It was a couple days later and Lily had just brought Greg home from his physical therapy session. He was in pain and tired. He crashed in his bed glad no one else was around except Lily. She had been really good about not bothering him, unless he asked her for something.
Lindsay was a sweet girl and when she found out Greg liked video games she always wanted him to play games with her. It was fine when he was not feeling like crap, but right now he would not have been able to deal with it.
Catherine had been great and he was really enjoying being around her so much. He liked seeing her interact with her daughter and her mother. He had got over the initial discomfort of her changing his bandages and seeing his back. Lily had changed them for him when Catherine was not around to do it. Her seeing his wounds did not bother him as much as when Catherine had.
He lay on his stomach, burying his head in the pillow. He had not realized how much the physical therapy would wipe him out, not to mention how much his shoulder and lower back hurt him again. Carol Turner, his therapist, advised him to make sure he took his pain medication at least an hour before his visits to her. It would help him.
He turned to his side and looked at the photo of Catherine, Lindsay, and Lily with their arms around each other at some outdoor location. He smiled to himself, glad to know that Ty was not able to destroy one family at least. He closed his eyes and drifted off into a restless sleep.
Catherine shaking his arm startled him awake a couple hours later. He had that wild-eyed look when his eyes shot open. He took a deep breath to ease his nerves. "Catherine, what's wrong?" He asked, acting like he did not know why she was there, when he knew perfectly well. He had had the worst nightmare yet.
Catherine had been home for about a half hour. Her mother told her that Greg had been tired after his therapy session, so he had been in his room since. She had been walking by his door when she thought she heard noises coming from within. She opened the door quietly and saw him on his back, his head tossing back and forth. She heard him mumble, "stop". She immediately had gone over to him to try to wake him up.
"Greg, you were having a nightmare again. It seemed really bad." Concern laced her blue eyes.
It was really bad, Greg thought, as he looked at her, thankful it was just a dream. "It was the same basically. I'm fine now, though."
She did not believe him for a second as his eyes deceived him. "Greg, I can tell when you're lying and now happens to be one of those times. This one was different from the others somehow, wasn't it?"
Greg angrily sat up quickly but immediately regretted it, as he was still sore from his therapy session. "Look, I am not in the mood to talk about it right now. Can you just let it be for now, please?" His tone started off heated but softened at the end.
She studied him for a moment, contemplating letting it go. She was so use to pushing suspects to talk but Greg was not a suspect and if he was not ready to talk again, she would let it go. "Okay for now, but one of these days perhaps you should confront Tyler Renning again."
He looked like someone just slapped him. "What? What do you mean?"
She sat down next to him on the bed. "Greg, I've already seen him twice since that day. Maybe because I have confronted him and know he is locked away now, maybe that is why he really had not haunted my dreams as much as yours. Perhaps if you see him in jail and see that he is put away it will help you better to deal with your inner fears."
Greg hated when Catherine became the voice of reason. He knew she made a good point and he knew he tried avoiding even thinking of that day overall. The more he ignored it the worse his dreams were getting. He sighed heavily then finally responded. "I'm not sure I can, at least not yet." He lowered his head, feeling ashamed that he did not have the courage again to face him.
Catherine was able to read his reaction. "Greg, it was just a suggestion for now. You can take your time with this. No one is expecting you to rush back into things."
"I know but what if I want to. I am sick of sitting around feeling useless. I feel like a leech on you. I don't know how I'll ever repay you for opening your house to me."
Catherine was surprised. "You are not a leech on me. And I feel like I am repaying you in a way for stopping Tyler by shooting him when you did."
"You don't owe me anything, really. I was just acting on natural instinct."
Catherine took that as a chance to ask him something that she had been wondering about for awhile now. "Speaking of natural instinct, your aim was really dead on when you handled that gun. Have you shot a gun before?"
Greg's eyes flashed a moment in shock, and then looked down a moment, pondering whether he should relive those old memories. He looked up at Catherine suddenly feeling a bit nauseous as the memories flooded back into his mind.
"Are you okay? You don't look so good suddenly," she said to him as she noticed his face pale.
"Catherine, I…" he sighed audibly then continued on. "I have shot guns before, many years ago. It's a time I have tried to forget."
Catherine could feel that it was something he struggled with. "Something big happened, didn't it?"
Greg's serious eyes gazed back into hers. "Yeah and it's something I've never really talked about to anyone but my family before." He wanted her to understand what a big deal this was for him to even mention it to anyone.
"You can trust me, Greg." She placed her hand on his knee in a comforting way.
