This story follows up on my other stories. Please read the other two before you start reading this one or else you might be a little confused what's going on :) thanks

You can find it at my profile or here:

first story: "A day at the video rental store"

.net/s/6502149/1/A_day_at_the_video_rental_store

second story: "An eye for an eye"

.net/s/6506034/1/An_Eye_For_An_Eye

third story: "Boom"

.net/s/6516243/1/Boom

fourth story: "The game is on"

.net/s/6773108/1/The_Game_Is_On

fifth story: "Nexus"

.net/s/6776115/1/Nexus

sixth story: "Wanna Play?"

.net/s/6868721/1/Wanna_Play

(just put the fanfiction-url in front of the urls above and you're good to go. I can't publish it as a real link, I'm sorry!)

Three days after the CSIs were trapped under a collapsed house, Nick was already back home and ready to get back to work. He was eager to work on the case, to help find the officers responsible for his injury. He almost couldn't bare staying at home for three days, although Catherine asked him to make it at least a week. He declined.

Nick heard a knock on the door. "Coming!"

Opening the door, he found Greg standing there with a big smile on his face. "Hey buddy."

"What took you so long?" Nick said rather annoyed while grabbing his keys and walking out the door.

"Well, 'Thank you, Greg, for driving me to work.' You're welcome, Nicky!" Greg said sarcastically, but still with a smile on his face. "Didn't you enjoy the free time at all? Are you that much of a workaholic?"

"Look who's talking! You didn't even take one day off!" Nick went to Greg's car.

"Yeah but that's because my arm wasn't crushed underneath a house." Greg seemed to be in a good mood. Good enough to tease Nick.

Nick rolled his eyes with a smile on his face. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?"

When they arrived at the lab, Nick was greeted with hugs and handshakes from his colleagues. Even Julian gave Nick an appreciative nod when he saw him.

"Reed sends her greetings," Ray said, smiling at Nick.

Catherine joined the hug-fest. "Wow, three days. I'm proud. We were betting on how many days you'd take off. I had two." She went over to give him a hug. "But don't think you'll get out much, Nicky. You're on lab duty for the next few days."

"Come on, Catherine. I can handle it. I'm fine." Nick tried to convince her to let him get out in the field. He couldn't catch the bad guys from inside a lab, he thought.

"We've all been there, Nick. Just suck it up and try to get the best out of it." Greg padded his friend on the shoulder.

"Oh yeah, and that would be?"

"You can try to find where Julian's patience ends. It's a fun game, try it. The only rule is to annoy Julian as much as possible!" Greg finished his sentence while walking off. He really was in an exceptionally good mood. Everyone seeing it was surprised. It's been a long time since they saw that side of Greg, and it felt really good to see it again.

"Alright," Nick turned to Catherine. "Lab duty, it is. But only for the next two days!"

"Two days? We'll see about that."

"Come on, Catherine, you wanted me to take a week off. I've been home for three days, another two days make the week complete." Nick was almost begging.

"Most weeks have seven days, Nicky." Seeing his begging face, Catherine finally gave in. "Okay..." she sighed, "But don't play the hero. If you don't feel good, you can stay in the lab for as long as you want to."

Sara walked pass the lab Nick was working in. Seeing him in a lab coat, processing some evidence, she stopped. It wasn't unusual to see Nick doing some lab work, but he was in the DNA lab processing DNA evidence and the CSIs usually didn't. They weren't trained to do that.

"Hey." Sara walked into the lab. "What are you doing here?"

Nick smiled at her. "I'm back at work. I can't sit around all day and do nothing, you know."

"Yeah, I figured. I meant, what are you doing in the DNA lab?"

"I'm glad someone finally asks! Is it really too much to ask for to be alone in my own lab?" Julian chimed in, all annoyed.

"Why don't you take your coffee for a walk, Julian?" Sara asked annoyed.

After Julian left completely outraged, Sara continued. "Are you even allowed doing this? Since when are you our new lab tech?"

