Yay, a new chapter! :)


"I don't believe it. She would never do something like that." Nick shook his head quite hastily. "You're wrong."

"Greg..." Russell rubbed his forehead. "Why do you think Simone has something to do with this? Is it just because Nick recognized Chuck?"

Greg shook his head. "No... I suspected this the whole time."

"The whole time?" Nick gave Greg a look. "You thought she hired two guys to beat you up for days and didn't care to say a word?"

"...You're surprised by that? Look at your reaction. You don't even believe me!"

"You're right, I don't. I think you hate her and want to believe she did this."

Russell gave Nick a look before turning back to Greg. "Is that what you meant when you told Nick you didn't want to report the beating at first? Because you thought it would get Simone in trouble?"

Greg nodded with a sad look. "I didn't know what to do. I figured keeping this from you guys was the best decision."

Nick got off his seat and started walking up and down inside the office. "So now what? Are you going to interrogate Chuck?" When Russell nodded, Nick went on. "Great. That's just great. Things between Simone and me start getting better and now this."

Russell gave him a look again. "Would you just shut up? This isn't about you."

This made Nick calm down a bit. He sat down again. "I'm sorry, Greg. I don't mean it like that. I just won't believe Simone or Chuck have anything to do with the beating until there's some proof."


Greg was able to give a positive identification on Chuck Wilde. He was certain he was one of the two men that had attacked him. The less aggressive one, that is. Right now, Brass was just casually asking Chuck about his alibi and if he knew Greg, stuff like that. Of course he claimed he didn't and that he had an alibi, but it was quite obvious he was lying. It became more evident, though, when Greg walked into the interrogation room.

Chuck instantly looked quite uncomfortable and confused. "...What the hell's going on?"

"Oh, you remember him?" Brass asked while Greg sat down next to the detective without saying a word.

Chuck couldn't help but stare at Greg's I.D. tag. "...You're a CSI?!"

Brass chuckled. "Oh, didn't she tell you that?"


"He swore he was telling the truth." Nick tried to convince Greg that Chuck was innocent as they were sitting in Brass' office together with Russell. "Simone isn't involved!"

"And he wouldn't be the first criminal to do so but was lying in the end, now, would he?" Greg tried to stay calm, but Nick's naivety made it hard for him not to get aggressive. "Nick, you weren't there. You don't know..." Greg shook his head. "It's ridiculous. He knows you, how could he mistake me with you?" Chuck had claimed that he was jealous of Nick and that he wanted to beat him up instead of Greg. He claimed that he had heard Simone mention the address, believing it was Nick's.

"I don't know, maybe he's bad with faces. It's not like we talked all that much."

Brass gave Nick a look. "Is your heart really blinding you that badly? He's straight-out lying and we can't fall for that. He's trying to protect Simone."

"I think they're right, Nick. Why else would one of them have said that 'she told them he'd cry' ?" Russell asked.

"...What are you talking about?" Nick stared at Greg.

Russell looked surprised. "You haven't told him?"

"No... I haven't, I..." Greg was obviously very uncomfortable right now.

"They said that?" Nick asked with surprise in his voice.


Nick was slowly believing Greg. He was still hoping that Greg was wrong, but he now realized that it was a possibility that Simone had asked her ex-boyfriend to go beat Greg up. It was a horrible thought for Nick, though, and he couldn't figure out a reason she did that.

They were both in the break room, sipping on their coffee while Brass was talking to Simone. Neither one of the two could bear to be there and watch when he did, so they tried to keep themselves distracted.

Greg was nervously tapping his thumb on the table. "I'm really sorry, Nick. It wasn't an easy decision for me..."

"What do you mean?" Nick put his coffee mug down.

"Reporting it."

Nick laughed humorlessly. "What else were you supposed to do? Claim you had fallen down the stairs?"

The younger CSI shrugged as he got off his seat to put his mug away. "I don't know. Take a few weeks off until the bruises faded." He smiled at Nick. "I wanted to tell myself that it couldn't have been Simone, but..." He stopped talking when Nick got off his seat and walked over to him. He was still a little bit shaken after the attack, so he took a step back when Nick came closer.

He gave Greg a long, tight hug without saying a word for a moment. "Don't apologize. You did nothing wrong."


An hour later, when the mood between Nick and Greg was lighting up again and they actually kept themselves distracted, Simone stormed in. "What the hell did you do?! Are you out of your mind, telling them I had something to do with your beating?!"

Greg gave her an angry look without saying a word. He'd know a lot of things to say to her, but wanted to keep his composure, so he just listened.

"Had I known what kind of person you are... I wish I had told them to beat you up! You deserve it!"

Nick stepped between the two. "Hey! I think that's enough! What do you think you're doing?"

"Oh, now that's surprising! You take his side! Why don't you two take a hotel room and get it over with already?"


