Woah, thank you guys so much for the reviews! You are the best; Lil Badger 101, Marymel, Liala 32, Cirinde Palantir, Csigirl1012, The Sangheili Mutant, Csi121099, Lilly1209 and cupcake01! Seriously can't thank you enough! I am so sorry I've not updated in forever but I have been so busy with work and school work, it's unbelievable. But here's the next chapter for all you lovely people! x
"That's it, just take deep breaths." Morgan said calmly as she sat next to Greg outside of his apartment. They'd been sat for a good five minutes and his breathing was almost back to normal.
"I'm okay; it's better now." Greg told her. He looked down when he realized she had her arm around his back, rubbing it comfortingly. He'd just blown up at her and here she was being so… supportive, caring, loving. "You can go you know. I don't deserve you being here."
Morgan smiled. "I forgive you for having a go at me if that's what you're on about."
But Greg shook his head at her. "You shouldn't. I don't… I didn't mean to go off like that. And what I did to your Father…" He shook his head as he wiped his hands over his face, "I don't know what's gotten into me. I used to be a good guy. And now, now I don't even know who I am anymore. That's not me."
Morgan looked at him sadly."We know it isn't. But you were shot. You know you've changed. We all do. And you can change again; you don't have to be like this. Yeah you might have blown up at the wrong people, my Dad being your boss and all…" she smiled at him, to which he smiled back slightly, "but you can be forgiven. People make mistakes."
Greg nodded and after a moment pulled himself up. "Thank you. For what you've done. I really do appreciate it despite what you might think." He told her with a smile.
She smiled back. "I know, and you're welcome."
X
It was quite a few days after their little chat and Greg decided he needed to go into the lab to talk to Ecklie. Walking through the lab doors, Morgan spotted him, "Hey, are you back at work?"
He smiled at her and carried on walking, "I'm here to talk about coming back. Whether I'll be allowed or not is a different matter."
"I thought I told you I sorted it. My Dad said its fine." Morgan told him with a confused expression as they stopped in the hall.
"Yeah but I have to do this." Greg told her, before walking away.
X
"Come on in. Sit down."
Greg did as he was told and gingerly sat behind Ecklie's desk. When he sat down too and didn't say anything, Greg spoke up. "Sir," he started, "I just want you to know that what I did, I know it was unacceptable. I know that I should be fired for what I did and you have every right to fire me, but… I can't afford to lose this job. I need it. I'm good at it, I've never had any problems before and I can assure you I won't do anything like this again."
"It's not about that Greg. You assaulted me, attacked me. And you want things to go back to how they were? If you're going to come back, there are going to have to be some repercussions." Ecklie told him.
Greg nodded slowly. "And what will those repercussions be?" He asked, dreading the answer.
"You can work only with another CSI, no solos, you're going to have to do overtime of which you won't be paid full salary, you work in the lab when I say so with no complaining and you so much as step one foot out of line, you're gone. Is that clear?"
"Yes Sir."
"Alright then, go and start in the DNA lab, take over from the new girl." Ecklie told him and then got straight back to working on a file on his desk in front of him. Greg stood up and briskly walked out of the office and down to the lab.
Once he got there he sent the new girl on her way and took her place. When he looked around at what he had to do, he knew the rumors were right- the new girl was crap. She must have been on the clock at least three hours, Greg worked out, and she'd not processed half the stuff given to her that night so far. He set a machine going and straight away got on with his work.
X
"Hey, you're allowed back at work." Nick said happily as he entered the lab.
Greg turned and looked up to him with a smile. "Yep, Ecklie put me straight on DNA."
Nick laughed. "I know you don't like it but thank God! That new chick takes about a week to get anything done. I don't know if she started on my suspects swab yet did she?"
Greg spun around in his chair, picked up a file and then spun back to give it to Nick. "I did it. It's a match."
Nick smiled and patted him on the back. "You're the best, G." he said before walking off and Greg smiled as he watched him jog down the hall into the interrogation room.
X
Greg had been back a few weeks and had only been allowed to go to three cases. With another member of the team of course. So mostly he'd been stuck in DNA.
