things that they had brought home with them and the pictures that they had taken at the latest scene, hoping to figure out what the game was. The pictures that were going to be used as evidence were still in the evidence locker, that way no one could ever claim that they were tampered with because JJ and Nick had taken them home, they had just taken copies home instead. They both knew it was important that they really study these pictures, and that they really work hard to find out who this guy really is and what his issue is, because if they were wrong and it wasn't the old 'friend' from childhood, then they had no idea where to start or what this was all about.

He was pacing back and forth, looking at all the monitors and glad that his latest invention was doing it's job. It didn't matter how many times they scanned for camera's or bugs, they wouldn't be found by anyone or their equipment, there was a trick to making sure of it. He sighed as he took a seat in his favorite chair and stared at the monitor that showed what JJ and Nick were up to and he wondered how long it would take before they finally realized he wasn't predictable and that there was nothing for them to find, he was way too good for that.

The fact of the matter was, he had left clues for them at earlier scenes and they didn't pick up on them, and so now he was going to make things much, much harder for everyone involved. He had a reason for everything he did, and he was going to make sure that JJ learned that she was the reason so many people had died, and he hoped that, that guilt would eat her alive and haunt her for the rest of her life.

JJ was leaning back in her chair, and she glanced at the clock and saw that it was after 2 in the morning. She glanced back to her husband and saw that Nick was exhausted and he was looking a bit pale. The images from the last crime scene were fresh in both of their minds, and she knew how bad it had to be for him to sit there and know that this person had, had their daughter, because she knew it was killing her inside. She was feeling nothing but guilt for everything that had happened to all of the victims and the feeling that she was the reason it was happening to all these poor innocent helpless people. Now she could only help everyone by trying to figure out if her old friend was responsible or if it was someone else, and if it was someone else, she needed to know why they did the things that they did and why they blamed her for everything. JJ knew it needed to be fast, because serial killers didn't break patterns easily and that meant he was destined to torture and kill another innocent, very, very, soon.