Well, what can I say? Thank you so, so, so, so much for the FANTASTIC reviews; Lil Badger 101, The Sangheili Mutant, Marymel, mywarisalreadywon and silver7612! You guys have really made me the happiest person right now! It's great to hear what you all think and that you have taken the time to comment on this story! :D Thank you again! I hope you lovely people enjoy this chapter as much as the last x
"Hey man, how's the first shift going?" Nick asked Greg as he entered the lab with Morgan by his side.
Greg nodded with a small smile. "It's going okay." He told him with a small smile, trying to forget what had happened earlier. "You brought me some evidence?"
Morgan smiled and held out her hand. "Yep, just for you. We've got to keep you busy right?"
Greg laughed and took the evidence bags from her and then placing them on the counter. "Right, we need to get going. Doc's waiting for us in autopsy." Nick said to Morgan.
"Alright, guess we'll see you later." Morgan said to Greg with a smile as they left. "Oh hey."
Greg turned his head slightly to see who Morgan was speaking to. He watched as she carried on down the hall and then looked to see Sara. "Hey Greg, how are you?"
He smiled at her. "I'm good, you?"
"I'm good. Sorry I have to dump this but I'm in a hurry..." She said with an apologetic smile and she left him her evidence and quickly left his lab looking at her watch.
Greg looked at all the evidence he'd accumulated and sighed. "Just pile it on."
X
Russell was sat in his office, one week after Greg had returned, when he heard someone not quite shouting, but raising their voice. He put his papers down and listened. Greg, it was Greg. He stood up and quickly made his way to the source of the noise.
X
"I'm still backlogged since Thursday. You know what day it is today? Monday. I have evidence to process from four days ago. Four days ago! And, and, and you guys... you just keep giving me stuff that I can't do."
Greg was waving his hands around whilst still sat in his wheelchair, his voice getting louder as he spoke to Nick. "Alright, buddy, I'm sorry."
"I'm not your buddy! You don't care about me, you've brought me hundreds of pieces of evidence, along with everybody else, and you all want it done a.s.a.p. Well guess what? I can't work that quick- I've been back a week! I'm in a wheelchair and I still have stitches in my chest and stomach! Do you know how long it takes for a gunshot wound to heal? Because it's not that quick!" Greg yelled at him.
"G-"
"No Nick, get the fuck out of my lab." Greg told him angrily.
Nick cocked his eyebrow. "Don't talk to me like that." It wasn't very often Greg swore and it shocked the Texan that he was saying the f word now. Especially to himself.
"I'll talk to you however the hell I want, now get out." He told Nick again, his voice seething.
"I'm not goin' anywhere until you calm down." Nick told him as he sat on the edge of the table. This made Greg even angrier than he was before and he pushed himself forward and then stood up.
"Get out now." But Nick shook his head. Greg shook his head shakily in anger. "Nick! Just get out! Why won't you leave?!" He was fully shouting now, and the small group of lab technicians that had gathered before had turned into pretty much the whole lab staring at him.
"Man, sit down. Calm down." Nick told him putting his hands on Greg's arms to try and move him back into the wheelchair.
"Get off." Greg told him and ripped his hands off his arms. Then he started to try and shove Nick out the door to his lab. He carried on trying, and trying but getting nowhere. And after repeatedly telling him to calm down and stop, Nick had had enough and shoved him back. Not forcefully, but enough to send him flying backwards onto one of the tables, sending glass tubes, chemicals and everything else onto the floor, making it all smash into hundreds of pieces. Greg's head flew backwards and onto the corner of one of the labs machines, cutting his head as he went down.
Nick let out a deep breath and put his hand out for Greg. But he refused. He pushed himself up off the table and stepped forward unsteadily, pushing Nick a final time, as hard as he could.
"Greg!" it was Russell, his and Nick's head snapped to look at him as well as everybody else's who was watching. He stormed over to them and Greg looked around, seeing everyone staring at him.
"What are you all looking at?!" He shouted at them, Nick and Russell staring at him shocked, just like everybody else. "You want something to look at? Huh?" He asked and stumbled back into his lab, where he picked up anything he could find.
He stumbled back out into the hall and began throwing glass containers full of liquid onto the floor. "You like this?" he asked in a hysterical voice before throwing more onto the floor forcefully. "Is this what you want?" He asked Nick as he threw more and more, but started throwing at the wall where Nick stood.
"Greg, stop." Russell told him and stepped forward, holding the young man's arm to steady him and stop him. Greg stared at him with tears in his eyes and looked around at everyone.
They were silent. Not one person dared to speak. Not knowing what to say after Greg's... explosion. Nobody had ever seen the calm CSI act in such a way before and some of them were frightened. Most of them just in shock and scared for the poor man.
He shook his head. "No... No... I'm sorry." He mumbled as he looked down at what he'd done. He dropped the rest of the contents in his hands and flinched when they smashed on the floor. He closed his eyes tightly and rubbed his chest as he leaned on the doorframe to his lab.
"Greg..." Russell said as he waited for his young team member to open his eyes.
When he did, he saw the anguish in them. The hurt, the sadness, the emotional pain. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." He said as he moved just inside his lab and crumpled to the floor, ending up sat with his knees pulled up to his chest, sobbing and crying uncontrollably.
Russell looked back to Nick, who had concern written all over his face and then looked to everyone else and gave them a look that said 'this is over and get back to work.' "Nick, go and get a cleaner to clear all this up." He said quietly, signalling to the broken glass and chemicals on the floor. Nick nodded and took one last worrying look at Greg through the door before leaving.
Russell could hear Greg's loud crying and sobbing and knew that anyone remotely nearby would hear him he was that loud. He stepped forward into the lab and crouched down next to him, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him into himself. Greg's crying increased if that was possible and he began mumbling into Russell's chest. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I just... I'm sorry."
