A/N: I don't own CSI or anything. Name your price. Ha. Impetuoso means "impetuously". And, wow, this is chapter eight! Eight! Wowser!

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Last Voice: A Concerto
8: Impetuoso

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I got to work the next day, putting on my best poker face. It hadn't affected me. It hadn't affected me.

Just keep repeating that.

My first stop was the DNA lab. Big mistake.

"Any results?" I asked as I came in.

Abbie (dressed much the same as the day before) turned and smiled. "Yeah. A couple people left some reports here for you – phone records and family contacts, I think."

"Or lack of," I said, looking at the numerous calls for takeout and the absence of any family.

"Some DNA matches came out this morning. The blood at both apartments, taken off the edge of a table and the base of a floor lamp? It's Samson's. What we thought came from a nosebleed you're your scene? Samson's."

"Well, that's interesting. We'll see what he has to say about the rest of this," I said carefully.

"The samples from the bed are being run right now. Ecklie pushed some of this stuff ahead of them." She handed me the report.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course. When they come, call me or Cath, okay? Thanks."

She looked a little surprised. "Yeah, any time."

I started to walk out of the lab, relieved that the girl had been civil this time.

"Greg, hold on."

Hoo, boy.

"What?"

Apparently, business was out of the way.

Abbie crossed her arms and looked at me out of the top of her eyes.

I really, really hate that look.

"Greg, do you have some sort of problem?"

"Problem? Me? No, I just have to go show these results to Cathe…"

She took a step closer to me.

A little too close.

"…rine…"

"C'mon, you wanna go somewhere after the shift gets over?"

"Umm… umm…"

"Is that a yes?"

"That's a no."

"But when guys say no, they really mean yes..." she cooed, taking another step.

Now I know why they call it "bending your will".

"No, we don't."

"Is that a 'yes', too?"

"Nope."

"Yup."

Yessir, that will was almost doubled over now.

"Look, Abbie, I have my reasons—"

I was cut off by a sudden version of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

So much for civil.

The crazy thing was, just for a second, I was kissing her back.

What?!

What the hell are you doing, Greg?!

I pulled away.

"Greg? What is your deal?"

"Look, Abbie, you've got to back off."

"Why?"

I shook my head. "Just forget about it, okay?"

"Is that it, huh? You can flirt all you want, but if a woman makes a move, it's 'oh no, not too close now'." She glared at me. "You men are all the same."

"Yes, we are. And yes, that's it. That's all."

Abbie blinked fiercely. "Then I'm sorry I even tried."

"Me, too. Go talk to Archie or something, okay? He's the one that needs it."

Another blink, still angry. Then she nodded and backed off.

For an uncomfortable minute, neither of us said anything. She fumed, and I felt guilty.

I finally left, taking my report with me.

"Whoa, Greg, for a second there I thought there was something burning in here – and it wasn't one of Gris's experiments."

Coming down the hallway was Nick.

Just what I needed.

That was sarcasm.

"What's going on with you and the lab tech?"

"Nothing."

"That didn't look like nothing to me."

"You're right. It's less than nothing."

He squinted at me like I was a piece of evidence.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Nope."

"Liar."

"Right."

"What's up?"

"I've gotta give this to Catherine."

"Greg?"

I stopped not far from the break room.

"What's up?"

"Nothing that concerns you."

"Fine, we'll exchange information. I'm willing to tell you something if you'll tell me what your deal is."

Deal. I hate that word.

I didn't say anything.

"I trust you. We all do. You're easy to trust."

I looked away.

"Why can't you trust us?"

"You don't trust me. You never did."

"Look. I trust people. It's automatic. At least it used to be. I have to be that way now because that's how I am. Really. I have to try to be me."

I stopped for a second.

I brushed my index finger across a tiny white circle on the back of my right hand, the one holding the manila folder. My gaze traveled to a brownish line across the opposite wrist.

That I didn't touch.

I looked back at Nick suspiciously. He wasn't just trying to con information out of me, like some suspect, was he?

Something told me he wasn't.

"Why?"

"I was raped when I was nine, okay?"

I felt kind of numb at that.

Seriously?

No way.

"Wow."

"Now tell me what's wrong. There were sparks flying everywhere in that lab, and you pulled the fire extinguisher on them. So?"

I chewed on my lip. "Fine. Once I was given a contaminated blood transfusion."

Nick paused. "Contaminated?"

"I'm infected with HIV."

A longer silence.

"Wow."

"I've been seropositive for thirteen years."

"Whoa." He thought for a second. "That's… That's pretty major. Why didn't you just tell us, though?"

"Because I knew how you'd all react. You'll either go, 'Oh, poor Greggo' or you'll be afraid of me. There's something wrong with me, and that's how a lot of people see it."

"How…?"

"I live with it. Isn't that what you do?"

Nick blinked.

"That's why I was so mad about the incident with the mildew."

Nick looked confused for a second. Then it dawned on him.

"When Grissom 'infected you'?"

"Yeah. It was so easy to catch it, and it took weeks to get rid of it. Had to schedule a bunch of doctor's appointments and everything. I wanted to say right then, 'Look, maybe your perp didn't get this, because…', but I couldn't."

He looked back at the DNA lab, and then at me.

"And that's why you wouldn't…"

"I'm not going to give it to anyone else. That's one responsibility I don't want."

"I'm sorry, man."

"Please don't tell anyone, okay? I don't want your pity and I don't want anyone else's."

"Right. I won't, you won't."

"Right."

"Yeah."

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A/N: That's nice. Wee. My goal for now has been reached. Let's go catch a killer, what do you say? Ha. Still no Warrick, though. Sheesh. Sorry guys. Okay, impetuoso ("impetuously") refers to Abbie's move on Greg (which was another scene that was again very difficult to write, and yet very fun), Nick's telling about his issues and Greg's admission about his HIV infection. Seropositive, by the way, means you're infected but don't show symptoms.