Don slightly tugged back the sleeve of his gray jacket and the shirt cuff to quickly glance at the watch wrapped around his left wrist. He had been hoping for a calm night like yesterday, but he had no sooner clocked in and then it was off to a scene. The watch hands confirmed it was not quite two o'clock, and instead of getting a souvlaki and sitting down to work through the witness statements and compare those to the autopsy report, he and Nick were silently walking down the corridor towards the morgue. They hadn't heard from Natalie all night and Don figured by now she would have something preliminary to give them that would help with the case. Or at least confirm the homicide so they could officially still continue with the investigation.

Nick was contemplating their most recent case in an attempt to ignore his growing hunger when he was distracted by someone in light blue scrubs and white lab coat emerging from a room near the end of the hallway. As the harried technician hurried towards them, Nick noted the thick stack of folders held close to the chest between crossed arms. Head down and muttering, the man did not seem aware of anyone else in the hallway and would have crashed into him, but at the last moment Nick sidestepped and flatten himself against the wall to avoid the collision. Nick turned his head and watched the technician continue to scuttle down the hall, seemingly oblivious to what had nearly happened. He pushed himself off the wall and went over to Schanke, who had stopped to wait for him.

"Geez. I guess that guy's really busy. I don't even think he saw you."

"Yeah," Nick concurred. "He had a lot of folders." Thinking back, that was more than he usually saw the technicians carrying around.

Shrugging, Don resumed his walk towards Natalie's examination room. "And I complain when we have a backlog of paperwork. At least we don't have that much to do."

Nick nodded to show he had heard Schanke as they both headed towards Nat's room. As he approached her door and put his arm out to push it, the door quickly swung open, and Nick, for the second time, had to quickly move to avoid a bodily collision.

"Excuse me, I'm so sorry guys," Grace apologized as she tentatively smiled and slipped between the Detectives to get into the hallway.

"Everything alright in there?" Schanke asked.

As she clutched the various folders, Grace quickly turned to face them. "Just a little stress due to a backlog." She dropped her smile and narrowed her eyes slightly. "Be careful." Pivoting, she resumed heading down the corridor without looking back.

Don shifted his gaze to Nick. "Did you see the look on her face? Maybe we should come back later."

"It's Nat, Schanke." Nick gave a reassuring grin. "We'll be fine."

"Well, just in case," Don said as he indicated the door with one extended arm, "you go first, and I'll back you up."

Nick rolled his eyes at Schanke's gesture as he pushed the door open and entered Nat's room. He had presumed she would be working at the metal autopsy table in the middle of the room but instead found her over by the desk. Nick saw her engrossed in flipping through various folders and putting them into different piles. He headed over as Nat grabbed one stack and dropped it upon another pile, the folders making a heavy thumping sound upon impact.

"Grace, I know I said those last case files had to be done first, but these are apparently already past due and really need to be handled now." Natalie looked up while enveloping the newest stack she had made. "Can you-" She blinked as she saw not Grace, as she expected, but Nick with Schanke trailing behind him. Nick was smiling at her.

"Grace just left," Nick explained.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Natalie looked down as she dropped the folders back onto her desk. Turning her gaze to the two Detectives, she furrowed her brow and shook her head. "Why are you guys here? I didn't call you. I haven't even gotten to your case yet."

"But it's been-" Don started, then immediately stopped. The intense expression on Natalie's face silenced him.

"I've been a little busy here," she snapped. Natalie closed her eyes and pressed the fingertips of one hand against her temple. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way."

Nick had heard the strain and irritation in her voice, but knew it was not really directed at them. "Lots of new cases tonight?" he gently ventured.

Natalie rubbed a hand across her eyes as she sank into her chair. "No more than usual." She opened her eyes to look at the piles of work on her desk. "We've had some staff from all the shifts leave, along with an ME and a pathologist from day shift." Natalie stiffly shrugged her shoulder. "It happens. With this type of work …," she trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid. They all knew the pressures of their profession. "New candidates are being interviewed," she explained, "but in the meantime, the backlog of work is piling up around here, and we're all a bit overwhelmed. This is a lot more than we usually have to deal with when this happens."

"Are you alright?" Don coaxed. "I mean, surely you have a plan worked out for this type of situation?"

The chair squeaked as Natalie stood up. She threaded her fingers through her hair, pushing some of the strands away from her face while she thought about all the paperwork and extra autopsies still left to do tonight. Probably, Natalie realized, she would have to stay the day to get it all caught up. Just to get this caught up, she reminded herself; new work would continue to come, creating another backlog again for tomorrow. "Oh, I've been contemplating a career change. My current plan is to just give it all up and sneak away to join the circus." She laughed. "I might even get a good distance out of town before anyone notices."

