AN: This is the fourth and final part to my Stay Home series (Stay Home, In the Spoon it Melts to Liquid, Opiate Summer, and now God Called in Sick Today) which chronicles a made up version of Greg's past, starting at the age of sixteen. This part is going to be significantly longer than the other three parts and since my Junior year is much more difficult than I thought it would be, it might take me awhile between updates. I know that this has taken me a long time to write and I'm sorry. After The Agony of a Stalker was finally finished (a big thanks to all of you who read it), I just didn't feel like writing anymore. But now I'm back and ready to go.

"What do you have against me Sara? I mean, Taylor was just yelling at me, telling me I needed to handle all of my shift's cases. Funny thing, I thought I was."So much for subtly. I don't know, I guess having various chemicals thrown at you by the nutcase lab tech that works days can turn you into a real asshole. I mean, she had been sitting quietly at a desk, filling out paperwork on some old cases, when all of a sudden I just burst in there and started attacking her.

"Greg," She began, exasperated. "Not everything's a conspiracy theory." Her statement exhumed confidence, but I had learned to read people and I did notice the brief flicker of fear behind her statement. I shut the door as I took a seat on the opposing table and stared directly into her eyes as I questioned her.

"What are you not telling me?"

"What's gotten into you today?" she replied, flustered. She kept her eyes on me as she tried to bury a file on her desk. I stalked over to where she was sitting and tried to look as menacingly as possible while I grabbed the file from her hands. I hastily opened it, quickly shutting it back once I saw the name of the victim glaring up at me. I stared at Sara, openmouthed.

"I- I didn't even know he was in Vegas. I haven't even seen him in about ten years. How- - I mean what happened?"I stuttered.

She smiled at me pityingly. "Why don't you ride with me to Desert Palms and find out?"

I nodded wordlessly and followed her to her car.

"So how do you know Tony Nash?" she asked out of the blue as we were en route to the hospital. I just smiled wistfully at her as turned her radio to a classic rock station. About ten minutes later, the song I was looking for finally came on. When I heard the first opening chords, I blared her radio as loud as it could go (which wasn't all THAT loud), and sang that song. The one that had started, and ended, everything.

I'll find a way

To keep it all inside.

It's harder than it looks,

it's eating me alive.

You have this gift

of working your way in.

Eventually, you'll break me down

I'll surrender to this sin.

"Have you ever heard this before?"

"Greg, I asked you- -"she began. I could tell by the look she was shooting me that her trust in me was gradually fading- - that "I know you're guilty of something" glance.

"It's called Duesday. It was written by- -"

"The band Unleaded, I'm not completely anti everything." Noticing the perplexed state I was in, she continued. "My roommate at Harvard, Phoebe, was a huge fan of theirs. Her walls were covered with their posters and album covers. I even went with her to one of their concerts. Don't look so shocked; I did know how to have fun once."She finished with a grin, tilting her head to glance in my direction. We sat in silence for a few moments. Sara was calmly watching the road- - her left arm rested on the door as it supported her head. Her right hand was on the steering wheel, fingers tapping in tune with the radio. After the song ended though, the question I had been waiting to ask since the beginning of our ride finally slipped out.

"He is still alive, right? Tony, I mean. We wouldn't be going to visit him in a hospital if he were dead." The anxiety I was trying so hard to hide seeped into her view with the eagerness that had to be stamped all over my face.

"Yeah, he's alive. He was found on the floor of his apartment with two bullet holes in his chest, the gun wit his prints all over it laying right beside him. Grissom thought it was a suicide attempt gone bad, but we want to interview him just to make sure." Her voice oozed with the pity that I thought and wished had disappeared. God, I hated that sad, yet condescending look people give when they're trying to comfort you. The only person who knew about my life and hadn't sent me that false support was Grissom. Thinking about him brought a new question to mind.

"Grissom knew about this?"

"Yeah."She was speaking to me in a tone that obviously translated along the terms of 'you dumbass'. "He gave me the case. He was the one who told me to send all of the evidence to Taylor."

I was a little hurt that Grissom thought it best to hide all of this from me, but I understood- - I could "compromise the case." With him, the evidence came before anything else which at times was a double-edged sword.

"So other than Tony, are there any other suspects?"

She didn't say anything for a few seconds as she was deciding whether to share the rest of the information with me or lie.

"We found a hair at the scene," she began slowly while biting her lip, regretting that she was telling me more with each word. But she still continued as we pulled our way into the parking garage at the hospital. "It belonged to Lydia Bell; do you have any idea who she is?"

I couldn't speak; it felt like I was choking on air, like the past eleven years of my life had been a lie. She was looking at me, expecting an answer. Right now I wasn't in any mood to lie.

"Yes." I quietly muttered under my breath as I got out of the car. For a second I was hoping that she hadn't heard, but when I finally worked up the courage to look her in the eye, I knew my reply was more audible than I had hoped.

"Let's just go," I sighed and started walking away from where she stood frozen by the car. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no clue where the hell I was going.

"Greg," Sara called out and, once I turned to face her, pointed the other direction.

"Right," I let out a small grin as I walked with her. I felt her hand on the small of my back as we walked, her light laughter ringing in my ears.

Tony's room was on the fifth floor of the hospital, ICU's hall. I had been in this hospital so many times that I had all the floors memorized, and the intensive care floor was the one that I always seemed to reside on. As we were riding the elevator up to the floor from hell, I had to ruefully laugh at the ironic thought that suddenly popped into my brain.

"What?"

"I was just thinking, the last time I saw Tony was in this very hospital."

"You know," she began. "You never told me how you knew Tony."

"I know," I curtly stated but with the glare Sara was shooting me, I knew this conversation wasn't over. "You're not going to let this die, are you?" That great gap-toothed grin was her only reply.

"Tony was the base player for Unleaded."

"Really?"

"Yeah and I was their roadie."

She playfully shoved me."Aww, and all this time I thought you were just a poser. Why did they split up?"

"An accident," and all it took were those two simple words to send the memories flying. Broken glass, the screeching of brakes- - Tony yelled out in earsplitting pain, Lydia fell into me, her blood, sticky and red-black, coated my clothes as it sprayed from her mouth. The car twisted around us - Price was stuck between the front and back rows of seats. The windshield shattered, spraying Zack and Price, slicing their skin as the reached their hands up to shield themselves. Kevin's body flew through the air, breaking the windshield even more, as he lurched out of the car; his body hit the pavement with the nauseating thud that was the last thing I remembered. I literally had to shudder to get their screams out of my head; it was right after that shudder that I realized I had been voicing my memories aloud.

Sara was staring at me wide-eyed, a look of pure horror pasted across her face. I pointed to the thin, but very visible, diagonal scar that stretched across my face. "Haven't you ever wondered where I got this?"

She gave me a sort of half smile. It was obviously forced, but I didn't mind the change. "Never noticed it."

I didn't think Sara had the ability to cheer me up, I never noticed how consolingly funny she could be. "Yeah, right" I scoffed. She screeched to a halt in front of room 541.

"This is it."

AN: the next chapter should be up soon. Also I noticed a few errors in Opiate Summer ch2 that I need to clear up. First, Grissom was supposed to say that he knew DNA tags couldn't last ten years(not fifteen) since that's how long she's been "dead". And at the beginning of if I said the "attempted suicide" of Tony Nash, but later I said he had been murdered. Obviously, he survived.

The song lyrics in this chapter are made up.

REVIEW!!!