Here we go again!
Two days later, Riley Fishman was still nowhere to be found. The police did their best to find him, but to no avail. They found his fingerprints all over Greg's place but that didn't help them in any way. Greg tried to get on with his life as if nothing happened, replacing the stuff Riley stole. He didn't have time to change the locks, though. He figured it wasn't a priority since Riley wouldn't come back, anyway. He figured he probably already left the city.
On that day, Greg came back home from grocery shopping with his hands full with bags. He'd been at work for ten hours before that. After he walked in and closed the door behind him, he heard a noise coming from his bedroom. He stopped to listen. He didn't hear it again and didn't know what kind of noise it was, so he decided to take a look. Nothing and no one to be seen. He walked into the kitchen to put away the things he just bought. While doing so, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He startled, but couldn't make a sound since another hand was put on his mouth.
"Sssshht!" Riley Fishman pressed his hand on Greg's mouth while pushing him against the kitchen counter.
Greg stared at the man terrified.
"Let me explain," Riley replied rather calm. "I needed a place to stay." He slowly got his hand off of Greg's mouth.
The CSI looked confused. "...What the hell?!"
"Listen. I waited until you left for work and then came in, slept, showered, stuff like that... And left before you came home."
Chills were running down Greg's spine. "I don't believe this... You steal everything I own and then come back here to take a nap?! What's wrong with you?" He pushed Riley away from him.
"I don't have anywhere else to go! I needed to hide..."
"...Hide? From what?" Greg's cell phone was ringing, but he was too distracted to answer it.
He looked at Greg. "...I still owe them money."
"...What?!"
"Your stuff's not nearly as valuable as I thought it would be! You blocked all your accounts so all I got left with was your TV, laptop, video games and stuff... And that wasn't enough."
"Excuse me, are you nagging about my stuff not being good enough to steal right now?" Greg asked annoyed.
"Okay, calm down. I told you I needed your help and you turned me down! What did you expect?!"
"...That you'd accept this, leave and get out of my life forever. What any decent person would do. Oh wait that's right, you're not a decent person!"
"Calm down already, will ya?! I'm sorry, I just... I'm so screwed, man, so screwed..." He buried his face in his hands, walking out into the living room.
Greg didn't know what to do, so he followed him. "I'm gonna call the police now."
"What? No! Please don't do that! I can't go to jail!"
"They'll protect you from... whoever you owe money to."
"They'll just throw me in jail and that's it!"
Greg grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket. "They'll get you the help you need..."
"I said no..." Riley walked up to Greg in a threatening manner, taking a knife out of his pocket. "Gimme the phone."
Greg started dialing. "Don't worry, I'll..." He stopped when he saw Riley with the knife in his hand. "...What are you doing?"
"Give it to me!" He forcefully grabbed the phone out of Greg's hand and threw it on the couch. "You have any cash?"
"Only a few bucks in my wallet..."
"Hand it over."
"...You can't be serious." Greg got his wallet out of his pocket rather angrily. "Here, take my last 136 bucks!" He threw the money at him. "Now get the hell out of here!"
"...There's gotta be more!" He grabbed Greg by his collar and shook him in desperation. Greg tried to fight Riley off. He was successful, but cut his arm on the knife the intruder had in his hand. The moment Riley saw the blood streaming down Greg's arm, he took off with the 136 dollar the CSI gave him.
Greg needed a minute to digest what just happened. He stood there, staring at the door Riley had left open on his way out. When his mind started working clearly again, he grabbed a towel and applied pressure to the knife wound. While waiting for the bleeding to stop, he grabbed his cell phone. He had one missed call by Nick.
"Why you didn't change the locks is beyond me!" Nick walked angrily inside the hospital, Greg followed behind.
"I was working non-stop in the last few days, Nick. I just didn't have the time! I was hardly home!"
"You could've told Russell you needed a day off to take care of it. You could've asked one of us to take care of it!"
"I simply thought he wouldn't go back there. They usually don't."
"They usually don't know the people they rob, Greg." Nick rolled his eyes before approaching the hospital's desk clerk.
"Blaming me doesn't help at the moment. I was naïve, I admit that." Greg sat down in the waiting area.
"Your naivety could've cost you your life, you know." Nick walked over to sit down next to him. "Put more pressure on the wound."
"I know how to take care of a cut, Nick." Greg was as frustrated as Nick was, and they both were getting at each others nerves at the moment.
"Yeah but you're doing it wrong. You don't want to bleed out, do you?" Nick grabbed the towel Greg had put on the wound and pressed it against the wound himself.
"Nick, I can do that myself..." Greg sighed. He was too tired to fight with Nick over this, so he let him do what he thought was right.
When Greg came back to work after the altercation with Riley, Russell talked with him about it in his office for one straight hour. Most of that time, he gave him the same speech Nick already gave him, how he was naïve for waiting to change the lock. The supervisor also expressed his worries. Greg walked out of the office quite weary and with a sad look on his face. He was well aware of the fact that it was a stupid idea to trust that Riley wouldn't come back and he was sick and tired of people telling him. "Charlotte, I'll need the results to these as soon as I can." He handed the ballistics tech a box with five guns as he walked into the lab.
"Sure thing, Greg. Listen, I heard what happened with that Fishman guy." She gave him a caring smile. "I can teach you some Krav Maga if you want to."
He raised his eyebrow rather annoyed. "Thank you but... I think I'm gonna pass on that one."
"It's quite effective. This guy once grabbed my ass at a club and I kicked him so hard in the knee, he's probably still lying there trying to get up!" She laughed as she patted his arm.
He shook his head. "Just get your work done." He walked out with his head down low. For the moment, his spirit was broken. He felt like going home and sleep until this was all over.