Chapter One
Greg yawned as he sat in the Laundromat drinking lukewarm coffee and pretending that his clothes hadn't finished drying fifteen minutes ago. After he left the diner he and Nick had gone to, Greg had gone back to his apartment. As he pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex, he saw the car that his girlfriend had warned him about sitting in the back of the parking lot. It was the same car that had followed him that he had told Nick about. Before he got too far into the lot, he had quickly backed out of the parking lot and quickly left.
He drove aimlessly around for about an hour before, he felt certain that the car was not following him. He had then decided to go shopping at the mall where he had purchased some new clothes, since he had no intention of going back to his apartment anytime soon and wandered through nearly every store twice before deciding to leave. He had then gone grocery shopping and bought a case of bottled water, a six pack of soda, some premade sandwiches, ice, and a cooler after walking around the store looking at everything whether he wanted to buy them one day or not.
After wasting the entire day wandering around various Las Vegas establishments Greg was now sitting in a Laundromat wondering where he could go for the night.
"Sir," an older woman said standing in front of him. "Are those your clothes in the dryer over there?"
"Uh, yeah," Greg nodded with a glance at the dryer she pointed to.
"Your clothes are done sir, and I need to close the Laundromat now. We will open again tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock," she told him.
"Thanks, I was lost in thought. I will get my things now," Greg assured her as he stood up. He glanced at the clock on the wall as he stood up and noticed it was 2 a.m. already. He had been awake for over 24 hours and he had not gotten much sleep before that. He took his new clothes out of the dryer, placed them in the shopping bag, and left. He was still unsure of where to go next, but he knew that he had to get some sleep but he couldn't go home.
After getting into his car and driving around again, he eventually ended up at a beautiful secluded section near the desert with a view of Vegas in the distance. Since it was a warm night, he decided to park there and go to sleep before he fell asleep driving. He parked his car behind the cover of trees to make certain that his vehicle wasn't visible from the road and moved to the back seat of his car after locking the doors. He fell asleep seconds later.
"Damn it," Nick complained as he flipped his cell phone closed. "He's still not answering his phone."
"Did you try his house phone and his cell phone?" Warrick asked as he dusted for finger prints at their crime scene.
"Yes, I tried both. I also left several messages on both. You don't think that anything is wrong do you?" Nick asked finally giving into the voice in the back of his mind that agreed with Warrick. The voice had taunted him all night saying what if Greg was not playing a prank?
"It's his night off, he's probably out at a club partying or what ever it is he does on his nights off. Or maybe he's sleeping," Warrick suggested.
"Yeah I know, I just wanted to make sure that he was alright," Nick said.
"I'm sure he's fine. He's probably just out having fun, dancing and head banging to that crazy music of his," Warrick told him; although, he was somewhat worried himself. "You know we are about finished here, why don't we stop by Greg's apartment and check on him," Warrick suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds good. I lent him a DVD last week, we can stop over and tell him that we stopped by to pick up the DVD," Nick told him.
"We could do that, but I also think that telling him we stopped by to make sure he was alright, since he wasn't answering his phones, would work," Warrick shrugged his shoulders.
Twenty-five minutes later Warrick pulled the SUV into the parking lot of Greg's apartment complex. "His car isn't here," he commented looking over the cars in the parking lot.
"Maybe he is out clubbing," Nick said. He would, however, feel better if he could see or speak with Greg to make certain that he was alright.
"Yeah, well we better get back to the lab," Warrick said.
Nick pounded on Greg's door as Grissom and Warrick caught up to him and stood behind him. Greg had not come into work for the second night in a row without calling off and was not answering his phones. Nick and Warrick had decided that they would tell Grissom about Nick's conversation with Greg. Nick had a very bad feeling that something terrible had happened. They were now outside the lab tech's apartment hoping Greg's absence at work had nothing to do with his stalker. Detective Jim Brass was currently checking the hospital's for any John Doe's matching Greg's description. "He's not answering," Nick told them as he began to slam his body weight into the door until he was finally able to force his way into the apartment. He ignored the pain in his shoulder from breaking in.
