Greg had sat silently and listened to Nick tell him the story of the last time he had seen Sam. It was heart wrenching, especially hearing it straight from Nick and seeing the look on his face that simply recalling the event caused. Greg had stopped drinking after two beers and started one just having waters, but Nick kept having beers until he was drunk. He was nowhere near the drunkest Greg had ever seen him, but he was at the point where he couldn't stop talking about what had happened because he was angry and he was sad and he couldn't keep it to himself anymore. He knew he could trust Greg and the alcohol was making him care less and less about what he shared with the younger man. None of it was going to make a difference anyway; he figured he might as well entertain Greg with a story while he sat there watching him slowly try to drink away a fourteen year old heart ache.

"You still love her, don't you?" Greg asked after a prolonged silence following Nick's conclusion to his recount of that night fourteen years ago.

Nick shook his head and finished off his ninth beer. "It doesn't matter," he replied simply.

"Of course it does," Greg argued. "It makes all the difference. It's the governing reason for what you're going to do next. If you didn't love her anymore, you wouldn't try to talk to her or see her ever again, you'd just let it go and carry on because you already moved on with your life. But you haven't, so that won't happen."

"That's not true," Nick said, shaking his head. "If I don't love her anymore, I'd still want to see her. I don't want things to end forever the way that they ended, I can't live with that. All of the times I had a near death experience, I always vowed to talk to her and tell her I'm sorry for what I did. Even if she didn't forgive me, I just want her to know that much."

Greg was impressed with how articulate Nick was after having had so much to drink, but he could relate to that. The reason for why you're drinking in the first place directly relates to the affect the alcohol is going to have on you; Nick was drinking to numb the pain, not to have fun or get out of control. None of those methods were working anyway.

"But you do still love her," Greg added. "You wouldn't have watched me interview her if you weren't. You wanted to know if she was still with Jeff. You wanted to see if there was any chance that you could reconcile with her because even the slightest chance is better than no chance at all, which is what you've been left with for the last fourteen years. You finally have a fighting chance, and you're going to take it because you never give up on anything, even when you should. But you shouldn't this time Nick. Don't give up."

Nick sighed heavily. "If I wanted a love life pep talk, I would have come out for drinks with Catherine."

"But you didn't, you came out for drinks with me. And you started talking to me about this, so you're going to listen to me because I'm your friend and I care what happens to you."

Nick felt chills run up his arms upon hearing those familiar words come from Greg. Three or so years ago, he himself had said similar words to Warrick when he caught him popping pills. Different situations, but the same meaning was conveyed nonetheless. Nick's words had gotten Warrick to put down his defensive front, and Greg's had effectively done the same to Nick.

"She'll kill me before I even get one word out," Nick said, only half kidding.

Greg smiled. "She's not going to kill you. I'd bet good money that she'd slap you, but she won't kill you."

"Not until after she tells me how awful I am, which I already know so really I'd be wasting my time as much as hers." He sighed again. "I don't know what to do. I want to see her, I want to talk to her, but I don't want to torture her anymore than I already have. She's moved on with her life, I should just let her be."

"You don't know that," Greg said, shaking his head. "You won't know anything for sure until you talk to her."

"She's obviously moved on if she had a serious relationship with a good guy and hasn't wanted to have anything to do with me in fourteen years," Nick countered.

Greg shook his head. "You left her, so obviously she took the hint and didn't want to contact you."

"She left first," Nick said quietly.

"You left a lot more than she did," Greg replied. "Just because she dated Jeff Baker doesn't mean she's over you. You've dated other women in that time frame and you're clearly not over her."

Nick scoffed. "The most serious relationship I've had in fourteen years was with a hooker, for whom I was accused of murdering."

"Be that as it may," Greg responded, "but I'm still right."

Nick looked down, shaking his head slowly. "How's that?" he asked.

