Hey guys! It's been a while since I uploaded another story, I just didn't have the time. Here's a rather short new one, I hope you enjoy it! Maybe let me know if you do in the Reviews!

The clock hit 2 a.m. as Greg walked through the lab's halls with a rather depressed look on his face. He was looking for Nick, who was sitting in the A/V lab, watching some security camera footage crucial to his case.

"Hey Nick," Greg said softly, "How's it going?"

"Great!" Nick exclaimed rather excited. "I have my suspect on camera, attacking the victim. He's going down."

Greg briefly glanced at the video. It showed a man attack a woman in an elevator and leaving her for dead as he got off on the first floor. "Good. That's good." He patted his shoulder.

Nick couldn't help but notice his friend acting a little weird, so he turned his chair to face him. "Everything alright? You look... sad."

"Yeah, I mean... Actually, no. There's something I need to tell you."

"Sure, what is it?" He offered Greg the seat next to him, but he declined.

"Do you remember Erin Hill?"

"Oh yeah, of course, Erin." He smiled. "We dated for a few weeks last year."

"Did you guys keep in touch?"

He shook his head. "The whole relationship was a big mess. She has a boyfriend, remember?"

"Well, seems like she wanted to get in touch with you..." He handed him a picture of Nick and Erin, together with a letter, each in a plastic bag.

"...Where did you get this?"

"She had it in her purse. She's the victim in my case, Nick."

Nick looked up from the letter. "...Did she die?"

Greg nodded. "I'm sorry."

"I can't believe it, what happened?"

"She was shot in a backalley near the strip. It says in the letter that she had just broken up with her boyfriend."

"Do you think he shot her?" The shock was clearly visible in Nick's face. He didn't know what to think or feel right now, or how to react to these news.

"Seems likely, but it's too early to make any assumptions. I'll find whoever did this to her." He gently put his hand on Nick's shoulder before turning around and walking towards the exit.

"...I lied."

"Hm?" He turned back around to look at his friend. "About what?"

"About Erin. We've kept in touch."

"...Oh." Greg raised his eyebrows. "Okay."

"I figured you'd find out about it during the investigation, anyway, so..."

Greg nodded. He attempted to leave the room, but decided to stay and ask some more questions. "Why'd you lie to me?"

"Because I know what you think about it. And I even agree with you, it's just... something always keeps me going back to her and..." He sighed deeply. "Well, used to keep me going back. Not anymore."

Nick and Greg were both in quite a depressed mood as they walked home. Since Greg was feeling that way because Nick was feeling down, he tried uplifting his friend's spirits by telling some senseless, funny stories. Nick listened to every one of them, but it didn't work, nothing could take his mind off of Erin right now. "You know," he said as they reached the front door to Nick's house, "I'll go and see if there's any mail." He unlocked the door, but turned around to go to the mail box.

"Alright," Greg replied as he walked inside the house, leaving the door open, making his way into the kitchen to get Nick and himself a beer. He sat down on the couch exhausted, getting his cell phone out of his pocket to check for new messages. He turned his head to the door as he heard it close. "Do you want a b..." His face froze as he realized the person who had just walked in wasn't Nick. "...Who are you?"

"Are you Nick?" the man asked nervously.

Greg slightly shook his head. "What do you want from him?" He got up from his seat.

"...Don't you move!" the man yelled aggressively.

Nick walked in, perfectly concealing the fact that he'd just cried a little. "Hey Greg, if you don't mind, I think I'll head straight to bed, I..." He stopped talking as he looked at Greg's scared face. "What's wrong?"

"Are you Nick?" the man asked him.

Only now did Nick realize he was there, standing in the corner right from him. "...What's going on?" He looked the man up and down.

"...You're the guy, huh? Why'd you do it, man?" The man had quite a disturbing face impression, but it was hard to read him.

"...Do what?"

"Kill her. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about."

"...But I don't."

"...Are you serious?!" He walked up closer to Nick to shove him.

"Hey!" Greg yelled as he walked closer to them, but Nick signed him to stay away, so he kept a distance.

"You keep out of this!" the man yelled as he turned to Greg for a second, but quickly concentrated back on Nick. "Did she want to leave you? Did she finally have enough of your emotional abuse?"

"...Look, I have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe you have me confused with someone else, but... You better get out of my face now." Nick was getting angry.

The man released a loud laugh. "Or what? Huh? What are you gonna do, shoot me like you shot her?"

It slowly dawned on Nick who this man was talking about. "...You think I shot Erin? Are you... the boyfriend?"

"Ex-boyfriend, thanks to you. Do you feel proud, hm? Did you pat yourself on the back when you ruined a four-year relationship?"

Greg was scared. He thought about ways to get out of that situation without it escalating any more. "Okay, let's all calm down for a second." He decided to intervene, hoping to be able to steer the conversation in a different direction. "What's your name?"

"...Ralph," he replied without even taking his eyes off of Nick.

"Okay, Ralph... I'm Greg. I'm very sorry for your loss, but you've got it all wrong. Nick didn't kill Erin, he was at work when it happened."

