Chapter Six

Sara sat across from Gil, holding her head in her hand. "You didn't do it, did you?"

Gil looked up from straightening his desk, which seemed to have accumulated nearly two dozen files, messages, and packages during his short absence. "I will."

Sara looked at the wall over his head. "When?"

Gil stuffed a handful of messages into the trash can. "I don't know."

"I think he'll listen to you."

"I'm not so sure about that." Gil scowled at a message scrawled in Ecklie's thick block handwriting. Personnel evaluations by Friday. No excuses. This, too, he tossed into the trash can.

"You're wrong."

"I'm not, Sara."

"Aren't you supposed to be our supervisor? It's your job to reprimand him." She frowned as he continued to throw things away.

Gil gave her a look. "It's not your job to tell me when to do so."

"Someone needs to," she said softly, but not softly as so Gil wouldn't hear her, which he assumed was the point.

He sighed. "I'll take care of it."

This seemed to satisfy Sara, for the time being, at least. He would take care of it, he just wasn't sure how yet. They had individually confronted Nick more than once in the course of the last couple days, and he had yet to admit his problems.

One of the files on his desk was the famed McBride case, needing his final signature before it was filed away forever. Gil studied it, getting an idea.

The last couple of days had been quite the emotional roller coaster ride for Nick. He'd been up, down, and right now, he was nearly seeing red.

Not only had Catherine pulled him aside, but it had become known to everyone in lab after what seemed like only a few minutes. Most gave him sympathetic looks as he passed, which just worked to further infuriate him. He didn't need their sympathy, coming across much more like pity.

The exception was David Hodges, who batted his eyes and mock-pouted at Nick as he passed him. Nick wanted to tell him off, but sure as hell wasn't going to run the risk of creating yet another scene in the lab. He'd had enough of that.

He walked back to the room where he'd left Warrick and wasn't in the least surprised to see Catherine just leaving. Nick wanted to stop her, but once again did not want to start anything else. He stood quietly and let her pass.

Warrick frowned at him. "What was that all about? Catherine just pulled me off of the case."

Nick's eyes narrowed. "It's not just you. She's pulling Sara, too."

"Why?"

"I think to teach me a lesson." Nick started pacing the small room.

"What lesson?"

Here we go, Nick thought, rolling his eyes. He forced a laugh. "Hell if I know."

Warrick smiled and shook his head, put at ease by his friend's good old reliable joking nature, and for the briefest of moments, Nick was disgusted with him.

Warrick gestured to the evidence they'd brought in. "Guess I'll leave you to it. I'll go see where Cath wants me."

He left the room and Nick glared down at the bags and photos on the table.

Sure, this is what he had wanted. He hadn't worked a case solo since the trash run that had put him in that godforsaken box. He just didn't want it this way, out of anger and spite, as a punishment. He wanted Grissom and Catherine to know that he was ready, which they obviously didn't, even though Nick was convinced he was. He was not going to let whatever he was dealing with interfere with his work.

He sighed and reached into a bag, pulling out the prints of the tire treads from the curb.

A throat was cleared in the doorway and Nick looked up and saw Grissom.

"Hey, Gris," he said, looking back down at his evidence.

"Nick. Can we – "

"Talk?" Nick finished at the same time Grissom said it, shaking his head. He didn't answer.

"Fine," Grissom said. "I really only have one thing to say anyway." He took a breath.

Nick looked up at him.

"You're suspended for a week."

"What? Grissom," Nick said, his voice louder and whinier than he would have liked it to be. His mouth hung open in disbelief.

Grissom shook his head, his face stony and seemingly expressionless. "No, Nick. You threatened a suspect."

Nick rolled his eyes. "It was not that bad."

"So you didn't grab and forcefully shove the suspect against a wall?"

Nick fumbled for words. He was expecting Grissom's lecture, but definitely not a suspension. He couldn't deal with that right now. "Do you know what they did – "

"Yes, I know all about the case," Grissom told him patiently. "But this isn't about what they did. It's about what you did." He turned to leave. "One week."

"Grissom, wait." Nick was pleading, and at the moment he couldn't care less. "I can't…don't suspend me, please." His eyes dropped to the table. "I need to keep working."

He saw Grissom's shadow move further into the room. "Why?"

Nick felt the familiar sting of oncoming tears and forced them back. He'd be damned if he was going to cry in front of Grissom. He took a few deep breaths. He couldn't let this happen – he needed the work, the lab, the distraction. "I just…can't deal with things right now. I can't be not working."

He'd nearly gone crazy during his medical leave. Sitting home all day, usually alone, with nothing to do but reflect on the things that had happened to him and why. He could not spend another week like that.

"Okay."

Nick looked up, surprised and wide-eyed. "What?"

Grissom nodded. "Okay." His expression never changed as he again turned to leave the room. "Get back to work."

Once again alone in the room, Nick's mind began racing to catch up, to make sense of what had just happened. Grissom had suspended him and revoked it all in the span of five minutes.

Nick frowned. There was just something about his tone…the way he had said 'okay'…the way he had prompted him.

"Why?"

And it dawned on him. Grissom hadn't really been planning on suspending him. He'd just said that to get Nick to admit that he was having trouble, whatever trouble that may be. And Nick had answered him. Grissom's pawn, once again. Silk, silk, silk. It seemed that Grissom could get him to say anything he wanted.

Nick felt incredibly stupid. Humiliated, even. He'd given Grissom the answer that everyone had been trying for days to get out of him. That he wasn't as ready to jump back into life the way it had been before. That he wasn't dealing.

And now they knew.

To be continued...