Sorry this is such a short chapter, but I wanted to end it here. It just felt right. The next one will be up soon enough, and I know exactly where I'm going with it. For a while anyway. Only two reviews for the last chapter though? I'm still going to write this, obviously, but if you're reading, please review! I love hearing what you think and it always motivates me to write and update faster! Also, I want to know if people are actually reading this. So please, drop me a review and tell me what you think, if there's anything you liked/didn't like, and what you want to see more of next! I love suggestions and constructive criticsm.

Anyway, babbling over, heres the next chapter.

DISCLAIMER: CSI does not belong to me. Sigh.

When you wake up, the first thing that comes back to you is your memory. When Greg woke up, about two hours after he'd gone to sleep, it was about 7am on the morning of Friday the thirteenth. It was odd, but less than nine hours beforehand, he had been getting ready to go out. And nothing bad had happened. But now, Mandy was in a coma. And he was drunk. Even though most of his memory had come back to him, there was a black spot, somewhere between the fourth and fifth shot of tequila, and from then on, he couldn't remember anything. Slowly opening his eyes, as sight was the second thing to come back to you, Greg realised that he was in fact, in his bed. He also noticed that he wasn't wearing anything. Not even his boxer shorts. And then, just as his eyes were adjusting enough to the brightness to actually look somewhere other than down, he was shocked awake. Feeling is the third thing to come back to you, and Greg had felt a pounding in his skull, the headache that always accompanied a hangover. But when Greg really woke up was when he felt a fist collide with his face. That's when he yelped, and instinctly recoiled into himself. His senses hadn't yet come fully back though, and neither had his reflexes, so when the fist met his nose again, he didn't have time to duck, or even flinch. As the world was hazy around him, Greg rubbed his eyes and looked to his left and his right. To his right, he saw Lexi. She had wrapped a blanket around herself to hide what Greg assumed was a similar state of undress to him. Shit. This time, when the punch came, Greg was ready for it and ducked, but as soon as he came back up it was followed by another, this one hitting him in the forehead. Greg looked left, which was getting hard to do seeing as he could feel a serious black eye coming on, but he did it anyway. And he wasn't surprised to see Archie, his knuckles raw from punching and his face angrier than Greg had ever seen it before. He was rambling at him in Chinese, words that Greg did not understand, but figured that they weren't very nice. Shit.

"Archie…." He began, then stopped. Based on the fact that neither he nor Lexi were wearing any clothes, they were in the same bed, they had drunk a lot last night, and even the smell in the room, Greg could guess exactly what had happened last night. And really, what could he say that would make it better?

Grabbing the first item of clothing he could find, his boxer shorts, and pulling them on underneath the covers, Greg got out of the bed. By now, Archie had gone over to Lexi who was babbling away to him, saying something uncomprehendable and probably not doing any good. Then he heard a knock on the door. Greg moved to answer it, but Archie stopped him.

"It's Kelly." He said. "She was on her way. Let me get it. She doesn't need to see this."

"Archie, I….." Greg begun.

"I'm not doing this for you. Or her." He said, gesturing to Lexi. "I'm doing this for Kelly. Put some more clothes on."

Then he left, shutting the door behind him and Greg turned to face Lexi. She looked at him sheepishly, biting her lip.

"Do you remember…." She begun.

"Nothing." Greg shook his head.

"But I think we both know what happened." She said.

"Yeah." Greg nodded, pulling a pair of trousers and a t-shirt from his closet. "Here." He said, tossing a bra which lay on his floor littered alongside all the other clothes they'd shed carelessly the night before. "I assume this is yours."

"Yeah." She nodded, pulling on her underwear and getting out of the bed to find the rest of her clothes.

"We are in so much trouble…." Greg moaned, wringing his head in his hands.

"Tell me about it." she muttered, and for a minute, despite the situation, they laughed. It was a humourless laugh, with no happiness behind it, but catching each others eyes for a fraction of a second, it was all they had. Then Archie and Kelly came in, Archie with thunder in his eyes, and Kelly with confusion in hers.

He hadn't told her yet.

"Greg?" she asked, her eyes big as she looked around the room for clues. She didn't find any. Her innocence and naivety left her mind unable to draw such conclusions about what her best friend and her boyfriend had been doing. Greg would often wonder if the thought had ever crossed her mind at all, but right now, he had bigger things to worry about.

"Kelly….." he begun, and her bottom lip quivered slightly, sensing what he told her wasn't going to be good. "Kelly…" he repeated, taking her hands in his.

"Greg?" she whispered, tears already beginning to form in her eyes.

