Welcome new Followers! ;) This chapter was real fun to write, I hope you enjoy reading it at least as much!

Because Nick had been in the hospital for two weeks he felt a little trapped and needed to get out, so him and Greg went for a walk. They both kind of felt like they needed to avoid talking about what happened in the diner, but Greg had too many unanswered questions he hoped Nick could help him with. "So your memory's not coming back at all?"

Nick shrugged as they – very slowly – walked around Nick's neighborhood. "Some images are coming back. At least I think they're memories and not just fantasies."

"Like what?"

"After I got shot... I think I saw someone walking out of the diner, but it was probably Astin, right?"

Greg nodded thoughtful. "This guy really freaks me out."

"Do you think there's a chance I'm the one who messed up?"

Greg looked surprised at Nick. "What do you mean?"

"Well do you think it might be possible I got startled by him entering and just shot at him?"

Greg hastily shook his head. "No way. You didn't do anything wrong, this gu..." Greg stopped. "What the hell?!" He looked over to a diner on the other side of the street.

"...What is it?"

"...Stay here."

Greg crossed the street to enter the diner. He thought he'd seen officer Astin sit in there, watching them. And indeed, Astin was there with two colleagues. "Were you watching us?" Greg asked as he stormed up to the three officers.

"Excuse me?" Astin grinned at Greg.

"Oh come on, like it's a coincidence you're here."

Astin and his colleagues laughed. "You just walked in. If anything, you were stalking me."

"Yeah right. You were watching us!"

"Hey Gabe, is there a new law that forbids me to look through a window?" Astin giggled.

Greg felt uncomfortable. He didn't really think this through. He didn't consider the possibility of this being just a coincidence. This area was, after all, Astin's precinct. Greg knew that. "So you didn't see us walk by?"

"Who's 'us'? All I see is you."

Greg raised an eyebrow. He looked through the window. Nick was clearly visible. "Leave him alone."

Again, Astin and his colleagues laughed. "Am I not leaving him alone right now?"

Greg took a step forward. "I don't want to see you anywhere near him! He doesn't need that!"

Astin's colleague Gabe got off his seat. "You better get lost now."

If he would've been thinking straight, Greg would've left the diner by now. He was too angry to do that, though. He was sure Astin was here on purpose, watching him and Nick. "Stay away from Nick!"

Gabe pushed Greg. "That's enough!" He walked him out as he put his hand around Greg's arm.

"You're lucky I'm on my lunch break, otherwise I would've arrested you," Gabe said in a very calm voice as he pushed Greg out of the diner.

Nick walked up to the two. "Hey, officer, what's wrong?" He quickly got his CSI ID out.

"I think your friend can answer this question better. Have a nice day." He walked back in.

"What the hell was that, Greg?"

"Come on, let's go." Greg grabbed Nick's arm and pulled him in the direction they were coming from.

Nick shook him off. "What, you're not gonna tell me why you've just been thrown out of a diner by an officer? Who was that guy?"

Greg sighed. "He's friends with Astin. He's inside."

"...You talked to him?"

"I thought he was stalking us or something. It can't be a coincidence he's here right now."

"...It's noon and this is his precinct. He's probably on his lunch break."

Greg raised both eyebrows. "How do you know that this is his precinct?"

"..." Nick turned around and started walking back home without answering Greg.

Greg followed. "You researched the guy, didn't you?"

Nick laughed humorlessly. "I spent two weeks in a hospital bed, what else was I supposed to do?"

"...Did you find anything of use?"

"Not really. He's divorced, has two kids that live somewhere in California... I think that's it."

Greg sighed disappointed. "That's not really much, now, is it?"

The two had only walked a few hundred feet when Astin and his two colleagues walked out of the diner. Greg noticed but deliberately didn't turn around to look at them.

"Hey Sanders!" Astin yelled as the three walked up to them.

"Just ignore him," Nick whispered to Greg as he noticed his friend getting more and more annoyed by the officer. They tried to keep on walking and ignore them, but the officers wouldn't let them.

"Hey!" Astin said as he grabbed Greg's shoulder to turn him around. "You were so eager to talk to me before and now you're ignoring me?" He grinned.

"We don't have time for this, we need to get going," Greg replied annoyed. He wanted to turn around again, but the officer wouldn't let thim.

"Hey Stokes, how about you take a hike? We're not supposed to talk to each other."

Nick gave him a look. "Well then, feel free to leave us alone. I'm not going anywhere."

Ignoring Nick, Astin put his arm around Greg's shoulder as he whispered in his ear. At the same time, Gabe walked up to Nick, grabbed his arm and walked him away from Greg. "...Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?! Don't touch me!" Nick was too weak to fight the officer off.

"It's okay, Nick. Just go with him..." Greg said both annoyed and nervous. He had a bad feeling about this.

Gabe walked Nick out of Astin's and Greg's sight.

Greg tried to get out of Astin's grip without using any force. "Get off of me. If you want to talk, fine, but..."

Astin pulled Greg closer to him as he grabbed his right wrist. "How does that feel, huh?" he whispered to him.

"...What... Let go of me." Greg was getting more and more nervous. He wasn't very comfortable with any physical contact at the moment, especially not with someone he hated and didn't trust. He started to try and push Astin away from him when the other cop walked up closer to him with a weird grin on his face.

"...I know it all," Astin whispered in his ear again.

"...What are you doing...? Nick!" Greg tried to turn his head around to look at Nick, who was too far away to hear anything. But Astin didn't let him, anyway. The officer was using more force to restrain him while his colleague walked up to him in an aggressive manner. As Greg's survival instinct kicked in and he was now using force to push Astin away.