"Greg!" Warrick and Nick yelled as they both rushed into the apartment.
Through the dim light of a lamp on top of an end table beside the black leather couch, the living room appeared to look just as it had the last time Nick had been there to play video games. It was just as neat and organized as always, but uncharacteristically quiet. He immediately noted that the kitchen lights were on and quickly headed in that direction. "Greg, are you here?" he called out.
As he entered the kitchen he stopped in the door way and said "No," as he saw his friend lying on the white tiled floor of the kitchen. A puddle of dried blood surrounded the motionless body of his friend. "No," Nick repeated shaking his head as Warrick and Grissom rushed past him. He could only watch as Grissom knelt down beside Greg's obviously lifeless body.
"Looks like he was shot at least twice in the head," Warrick said as he began to take pictures of the body of their friend as if it was any other crime scene.
"This is CSI Grissom," the oldest CSI spoke into his cell phone. "We have a 419 at...."
Nick closed his eyes. He couldn't believe this, Greg was dead. He was now their crime scene and Grissom and Warrick were acting as if it was a stranger's body they found in the kitchen. "No," Nick said, "this can't be happening. It was just a prank. He admitted to me that it was just a prank." Tears welled in his closed eyes. He didn't want to look at his friend's body any more, but he could not turn away.
Warrick looked up at Nick anger gleaming in his dark eyes. "This is your fault; he trusted you and you threw that trust in his face by assuming that he made up the stalker. You didn't even believe that he could possibly have a girlfriend. What kind of friend has so little faith in his friends? You killed him, Nick. If you would have told him to go to Grissom for help instead of making him feel bad for causing you to think of your experience with your own stalker we could have protected him. We could have saved him, instead of burying him. This is your fault, all your fault."
Nick awoke suddenly to the sound of his cell phone ringing on the night stand beside his bed. His breath came out in harsh pants as he reached for his phone and fought to calm down after the nightmare. His hands shook as he picked up the device and flipped it open. "Stokes," he spoke into the phone trying to sound normal.
"Nick, it's Greg," the lab tech paused. "I just checked my messages and saw that you left me four messages. Is everything alright? Grissom didn't need me to come in did he?"
"Nah, I was just thinking about what you said about the stalker. I thought that maybe... you know... I just wanted to make sure that you were alright," Nick stammered. His hands were still shaking somewhat, but his breathing and heartbeat were begging to settle down as he spoke to the cause of anxiety.
"I'm fine. I... I was just sleeping. I had my cell phone turned off since I wasn't on call," Greg assured him.
"Oh," was all Nick said.
"Are you alright," Greg asked concern evident in his voice. "You sound like you were just running a marathon."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was asleep. I left the phone in the living room, and had to hurry to get it before it stopped ringing," Nick lied. He didn't want to tell Greg that he had a nightmare for fear Greg would want to know what he had dreamt about.
"Alright," Greg paused. "You sure you're alright?"
"I'm sure. Greg, if something was wrong you would tell me right? I mean, my reaction to your prank didn't make you afraid to tell me if something was really wrong, did it?" Nick wanted to make sure that the younger man knew he could still confide in him, despite what had happened at the diner.
"No. I know I can talk to you," Greg sighed. "Nick, what I said at the diner, I shouldn't have told you, it was wrong of me to tell you that. I'm fine though, you don't need to worry about me. Well, I have some errands to run, so I will let you get back to sleep. I'll see you tonight at work," he told him.
"Yeah, see you later. Bye," Nick flipped his cell phone shut and closed his eyes squeezing the device tightly in his hand. He took a deep breath to try to convince his still rapidly beating heart that the lab tech was fine and it was just a dream. However, he had a nagging feeling that the younger man was not entirely truthful about being fine. He had noticed that Greg had said he shouldn't have told him. He didn't say that he shouldn't have made up a prank like that after what Nick had been through, or something similar. The spark of doubt had been ignited into an inferno of concern for his friend. He vowed that he would keep a close eye on the lab tech to make sure he was indeed 'fine'.
To Be Continued...