As Nick and Greg were walking into the break room at the start of their shift the next day, the younger CSIs cell phone kept ringing. "...Camille again."
"Why don't you want to talk to her?" Nick asked as he sat down.
He shrugged. "I don't know, I just can't... I hope she's not working tonight."
"You'll have to talk to her sooner or later, might as well just get it over with."
Greg gave him a look as he sat down, right when Russell walked in.
"Hello, guys. It's just us three tonight, Sara took the night off. This means we'll have to..." He stopped talking as he looked at Greg's bruised face. "What happened to you?"
Greg sighed deeply. "It's personal."
Russell sat down opposite them. "Who hit you?"
"N-No one."
Russell gave him a look before addressing Nick. "Did he tell you?"
Nick nodded as he opened his mouth to speak, but Greg didn't let him. "I'm sitting right here, you know? Don't talk about me like I'm not here."
"Then talk to me," the supervisor said rather unnerved. He tried to be understanding, but it was hard to do so with Greg acting like that.
"...Why can't you accept that I don't want to? It's none of your business."
"Your business is my business as soon as you're taking this with you at the scene. It's obviously bothering you and if you can't even talk about it, then there's no point in letting you drive to a scene."
"...What? Russell, you can't do that. I'm perfectly capable of doing my job."
"You know, I'm really starting to doubt that. You've been through a lot and you're still going through some of it. I don't feel comfortable letting you out in the field."
Greg looked rather shocked at his supervisor. "You can't put me on desk duty, Dr. Reyes evaluated me. She says I'm fine out in the field."
"Guys, let's all tone it down a bit. Not letting him out in the field won't help him, Russell," Nick chimed in with a worried look on his face. "There's other ways to help him address his issues."
"...My issues? What the hell's going on, is this some kind of intervention?"
"Greg, I'm trying to help. You're both being unreasonable right now."
"I'm not unreasonable," both Greg and Russell said quite resentful.
Nick sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I just think you're both overreacting. Russell, Greg is probably a little embarrassed, that's why he doesn't want to tell you. And Greg, come on, Russell's worried. You can't show up at the lab with that banged-up face and expect everyone to accept that you don't want to talk about it. Just tell him."
Greg gave Nick a poisonous look. Deep down he knew he was right, but he was still annoyed. He turned to Russell with quite a cold look. "Camille's ex punched me out of jealousy. Happy now?"
Russell gave him a look. "That's hardly something I could be happy about, but... thank you for telling me. Have you filed a police report yet?"
"He doesn't want to," Nick chimed in again.
Greg rolled his eyes. "Mom, Dad, would you please let me deal with this the way I want to? I won't file a report, end of discussion."
"He must've hit you pretty hard. How often did he swing at you?" Russell looked at him concerned. He was calming down again.
Greg just looked away rather ashamed.
"Do you think he might've ever hurt her?"
Greg shook his head, still not looking at his boss. "She guaranteed me that he'd never hurt her. And I believe her. He let go of me the moment she walked back into the room. He was just... angry and jealous..."
"That doesn't give him the right to punch you. ...Several times, from what I can see." Russell kept staring at Greg's face. "...Are those marks on your neck bruises?"
Greg was a bit lost in his thoughts, but this question made him concentrate on his colleagues again. "Huh? ...Oh, yeah." He looked a little helpless to Nick, his eyes slowly filling with tears.
"...Russell, I don't think we need to know all the details." He tried to help his friend out. "You know now what happened, can't we just go to work?"
Russell and Greg came back from their crime scene an hour after Nick did. There was some tension between the two that didn't quite go away before the supervisor tried real hard to keep Greg's mind off of the recent event, but he kept a little more to himself than usual. He still hated the fact that he was being supervised at the scene and felt quite embarrassed about the incident with Ed.
"I'll meet you down at autopsy, I just have to take care of some paperwork," Russell said as he patted Greg's back before walking into the break room, where he met Nick at the coffee machine. "I'm running out of ways to talk to him," he said quite depressed to his colleague as he fixed himself a cup of coffee.
"Tell me about it. I mean, I know he had some rough years, but I sometimes feel like he's on another planet or something. Just too distant and reserved." Nick sighed as he sat down at the table.
"Did he give you any more details about the attack?"
"A little. But I feel like he left some things out. I have no idea where he got the bruises on his neck from."
Russell shrugged. "But it's quite obvious the guy strangled him with his bare hands."
Nick nodded with a concerned look that also showed some anger. "I know. It just doesn't feel right that this guy is getting away with it."
"Hey guys..." Camille walked in with a faint smile on her face. She overheard their conversation. "You're talking about Greg and Ed, right?"
Nick was quite surprised at first, but then nodded. "Yeah. What the hell happened?"
"It was just... a stupid accident. Ed is a nice guy, and I mean that. But he has a temper, I'm not gonna lie about that. He gets jealous quite easily... He doesn't want to accept that we broke up, he considers us to just be taking a break."
Russell raised his eyebrows. "Has he done something like that before?"
"...Not exactly. There was a guy at a club once who tried to hit on me and... Okay, yeah, something like that. The guy filed a report but Ed's a cop, too, the report was dropped quicker than it was filed."
"...So you suggested Greg just didn't bother with it?"
She hastily shook her head. "No, not at all. It was his decision to just let it go. I would've taken him to the station myself, had he insisted on going there."
Nick shook his head quite annoyed. "So what? The guy will keep beating up anyone who shows some interest in you?"
"Nick, it's not like I want him to behave like that. I've told him to get therapy before, but he refused. That's only one reason I broke it off with him. He's a good man who just... He has issues, I know that."
"Have you seen this... good man's work? Greg looks horrible."
"I-I'm not denying that, Nick. It's just... Greg's willing to forgive him, why can't you accept his decision?"
"Because Greg doesn't get to decide who can break laws without any consequences." Nick gave her an annoyed look.
"...Well in this case he can. I'm sure he has his reasons, you should support him instead of criticize him." She sighed with disappointment in her face.
Nick looked a bit thoughtful. "...I'll try."
"Thank you." She smiled at him. "Anyway... Could you tell him I was here? And... maybe tell him to call me when he... feels like it. And tell him I'm sorry."