A/N - this is a fairly short chapter but I think it's my favourite. I hope I get across with this one what I was trying to. I will explain myself in the authors note at the end. Hopefully, I built the tension well enough - that was my main aim with this chapter.

Eight

My grip was firm and my arm was steady as I stared into the face of the man that had taken her life and ruined mine. I breathed heavily as I kept my eyes firmly fixed on his. I could hear a strange ringing sound in my ear; my blood pressure must be going through the roof. No one moved. No one spoke. No one was trying to stop me.

The silence was deafening. I'd heard or read that phrase somewhere before. I remember laughing at it, thinking it was a contradiction of terms. But now I understood what it meant. It was like no one dared upset the balance in case I slipped and really pulled the trigger.

But I was going to do it. He deserved to die. He had destroyed the only thing I had been living for in the past six months. I don't think the others truly understood what she meant to me. Somehow, being caught up in the passion and excitement of being in love, I had never thought to mention it. Like it was too precious to share. But now the illusion had been shattered and it was all this bastards fault. I hated him with every bone in my body and I wanted to kill him.

So why hadn't I done it yet? Why was I just staring at him? Maybe I was hoping the tension would be too much for him and he'd take the gun and do it for me. Save me a job. There was that morbid humour again. I continued to stare into his eyes. Something caught my attention.

He was scared.

He actually thought he was going to die.

Perhaps that was more satisfying than actually killing him. I listened to myself. What was I talking about? My entire career was about catching the bad guy, putting the killer behind bars but now in a matter of one day I had found myself standing on the edge of a very blurred line between right and wrong.

I could hear Grissom's voice now and somewhere in my brain I registered that he had actually been talking to me the whole time. What he had been saying I had no idea.

'Greg, please, just give me the gun. You don't want to do this, I know you don't' he was now saying, his voice quivering slightly.

Even the great Gil Grissom was scared. I continued to look into the eyes of Navy Suit. Tears were streaming down his pathetic face. Did he deserve to live? Surely no one would miss such a miserable low life.

'Greg, she wouldn't want you to do this,' Grissom continued.

Now he was shifting tactic. Trying the old emotional psychology on me. Like Grissom could get into my head? He was only any good at getting into the heads of killers. But was I a killer?

'Greg…' Grissom paused; he had clearly run out of ideas.

'That's my name don't wear it out,' I said and turned to him.

I swear I heard a collective sigh of relief as I broke eye contact and lowered the gun. Then I realised the biggest sigh had come from me. I loosened my hand and listened as the weapon collided with the tiled floor with a dull thud. Much like the dull thumping I was now feeling in my head. The cop who had been leading the guy to the holding cells scrambled as quickly as he could to pick it up, probably before I changed my mind.

Turning to Grissom and Sara, I saw that the others had joined them. Their faces were unreadable. They looked afraid, a little disappointed maybe. I wasn't sure.

'I'm sorry,' I said, feeling my bottom lip begin to shake but strangely, no tears fell. Maybe I was all cried out.

I was met with a chorus of several different simultaneous responses which mostly revolved around 'no, hey, it's o.k.' and 'don't worry about it, it's not your fault.' I had to fight not to smirk at that. I had nearly killed an unarmed guy in cold blood but it was 'o.k.'.

'Grissom! I've just finished analysing the semen you found in the –' a frazzled looking Mia gasped as she jogged up the corridor.

She stopped talking when she saw me, putting on her sympathetic face also. Man, this was starting to drive me crazy.

'It's o.k. Mia, go ahead,' Grissom said, reviving his authoritative role.

'Anyway it's not a match to your suspect.' She said, avoiding my eyes.

'But the epithelials under her fingernails were,' Nick interjected defensively.

'Maybe so. He may have had a run in with her recently but he wasn't the guy who r-a-p-e-d her.' She explained.

'Mia, I have a degree in Chemistry, I know how to spell,' I pointed out and then suddenly lost my footing as the volume of her words hit me head on.

I had nearly killed an innocent man

A/N - hope you liked that one too. Its quite short too but none of my chapters seem to be very long. I enjoy keeping them short but sweet. or in this case short and sinister but anyway. What I was trying to get across with this chapter is that Greg made the decision for himself not to kill the guy. I think in so many films and programmes, in situations like this, it's always the hero that talks the broken man out of killing someone. I think Greg is intelligent enough to make the right choice himself. That's why I decided not to have Grissom talking throughout the whole thing, trying to encrouage him to put the gun down and why Greg mocked everything he did hear him say. I hope it worked allright and that you all enjoyed it.

Story is nearly finished. Ended it on chapter ten - a nice round number!