Thanks for the Reviews! Poor Greg has to go through a LOT in my stories ;) And he's not about to catch a break in this chapter. Enjoy!
Greg got himself stitched up at the hospital. It really was a miracle his wounds were all superficial. On his way out, he walked past Nick. The CSI had met up with Brass instead of him to collect evidence from the gunshot victim. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't even notice his friend.
"Hey you," Nick said as he grabbed Greg's arm to stop him. "How are you doing?"
"Hey." Greg gently smiled. "I'm alright. Still a little shaken up, but I'm alive, right?"
Nick nodded as he looked Greg up and down. "The other car must've gone pretty fast. Was he drunk or something?"
"We don't know, he didn't stop."
"...Really?" Nick raised his eyebrows. "He didn't even check to see if you were alright?"
"I'm not sure. I don't remember anything right after the collision. When Russell called, half an hour had already passed."
Nick frowned. "They did check your head, right?"
"Yeah, everything's fine, don't worry." He smiled at Nick as he patted his shoulder. "So what about the guy with the gunshot wound?"
"Well, turns out he was just an unlucky bystander who got hit by a ricochet. He was in shock so he decided to drive by his own instead of calling an ambulance. He'll be fine."
Greg nodded. "Hey, are you heading back to the lab? Mind giving me a lift?"
"Really, we don't have to do this now..." Nick was trying to convince Greg that it was a bad idea to stop at the scene of the accident on their way to the lab. He had mentioned he wanted to take a look at it later today but had no intention of taking Greg with him. He parked the car around the corner of the scene.
"It's fine. I want to see it, too." Greg opened the door with shaky hands.
Nick noticed but decided not to comment on it. "Alright then." He sighed. Greg's car had already been removed from the scene, all that was left were the marks the CSIs had used to recreate the accident, as well as some blood drops. "Looks like he came from your right."
"But I definitely had a green light. I know I did." Greg stared at where he sat down after he had crawled out of his denali just hours earlier.
"Hey guys," CSI Burr from the dayshift said with a faint smile on his face as he walked up to them. "I just finished up, we're done here."
"Did you find anything useful yet?" Nick asked while his eyes wandered between Burr and his friend.
"Not really, but it'll be interesting to see if the denali will tell us something." Burr went into detail about his work at the scene.
"I-I think I'll wait in the car, if you want to stay a little longer and..." Greg said, unable to listen to Burr's detailed description of what he thought happened here.
"No," Nick interrupted him as he signed Burr goodbye, "Let's go."
As Nick and Greg arrived at the lab, the injured CSI was once again confronted with his colleagues' pitying looks. He dreaded having to face each and every one of them with his face and hand all up in band-aids and bandages. He knew they all just meant well, but it was a weird moment for everybody. That's what he appreciated about Hodges, he usually managed to act normal and not make it a weird situation at all. "Hey Greg, thanks again for the 20 bucks." Hodges walked up to him in the break room and handed the CSI 20$. Greg had borrowed him the money two days ago.
"Sure," Greg replied as he reached for his wallet in his pocket.
When Greg noticed his wallet wasn't there, he tried the other side. "...Has any of you guys seen my wallet?" When both men shook their heads, he left to look inside his locker. He came back a few moments later. "It's not here. Dammit, where could I have lost it?"
Since he wasn't supposed to work after his accident, anyway, Greg decided to go home to look for his wallet. He opened his door with an exhausted look on his face. "Hey Rosa, have you seen my wallet?" he asked as he walked into his apartment, hoping he had forgotten to take it with him today.
"I have!" she said from the kitchen.
Greg sighed in relief as he meant to enter the living room, but stopped in the doorway. "...Rosa?"
Rosa walked up to him with a smile on her face. "Isn't it a funny coincidence? Your brother found it in the elevator!"
"...Brother?" Greg asked confused, staring at the man sitting on the couch.
"Hey Greg," the man said with a grin on his face. "Funny coincidence, isn't it?"
"...Oh my, Greg. What happened to you?" Rosa noticed Greg's wounds.
"Car accident. ...Rosa, what's going on?" Greg asked confused.
"Greg, don't be rude," the man said while putting his hand on his jacket pocket.
"Well, I'll get going to leave you two alone now! I'm sure you have a lot of catching up to do! Do you need anything before I go?"