Russell walked into the police station near Nick's home quite heavy-hearted. He looked very thoughtful as he signed some papers before walking down to where the holding cells were. "I never thought I'd have to do this," he said with quite a sad smile on his face.

"Really? 'Cause I always fantasized about this moment and it's all I ever wished for," Greg replied sarcastically as he looked at Russell from behind the bars of the cell he was in, sitting on a bench. "Where's Nick?"

"I sent him to the lab."

"...Why?"

"Because I knew he wouldn't have listened to me had I told him to go home. But he can't be here, either."

"Well... Thanks for doing this. I'll pick Nick up at the lab and then..." Greg got ready to leave.

Russell interrupted him. "Not so fast. What the hell happened? Why did they arrest you?"

"Didn't they tell you I assaulted officer As..."

He interrupted him again. "No, I heard that. But you can't blame me for needing a little bit more of an explanation. Why did you do it?"

Greg sighed. "He provoked me." He started to nervously tap with his feet.

Russell gave him a look. "Now there's a great defense."

"But he did. He put his arm around me and whispered something in my ear."

Russell didn't really look all that impressed. "That's all it takes for you to swing a hit at somebody? A cop, no less?"

"I didn't hit him, okay? I pushed him away. Which, by the way, I think was my right to do."

Russell chuckled. "I guess the officers who watched it didn't think so, huh?"

"They were his friends! And one of them was coming at me while Astin restrained me. I didn't know what they were gonna do to me."

"...They're cops, what do you think they had in mind?"

Greg shrugged. "I just felt like I needed to defend myself."

"So what did he whisper to you? Did you hear it?"

Greg was a little hesistant to tell Russell. He didn't feel like he was all too understanding about this and the whole thing was embarrassing. "He asked... he said 'I know. I know it all'."

Russell looked confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well shortly before..." Greg stopped himself. He wanted to tell Russell how he came to the following conclusion, but he didn't want to get Nick into trouble. "...I think he read my file and knows I have a short fuse when it comes to physical contact."

"But you can't prove that, now, can you?"

"Of course not. Astin's not stupid. But he used this information against me to have a reason to arrest me."

"...Why would he want that?"

"I don't know. ...You don't think this is my fault, do you?"

Russell sighed. "I'm not sure what to think, Greg. All I know is that you shouldn't even talk to Astin. Especially not with Nick standing right next to you two. You could've gotten him into a lot of trouble today."

"They walked him away, I didn't know what they did to him, I..."

"You were scared for Nick's life?"

Greg nodded with a sad look. "Look at that, Russell." He hopped off the bench to lift his shirt, exposing some nasty bruises as well as some abrasions. His hands and arms looked the same, and his jeans were all ripped up, too. "They did this."

Russell looked a bit worried. "I'm sure they didn't mean..."

Greg interrupted him. "At the very least they didn't care, but if you ask me, they were using excessive force on purpose."

"...Well, you did fight back, didn't you?"

"How could I? Two guys tackled me to the ground, twisted my arm and wrist, it all went so fast." In fact, Greg did try to fight back. Panic mode had set in full when the two were all over him, but he just wasn't strong enough to fight two big men off. Something that worked in his favor now.

Russell sighed. "I'll do my best to make this disappear, but you should prepare yourself. You might need to go to court for this."

Greg rolled his eyes. He knew that the worst that could happen to him was to pay a fine. "I don't care either way. But someone needs to get Astin off the streets. He's crazy."

Russell couldn't really disagree with this, he thought so, too. "Just stay away from hi..."

The supervisor was interrupted by Astin walking in. "CSI Russell, nice to see you again." He gave him a friendly smile before turning to Greg. "Ready to get out of here?"

Astin's colleague, the one who came at Greg and made the arrest, Stephen Morton, walked in, too, causing Greg to look very uncomfortable.

"Is there anything you want to say before we let you out?" Astin asked Greg with a grin.

"Just get me out of here," he replied annoyed and defeated.

"Don't you want to apologize for attacking us?"

"I'd rather spend a week in here," Greg replied cocky.

"As you wish." Astin and Morton turned around laughing while Russell gave Greg a look, encouraging him to apologize, after all.

"...Wait." They turned around again. They now had the biggest grins on their faces, making it harder for him to sound sincere. "I'm sorry for fighting back when you two..."

"Is that what an apology sounds like, Stephen?" Astin asked.

"Not at all," he replied.

They didn't even let Greg finish as they turned back around. "Enjoy your stay a little longer, maybe think about how you want to aproach us the next time."

"Officers, wait," now Russell chimed in. "Greg, apologize to them."

Greg sighed as he gave Russell a look. "I'm sorry I attacked you. I didn't intend to hurt you..." It was painfully obvious how hard it was for him to get these words out.

"Attaboy," Astin said joyful.

"...What now? Is there going to be a trial?" Russell asked worried.

Astin shook his head. "Hey, we're all on the same side, right? CSIs and cops are like family. No harm done, he's a free man."

"What's gotten into you?" Russell asked annoyed as him and Greg walked out of the police station.

"I don't have to take their crap," Greg replied annoyed. He felt like he shouldn't have apologized to them.

"Yes you do! When they arrest you for something you could spend a year in prison for, you have to do what they ask you to."

"So you expect me to kiss their asses the next time?" He rolled his eyes.

"I expect you to do the smart thing. I don't like it, either, but they had power over you. They coud've let you in that cell for much longer if they wanted to."

"I know that. I just... It was humiliating to apologize to these meatheads. There was nothing I needed to apologize for." The mere fact that they had so much power over him was what made Greg uncomfortable.

Russell gave him a look. "Morton looked a little bruised around the eye. Sure you didn't hit him?"

"Of course not!" Morton had claimed that, but it wasn't true.

"...Because the file says so."