Hey all,

Here's the new chapter. Thanks to LostLadyKnight, GreggoAddict, Sasukesmyemo, knadineg and Sawyer Fan for reviews!

Not much to say here, but enjoy the chap :)

Harper

CHAPTER 22: Aftermath

Still emotionless and suddenly unafraid to approach the Trace tech, Nick handed the sweatshirt piece to Hodges. "Greg and I are running a test. I know it's Greg's, but it's still urgent. Give me a call back ASAP if it doesn't come back to Greg."

Gaining confidence, he handed off the fingerprints from the doorknob to Mandy, telling her the same thing.

It was refreshing for Nick Stokes to be in the lab without worrying that any person he talked to could be the mole. He knew who the mole was. It was the person he'd been working with – the person who betrayed him. He grimaced. It was simple, and he was safe here, now. It was a second home, and he wanted to feel safe here. So why did he still have that rock sitting in his stomach, telling him otherwise?

Finally, he found his way to Wendy. DNA. The walls of Greg's former home jeered at him. He glared at them. Traitor, they called at him. I'm not the traitor, he imagined calling back at them. He was. Your friend was the traitor. The walls didn't respond this time.

His pager went off. M. Webster. He looked over to the fingerprint lab. Mandy smiled with her thumb up, not realizing that her results did not verify a test, but a mole and a grave betrayal within the lab.

It was confirmed: Gregory Hojem Sanders, Level 1 Crime Scene Investigator and former DNA Lab Technician, was Lou Gedda's mole in the LVPD CSI unit.

CSI 3 Nicholas Stokes remained a sitting duck, appearing calm and collected, though torn deep down inside.

Grabbing his leg, Greg screamed after the departing Denali, desperately hoping it would turn around. It was to no avail. He heard another shot, and screamed as it entered his shoulder. Trust Gedda's thugs to know how to shoot this good – to leave you hanging, alive and in pain – and shoot in the right place so that you stay alive long enough to feel the pain and the fear. But Greg Sanders knew who the mole was. He had been working for many different teams, including Gedda's, for years, and framing Warrick Brown had been an intelligent move for many reasons. But it still hardly seemed like just desserts.

Growing hazier by the second, he looked around to see the three men nearing. He shuddered, still clutching his leg. He knew he was no match for them. Feeling for his gun, he pondered his only two options: to let them take him away, where he would be subject to unspeakable pain, or to deny them the chance. He stared down at his gun. How had it all come to this? he wondered.

Greg's decision had been made for him when his bleeding hand had lost hold of the gun. Now it's over, he had thought.

Gedda's thugs ambled over, looking pleased with themselves as they inspected their catch, rendered immobile by the bullet wounds, as well as the knowledge that he simply had nowhere to run.

The first one laughed a sinister laugh as Greg shivered, knowing what was coming next. Gedda doesn't – or didn't – take well to moles. Greg knew his successor would be no different.

One of the thugs grabbed his right arm, twisting it behind his back. Though Greg could take on that move, he knew struggling was useless, as there were still two more thugs behind this one and, still, no place to run. He shivered again at the hopelessness of his situation.

The thug, amused, twisted Greg's arm further up his back, causing the CSI to yelp out in pain.

"Green! Watch it! The boss does the breaking, and only in the room." Greg looked up at the sky, seeing nowhere else to turn, but to hope for death – either that or the pure luck necessary for a certain convenient discovery by Nick.

Another thug grabbed his other arm and he was dragged, back into the building and to a van waiting behind it. He winced every time his bullet-wounded let touched the ground. He'd never quite appreciated how excruciating gunshots were.

The leader of the trio nodded his head at the van, and the other two made ready to throw Greg into the waiting van. Terrified and borderline irrational, he began to struggle fruitlessly, ignoring the fact that it was three against a one with a bullet wound. He kicked out with his good leg, and even with his bad leg, causing himself only more pain, and winning laughter from the man on his right. His struggles finally ended when one thug kneed him painfully. Greg gasped and bent over, but the men – laughing even more now at his predicament and pain – pulled him up straight and tossed him carelessly into the van. He landed on his already-bullet-worn leg, crying out again.

"That's not the worst you'll be getting, Greggy," the head honcho said. He winked at Greg before the thugs joined him in the van. Greg, still panting, groaning and in even more pain, turned his head around, determined not to look further into the taunting faces of any of the men again, staring instead at the side of the van.

Greg was pressed to the floor, his hands immediately pulled tighter, as he felt the rope constraining his already-sore wrists. When the third reached for his legs, he instinctively flinched, but to no avail. The third sat on his legs, while tying his ankles together. A gag came out and Greg turned his head desperately, before realizing that, no matter what, he was better off saying nothing. He felt his voice choked by the putrid smelling rag and finally saw the thugs retreat, shutting the door behind him. One grabbed his hair, yanking his head up to smile menacingly, as if an extra threat was needed, before shoving his face back into the hard floor of the van. Greg just glared back and tried to sleep, knowing there was no escape.

He had no doubt that this would be one of the worst rides of his life.

Nick wasn't ready to tell the rest of the team about Greg. They would find out soon enough. His mind jumped to the ways they would, in fact, find out, and he grimaced. Greg got himself into that mess. He'll get himself out. Greg was the traitor, and Nick was responsible for neither his actions nor his welfare.

Still, Nick hadn't solved the case. Though at least now he had a probable culprit, or, in the very least, he had the mole, he, as a CSI, would at last be getting evidence. He headed over to the first place he could remember Greg dissuading him from investigating – Warrick's house. He had no definitive proof that hadn't disappeared yet, and he needed it. Given that the one thing he had found – the piece of Greg's sweatshirt – was at one of the locations Greg had warned him not to try, he had his hopes up for Warrick's home.

As he began to turn the key, however, he felt the door open from the inside. Someone was in Warrick's house.

The door turned and opened, Nick drawing out the key at the last minute.

"Hello?" greeted a disheveled looking woman. Her face was tear-stained and her eyes bloodshot, likely from crying. She looked like she had slept in her clothes, which were covered in wrinkles, as well as the remnants of some pizza. Her hair went every which way.

Tina Brown, normally neat and pristine, was a mess.

"Nicky?" she croaked. He had clearly interrupted a crying fit.

Though Tina and Warrick had just recently had a messy divorce – or at least that's what Nick had heard around the water cooler – she was quite nearly the widow. They had divorced only weeks before Warrick's death and, Nick guessed, his dead friend was the reason for her tears.

Nick put his arm around his best friend's almost-widow and let her cry.

Thanks for reading, and hope y'all enjoyed it :) Reviews are loved and appreciated, and they really do make authors' days. My question for everybody is how much angst do you want? As you might have guessed, there will be many an opportunity for Greggo angst in the near future. How dark do you want it, and how much? There will also be some angsty scenes for two other characters, as discussed in a previous author's note (an additional hostage situation and kidnapping). All opinions are appreciated. Also, all guesses as to future twists and turns are awesome. Leave a guess, and I'll get back to you on whether you're right. A few people have already given correct guesses about later events in the story.

:)

Harper