He'd been working for six hours solid without a break and had only managed to get a few hours sleep at home the night before, before Ecklie called him in again. So without realizing, he'd dropped off right there in the lab.
Nick rounded the corner and smiled when he saw him. "G? G?" He shouted, getting louder when he didn't wake the first time.
"Yeah?" Greg said as he lifted his head up and tried to act awake.
"You sleeping on the job now?" Nick said with a laugh.
Greg smiled slightly. "No… well yeah, but not intentionally, I haven't had much sleep."
Nick smiled. "Go and have a break, man. You don't look too busy anyway."
Greg didn't need telling twice and stood up slowly with a yawn. He walked by Nick and down the hall and Nick watched him and noted that he seemed to be walking with a slight limp. He frowned. Greg did look extremely tired; there were bags under his eyes, his hair was ruffled, signs that he'd been running his hands through it too many times and there were too many cups of coffee scattered around his lab.
Walking down the hall, just behind Greg, Nick kept going and knocked on Russell's office.
"Hey boss, I need to talk to you." He said walking in.
Russell looked up and leaned back. "What's up?"
Nick sat down. "It's Greg. I think he's working too much."
"Hey, stop there. I'm not being the one to stand on Ecklie's toes. If he told Greg he has to do the work, then he has to do it. I'm not going to question him." Russell said straight away.
Nick frowned. "But you should see him, he's clearly tired, I just had to wake him up in the lab. And he seems to have a bit of a limp coming on too."
Russell pursed his lips and nodded. "I'll try and keep an eye on him, but that's all. I want nothing else to do with this."
X
Sara and Nick had just come back from their scene, a few days after Nick expressed his concerns to Russell about Greg. They'd just entered his lab and saw Greg eyes closed, head down and twiddling his thumbs.
"Hey Greg, slow night?" Sara asked him as she placed some evidence down on the counter.
He lifted his head and nodded as he took their evidence. "Is this everything?"
Sara nodded. "Yeah that's the lot of it, not much to collect."
"Dude are you short on cash or something, you've done overtime every night since you've been back man." Nick joked with him.
Greg looked up to him and smiled slightly. "No, I'm not and even if I was, I wouldn't be making much money here, I'm not even getting full pay."
"You're not getting your regular pay?" Sara asked him confused.
"Nope, part of my punishment to do it for less." Greg told them as he wiped his eyes tiredly.
Nick threw his hands out. "What the hell! Is Ecklie doing this? He can't do that, I don't even think that's legal! And look at you; you can barely keep your eyes open."
Greg shook his head. "I deserve this; I did punch the guy in the face."
"Well you won't be the only one if he doesn't sort this out." Nick mumbled as he walked out the lab and down the hall.
"Nick don't, please." Greg half shouted down the hall, too tired to get up and chase him.
X
"Russell I need to talk to you. It's about Greg again."
Russell shook his head. "Nick I told you, I'm not getting involved."
"Ecklie is making him do overtime which he isn't even getting paid for. I don't even think he's been home in the last 48 hours." Nick told him, refusing to let him get away with it.
Russell looked up when he said this and stood up. "Are you sure? I don't want to be making an idiot out of myself."
Nick nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."
X
Russell knocked on Ecklie's open door and went inside. "Hey Conrad, I need to borrow you for a second."
Ecklie beckoned him over. "Sure D.B. what is it?"
Russell sat down before talking. "I've been informed that Greg's working overtime that he isn't getting paid for. Is that right?"
Ecklie leaned back n his chair and shook his head. "No, he's getting paid. It's not what he'd usually get, but I had to cut it down, it's part of the deal he made to have his job back."
"But you can't do that Conrad, you know you can't."
"He's not done that much overtime anyway." Ecklie argued.
Russell sat for a moment and stood up, "Come with me."
X
"Sara, where's Greg?" Russell asked her when they got to the lab and Sara was sat in there.
"He's gone to get a coffee; he looked like death warmed up. I told him to." She told them with a smile.
Russell smiled. "Alright thanks."
He and Ecklie walked to the break room and found Greg sat on the couch, head back, arm covering his eyes.
"Greg…"
His head shot up and he sat up straight when he saw Ecklie behind Russell, looking unimpressed. "Oh hey boss, Ecklie. I was just heading back to the lab." He said quickly, standing up and making his way towards them, to the door.