Nick lead her outside the break room. "Why are you doing this, Simone?" He gave her an annoyed look.

"Don't you see what he's trying to do? He wants to get rid of me so that he's got you all by himself again! He's crazy!"

"...Really? Because I know him much longer than I know you and I think I would've noticed by now if he was crazy."

"Can't you see?! He probably hired Chuck himself!" Simone kept yelling. She wasn't gonna calm down anytime soon.

"Oh come on, that's ridiculous. He didn't even know him."

"Yeah, so he says. Whatever. I have nothing to do with his beating. I swear!"


Nick walked back inside with an exhausted look on his face. "I'm sorry for that."

Greg shook his head. "Not your fault."

"I'm gonna head out now, I... I can't be here any longer."

"...Are you going back to her place?"

Nick looked surprised - almost shocked - at Greg before he chuckled and shook his head. "I'm still not convinced she hired Chuck for the beating, but... I don't trust her anymore."


The next few days were quite emotionally straining for Greg. The police, especially Brass, did their best to find out more from Chuck. They offered him great deals in case he wanted to rat out Simone and his partner in crime, but he refused to do so. Instead, he hired one of the best lawyers in Nevada. Since they didn't have any physical evidence to link him to the beating – let alone Greg's apartment in general - it was hard to prove anything. All they had was Greg's testimony which, of course, was questionable for many reasons. The lawyer argued that Greg had seen Chuck on some pictures before and was just filling in the familiar face, like many witnesses do. Although Greg had seen him on some pictures, but couldn't even remember it, he knew it was him who attacked him. The testimony Chuck gave them, where he claimed he was just jealous of Nick and mistook him for Greg, was invalid since the lawyer claimed they had pressured Chuck into saying it. It didn't make much sense the way Chuck explained it, which only gave the lawyer more possibilities to fight it. Of course Chuck was guilty, but for now, the CSIs had no chance to prove it.

Greg's desperation was very visible to anyone who ran into him these days but everybody knew that there wasn't much they could do to help. Him and Nick were on their way to a crime scene when the older CSI's cell phone started ringing. He sighed. "Her again..."

"Maybe you shouldn't have broken up with her..." Greg said discouraged as they entered a house.

"What? Why would you say something like that?" Nick looked at Greg confused.

"Well you know, what if she really doesn't have anything to do with the beating? It would be a shame if I had ruined the relationship and she's innocent."

Nick wasn't sure how to reply to that. He was, after all, having thoughts like that, too. "It's not just that. The way she reacted after Brass questioned her, you know?" He shrugged. "It showed her true colors and I didn't like what I saw. You didn't ruin the relationship. She did." He patted Greg's back as they walked up to David, already bent over the dead bodies.


They were standing around the dead body while David explained what had happened to the poor soul. Brass walked up to them. "I have a pretty impatient witness waiting for one of you to talk to," he said while looking at Nick.

"I'll do it." Greg stepped a few steps towards Brass.

"...Are you sure, Greg?" Nick asked surprised. "Because your face..."

Greg had forgotten about his bruised face for a moment. "Right... Well, I'll do it, anyway."

"If you aren't comfortable with working on the body you could check out the exterior..."

"I said I'll do it, alright?" Greg was getting a bit annoyed although he knew Nick only meant well. He would've loved to back out at this point, but his pride didn't let him.

Nick turned around to the body again as he rolled his eyes, while Brass walked out of the house with Greg.


Greg and Brass stepped out of the house in Henderson. Dozens of nosy neighbors were standing around the police line, dying to take a peek into the house that now was a crime scene. While Brass lead Greg to where the witness was, he got approached by one of the bystanders. "Detective! Detective, it's important! Please!"

"...He's right over there, Greg." Brass pointed in the direction they were headed. "Are you fine on your own?"

"Sure." Greg gave him a smile before walking off.


"Mr. Hudson? I'm Greg Sanders. Can you tell me what happened?" Greg approached the witness.

The witness, Mr. Hudson, turned around. "Nice to meet you." He reached out his hand for Greg to shake it, but the CSI didn't. Instead, he stood there with shock and terror in his eyes. Frozen up, unable to move for a moment. "...Are you alright?" Hudson gave him a confused smile.

Greg's heart started racing as he looked around quite helplessly. He had lost sight of Brass although the detective was just a few steps away from him. "...What are you doing here?"

"Mr. Sanders, what's wrong?" Hudson asked.

"I-I... You're the witness?" he stuttered. "...Brass!"

"Do you maybe need to sit down or something? You're looking pale."

"Brass!" Greg yelled again. The fear was clearly audible in his voice. He took a few steps back and put his shaking hand on his gun.

The detective finally heard him and rushed over to him. "What's wrong?" He noticed Greg's defensive body language and that he had his hand on his gun.

"...Arrest him," he whispered.

"What? What's going on? He's our witness, isn't he?"

"He's the other one... You need to arrest him."