Author's Note: I'm baaaaaack! I told you guys I would be, and I always keep my promises. Worked on a few one-shots, plus "So Close To Home" and I actually have another one-shot (or two) in the works, one a comical (and far less smutty than "One Thing On My Mind") Sandle, and one angsty GSR. But I figured I'd post this first, as you guys have been waiting a good week or so now for it.

Black Tulip wins the contest of choosing a name for the last particular chapter. What did Black Tulip win? Well, er... Nothing. Except the honor of being mentioned in my awesome, totally-kickass, half-the-reasons-I-read-WitchGirl's-stories-are-for-her-author's-notes author's notes! Er... yeah, right, OK, that's enough rambling and self-indulgence for tonight, here's the long awaited Chapter Thirteen (Chapter Fourteen is in the works, and will also be up before the end of the month).

Chapter Thirteen: Bluffing

She was clutching at her shoulder as she slowly slid to the floor, a look of utter shock on her face, her breathing rapid and shallow.

"What the hell did you do that for?!" Danny screamed, struggling now against Greg's grip so he could launch himself at Mickey. But Greg held onto him firmly, though his eyes lingered on Sara whose eyes were wide as she stumbled backwards into a book case and slowly slid to the floor. Catherine made a move to go to her and as she did, Mickey vaulted the desk and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her into him. He spun around to Greg, who was visibly nervous as a bead of sweat ran down his temple. At the gunshot, the earpiece Greg had been wearing short-circuited and he was cut off from Brass, who had been whispering orders in his ear. He only hoped that Catherine could still hear him as she struggled against Mickey's grip.

Greg felt like the bullet had hit him instead as his heart plummeted into his stomach. His heart was beating rapidly and it echoed in his head. There was a fire burning in his veins as he tightened his grip around Danny, his fingers closing around his throat as Greg held the gun against the side of his neck, shoving it against him coldly. Infected with fury and fear, his finger twitched against the trigger, and in the shortest second, he would have applied just the right amount of pressure to retaliate against the sins committed against him and his family, were it not for the small, pained cry of a child, losing oxygen and faith, relaxing in Greg's grip, resigned to his fate.

Greg hesitated, his finger still tense against the trigger of his gun as he listened to the boy in his arms quietly sob. Greg had left nail marks in his neck, but the boy had stopped struggling, stopped fighting. "Just kill me…" he whispered so only Greg could hear. "Oh my God, what have I done…?"

And Greg was thinking nearly identical thoughts. Oh God… what am I doing?

Luckily, he was distracted by Catherine's aggravated growl as she fought against Mickey, who was successfully restraining her. "You're not going to scare me again, kid," Catherine hissed. "I know why you killed that family."

Mickey's grip on Catherine tightened and Greg saw him press the gun against her temple. "Shut up, bitch. This isn't a knife I've got here, this is a gun. Nothing slow about that death, do you hear me? I pull this trigger, it won't just nick you. You can end up like your friend over there."

"She was your mother," Catherine yelled, loud enough for Danny and Greg to hear. Danny stopped breathing. For a moment, Greg had forgotten that he had hesitated, and he wondered if he had pulled the trigger after all, if Danny was dead, and he was holding a corpse.

And then, the boy spoke, and Greg relaxed a little. "Your… your what?" he said.

"Yeah, and so what?" Mickey returned. "My family disowned me when they found out the truth about me. My step-father was ashamed of me when he didn't know I was gay! I expected him to flip out. He was always embarrassed by me, introducing me as his nephew to his coworkers, or 'Karen's kid' to family members. At church, he always made me sit on the end. He thought I was a bad influence on his kids, because I'd get into fights at school. But I was a better influence on them than he was with his whole 'holier than thou' attitude! But my mother, who always used to preach about hating the sin and not the sinner, decided to take his side in this one! She's known me longer than she knew him, you know. She supposedly loved me. And look how that turned out."

"OK…" Danny whispered. "But why the kids, Mickey? Why your brother and sister?"

"Because they were growing up to be just like them," Mickey spat. "Bible-bashing freaks who preached God's love but never practiced it. Judgmental hypocrites who swallowed the spoon-fed lies of their parents. Erika was the hardest… She was the only one who cried when I left. She's the only one that wanted me to stay…" His grip on Catherine seemed to weaken as he recalled his little sister, but the moment she made a move for her gun, he grabbed her arm. With a sharp movement and a loud crack, Catherine cried out, her right arm bending at an odd angle as she fell to her knees, her face screwed up as she bore the pain. Mickey took her gun from her holster and unloaded it before tossing it over under the front desk by the librarian's feet. He grabbed Catherine by the hair and pulled her to her feet, resuming his previous position with his arm around her neck and his gun against her temple.

