Greg's hands had finally stopped shaking, but not because he wasn't scared anymore. Nick's strong hands were holding his firmly, keeping them still until they were finally still on their own. Greg had been staring down at his hands while they shook, but now that they had stopped, he looked up into Nick's dark brown eyes and tried to smile, but failed miserably.

"What are we gonna do?" Greg asked, breaking the half hour silence that had fallen between them since Lanser had left them.

Nick shook his head. "I don't know," he answered as he looked around at the room they were now in.

Lanser had brought them to a smaller room in the back of the bunker. He closed and locked the door behind him, trapping Nick and Greg int he small, dark, cold room. There was a single mattress on the floor that definitely didn't belong in the bunker. It was perfectly clean and looked brand new, and very comfortable with the folded blanket sitting on top of it. There was nothing else in the room other than the mattress, blanket, and the two men standing in the middle of the room.

"Do you think he's gonna kill us?" Greg asked.

Nick knew better than to lie to Greg, especially since the younger man could always tell. "I don't know," Nick answered honestly. "I think that his intention is for one of us to die and become an example or something. He seems a little crazy and is probably capable of anything."

Greg sighed. "Well that's not good news. What's the chances of the team finding us?"

Nick shrugged. "Well last time I was stuck underground, they found me. Don't worry sweetie, everything's gonna be okay. We'll figure this out, and our team will help us out too. It'll be over before ya know it."

Greg nodded slightly. "Okay," he said softly. He was silent for a few moments before he spoke again. "But if one of us has to die, it's gonna be me."

"Absolutely not," Nick replied immedialty. "What, are you insane? That's out of the question. Neither one of us are going to die."

"You know that that's probably not true Nick," Greg said. "And if it has to be one of us, it should be me."

"Why?" Nick asked. "Why you?"

"Because I have a lot less to live for than you," Greg answered. "You have a huge family and everything, and you're more experienced as a CSI than I am. Losing you would be far worse than losing me."

Nick shook his head. "That's not true. I may have a bigger family, but they don't love me anymore. Your family loves you more than mine ever could. As far as being a more experienced CSI, that doesn't matter. You're great at what you do and you're so important to the team. More people would miss you, especially me."

"And I wouldn't miss you?" Greg said. "I had to watch you almost die in front of my eyes. I can't do that again Nick. I know a lot of stuff has happened to the both of us, but I'm not as strong as you. I wasn't as brave about it all as you can be. I'm not like you, I'm scared out of my mind."

"I'm scared too," Nick said, stepping closer to Greg. "It's okay to be scared, this is terrifying. I have no idea what's going to happen, but that's okay. If I have to be this scared, at least I'm with you."

A small smile spread across Greg's lips. "Yeah, I'm glad I'm with you too. Otherwise, I'd be going completely insane."

Nick pulled Greg into a tight hug and kissed the side of his head before whispering in his ear, "I love you."

Greg wrapped his arms around Nick's neck in an attempt to pull himself closer. "I love you too."

Nick stepped back slightly away from Greg, far enough away so he could take the other man's hand in his own but stayed closed enough to feel his warm breath on his neck. Nick gently pulled on Greg's hand, slowly leading him away from where they had been standing over to the mattress against the far wall. They laid down onthe soft surface, pulling the blanket over themselves for warmth. Greg rested his head on Nick's chest and draped his arm around the older man's waist and sighed happily. Nick wrapped his right arm around Greg's shoulders and rested his left hand over Greg's right hand that was resting on his stomach.

They both closed their eyes, lying as close as possible to each other. Greg could hear the steady beat of Nick's heart under his ear and the sound was calming. He snuggled up against Nick, sinking into the warmth of the other man. He flxed his fingers and entertwined them with Nick's before closing them into a fist.

Greg squeezed Nick's hand. "Don't let go."

Nick kissed the top of Greg's head and squeezed his hand back. "I won't."

Neither Nick nor Greg were ever able to sleep very well when they were apart. Whenever one of them had to go away for a conference or what have you, they wouldn't be able to fall asleep. So instead of trying and waiting for sleep that would never come, they'd end up talking to each other on the phone the whole time because without each other, they couldn't sleep at all. They got so used to each other that apart, sleeping wasn't an option.

They had slept for about three hours before Lanser came into the room, waking them up by throwing the door open loudly. He had a gun in his hand, but didn't raise it. He just looked down at the two men in on the mattress silently for a moment before he spoke.

"Follow me," Lanser said as he turned around and headed out of the room.

Nick and Greg felt that it was in their best interest to do as they were told. They slowly stood and then followed Lanser out of the small room. They headed down the long hallway leading away from their room. They took a left at the end and went down another hallway before Lanser stopped at a door on his right. He turned and faced the other two men, his face with no emotion whatsoever.

"Greg, go through this door," he said, motioning to the door next to the one he was standing in front of. "Nick, come with me."