"Last night… we went to a bar. All of us. Well except for Hodges but – we all went together. And we had a lot to drink… and I just woke up here and I think… I assume…... well…"

"He slept with my wife." Archie cut him off, his voice cold.

Kelly gasped, pulling her hands out of Greg's, fresh tears beginning to run down her cheeks.

"Kelly I'm so, so, so sorry, I don't remember anything, I didn't mean to, I don't want to hurt you or I, I, IF I could take it all back I could but we think that's what happened and I can't take it back and I…."

"Okay." Kelly said.

"I know you must hate me and I don't blame you but I…. wait? Did you just say okay?" Greg asked, shocked.

"I did." Kelly nodded.

"But Kelly I…" Greg was unsure of what to say next.

"You didn't mean it. You were drunk. And I believe you." Kelly assured him.

"Oh God Kelly…" he pulled her into a hug, and felt her tears against his shirt but he didn't care. He was happy.

"I couldn't ask for anybody better." Greg told her. "What did I do to deserve you?"

"Greg, it's alright." She reassured him, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"Its sure as hell isn't." Archie yelled.

"Listen, Archie, I know he didn't mean to….." Kelly tried to tell Archie.

"It doesn't matter whether he meant to or not. All that matters is that he DID." Archie shouted.

"But we can forget about this, we can…." Kelly begged.

"I can not forget about this. I can not 'move on' or 'let it go.' I can not forgive and forget."

"Arch…" Greg tried.

"Don't you 'Arch' me. My friends call me that. And you lost that privilege when you slept with my wife."

"Listen man, we had a lot of alcohol, I don't even remember what happened!" Greg told him.

"No, you listen to me, 'man,' it doesn't matter how it happened or why or what you'd had to drink that night! All that matters is that it happened. You went out to a bar with my wife, you brought her back to your apartment, to your bed, and you slept with her. And if you even try to tell me that it isn't your fault, that you didn't mean to, I will punch you again. And again. It's all I can do not to punch you right now."

"Archie, it's not all his fault, Greg…" Lexi said to her husband.

"Don't even get me started on you. Defending your precious 'Greg' even now?" Archie yelled.

"I'm not defending him, I'm just saying that I'm just as much at fault as he is."

"No you're not. I should have known this would happen, when I married you. You can't help it. I should have known when I married a slut that….."

"Are you calling me a slut?"

"You are a slut."

"Archie…" Kelly began, but he cut her off.

"You guys stay out of this! This is between me, and my slut of a wife."

"Do not. Call. Me. A. Slut." Lexi screamed.

"Oh fine, do you prefer whore?"

"Archie! What the hell do you….."

"Listen, all that there is here, is that you and Greg slept together. And you're a slut, and he's a jerk. And that's it." Archie finished, storming off to his apartment.

"Archie wait!" Lexi yelled, running after him.

"Should I go after him?" Greg asked Kelly.

"I think we need to let Lexi do this on her own."

"I'm sorry." He said again.

"I know you are."

"I wish I could just…"

"Sssshhhh. It's okay. There's nothing you can do now. We will work through this."

"Together." Greg said, pulling her into his arms again.

"Together." She echoed.

They stayed together a while, not sure what else to do. They knew that somewhere, Mandy was still sick, Wendy and Henry were still by her bedside, Hodges was still by himself, Lexi and Archie were arguing, and Nick and Abby were just trying to get through the day. Because in the end, what else could they do? What else could anybody do. Greg held Kelly's hands in his, and prayed that it would get better. Because he couldn't bear to see the sadness in her eyes, or the tears staining her cheeks. He couldn't stand seeing the way she tried to hide the way she cried when she thought he couldn't see her, the way she whispered that everything would be okay and Greg knew she was reassuring herself rather than him. He hated the way she tried to smile, and he could see right through her mask to what she was really feeling. And the worst bit was, he couldn't do anything to help her. Because he was the problem. It was his fault. He had turned her into what she was now. And he hated himself for it. But he couldn't risk loosing her, didn't want to risk letting her go. So he carried on telling the same old jokes that she would pretend to laugh at, smiling even when they were close to tears, asking questions that he knew the answer to already, just to fill the emptiness of a silent room. He pretended that nothing was wrong, that they could move on without discussing what had happened, finish the race while ignoring the hurdles. And he knew that sometime, they were going to have to talk. They were going to have to face the problems they'd built up before everything came crashing down. But he didn't want to. Because there was to much to lose. And he couldn't lose her. So he smiled, and laughed, and chattered. He just tried to get through the day.

Because in the end, what else could he do?