Sara absently ran her fingers through her hair as she walked down the halls of the lab with Nick. She could never understand how the press could always show up at times like this, it was six o'clock in the morning, and hound them for news. Vegas, she decided, followed none of the normal rules.

"Why do we get stuck with press duty?" Nick asked plaintively.

"Would you rather be on computer duty?" Sara asked sardonically, "Besides, you're the people person. I'm just along for scientific relief."

"As opposed to comic relief?" he replied, sounded more like himself than he had the last few days.

"Naturally." She answered, smiling. "I'm not all that funny."

"Speaking of funny," Nick began, in the tone of voice Greg called the Theory Voice behind his back, "Have you noticed something weird about Grissom lately? More weird than normal I mean."

Sara immediately became guarded, and she knew Nick would notice, but there was really no getting around it.

"Not really" she lied, hoping it would work.

"He's been distant" Nick continued, and she realized it hadn't. "More than normal I mean. And he's been slacking too. Well, not really slacking, but working differently then he normally would. He should be the one I have along for scientific relief, not you. No offence of course, but it is part of his job."

"Maybe he wants me to learn something, or to keep you under control." Sara tried again. Nick stopped and she walked past him. She stopped too and turned to face him, only to find him right in her face.

"You know." It wasn't a question. "You know and you aren't going to tell me."

"I don't know what you're talking about Nick." She replied, turning away so he couldn't see her face. She resumed walking down the hall. "Come on Nick. The lion's are waiting."

"Sharpening their claws I bet." He said, catching up with her. He shelved away his questions and suspicions as they opened the doors and prepared to face the reporters together.

* * * * * * *

Warrick sat at the computer wishing he'd thought to bring a coffee with him. Catherine sat at another console, fingers flying across the keyboard as she looked up the websites of the various pet stores in the Las Vegas and Clark County area. He was looking at the veterinarian clinics and animal shelters. He could tell Catherine was angry about something, and he was pretty sure it wasn't about the case.

"What's up Catherine?" he asked finally.

"Nothing." She replied a bit too quickly, then "Grissom. He's doing it again, and I don't know why."

"Everyone's got secrets Cath." He said, trying to placate her "He doesn't have to tell us everything."

"He's told Sara." She said abruptly.

"So?" he replied. "He can tell whatever he wants to whomever he wants. And he can also not tell. It's his prerogative. You just don't like being out of the loop."

"Damn right I don't." Catherine said. "But he's been doing things so differently lately."

"Maybe he just wants a change of scenery. He's been at this for a while now after all."

"Whatever Warrick, stop trying to mollify me."

Warrick felt a thrill of excitement. The webpage he was on belonged to an animal shelter in Las Vegas, and it had pictures of recent adoptees. One of the photos was of a litter of kittens.

"Well, Greg was wrong." He said.

"What?" Catherine asked, barely concealing her exasperation.

"There are seven kittens." He smiled, and wrote down the address of the shelter. "Let's go tell Grissom."

"He can add it to his layout." Catherine said.

"Catherine, control yourself please." He replied, his characteristic laid back tone making light of the words. "You're killing me."

"I'll try." She said as they walked down the hall. She pulled out her cell and called Brass to tell him where to look for the Animal Shelter. It was almost seven AM, and by the time Brass actually got there, it probably wouldn't be too early. It looked like overtime again, but that was better than waiting at home.

"You'll try what?" Nick's voice came from behind her, and he and Sara joined the walk to the layout room."

"It's a long story." Warrick replied, anxious for a subject change. "How was the press?"

"Voracious" answered Sara.

"Typical." Said Catherine, opening the door of the layout room and holding it for them. They filed in and took seats around the table.

Grissom had laid out all of the pictures in chronological order, Catherine had left them in a bit of a jumble. When his team had settled, he started his analysis, knowing they would jump in when the saw something he missed, or needed clarification.

"Four victims. All between the ages of one and three, all taken from their own home."

"And the only other person present was a single female." Interjected Catherine.

"Right." Grissom nodded and continued, "The kidnapper used a different method of operation on all of them."

"Didn't wake two of them up, chloroformed the babysitter, and set a fire in the basement." Nick summarized.

"We're overlooking something." Said Sara. "That music box ran for just over four and a half minutes. We were in that room within the first two minutes, and Brass had his guys all over the street. It wasn't that dark, and no one saw anything."

"And the fire hadn't been burning very long either." Pointed out Grissom.

"Do you think we're looking for two?" Nick asked.

Catherine's telephone rang, and the rest of the team sat listening to half a conversation, until she hung up.

"That was Brass. I told him about the Animal Shelter lead we had. They keep records of who adopts the animals, and the person who dealt with our kittens volunteered to come in and talk to us." She reported. "He'll be here in an hour."

"What do we do until then?" Asked Warrick, half knowing what his supervisor's answer would be.

"We wait."