Russell looked at him and like Nick said; saw that he was indeed limping. "Greg wait. Sit back down." Russell told him.
Greg looked to Ecklie and did as he was told. "Is there something wrong?" He asked nervously.
"Do you think you're working too many hours Sanders?" Ecklie asked him, arms folded in front of him.
Greg immediately shook his head. "No, I'm fine."
Ecklie looked to Russell and cocked his eyebrow. "See?"
Russell stared at him and then back to Greg. "How many hours have you worked this week?"
Greg swallowed thickly and looked back to Ecklie. "Greg, you've done too many."
"Russell, seriously, I'm happy to do the hours. You obviously need the man power so I'm just helping out." Greg said, trying to say the right thing to keep Ecklie happy.
"Yeah but you're hurting yourself in the process. You think we can't see you limping?" Russell asked him.
Greg shook his head. "It's fine, just giving me a little bit of trouble."
"You're tired Greg, go home." Russell told him.
"I'm not, I can carry on-"
"Nick told me that you fell asleep in the lab, so don't even bother. Ecklie, do you have a problem with this?" Russell asked him.
Ecklie licked his lips and then shook his head. "Alright then, Greg go home. Come in tomorrow."
Greg took a last look at the both of them before standing up and slowly walking out the door.
"You see what you're doing to the poor guy, Conrad?" D.B. asked him as he watched Greg limp.
"He can come off lab duty tomorrow. Send him on a case with someone." Ecklie told him, before walking off without another word.
X
Greg left the locker room after grabbing his jacket and keys and stopped just outside when he had the familiar pain shooting down his leg. He took a few deep breaths and it quickly subsided. When he carried on walking, fishing out his keys, someone called to him. "You're seriously thinking of driving like that?"
He turned around to Nick and looked down at the floor, then back up to him. "Well, yeah."
"Dude, let me drive you home, is your leg giving you trouble again?" He asked as he walked up to him.
"It's fine, I can drive." But Nick gave him that look that said 'don't even try to argue with me'.
They reached the car park and climbed in Nick's truck.
"Ecklie send you home?" Nick asked when they were in.
"No, Russell did. Apparently you told him I was sleeping when I was meant to be working…" Greg said a little peed off.
"Hey, I didn't do it to get you sent home, well I sort of did, and you needed a break. I was concerned for you." Nick defended himself.
"Yeah well now Ecklie probably hates me even more." Greg said plainly and looked out the window.
Nick cocked his eyebrow. "Are you mad at me?"
"No."
Nick smiled amused. "Right, it doesn't seem like it." He said playfully.
Greg turned to him and glared. "Nick, I'm not in the mood alright. So just drop it."
Nick was a bit taken back and knew Greg was serious, since he never snapped like that.
He drove them to Greg's in silence and when they pulled up outside, Greg opened the door and mumbled a 'thanks' just before he shut the door. He didn't even look back as he walked to his apartment complex. Nick sighed and pulled off, driving up the street to turn around and then coming back down, he glanced up to Greg's apartment and found Greg still limping up the stairs. He stopped and turned his engine off, walking up to him.
"Hey, you need a hand?" He asked when he could hear Greg gasping for breath and saw him clinging onto the stair banister.
Reluctantly, Greg had to nod. His leg was giving him so much pain. Nick came around his side and held him up as he hopped up the stairs. When they were at the top, Nick still supported him as they went into his apartment.
"I'm sorry." Greg said as they went inside.
"You don't have to apologise."
"It's been giving me a bit of trouble. And so has my chest," Greg told him with a short laugh, "It's like nothing else can go wrong at the minute."
Nick smiled sympathetically. "I know, but things will get better."
Greg just nodded and sighed. "You wanna' talk about anything?" Nick offered.
"No... I just want things to be normal again, you know? Before all this happened." Greg told him sadly.
Nick patted him on the shoulder, "I understand, you want me to call round later when I've done work, have a beer?"
He thought about it for a second but then shook his head. "It's fine, thanks though."
Nick smiled. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow."
X
Not very action packed I know, but I hope you all enjoyed reading this! And please, please, please review! x