Sorry it took me so long to update, you guys! I'll try to be quicker the next chapters!

Now enjoy! :)

"How come I'm the last to know?" Greg asked Nick over the phone.

"I'm sorry, man, it was a quick decision."

"So quick that they already got a replacement?"

"I heard that the swing shift was hiring a new guy and decided to take the opportunity, you know? It's just for two or three months."

"But why?" Greg was walking inside the lab, followed by Ackles.

"I just need a break."

"From what?" Silence was on the other side of the line. "Nick!"

"Listen, I just want a break from the night shift for a few months, we'll see each other after your shift and on free days, okay?"

Greg rolled his eyes. "It's not about that." He sighed. "I gotta go back to work now."

"See you later?"

"Sure. I'll bring some food. Bye." He hung up the phone as he rolled his eyes. "Alright, Ackles. After we processed the scene we take the evidence we collected back to the lab." He handed Hodges a bag of evidence. "The tech's processing the evidence and will find you as soon as they have the results ready if it's urgent. While we wait for the results we go down to pathology or work on any evidence that needs further processing."

Ackles nodded interested. "So we'll go down to pathology now?"

"Yeah. Follow me."

Greg and Ackles were making some progress in their case and were able to identify a suspect already. The man's fingerprints were all over the crime scene, as well as the murder weapon. The two CSIs were inside the interrogation room talking to him. "Nice story. But that's not an explanation for your fingerprints all over the scene and on the screw driver that killed him."

"Look, I don't even know the guy. Why should I want to kill him?" the suspect asked annoyed.

"You claim you don't know him, yet your prints are all over his apartment? You gotta do better than that." Greg was getting a bit impatient listening to the bad lies of the suspect.

"I didn't even know he lived there! I was dating this girl, Jennifer last month, and she lived there."

"We talked to the victim's roommate. He never mentioned a woman living there and he also never saw you there, either." Greg shook his head. He didn't believe one word coming out of this man's mouth.

The suspect jumped off his seat nervoulsy and angrily, knocking over his chair. "I'm telling the truth! I didn't kill Jon!"

Greg raised his eyebrows as he got off his chair, too. Ackles looked at him rather confused, but decided to follow his lead. Greg opened the door to let an officer walk in. "We never told you the victim's name."

"...Sure you did... I..." the suspect was desperately looking for words as the officer walked up to him with handcuffs. "No!" he yelled, shoving the officer to the ground and running past Greg and Ackles. He didn't come too far as another two officers were stopping him at the door. He was cuffed.

"Are you alright?" Greg asked Ackles as the suspect was walked away.

Ackles had a horrified look on his face. "...Y-Yeah..." he stuttered. "I've never seen a man snap like that! I thought he was gonna attack us!"

Greg chuckled as he patted his back. "You'll get used to that, too."

"...But this is as bad as it gets, right?"

"Uh... well, usually, yes."

"...But?"

"Well, we are working with dangerous criminals most of the time. The few minutes inside this interrogation room can change their lives completely."

"So... did anyone ever attack you?"

Greg had a thoughtful look on his face. He wasn't sure how to answer that question. He didn't want to scare the aspiring CSI off, but he also didn't want to lie to him. "It happened, yeah."

They walked back to the lab. "How?"

Greg sighed deeply. "Rather harmless things, I guess... Getting slapped, getting chairs thrown at you, getting bitten..."

"...That's harmless?"

Greg shrugged. "Well it's not like those were life-threatening situations."

"...But there have been life-threatening ones?"

"You know what? I think we should take a coffee break..."

"So how's it going?" Russell asked as he walked into the break room.

Greg sipped on his coffee. "Good... Good. He's doing a good job so far."

"...But?"

"I'm not sure he knew what he was signing up for when he came to Vegas. He's only worked at a crime lab for three months before... in some small town in Arizona. He seems to be kind of scared of criminals."

"Scared? What happened?"

"Oh nothing, really. Our suspect snapped when we confronted him. I think it scared Ackles. And he keeps on asking questions about how dangerous the job is."

Russell nodded. "I'll talk to him at the end of his shift. Until then... try not to scare him too much."

After his talk with Russell, Greg walked into the evidence room, where Ackles was working on a piece of evidence in their new murder case. "Alright, so how's it going? Found anything useful yet?"

Ackles nodded smiling. "I'm trying to open that jar I found next to the victim." He was trying to do so with a knife.

"Wait, have you processed the outside of it yet? I don't want you to destroy any evidence." Greg walked up closer to him to assist him.

"Yeah I did, but it was clean. No prints or anything. I can't wait to find out what it..." He finally managed to open it up with the knife, but spilled lots of the content on Greg's shirt. "...Oh my god."

Greg sighed annoyed. "Well, looks... and smells... like blood."

"I'm so sorry!" Ackles ran after Greg as the CSI walked into the locker room.

"It's alright." He got a shirt out of his locker.

"I-I'll pay for the cleaning, don't worry!"

"I said it's alright. We keep an extra pair of clothes in our lockers for a reason." Greg changed his shirt. He turned back around to Ackles and noticed a weird - almost pitying - look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Uh... Sorry, I... There was some talk around the lab, I wasn't sure if it was true, I..."

"...Oh. You mean the scars." After the explosion in the lab many years ago, Greg had some scarring on his back. Since he hardly ever saw his back himself, he sometimes forgot he even had them.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare or anything..."

"No, it's okay. So what exactly did Hodges tell you?"

Ackles looked surprised, he never mentioned Hodges, but it was in fact him who told him. "Nothing, just... that there was an explosion that left you injured and... that he didn't have anything to do with it."

Greg rolled his eyes. He didn't mind Ackles knowing, but Russell had told him not to frighten the new CSI with any stories like that.

"I never realized working at a crime lab would be so dangerous."

"It's not. One incident in all these years is nothing."

Ackles smiled relieved. He hadn't heard about all the dangerous incidents out in the field the CSIs all had experienced, yet.

"Just stay away from Hodges and you'll be fine."

"...Why? Is he dangerous?"

"No, he's a tool."