Hey people! Chapter 8 is here! I decided to put this up since school starts for me tomorrow and due to the horrible schedule they gave me...I might not be able to update as often as I'd like to. Anyway...before you read, I'd like to thank Shelbers(I agree with what you said...Adri's just starting to peel away and show Greg the real her...and thank you for the compliment!), csi-sam-sanders(Yeah...she's a real mystery but she finally comes clean and tells Greg why she's pulled away from him all this time...and there's still more to expect from Adri...just wait...and I'm glad you still love it...) and CatherineLouise(I hope you like what you read in this chapter...) for reviewing. Now, on to the chappie!

I don't won CSI, just Adri and the plot that's starting up...

Chapter 8
Letting In, Letting Go
Greg

That night Adri began her job at the lab with a smile on her face and trying to avoid contact with me as much as possible. Her house was being cleaned up and everything was being sorted into rooms before Nick and Sara processed the entire scene. I tried to talk to Adri but I never got the chance to get close, she'd get involved in so many things that I just knew that its was an act...

A week after the break in, I was inside the game room in Adri's house, playing video games without stopping for a break. I mean, with all these arcade games and these systems in your disposal...I didn't want them in the slightest. I heard the door to the room open and Adri spoke up.

"Grissom called," Adri began. "Sara and Nick want me to meet them at the house to ID pictures and to tell them if anyone is in Vegas..."

"What about your neighbors?" I asked as I turned around.

"Cleared...let's go..." she said as she made her way out. I followed her out of the house and into her car. The drive to her other house was relatively silent, like that night with music being the only noise. She then pulled over at her house, Nick and Sara arriving at the same time that we did. We got out of the car and just as we were making our way up the steps, shots came at us out of nowhere. I quickly ducked and pulled Adri down with me and placing her back to the car while I was in front of her. Her hair was all in her face and I could hear her frenzied breaths. I reached out to move the hairs that covered her eyes and she tensed up as soon as she felt my hand in her face. "Please don't Greg..." she whispered. That was it...I had to talk to her about what I knew...or at least, what I think I know...

"Adri...I can tell you're hurt and that you've been hurt before...but I don't want any of that...the night after the break in, what I heard, that's what I want but I don't want you to be alone when you cry...no matter how others have hurt you, I promise that I won't...you haven't let anybody else in ever since the abuse...I can see it from the way you've pushed me away. This isn't about romance...this is about the fact that you don't want anyone be there for you because you're afraid...and this is because all week I've had a hard time sleeping, thinking about what causes you to act like this," I said to her, as Brass and a few patrol cars arrived. The shots seemed never ending at this rate. How many rounds did the person have? "I managed to sleep after I figured it out but there's one thing that I want you know Adri...right now I want you to let me in. I want to be there for you and I can't if you don't let me...and it's not because you don't want to...I mean, why else would you let me stay in your place without so much as an argument? Please," I whispered. At this rate, I was begging for her to let me help. I hadn't seen her like this...she had fallen to pieces in just one week.

"You know...when you put your mind into it..." Adri said as she looked at me in the eyes. "You're smarter than you think," she said with a weak smile. "I've always felt like I if I were a problem to everyone with the exception of my father...and you here, telling me that you want to be there and that you want to listen to everything...it's just something different...I don't remeber the last time someone told me that they wanted to hear it..." she whispered as tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "Could you do me a favor? I mean, to you it may not seem to be like something big but..."

"Just say it," I whispered.

"Can I get a hug?" she asked weakly. I laughed lightly as my arms made their way around her, pulling her into an embrace. She shakily completed as she finally let it all go. I could hear her weak sobs as she cried onto my shoulder, the shots finally coming to a stop and the cops stormed the place to find the guy. Adri clinged to me like a lifeline, crying and I slightly tightened my hold on her. Pretty soon, her sobs subsided and she let go of me slightly. "Thank you..." she whispered.

