AN: So I couldn't wait on this. I can't do the whole "leave a cliffie and wait like a month to post the next chapter" thing. I'm just not that evil.
"Nigel Crane." Greg's voice was almost inaudible, even in the quiet of the break room. "The semen came back as Nigel Crane."
Nick's world seemed to stop. Everything around him faded except his lover, silently staring at the floor between them and those words, echoing around in his head. "No." He whispered the one word and started walking, ignoring the restraining hand on his shoulder, the stares of all the lab techs as he passed(1), ignoring everything but those seven words that echoed around his head. His feet carried him to the locker room, where he found himself sitting, staring at nothing.
The words that Greg had spoken in the second that he had managed to stop Nick finally penetrated the fog that had surrounded his brain. "Please, don't do anything stupid. Don't do something that you and Liz'll regret." Nick shook his head as memories came flooding back to him. The girl, her hair dyed. The glove. The shattering of glass and the pain as he hit the ground. The hospital. Back to his apartment. The paranoia. Crane crashing through the ceiling. The gun pointed at him. The helplessness. His clothes on the other man. The gun pointed at Crane's own head. The threat to blow his own brains out. Brass and his men. The shaking relief as Crane was led away.
Nick jumped up, unable to sit any longer. he paced, like a caged animal, running his fingers through his hair. The adrenaline running through him causing his muscles to quiver. "SHIT." He turned and swung, his fist smashing into a locker again and again.
"NICK! ENOUGH!" Sara grabbed his wrist, her strong grip bringing him out of the fog. "I heard." She pried his fingers out of the fist he had made and inspected his knuckles. He stared ah his hand, then looked at the locker that had taken his anger. Crimson painted some now jagged edges on the dented locker door. His blood, from his hand. He looked at his hand again, where blood dribbled from multiple cuts that made his hand look like raw meat. "Sit down, Nick. Let's get this cleaned up, and then you're coming with me to lunch." Nick sat, and let Sara clean and bandage his hand, wincing only slightly as she dribbled hydrogen peroxide onto it.
He was silent as she led him out of the lab and slid into the passenger seat without complaint. He finally spoke when both doors were closed and they were moving. "Thank you." Sara glanced at him, but he simply stared at the clean bandage that wrapped his hand. "I just... I dunno. I feel like I coulda stopped this. I coulda saved Liz. I coulda let him blow his brains out. Hell, I got a new place anyway. If I had just let him commit suicide right there, none of this woulda happened. Liz wouldn' be in the hospital, and he wouldn' be around to mess with me."
"Nick. You and I both know that you would never be able to stand yourself if you had just let him pull that trigger. You wouldn't be able to move on. You want to believe the best of people, and a lot of the time you're right, but sometimes, sometimes you're wrong." Nick finally looked at Sara. He gaped at her as her eyes flicked to his and back to the road. "Even Grissom says that your empathy makes you a great CSI. You impress me, because you're always optimistic, and you don't let the cases get you down."
"No, Sara. The cases do get me down. I'm not always optimistic. I keep being wrong about people. I just don't know anymore." Sara pulled into the parking lot of Franks and parked the car.
"Nick, I know I'm not the one to make big speeches like this, but you have friends, and you have someone who's been making you smile a lot more this past year. I don't know who, and I'm not asking you to tell me, although I have a fairly good idea who, but whoever it is, don't stop them from making sure you stay optimistic. Whoever he is, the two of you are lucky to have each other." Sara reached over and grabbed his shoulder, squeezing quickly before she got out of the car.
Nick sat there, stunned, watching Sara walk towards the 24-hour diner. "Wha...?"
Sara turned and called back to Nick. "You coming or what?" He shook his head and climbed out of the car, walking over to his friend and following her into the diner.
When they had slid into a booth and placed their orders Nick turned a demanding stare at his friend. "How did you figure it out?"
"Nicky, I may be a CSI, and I may work better with dead bodies, but I'm still a woman with a woman's intuition." Sara leaned forward on the table. "And, actually, because I'm a CSI, I've got to know if I'm right. Is it Greg?"
Nick nearly choked on the sip of coffee he had just taken. He coughed and spluttered for a moment before regaining control of himself and staring at Sara. "I... well, yes." He blushed a bit and looked down into his cup. "How?"
