Disclaimer: If I owned CSI, do you think I would be writing this? Nope.

Little Things

Greg held the boy tight to his chest as Sara burst in the room, phone in hand. The look on her face probably matched his, surprised, shocked and sympathetic.

She immediately crouched down to be at the same level as them, her eyes welcoming.

"What's your name?" She asked kindly, but the little boy sniffed and turned his head the other way. Greg didn't blame him, after what he'd just gone through, another new face would be scary.

"It's okay, you can tell her. She's my friend." He told the small boy in his ear, and he made a frightened eye contact.

The child shook his head and buried it in Greg's shoulder once again. He looked at Sara and sighed.

"Can you tell me?" He asked softly. "Come on buddy, what's your name?"

"Nathan." The boy mumbled, detaching himself from Greg.

"Okay Nathan. My name is Greg, and this is my friend Sara. We work with the police."

Nathan just sniffed and nodded.

"Can you tell me how old you are?" Greg asked and put a hand on Nathan's arm.

"Seven." He mumbled again.

"Really? You're a pretty big kid." Sara said, some-what enthusiastic. Nathan seemed to warm up to her a bit, but he said nothing.

Greg then whispered to Sara. "Where are the paramedics?" Her phone was open in her hand, probably still on the line.

"On their way, along with Catherine." She said, staying hushed.

So he turned his attention back to little Nathan.

"Nathan...Did you see what happened tonight?" Greg asked, and Nathan's eyes welled up again.

"Mhm." He stuttered, and more tears rolled down his face, his cheeks turning red.

"It's okay, it's okay." Greg said, and wrapped his arms around the little boy again.

He knew he was contaminating evidence, as Catherine would say, but he didn't care. Nathan wasn't evidence, he was a person. A person who had just been through a living hell.

XXX

Greg sat on the edge of the ambulances bumper, Nathan leaning on his arm. The paramedics had checked him over, but only found some minor scrapes, which might not even relate to the case.

So yes, he was physically okay. But mentally... that was a different case.

The little boy hadn't spoken once, his gaze was fixed on his house.

And just then, the coroners began to bring the bodies out of the house. Nathan didn't need to see that, and Greg frantically tried to come up with a distraction.

"Umm Nathan?" He asked, squeezing the little boy's arm. His blue eyes met Greg's timidly.

"Do you like games?" He had no idea where he was going with this, but he put a hand on Nathan's back and the little child nodded.

"Okay, let's play a game. See those people over there?" He asked, pointing at the gathering of neighbours behind the police tape.

Nathan followed his gaze and nodded again.

"Okay, in this game, you have to tell me if you know them, okay?" He asked and Nathan mumbled a small "Okay."

"See the man in the blue shirt? Do you know him?"

Nathan nodded again. "That's Mr. Lori. He's mean."

"Really? That's not good." Greg said, over animatedly, hoping to make Nathan a little happier. "What about the lady with the red hair?"

"I dunno." Nathan said, and leant a little more on Greg.

The coroners were almost done, and he was determined to keep the boy distracted.

"Okay, how about one more? The lady with the doggy?" He asked, rubbing Nathan's back again.

"Mrs. Harris. Her doggy is Lucy. I like them." He mumbled out, but finished with a small smile.

Truth be told, Greg was amazed at how brave the little boy was. He'd just gone through so much, and yet he was playing along and answering questions. It was pretty amazing.

"That's good...that's good." He finished, squeezing Nathan's shoulder.

You like? I think Nathan is growing on Greg :)