Greg sat in his chair and impatiently tapped his foot repeatedly. He somehow refrained from looking at the clock on the wall every few seconds whenever he got the urge to. He didn't want to know how long it had been since he had last seen Nick.

Warrick tapped him lightly on the shoulder when the doctor finally walked up. Greg broke away from his staring contest with the floor and jumped to his feet after Warrick. His throat was dry and scratchy from crying, so he remained quiet and let Warrick do all the talking, confident he would ask the questions that would get them all the answers they needed.

"How's Nick?" Warrick asked immediatly.

The doctor with the nametag of 'Dr. Leavell' shook his head slowly. "He's fine."

Warrick frowned. "Why do you look dissapointed at that?"

Leavell shook his head faster. "I'm sorry, I'm not. It's just that...well, I'm surprised he's doing so well to be honest." Greg looked from Warrick then back to the doctor several times. Leavell went on. "Mr. Stokes has put himself through a lot of strain. We had to pump a few quarts of water from his stomach and lungs. He lost a lot of blood from the wound to his side, but luckily he got here just in time."

Warrick nodded slowly. "But he's gonna be okay?"

Leavell nodded. "He's going to be fine. Although, he did stop breathing for a little while, and the lack of oxygen will most likely cause some brain damage resulting in memory loss."

Greg's face paled to ghost white and he was able to choke out a stangled, "What?"

Dr. Leavell held up his hands. "Oh, don't worry. I don't mean like amnesia. He won't forget who he is or your are or anything like that. It'll be very temporaray. He might not be able to remember what happened, nothing extreme.

Greg sighed in relief in unison with Warrick. "Can we see him?" The older CSI asked.

"He should be waking up soon and I wouldn't recommend him being alone. It's past visiting hours, but if you let him rest I can't see any harm being done. We want to keep him over night for observation to make sure everything's going smoothly. He should be able to go home after that. He's in room 234." Leavell shook hands with Warrick before he turned and left.

Warrick took a deep breath and turned to Greg. "You ready?" He asked.

Greg shook his head slowly. "No." He said weakly. "I...I c-can't see him like that Warrick. It scares me too much." His voice was almost a whisper.

Warrick sighed to himself. Poor kid... "It's okay, I'll stay with him. Go home and get some rest."

Greg shook his head again. "I can't sleep without Nick." Warrick could tell he was fighting back tears. "C-can I just wait out here?"

Warrick squeezed Greg's shoulder gently. "You can do whatever you want Greggo. Catherine will be here in a little while. You can see Nick whenever you're ready."

"I just don't want him to be mad at me..." Warrick could barely hear Greg.

"He never gets mad at you."

Greg smiled slightly, but only for a minute. He eyes dropped back to the floor and he closed his eyes. "I'm sorry Warrick."

"For what?"

"What happened to Ni-"

Warrick cut him off. "Don't, Greg. It's not your fault. I'll bet my job that if Nick heard you say that, he'd yell at you for taking the blame for something you couldn't control."

Greg's small smiled returned. "Yeah...he would..." He couldn't stop the few tears from slowing falling from his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. "Make sure he's okay...and tell him I love him."

Warrick smiled. "He already knows that Greg."

Nick lay completely still, hoping that it would make the dull pain in his entire body go away. When he finally gave in to the fact that it wouldn't he slowly opened his eyes and waited patiently for his visior to clear. When it did, relief washed over him. He wasn't in a plexiglass box underground.

No matter how much time passed, Nick was still afraid of the dark, ants, and green lights. He still had awful nightmares the few occassions he slept. He was still afraid to open his eyes when he couldn't feel Greg next to him in fear that he was never rescued from hell.

Warrick smiled down at him. "How ya feeling bro?" He asked quietly.

Nick thought about that for a second. When he realized there wasn't a good enough word to describe how he currently felt, he just shrugged slightly. "I don't know." He answered honestly. Warrick nodded slowly. They sat in a semi-uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before Nick bolted upright despite the pain in his side and asked frantically, "Where's Greg?"

Warrick reached out and squeezed Nick's shoulder gently. "He's in the waiting room, he's fine man don't worry. You saved his life."

Nick fell back against his pillows with a sigh. "I shouldn't have had to. I should have been able to save him sooner." He let his tired eyes close, but was unable to fool Warrick into thinking he had fallen asleep. They knew each other too well.