"You used to stare." Nick blinked at her. "When Greg was in the lab, you would stare. Especially when he danced. And the two of you flirted endlessly. Also, I'm fairly sure I've seen both of you take pictures of each other's asses at crime scenes." She grinned when he blushed further. "The images never showed up at layout, so I'm thinking you would take the picture, look at it, and then delete it. You always smile when he's around, and the two of you have been ultra professional around each other for about a year. I'm guessing that's how long you've been going out?" Nick nodded and Sara continued, quieter this time. "And after the box. I don't think I'd ever seen G so pale. And you were so angry after he got beaten. Even with Crane, and the explosion. I don't think it was quite as strong then, but it was still there. Greggo's hands shook harder when you were around. He was more nervous, and it showed in his hands."
"Please, stop." Nick's voice was barely above a whisper, but Sara nodded and thanked the waitress when she brought their food.
There was silence as they ate, until Sara spoke. "I'll hand it to you two. It took a long time for me to figure it out. It was suddenly so obvious." She paused for a moment to eat more of her lunch. "And surprising as it may seem, you make a good couple." Nick blushed profusely, and continued to eat in the renewed silence. They were just finishing when Sara spoke again. "Although, if you hurt him, I'd have to kill you. Or at least hurt you as much."
Nick laughed a little at this as she grabbed the check and dropped some cash onto the table. "Thanks Sara. I needed someone to knock some sense into me." They walked out of the diner and headed back to the lab.
AN: Shortly after Nick and Sara leave
"Warrick, where's Nick?" Catherine strode up to him in the layout room, worry apparent on her face. "I want to make sure he's not here when we bring in Crane."
"Sara just left with him. I think she means to snap some sense into him." Warrick didn't even look up from the photos and evidence of their case laid out on the table. "Hey, would you take a look at this? I pulled it from one of the walls, and I can't figure out what it is, but it's covered in our vic's blood." He held out a small evidence bag with a small, vaguely triangular chip in it.
Catherine took it from his hands and inspected it. "It looks to me like it's the tip of some sort of blade. She did say that one of them had a knife, but this doesn't look like a knife. It's too thick."
"CATH!!" Greg rushed into the layout room, eyes wild, clutching his phone tight. "Call from my neighbor. She said she heard something outside, and by the time she got to the door to look, all that was there was something stuck in the door. She said it looked like there was blood on it."
Catherine and Warrick looked at each other. "Go on Cath, I'll stay here and finish processing." She strode from the room and headed for the parking lot. Greg turned to leave and was stopped by Warrick. "What are you thinking, Greg? Do you think Crane may have started stalking Nick again?"
"I know Andrew Seznick just wants revenge for me putting him away. I don't know about Crane. I don't know about much of anything right now." Greg walked out of the room, ignoring Warrick as he tried to get him to stop again.
Warrick's phone rang as he turned back to the evidence spread out before him. "Brass, tell me you've got something.....Good. Where was he?....Damn bastard's teasing us..... Greg's neighbor just called, said she heard something, but by the time she got to the door, there was only something stuck in Greg's door.....Alright. I've just got to pack this back up and I'll be right there." Warrick carefully put all the evidence back into the box, slid the photos into the folder and headed for the evidence locker. When he left carrying only the case file he didn't notice Greg following him down to the interrogation rooms.
"Warrick. Crane's in there. He's just as much of an ass as I remember." Brass' rough voice caused Greg to slow when Warrick turned the corner. "Do we have this bastard?"
"We've got him for rape with his semen in the vic." Greg ground his teeth together when Warrick referred to Lizzy as a 'vic' "I just want to figure out the why."
"Alright." There was the sound of a door squeaking open and the two men walked into the room with Crane. Greg slipped around to the one-way mirror and stood watching. "Well well well, Mr. Crane. What a surprise to see you here again. Anything to say for yourself this time." Crane sat there silently. "That's fine. We don't really need you to say anything. We have you for rape and assault with a deadly weapon on Elizabeth Clark. Isn't that right, Brown?"
"Yeah. You see," Warrick began pulling images from the file. "This, is the slice you put into Ms. Clark's side when you were done raping her." He pulled out a couple of printed sheets of paper, DNA results. "And these are the results of Ms. Clark's SAE swabs. And if you look at this, you can see that the seminal contribution is a perfect match to you." Crane remained impassive for a moment longer before leaning forward.
"I figured it would be a good way to send a message."
"And what message would that be." Crane's eyes swung to Brass.
"A message to Nick. A message, for what he became." Greg tensed, staring at Crane as if he could stop him merely with his mind. "I wanted him to know that he shouldn't have done it." Greg started inching towards the door into the interrogation room as Brass and Warrick exchanged brief, uncertain glances. "Oh, so you don't know. You don't know what he is." At this Greg was moving towards the door. "I expected better from a CSI and a Detective. I thought you would have figured it out." Hand on the door "I can't believe you don't see that Nick..."