"...Yeah, how do you know?" His eyes slowly wandered over to Greg. "...You're investigating the case? Typical. You bastards have each other's backs, right?" He walked up to him. "No matter what!" He shoved Greg quite aggressively, causing him to stumble back, only keeping himself from falling down by propping himself up at the couch behind him.

"Hey, what the hell is your problem?!" Nick yelled, walking up closer to Ralph now.

"Nick, calm down. I'm okay." Greg put his hand on Nick's arm, gently pulling him back, but Nick shook his hand off. Nick and Ralph stood there face to face, staring in eachother's rage-filled eyes. Greg feared that the situation was about to escalate any second. He felt helpless, not knowing how to diffuse the situation. "...Nick, please," he begged desperately. No person would feel anything close to comfortable in a setting like that, but for Greg it was worst.

"I'll give you the chance to leave now. Take it or get arrested," Nick threatened. "And believe me, I won't be gentle."

Ralph snorted sarcastically as he backed off a bit. "I won't give you the satisfaction to give you a reason to attack me." He stood there in front of the two for a moment, thinking about what his next step should be. He glanced towards the door a few times, but he seemed quite indicisive. Nick and Greg got nervous watching him, they both sensed that he was not ready to leave just yet. They got proved right when he pulled out a gun, pointing it at Nick. "I should end you right now!" he yelled aggressively and desperately as both CSIs put their hands up.

"...Ralph, what are you doing? Put the gun down," Greg said shocked but as calm as possible.

"Shut up." He didn't even look at Greg, his eyes were fixated on Nick right now. His hand started to shake. "You're good friends, huh?" His shaky hand slowly moved in Greg's direction, the gun barrel now pointing at him.

"...Don't," Nick said with a furious look in his eyes.

"Sit down," he ordered Greg, but the CSI didn't comply right away. "Do it!"

"...Okay." Greg did, looking at his friend quite helplessly. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize, just... do what I tell you."

"...Well, what do you want me to do?"

Ralf thought about it. It was a reaction he didn't quite expect. "...Be honest with me."

The CSI hastily nodded. "I am. What do you want to know?"

Nick watched the scenery in confusion, he didn't quite get what was happening right now.

"...Nick killed her, right?"

"It's too early to make any assumptions, really. The evidence is getting processed right now, these tests take time. All we know so far is how and when she died, and the time of death rules Nick out as a suspect. He was at a crime scene and I can prove that. There's no conspiracy or cover-up, he simply didn't do it."

After a moment in silence, Ralph looked at Nick. "Turn around."

"You're wasting precious time. While you're here harassing an innocent man, her real murderer is out there somewhere." Greg was getting anxious and nervous.

"Innocent?" Ralph released a sarcastic laugh. Nick didn't even think of doing what this guy told him, so Ralph walked over and turned him around himself, putting handcuffs on Nick's wrists.

"...What are you doing?!" Nick tried to break free from Ralph's grip, but this only got him pushed against the wall.

"Shut up! I should just shoot you, but... Your friend's right." He proceeded to push Nick down to the ground to cuff him to the radiator.

Greg watched in confusion.

"Alright, now you," Ralph said as he walked up to Greg with handcuffs in his hand.

Greg's eyes kept moving to Nick and then back at Ralph. He had a rather helpless look on his face. The second Ralph came closer, he raised up from his seat and took a step back.

"...Greg, take deep breaths," Nick said, hoping to calm him down that way. "It's gonna be okay, this will be over in a moment."

There wasn't much else for Greg to do, anyway, but try to stay calm. Panic slowly crawled up on him, anyway, as Ralph proceeded to handcuff him, too. But instead of leaving like they hoped he would, he pushed Greg to make him walk. "Come on, into the bedroom."

"...What? Why?" Greg asked frightened. "...Nick..."

"Don't hurt him, he's on your side! He's trying to find out what happened to Erin. If he can't keep up his work, this whole day would be wasted and we might never find out what happened to her!" Nick was pleading for his friend's life, but Ralph didn't seem interested enough to listen. He walked Greg into the bedroom, while Nick was trying to somehow break free from his handcuffs. He heard some noise coming from the bedroom, followed by a short moment of silence before a shot was fired. Ralph walked out, putting his gun in his messenger bag.

"You deserve so much more pain than this for the sorrow you caused me," Ralph said to Nick as he left, closing the door behind him.

"...Oh god, no... Greg," he was weeping as he desperately kept on trying to break free. "...Come on!" he growled frantically, almost dislocating his thumb in his attempt to get the handcuffs off his wrist.

"Nick, I'm okay," these words could be heard from inside the bedroom.

"...Greg? You're alright?" he said almost disbelieving, tears of joy running down his cheeks. "Are you hurt?"

"No. I'm so sorry, he told me to stay quiet until he left, or else he would've shot you. He wanted you to believe he killed me."

Nick was so happy and relieved right now that he didn't know what to say, he just sat there thanking god. His eyes widened in surprise as he watched Greg walk up to him. "...How...?"

Without saying a word, Greg hurried to his friend to hug him. "As soon as we were in the bedroom, he took the cuffs off and tied me to the bedpost with one of your ties. I think he wanted me to be able to free myself." He had the happiest smile on his face as he took his cell phone out to call for help.

"I-I can't believe how lucky we just were..."