Disclaimer; see C1.
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Nick glanced into the DNA lab and noticed that it was only occupied by Bryson. Maybe Aris was wrong he thought heading into the locker room.
"Hey bro'" Warrick greeted as he entered
"Hey man" he said casually changing his shirt. He tossed his street shirt into his locked and heard a chuckle
"What's the joke Rick?"
"You got a high collar shirt for tonight?"
"Since when do you care about fashion?"
"I don't but Greg might want to know how you got that hicky" Warrick grinned as Nick paled and darted to the mirror. True enough on one side of his neck he was sporting an impressive bruise, he groaned and then paused
"Wait he's in tonight?"
"Yup"
"It's only been 2 days!"
"Yeah well he pleaded his way through Griss – I gotta give him credit I've never known anyone to manage that before" he admitted. Nick chuckled
"Got the amazing kick- puppy dog eyes and the quivering bottom lip treatment did you?"
"Yeah…. Wait how did you know?"
"He and Arissa tagged-teamed the Hampton's with the same trick. She says it's never failed"
"Wait, he knows he's doing it?" Warrick said somewhere between amused and pissed. Nick just laughed at his friends look.
"Knows, practised and perfected" Nick informed him with a slap on the back. Rick slammed his head into the locker for falling for it. Nick smiled sadly at him
"Apparently Greg could earn an OSCAR, Aris says that Greg has been playing all of us in a desperate attempt to protect himself from getting hurt. It seems like it's a habit he learnt when he was a kid, God I never want to think about what would drive a kid to become that good an actor" he said with a shiver thinking back to his childhood. Warrick nodded taking that in; there was nothing that they could do about it now
"We better get to briefing before Grissom shoots us" he said mentally pushing the issues involving Greg personally to the back burner.
Gil was already in the briefing room but none of the rest of the team was there. They snagged some coffee and waited. Nick now believed Greg was in – it was definitely not the normal tar in the pot. Sara came in a few moments later, she looked like she had been there a while Nick figured she probably had. Hot on her heels Catherine stalked in dragging an amused looking Greg.
"Gil, I found this in the DNA lab" she said yanking Greg in front of her. She obviously thought that Greg had slipped in under Gil's radar. Gil raised his eyes from the papers he was holding and shrugged
"Well it was probably doing more good in there then in here so put it back" he said deadpan, Warrick and Nick tried not to laugh, Sara (for once) looked like she sided with Catherine.
"Gil it shouldn't be here at all!" she said in the tone she normally reserved for explaining human behaviour to the supervisor. Gil quirked an eyebrow at her.
"I agree Catherine but short of having him physically removed what do you suggest I do?"
"It is still here" Greg said roughly. Catherine looked at him stunned
"Getting your voice back, way to go Greggo" Sara praised from the couch, Greg grinned at her, and signed something to Grissom, who caught his injured arm, studying it – the edges of the cast were ragged and it seemed to have shrunk.
"You know I'm sure this was bigger the last time I saw it" he said pointedly, Greg shrugged
:Could hardly sign, and difficult to work. So I introduced it to a hacksaw: Greg's grin became sheepish and he left. Gil shook his head at the young man's antics but was secretly pleased that recent events hadn't seemed to kill off all his spirit. He turned back to the team.
"Brass is still looking for Lloyds and his accomplices but until we get a new lead there is not a lot more we can do. Sara I know you've been running the names through every database ever conceived by man, keep on it we need to find them. Nick, Warrick there's a DB in Henderson check it out. I know guys stop with the looks crime doesn't stop because we haven't got a result on Greg's case. Catherine a 419 off the Strip. As you have been made aware we've got Greg back tonight to take the strain off Bryson – all cases that Greg's even remotely involved in go to Bryson, the rest to Greggo. Let's get to it" he left before anyone could ask him anything. Warrick and looked at each other and shrugged.
"I'm driving" Rick said as they were leaving. Sara and Catherine finished their coffee and wondered out. On her way to her case Catherine stopped by the DNA lab. Greg was working silently and even hindered by the cast he was still faster then Bryson. In some ways she was relieved; with Greg back they would soon clear the backlog. Bryson kept giving him sideways looks. Even though he was the older of the two he seemed to know he was outclasses. Thank God he only had the two cases to run. Unfortunately it was also the two most important cases that they were running. She lent against the door for a second. Bryson looked up and smiled at her
"Hey Catherine" he said causing Greg to look up as well. Greg smiled and made a little 'what' gesture when Catherine continued to stare at him. She gave hi a maternal smile
"Don't over do it or I will drag you home and tie you to a bed" she threatened
"Promise?" he rasped out making both of them laugh. She turned to Bryson
"Keep an eye on him?" she asked the other lab tech, Bryson nodded
"Anything to save him from being tied down, if he even looks on the verge of passing out I'll wave Blue Hawaiian under his nose until it passes" he assured her, Greg grinned at him and Catherine rolled her eyes at them
"Must be the chemicals" she muttered wondering off.
