It's already time for the last chapter of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! I'm already writing on a few new stories, stay tuned to find out which one will be next :)

Thanks for reading!

Kisses and Big Love,

pikapikatchu

Nick's words got to Greg pretty quickly. He was quite sensitive to criticism and started to wonder if Nick was right. He was sitting at a computer when Nick walked in. "Hey, what are you doing there?" He walked towards him to take a look at the screen. "...What... What are you doing? Greg. no."

"I need to do this...", he replied without looking up from the screen.

"Greg, get away from the computer."

"What? No, I have to know..." He kept on typing.

"I won't say it again. Step away." When Greg didn't react, he went on. "I was just angry, there's no need to risk your career over this! Step away now!"

Greg rolled his eyes and kept on typing. "Just leave the room, no one saw you... If anyone finds out you're..."

"You can be such a... Get away from there!" Nick pushed Greg's chair to the side, grabbed himself a chair and sat down in front of the computer. He logged Greg out of the lab's system.

"Nick, I don't want to fight, I just want to know if I made a mistake. Please." Greg was talking quietly, without sounding aggressive.

Nick, on the other hand, sounded quite outraged. "You can be so stupid, you know that?" He logged himself in and started typing in the same as Greg just did.

"What are you doing?" He rolled his chair closer to Nick to get a better look at the screen.

"No one will ask any questions if I'm doing some background search on the case. They'll have a lot of questions when you do, though," he said without taking his eyes off the screen.

"Thank you," Greg said quite surprised.

Nick took his eyes off the screen for a moment to smile at Greg, then looked back at it. "There it is. All there is to know about this Drew guy. Drew Byrne, 29 years old when he died..."

"He had two brothers and a sister. Aaron, Eric and Mara..." Greg said with a sad look on his face. "Eric was the guy who... captured me," he whispered. "Aaron was there when they shot Sorkin. They took off together." Both men sat there in silence for a second. "Can you imagine what they had to go through? Their brother being murdered by this monster..."

Nick clicked through their files. "No priors. All three of them."

Greg sighed relieved. "Aaron's a law student and Eric's a nurse. Sister's a teacher." He looked at Nick. "They're not bad people. They..." Greg started crying. "They didn't deserve what happened to their family..."

Nick patted him on the shoulder. "I get it. But you shouldn't have lied."

"Nick, Eric wasn't even sure he would be able to go through with it. He was scared, I saw it in his eyes. Please, let's give it a rest. No one will ever find out. What's the harm?"

"They murdered..."

Greg quickly interrupted him. "They shot a murdering sex offender. You put one in a coma. How's that any difference?"

"It is different." Nick sighed. "But what's done is done. Let's just hope they'll keep living their low-key, normal lives and will never do anything criminal." Bitterness could be heard in Nick's words. He was disappointed in his friend although he knew he'd probably done the same. He wasn't even quite sure why he was so disappointed, he didn't know that the fear of losing his friend was still prominent and clouding his judgment. Eric Byrne could've killed Greg and he despised that man for that, despite having good reason to put him in that dangerous position in the first place.

Now that Greg knew that the people he lied for were good people, he was feeling a lot better. It burdened him not to know whether or not he helped criminals get away. There was one thing he still felt bad about, though, so he decided to do something about it. He made a one-hour drive outside of Vegas to visit Eric Byrne at the hospital he was working at.

Eric walked into an exam room, thinking he'd find a patient there, waiting for him. "Hello. I'm Eric, I'm gonna..." He stopped talking as soon as he saw Greg sitting on a gurney. The bruises from Eric's beating were still visible on his face and his wrists were still in bandages for being wounded by the rope Eric used to restrain Greg with. Still, he had a calm smile on when nurse Eric walked in.

"Hi Eric."

"...I was waiting for someone from the police to come, but I didn't think you'd come here yourself..." He put the medical tools he had in his hand on a desk, grabbed a chair and sat down opposite Greg. He opened the bandages and looked at the CSIs wrists. "They seem to be healing quite good."

Greg nodded. "Did your sister know what you were up to?"

Eric didn't answer. She knew. In fact, it was her idea, but he didn't want to get her into trouble. "What do you care about her? I'm responsible. My siblings didn't do anything wrong." He went on to clean the wounds.

"I know. I'm not here to arrest you."

Eric gave him a surprised, almost disbelieving look. "So this is just a friendly visit?" He chuckled, not believing him.

"No one knows I'm here and no one will ever find out. I told the police I didn't remember what happened. They think Paul Sorkin, the guy you shot, kidnapped me. I made them believe I shot him and that there weren't any accomplices left."

"...You're lying. Why would you do that?"

"Because I want you guys to be able to go on with your lives. Novak took your brother's life and changed yours forever. I didn't want to have any part in his work."

Eric's eyes watered. He just wouldn't believe Greg, it all sounded way too good. He shook his head. "You didn't lie for us... did you?"

"They'll never be able to prove I remember, will they?" Greg smiled at him.

"...Why did you come here? ...What do you want from me in return?"

"Just one thing." He gently put his hand on Eric's shoulder once new bandages were put around his wrists. "Let it go. Leave it all behind. The anger, the fear, anything. Drew'd want you to be happy. Don't let Novak get the better of you."

Eric started crying. "Why are you being so nice? I'm responsible for the worst day of your life."

"No, you're not. Novak is. I was dwelling in my misery way too long, it's time to look forward. We'll never be able to forget what he did to us, but letting it change our lives for the worse is only giving him power over us. I just came here to tell you you don't have to worry about the police. They found your DNA and finger prints on some evidence, but they have nothing to compare it to. As long as you and your siblings stay under the radar, you have nothing to worry about." Greg got off his seat. "Good luck to you and your family."

"Wait. I... I don't know what to say. How to thank you. How to... make up for what I did."

"Don't make me regret my decision, that's all I want from you." As Greg left the room, Eric kept on crying. He didn't feel like he deserved Greg's forgiveness, but it felt good to know he had it.

Another day had passed and Greg was walking through the halls of the crime lab. He had something on his face his friends hadn't seen for a while, even if most of them didn't realize it. A genuine, carefree smile. He meant what he said to Eric. He wanted to leave the past behind him and go on with his life. Nick still had a hard time dealing with the fact that Greg lied to the police and the D.A., despite knowing deep in his heart that Greg did the right thing. Still, it changed the way he saw his friend forever. Greg had matured, but along with this process came the loss of a piece of his innocence that, Nick thought, was an important part of Greg's personality.

Ende.