Greg reluctantly went through the other door, which brought him to a small room which he immediatle realized was an observing room. The wall on the right wasn't really a wall, but a one-way window. Greg stood in the middle of the small room, looking into the room Nick and Lanser were in. Their room wasn't too much bigger, but it had more in it. All Greg's room had was a few chairs and a desk. Nick's room had a large metal vat, a coiled up garden hose in the corner, pipes running along the ceiling and chairs as well. Nick was standing next to the vat watching Lanser, neither of them speaking.

Lanser walked over to the wall Greg was looking through. Greg knew that they couldn't see him, it was just like the mirrors in the interrogation rooms at the police station. Lanser wasn't even pretending he could see Greg. He just walked up to the wall and must have pushed a button Greg couldn't see because suddenly, Greg couldn't see Nick anymore. The window wasn't now opaque, and Greg could neither see nor hear what was happening.

Greg stood there, still staring at the wall, waiting for something to happen. He stood there in silence, not moving and barely breathing. All he wanted was for Lanser to push the button again so he could see that Nick was okay. He needed to see if Nick was okay or not.

Greg jumped when he heard Lanser close the door to the room he was in. Greg had been alone in the room for close to an hour and hadn't heard him come in and didn't even know he was there until he closed the door. Lanser walked over to the far side of the room and leaned up against the wall Greg was trying to look through.

"Sit down," Lanser said casually.

Greg slowly walked over and sat down in one of the chairs. His legs felt like jell-o and he was glad that he was sitting now because he doubted that he would have been able to stand for much longer. Greg tore his eyes away from the wall and looked at Lanser, who seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Are you ready?" Lanser asked.

Greg shook his head. "For what?"

Lanser just smiled. "It's a good thing you're sitting down, let's just put it at that."

Before Greg could say anything, Lanser pushed another button on their side of the wall. The window became transparent again, and Greg could see into the other room. He immediatly wished he couldn't.

Nick was kneeling in the large metal vat. The sides of the vat were only about a foot tall, so Greg could see the water around Nick's knees. Nick arms were above his head, wrists tied together and then fastened by a chain leading up to the ceiling. The pipe above Nick's head was broken, water spilling out from the pipe down onto Nick, comepletly soaking him. This sight wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that Nick's shirt had been ripped open and a small, circular object that looked like a sponge was stuck on the middle of his chest. Greg knew what it was immediatly and knew exactly what Lanser was going to do.

"A little electroshock therapy," Lanser said, voicing Greg's thought.

"Please don't hurt him," Greg said as he looked back at Nick.

"I'm afraid I don't have a choice," Lanser said. He pushed another button, and suddenly Greg could hear Nick struggling against the chains in the other room. "Sit tight Nick."

"Where's Greg?" Nick asked, not liking the fact that Lanser could see him but he couldn't see Lanser.

"Sitting right next to me," Lanser said.

Greg wished he could say something, but the words couldn't make it past the lump in his throat. All he could do was sit there and watch the water cascade down over Nick and wait for Lanser to do something.

Lanser took his finger off the button and they could no longer hear Nick. "I want you to tell him that you don't love him."

"Why would I do that?" Greg asked.

"Because it's the truth," Lanser said. "You don't love him, you've been lying to him the entire time you've been together. I know it's true, and I know deep down you do too. So tell him the truth."

Greg shook his head. "That's not true, I do love him. I never lied to him and I never would."

Lanser sighed dramatically and pulled a small device out of his pocket. There was a switch and a dial on the small rectangular surface of the object. Lanser flipped the switch up before slowly turning the dial. Greg watched as Nick winced in pain. His muscles visibly tensed and his chest contracted as his lungs stopped taking in air. Then Lanser turned the dial the other way and Nick's muscles relaxed, allowing him to put all of his weight on his arms and breathe again.

Nick struggled to catch his breath. He tried to take slow, deep breaths, but that only made his chest hurt more. He felt warm blood begin to mix with the cold water running down his arms as his wrists were being cut by the handcuffs sercured to the chains that were holding him up. He couldn't feel his legs, even though he was kneeling on them in the metal vat. His arms and fingers were tingling and only got worse as he began to catch his breath.

"Tell him the truth," Lanser said.

"I always have. I love him," Greg said, tears forming in his brown eyes.

Lanser shook his head slowly as he turned up the dial again, but higher this time. More volts of electricity shot through Nick's chest and flooded throughout the rest of his body. He was clearly in much more pain and it only got worse as Lanser let it last a lot longer. When he finally turned it off, Nick was gasping for breath and his entire body was shaking, and not from the cold water.

Lanser pushed the button and Nick's ragged breath filled the silent room. "Does it hurt?" Nick didn't answer because he couldn't since he still hadn't caught his breath. "Does it hurt?" Lanser asked again, agitation in his voice this time.

"Yes it hurts," Nick answered breathlessly.

Lanser took his finger off the button and turned to Greg. "Tell him you don't love him, and he won't hurt anymore."

Greg hung his head as the tears spilled from his eyes. "This doesn't hurt him as much as me saying I don't love him would."