Greg shook his head without putting his eyes off of the man.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Rosa asked a bit concerned.
"It's just that we haven't seen each other in a while... Right, Greg?" the man asked with his hand still on his pocket.
Greg nodded, trying to hide the disturbed look on his face.
"Alright. See you tomorrow. Have fun, guys! Bye Scott!" Rosa left with a smile on her face.
Greg was still standing in the doorway with a terrified look on his face. "...What do you want?"
"Is that how you greet your brother?" He laughed. "You should really tell your housekeeper to be more careful. She let me in without hesitation. That can be dangerous."
"...I-I have some money here, but..."
"I don't need money," he interrupted Greg as he threw the wallet to him. "I saw you at the hotel today. You took something from the victims that I need."
Greg frowned. "...What is it?"
"The teddy bear. I saw you pick it up and driving away with it."
Greg remembered putting a teddy bear in a bag. "...You want the teddy bear?"
"It's best for you to know as little as possible, alright? We'll have to figure out a way for you to get it for me."
Greg wasn't sure it was possible to get this piece of evidence out of the lab, but this stranger made him feel like he didn't have much of a choice. "I'm not sure where it is at the moment."
"...What are you talking about? You drove away with it."
Greg nodded. "But I was in a car accident on my way to the lab."
The stranger who called himself Scott put out his gun. "Well maybe you should ask someone who might know where it is."
Greg got his cell phone out as he stared at the gun. "Hey Russell. I was just wondering about the evidence in my car. I just remembered I was on my way to drop them off."
"No, forget about it. You're not coming back to work until Monday."
"...Yeah I know, I was just wondering..."
"Alright. I'll check your list... There's some missing."
"...Missing?"
"Let me see... Oh yeah, some boot prints you collected at the scene and a... what does that say, stuffed teddy bear?"
Greg sighed in desperation. "I see..."
Scott signed Greg to hang up the phone.
"Well, thanks Russell, I'll call you back later." Greg took a step backwards. "I'm sorry, I..."
Scott interrupted Greg. "...A car accident, you say?"
Greg nodded frightened.
"God dammit! That bastard!" Scott yelled.
Greg flinched as he took another step back.
"I'll kill him! I came here for nothing!" Scott smashed his hand against the wall.
The CSI flinched again. "Please, just..."
"Give me your phone." Scott demanded. Greg did. "Now get in the bedroom."
"...What? Why?" Greg's eyes watered. He felt a panic attack sneaking up. This strange, armed man being in his own home and now ordering him to go into the bedroom was more than enough to remind him of the trauma Neil Novak inflicted on him.
Scott finally forced him to get into the room by grabbing his arm and pushing him inside. "What did Rosa say? Tomorrow?" He laughed as he pushed Greg to the ground. "You'll be fine 'till then." He went on to tie a rope around Greg's wrists. He connected the rope to the bedframe to keep Greg from leaving the room. "Sorry for the inconvenience," Scott said with a grin before he left the apartment.
After almost three hours of trying to get his wrists out of the rope, Greg decided to stop trying. Due to his broken fingers and the scratches on his hands it hurt too much to keep going. He was getting tired, too, and was ready to accept his fate. As he was falling asleep, he heard some noise coming from the living room. "...H-Hello? Who is this?"
"Greg?" Nick asked from the living room. "Where are you? I tried calling you a dozen times, I was worried!"
"I'm in the bedroom! Come in already!"
Nick opened the door. "...Seems like I was right to worry. What the hell happened?!" He hurried over to free Greg.
"Thank god you're here! Rosa let this guy in who claimed to be my brother."
"...Your brother?"
Greg nodded. "He watched me at the scene, he wanted me to get him the teddy bear I collected."
"The teddy bear? Why would he want it so badly?"
"I don't know, he didn't say."
"Well, are you okay?" Nick looked him up and down. With the already present injuries it was hard to know whether or not he got hurt again. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"
Greg shook his head. "I'm fine, let's just go to the station... Wait, there was a glass on the table when Rosa left. Maybe he drank from it!" He hurried inside the living room. "It's still there, great!" He got a plastic bag from the kitchen and bagged it. He handed it to Nick. "I just realize I need to go to the bathroom. Had you come half an hour later... Well, you know." Greg smiled as he hurried into the bathroom. The idea of catching that guy was getting him excited and made him almost forget how traumatic the situation just was.
