A/N: As promised Chapter 17 is here (wow chapter 17 never thought i'd write so much!) and Uh oh i just know you're going to hate me for the ending of this chapter... but i promise to update quickly and hey i've never let you down yet!

The water was approaching Greg's knees, and rising steadily as soon as Paul had left him in the darkness, he had tried desperately to free himself, he was finding it difficult to breathe, he could not shake the gag off, or free his arms or legs, this was it. Almost exactly 24 hours since he was kidnapped, he was going to die. It was a horrible way to die. He didn't want to cry anymore, just felt a strange numbing sensation. His body was cold, the water was simply freezing. All he could do was wait for the water to submerge him.

It was as Grissom was interrogating Robins relentlessly that Brass noticed the nurse, gesturing outside. "I see Mr Grissom is busy but I just thought I should let you know you can go and see Nick Stokes as soon as the detective has finished speaking with him".

"Wait what detective?" Brass questioned, confused "I'm the only one that should be seeing him"

"Detective Orson." She replied. Brass continued to look at her blankly "Orson? He's about 6ft, short brown hair, and scar down his left cheek"

"Oh shit!" Brass exclaimed. He shouted to Grissom, panicked "Griss! Paul's here! He's with Nick now!" Grissom was already running, his face aghast, questioning "How the hell did this happen?" before demanding the police officers to guard Jack Robins with their lives.

Paul was still stood over Nick. Nick was trying to appeal to Paul's better side. "Come on Paul, seriously man why are you doing this? You don't want to hurt Greg, he hasn't hurt you. Greg thought he was your friend. I did, we were all friends. You don't hurt friends"

Paul looked genuinely confused "We aren't friends"

"Yes we are!" Nick insisted "We had fun that night at your house right?"

"No that was just so I could get close enough to you!"

"No I don't believe it was Paul, you like me and Greg, you don't what to hurt us"

Paul was close to breaking down "No, no Greg must suffer for what he did to me"

"Greg didn't do anything to you man, please just drop the gun and tell me where Greg is, it's over Paul" Nick pleaded

Paul looked completely unsure what to do, but still held a firm grip on the gun, he was pointing at Nick. "Grissom must suffer" he stuttered "for his sins and so must you and Greg"

"Please Paul don't do this" Nick begged

"Why Nick? I'm going to prison anyway; I may as well take two of his CSI's down"

"No you wont" said the voice in the doorway. Grissom.

"Don't come any closer Grissom" he said aiming his gun at Nick's head. "You don't want to lose another one"

Grissom put his hands up "You win Paul, I'm not coming in. Let's talk about this"

"Nothing to talk about Griss. You failed to believe me? You then to add insult to injury, fired me in front of the entire lab! You never got any biological proof. I told you then and I can categorically state now I did not rape Louise Stevens. I was framed; you let a rapist walk free!"

All eyes were on Grissom. "If what you say is true then I am genuinely sorry"

"Bit late for that now Griss! You know I idolised you, I aspired to be exactly like you, I was devastated, destroyed after that, you took my dreams away, you never showed me any respect, no encouragement"

"Paul, put the gun down" Grissom demanded calmly "Tell me what you did with Greg"

Paul's eyes were huge as he spoke, his hands cold and clammy holding the gun. He looked Grissom straight in the eye with a steely resolve "You want to know why Greg, huh? Greg is a mirror image of me ten years ago but with one crucial difference. You show him the respect that I was never shown, you give him the encouragement I was never given and he gets the opportunity that I always wanted and yet never had, to become a CSI! Why should he get that chance?"

"Because he deserves it" Grissom said quietly

"No!" Paul roared "he doesn't and he will never get that chance" He cocked the trigger aimed at Nick and Grissom felt his whole body tense. Nick sucked in a huge pocket of air. He never took his eyes off Paul as his face broke out into a huge smile; he whispered it so quietly "You'll never find him in time". With mounting horror Nick realised what Paul was going to do. "NO!" he screamed

BANG! The sound of the gunshot reverberated around the stunned hospital room.