He glared at Greg. "So. Greg. It comes down to this. Your friend, bleeding on the floor. The other, about to get her brains plastered all over the UNLV library. Out of the two of us, I'm the only one who really has the guts. Danny's innocent in all this. You wouldn't kill an innocent kid."

Greg tightened his grip around Danny's neck and shoved the gun into his temple, the old, blind fury returning as he stared at Catherine's broken arm. "You shot Sara," he said in a low, cold voice that Catherine had never heard before. "You have no idea what I'm capable of."

Mickey almost laughed. "Did you really kill your sister, Greg?" he asked. "I mean, really really? I always assumed you did, but you know what they say about assuming."

"It makes an ass out of you and me," Greg said coolly.

"That's not an answer," Mickey pointed out.

And Greg didn't answer for a long time as he glared at Mickey. Finally, the word came out. "Yes," he said. "I did."

Mickey seemed to be the only one in the room that wasn't surprised to hear this. Catherine stopped struggling. Danny tensed in his arms. Even Sara, who was in some sort of dazed stupor as she sat against the bookcase looked at him curiously as sweat poured down her face and blood oozed from the wound in her shoulder.

"So you see?" Mickey said. "We really do have a lot in common."

"Right now, there are probably a dozen squad cars and twice as many cops out there ready to take you down," Greg growled, his eyes darting every so often to Sara by the bookcase. "It's over, Mickey. You've lost."

"Ah, no," Mickey said, shaking his head. "You see, that earpiece, that Cathy here is wearing, and I'm sure you've got one too, tells me that they're probably talking to you right at this very moment. You're probably wearing a mic, too, so they're hearing everything we say, aren't they? Well then, they know that if anyone comes through that door, not only will Cat here not have a chance to say bye-bye to little Lindsey, but I'll finish off Sara over there too. And they won't risk that."

Greg tried to remain inscrutable, but he knew that Mickey was right. Grissom had made Brass promise that they wouldn't make a move until everyone was safe. It was the only way he had consented to letting Catherine and Greg go in there in the first place.

"So what are you going to do, Mickey?" Greg asked daringly. "Catherine is the only bargaining chip you have. You gonna try and sneak out of here? Use her as a shield?"

"Nobody uses me," Catherine snarled, and her struggle against Mickey's grip began anew.

"Ease up there, kitten, no one's gonna do that," Mickey said. "The only way I use her as a shield is if she's a dead body."

"You kill her, and I swear to God I'll kill him," Greg said, more serious than ever. He really missed having Brass in his ear. He felt truly alone now.

"Go ahead," Mickey replied, coldly. "You have one kid that betrayed me. Meanwhile, I can kill your girls here, not to mention the librarian. Who has more to lose here, Greg?"

"Mickey…" Danny said quietly, surprised at his words.

The untrained observer wouldn't have seen it, but Greg was a master at hiding shame and he recognized the glimmer of it in Mickey's eyes at Danny's heartbroken whimper.

"Just kill him," Mickey hissed. "Go ahead, do it."

"I… I will," Greg said.

"Then do it already!" Mickey yelled at the top of his lungs, making Catherine wince. "You've been threatening to since before I shot your girl over there! And even when I did you still didn't do it!"

Greg fought hard to remind himself that he wasn't alone, that it wasn't just him and Mickey, and that these criminals were outnumbered. "And what happens when I do?" he asked, daringly. "You gonna kill Catherine, Sara, the librarian, me? You gonna try and run, Mickey? Because they'll catch you. You abducted a member of the LVPD, and then you shot her. You're threatening the lives of two other CSIs. You're holding a civilian hostage. You think they're going to take kindly to that when they catch you?"

"And yet, I still hold the lives of you and your friends in my hands," Mickey replied, tauntingly. "So regardless of what happens to me, you'll all still be dead, won't you?"

"So will Danny," Greg said.

"You talk the talk," Mickey said. "But if you haven't done it yet, then you won't do it at all."

"I killed my own sister," Greg said.

"I think you're bluffing," Mickey replied.

"You want to know how I did it?" Greg screamed. "Do you?!"

"No," Mickey said simply. "I want to know why."

