Last Chapter!

Thank you all SO much for reading, enjoying, following and reviewing my story! I'm working on a few new ones and since one of them marks kind of an anniversary soon I'll upload it as soon as I can! Stay tuned!

Now enjoy the rest of the story :)

Since Greg seemed to be willing to risk a lot for this, Russell decided to support him with his theories. He asked some CSI's from Reno to take over the shooting at the diner, as well as the John Doe case – the guy who tried to kill Nick at the hospital. This way, he turned the whole lab against him. They all felt like he didn't trust them – which he didn't at this point.

After a briefing with these CSI's, he called a family meeting in his office. Sara, Greg and Brass were present. He didn't want Nick to be there, though. "I should've done this a long time ago, but it wasn't a smart carreer move... I was hoping I wouldn't have to do it, but now I'm glad I did." He smiled at Greg, who gave him enough confidence to go through with it. "The footprint you and Sara found at the John Doe crime scene wasn't an exact match to officer Astin's boots, but it was the same size. The guys from Reno handed this information over to IA. Normally it would hardly be enough to connect two crime scenes, but they were able to find a judge Astin had rubbed the wrong way a few times... He gave them a court order for the swing shift CSI's homes. They found the missing evidence at Gunn's place..."

"Why did she hide it?" Sara asked.

Russell showed them the pictures. "That's what they were trying to hide. Footprints on the menu."

"...Footprints?"

"Footprints that matched the ones at the John Doe scene."

"Well, that connects the scenes, alright, but doesn't place Astin at any of those," Sara replied confused.

"Well, not until an attentive CSI from Reno noticed something on the pictures swing shift took at the scene when Astin was still present." He handed them the pictures, as well.

"What are we supposed to... Oh, wait. The shoes. Astin's not wearing his uniform boots." Sara smirked.

"They already comfirmed that these shoes match the footprints they found."

"He was wearing the evidence the whole time and nobody noticed?" Greg asked rather impressed. "How did CSI Gunn know about the shoes?"

"She found another incriminating piece of evidence she hid from us... One of the bodies didn't die from the gunshot wounds, he was suffocated. Astin must've put his hand over his mouth. She found evidence of it and figured that Astin was the shooter, so she tried to make every evidence disappear."

Sara shook her head. "I can't believe it. I used to work with her on many cases, she's such a good CSI... To throw this all away for some guy."

"Not just some guy," Brass interrupted. "Turns out the two had an affair. In fact, we suspect her to be the reason for the shooting. According to Astin, she had an affair with the owner of the diner, too."

Greg shook his head confused. "He didn't mind her being married, but her screwing around with the diner owner made him kill innocent people?"

Brass sighed. "Apparently. We'll have to revisit most of the cases she and Astin had been working on together. Who knows what else they messed up."

"So why did he kill the guy he sent to murder me?" Nick asked, standing in the doorway.

"Nick, what are you doing here?" Russell asked surprised. He didn't like him listening to all of this.

"Hodges texted me if I could tell him what's being discussed in here, so I decided to find out about it. Why didn't you tell me about this meeting?"

Russell gave him a look, making his reasons quite clear.

"You don't need to protect me."

"Alright. We believe he paid this guy to kill you, but when he... failed at it... he wanted to get his money back."

"Wow. How much money?"

"Nick..."

"How much money was my life worth to Astin?"

Russell shook his head. "We're not sure yet."

A week after officer Astin's arrest, Greg arrived at a crime scene as he got greeted by officer Spencer. "Hey Greg! Follow me, we..." Spencer's phone rang. "Unknown caller. Wait, I gotta take this. Just walk down the basement, an officer's there waiting for you. He'll tell you everything you need to know!" He rushed away from the CSI.

Greg made his way down to the basement of the apartment building with a slight smile on his face. He felt pretty good about himself after he was able to help convict officer Astin. He got greeted by officer Morton, Astin's colleague. "Hello Sanders," he said with a grin on his face.

The smile on the CSIs face fainted slowly as he looked around a little confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Why, is that a problem?"

"...Well, yeah. After what happened, you..."

"I didn't shoot your colleague," he replied grinning.

Greg nodded with an uncomfortable look on his face. "...So... where's the body?" He was trying to be professional but was terrified.

"There is no body."

The way Morton said this was really scaring the young CSI. He expected a dead body, after all. "...I-I'll get Spencer and..."

"No, you'll stay here and listen."

Greg did just that, with a frightened look on his face.

"This was way out of your league, man. You don't mess with the people who are there to protect you. Just imagine a gunman walking in on us now. Do you want me to care about whether or not you die and shoot the guy... or do you want me to remember how you got my friend in prison?" As Morton said that, the door to the basement opened. Greg put his hand on his gun in terror, watching Morton just stand there quite relaxed.

Spencer walked in. "Hey guys. Sorry, someone wanted to sell me a subscription to some celebrity magazine..." He laughed as he walked up to them, slightly noticing the tension between the two. "Everything alright?"

"Sure. Right, Sanders?" Morton asked with a devilish grin on his face.

Greg put on a fake smile, trying to hide the fear in his face. He knew that he wasn't going to feel safe at his job for a while. A high price he was willing to pay for helping Nick.

Ende.