"It's a start..." I said with a small smile.

"Indeed," she said as she wiped away the tears that remained in her eyes. "Come on...I want to get this over with..." she whispered as she got up and the cops walked out.

"Empty," Brass said while shaking his head. "I was so sure that we had him..."

"How do you know it's a guy?" I asked. Adri seemed surprised at something but said nothing.

"We'll get him..." Adri said with a smirk. Okay, now I know there's something missing here. Adri began to walk up to the house and I followed, not sure of what we might see. Once inside, we saw everything sorted out into piles and the pictures were all in one area. "Can I get a pair of gloves Nick?" Adri asked as he handed her one. Adri slipped them on as Sara gave me a pair.

"We can talk after this is over with," I said without letting her have a say. I'd avoided her most of the week to keep on thinking since I was too busy concerned about Adri as well.

"Most of the pictures were strewn on the floor with the exception of this one which seems to be taped together and left perfectly intact," Nick explained as he gave her the only picture frame that survived. Adri looked at the frame and fury was present all over her facial features. I looked over her shoulder and saw that she was smiling in the picture along with a black haired, green eyed guy that had his arms around her. It was evident that the picture had been torn into countless of tiny pieces and that whoever had taped this, was very dedicated.

"You photographed this?" she asked, anger evident in her voice.

"Yeah...why?" Nick asked.

"Asshole!" she cried as she threw the frame to the wall, causing it to break.

"Hey hey hey!" Nick cried as he went to pick up the pieces. "Keep your anger outside...this is a crime scene!"

"Keep it outside!" Adri cried. I grabbed her arm gently and made my way to the back yard.

"Don't come back until you can control your anger!" Nick cried as he kept picking up the pieces. We stepped outside and I let her go, hearing her scream in anger.

"He wants me to control my anger?" Adri cried, pacing. "I hate that guy! He means nothing to me and he comes and plants the picture like if we were still dating! I hate him! I hate him!" Adri cired, her voice getting louder. "I mean, he three timed me and then denies ever meeting those girls when they happened to be my best friends back then! Of course, we're still friends now but he doesn't do anything to them like he does to me...no...he keeps accusing me as the problem of it all! One thing I'm very happy of is that my friends gave him something that I absolutely refused. I never wanted to give it up to him and I'm glad I didn't! He's an ass! He doesn't deserve to live! He doesn't deserve me!" she cried as she dropped to her knees. I imidiately got up and walked over to her just in time to hear her whisper, "Nobody does..."

"Of course they do," I said as I knelt down next to her. "People deserve you Adri, you're a great person, just because one person has told you otherwise, doesn't mean that you should only believe him..." I said as I slowly wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into another embrace. "Adri, you're just angry and I understand that, but you shouldn't tell yourself such things...everyone at the lab cares...why do you think Grissom's got most of the night shift on it? The whole reason I'm not on the case is because I know you better than everyone else." I said softly.

"Greg?" she asked weakly.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for your kind words but um...you're nearly sitting on me..."

"Oh! Sorry," I said as I found a spot next to her. "Feeling better? Again?"

"Yeah...just a little..."

"So...you're still a virgin?"

"Yeah...surprised?"

"A little..."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, I was expecting it in a way but the way you yelled it out for nearly the entire neighborhood and the way you said it...it was a little complicated for me to get..."

"Mia told me you lost yours when you were 22..."

"She did?"

"Yeah...I was surprised slightly, actually...I thought you'd lost it sooner..."

"Nah..."

"I seriously don't know how you do it..." she whispered.

"What?" I asked as I looked at her.

"I'm finally calm now...last time I was that angry...it took me three bags of miniature Milky Ways, two big pints of ice cream and half a dozen commedies to get rid of it," she said softly, thinking.

"You don't even show the pounds you gain..."

"I get them off by dancing...it's my other escape..."

"Want to go back inside?" I asked.

