ranma, good questions! I would imagine Claire/Mac had been married for many years, much like Gary's real life marriage. There's nothing about it in bios I don't think, so that's just my assumption. Re: other shifts, in a huge city like NY, I'm sure there are 3 shifts there too, just like in Vegas, but NY has chosen not to focus on them. Probably a good thing, reduces cast bloat. Personally, cast bloat doesn't bother me - my fave character last season in the Vegas CSI was Sophia, who was a newer addition and definitely a target of the "cast bloat" argument, followed by Brass - but I know many fans get irked over cast bloat, and NY has probably learned a bit from Vegas' *mistakes*... Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing the day shift under Mac interact with another shift once in awhile. I loved it when they briefly worked with the NJ CSIs in RSRD. And Mac promised he would be there for them, if they ever needed him. I would love to see a follow up on that, Mac's NY crew being called in to help the NJ crew on a crime. I think there's some potential for some major fun drama, with that.