Chapter 6

Grissom could only watch as his crime lab took on an air of silence, no matter how much noise was being made to cover it up. Nick looked tired. They all did- but Nick especially, Grissom didn't realise how close Greg and Nick were until now, and he suspected that neither had Nick. He was right.

Nick stood in the doorway of the break room and just watched the world going by, blue Hawaiian coffee in hand. It had been two weeks. Nick imagined a tumble weed rolling down the corridor and was taken by surprise when Cathy tapped him on the shoulder so she could get by. She looked at him sympathetically.

"He'll wake up Nicky."

She said quietly before joining Warrick and wandering off to their next case. With every day that passed by it grew gradually less likely that Greg would wake up. When the phone rang Nick looked up. Maybe this time. Maybe it was the hospital calling to say Greg was ok, maybe....not. The call was put through to somewhere else, most likely a solicitor calling for their latest suspect.
An hour later and it was the end of shift, at long last. The days dragged by so slowly without their sparky lab tech to brighten things up. He passed the lab on the way to his locker. Hearing his name being called he turned around. Grissom was jogging towards him.

"Nick! Nicky wait up, the hospital called, Greg's awake! They say he should make a full recovery."

Nick grabbed his things.

"I'll go straight to the hospital."

Grissom smiled.

"Good, then you can give me a lift. Save petrol."

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When Greg woke up his first thoughts were of Rachel. His next thoughts were of working out where he was. A hospital, he concluded. Which meant that he wasn't dead. He mentally checked everything over. Did he know who he was? Yes. Good. Could he feel everything? Kind of...well it was quite hard to move, but he could still feel everything. Could he see hear and talk? First two, check...the third, he tried to say something but it came out as a cough. This alerted the nurses to his awakening and one rushed over.

"Mr. Sanders? Can you hear me?"

He coughed again for a while before croaking out a 'yes.'

"Do you remember who you are and what happened?"

Greg hesitated, and then nodded.

"That's good news. Here, let me help you to sit up. I'm sure you're tired- you've been in a coma for the past two weeks."

Greg wasn't sure how to react to this. What do you do when you wake up in a hospital and somebody tells you that you've been in a coma for two weeks? The nurse was right- he was tired. But he desperately wanted information on Rachel. Was she still trying to kill him? Was she back in jail? And what about his friends- did they now know his sister as a murdering convict, not as the caring, sweet girl she once was? He had so many questions that the nurse couldn't help him with. She'd been talking for the past five minutes but he wasn't listening. He caught the end of it- something about physiotherapy- but he didn't catch for how long.

"Sorry, how long will I be in physio?"

The nurse didn't seem to mind.

"3 weeks."

"Ok. Thanks."

Greg didn't like the sound of his voice. It was croaky, not like normal. He coughed.

"Can I have visitors?"

His voice was slowly returning back to normal. The nurse replied that he could and she would help him have a shower before they got here if he wanted. Greg agreed, hoping it would wake him up a little before his friends arrived. It was strange to him that such a simple task was so difficult, and painful.
The nurse, Karen, repeatedly told him to go easy but he wasn't used to 'going easy'- usually he would roll out of bed, the floor waking him up enough to realise he was late, swear, adrenaline would take him through the shower and through to breakfast, grabbing whatever out of the fridge and breathing out when he go to the car. He thought of his home- it was gone now. The thought depressed him. It may not have been much- but it was his home, with his things, his CDs and TV, his laptop...and now they were all gone. His pictures of Rachel before she turned into a murderer.

The feeling of warm water made him feel a little better; at least he wasn't dead, or paralyzed. In fact he was pretty lucky. Eventually he got back, surprised that he was exhausted after the shower expedition. Nick and Grissom burst through the door with such energy that it made Greg feel even more tired.

"Hey."

He said casually. Nick laughed and ran over to him.

"You're awake!"

He said, at last allowing himself to believe it.

"I don't think I will be for much longer though. I'm really tired, sorry."

Grissom came out of the background and stepped forward.

"Don't apologise Greg. Look- we brought grapes and flowers."

Greg smiled. Then he asked the questions he needed to know the answer to.

"I guess you know about Rachel now, huh?"

Nick and Grissom looked at each other and nodded an affirmative.

"And we know about your parents, we saw some articles from a few years back in th..."

"The Daily Post, yeah I remember that..."

Greg tried to think exactly how much was revealed in that article as the other two looked on with embarrassment. Greg looked at them slightly bemused.

"You don't have to be embarrassed you know. I don't feel like you've invaded my privacy. You did what you had to right?"

They nodded but still looked down.

"Guys, that part of my life is over. It's history- it doesn't matter now."

Nick sighed.

"But you didn't tell me about Rachel, Greg. You knew it was her, and you knew she was trying to kill you. She nearly did."

Greg nodded understanding.

"The thing is...well I guess there are several reasons. For one thing I thought maybe I could talk Rachel out of it. I didn't want her to go back to jail; she really hated it in there. Also...I didn't want you to think of Rachel as some mad murdering convict, because I still think of her as the sweet, generous and helpful girl she used to be. In retrospect it seems kind of stupid, huh."

"No it doesn't, - you were protecting your little sister-"

As always Nick rushed to his defence, but Greg laughed bitterly.

"Yeah. I guess I should stay away from having kids."

Grissom felt suddenly angry and interjected.

"Greg listen to me. Your sister is not evil- she's schizophrenic. For the most part she is a wonderful person, smart, compassionate and enthusiastic. She got that from you. Unfortunately, your parents had a very negative effect on her, and the other side of her is spiteful and violent. She's at a place called Waterside Retreat. It's an institution for mentally disabled patients, they are hoping that Rachel will recover fully one day."

Grissom paused to let Greg absorb this information, then continued.

"If it weren't for your influence Rachel would have turned out just like your parents. It's not your fault she murdered them, and tried to murder you- and it's not your fault she went to prison. I know you would be a great father if you ever had kids."

Greg didn't say anything. The fact that he was tired didn't help the issue as tears welled up in his eyes. After a while he said quietly

"I want to see her."

"You have to get better first Greg. Then maybe you can help Rachel recover. We've been to see her- it's a wonderful place, she seems happy enough there- says it better than prison. I think she's writing a book."

Greg smiled a little.

"It's not that I don't appreciate you coming but I'm really tired so..."

Nick put the flowers in a vase on the windowsill and the grapes on his bedside table.

"Sure, we'll let you get some rest buddy."

The two of them left to ring the others with the news, and Greg slept like a log.

TBC