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Greg spent the next two days figuring out what to do about the incident at the police station. Talking to Nick for advice wasn't something he planned to do, since his friend was too hot-headed and he knew he wouldn't be able to keep quiet about this. He did contemplate telling Russell, but he was sure he wouldn't be able to keep this to himself, either. The fact that he was embarrassed about it didn't help make up his mind at all, but it gave him enough strength to keep a straight face around his colleagues. They did sense him being in a worse mood than before, but they figured it was a natural stage of coming to terms with the death of officer Turner.
Him and Nick had just finished with an intense interrogation and were both spent from it. While Nick walked with the officers to get some paperwork for the arrest of the suspect done, Greg stayed behind to collect their stuff. While he did, he spotted Spencer standing outside the closed door, staring inside. As soon as their eyes locked, the officer walked in.
Greg instinctively took a step back. He didn't say a word, just stared at him.
Spencer didn't say anything, either, but walked in and closed the door behind him. They stared at each other for a few moments.
"...I-I need to get going," Greg finally said to break the uncomfortable silence. He grabbed his files and kit with shaky hands but didn't walk towards the door – Spencer stood in the way.
"This won't take long," he replied as he took a few steps closer.
Greg dropped his stuff back on the desk. "Look, I can't change the report. We'd both get in trouble for it and it won't change anything. No one blames you or Turner for what happened. Some blame me but... I know it's not my fault, either." The look in Spencer's eyes as Greg said this changed. It scared the CSI and he was surprised when Spencer took several steps forward towards him. He took another step backwards but was already hitting the wall. Spencer was now too close for his comfort zone and surprised him with a tight, long hug.
"I know it's not your fault," Spencer sobbed as his hug got tighter.
Greg was surprised by his own reaction. He expected fear and panic to be his main emotions, but instead he broke down crying just like Spencer. The officer's hug had something comforting he didn't expect. He appreciated it – needed it, even – so the two remained in that hug for quite some time.
It wasn't until they talked things out and walked out of that interrogation room that they realized that several officers and Nick had been watching most of that scene. The officers scattered as soon as they saw the two were walking out, but Nick remained standing there.
Greg tried to act like nothing odd was going on. "...Ready to, uh, get back to the lab?" he asked Nick, attempting to walk him towards the exit. But Nick didn't move, he stared Spencer down. "Nick?"
"What the hell's going on here?" Nick asked with an anger-filled voice.
"This was something between me and Greg," the officer simply replied. He was quite fed up with Nick's meddling for a while now, but had no patience for it now.
"...A-And it's all good now," Greg added hesitantly. "Let's go."
Spencer and Nick kept staring at each other, both looking at the other in a threatening manner. Their body language was extremely tensed up.
"...Let's go, Nick." He was desperate to get the two apart, fearing they might actually start a fight right here in the police department.
After some hesitation, Nick turned to Greg. "I can't believe you didn't tell me about this." He walked out of the station without looking at Spencer again.
"Hey, where did you go?" Greg asked as he stood in the doorway, trying to act casual, half an hour after Nick stormed out of the police station.
"Out," he replied as he sat down at the table in the break room.
"...Why are you angry at me?" Greg asked with an insecure and sad smile on his face.
"I'm not."
"I can see that you are. And I don't get it."
Nick sighed as he gave him an annoyed look. "Do you need anything?"
It had been a few emotionally straining days for Greg and he wasn't good at hiding his true emotions at the moment. He teared up. "I didn't do anything wrong."
Nick's hard shell crumbled as he saw tears rolling down his friend's cheek. "...I know that."
"But you're acting like I did. This isn't my fault. It's not my fault Spencer's angry and it's not my fault Turner..."
Nick stopped him as he got off his seat. "Don't even say that, we all know you're not responsible. And this isn't about that."
"Then what is it about?"
Nick walked over towards Greg to close the door and get him to sit down. "I just keep asking myself why you could possibly think you needed to keep what Spencer did to yourself."
"There's many reasons. I felt ashamed and didn't want to get him in trouble."
"Why?"
