Happy Easter, guys!
Greg was visibly nervous as he waited for Brass in Russell's office. The supervisor tried to calm him down, but his attempts didn't work. Greg's heartbeat elevated when Brass entered. "H-How'd it go with Spencer?"
Brass gave him a faint smile. "He didn't know about Turner and I believe him. We have no reason not to, it's fine."
"Good. That's good..." Greg was relieved about those news, he actually thought Spencer might've had something to do with Turner's illegal activity – he didn't trust him after the attack. "So... Can I go now?"
Brass shook his head as he closed the door behind him. "While he's innocent on any drug offenses... I'm not sure what to think about the attack in the interrogation room."
Greg stared at him in shock. "There was no attack," he said after a short silent moment.
"Sure sounds like there was one, Greg. Why didn't you say anything?"
"Let's not blow this out of proportion, okay? Nobody got hurt, Spencer and I worked it out... It's all good now. Why did he even tell you about it?"
"He didn't. One of the officers approached me, saying he was worried about Spencer."
Russell sighed. "Now the rumors make sense..."
"What rumors?" Greg raised an eyebrow.
"People have been talking about some fight at the station, but they didn't mention any names. Just that..." Russell paused. He looked Greg up and down. "What happened, really?"
"Does it really matter?"
"It does. The rumors are pretty... varied and worrisome."
Greg sighed. He didn't look like he was about to explain what happened.
"Fine, you don't want to talk? How about answering some questions? Was there any form of sexual violence?"
"...What? Why would you say that?"
"Because that's what some of the rumors are about."
Greg's eyes instantly watered. He was upset that people would spread rumors of that nature about him – like this was all they saw in him anymore, a victim of sexual violence. "The rumors are wrong."
His reaction worried Russell and Brass. It made it seem like he was lying when he really wasn't. "You can tell us."
"There was no sexual violence. Spencer's not that kind of guy. He's a good person who had something bad happen to him. He snapped. Nothing more happened."
"Then why are you crying?" Brass asked sympathetically.
It was hard to explain for Greg, he hardly understood it, himself. "I-I don't know. It's been a rough few days and... Spencer doesn't deserve to be punished for a reaction perfectly reasonable after what he's been through."
"No one's talking about punishment, yet. But we need to know what happened."
"Well... Did you ask him?"
Brass shook his head. "He was pretty... devastated to hear Turner was involved in criminal activities. He was already on his way home when the officer told me. But we'll talk to him, too."
"Please don't. He feels bad about it already."
"Come on, Greg. Be reasonable here. We already know something happened. Why don't you tell us what exactly happened?"
Greg had kept the story very short, trying to trivialize what happened. Russell and Brass were both aware of that fact, the things he said didn't match the emotions he showed. They decided to talk to a few more people to shed some light on it. They didn't talk to Spencer, yet. Instead, they gave him time to process the news about Turner.
It was later that day when Greg knocked on Spencer's door.
"Greg, hey." Spencer opened the door with a tear-stained face. "You heard, huh?"
The CSI nodded. "I can't believe it."
"Me neither." He gave him a sad smile as he invited him in.
"How are you holding up?"
Spencer shrugged as he sat down on the couch. "I knew him, Greg. I don't get it. I never noticed anything. ...Maybe I just didn't want to notice."
"I'm sure he was good at hiding this. There's no way you could've known."
"Are you sure? I spent so much time with him and it feels like I didn't know him at all. He's always been very private and not very talkative but... I never thought anything of it."
Greg nodded. He never really liked Turner. Even though he never expected anything about him, he didn't think it was too much of a surprise. Turner was quite a shady character, always moody and reclusive.
The officer grabbed a card from the coffee table. "This was in the mail today. His funeral is on tuesday. I'm not even sure I want to attend anymore. What am I suppose to do now? Everything I thought I knew about him is wrong. I didn't know that man."
Greg had planned to tell Spencer that Brass needed to talk to him about the attack at the police station, but after seeing him devastated over Turner's dark secrets, he decided to try another approach. "What do I have to do to make this go away?" he asked as he barged into Brass' office.
"Excuse me?" the captain asked confused.
"This whole thing. There's got to be some way to make it go away. You don't need to talk to Spencer about this, please leave him alone."
"Are you scared he might tell the whole truth instead of your butchered story?"
Greg looked shocked, like he'd been caught. "I-I told the truth."
"Yeah? Then why do you have a problem with us talking to him?"
"He's in a very bad place right now, he doesn't need the extra stress. He regrets what he did, isn't that enough?"
"Depends on what he did, really. We've talked to a few more officers and no story is like the other. Most of them were downplaying the story even more than you did."
"I-I didn't downplay..."
Brass interrupted him as he got off his seat to close the door. "Listen, I know Spencer quite well. I'm confident he'd tell the whole truth if I asked him. I need the truth, Greg. Tell me the whole story, then I might not need to ask Spencer."
Greg knew there was no other way, so he told him what happened – all of it, without leaving anything out. He got quite emotional as he told the story, pausing quite a few times to hold back tears. It was painfully obvious Greg hadn't left this whole ordeal behind already – he was nowhere near being over it. "But we worked it out."
"Yeah, you said that already." Brass released a deep sigh. He wasn't quite sure yet how to handle this situation. This was a first for him, too. "Did you talk to someone about this?"
The CSI was surprised and confused by this question. "...N-Not really, but... why are you asking?"
"Greg... I'm really not sure what to do about this. You say you guys worked it out, yet you're hardly able to talk about it."
"...What'll happen to Spencer?"
"I don't care about him right now. I care about you. I worry about you."
"...Don't. There's no need to, I'll be fine."
"And you really want Spencer to get away with this without having to face any consequences?"
He nodded. "There's no point in it, is there? There's been too much hurt already. Him losing his job over this wouldn't help me or him, would it?"
Brass got a piece of paper and a pen out of a drawer. He paused before he started writing something. "Okay. I get that. I agree, but... There's one consequence this story needs to have for him." He handed Greg the paper. "Do you want me to give it to him or do you want to give it to him yourself?"
"...What is this? Dr. Foster... Who is he?"
"You know, these guys often refrain from going to the department's shrink out of shame. They fear others at the station might find out about it. So I send them to Dr. Foster. I've known him for a few years and he does a great job. Give his number to Spencer, tell him to make an appointment with him. I hope he won't oppose to it but if he does... Let him know it's not optional. He will have to face consequences for attacking you if he doesn't go, alright? At least ten sessions."