A/N: Hey hey little ones! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update this! But yeah, I mean what with school, homework and now the fact that I'm working, it just hasn't left a lot of writing time in! But I used one day at school to get half of this done, and FINALLY finished it tonight. I'll try to update sooner.
Yeah, I'm definitely going to end this soon... but I do have a few ideas for a sequel to maybe write in the future. Depending on if people were interested in reading it, and if I found the time to write it. So anyways, sorry for the delay in the updatingness, and I'll try to be quicker next time! Hope you like the chapter!

Chapter 18 - Shred Of Hope

"I don't believe this..." Catherine trailed off as she starred at the crime scene to the newest case she'd been assigned to process.

Her eyes scanned the scene, the very sight of it made her clench her fists in anger. And she rarely did that. She looked at the body of a middle-aged man hanging limply out of the dumspter.

"But... no," she told herself.

This wasn't the work of Ray Danniels. It couldn't be. Ray Danniels was dead. This had to be the work of some sick copycat.

However, the sight of the scene brought back all of the raw anger inside of her that she felt against the late Ray Danniels. He was the reason that Greg wasn't in a stable state of mind. He was the reason that Greg had wanted to kill himself. Even though he was dead, Catherine still despised him.

"Copycat, it has to be," Grissom stating, seemingly reading Catherine's mind.

"Yeah... So I'll take dumpster?" Catherine asked, even though it was more of a statement than a question, still Grissom nodded in acknowledgement.

David was already at the scene so that the body could be released when it needed to be. It wasn't a very busy shift.

"I've got some I.D." he said, holding up a driver's liscence that he'd taken out of the victim's wallet. he held it up to read it out loud, "Francis Smith, age 31."

"Almost the same age as Greg. Maybe this person was meant as a replacement? Looks sort of like Greg," Catherine suggested, more to herself than to anyone else.

However, she still expected to hear Grissom tell her not to make assumptions and to focus solely on the evidence, using some sort of lyrical, riddle speech that he always seemed to speak in -- always quoting someone or other.

Still, the resemblance between the man in the dumpster and Greg was indefinitely undeniable. Was someone else getting involved in what happened? Or what this just some strange coincidence?

Only time would tell.

But now, all they had was the evidence.

"I wonder how long it's going to be until Greg comes back..." Sara trailed off as she and Nick drove to the crime scene to meet up with Catherine and Grissom.

"I'm hoping it'll be soon. Grissom got a call the other day, saying he might come back sooner than expected, he's going back to the sessions," Nick replied

"Grissom told you?" Sara questioned, a bit taken back at the fact that Grissom had failed to mention this tidbit of information to her.

Nick shook his head.

"No, I was standing outside of his office when he got the call. I heard him talking."

"Eavesdropping?" Sara asked.

"You could call it that," Nick answered as he parked the vehicle and started to get out.

When Nick began to walk towards where Catherine and Grissom were, the scene made him uneasy. At first he hadn't seen the body in the dumpster, but when he did, he could feel the blood boiling in his veins. He tried to hold the anger towards Ray Danniels deep inside of him. Emotion was not allowed on a crime scene, and Ray Danniels was dead.

The more he tried to hold it in, the more it fought to be let out. The closer Nick walked to the dumpster, the harder it was to hold in the anger he felt towards Ray Danniels.

"Hey, Nick. Are you okay?" Sara asked, noticing the distressed look depicted on Nick's face.

He knew that this case could have the possibility to be linked to the previous ones, therefore, he had to keep his cool. If there was anyone else involved in what happened to his friend, he would be damned if he let his anger get in the way of catching the person.

"Yeah, I'm good," Nick replied. He wasn't fully lying, he knew that if he just focused on processing the crime, eventually, he'd make his anger towards Ray Danniels subside.

"Hey, how are we feeling today?" Warrick asked.

He had the day off, and decided that he would go in and see how Greg was doing.

Greg half smiled and Warrick couldn't tell if it was sincere or fake, but decided that it must have been a good sign.

"Better, I'm really getting tired of all this medication. It really makes a person tired... Had a real down time a couple of days ago... lost it in one of my sessions, but then they toned things down a bit and it's been better. Pretty soon they'll have a diagnosis... at least that's what they say. They said the other day that in a few weeks, maybe a monthI can go home. I'm really looking forward to being out of here," Greg explained. He didn't sound like his old cheerful self, but it was definitely somewhat of an improvement.

"That's great, we'll definitely have to have a party to welcome you back home," Warrick told him, "So, do you know how much longer it'll be until they let you come back to work. Everyone there is definitely missing our Greggo."

Greg smiled, and shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't got a clue, they haven't even mentioned anything about when I'll be going back. I want to go back though... I'm tired of not having anything to do. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to watch re-runs of The Simpsons that I've seen over a million times just because there isn't anything else to do."

Warrick couldn't help but laugh. He could just picture Greg sitting there being bored out of his mind, watching cartoons he'd seen a million times.

"And you know what's even worse?" Greg asked.

Warrick shook his head.

"In the so called 'rec. room' here... there are about 10 people who will not watch anything but PBS... do you realize how horrible that gets when you're smack dab in the middle of pledge week? It makes me glad they recently moved me into a room with a T.V. set of my own."

Warrick was relieved that Greg was joking and laughing again, it provided some hope that the more the sessions went on, the more likely it was that they were going to get the old Greggo back.