Hey Everyone! Been awhile since I wrote anything... Just got really busy, and classes have started again... So i wanted to get this story up before things get to crazy! Set during season 9ish I guess? Not slash, though I guess it could be if you wanted to see it that way. Please Read and Review! I'm going to update as much as possible! Thanks Guys!

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

The late afternoon sun glinted off the sides of the Denali as Greg loaded evidence into the back of the vehicle. He, Nick, and Catherine had been at an old factory in the middle of god knows where for hours. It was pretty much an open and shut case. The wife of the foreman had found out he had been sleeping with the secretary, came in, and shot them both while they were on his desk. The woman had even confessed and sat brooding in the back of a nearby police cruiser. Still, everything needed to be processed. Greg sighed as he put his kit in the back seat with his jacket, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt Nick put his hand on his shoulder.

"Jesus Nick! You scared the crap out of me!" Greg yelled at him.

Nick just laughed and then looked down at the tire on the Denali.

"Hey Greg, this tire looks pretty low, is it ok to drive on?"

"Yeah, I noticed it when we got up here. I'm going to swing it down to the motor pool when we get back to the lab" Greg shrugged.

"Well, you should probably go pretty slow, how about we put all the evidence in Cath and mine's Denali"

"What?!" I just put it all in there…"

Greg groaned as Nick opened the back of the SUV and started carrying crates to the other one. By the time they were done, Catherine had sent all the other officers on but one, it was almost dark outside. She came over to them stuffing her kit in the backseat.

"Ok boys, I think we're done. Greg, you want to do one last sweep of the office? Nick and I'll get this stuff back to the lab"

Greg nodded and Nick pulled the keys from his pocket and started to move towards the front of the vehicle.

"Uh uh," said Catherine, taking the keys from his hands, "Age before beauty, Texas!"

Nick shrugged and smiled at Greg and got in the passenger side. They waved and drove off. Greg smiled at the officer and went over the building one last time. When he came out, it was dark. He nodded at the officer and went to his Denali, he pulled out on the road, the officer pulling out behind him, and started going. That was when he noticed his jacket sleeve sticking out of the back door. He sighed and pulled over. The officer pulled up next to him, and Greg pointed at the jacket arm, smiled and waved him on, the man nodded and drove away. Greg opened the door, and put the jacket on the seat and took off again.

After ten minutes of driving Greg had turned the music up loud and had forgotten all about driving slowly. He didn't even notice the steady vibration building as he drove. He grabbed his last candy bar that he had hidden in the glove compartment, smiling because he had been successful in his venture to keep it away from Nick. He consumed the bar quickly and tossed the wrapper on the seat. Greg then remembered a short cut he knew in the area, it went across the steep side of the mountain and down the other side, much quicker than the main road. He made the left turn kind of quickly, tires squealing a bit. The wind coming in caught the wrapper and sucked it out.

"Shit," Greg muttered to himself. But there wasn't much he could do about it, he certainly wasn't going to stop to pick up one wrapper.

Greg hummed and sang as he turned off the main road onto the single lane blacktop winding up the hills.

Suddenly, a coyote walked into the road in front of Greg, he swerved to miss it and sighed as he regained control of the swerving vehicle. The momentary break of singing and loud music caused Greg to notice the strange humming noise and vibration in the steering wheel. He glanced in the sideview mirror, and it almost looked like the wheel was wobbling.

Oh man, the flat, he thought, and just as he moved to take his foot off the gas a little, the tire exploded and the wheel ripped off the vehicle.

Greg screamed as he felt the vehicle jerk to the side and start to tip over. He tore at the wheel, but it was too late. The side of the Denali connected with the old wooden guardrail and suddenly he was rolling down the side of the ravine. It felt like it would never end, everything in the car was sliding around, his kit hit him in the head, and everything went black.

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

Greg awoke, battered and bruised in the Denali. It took him a few minutes to realize the vehicle was on its side. He strained to see what was happening, wiping caked blood off his forehead. Greg peered out the spider-webbed windshield, from what he could tell he was in some sort of dry riverbed. He looked up through the broken passenger window and saw nothing but stars.

Ok, Greg thought, Don't panic, you'll be ok.

He started to feel around for his cell phone. Miraculously, it was still in it's clip on the visor. Greg felt excitement, and then dismay, as the phone came apart in his hands, apparently something had crushed it on the way down into the ravine. When he felt the small piece of plastic from the LCD screen in his hair, he felt pretty sure it had been his head.

Greg moved to try and climb out of the vehicle when a sharp pain in his legs made him fall back onto his side, gasping for air. He looked down and noticed that somehow the compartment area for the driver's feet had crushed in, and his foot was caught under the brake and gas pedals. He was stuck.

Greg felt crushed, he couldn't get out, he had taken a short cut, and no one knew where he was. He choked back a sob and stared out the windshield at the ever-increasing darkness.

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

Nick sat in the break room at the lab, the evidence had been processed, the wife had been booked, and now he was pretty sure he would be able to sit there for the last hour of his shift, it had been a slow night. That was when Archie came into the lab.

"Hey, have you seen Greg?"

"Uh… no actually"

"Well, he was supposed to help me analyze the tape from the mini mall robbery, he said he would come there when he got back…" Archie trailed off and walked out of the room, and Nick was sure he heard the word ass muttered as the A/V tech left. Nick chuckled a bit and went out into the lab to find Greg.

After a complete search of the lab, he hadn't found him. Nick frowned and went into the layout room, where Riley was going over photos of her B&E and Catherine sat there bouncing ideas for painting Lindsey's room off of her.

"Have you guys seen Greg?" Nick asked.

Catherine raised her eyebrows, "He's not here?"

"No, I can't find him, where would he be?"

"Well, wasn't he going to take the Denali to the motor pool? Did you call down there?"

Nick felt stupid, of course, that must be where Greg is. He walked over to his office to use the phone. All the while trying to ignore the gnawing sensation in his stomach telling him that nothing in the motor pool should have taken Greg 4 hours.

"Hello?" The officer in charge of the motor pool picked up the phone.

"Hi, this is Nick Stokes with the Crime Lab, I was wondering if a CSI brought one of the Denali's earlier to have a tire changed?"

"Uh… nope… only thing I've had tonight was a cruiser with a broken taillight. Should I keep an eye out for it?"

Nick felt the gnawing sensation turn into the worst ache in his stomach in recent memory.

"No… that's ok, thank you"

He hung up the phone and walked back into the layout room. His grim face turned the smile on Catherine's face cold.

"The Denali never came to the motor pool, and as far as I can tell Greg hasn't been back" Nick swallowed. "Cath, he's missing"