Hi all. FIrst of all I want to say a massive than you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!!! It's so great to have such a huge response form you guys. It really means a lot. Secondly, I want to apologise for this chapter being a little short, but it just seemed to come to a natural end. More soon I hope!

“So I hear you got yourself a dead celebrity?” Catherine said, appearing behind Nick who was busily searching the internet for any recent articles he could find on Christopher Martin. He was nursing a mug of coffee in one hand and slowly scrolling down the computer screen with the other.

“Yeah. ‘Christo Martin’ and some woman we haven’t managed to identify yet. I was hoping maybe there would be some pictures of them together somewhere, help us find out who she is.” Catherine nodded and perched on the bench next to him, looking at the screen over his shoulder.

“Any luck?”

“Nada.”

“Well,” She sighed. “Give it time Nicky. I’m sure the gossip columnists will come up with something soon enough.” He swivelled round on his chair to face her, changing the subject.

“And what about you? What did you have that was so interesting Grissom had to abandon us with half of Vegas there watching us process the scene?” She sensed a slight hint of bitterness in his tone but thought better than to mention it. Instead she just shrugged.

“Dead body. Lots of bugs.”

“Oh, so right up Grissom’s street then.”

“Oh yeah.” She smiled. “He was in his element.”

“Nick?” Sara’s head appeared around the doorway but she stopped when she saw Catherine. “Oh sorry, am I interrupting?”

“No, Nick was just telling me about your case. Exciting stuff huh?” Sara smiled. She didn’t generally find working cases with famous people to be anymore exciting than any other. In fact if anything, it just annoyed her that they seemed to be prioritised above everyone else. “I better get going anyway.” Catherine said as she slid off the bench, her heels clicking on the hard floor as she landed. “I’ll see you guys later.” She gave Nick an encouraging smile and gently squeezed his shoulder before she left, smiling at Sara too as she passed.

“I’m just heading down to autopsy.” Sara said when Catherine had gone, leaning sideways to rest on the doorframe. “You want to come?”

“Sure why not?” Nick sighed. “I don’t seem to be getting anywhere here anyway.”

“Still no luck with identifying our woman then?” She asked as Nick came to her side and they began the walk down to the morgue.

“Not yet. I think Mandy was running her prints but I’ve not heard how she’s getting on yet. I think she was pretty backed up.”

“Yeah the bad guys seem to be out in force lately.” Sara said, running her hand through her hair.

“Tell me about it.” Nick sighed. “All this overtime is good for the bank balance but it’s doing nothing for my social life.” Sara smiled half-heartedly, trying to hide her unease at the mention of having a social life at all. It was something that was distinctly lacking from Sara’s life and although she pretended that she didn’t mind it, sometimes it made her a little sad.

“Tell you what,” Nick continued. “It’s doing nothing for the status of my laundry either. Pretty soon I’m going have to start re-wearing clothes.” He got another slight smile. “I mean I know Greg does it all the time but…” This made her smile broaden and Nicks along with it. “Now that’s better.” Sara frowned at him, not sure what he meant. “The smile.” He explained.

“Oh?”

“You seem a little down tonight.” He siad, his voice tinged with concern. She shrugged.

“No. Just tired that’s all.” They had reached the morgue now and Sara reached for two lab coats, handing one to Nick, hoping he would drop the subject.

“Thanks.” He took the coat and slipped it on as he held the door open for her with one foot. He watched her slowly walk past him, her shoulders slumped and defeated. There was definitely something not quite right about his friend and he wasn’t convinced it was just tiredness as she claimed. Doctor Robbins looked up as the walked in and nodded at them in greeting.

“Another one for your book doc?” Nick said, noticing the camera in the coroners hand. It was perhaps one of the strangest hobbies Nick could imagine, photographing dead celebrities, but one Nick found oddly fascinating at the same time.

“Just one of the perks of the job.” He joked placing the camera down beside him ready to talk the CSI’s through his autopsy findings.

“So what have you got for us?” Sara asked.

“Well he was shot twice through the chest, I have the bullets here for you.” Al Robbins said handing Sara a clear plastic container with the bullets ratting around inside.

“34mm.” Sara observed.

“I got the same sized bullet from our Jane Doe too. She had just a single shot to the chest which severed her aorta.” Nick nodded and looked down at the body in front of him.

“Are these defensive wounds?” He asked, pointing at areas of bruising on both of the dead stars arms.

“Yes, it’s defiantly pre-mortem bruising. By the shape I would say someone grabbed hold of his wrists.”

“Did you see any similar marks on the woman too?” Sara asked.

“No. There was some old bruising on her upper thighs but nothing from immediately prior to her death.”

“Any signs of sexual activity at all?”

“Yes, not long prior to death but it was consensual and there was no semen I’m afraid.” Sara nodded, absorbing the information.

“So I guess the chances are that she and Christo were in some kind of relationship.” Nick said, Sara and the coroner both shrugging their agreement. “Anything else come up?”

“No that’s all.”

“Ok well thanks Doc.” Nick said. “We’ll get these up to ballistics.”

“Yeah thanks Nick, Sara.” Al said as the two CSI’s left the room to head back upstairs to the labs. They were just hanging up their white coats when the sound of hurried footsteps coming down the corridor behind them made them turn. Gil Grissom was heading towards them. Sara froze, her hand hovering above the coat peg, her coat still in her hand.

“Hey Griss, What’s the hurry?” Nick asked his boss as he approached.

“I think I may have an ID on Catherine’s DB.” He said, waving a photograph in Nick’s general direction.

“Must be someone pretty exciting.”

“Not especially.” Nick glanced over to Sara, raising his eyebrow at their boss’s behaviour but she didn’t seem to notice. She was standing looking down at the floor, still holding her lab coat.

“You ok there Sara?” He asked frowning. Grissom turned his head sharply to look at her.

“Huh?” She looked up now, her eyes looking a little gazed, like her mind was somewhere very different to her body. Nick slowly took the coat from her hand and hung it up, his eyes silently laughing at her startled expression as he did so.

“Oh thanks.” She said, giving Nick a half smile. Grissom frowned.

“If you’re that tired Sara you should go home.” He said, pulling on his own lab coat and opening the morgues door.

“No, I’m fine.” She said, but the door had already closed behind him. “Just, fine.” She mumbled quietly, biting down gently on her lower lip. Nick looked at her, waiting for an explanation of what had just happened. But he didn’t get one. Mostly because Sara didn’t know herself why Grissom was acting so strangely towards her. They had been fine last week, they had worked their last case together and granted, the outcome wasn’t great, but they were getting on as well as ever. But now it seemed to have changed.

“We should get these upstairs.” She said eventually, breaking the silence.

“Ok.” Said Nick, desperate to check that she really was ok but thinking better of it. He knew that if he kept pushing her she might just shut him out altogether.

“So, uh, any ideas about the case yet?” He asked as they walked along.

“Not sure. Maybe Christo was trying to defend our Jane Doe, that’s why he has the defensive wounds?”

“That sounds plausible.”

“I guess it could have been just a random attack. A burglary gone wrong.”

“The security in that place was pretty tight.” Nick pointed out, thinking that there were much easier targets for a burglar on that street. “Was there anything in the house obviously missing?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Maybe we could go back and check. Ask his friends or his manager or something, see if they know.”

“I’ll call Brass see if we can arrange something.”

“This is beginning to look more and more like a double shift isn’t it?” Nick said with a sigh.

“Afraid so.” Sara said, her tone equally deflated.

“Guess the laundry is just going to have to wait.”

Thanks for reading. Once again, your reviews would be very much appreciated and I promise you will all get a reply form me to say thank you personally!

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