HI everybody! thanks again for the reviews.. I hope I can update again by the end of the week, because I will be on holiday for 3 weeks and I won't be able to update until the end of August, you'll have to wait!

I don't own anyone...

Chapter 6

Greg was in the break room. He had taken the hairs and the blood samples to the DNA lab and the blue fibres to Hodges, and all that he wantedat themoment was a cup of his coffee. Grissom entered the room, crouched down to the fridge and drew a box of Chinese food out of it. He then sat at the table and began to eat. The younger CSI felt his boss'eyes on him, making him feel awkward.

"I didn't know you were friend with my niece." The bomb was dropped. Greg ran for safety acting nonchalant.

"I just took her home after the Ball. We haven't seen each other ever since." Grissom's features relaxed. It was not that he didn't want them to be friends, or more than friends, but he knew Aida, the problems she had in Italy, her so called boyfriend, alcohol and sometimes drugs, and he feared she hadn't overcome them yet, despite what she said. He felt somehow responsible for her. He really wanted her to start again with a new life, but he didn't want one of his CSIs to pay the consequences of it. Much as he loved her, he knew she was fickle, proud and sometimes arrogant, even though he had to recognize that she had changed, improving a lot during years of separation. When she had called him, saying she would leave Italy to come to Vegas, he had thought that was only the whim of a spoilt child; when he had seen her and talked to her, though, he had realized she really needed some help: the spoilt child wasn't there anymore, replaced by a frail and defeated girl, not yet a woman.

"I didn't know she worked at the Rampart." Greg's words brought him back to reality.

"She's been working there for two days, you know… she has just come back from Italy."

"Isn't she grown-up enough to be homesick? She had just arrived here and she came back aftera week..." Greg's sarcastic remark showed his resentment against her.

Grissom looked down. Greg deserved an explanation. "Her father had been involved in a car accident, and had to stay at the hospital for two weeks. Aida didn't want to be far from him, so she took the first flight to Milan. Now that he's fine and back to work again, she decided to come back to Vegas."

"Oh, really? I didn't know about it… I'm sorry for her." Greg succeeded in sounding polite, yet cold, nonchalant. His mental voice, though, kept on repeating 'you idiot' with the strength and the sharpness of one of the murder weapons he was used to examine. He had assumed all wrong. He hadn't asked nobody about the girl's disappearance, and misunderstood everything. God, he felt such a jerk.

"You put the boom-boom into my heart
You send my soul sky high when your lovin' starts
Jitterbug into my brain
Goes a bang-bang-bang 'til my feet do the same"

Aida was singing along to the Wham's "Wake me up before you Go-go", a song which always made her want to dance. It was 11 a.m. and she was doing housework, dancing around the house following the rhythm. The music was so loud that it took her a while to realize someone was knocking incessantly on her door. She rushed and opened the door, spluttering some excuses.

"I'm sorry, but the music was loud and I just… got involved and… couldn't hear someone was.. Greg?" He was definitely the last person in the world she thought would show up at her house. She noticed the black circles around his eyes. He probably had been on a double shift, as her uncle often was. He seemed very tired.

"Do you wanna come in? I don't want you to fall asleep on the threshold…" she felt uncomfortable around him; after the way he had behaved the night before, she was convinced she wouldn't have heard from him in some time.

"Uh… no, thanks. I'm… headed home…Double shift… long night…" he smiled faintly. 'So much for self-control' he thought. He had planned what to say on his way from the lab to Aida's house, but had forgot everything as soon as she had opened the door. Well, it was nothis fault she had welcomed him in hot pants and a low-cut shirt, a headband to tame her red curls. She looked so wild, and this turned him up, butblurred also his mind.

"Uh… ok…" Aida looked down. She didn't want to ask him directly the reason why he had come there, even though she imagined it. From inside the house came the last notes of the song, and "Friday I'm in love" by Cure started. It was a torture, the silence between them was so uncomfortable, so heavy, so full of things that needed to be said and cleared.

'Come on, Greg! You've never been this dumb! You've come here and now you can't say anything? What is she going to think about you?' Greg sighed. Again,hismental voicewas right. He braced himself and spoke.

"I'm sorry I treated you that bad last night, I just thought you were trying to avoid me, and I got mad. I mean, after what you had told me the night of the Ball.. I just thought I didn't deserve to be treated like that. I didn't know about your father.." he noted her puzzled look "Grissom told me about him, he says that he's fine now, and I'm happy for you. Anyway, try to understand me, you left without explanation, without warning, what could I think? I know we don't know each other, we're not even friends, but.. I was hurt." He had spoken quickly and in a low voice, looking down to find the most suitable words, and when he finished, he just stared at her.

She was confused. She had never thought how much the consequences of her actions afflicted the others. She looked at Greg, he was waiting for her reply. He was so cute. She smiled.

"What can I do to make you forgive me?" He smiled, his face lit up.

"What about a date, on Friday night? I'll pick you up at 8 pm. I won't tell you anything more, the rest is a surprise…" he showed her his trademark grin. She laughed.

"Sounds good, Mystery Man… see you on Friday, then."

He smiled, and turned to live.

"Hey, Greg!" he turned again as she called him.

"We are friends."

"Monday you can fall apart
Tuesday Wednesday break my heart
Thursday doesn't even start
It's Friday I'm in love"