"Yeah...I can do this now..." Adri said as she got up. I got up and followed her in, glad that I was making a difference in her outlook on life. Once inside, Nick was holding up the picture and looking at it carefully.

"You seem different in this picture..." Nick began. "You look..."

"Happy?" Adri said for him. Nick nodded slightly as she shook her head. "Look Nick...I get the impression that he did this but I have one question, any prints?"

"None...most of them are yours but this is your house and there's too much important stuff here that you wouldn't break..."

"And she wasn't here all day," Brass said as he came in. "The neighbor's daughters finally spoke up. They said that Adri was out all day for the exception of meal times, when she came in and left in about half an hour. They also remember a guy coming in on a bycicle, wearing a black hoodie and jeans, ten minutes after Adri left for the lab and her gig. They said he left about three hours later, on a hurry and about half an hour later, Adri pulled over and ran in."

"That rules you out by a long shot..." I said as I looked around. "This took dedication and hate..."

"Indeed," Grissom said as he came in.

"Back to what I asked Nick...no prints?" Adri asked.

"None..." Nick responded.

"He knows! Crap! He knows!" Adri cried, frustrated.

"He knows what?" Grissom asked, looking out from the kitchen doorway.

"That I work at the lab! That's the only reason he'd be like that...I had the feeling I was being watched all last week. I just thought that it was the pressure getting to me..." Adri said softly.

"The writing on the wall was done with blood," Grissom said as he tried to change the subject. "Mia matched the sample to a DB found last week, an Enrique Maldonado," he continued, Adri emitting a groan at the sound of the name. "Know him?"

"Yeah!" Adri cried. "His understudy took his part since he went missing...never thought he'd be dead...I just thought that he'd fallen sick since he'd been fighting a cold recently."

"We're dealing with a stalker then..." Sara said as she joined the crowd.

"Angry ex..." Nick said as he showed the picture to Grissom. "This is our main suspect," Nick said, referring to the guy.

"Let's go find him..." Grissom said with a smirk. "...he seems to be like a very nice person indeed." he finished saying. Adri laughed lightly and turned around.

"Good luck finding him..." Adri said as she began to make her way out.

"Why does she say that?" Sara asked.

"Guy's been escaping authoritires for a year..." Brass explained. "He's hard to catch."

"We'll get him...for Adri's sake..." I said as I made my way to meet Adri so we could leave.

"Greg!" Sara called out. "We need to talk." I turned around as I remembered that we did need to. I did tell her I had made up my mind already.

"Greg!" Adri cried as she opened her car door. "You coming?" she asked.

"I'm on my way," I said to her. "Gimme a moment..."

"No prob..." she said as she started the car and music blasted from it. "All right!" she cried happily as she took the front seat and closed the door, listening to the song and singing along.

"What's her deal?" asked Sara.

"My bet, song she likes...but that's not what we're supposed to be talking about," I began.

"Right," Sara said as she looked to the ground. "Did you think about it?"

"Yeah...I did..." I answered as I looked over my shoulder to check on Adri. She was still singing along, ejoying the music. I turned to Sara and took a deep breath. "I liked you Sara I won't deny that..."

"But..."

"But after you stood me up, I realized that it was better off we didn't date. I mean, deep down, I can tell that you kinda like me but you're still interested in Grissom and if you're still thinking about him...it's not worth it..."

"Greg, I..."

"Look Sara, I made up my mind...I like being your friend better," I said as I turned around to leave.

"You like her?" she asked, referring to Adri.

"Not sure..." I said simply. "Hard to tell..."

"See ya..." Sara said.

"Yeah...I'll see ya tonight at work..." I said as I walked over to the car. I opened the door to hear some odd music and someone singing along pretty loudly. Adri had her eyes closed and was enjoying the music. If my mind didn't fail me, she was rapping in Spanish.

"Salud y vida," Adri sang along with a excellent voice. She then opened her eyes and blushed. "Ready to go?" she asked as she buckled up.

