A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's been a few days, but here is the second part to the previous story. Thank you so much for reviews :) If I can get 500 this time that would be the most amazing thing in the world for me XD I hope you enjoy!

Summary – Greg and Sara work to prove Nick is innocent after he is accused of murder.

Innocent

Greg and Catherine had been sat with Warrick as he was yet to wake up. Greg was very concerned as to why Brass had picked up Nick's phone, and hoped the CSI was alright.

Grissom had just stepped out of the room to take a phone call.

"Nick's been arrested" Grissom said as soon as he re-entered; no preparing Greg and Catherine, just straight to the point.

"Why!?" Greg exclaimed in fear and anger as he jumped up from his seat. Catherine just looked wide eyes in shock.

"He found Mckeen…and then he shot him" Grissom said; for the first time, he didn't know what to think.

"Don't say that like Nick's some kind of murderer" Greg scowled "There has to be a reason why…"

"Apparently Mckeen didn't have a weapon on him" Grissom explained "And he was already down"

"So Brass just let Nick be arrested?" Catherine asked with a frown. That didn't sound like Jim; he'd always stuck up for the team. Plus, had Catherine been in Nick's situations, she would have probably done the same thing.

"Mckeen still has a lot of followers. He was a high member of society" Grissom reminded them.

"So what? Nick just means nothing?" Greg asked incredulously.

"It's out of our hands, Greg. There's no way Ecklie will let us purse this" Grissom said with a sigh. He was of course worried about Nick, but his hands were tied and all the horror of the few days was just becoming too much for the usually calm and organised man to handle.

"Screw Ecklie!" Greg angrily cried much to his supervisors' surprise. He stormed over to the door and opened it.

"Greg, you're not going anywhere until you calm down" Catherine said in a mothering tone. She was still shocked by the news, but she wasn't willing to lose all 3 of the boys in the same day.

"I'm going to help my friend" Greg replied lowly, before walking out the room and slamming the door behind him, leaving Grissom and Catherine in a stunned silence.

Greg didn't remember the last time he'd felt this angry. They'd already accused Nick of murder before and he'd been proved innocent, why the hell would they try it again? And everyone knew Mckeen had been asking for it. The department is looking out for the department Grissom's words ran though Greg's head, and it made him even angrier.

Nick was innocent, and Greg would prove it, with or without the others. Besides, he knew there was one other person he could always depend on.

"Hello" Greg spoke as he called Sara's "I need your help"

"I'm already halfway there" she replied.

Greg had requested to talk to Nick in one of the interrogation rooms. He didn't want to make it seem like he was putting Nick under suspicion, but it was the only way they could talk in private. It had taken some arguing, but Greg had finally made the holding cell officer back down, and so the younger CSI sat waiting for Nick to be brought in.

When Nick did finally arrive, Greg could only look at him with heavily concerned eyes. The Texan looked lost, with his eyes blank and his skin seemed a little pale. The sight of Greg caused a small smile to form on Nick's lips, and the younger CSI returned the gesture in reassurance.

"I'm going to get you out of this" Greg said firmly as soon as Nick sat down.

"Thanks, Greggo" Nick said with a lopsided smile. At least someone still had faith in him.

"You gotta tell me what happened, every single detail" Greg told him.

"Greg, if you try and help me you're only gunna get yourself in trouble…" Nick started, but Greg raised a hand to silence him.

"I don't care, I'm not letting you go to jail, Nick" Greg said seriously "I know what it's like to be accused of murder, and it's a dark and scary time and I don't want you to go through what I did. I won't let this go as far as court, I'll prove you're innocence, I promise"

Nick reached across the table and placed his hand in top of the younger CSIs' in a sign of gratitude. Greg looked so utterly upset and Nick didn't want the young man to get his hopes up…or Nick's own.

"It's not that I doubt you, Greg, I mean you're a damn good CSI" Nick said genuinely and Greg smiled "But I've been accused of murder before and…"

"And we got you free" Greg reminded him "Granted, I was just a lab rat back then, but now I'm so much better. I can do this; I just need you to hang in there for me"

"Alright" Nick said with a small smile, giving Greg's hand a light squeeze before letting go and leaning back in his chair. "So, what do you want to know?"

"I think it's best you start from the beginning…"

Greg was heading down to autopsy when Sara appeared beside him.

"How is he?" she asked worriedly.

Sara had already been on her way to Vegas when Greg had called. Grissom told her not to come, but she was having none of it. If Warrick was hurt, she wanted to be there for him and the rest of her friends, and then with the news of Nick, that only made the former CSI even more determined to help.

"Are you talking about Warrick or Nick?" Greg asked gloomily; both his friends must be in hell right now.

"Both I guess" Sara replied.

"Warrick's more stable than he was, and Nick is a lot less so" Greg settled on.

Sara just nodded "I take it we're going to see Mckeen's body?" she asked.

"Right" Greg replied, and the CSIs walked the rest of the way in thoughtful silence.

It was quite surreal when they entered the room to see Mckeen dead on the metal slab, yet neither Greg nor Sara pitied him, and believed Nick was totally justified in what he did. People would probably accuse them of being biased, but who wouldn't stick by their family.