Don quickly glanced at his partner. "People would notice, Natalie." He thought back to when he was a boy and his old man had taken him to the circus. He had immediately wanted to run off and join them on what had seemed like a never-ending adventure. Don understood the attraction, but also thought that it wasn't really an adventure Natalie was looking for, but a distraction from her workload. "So," he prompted, "what would you do at the circus?"

"Oh, it's just a saying, Schanke. You know – a way to leave the stress from life behind and escape. But this," Natalie gestured at the desktop, "all this has to be done. It might drive me crazy, but I know I have to do it."

"Still," Don persisted, "what would you do?" He puffed up his chest. "I would be a lion tamer." Pretending to hold a chair in front of himself, he made jerking motions as if to fend off a large advancing cat, while making a slight whipping gesture with his other hand.

Nick smirked at Schanke's miming. "Lion tamer?"

"Sure," Don said defensively. "Thrills." He pretended to put his head into a lion's mouth. "Danger." He looked at the incredulous expressions on both Nick and Natalie's faces. He dropped his arms to rest against his sides. "Hot lady assistants," he confessed. Don heard Nick's snicker. "Well, what would you be, Nick? How about a fire-breather?" He watched as Nick stiffened in response.

As memories of his experiences with fire rose up, Nick quickly suppressed them back down. "No," he firmly replied. "Nothing with fire." He gave Nat a lopsided grin before returning his attention to his partner. "Magician, actually." Nick moved to be almost touching Schanke, reaching for the pen in the other man's jacket chest pocket. "Here," he drawled, "let me show you something. I can make your pen disappear from your pocket. Just let me borrow it."

Don reached up with his right hand to protect his pen from Nick while also backing up slightly. "No way."

Nick put his hands up, palms facing Schanke, and stepped back. "Okay. You can keep the pen."

"Here's some advice: it's not much of a magic trick if you tell me what you're doing. You'll have to do better than that."

Natalie watched as Nick darted a quick glance and winked at her, then twirled his wrist with a flourish. A moment later, Schanke's black leather watch just appeared, dangling from between his fingers.

Don heard Natalie's gasp of amazement as he clasped his hand around his left wrist. Looking down, he confirmed the wrist really was bare. He looked back up at Nick, then went over to reclaim his watch. "How?" he uttered.

Feeling a slight tug, Nick let the wristwatch slip from his grasp. "Oh, just a little bit of distraction, misdirection, and sleight of hand." And a vampire's increased speed, but he didn't mention that ability. "I used to do close-up magic."

"That's more like pickpocketing," Don mumbled as he buckled his watch back on. He rubbed his wrist to correctly position the watch as he looked at both Nick and Natalie. He thought Natalie seemed a little less strained than before.

"Well, it would've been much easier if the watch actually was in your pocket." Nick glanced back at Nat and realized that although their actions might have been a needed distraction, he could tell she was already thinking again about her work. And also that they were in the way. With a quick jerk of his head towards the door, Nick signaled to Schanke they should both leave. Nat needed to get back to her work, and they would just have to wait at the precinct for the results about their case.

Before Don headed over towards the door to leave, he approached Natalie. "Look," he said, "the Circus is gonna be in Mississauga and me and Myra are taking Jenny this weekend. If you want to get away from the work for a while, we'd be happy to bring you along." Natalie placed her hand on his arm, gave him a quick pat, nodded and smiled. He sighed; at least he had tired. "Well, don't let this burn you out. You need to de-stress every now and then."

Nick waited until Schanke was almost at the door. Before joining him, he edged closer to Natalie. "Umm. My shift tonight is until sunrise, but I have tomorrow night off. I know what it's like to feel trapped and the pressures build up inside until you think running and leaving it all behind is the only option you have left. If you want to come over and talk, or … you know, just get away from this for a while, you can." He began to reach for her, but thought better and retracted his hand. Nick quickly smiled at Nat's curt nod, then turned to catch up with his partner to leave.

"So where did you do that magic trick?" Don asked as he pulled open the door.

"Well, I spent a few years in the circus world," Nick evasively replied.

Natalie watched as both Detectives exited her room, listening to Schanke's reply of Nick having engaged in yet another occupation before becoming a detective. The disbelief she heard in his voice a sure sign that Schanke doubted that all of Nick's various activities that he knew about could have really happened within those years. Natalie smiled, knowing Nick really had had plenty of time to have done all he had hinted at to Schanke, and more. Her smile fell as her mind once again pulled her back to all the work that was still waiting to be done. She closed her eyes and massaged her brow, feeling the pulsating headache from earlier return. Telling herself that she could get through this, as she had done in previous crunch times, she squared her shoulders, exhaled, then picked up the pile of folders. Though as she walked down the corridor to go find Grace, she noticed her mind beginning to shift from work to wondering what had happened to cause Nick to join up with a circus.