Crane broke off as Greg came barreling into the room, standing and backing away from the angry figure striding towards him. Crane found himself against the wall and Greg's hands gripping his shirt and pushing him back. "Shut the fuck up. You have no right to talk about Nick. No right. You almost blew his brains out, and then your own." Greg ignored Warrick and Brass, who were attempting to get him to let go of the suspect. "Nick has real friends, who don't try and kill him. There is no fucking way I'll let you talk about my friend like that."
"Greg. Let go now." Grissom's voice and several hands pulling him away brought him back to reality and he released his grip. Crane dropped down and stumbled for a moment.
"Don't touch me again, Fag." Crane spat at Greg once he had regained his breath, then doubled over as Warrick's fist smashed into his gut.
"Don't mess with mad scientists, ass. I won't let you talk about any friend of mine like that."
Greg stood there shaking with adrenaline that had begun to quickly recede from his bloodstream. "Shit." He whirled and raced from the room, quickly followed by the other two CSIs. He leaned against the wall, sliding down it as his actions caught up with him. "I'm in it deep now, aren't I, Griss?"
Grissom glanced between his CSIs, and was silent for quite a while. "I think, Greg, that you owe us a lot of explaining." He held up one hand when Greg opened his mouth to protest. "I also think, that these past two days have been exceptionally trying, with your friend being raped and find out that the perpetrators are from your's and Nick's past, and I don't expect any explanation tonight. You will, however, go home and cool off. I cannot allow my CSIs to work when they cannot think clearly."
Greg hung his head and nodded. "Thanks, Grissom."
"Greg, do you realize you lifted Crane off the floor?" Greg looked up at Warrick and blinked in surprise. "You were holding him almost six inches off the ground."
"Warrick, You know you'll have to answer for your actions as well. I'll let you slide for now, because we are effectively short-handed. I will have to cite you."
"It was worth it." Warrick's face turned determined for a moment, before he turned and gave Greg a smile. "Especially after Greggo here shoved him up the wall." Warrick held his hand out to help Greg up, which he took gratefully. "I never knew you had it in you."
Greg chuckled dryly. "Neither did I."
Grissom interrupted them. "Greg, go home. Go visit your friend. Go do something, but for now, stay clear of the lab."
Greg nodded and headed for the parking lot. Grissom and Warrick stood in silence as they watched their youngest leave the building, shoulders tense. "I'm guessing you didn't hear what Crane said."
"No. I was just passing when I heard shouting. Mostly from Greg. Would you fill me in on your case?"
They started walking away from the interrogation room and headed back towards the lab. "Well, when we got here tonight, we hadn't heard much, because the uni's hadn't brought in the suspect whose DNA was under our vic's fingernails, an old conviction of Greg's, so we started processing the physical evidence. Cath got a page from Wendy, CODIS had a hit on the semen. That got Brass searching for exhibit A in there. Meantime, Greg and Nick found out, Nick stormed off towards the locker room. Sara came by the layout room where I was, asked after Nick, said she was going to try and get him to concentrate on something other than his friend being raped. They took lunch. Shortly thereafter, Greg received a call from a neighbor, she said that she had found something embedded into his door. Catherine went to retreive that, and Brass called to say that Crane had been found. He was close to Greg's place, and Brass brought him in. I came down here, apparently followed by Greg. Brass and I began the interrogation, when Crane suddenly started spouting off about sending a message to Nick about what he had become. Then he started on about us not noticing. That's when Greg came in and went all angry and dangerous on him. You know what happened from there."
Warrick and Grissom walked into Grissom's office, sitting down in respective chairs. "I do know. I don't know why. And I'm not sure we'll get a straight answer from Greg anytime soon."
"So, we aren't really short-handed, why did you say that?"
"I'm sending Nick home as well. He'll be in a similar state, and there is worse risk of Nick hurting himself in the long run if he and Crane come close to each other. I need you to go back to what we have, and write out your report." Grissom picked up his phone, and Warrick took that as his signal to leave and so he walked out and retrieved his box of evidence.
"Hey 'Rick. I've got what I think is our blade." Catherine fell into step beside him as he headed back to layout. "Here it is, Nigel Crane's weapon of choice this time around: a bayonette."
(1) News travels fast in the lab. Nothing is secret.
SuzSeb: of course not, but they have to try.
knadineg: Hmm, I don't think this is quite how you expected it to happen.
Lily G: Of course. But we haven't actually seen Lizzy when no one's around.