"Come on Nick, you can't blame yourself for that. How were you supposed to know?"

Nick opened his eyes. "I thought he was cheating on me. Not thinking that would have been a good start."

Warrick shook his head. "You never really believed that man. You know he loves you too much to do something like that to you."

Nick sighed. "Yeah...he was letting himself be raped and beaten for me instead, and I was mad at him."

"You weren't mad, you were worried. You did everything you could to protect him."

"Except actually protect him." Nick said sadly.

Greg sank back against Nick's chest as they layed down on the couch. He sighed contently when the older man wrapped his strong arms around him and held him close. Greg rested his head in the crook of Nick's neck and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry I didn't visit you in the hospital." Greg said, glad he couldn't see Nick's face.

"Don't be." Nick responded simply.

Greg opened his eyes and craned his neck so he could look at Nick. "You're not mad at me?" He asked.

Nick smiled his infamous smile and shook his head slightly. "I could never be mad at you."

Nick leaned in slightly and kissed Greg softly. Greg couldn't help but smile into the kiss. He threaded his fingers through the short, dark hair above the back of Nick's neck and pulled him closer. Nick ran his fingers over Greg's arm and down his wrist. His thumb brushed over a scab and he felt Greg tense slightly. Nick pulled away and looked down at Greg's wrist as he slowly turned it over.

Greg once again closed his eyes and felt tears sting the back of his eyelids. He pulled his arm from Nick's hand and hugged it to his chest, his behavior a clear cut sign to Nick's worst fear.

"I can't stop..." Greg whispered. He choked down a sob and clenched his jaw against the tears building behind his closed eyes. Everything was supposed to be over, yet he was still hurting Nick.

Nick nodded slowly even though Greg couldn't see him. "Okay." He said softly before getting up off of the couch and disappearing into the bedroom. Greg opened his eyes and sat up. He rested his elbows on his knees and held his head in his hands, barely breathing until Nick came back into the room and sat down next to him.

Greg looked over at Nick and immediatly regretted doing so. Nick was sitting calmy next to him, resting his left arm in his lap and holding Greg's razor over his wrist.

"Nick...how did you-"

Nick cut him off. "I'll do it if you do it Greg."

Greg shook his head. "Nick, don't be stupid."

"I'm not being stupid." Nick's voice was starting to shake slightly and Greg could see tears starting to build up in his eyes. "Please stop Greg."

Tears were now flowing from Greg's eyes. "Nick...I can't...please don't do this..."

Greg had barely finished his sentence before Nick sliced the blade across his wrist. He barely flinched, but Greg flinched enough for the both of them. "Nick..." Greg's voice broke and he trailed off.

"Will you stop?" When after a few seconds Greg didn't respond, Nick cut again below the first one, this time harder. Blood poured from the cuts and ran down the sides of Nick's arms and pooled in his lap. "I'll do this as much as I have to to get you to stop. I couldn't bear losing you, especially not like this."

Greg quickly moved so he was straddling Nick's waist. He grapsed Nick's left wrist with his right hand and held it tighly to stop the bleeding. Nick let the razor fall from his hands and the tears fall down his cheeks as he looked at Greg.

"I'm sorry Nick...I just wanted it to be over..."

Nick shook his head slowly. "So who were you trying to kill? You or me?"

Greg's breathing hitched with a sob. "I never wanted you to get hurt Nick...I would never want you to..." He couldn't even bring himself to say it.

"If you died, that would kill me. Don't you get that? I can't live without you Greg. I just can't."

"It was just hard...I didn't know what else to do."

"Let me help you. When I was buried alive, I didn't think I had a choice either. I almost did it. I almost killed myself. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. But you doing the same thing is worse. If I have to lose you, it's not going to be like that. I'd rather be back in that box for the rest of my life then know that you had to resort to that."

Greg didn't know what to say. Nick barely ever talked about his kidnapping. When he woke up from a nightmare about that, Greg would just hug him close and sing him back to sleep. And Nick had never, ever talked about the fact that he had contemplated suicide.

Greg wiped away Nick's tears and kissed his forehead. He intertwined their fingers together and smiled as best he could. "I didn't have to resort to that because I have you." When more tears fell down Nick's face, Greg kissed them away and whispered, "That's not how I want this to end. If at all possible, I want to die in your arms."