"Relax, Sara. I'm just assisting Julian, I'm not processing anything on my own. Nobody hates this more than I do, but there's nothing else to do for me right now."

"Maybe because you should be at home, getting better."

"Oh come on, Sara! When was the last time YOU took some time off?" Nick was getting quite offended. He wasn't even sure why, but he wasn't in the mood for any lectures.

"This is not about me, Nick. You've gone through some heavy stuff in the last weeks. I've noticed how easily irritated you get. I really think you need some rest." Sara tried to stay as calm as possible, despite Nick's attempts of making this personal. She only wanted to help him.

"I know when I need some rest. I feel fine. Why don't you mind your own damn business?" Nick stormed off. He was kind of confused. Why did he lash out on Sara like that? He knows she only means well, why was he that irritated by her?

Storming out of the lab, he bumped into Greg.

"Dammit!" Greg dropped a bunch of files. He bended over to start collecting the papers he just dropped. "Sorry, Nick, I didn't see... you." All he could see was Nick walking away.

"I'm sorry, Greg..." Sara came out of the lab to help him pick up the papers.

"Hey." Greg walked over to Nick who was sitting at a light table doing nothing, but looking kind of lost in his thoughts. "I just come from a crime scene, could you help me with the evidence?"

"What did you collect?" Nick asked in a calm way and with an apathetic tone in his voice.

"Shoe prints, fingerprints, swabbed some blood and... a lot of possible murder weapons." Greg put all bags on the table. He collected a bunch of objects that could be the murder weapon of his stabbing victim, and it was his job to find out if one of these objects really was used to kill.

"What do you want me to start with?" Nick sounded like he wasn't having a good day and it was impossible for Greg not to notice the state his friend was in.

"Well, for starters you could tell me what happened between you and Sara."

Nick looked up to Greg. He was surprised he knew about it. But then he wondered why he was surprised about that. Greg and Sara were really close, she probably told him.

"Did you even notice that you bumped into me earlier?"

"...What?" Nick was confused.

"Right after you walked out on Sara you bumped into me. You didn't notice it at all, did you?" Greg asked concerned.

"I'm sorry, I didn't... Let me take the murder weapon." Nick reached for the bag with all the pointy and sharp objects but Greg pulled it away.

"Not before you tell me what's going on." Greg sat down next to Nick. "You've been there for me the whole time and I wasn't able to be there for you, although I knew you needed me. But now I am."

Nick sighed. He needed to talk about everything that was going through his mind badly, but he didn't really want to. Especially not with Greg right now. As always, his pride was getting in the way. "I'm fine, Greg, really. Just a little stressed out, is all."

"Come on, I used these empty phrases for weeks, they don't work on me." He smiled at Nick. "Is your arm feeling better?"

Nick nodded. "It'll be fine in a few weeks when the cast is off, I'm sure. But that's not it, I..." Nick stopped. He couldn't tell Greg what was on his mind.

Greg just sat there, waiting for Nick to be ready to talk.

"I... Maybe I should ask Ray if he needs any help, I hear his case is pretty big..." Nick stood up.

"No, Nick." Greg touched his shoulder to keep him from leaving the room. "Listen. If you don't want to talk to me, that's fine. But you need to let it out. Believe me, I know what it's like to think you can't talk about this with anyone. I'm here for you when you're ready."

Nick just stared at Greg in surprise. He didn't expect to hear something like that. "I know you've been through a lot of awful stuff lately, but... I don't think you have an idea how I feel." Nick walked out. He didn't want to give Greg a chance to answer to that, nor did he want to see the look on his face. It was a tough thing to say, but Nick really felt that way. Because he didn't go through what Greg was going through and, despite showing an upbeat mood, still was going through.

What did he know, anyways, Nick thought. His feelings were like a roller coaster ride for the last weeks, and now he wanted to lecture Nick about letting them out? He should try to get his act together before giving advice to others.

Now Nick was feeling bad. He knew times have been hard on Greg, why was he thinking like that, then?