"Hey guys" Doc Robins greeted them; even he seemed less cheery than usual.

"Give us some good news, Doc" Greg pleaded "Is it possible Mckeen would have died from the first gunshot wound anyway?"

"Yeah, because if so that was the official COD. Nick didn't kill Mckeen, he just quickened the process" Sara said.

"I'm afraid not" Robins replied. Greg sighed in frustration "the first wound in the stomach meant Mckeen might not have bled out for a couple of days, it was treatable"

"Dammit" Sara cursed.

"I'm sorry I couldn't give you better news" Robins said regrettably.

"It's okay; you're just doing your job" Greg assured him "This just means we'll have to go to our next point of enquiry"

"Talk to the cop who searched Mckeen?" Sara said.

"Exactly, Nick could have sworn Mckeen was going to pull a weapon on him, that's why Nick fired. But the officer who searched Mckeen said he couldn't find one. But what If the officer was actually working with Mckeen?" Greg theorised.

"He could have taken the weapon from Mckeen when he searched him, and made Nick look like the bad guy" Sara said.

Greg nodded "It's a long shot, but it's the only theory we've got. If we can prove Nick acted in self-defence, then we can get him off the hook."

Greg and Sara found officer Hudson sat at his desk in the LVPD precinct talking to another cop.

"Excuse me, Hudson" Greg interrupted "We need to ask you a few questions"

"Don't you two work at in the lab?" Hudson asked "I just arrested one of you guys…"

"And that's why we need to talk to you…" Sara but in, because Greg looked like he was about to shout something.

"What do you need to know?" Hudson asked.

"You searched Mckeen at the scene, correct?" Sara asked.

"Yes" Hudson nodded.

"And you found nothing on his person?"

"No"

"Did any of the other offices search Mckeen?" Greg asked.

"Nope, not even Brass" Hudson replied "Listen, I know you're just looking out for your guy, but trying to pin it on the innocent…"

"We can't know that for sure yet" Greg said narrowing his eyes and Sara placed a hand on his shoulder; she'd never seen the younger man so angry.

"Whatever, I don't have time for this" Hudson said bluntly and walked away. Greg tried to go after him but Sara held him back.

"He's lying, Sara!" Greg exclaimed "he knows more than he's letting on…"

"Excuse me…" both CSIs looked around the see the other officer Hudson had been talking too "I was at the scene too" he said "When Hudson searched Mckeen I swore… I swore I saw this silver flicker in his hand, but I blinked and it was gone. I thought it was just a trick of the light."

"Or a light being reflected" Greg said "Do you think it could have been a knife or something?"

"I-I don't know, I really didn't see much…" the officer confessed "But then, Hudson's been acting weird all day. We went to get a bite to eat after the arrest and he seemed all…jittery and anxious, not like his usual calm self. Anyway, he left for maybe… five minutes, saying he had business to take care of; he seemed more…at ease when he came back. I'm sorry; I didn't think much of it at the time."

"Interesting" Sara pondered "Can you give us the address of the diner?"

"Sure" the cop complied.

Greg and Sara shared a look; they could have stumbled across a huge lead.

"So, the reason Hudson left for those five minutes could have been because he was ditching the weapon" Greg reiterated as he and Sara arrived at the diner.

"Yep, and the reason he seemed so much better when he returned is because he managed to get the evidence off him" Sara added.

"But where would he dump it?" Greg asked, and Sara jerked a thumb towards the dumpster "Seriously, he's a cop; he can't be that stupid, right?"

Sara shrugged "We've seen smarter cops than him do stupider things" she pointed out. Greg found he couldn't argue with this and so the pair went on to scour through the trash in silence.

After a while, both CSIs were beginning to lose hope, but then Greg came across something shiny, as it blinded him for a moment due to reflection from the sun.

"I think I've found something" he said, and plucked out a sharp knife.

"Yes" Sara said in triumph "If we can get Mckeen and Hudson's prints off this knife, we can link them both"

"And prove that Nick did the right thing, acting in self-defence" Greg added; that was the most important thing.

After waiting anxiously for Mandy to process the knife, both Greg and Sara could have jumped for joy when the Tech returned to tell them she had indeed pulled both Mckeen and Hudson's finger prints off the knife.

The CSIs had to wait a little while, but eventually their theory was approved after Hudson gave a confession, feeling too pressured by the evidence against him. The officer was arrested and Nick was being let go. Sara and Greg headed down to holding to meet him.

"Thank you so much you guys" Nick said happily as he pulled Greg into a quick hug, then Sara "I knew you'd come through for me"

"Always, man" Greg said with a smile.

"You did the right thing" Sara reassured him "And no man left behind, right?"

"Right" Nick smiled "Now, let's go see Warrick"

The three CSIs left the building together, safe in the knowledge they would always be there for each other. No matter what.

It's a bit loose, but I had to try and think of a way to save Nick XD Anyway, something new coming along soon, an idea from SandieBrody ;)

Prompts would be cool!

Please Review :) xx