Greg's eyes narrowed. "You killed a nine-year-old girl because of what you were afraid she would become!"

The voice was so small and strained, and yet it echoed in the foyer of the library. "Ch-children… don't always become their parents." This was all she could get out before Sara closed her eyes and tensed, letting out a small gasp of pain.

"Sara…" Danny whispered, his voice oozing with regret.

"I didn't want to kill Erika," Mickey said, quietly, looking at Sara. "But she left me no choice. I couldn't have her telling the cops who killed her two-faced folks and her bigoted brother." He turned his attention back to Greg. "Did you want to kill your sister? What was her name again? Lucy?"

"Let Catherine go," Greg said through gritted teeth. "And I'll tell you."

"Why did you do it, Greg?" Mickey asked. "Why did you kill your own baby sister?"

Greg hesitated. And then, he caught Catherine's eyes. She was giving him a hard gaze, trying to tell him something with her eyes, but he frowned in confusion. Her eyes flickered downwards, to the floor. He didn't know what she was gesturing at.

"Answer me, or she dies," Mickey said. "I kill her, I still have the librarian and Sara, don't I?"

"Greg," Catherine said aloud. "Remember what I said earlier? What would I have done, if I was you?"

"Shut up!" Mickey yelled. "This is a conversation between me and Greg!"

Greg wracked his brain. What was she talking about? What… And then, he remembered it suddenly.

"And then he grabbed the knife and held it to my throat and Mr. Drama Queen over here decided his gun was more of a decorative piece than a working tool."

"I bet if you were in my shoes..."

"I would have shot him. In the foot, probably. It's distracting enough. And poetic."

And then, Greg realized what Catherine was gesturing at. Mickey's leg was wrapped around Catherine's in an attempt to sabotage any attempt on her part to move. It was a tough shot, but not impossible. If he just aimed for Mickey's foot… But an inch off, and he could hit Catherine. And if Mickey saw that, he wouldn't take any chances. He would kill her, Greg was sure of it. Greg wasn't used to guns. While he wasn't a terrible shot, he was by no means a sharp shooter. Did he risk it? Did he trust himself to make this shot?

"We're waiting for your answer!" Mickey roared. He cocked his gun. Greg looked at Catherine, who was nodding, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking.

'I trust you,' Catherine mouthed, and he nodded, his mouth partially open.

He sniffed and steeled his courage as he stole a glance at Sara by the book shelf. She was unconscious now, but her chest rose and fell. He looked at Mickey. "You want to know why I killed my sister?" he asked.

"I think that's what I said, yeah," Mickey replied sarcastically.

A twisted smile formed on Greg's face and he let out a cold laugh. "There wasn't a reason."

Mickey's lips curled into a smile. But it didn't last long. Greg was quick on the draw as he changed targets more swiftly than even Mickey had earlier and squinted, taking aim as fast and as accurately as he possibly could before pulling the trigger.

The shot echoed out in the room and whoever was hit screamed loudly, in a high pitched voice. For a moment, Greg panicked, thinking he had missed and hit Catherine, but then he saw Mickey push her to the floor as he stumbled backwards, his foot bleeding madly.

"Now would be great, Jim," he heard Catherine say as she tossed back her hair and looked up at Greg. She grinned. "Nice job, Greg."

Greg was breathing hard as he nodded. Danny was struggling furiously against his grip. His eyes fell on Mickey, who had fallen down and was cradling his bleeding foot, a look of pure hate on his face. He took aim at Catherine, who was on her knees, looking at her broken arm, her back to him.

Without a word or another thought or hesitation, Greg raised his gun and fired again, twice, hitting Mickey in the chest. But a third gunshot echoed out, and Greg heard it ricochet. Catherine spun around quicker than lightening and Greg knew the shot had come from Mickey's gun, and he had hit him just in time to throw off his aim. Mickey had fallen backwards, his gun still clutched in his hand as his eyes glazed over. Catherine turned to look at Mickey's body, her mouth agape, and then looked at Greg, not knowing what to say.

The doors to the library swung open, and in surged a team of cops and EMTs. Danny succeeded in breaking out of his grip, and Greg made a move to go after him when he saw that the kid wasn't running for the exit, or to Mickey for that matter, but to Sara. Greg dropped his gun with a clatter, then looked up at Catherine whose eyes were still on him as people swirled around them. Grissom came up to Greg and was saying something to him, but Greg didn't really hear it. In a daze, he turned around and walked through the crowd of people out the door and into the night where he could finally breathe again.