"Hey. You're on your way home?" Greg said as he walked into the locker room, sitting down on a bench.

"Mhm."

"Lucky you. I have to do overtime again."

Nick closed his locker. "See you tomorrow."

"Wait. I just wanted to tell you... Mr. Craig confessed. He claims it was an accident, but he killed her. He had contact with her the whole time. They had an affair, they both knew they're not really related... I figure she wanted to leave him, or maybe didn't even consent to their affair to begin with, that might be his motive."

"And why are you telling me this? To get praise for solving the case?" Nick asked, acting indifferent.

"No! God, Nick... Your reaction to this all is quite unusual. Since when do you refuse to believe the evidence?"

"I don't want to talk about this, I need to get home." Nick walked past Greg.

"Why do you care so much for this family?" Greg stood up and followed Nick out.

"Didn't you claim to care for this case, too?"

"Of course," Greg said as he followed Nick to the parking garage. "But our priority has to be the victim. We can't be loyal to anybody else."

Nick stopped. "I was sure they were decent people. That their grief was real. And now you're saying the father knew what happened to her all along. That he even killed her. It's just heart-wrenching. You can't trust anybody these days."

"That's not true. You have lots of people in your life you can trust."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Shouldn't we be able to trust more people than just our closest friends? I never had a good feeling about Julian, but I didn't think he was capable of doing what he did. You trusted him and he proved that he didn't deserve that trust."

Greg wasn't sure, but he thought he'd heard resentment in Nick's voice. "What does this have to do with Julian? What are you trying to say?"

"Forget it." Nick walked towards his car.

"No. Just say it. I'm responsible for what he did. Had I been more careful like you told me to, this would've never happened. It's my fault you got hurt."

Normally, Nick would tell Greg how ridiculous he was, trying to make him feel better. But that's actually how Nick felt, so he just looked at Greg, got into his car and drove off.

Low-spirited from what just happened, Greg went back into the lab to get back to work. He had several hours of work ahead of him. Right now he was working on Catherine's case.

"Here's another one." Catherine walked in with an evidence bag in her hands.

Greg leaned back exhausted. "Don't tell me there's a used condom in this bag!"

"It's the same guy, I'm sure. And like the last times, we probably won't find any semen on the condom, but vaginal fluid from the victim. But this time the victim fought back. She scratched him." Catherine handed him an envelop. "Maybe we get lucky this time."

"I'm on it."

"Are you okay?" she asked as she noticed his gloominess.

Greg shrugged. "I'm just disappointed with Brass... and myself."

"Why's that?"

"Because he thought I did it." Greg laughed humorlessly.

"Well you can't blame him for that, now, can you?"

Greg looked surprise.

"Oh come on, don't give me that look." She smiled. "The evidence was pointing at you and everyone would've understood if you did it! Julian was a psycho and made your life living hell!"

"So you're saying you thought I did it, too?" Greg asked, not knowing if he should be angry at her or not.

"No," she said laughing. "I know you're not capable of murder. But Brass doesn't know you as good as I do, and he's cynical. Don't give him a hard time for it."

Greg nodded thoughtful.

"And why are you disappointed with yourself?"

Greg smiled nervously. "Oh nothing, I just... I don't know, I feel guilty for everything that's happened with Julian."

Catherine nodded. "You didn't attack Nick. You didn't... hit on Julian. It's not your fault. Cut yourself some slack."

A few hours after Nick went home, Greg was finally allowed to do the same.

He found a DVD in his mailbox. It had nothing written on it and was put there without a DVD-case, making Greg wonder who'd do that, and why.

After fixing himself a meal he decided to take a look on the DVD. He was too nosy to just throw it away.

He didn't know what to expect from it, but never, ever would he have thought to see what he was about to see.

"Hello Greg," he heard Julian's voice. It was awkward to see Julian's face on his TV screen, but that's what the DVD showed. "I decided to make this little film for you. When you watch this, you either served a few years in jail for murdering me or my plan didn't work out. I'm brilliant, so I guess you're watching this from your cell now."Julian went on to explain how evidence suggesting that Greg killed Julian ended up at the crime scene. He took hair from Greg when he slept at his place. Back then, he didn't intent to use it that way. He just wanted something from Greg. The keys were placed to make it look like Greg had access to Julian's apartment.

"You know as good as I do that you didn't kill me. But that didn't mean it's not your fault I'm dead. You rejected me. You gave up on our friendship. And you shot me, of course. Now, don't think I'm doing this to hurt you. I love you and I always will. But you need to be punished for what you did. I want you to think about what you did for the rest of your life. You murdered me! If it wasn't for you, I'd still be alive. But there's no point in living if I can't be with you. And now, watch me die." The video continued with a masked man beating and shooting Julian, but Greg couldn't watch it to the end. Instead, he put the DVD out of his DVD-player and thought about what to do with it. He knew the only responsible thing to do was hand it over to the authorities. Maybe they would be able to find the masked man who killed Julian. Give his family some closure. But it would also mean that everybody would watch this. Know what was going on in Julian's wicked mind. Greg didn't want them to know he let himself get killed because Greg didn't love him. He actually considered keeping this a secret when his phone rang.

"Hello?" he said with a shaking voice.

"It's Nick."

"Oh, hey. What's up?" His voice calmed down a bit.

"Is everything alright? You sound weird."

"What do you want?" Greg asked, trying to sound like he was in a good mood.

"I feel bad about earlier. You shouldn't feel responsible for what Julian did. He was obviously insane. Don't beat yourself up on it, alright?"

Greg sighed. To hear that felt really good, even though he didn't believe it. "Are you saying this to make me feel better or do you really mean it?"

"Maybe both." Nick laughed a bit. "It would make it so much easier to just blame you for it, you know? And I needed this simplicity. But I know it's not your fault. After all, you saved me. Did I thank you for that yet?"

Greg fought back tears. "You don't have to thank me... I have to thank you."

After telling Nick about the DVD over the phone, Greg drove to the lab and handed the DVD over. Nick offered to accompany him, but he refused. He felt like he needed to do that alone.

Julian's case was more or less closed with this very important piece of evidence and both Nick and Greg, as well as the rest of the lab, hoped that this would mean they were able to leave this dark part in their lives behind for good.

Ende.

Thank you all for reading my stories! This storyline is over now, I hope you enjoyed it. :) And I also hope the ending is satisfying for you!

Right now, I don't have any ideas for a new story, but stay tuned, I hope I'll get inspired soon.

Until then, have a nice summer!

Big love,

pikapikatchu