"Shh, shh, it's okay. Shh." Russell soothed as he rubbed the back of Greg's head comfortingly. "It's going to be okay."
X
They sat there, still in Greg's lab, on the floor, for about forty-five minutes after Greg's outburst. He didn't know where it came from, it just... came. Neither he nor Russell said anything, just sat in each other's company. Nick had come back soon after leaving them, but Russell had ushered him away since he was part of the reason for all of this. Or so he assumed. He still didn't know what had really happened between the two best of friends.
Morgan walked down the hall and saw feet on the floor of Greg's lab. Two sets of feet. Smiling, she peered her head around the door to find Greg and Russell sat on the floor. She looked down at them, and her smile faded as she saw Greg. His eyes were red and bloodshot, his face was pale, with flushed cheeks, and there were tear tracks all the way down them.
"Hey, is everything okay?" She asked as she stood at the door, not wanting to move any closer.
Russell shook his head. "Could you make sure no one is waiting in my office?" he asked her, knowing that sometimes one of the team would wait in there for him to talk about a case.
Morgan nodded and left, taking one more look at Greg.
X
"Hey, Russell wanted me to see if his office was free. I think he wants some privacy." Morgan said as she saw Nick sat in one of the chairs at Russell's desk.
He stood up and walked over to her. "Is he still with Greg?"
Morgan nodded with a confused face. "Do you know what's going on? Greg has been crying." He told him with a sad questioning look.
Nick sighed and joined her outside the office. "Yeah, I know. He kind of... blew up. One minute he was fine, then I asked him to run me this blood sample and he freaked out. He started shouting at me for no reason and then started pushing me out of the lab. Next thing I know he's throwing stuff everywhere, glass, on the floor, at me... I don't know what's happened to him."
Morgan frowned in worry and looked down the hall to see Greg walking up slowly, head down, with Russell behind him, hand on the small of his back.
As they got to Russell's office Nick spoke quietly, "Hey, man, where's your chair?"
Greg carried on into the office and spoke so quiet, Nick and Morgan could only just make out what he was saying. "I don't need it." Russell looked at them both and sighed quietly waving his hand signalling for Nick to not say anything else.
The three of them watched as Greg sat down in the chair Nick had previously been sat in. "I'll be in, in a minute, okay Greg?" Russell told him and he got a short nod in acknowledgement. Russell shut the door.
"What happened Nick?" He asked wonderingly.
Nick shrugged with a baffled face. "I don't know." He told him honestly. "I went in and we talked, he was fine. I asked him if he could run this blood sample I got to confirm if my suspect was my guy and he turned. He started having a go at me for all the evidence I've given him, all the evidence you guys have given him." He explained.
"Next thing you know, he's out of his chair and pushing me out. I told him I'm not leaving until he calmed down and he got angry. I shoved him back the slightest bit and he lost his balance and fell onto something, bashed his head. And then he went crazy; started throwing things everywhere."
Russell pulled his glasses off slightly to rub the bridge of his nose. "If Ecklie finds out about this, he'll fire him no problem." Nick said worried.
Morgan turned to him and shook her head. "I won't let that happen."
Russell gently touched her arm. "Morgan, that's not your decision." When she was about to protest Russell stopped her, "I'll come and find you two later. Go and work on your case."
Reluctantly they both left and Russell opened the door to his office.
X
"So, you want to tell me what that was all about?" Russell asked as he sat down opposite Greg behind his desk.
Greg's head was down and his eyes glanced up to his boss. He looked back down as he spoke, "I used to be a good lab tech. The best. I could do all the evidence I was given in a day, in a day. I'd be able to check results twice. Maybe even a third time." He swallowed.
"I used to be able to work days without stopping. I used to have enough energy to keep everybody going. Today... this week, I couldn't handle it. There was so much work to do and I didn't have enough time to do it. Everyone just kept bringing me stuff, more and more evidence, and they couldn't see the pile that was building. I swear it was more than I've ever, ever had to do before." Greg explained as he took a deep breath to calm down.
Russell watched him, listened to him carefully, trying to piece together where this was heading.
"I snapped. I snapped before today. I heard shots. From ballistics. It was my first day back, and I lost it. I freaked out. Hodges came across the hall and he... God, I needed Hodges to bring me back. He promised not to tell anyone about it and it never happened since. I've heard loads of shots since and I've been fine." He told Russell looking up to him finally.
"You have no idea how hard I tried to get out of this lab. To even train to become a CSI, it took me years to persuade Grissom to let me do it. And when I finally got the chance, I took it. I failed my first proficiency, had to take it again. But I passed. Now, I'm a level 3. Being back in that lab, it made me realise how hard I've worked. And now it's all gone. I had to go back in that lab, do lab work which I tried so hard to get out of, and do all the boring stuff. I want to be back out in the field but I can't. I can't because of my damn leg because I was shot."
Russell stared at Greg throughout and made sure he knew he was there and listening to him. "I just... I felt like nothing. I felt nothing. I was empty in that lab; it's not where I should be. I can't do that anymore. I can't work that quick. I can't be the guy everyone wants me to be, who they think I am. I'm not that guy anymore. I've changed."
"You're still the same, Greg." Russell told him. "But I appreciate that you don't want to work in the lab anymore, and you know that this wasn't permanent, right? You could've gone back out into the field when your body was up for it."
Greg lifted his head. "So I can go out into the field? Now? I'm ready, I need to go and do some work."
Russell shook his head. "Greg. What happened today... you will need to talk to Ecklie. Things can't just go back to how they were. We need to resolve some issues before anything."
"Issues like what?" Greg asked cautiously.
Just as he was about to answer, Ecklie walked in.
X
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