So sorry I didn't get this up for so long. I got grounded! I'm back though.

Enjoy!

And please review.

Half Past Now

"I literally just put that down," Riley told him, moving to look over his shoulder at the file. "I just received word on a positive ID."

"Where? How? When?" Greg asked, stammering. He was in utter disbelief. In all of his years of being a CSI he hadn't actually expected to find that he'd be told that someone he knew had been killed. This was the second person in the last year, alone. He grabbed his phone and started dialing the phone number he saw at the top of the folder before handing it back to Riley, "excuse me."

He waited patiently for a few minutes, trying to figure out what he was going to say when she answered. Finally, he heard an overtired sounding voice on the other end of the line. "Hey, Liz... this is Greg."

"Oh hi," she said, sounding happier to hear from him than he had expected. "I didn't expect it to take you this long to find my number. I'm sorry I let you go earlier without giving it to you."

Greg was officially confused by her. He couldn't figure her out, she was hot and cold and back again in moments. This wasn't like her. He had always remembered her as emotional but she had never been quite so frigid with him. They had been close once upon a time.

"Liz, well, uh..." he said, looking for the words. "Well, I think there's been a lead finding Marty. I just wanted to let you know. I'm not officially allowed to work the case, but if you don't mind I'll ride out with Riley and drop by your house to fill you in on my way home."

"Is it bad?" She asked, sounding frightened. Greg heard a child calling her name, and a chorus of others joining in. "Honestly Greg, I can handle it. Is it bad?"

"I don't know yet," he answered, stretching the truth because he didn't know the full extent of it yet. "I promise to call you as soon as I know something though, okay? I just wanted to let you know we had a lead."

"Okay," she agreed at least willing to trust him for the next few minutes. "And thanks for being so helpful."

"Oh, anytime," he stated. He drummed his fingers along the edge of Riley's desk and sighed. "I'm gonna let you go now Liz, I'll talk to you in a few."

"I thought you said Catherine asked you not to be on this one," Riley commented as she flipped further through the case file, noting where she'd be going to examine the body before it came into the morgue. "I can't really take you with me to the scene if she pulled you from it."

"I'm allowed to offer my services to a fellow CSI," Greg said, slowly trying to reason why he should be able to go. "So, it's okay. I just can't process anything or have my name on any evidence tags. I do have another body waiting, so maybe we ought to get a move on so I can actually accomplish something too."

"Well whatever you want to do is fine by me," Riley commented slowly. Then she settled her jaw and looked back up at him, "But, if you've been taken off the case letting you go with me could result in my case being thrown out in court. I'm not letting that happen."

"Then you don't mean I can do whatever I want," Greg told her, pointedly. "It's not fine by you."