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Three days later, Nick and Greg were working on a new case together. They met after their lunch breaks in the break room before keeping up the work on that case. "Hey Greg. How was lunch with Gretchen?" Nick asked with a smile on his face as he walked in.

Greg sat at the table, looking at Nick with an angry look on his face. Nick went on to talk about his own lunch break until Greg interrupted him. "So you think I'm broken," he said while looking at his friend.

Nick was about to walk towards the coffee machine, but stopped. "...What?"

"Why would you say that?! To Gretchen?!"

"...Let me explain."

"I thought you liked her!"

"I do, but..."

"Then why are you trying to scare her off?!"

"I'm not. I told her that's not what I want. But I just... Forget it, I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

"...No, what did you want to say?"

Nick sighed as he sat down opposite Greg. "I just can't watch you get hurt again. Gretchen's not right for you. At least not now. She doesn't understand what she's getting herself into."

Greg looked at Nick with an awfully hurt face impression. "Wow. That's how you think about this? I'm too much to handle, right?"

"No, but I don't think Gretchen is the one to be able to... handle it, is all I'm saying."

"Yeah well, I think you're wrong about her."

"I hope I am." Nick gave him a soft smile. "But she's already making you uncomfortable and she doesn't seem to be willing to meet your needs."

Greg wasn't sure how to respond to that, Nick wasn't wrong with his assumptions. "...She told me she's willing to adjust."

"Just forget I said something. I really don't want you two to break up, I don't want to see you get hurt." Nick got off his seat. "We should get back to work now."

As Nick turned around to walk into the evidence room, Greg remained seated for a few more minutes, thinking about what Nick just said.

"Did you and Nick work things out?" Gretchen asked as she sat down next to Greg on her couch.

"Kind of, I guess..." Greg shrugged.

"I hope you're not mad at me for telling you what he said."

"No, of course not..."

"And it's not true, right?" she asked as she started kissing him.

"No... Well, maybe a little, I don't know..."

"Come on, there's a difference between beeing a little bent and being broken, don't you think? You have some difficulties trusting people, that's all..."

"...I-I guess..." Greg found it hard to disagree with Nick. There have been times when he felt like he was broken, other times he didn't. But deep inside he knew that Nick was right. But he didn't want to be. As the two were starting to make out, Greg decided it was time to move things along a little, to prove Nick wrong. Starting to unbutton Gretchen's shirt, his hands began to shake. Gretchen noticed, so she decide to help him in her own ways. She took her shirt off herself and tried to take his off, too, but he wouldn't let her.

"...Come on Greg, it's fine."

"I-I know, I'm sorry..." Greg finally put his shirt off with shaky hands, all while the scenes of the Novak ordeal played back and forth in his mind. "...Maybe we should..."

Gretchen interrupted him as she playfully pushed him on the couch. "Just relax, okay?" As Greg was nearing a panic attack, he hastly tried to get back up, but Gretchen pushed him down one more time and kissed him. She stopped when she noticed that, instead of kissing her back, Greg was close to tears as he lay on the couch shaking. "Greg, what... what is it?"

"I-I'm sorry, I just... I can't. I need to go, please..."

Gretchen got off of him with an angry, hurtful and shameful look. "Don't forget your shirt."

Greg knew it was a horrible idea to just leave now, without any explanation or an apology, but he couldn't stand being in that room anymore. He had to leave.

Knocking at Nick's door that moment was hard for Greg, but he needed his friend right now.

Nick opened the door with a surprised look on his face. Greg looked like he'd just been through hell. "Greg, what... Are you alright?"

Greg stormed in with a distraught look on his face. "You were right. She just..." He stopped talking as he saw a woman dressed in a dressing gown walk into the living room. "...Hi."

"Hey," the woman said with a confused smile on her face.

Greg's eyes wandered between Nick and the woman. "...I'm so sorry. I didn't know... you had company." He turned around to leave again.

"No, no, no, Greg. Wait." Nick grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Yeah, stay. I wanted to take a shower, anyway." The woman smiled at Greg. "I'm Camille, by the way."

"...Hey, I'm Greg." They shook hands.

Camille gave Nick a kiss on the cheek before she walked into the bathroom.

"...I didn't mean to interrupt. I don't know why I came here, I shouldn't have..." Greg showed the despair he was feeling right now. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't hide it.

"Don't be silly. It's fine. What's wrong? I thought you had a date with Gretchen." Nick offered Greg a seat as he sat down himself, but the younger CSI prefered to stand. "So what is it I was right about?"

"About me... And Gretchen. I'm broken and she can't handle it." Greg filled Nick in on what had just happened. Telling him was almost as hard as living it, he was still shaking.

Nick listened carefully. "And now you feel bad?"

"Of course. I shouldn't have given her the wrong idea... I'm sure she hates me now."

"You don't see any faulty behavior on Gretchen's side?"

Greg shrugged. "I'm sure she thought it was alright..."

"No, the way you're telling it... I doubt she didn't notice anything wrong with you. She just chose to ignore it because she thought it was convenient that way. Look at you, you're shaking just talking about it."

Greg looked away ashamed. "Yeah but... We've been dating for weeks, I know she wants to... It's my fault. I lead her on and..."

"Greg, it's not okay. She shouldn't have pushed you. She should've realized and respected that you weren't ready." Nick put his hand on Greg's shoulder, but the young CSI quickly shook it off.

"You're probably right..." Greg gave Nick a sheepish, uncomfortable smile.

Nick would've loved to tell Greg to keep himself together, that he used to be okay with physical contact between the two and that one bad experience with Gretchen shouldn't change anything about it, but he knew that this wasn't something Greg could help. "You know, maybe you should call Dr. Reyes, tell her about this."

Greg nodded thoughtful. "Camille seems nice," he said, trying to both change the subject and keep his mind off it.

"Yeah, she's great." Nick smiled.

"How long have you two been dating?"

Nick sighed a little. "Almost three weeks."

Greg raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me?"

The look on Nick's face made it obvious he didn't tell Greg because he didn't want to brag about his relationship while Greg's was awfully complicated.

Greg responded with a sad smile. "Why can't I have that? Just casual, uncomplicated dating."

"You will. It just takes time."