Both Nick and Greg went to bed three hours ago and both had trouble sleeping. Nick slept about an hour, but Greg didn't sleep at all. He cried for about half an hour, hoping Nick wouldn't hear him, and then he just lied in bed, staring at the walls, thinking about everything that bothered him. He had his sleeping pills with him but didn't want to take them. Although he knew he had to go to work in a few more hours he thought it would be better to face these thoughts now.

It didn't really seem to help much, though. After three hours he was not feeling better at all. The tears stopped coming, but that's about it. The helplessness, the weakness he was feeling three hours ago was still there.

Greg's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Greg?" Nick whispered. "Is everything alright?"

Greg went to the door to open it. "Yeah, why?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up, but I thought I smelled smoke or something and wanted to check on you."

"Now that you mention it, I smell it, too..." when Greg looked at Nick, they both knew they had to find out where that smell came from.

When they reached the living room the fire alarm already went off. About two feet away from the door was the fire. It was a line of fire going from one wall to another, isolating the door from the rest of the house.

"Oh my god, what's going on?" Both men were caught by surprise when they saw that.

"Stay away from the fire!" Nick pushed Greg to the side and ran to the kitchen to get the fire extinguisher.

The drapes had already caught the fire, but Nick was able to get it under control and put it out.

For a minute both men just stood there staring at the mess the fire had caused.

"Are you alright, Nick?" Greg said with a trembling voice.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." he softly patted Greg on the shoulder. "And you?"

Greg just nodded, still staring at the mess. "We should probably call Catherine." he picked Nick's land line phone. His shaking hands were obvious to Nick. He wasn't even capable of dialing the number due to his shaky hands.

"Here, let me call her." Nick took the phone out of Greg's hand, leading him to the couch. "You sit down for a minute. Do you want me to call a doctor?"

"Huh?" Greg looked up to Nick.

Nick leaned over to Greg, gently grabbing his shoulder. He was still shaking and seemed to be mentally absent and not paying any attention to what Nick was saying. "Greg, are you alright? I'm going to call a doctor for you, okay?"

Still shaking, Greg slowly calmed down. "No, no... that's not necessary. I'm fine..." he averted his gaze back from Nick to the mess the fire caused.

"Alright. Just relax, I'll call Catherine. And don't touch anything, this is a crime scene now!"

Catherine was accompanied by Sara, Ray, Brass and a few cops, standing in front of what caused the fire.

Paper was lined up on the floor, doused in fire accelerant. The CSIs had yet to find out what kind of accelerant was used, but they were sure some was used. Some of the papers that were set on fire were not burned completely, making it easy for the CSIs to know what was written on them.

Sara picked one of them up, looking at Greg. "Catherine..." she handed it to Catherine, who also had to look at Greg when she read the paper.

Greg was sitting on the couch next to Nick, wondering why they were looking at him that way. "What's wrong?"

Catherine walked up to him and sat down. "Is this one of the papers he took from your apartment?"

Greg stared at the paper. The helplessness in his face was more obvious now. He nodded and looked at Nick. "This is all my fault."

Nick shook his head. "Don't you say something like that. Whoever did this is responsible, you didn't have anything to do with it, alright?"

"What the hell does this guy want from me?" Greg's voice started to sound quite desperate, which made Nick worry more.

"Greg..." Catherine gently touched his hand. "You do know I have to pull you off that case, right? I'd rather not have you work right now at all..."

"But..." Greg was too tired to fight with her right now. He understood why she had to take him off the case, though, but not why she didn't want him to work at all. "Alright, I won't work on that case, but I won't go on vacation now."

"Greg, maybe you should take a break. Just take a few days off, okay?" Nick said, trying to convince him.

"No. I won't."

Catherine sighed. "Alright... But you'll stay in the lab. You could do us all a favor and replace Julian for a while. But you won't process the DNA evidence we find concerning this case."

Julian walked up to Ray who was looking at some photos he took at Nick's apartment. "Hello Ray. I have the results from the semen stain you guys found in one of the daughter's rooms ready."

Ray looked up to him with a surprising face. "Help me remember. What case are you talking about?"

"The family drama. I think you found the daughter in the shower and Nick found the semen stain on her bed."

Ray stood up to face Julian. "Are you serious? It took you DAYS to process that stain? Julian, you're working way too slow! We need results like that ASAP! We can't wait weeks for them! The suspect could be already leaving the country if we're taking too long!" Ray was outraged. He knew that Julian respected him more than anyone else, so he thought it was a good idea to talk to him about it. He hoped that, coming from him, Julian would actually think about it and change it.

"Excuse me? I'm working as quick as I can. But your cases are not the only ones I need to work on, okay?" Julian didn't react the way Ray expected him to. Instead, he got defensive, showing no reason.

Ray sighed. He didn't feel like he could win that argument, with Julian being so undiscerning. "Whatever. If you think this attitude is going to bring you anywhere, keep it. Just give me the results and get the hell out of here." Ray was usually very kind to Julian, although he didn't like him. But after all that's happened he was stressed out, too, like everyone else.

Julian handed him the report, rolled his eyes and left the room.