He gave her a faint smile for understanding. "I know it's just…not good memories."
"Look, if you do not want to tell me, I don't want you to feel pushed." She told him.
He shook his head. "No, I…I can tell you this. It's…" He puffed out a breath and shifted on the bed to make himself more comfortable before going into the long story.
"Okay, when I was a teenager, my dad use to take me out hunting. Of course at first he taught me all about gun safety. We would often hunt with some of my friends and their fathers. My friend, Mike's father owned many different types of guns. One day Mike invited my best friend, Troy and I over to his place. His parents weren't home. He had set up a bunch of beer cans and bottles on their backyard fence. He had gone into his father's gun cabinet and took out a couple guns, one a pistol and one a 45. It was not like we had not done this before, but usually one of our dad's were around."
"Mike was trying to reload the 45 and he was having problems with it. Troy was next to him, trying to help him when the gun misfired." Greg lowered his head. Catherine felt something bad coming up.
"The next thing I heard after the gun going off was Mike screaming for help. I was a few feet away and ran over. I saw my best friend, Troy on the ground, blood gushing out of his chest. I stared in shock at Troy. Mike yelled at me to call for help. I finally snapped out of it and ran inside and called 911. I ran back outside and saw Mike crying over Troy, begging him not to die."
Greg shook his head some, his eyes still lowered. "A lot of what happened after that day is still a blur to me. I remember hearing the sirens and the paramedics arrive. They said he was DOA. All of our parents rushed home. My parents would not let me out of their sight for days. My dad got rid of all his guns. A few days after the accident we attended Troy's funeral. I was still sort of numb to what happened. I saw Mike and his parents. My eyes met with Mike's. He looked like shit; he could hardly look at me. I thought it had messed me up, but it was he after all, who was holding the gun that misfired and killed Troy. After the funeral, that evening, we got a phone call. I was in my room when my parents both came in. Their faces…their faces told me something very bad went down. Michael had killed himself after he got home later after the funeral."
Catherine gasped. She had no idea Greg had lived with something so tragic like this for so long and no one knew. "Greg, I am so sorry."
Greg finally looked up again; his eyes were red and watery. "Mike's dad had not gotten rid of his guns. Mike blew his brains out. After all of that I wanted nothing to do with guns. I went through a few months of counseling and whatever, but I lost two of my best friends within a week. No counseling really can ever erase that emptiness. I finally decided to live my life to it's fullest and do whatever I could to stay happy, because my friends would not have wanted me to dwell on their deaths for the rest of my life. So I have."
"You know I wanted to work in a crime lab, where I would not have to handle a gun, but still be able to help get people off the streets who used guns and violence purposely with intent to hurt people. Families should never have to suffer like those two families did. They were both shattered. Now you can probably see why my parents are so over-protective."
Catherine nodded, wiping a tear away from her eyes. "I can't even imagine, but then again I can. Last year when Lindsay was kidnapped, after I got her back, I did not want her to go anywhere without my knowledge. The thought of loosing her was…unbearable. But Greg, how have you kept this hidden so long?"
Greg sighed. "Well I remember my first time out in the field, on that bus accident scene. I was with Nick helping out the bus driver and when he started coughing up blood, I froze because all I could think of was the blood pouring out of Troy's chest. I ended up lying to Nick, saying I'd never seen blood like that in person before, but I had. I've just tried very hard to bury those memories or I think about how what happened then changed my life and I am doing what I am doing now for them in a way."
Catherine stared in amazement at Greg. "I always knew you were a good person, Greg, but now you just simply amaze me at how much courage and strength you have inside you. Thank you for letting me in on this. I have the utmost respect for you."
Greg bowed his head, blushing a bit now. "I'm not that great, Cath. I can't face Tyler Renning now, but thanks for saying that."
"It is still a fresh incident. You just need time, Greg and that too you will get through."
"Thanks for your faith in me." He slowly turned his intense gaze back upon her, once again making her cheeks redden.
She hated how he could do that with his eyes. She had to find an out before she possibly did something she was not yet sure she was ready to do.
"Well, uh, I need to see how my mom is doing with dinner. You're okay now, right?"
He glanced down, knowing she was trying to escape the emotions in the room. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I always am."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Okay, for now anyway. I'll call when dinner is ready."
Greg watched her leave. He lay back down, staring up at the ceiling, feeling some relief that someone else actually knew his big dark secret. He was glad he picked Catherine to share it with. She said she saw him differently now, he hoped it was in a way he was hoping for.