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Greg was proud he made the first move and it showed in his attitude. Nick noticed right away and was glad to see his friend genuinely happy again.
"So? How did it go?" Nick asked interested as he came home after pulling a double shift. He slightly frowned as he saw Greg sit on the floor, a paper in front of him on the coffee table. "What are you doing?"
"Writing a letter."
Nick raised his eyebrows. "A letter? Why, is the internet down?"
He chuckled. "No."
Nick walked over the coffee table to look over Greg's shoulder.
"Hey, that's private!"
"Come on, tell me! Who are you writing to?"
"Juno."
"...Oh. Why?"
"Dr. Reyes thought it would be a good idea."
"...Really?"
Greg gave him a look. "Juno won't read it. I'm just supposed to write my thoughts and feelings down, you know?"
"Mhm... Are you sure you're ready for that?"
"Have to." He got off his seat and walked into the guest room to put the paper and pen away. He walked back into the living room with tension in his face. He wasn't ready and he knew it, but he wanted to be.
Nick sat down on the couch as he sighed. "You're pushing yourself, don't do that."
"I'll try." He smiled at his friend. "But I need to get through this."
"So I take it the date went well?" Nick grinned.
Greg gave him a look before walking into the kitchen. He came back out with two bottles of water, handing one to Nick before sitting down on the arm chair next to the couch. "Uh-huh."
"So tell me, how was it?"
"It was good."
Now Nick gave him a look. "Meaning?"
"Meaning it's none of your business." Greg smiled. "I can't believe how understanding Camille is, you know. We talked a lot about, well, everything, and she understands that it might be a long way until we can have something like a normal relationship. She said she's willing to be patient."
"Great. That sounds nice. And I'm glad you decided to work on your issues instead of just accept the current state."
"Me, too." Greg smiled. "It's scary, but I have a good feeling about this."
Greg made sure to take things slow this time. While him and Juno were spending almost every day together, him and Camille met once or twice a week. Their dates were usually quite casual, breakfast after work or grabbing something to eat on their breaks. And while Camille was fine with taking things slow, she decided it was time for a date far away from work. "So I decided we should go on a real date on our days off, you know?"
"...Real date?" the CSI asked quite insecure as they were walking towards their cars. They had just finished their work at a crime scene. "What do you mean?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, dinner and a movie or... whatever. Just... we're always meeting either after work or in our breaks. We always talk a lot about work, I think we should get away from it a bit, you know?"
"Uh... yeah. Sure. You're... you're right."
"...Unless that makes you uncomfortable." They stopped in front of Greg's denali. "It's not that I don't enjoy..."
He stopped her. "No. It's okay. We can go on a real date, sure."
She put a big smile on her face. "Really? Great! How about..." She noticed the insecure and worried look Greg put on. He used to be a lot more relaxed about dating, but after the experiences with Juno, a huge setback followed and he was more frightened about the whole thing than right after the Novak ordeal. "...You know what? We should do something fun. Maybe bring Nick along."
"...Nick?" He frowned a little.
"Yeah, I mean... I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. I didn't mean we should get on a real date to... you know, move things along. I just meant we should get some distance from work."
Her straight-forwardness sometimes overwhelmed Greg a little, but it also made things a lot easier for him. "You'd be okay with him tagging along?"
Dating Camille helped Greg make a lot of progress in his therapy sessions with Dr. Reyes. He was perfectly comfortable being alone with the detective thanks to his wonderful psychiatrist and they were finally engaging in some physical contact, even though they never went beyond kissing. "I think I'm ready to sleep with her," Greg announced as he was sitting on the couch in Dr. Reyes' practice.
She raised her eyebrows. "Really? You've been dating for how long, three weeks?"
"...Almost four."
"What makes you think you're ready?"
The CSI shrugged. "I feel very comfortable around her. I finally found someone who understands. Who's not pressuring me into doing things I'm not comfortable with..."
"...So you're pressuring yourself instead? Greg, it's only been two months."
"...No, I just said four weeks."
"I mean Juno. You've been attacked two months ago, now you met a woman you like and think you can skip over the months of work ahead of you?"
He shrugged. "I'm sick and tired of talking about this, I just want to get back to how things were before I met Novak."
"I understand that, but I don't think it's a good idea to rush this. You might be ready to go through with it, but I'm not convinced you're ready to deal with the aftermath of it."
"...The aftermath? Why are you talking about it like it's going to be horrible?"
"Because it very well might be. You're probably expecting it to be great and magical, but what if it isn't? What if you're changing your mind midway through?"
Greg frowned. "I'm pretty confident I won't. What makes you think I could change my mind now but won't in a few months?"
"Because then we would've worked on it on an emotional level before you jumped into this without giving it any more thought." She sighed. She knew Greg could be quite a stubborn client once he set his mind on something. But this time she really feared it could damage him even further if he went ahead with it. "We've been working together for quite some time now, Greg. Believe me when I say this... You're not ready yet."