"Because you still haven't tried to deny the fact that you're still in love with her," he pointed out. Before Nick could say anything, Greg continued. "You've argued with me and granted hypothetical situations in which you would still proceed with the same actions whether or not you were still in love with her, but never once did you just come out and say you didn't love her anymore, and that's because you still do. But you don't have to tell me. Go tell her, like you promised yourself so many times that you would. She deserves to hear it as much as you deserve to say it."

Nick looked up at his friend with sad, tired eyes that held a shimmer of amusement in them. "You should have been a lawyer," he mumbled mockingly.

Greg laughed. "That would have made both my parents a lot happier," he relfected. "But that has nothing to do with anything. You should be talking to her about all of this, not me."

Nick hung his head again. "I don't even know what I would say to her. All I can say is that I'm sorry, but that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. She doesn't want to hear that I'm sorry."

"Then what does she want to hear?" Greg asked.

"I don't know," Nick said with a shrug. "Whatever it is, she doesn't want to hear it from me. I can't see her, it wouldn't be fair. If she wanted to see me, she would have come to me. She knows I live in Vegas, she would know how to find me."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Greg said sarcastically. "Doing nothing seems like the better option. All you have to do is call her and see what happens, or go to her apartment and see what she says when you show up. The worst that could happen is you end up back here in the same position you're in now. You have nothing to lose, but not doing anything to change that seems like the safer choice, even though doing something will only benefit you."

Nick looked up and glared at Greg. "You have no idea how this feels," he said.

Greg nodded. "You're right, I don't. But I do know that if I felt like you did and there was a chance to change that feeling and make it go away, I'd take it no matter what."

Sam really should have known better than to answer the door at one in the morning. After everything that had happened with Jeff, she should have just kept her doors locked up tight and gone to bed, ignoring whoever was at her door. Truth be told, deep down, she knew exactly who it was going to be before she even got up off the couch and walked over to stand in front of the door, hands shaking slightly at her sides. She wasn't cold despite the air conditioning in her apartment; she was still dressed in jeans and a red long sleeved t-shirt from earlier in the day. Her brown hair fell softly around her face and she was able to feel the prickle of tears before she even reached out to open the door. The door knob was cold, matching the air in the apartment but sharply contrasting that of the weather outside. It was dry and warm, as it always was in Las Vegas. The warm air rushed in and surrounded her as her breath caught in her throat, but it wasn't because of the sudden rush of warmth.

Nick stood there stiffly was a blank expression on his face, but per usual, his eyes were speaking volumes. Sam looked into those dark brown pools for the first time in fourteen years and could tell exactly what he was thinking and feeling without him having to say anything, and she hated that. She hated that even after not seeing him for fourteen years, she could still read him like a book. That should have changed, along with everything else in her life that had been altered because of the man standing in front of her.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, her voice soft and broken.

Nick didn't have an answer, and he wasn't entirely sure he would have even been able to speak if he had had one in the first place. It took a few minutes, but he was finally able to reply with a weak, "I don't know."

"You shouldn't be here," she said.

Nick nodded. "I know."

"Then why are you here?" Sam asked, her heart wrenching with every word she had to say to him.

"I don't know," he repeated. "I knew you'd still be up, probably watching Seinfeld re-runs. I just had to see you and say..." he trailed off.

"Say what Nick? That you're sorry? I don't want to hear that you're sorry, I know you're sorry. But that doesn't change anything, it doesn't get us anywhere. I had really hoped you knew better than to come over here, but I guess I was wrong about you. Again."

She grabbed the door and tried to slam it shut, but her plan was ruined when Nick stuck his right hand in the door frame at the last second, effectively keeping the door open and breaking his hand at the same time. The heavy door was pinning his hand tightly, and for a split second Sam wanted to throw all of her weight against the door to totally crush his hand, but she didn't. She reluctantly pulled the door back open, watching as Nick drew his injured hand to his chest as it began to shake slightly.

"You can't break my hand and then just make me leave," he said with a small smile.

Thanks again for reading, next chapter up soon!