"That was interesting..." I said as I followed suit.

"Daddy Yankee," Adri explained as she put the car in reverse and backed away from her old house. "Puerto Rican reggaeton artist," she finished saying as the song came to an end. "I met him once...he's awesome and a real sweetheart."

"Perk?"

"Slightly..." Adri said with a small smile. "Nick was right though...even if it was a little..."

"Why do you say that?" I asked as I stopped looking out the window and focused on her.

"I was really happy with that guy for a while...he was everything I could've asked for..."

"And then some?"

"Nope...he never did anything outstandish for me nor anythihng, he was great but he wasn't prefect that's why I didn't say 'and then some.' He was just there...but we were happy and his parents said that I was the best he'd ever had. I mean, that picture was taken the very same day he told me that he loved me for the first time...I thought that it was finally the real deal you know, the type of love little girls dream about. It didn't last though...a few months later, he was asking to take our relationship to the bed and I refused..."

"He got violent then?"

"Nope...he went out with my friends once or twice and the peer pressure got to them...but it never got to me...I guess it helped having a psychiatrist mother. Anyway, pretty soon after he started to juggle three girlfriends at once, then he turned violent on me, just me. He would just vent by hitting me, initially, like every abused girl, I thought it was something I did...I never told anyone but now when I think about it, mom must've known because she told me to listen and when I did, I heard him saying that it wasn't his fault that he was broke or that his brother died or whatever. For that, I came to realize that it really wasn't my fault. He was just using me...after a while, I began to ponder if that was what our relationship had been, me as an object of some sort. At one point, he got severly touchy feely with me and I began to pull away from him. I then ended it and tried to date other guys and had so many second thoughts, pulled away so much for fear, still will for a while...I hope...and I withdrew myself from the dating world...and what I didn't want as a little girl will probably happen after all of it..."

"What would that be?"

"Me dying alone...or never find out what the real thing felt like or never discovering the diference from sex to making love as my dad put it. I mean, I'm scared of men...well, except for Dad, Grissom and Brass...oh and now you...I can't believe I just told you all of that...guess with all this commotion I just needed to let it out...glad you heard me out though..."

"You'll find it sometime... and I'm more than happy to hear you out...I mean, I should return the favor..."

"And it never hurt to loose faith..."

"Excatly," I said as I cautiously placed a hand on her shoulder. "I still haven't found my match but I know she's out there and thanks to your advice, I'm going to keep faith...she's out there...I just need to find her..."

"Or let her find you..." Adri said as she pulled over at her house.

"That too," I said smiling.

"It's hot out...I wanna take a swim...care to join me?" Adri said as she got out of the car without waiting for an answer. I got out as quickly as possible, I closed the door behind me and I heard the car lock. I looked around to see Adri at the front balcony with a towel wrapped around her body. "Didn't think twice about it did you?" she said with a smirk.

"Maybe," I said somewhat embarrased.

"Well, hurry up!" she said, flashing a full smile.

"You've let go?" I asked, shielding my eyes slightly from the sun.

"Yeah...I'm better than ever...I guess I've finally startedto let go...I mean, I was over the guy already I just...never let go of the pain...never shared my pain with anyone to feel better..."

"Well, you're smiling better," I commented. She laughed at the comment and emptied out a glass of water on me.

"That's for thinking you'd get away with it..."

"And for trying?"

"Hm...let's see...I'll think about it...how's that?"

"You still owe me that 'date'..."

"Hm...I guess you're right...but don't pressure it all right? I still need some time for myself before going out with a guy...let alone you...anyways, see you in the water!" Adri cried as she walked into the house.

"Dri!" I cried. "What do you mean by that?" I yelled out. After no response, I went inside to change.

And thus the teasing begins...and there's more in store...Okay...thanx for reading and if you could, please review!

Up next: Battle of the Techies