cowers I'm very very very very sorry... so sorry that you can't imagine... yeah I know I'm saying that a lot in the begining of chapters, but this time it was because I was on a cruise ship... isolated from civilization for two weeks... we went to alaska... it was amazing and I met a bunch of cool people... anyways, before I go off on the life story of my cruise...

Things in this fic start speeding up... I'd suggest reading the last chappie again to refresh your memory if you haven't looked at it since I last updated... I guess this was the worst part of the fic to stop updating at, but I'm back, so it'll be all good now... anyways, enough of my rambling! Enjoy mucho!

Chapter 21

Stalker

He understood now. Nick had noticed Greg acting strange the past few weeks, and now he understood. It all fit: Greg's anxiety, the apartment's carpet and subsequent eviction, Greg's lack of sleep, the mysterious phone calls and Greg's sudden out-of-characterness.

He sat in the lab waiting for Hodges to finish processing his evidence, his mind somewhat numb. Why didn't Greg tell anyone? How much control over Greg did his stalker have? Greg had sounded shaken when Nick had gotten off the phone with him. It came to him in a wave of fear. What if Greg was in danger?

The chair almost fell over as Nick stood up, not noticing Hodges' quizzical look. His phone was open and ringing before he even registered himself calling Warrick.

"Brown,"

"'Rick! I know why Greg is so out of sorts," Nick answered. "Rick, we've got to do something, he could be in danger right now."

The fear was much more real for him. He'd had a stalker before, had a gun pointed at his face by a man who'd lived in his attic for months. "What?"

"He's got a stalker. Rick, I was just on the phone with him, he didn't tell me outright, but he was definitely on the verge of telling me. I think he's being threatened, we've got to do something, Rick," Nick said frantically.

"Whoa whoa, slow down there. What's this?"

"Greg. He's got a stalker, Rick, and I think he's in danger. He won't tell me anything. His stalker's probably threatening him." Nick said impatiently.

"A stalker?" Warrick asked, his voice worried. "Where is he now?"

"He said he's pulling into the lab right now. Rick, what are we going to do?" Nick asked, agitated.

"He'll be safe at the lab; we'll look out for him when he gets here," There was a pause. "Finish processing your evidence and then meet me in Archie's."

Nick took a deep breath. "Okay," he said finally. "See you in a bit,"

30 minutes earlier

Sara had left her jacket at Grissom's. They'd spent the night at her house the night before, but she remembered leaving her jacket at Grissom's earlier, so now she was on the way to his house to pick it up before going back to work.

Grissom had been acting strangely the past couple weeks, and he wouldn't talk to her about it. They rarely had secrets from each other, and now that Grissom did, she was worried. She didn't think he was having an affair, but she knew there was definitely something important that he was hiding. She was slightly worried, but also frustrated that he wouldn't confide in her. Did he think she couldn't handle it? That was a ridiculous thought; she could handle almost anything.

Shaking off her speculations, she opened his door and made her way down the hall to get her jacket. She liked his house. It was soothing somehow: big, airy and clean, a nice contrast to her house. She found her jacket with little trouble, but on the way back towards the front door, she frowned.

His office door was closed, and his office door was never closed. Curious, she opened it and stepped inside. She immediately saw what he was trying to hide.

On his work table was laid another miniature crime scene: one she didn't recognize. Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, she moved to stand over it. There were three little rooms, and her eyes roved over it, slowly building reasons to yell at Grissom. So this was what he and Catherine were working on while they were locked away in that evidence room. Why did he hide it from the rest of the team?

After a moment of angry consideration, she picked it up along with the manila folder on the side and carried it out to her car. Grissom had a lot to answer for, and she wasn't going to let him keep something like that hidden any longer.

It took her about ten minutes to drive back to the lab, her mind silently compiling a list of things to tell Grissom. She drove around the lab parking lot to where her reserved parking spot was, next to Greg's. There was a white utility van occupying her space, and she glared at it angrily. Stupid service people. Didn't they know not to park in reserved spaces?

Annoyed, she found another parking spot and, leaving the model in the back of her car, she marched into the lab, flashing her ID at the receptionist before going in search of Grissom.

Warrick hung up, disturbed. Nick's explanation certainly fit, and he remembered the Nigel Crane case, frowning. He didn't want that to happen to Greg, indeed, he didn't want that to happen to anyone. The only thing that kept him from immediately calling Greg to make sure he was okay was the fact that the kid was pulling into the crime lab at that moment according to Nick.

He had evidence he wanted to run with Archie. After Greg had stormed out on Ecklie, Warrick and Nick had exchanged a few choice words with Ecklie and went off to continue working the fourth bomb case. They'd left Ecklie fuming in the break room, and Nick had gone off to call Greg, leaving his evidence with Warrick.

The picture they'd found wouldn't take long to process, and Warrick had promised to meet Nick in Archie's lab after he'd finished processing the other evidence he'd left with Hodges. They would confront Greg after they'd discussed it and tell Brass about it themselves if they had to.

Archie was sitting in his lab scanning something when Warrick entered. "Hey," he greeted the A/V tech.

Archie looked up and smiled. "Hi Warrick, got something for me?"

Warrick nodded. "It shouldn't take too long, could you do it now?"

Archie looked at the picture Warrick handed him. "You could do it yourself if you wanted, I'm not using the computer right now, and I was actually going to step out to use the men's room."

Warrick grinned. "Thanks, Archie."

He settled down at the computer as Archie left and scanned the picture in. As he waited for it to scan, he stared at the screen and opened My Computer to look at the scanned image.

Before he could click on the image, however, something else caught his eye: a folder labeled 'greg'. Frowning, he clicked on it, glancing behind him to make sure Archie wasn't returning.

His eyes widened as he realized what was inside. There was a windows media file, a collection of pictures, and a word file. Horrified, he opened them one by one. They were all pictures of Greg, and the media file was a music video composed of clips of what looked like Greg's everyday activities. His mind was in a state of denial as he opened the word file, which looked like a list of Greg's personal information.

It was Archie. His mind refused to believe it, but the file spoke for itself. It was Archie. Mind numb, he reached for his cell to call Nick, but he heard footsteps in the hall and turned around slowly to see Archie approaching.

After a moment's hesitation, he made a decision and waited for Archie to enter, his thoughts growing angrier by the second.