Disclaimer; I do not own CSI or the characters in the show which are the property of CBS Broadcasting Inc and Alliance-Atlantis Communications. No copyright infringement is intended. Nor money made.

AN: " " talking

: …. : signing (assume someone is translating to English unless otherwise stated!

Thank to Missing Fairy for beta-ing!

"Please, just tell me if they're here!" Aris chocked fighting the nurses who were trying to keep her on the bed. Aris was crying, running her black make-up in rivers down her face.

"Miss Sanders-Hampton you must calm down!"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

"Okay, I'm sorry, but please calm down, take a few deep breaths you are going to make yourself ill," the doctor was speaking slowly and clearly to the distraught young women, Aris took a couple of deep breaths and visibly tried to get herself under control before speaking again.

"Look I'm sorry, please, my brother and sister were with me tonight I need to know if they're alright," Aris winced as a nurse manipulated her ankle. The doctor smiled sympathetically at her.

"I'll see what I can find out if you let this nurse give you meds and set your ankle," he negotiated. Aris nodded.

"Thank you," and then sat back against the pillows impatiently letting the nurses do their job.

"How is he?" Catherine asked the moment the doctor appeared from treating Greg, the doctor smiled reassuringly.

"He's pretty beat up, broken arm, mild concussion and he won't be able to speak for a few days," she told the CSI. Catherine was confused and concerned.

"Can't speak why?" she demanded mentally going over what she had seen of Greg for a clue.

"There are bruises around his neck, my best guess is that someone tried to strangle him," Catherine fell back onto the chair, the air rushing from her lungs.

"Why?" Strangulation was personal, a lot more personal then a maniac with a gun.

"Why would anyone want to do that to Greg?" she asked out loud, the Dr shrugged.

"I believe finding that out is your job" she said, "you can see him if you want but don't upset him. I hope you know ASL, " the doc said mysteriously.

"ASL? As in, sign language?"

"Yeah he's lucid and has been trying to tell us something," Catherine took that in and her features became more set.

"I don't but I know a man who does," she said coming to a decision and pulling her phone out.

Grissom stood up and sighed the entire team was tense, Greg wasn't just another victim and what had happened here seemed to make no sense. Apart from large amounts of .45 rounds they were turning up very little trace evidence of who the attackers were so far. Given the amount of blood at the scene though it could be that the clues they searched for were hidden, multiples were always harder as you had to ascertain which pool of blood belonged to which victim.

The shrill ring of his phone bought his attention back to the present.

"Grissom,"

"Gris, it's Catherine," her voice was wavering in a was that made Gil's stomach knot

"What's happened? Is Greg okay?"

"I just talked to the doctor. Those bastards tried to strangle him," her voice cracked with anger at the end, Gil frowned a personal attack in this case indicated that Greg was probably the primary target. He could hear her taking a deep breath to try and regain control and he knew he wasn't going to like what he was going to say next

"Cath, we're not turning much up here. You're going to have to process all the survivors for trace, start with Greg it looks like he was who they were focussed on."

"I'm going to need help then Gris, hospitals like things neat and sterile – the worse place for evidence and we have six victims in here,"

"I'll send Sara to help you…." He was cut off

"No, Gil. You, you need to come apparently you're not the only one in the lab who can talk with their hands," she said, Grissom was genuinely surprised.

"Really I wonder when and why he learnt that, but what relevance does it have?"

"He can't talk – his throat is too badly damaged" that anger was back again, he could hear it clearly even through the bad connection. He sighed, he wasn't good with people he knew that and Greg was always nervous of him. Throw in that he was his boss, the primary on the case and Greg's condition… he was going to need a chaperone to stop him from making a bad situation worse.

"Okay. I'll bring Brass, will try and do the statement at the same time," he informed her and hung up without waiting for the response. He walked out of the room he had been processing and found Nick outside swabbing a stain on the wall.

"Hey Gris, I found more blood on the wall here, it's on the outside so I'm hoping it was one of our suspects," Nick said in way of greeting, Gil nodded.

"Catherine called, Greg is conscious but in a bad way, I'm going up there with Brass, see what he remembers," Gris saw Nick open his mouth and anticipated his protest.

"I know Nick, you want to go, you all do but I need you guys here to process the scene, if we can't do it then Eckley will pull the case sighting emotional involvement on all our parts. If there is any news I will call," he finished firmly, Nick closed his mouth in a thin line and gave Gris a tight nod. Just because his boss was right didn't make it an any less bitter pill to swallow.

Brass led Grissom into Desert Palms pulling his badge as he approached the reception desk. He attempted to smile at the girl sitting behind the desk looking bored but it looked more like a grimace.

"Hi I'm Detective Brass, I'm looking for..."

"Jim," Catherine's voice cut him off, he nodded at her and turned to the bored receptionist.

"Never mind," he said before joining Catherine and Gil.

"Catherine how's our lab rat?"

"He's not god, but it could be worse, a lot worse. I stopped in to see him but he got upset because I didn't understand him," she reported running a hand through her hair upset.

"Where is he?" Gil asked not bothering with meaningless sympathy

"This way," she led them back to Greg's room and paused outside the door

"I'm going to see if I can track down the other victims," she said, Gil looked at her enquiringly; he would have thought she would want to be here for this. She sighed.

"Look, I think three of us are going to terrify him. He's pretty shaken up," she explained and then left. Gil watched her retreat and took a deep breath.

"Ready?" he asked Brass sarcastically and opened the door.

