A/N: Heh heh... I believe this is another chapter where I'll need to be dodging rotten fruit being thrown my way. I could have been more evil though, I could have ended the whole story here... but nope! Haha, I have plannss, so there should be... well not a whole lot of chapters to come, but a fair amount, because... once again, an idea struck me. Now... knowing me (and you'd think I'd know me... because.. well.. I've lived with me my whole entire life... anyways!) I know I'll probably be writing another chapter tonight, just because when it gets intense-ish like this, I can't stop writing, so you might see a quick update if I get it typed up and I'm not too lazy to post.But this chapter took forever to even get written, since I had to research a whole lot about Hydrofluoric acid. I wasn't sure if I was writing a new chapter, or researching for a Chemistry assignment! Haha, oh well, it was fun.Anyways, enough with ze rambling, here is the chapter! Oh yes, almost forgot, thanks to everyone who reviewed to the last one!

Chapter 15 - Hydrofluoric acid

"He what?" Catherine couldn't believe what Grissom was telling her.

"He walked out of a session. We got the call this morning, he isn't going to be able to come back to work if he doesn't continue the sessions," Grissom explained.

"This isn't at all like Greg..." Catherine said, more to herself than to Grissom.

"Trauma can do strange things to people."

"I should go over and talk to him. Someone has to get him to go back," Catherine stated.

Grissom gave her an 'I don't think that's a good idea' stare.

"What?" she asked.

"I don't think you should. I just don't think it's a good idea," he replied.

Catherine couldn't believe what Grissom was saying. How could it not be a good idea to convince him to go back? Did Grissom not want Greg to recover and come back to the lab.

"Why isn't it a good idea? Do you think he's better off like this?"

"That's not what I'm saying at all. I just don't think he'll take it very well if you go over and try to get him to go back. Maybe he just needs to discover for himself what's best," Grissom explained, but Catherine still wasn't believing what he was saying.

"So in the meantime... we just wait. Have him act like this, risk having him hurt someone or himself? Is that what we're supposed to do?" Catherine protested.

"Cath, think about it. If you go over there, and ask him to go back, he isn't going to like it. He walked out on the session, because the psychiatrist was telling him to talk about the nightmares. He's not ready to talk. We just have to give him time Cath, he'll talk when he's ready," Grissom told her, and Catherine knew he had a point.

"I just wish there was something I could do..." Catherine trailed off, knowing it was the mother inside of her making her feel that way.

"Just be supportive. Make sure he knows that you care about him, but don't make him feel like you're trying to make him get better right away."

After her shift, Catherine decided that she would stop by to see Greg. Not to convince him to continue the sessions, but to do what Grissom said. To be supportive.

"Hey," she smiled when Greg answered the door.

"Why are you here?" Greg questioned, suspecting she was here to make him go back and see the psychiatrist.

"I promised you that welcome home dinner didn't I?" she asked.

The suspicious look left Greg's face, but he still looked as if he didn't want Catherine to be there.

"So what do you say? And no matter what the others in the lab may have told you, I'm not a bad cook," Catherine laughed, trying to make Greg less uneasy.

It didn't seem to be working.

"I'm kind of tired," he told her.

"Oh, well I'll come by another time. Feel free to give me a call, okay?"

Greg nodded, and without saying anything else, he closed his door. Watching through his window, he could see Catherine getting back into her vehicle and driving away. He wondered why she even bothered, he wasn't going back to see the psychiatrist. He didn't want to, he didn't want to talk about it anymore. He didn't want to think about it anymore. He just wanted it to go away.

But it wouldn't go away unless he went back, unless he talked about what happened. And he wasn't going to talk.

However, there was another way to make it stop. To make everything stop...

But did he really want to take it that far?

He thought long and hard about it. About if he really could take his own life over this. Was talking about what happened really that hard?

He thought backto the case that Warrick and Sara had worked on. The case where that singer's wife had killed herself. Amelia, that's what her name was. She'd used window cleaner and put it in her wine. He had window cleaner under his sink in the kitchen...

Slowly, he walked in the direction of his sink, and opened the door to the compartment below it. There it was, the bottle of window cleaner. He extended his arm to pick up the bottle and turned it over to read the ingredients.

"Damn... no hydrofluoric acid," he stated out loud. Knowing that's what the chemical inside was that had killed Amelia.

He placed the bottle back under the sink and shut the small door.

Hydrofluoric acid reacts with calcium along with other things. It's used in industrial cleaning products, and also to unclog drains and get rid of rust. Greg thought to himself, now being thankful that he'd developed a passion for chemistry and chemical compounds.

He walked to his bathroom, but was disappointed when he saw there was nothing to unclog drains. A small part of him wasscreaming that this was a bad idea.That maybe this was a sign that he shouldn't go through with this.

He wasn't listening.

He picked up the phone and dialed Catherine's number.

She seemed overjoyed that Greg had called her, if only she knew the real reason behind it.

"I know this is probably going to sound stupid, but do you by any chance have something to unclog drains with? You know that stuff that gets rid of the calcium build up and gets rid of rust? I was taking a bath, and then afterwards, I realized that there's something down there that's keeping the water fromgoing down. Must be... rust or something," Greg lied, but Catherine seemed to believe him.

"I might have something around the house... but if I don't, do you want me to pick something up for you? I'd be more than happy to," her voice was cheery, she was glad that Greg had called her. She had no idea what was about to happen.

"No, if you don't have any, I can go pick some up. Thanks anyway," Greg tried to make his voice sound cheery like hers, so maybe she would think that he was getting better. He didn't want to make her suspicious.

"No, I insist. I'll get some for you. Give me a half an hour and I'll be right over with it."

Greg didn't see the point in arguing with her. She was a mother. And mother's always knew how to how to get their way when it came to things like this.

"If you're sure it's not too much trouble... but if you do, then make sure that it's something really strong, I really want to get that thing unclogged."

Catherine said that it wasn't a problem at all, and that she would be over in no time with it. Now, all Greg had to do was wait. Once she arrived with it, he would claim that as soon as he had gotten the drain unclogged, that he was going to take a nap, that way, she wouldn't stay.

When she arrived, she handed Greg the bottle of liquid to clear out the drain and smiled. She truly thought that he was on the verge of turning himself around. She truly thought he was slowly on his way to being his old self again.

She thought it was a good sign to see Greg smile when she handed him the bottle. However, the only reason he smiled was because it contained the magic ingredient he was looking for. Hydrofluoric acid.

"Thanks so much. After I unclog this drain I'm heading straight to bed and taking a nice long nap," he lied.

"Anytime," she smiled before leaving.

Greg closed the door and got a glass out of his cupboard. He then reached into the fridge and got himself a bottle of beer. Glancing over his shoulder, just to confirm that Catherine had really left, and that she wasn't still standing there behind him, he sighed. He was really going to do this.

He filled the glass half full withbeer, and then unscrewed the top to the bottle that Catherine had given him. Slowly, he poured the liquid into the glass until it was full. Then he placed the cap back onto the bottle.

"I'll never have to talk again."