Chapter 2

He sat, glaring out at the world. He hated it. All of it. All of them.

They were the worst, though no one ever agreed. They all tried to tell him that there was nothing wrong with them. That they had done the right thing.

He scoffed. There was no right thing. Not here. Not in this case. Well, that wasn't completely true. There was a right thing, they just hadn't chosen it. It would have been so easy to do so, but instead they had rejected him, all of them had.

Well, he fixed them. First the pair, years ago, it had been so easy. His plan was ruined however, when the surviving ones scattered. Disappeared. He knew that they couldn't run forever, but he hated setbacks.

Well, the setbacks were over now. He had almost gotten them all. One more now, just one. The worst one of them all was left. The pretender. The one who had taken his sacred spot. Well, that one would soon be dead.

One last look out at the cold, cruel world. He got up and slid into his jacket. He left the cheap motel room, intent on his new target. In a few days, retribution would be complete.

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Greg opened the door to his apartment. Between the news about his youngest brother and work, he was feeling like he had been put through a wringer.

He dropped his keys on the counter and wandered over to the couch. Dropping onto it, he leaned back, resting his head.

He was so tired of death. It plagued him, followed him. Tomorrow he would call Rebecca, but right now, he could barely deal with his own grief. He loved his sister dearly, but not right now, not with a migraine the size of Alaska.

A shrill shriek woke him suddenly, startling him. He sat up, realizing he had fallen asleep on the couch. And that the shrill noise was the phone ringing on the end table, and not someone being horribly murdered.

"'Lo?" He was still a little groggy, so at first he didn't recognize Nick on the other end. "Nick? Wha's up?"

"Um, hey Greg. Would you mind coming down to work? There's some stuff you should... look, could you just come down?"

"Sure. What's this about?"

"When you get here, alright? It's something you should hear in person."

Greg felt his guts freeze at those words, and he was suddenly wide awake. "What is it?"

"Greg, please, just come down."

Before Greg could reply, Nick hung up. Greg stared at the phone in his hand for a moment, then he slammed it down, grabbed his keys and raced out to his car.

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He hurriedly signed in, wondering why something so urgent that he had been hustled out of, well, bed wasn't urgent enough to have someone waiting for him in the lobby.

He checked Grissom's office, but it was empty. So was the break room.

Greg was wandering around the corridors when he ran into Catherine coming in the opposite direction.

"Oh, Greg... Hey..."

Greg waited for more, but Catherine only looked at him with an odd expression. "Um, Cath? Mind telling me what I'm here for?"

"Um, maybe you should go down to the morgue. Nick and Griss are there."

When he realized that no more information would be forthcoming, he slowly turned away and headed in the direction of Doc Robbin's domain. Certainty formed slowly deep in his guts, and now that he knew, or thought he knew, there was no need to hurry.

If he was right, Rebecca wasn't going anywhere.

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Two men stood over the body of a young woman, no older than twenty-five. A third stood looking at some x-rays on the lightboard a few paces away.

"She didn't go easy."

Doctor Robbins looked over the young victim laid out before him regretfully.

"No," said Grissom, "she didn't. But then, not many people would."

Nick turned from his close examination of the x-rays to stare at the woman, Rebecca Sanders. "She looks a lot like Greg. Her eyes..." he spoke softly, trailing off.

Footsteps interrupted whatever Grissom was about to reply with. The trio watched the door expectantly. They were not disappointed when it was Greg that stepped through the swing doors, a resigned expression adorning his face. No words were said as he approached the table, no words were needed. They all knew why they were there.

Greg stood looking at the face of his baby sister. No tears fell from his eyes. He had done all the crying he could - now he was caught too deep in a riptide of grief.

He was glad of the white sheet that lay lightly over her body; it provided the illusion of decency in a world gone violent and barbaric.

"How?" His voice was steady, but dark, sorrowful.

"She was stabbed." Doc Robbins looked uncomfortable, it wasn't in his job description to comfort grieving family, especially not when he knew them.

"Murdered." Greg turned away from the table and the gruesome testimony to his failure it held.

"Greg, we need to ask you some questions." Grissom looked as though he would rather say anything other than that, but it had to be said.

"I know. Just ask, I don't want to... I don't-"

"We don't have to do it now."

"Yes, we do."

"Well, at the very least we can move somewhere more comfortable."

Greg nodded choppily, then left the room, Grissom and Nick following.

Doc Robbins looked after the men for long moments after they left his morgue. With a last glance at the body, he covered her slowly, pulling the sheet over her face and Greg's empty eyes.

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"When was the last time you saw your sister?"

"Um, about a year and a half ago. It was a family thing. My – my little brother was there too. Jason."

"Have you told Jason about this yet?"

Greg looked up at Grissom with eyes flat and dead. Like Rebecca's...

"Jason's dead."

Nick and Grissom exchanged a look, Greg staring at the table once more.

"What happened?" Grissom's voice was like a shout in the silence of the interview room.

"I didn't even know she was in Vegas, I have no idea what happened."

Greg's voice was hoarse, upset, and Grissom felt like his heart might shatter. He knew Greg was an orphan, he'd known since the day Greg had come to him and asked to put Grissom's name down as one of his emergency contacts. He'd wanted someone right there in Vegas as one of them, just in case.

Grissom knew that he'd just come upon the reason for Greg's despondency of late. And he hated himself for the questions he had to ask now.

"Not to Rebecca, Greg, to Jason. What happened to Jason?"

Greg looked up once more, disbelieving. "You don't think... No. He died in a car accident. An accident. Not a murder."

"So Rebecca was coming down here to see you?"

"Yeah. Probably."

"When did Jason die?"

"Three days ago. I got the news the other day."

Slowly shaking his head, Grissom glanced at Nick once more. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Why?" A fire was in the lab techs eyes now. "Why? Because you didn't know him. You didn't know Becca either. You would have given me all those shallow platitudes and condolences that you give all the families of victims around here. But you wouldn't know what you're talking about. Because you don't know them, you don't even really know me, so what does it have to do with you? Nothing!"

Greg had risen during his spiel, and he turned and stormed out at the end, his chair clattering hollowly on the floor like a death-knell.

Nick sighed and scrubbed his face with his hands. "This is a mess. God. I feel sorry for Greg, this has got to be rough."

"A lot more than rough. He hasn't got any close family left."

Staring after Grissom as he left the room, Nick sat in shock. All of them? Dead?

A shiver ran up the CSI's spine. This wasn't right. None of it. Could it be coincidence that Greg's family was dying, one by one? Was killed, a little voice commented bitterly. The only one left was Greg.

Greg...

The thought was like a bucket of ice water. One by one...

No close family left...

All dead...

Bolting out the door, Nick raced down the corridors, desperate to find Greg, Grissom, Sara, anyone. But there were no CSI's in the building. There were all gone.

Pulling out his cell, Nick began dialling.

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A/N: So, there you have it, the second part of my newest fic. As a warning, the chapters are going to be coming out less frequently than I have often done in the past. But they are longer then my usual standard, so I hope that makes up for it slightly. Also, this fic will probably be very short, no more than five or so chapters. So no mammoth production for now.

And I'm sorry about the last chapter, for some reason most of my section breaks disappeared. I will try and fix that for you guys, I just hope will cooperate.

Cheers!