Last chapter already!
I really hope you enjoyed this short story! :) More to come soon!
Two days later, Greg stormed into Russell's office shaking out of fury and fear. "Why didn't you tell me?!" he yelled at a confused supervisor.
"...Slow down. What's wrong?"
Nick heard the yelling, as well as everybody else in the lab, so he walked into the office and closed the door. "You guys might wanna keep it down, everybody can hear you."
"I could've prepared myself if you'd told me, Russell!"
"...Told you what?" He put his hand on Greg's shaking hand. "Sit down and take a deep breath. What happened?"
Greg did, but it didn't really calm him down. He stopped yelling, though. "You didn't tell me that Denham's doctor was a psychiatrist."
Russell raised his eyebrows. "I didn't know."
"A psychiatrist?" Nick asked frowned. He had a feeling where this was going.
Greg nodded, repressing the tears that wanted to fall down his cheeks so badly.
Russell released a deep sigh. "So what happened?"
"Well let's just say my memory isn't our main problem anymore." Greg wasn't too eager to tell the whole story. He was acting quite aggressive towards the psychiatrist and wasn't proud of it. "I'm done! There's no way I'll ever be allowed to work as a CSI!"
"...That bad?" Nick asked surprised. He knew talking to therapists wasn't one of Greg's strength. His own psychiatrist, Dr. Reyes, was the only one he trusted anymore.
"So you reacted badly on some of the questions? ...Concerning the Novak case?" When Greg nodded with a sad face, Russell went on, "Look at me." He gave him a soft smile. "You think I let my guys handle any cases without ensuring they're capable of doing it? Don't you remember the department's shrink evaluated you before you could come back to work?"
Greg thought about it for a moment. "...She did."
"I made sure you were fit to come back to work. So you acted out with Denham's doctor. You didn't assault him or anything, did you?"
Greg chuckled as tears started rolling down his face. "Of course not."
"So you're fine, don't worry. It's irrelevant to the case, anyway, he can't use it against you in court. Now what's more important is how you reacted to the questions concerning the case. How'd that go?"
Greg shrugged. "Good, I guess..."
"Well then, he shouldn't even have asked you about Novak. He obviously did this to get a reaction from you." Russell's eyes wandered over to Nick. "How about you go buy Greg coffee to calm his nerves a little while I take care of this?"
Greg and Nick sat in a diner near the lab in uncomfortable silence. Greg wasn't really in the mood for small talk. He sipped on his coffee with a worried look on his face. "You know..." he finally said, "I'm really scared." A few months ago Greg wouldn't have been able to express his feelings that openly, but Dr. Reyes did a great job. "I feel like this is totally out of my hands. I'm powerless. I might lose everything for something that happened seven years ago. It's not fair. It's scary and unfair."
"You got to have faith in Russell. He said he was gonna take care of it and he will."
"How? I don't see a way out of it. I screwed up. I didn't tell anyone that I had trouble memorizing things and I went back to work anyway. Just like I came back to work after the Novak ordeal although I sure wasn't ready back then."
Nick looked a bit surprised. It was the first time he heard Greg confess he wasn't ready to come back to work back then. He was proud of his friend. "I've seen you after the beating, Greg. You handled it in a way I'm not sure I could've. So you could've needed a few more weeks off, so what? You handled it, anyway. Be proud of that."
Greg gave Nick a sad smile. "I doubt that will work with Denham."
Greg couldn't bear sitting in the court room when the vedict got delivered, he made sure to stay as far away as possible. Russell and Nick knocked on Greg's door. They were in the court room and wanted to tell Greg what happened.
Greg opened the door with a worried look on his face. "...So?" he asked with a shaky voice.
"Nancy Grace lost," Nick said with a big grin on his face.
"...Really?" Greg asked surprised as he let his colleagues inside. "What happened?"
"I made sure that Denham couldn't use anything you said to that psychiatrist that didn't have anything to do with the case seven years ago in court. And since you didn't tell him anything that indicated you had some psychologically grounded memory lapses, he couldn't prove any wrongdoing on your part. Or Warrick's, for that matter. I.A. investigated this and a few of your cases around that time and found nothing suspicious. Denham wasn't able to prove Grace's alibi. And her confession... There were details in there she couldn't have known if she wasn't guilty. Her plead got rejected and that's that," Russell explained with a big smile on his face.
Greg sat down on the couch in relief. "Wow. I mean, I really didn't expect this... I was trying to prepare myself to... You know, I... I don't know what to say."
Nick patted his back. "Don't say anything, just come with us. You can buy us lunch to celebrate!"
"Sure," Greg chuckled as he got off his seat. "So that's it? No surprises, Denham won't find a way to get her out and... me out of my job?"
Russell shook his head. "No. Your job's safe, don't worry."
Greg had a big, relieved smile on his face. He loved his job and planned on doing it for years to come. With this verdict, there was nothing standing in the way of that plan anymore.
Ende.