Julian finally thought to have found a way to infatuate Greg. The first thing he would do to achieve that was to apologize to him. And typical for Julian, it couldn't wait until the next day. No, he needed to do this now, hours after shift, so he drove to Greg's place.
When he opened the door, Greg was surprised to see Julian. "What are you doing here?"
"Can I come in? I wanted to..." Julian was cut off by Greg slamming the door, but he was able to open it again, quite forcefully, before it snapped shut. "Just hear me out!"
Greg took a few steps back, looking really scared. "Leave or I'll call 911, I'm serious!"
"...WHAT?" Julian yelled outraged, causing Greg to wince. Noticing the fearful look in his eyes, he calmed down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you... But please, I need to say this!"
"The last time you wanted to talk, you kissed me."
"Yeah well, that's actually why I'm here..." Julian walked up to Greg, making him take another few steps back, facing now Julian with his back to the wall.
Nervously, Greg said, "I'm calling the police...", and walked towards the living room, but Julian grabbed his arm.
"No, I won't... I won't try anything again, I promise!"
Not feeling too good about this, Greg reluctantly agreed to hear Julian out. "Okay, but don't make me regret this decision..."
They walked into the living room where Julian sat down on the couch, and Greg, like the last time, kept standing up, a few feet away from him.
"You're not sitting down?" Julian asked surprised.
"What is it you needed to say?"
"You're scared of me... I'm so stupid... I'm sorry, Greg! I know I crossed a line and I really want to apologize for it..." Julian said remorseful, not even looking Greg in the face. He stared down to his feet.
Greg didn't know what to say. Julian's apology sounded and looked genuine, but he already apologized once and then the incident in the bar followed.
"I hope it's not too late... I realize now that our friendship is more important than my feelings for you..."
"...You still have those feelings?"
"It's not something I can turn on and off however I like, but I'm working on it," he replied, giving Greg a smile.
Greg stood there leaning against the wall. "Well... Thank you for your apology..."
Julian stood up with a big smile on his face. "So we're friends again?"
Greg hesitated for a moment. "I don't know, Julian..."
He looked at him with a sad face. "Please, give me a second chance. Let me prove to you that I've changed!"
Greg wasn't quite sure what to think of it, but he decided to give Julian another shot. He nodded. "Alright..."
Julian put his big smile on again and walked up to Greg, giving him a tight hug. "Thank you so much!"
"But..." Greg got out of the hug. "For now, let's just not do the hugging and stuff, alright?"
"Yeah, sorry..." he laughed sheepishly.
The next few days, things seemed to be going swell between Greg and Julian. They were friendly with each other, Julian more than Greg, though, and it didn't feel too weird for either one of them.
But one person did notice the weird behavior the two showed in the last couple of weeks. Catherine noticed the tension between them and was rather surprised to see them acting as if they were good friends now. At least that's what it looked like to her, and it made her suspicious. Trying to find out what was going on in her team, she asked Greg to see her in her office.
"Hey Catherine." Greg entered and closed the door behind him.
"Sit down, please," she said smiling.
"We hardly ever see you outside the office anymore," he said, returning her smile.
"Yeah well... I'm swamped in paperwork right now. That's the reason I'm talking to you now, when I actually wanted to do that days ago..."
He nodded, wondering what it was about.
"Well, actually I just wanted to see if you're doing okay. It's been a few crazy months... How are you holding up?"
"I'm great," he said, "I tried to keep all that stuff behind."
"That's good to hear... And besides that, is everything good?"
Greg wondered what she was talking about. "Uh... I guess?"
"How about you and Julian? I know he can be annoying, but it didn't use to bother you that much. And now you guys suddenly act as if you were friends, what's going on?" She put her glasses down.
"You worry because Julian and I are friends?" He laughed confused.
"I worry because, just a few days ago, you were having a fight in the lab, and now it's like nothing happened."
"So?" Greg asked rather defensive.
"Nothing. I just want to make sure everything's alright between you two. Nobody ever tells me anything anymore, I just want to know if the team gets along."
"Well, Julian can be a bit difficult to handle... I think everyone agrees with me on that. But I try my best to get along with him."
"Are you sure? Because a few days ago I saw you two together... and it almost looked as if you were scared of him."
Greg laughed nervously. "Why would I be scared of him?"
"I don't know, is there a reason? Because if there is one, I need to know."
"No..." He smiled. "He can be a jerk sometimes but he's not dangerous or anything, don't worry."
Catherine sighed. Being busy with paperwork and politics the last few weeks, she wasn't able to connect with her team as much as she used to. She feared to overlook important things, like what was going on between Julian and Greg. She knew that something was fishy, but she had no clue what it could be. Nobody told her about Julian's crush. "Alright... But you know you can always come to me if you have a problem, right?"
When Greg left the office, he was headed off by Julian.
"What did you say about me?"
"Huh?" Greg asked confused. "What do you mean?"
"Wasn't this about me?" Julian asked nervously.
"No. Well, kind of, but... what did you think I said? Did you tell her anything?"
"Of course not! I just thought maybe Nick did..."
"Nick?"
"Oh yeah right! He said you didn't know he was going to talk to me..." Julian said while turning around, walking towards the DNA lab, hoping that Greg would follow him interested.
"What? Wait!" Greg followed him. "What did he say to you?"