Gil sat at his desk staring at the paperwork he should be doing;
"Hello Gil" came an oily voice that made Gil want to decontaminate his ears.
"Conrad" he said trying to be polite. Eckley stepped into the office and sat down opposite him
"Did you want something" Gil prompted
"Yeah, we finished with Sanders' apartment. Looks like the Perp forced the window in the master bedroom. Sanders put up a hell of a fight – you statement said that the most anyone saw was Drake holding a knife to his throat right?"
"Correct"
"There were indentations in the wardrobe, looks like someone kicked it, the bed linen was ripped, there was fresh blood on the pillow – it's still in DNA but I'm betting it's Sanders'"
"Fresh blood? He didn't mention anything" Gil pondered out loud. Eckley chuckled snidely
"Rumour has it Gil he hasn't 'mentioned' much at all since the first attack" he said slickly. Gris cocked his head to one side
"Really? I found he hasn't had that much of a problem." He corrected exaggerating slightly… perhaps. Eckley frowned realising that he'd missed something but shook it off.
"Anyway I'd thought I'd let you know we're releasing the apartment and that we have enough to press an attempted murder charge" he said. Gil nodded
"Thank you Conrad" he replied genuinely, before shepherding him out of the office. Eckley got the hint and left, Gil followed him and headed for DNA. He became well aware the Conrad was following him. He froze when he saw Greg.
"Sanders, you're not meant to be here" he said in surprise, Greg shrugged. Eckley recovered enough to be snide
"Ah yes talking still difficult" he said sounding falsely sympathetic. Gil decided to end this before Greg got upset or hit Conrad.
"Your apartment has been release Greg. We're pressing attempted murder charges."
:Will it stick: the penny dropped for Eckley and he left. Gil glared until he was out of sight before turning back to Greg.
"They should do. If I wasn't convinced of it I would have handled the case personally, regardless at what time he chose to attack" Gil stopped talking and switched to sign language
:They found fresh blood on your sheets Greg, did Drake hurt you:
:Not really, he nicked me with the knife:
:You're showing me after shift. I knew I should have made you go to the hospital:
:I'm fine:
"We'll see about that" Gil stated sceptically switching back to English before leaving. Bryson gave Greg a reassuring squeeze,
"That didn't sound good" he said sympathetically. Greg found a weak smile for him
"Used to it" he said hoarsely causing Bryson to laugh
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Sara sighed; she was on her fifth cup of coffee since the official start of the shift an hour ago. She had been in for 8 hours already. She couldn't sleep every time she closed her eyes she saw Greg on that stretcher at the casino, reaching out to them. She wasn't going to let him down now. With renewed zeal she continued to search the records. She was beginning to lose hope when something caught her eye, she paused the search. She allowed herself one small victorious grin before grabbing her phone.
"Brass? Sidle. I found something, Neil Balson; seemed he has an oral fixation and an obsession with his teeth – the idiot has a huge file out at a local dentist. He goes at least once a week so I'm guessing he would have gone just before the show. Gotta be worth a shot" she paused waiting for a response.
"It's an address in the suburbs I'll pick you up" she said getting up and grabbing her jacket. She barrelled down the corridor towards Gil's office.
"Hey I got a hit on one of the guys, I'm going to check it out with Brass"
"Ok keep me informed" he said going back to his computers. Sara looked confused and a little put out
"That's it just 'keep me informed' you're not coming" it was half question, half statement. Gil looked back at her
"Why? You can handle it on your own can't you?" he said impatiently
"Of course! I can I just thought that seeing as this is the only lead on the guys that hurt a friend you would be interested" she snapped before stalking off the way she came. Gil watched her go pensively, one day he would understand women. Not today though obviously, he went back to the computer once more. Johnny Lloyds face stared back at him. He was missing something – a connection and it was driving him insane. He sighed he had gone through all the evidence from the case and he still hadn't found anything that connected Lloyds to the others. Gil sighed and threw his pen down on the desk. There must be some way of finding out if these guys …. The answer came to him and it was so simple he groaned and slammed his head off the desk. He got up and headed to DNA. Bryson was working on his own Gil frowned
"Where's Greg?"
"He finished all the cases he can touch. I don't know how he does it, mind you that is why he's the number one I the country I guess. So that coupled with the three text messages he's got from CSIs telling him to take a break I sent him to the break room" Gris raised and eyebrow, he was obviously in awe of the younger man.
"You believing his hype now?" he asked incredulously.
"No, but I believe the four job offered he threw in the bin today even if he doesn't" Bryson nodded toward the trash can. Sure enough there were four envelopes, one grabbed his attention – post mark Quantico
"FBI? He turned down the FBI!" Gil sounded shocked. Bryson nodded smiling ruefully
"He thought it was one of the CSIs playing a joke" he informed him rolling his eyes. Gil nodded and walked off.
CSICSICSICSI
Thanks to everuyone who reviewed!
Missing Fairy thanks for beta-ing!