"He might not be your favorite person but I consider him a friend."
"...You do?" Nick gave him a look. "He annoys you."
"That still doesn't mean that he deserves to get fired for doing something in a stressful situation. He was drunk and..."
Nick interrupted him. "Stop defending the guy. What he did was... There's no way to defend it." It took Nick a while to read Greg's face impression, but he finally did. "...You think you deserve what he did, don't you?"
"No, that's not..." He shook his head.
"You know you're not responsible for Turner's death, you just said so yourself."
He nodded with an unconvincing look on his face.
"Why won't you believe yourself?"
Greg sighed. "Come on, don't you ever think about what Spencer said? Why didn't the guy shoot me, too? It was risky not to do it, I could identify him."
"You said you didn't really see his face."
"...Yes, but how is he supposed to know what I saw or didn't see? It just doesn't make any sense."
"I'm sure he has his reasons." Nick had no idea what else to say to this. He – like everybody else – wondered the same thing.
"It's just... I keep wondering if I did everything right. Had I done something different, maybe..."
"Stop it, Greg. Don't listen to those maybe's. There was no way to fight this guy. Had you tried, I'm sure you wouldn't be here right now. You're not at fault here, the shooter is. Spencer knows that and everybody else does, too. Don't be too hard on yourself."
Spencer and Greg tried to heal together the following days. The officer wasn't back at work yet, but the two met at the lab to spend the CSIs lunch break together in the break room. It raised a lot of eyebrows seeing the two together as rumors about the incident in the break room had already reached the lab. Almost everyone knew about it, but different variations of the story had spread.
The two didn't realize they had been watched by many people outside the room.
Brass and Russell knocked on the open door as they walked in.
"Hey guys," Greg said with a faint smile on his face that faded as he figured out why they might be here.
"Officer Spencer, would you step outside for a minute?" Russell asked in a calm tone, glancing over to Greg.
"Russell, what are you doing?" Greg spotted two officers waiting outside the room.
"Greg, I'll meet you in my office in five minutes, okay?"
"Are you arresting him?!" He jumped off his seat.
Brass shook his head. "We just need to talk to him."
"Then what are the two uniforms outside doing?" Greg asked in a raised, agitated voice. His reaction surprised all three men.
Officer Spencer got up, too. "It's okay, Greg. They feared I might be resisting, is all. Right, captain?" Spencer went on once Brass nodded. "Don't worry, I'll go with you. I won't make any problems."
"Why can't I go with them?" Greg asked nervously as Russell entered the office. The CSI had been waiting in here for almost fifteen minutes.
"You wanted to go with them?" he asked confused as he sat down in his chair.
"Yeah. Are they going to arrest him? Because there's no reason to do that."
"How do you know that?"
Greg sighed. "This isn't right. He's mourning."
Russell frowned. "We all are, but that doesn't mean we should ignore this. We just need to talk to him, find out what he knows. He might be completely innocent, but we can't be sure."
"...Huh?" Greg asked confused. "...What are you talking about?"
The supervisor raised his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"
Greg got off his seat. "What's going on?"
"We found the drug addict who was with you guys when Turner got shot."
"...You did?" Greg sat back down in shock. "He's alive?"
He nodded. "He is. And he had a lot to say about the guy who shot Turner."
As Russell started explaining that they believe the reason Turner was targeted was that he had been involved with some drug dealers, Greg just sat there in shock. These things started to make sense. It would explain why Turner was the only one killed – this wasn't a random attack at the police, this was a personal attack on Turner. But as Russell went on, Greg realized that Spencer wasn't talking to Brass because of the incident in the interrogation room. "...What about Spencer? Is he involved in this, too...?"
Russell shook his head. "Not that we know of, no. But that's why we needed to talk to him. We need to find out what he knows. And yes, we know there's a possibility he might be involved, too. Turner did tamper with evidence to help his drug dealing friends. Spencer and him have been partners for a while now, we need to find out what he knows." Russell's phone got a text message. He read it, then looked at Greg. "Brass is asking you to wait for him, he wants to talk to you, too."