Greg was lying in the middle of the bed, his face was a mess of bruises; his left eye almost swollen shut. His right arm was in a cast and his left was hooked into an IV. There was a distinct band of bruising around his neck from what looked like a ligature.

"Jesus Christ…" Brass muttered under his breath attracting the attention of the lab tech. Greg's eyes widened as he saw them, he started gesturing with his hands. To Brass it looked lick his arms were just flying about but Grissom understood the gestured, the CSI quickly crossed the room and sat on the side of the bed. He gently captured Greg's hands before the young man could dislodge his IV.

"Greg, GREG! Calm down it's okay, I know you weren't moonlighting. I talked to the band manager I promise, you're not going to be fired," he reassured him speaking in a calm soft voice. Greg's breathing had become ragged and tears were beginning to fall from his eyes. Gil held the young man's hands in his and kept eye contact with him, rubbing small circles with his thumbs until Greg gave him a weak nod. Grissom let go of one hand and reached up to wipe a tear off his face. Greg closed his eyes and shuddered with barely repressed embarrassment. He turned away from Gil's hand and started to sign again, this time in a more controlled manner.

:Sorry:

"What for?" Gil still spoke softly trying not to cause Greg to freak out again. Greg shrugged self-consciously and Gil sighed. He took hold of Greg's chin and coaxed him to look at him.

"Greg open your eyes and look at me," Gil waited for Greg to comply; it took a while for Greg to realise that Gil wasn't going to continue until he did. Gil sat patiently on the bed still rubbing soothing patterns on the young man's skin. The bed dipped as Jim sat on the other side, the movement finally prompted Greg to open his eyes. His gaze ticked slowly to Brass before focusing on Gil. Grissom smiled softly.

"That's better. Greg you have nothing to apologise for, this is not your fault, okay?" Greg bit his lip and nodded a miniscule amount.

:Do you know what happened to my sisters: Gil moved to the chair before answering

"Arissa broke her ankle – she's having it set right now. Katy was shot in the shoulder but apparently all that metal you guys were wearing is as good as body armour," Greg listened to Gil's reply and felt the knot that had been in his stomach loosen, he felt like he could breathe again the relief making him light headed.

:Thank you:

"No problem, Greg,"

"Greg can you describe to us what happened?" Brass asked still perched on the bed as there was only one chair.

:Sure but I didn't see much, I'm sorry:

"Hey, you've already been told about apologising once," Brass chastised causing Greg to stutter and Gil to look mildly surprised. Brass looked smug at the two.

"Hey, I'm a fast learner too, okay?" he defended, Gil grinned at him and even Greg cracked a smile. Brass sat back a bit, mission accomplished the guy in the bed now looked like the kid he knew.

"Look kid anything you can give us will help, you know how this works," Greg sighed and started to force himself back to the green room.

:I was at the entrance, I came in late. Aris hugged me and Kat was on my right. Dan was off on my left, he handed me a beer. Conner was at the back near the fire escape,

he was playing air guitar. Gary was near him: Greg closed his eyes trying to visualise where everyone else was. :Winston and Sheeraz we concocting something alcoholic at a table near the window, Lisa and Deet were trying to tie their shoelaces together: Greg smiled at the memory of two grown women crawling around on the floor trying to snag shoelaces. Brass took that down.

"For someone who doesn't remember much you're doing fine. Point of clarification, Deet is a nickname right?" Brass asked

:Yeah, Desdemona well call her Deet, Katy is sometimes called Kat too: he added realising that he'd switched names. Bras nodded.

"So then what happened?"

:It went dark, they had cut the power or something as the first shot was fired from behind me. The door was locked, I tried to find my sisters but I couldn't see. Someone hit me and I fell, then I was kicked. I don't remember anything after that: his hands were shaking so baldy that by the end Grissom was having trouble distinguishing signs from shakes.

"It's okay, Greg you did great don't worry about it," Brass praised, Gil shifted uncomfortably.

"Greg I need to process you," he said gently, Greg nodded he had though as much but that didn't mean he was looking forward to finding out how the evidence that he got was obtained.

:I know but I can't move much:

"It's not a problem Greg" Gris assured opened the kit and setting things on the side. Greg bit his lip

:Does the Captain have to be here:

"No, I guess not, what's the problem Greggo?"

:I'm…that is I … I'm embarrassed, the less people that know the better:

Gil frowned.

"I understand that but you must realise that the whole team is on this case," Greg looked genuinely surprised

:Why:

"Four homicides, six serious assaults and three counts of attempted murder aside? No-one attacks a member of my team and gets away with it," Gil said frankly. Greg frowned and looked at Gil sceptically;

:I'm not one of your guys: Gil suddenly wished that he was better at reading people or could at least hear Greg's tone so he could take an informed guess at Greg's mood.

"You are joking, of course," he said deadpan.

"Uh Gil, you want to explain?" Brass had been getting increasingly confused by what they were discussing but what Gil had said last had been in an almost confrontational tone – something that Brass was sure the doctors would throw them out for. Gil took a deep breath.

:This conversation is not over: he signed to Greg when he saw that he had his attention. Greg nodded.

"Hey Brass, do you want to go see if Catherine has found anything?" Gil asked trying to appear casual. Brass looked at the CSI and then the tech unsure why he was being asked to leave. He let it go for the moment; it wasn't like Gil was going to attack the kid.

"Sure I'll see you in a bit. Take it easy kiddo," he said to Greg as he left. Greg looked at Gil;

:What do you want me to do:

"Just tell me if I hurt you or this is getting too much" Gil said snapping on a pair of latex gloves.