We've reached the last chapter! More stories to follow, I hope you enjoyed this one :)

Frankie Patton didn't testify to any of the allegations. He hardly talked to Brass or Russell when they interrogated him. Spencer wanted to try his luck and talk to him and he wanted Greg to be there. His psychiatrist Dr. Foster told him that this could be beneficial to his mental health, but Greg wasn't so sure about it. He wasn't thrilled about that thought, but the officer could be quite persuasive when he wanted to.

Spencer had been talking for almost five minutes, while Patton hardly listened. Greg was too concentrated on keeping a poker face, he didn't listen, either.

"So, are you going to tell us?" Spencer asked as he finished his speech.

"Tell you what?" Patton asked annoyed.

"Why you spared us!" Spencer exclaimed. He was trying hard to keep a poker face, as well, but he was quite agitated right now.

"...Why I spared you?" Patton laughed as his eyes wandered between the two. "Why do you think I spared you? Because I thought you were special? Because I liked you two? I didn't get paid to off you two clowns, that's why."

"...You didn't get paid... that's why? That's why we're still alive?" Spencer hopped off his seat. "Are you goddamn serious?!"

Patton grinned at them. "What else did you want to hear?"

Greg and Spencer walked out of the interrogation room together – neither one of them knew how to feel about their talk with Frankie Patton.

"What a weird guy, huh?" Greg said to release some of the stress by trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah... Greg, would you do me a favor and go to the car and wait there for me?"

"Why, where are you going?"

"Nowhere, I just..." He sighed deeply. "Just give me a minute."

It confused Greg, but he decided to do what he was asked for. When he opened the door to walk out, he could hear Spencer scream and punch a wall. He stopped to turn around and watch the officer's rage. When he was finished, Greg walked back up to him.

"I-I told you to wait at the car, I didn't want you to see me like this."

Instead of saying anything, Greg gave him a smile before he hugged him.

Greg and Spencer both seemed to be coping well in the next weeks. Greg's discomfort towards Spencer had faded, too, after seeing how controlled he was after talking to Frankie Patton. Some doubts were still buried deep inside his mind, but he was able to turn those thoughts off most of the time. They had several long talks and worked hard on maintaining their rocky friendship. It paid off, they were able to have fun at work together again.

They bumped into eachother as Greg was on his way into Brass' office when Spencer came out of it. "Uh, sorry, Spencer." Greg said with a smile on his face. "How are you?"

"Good, you?"

He nodded. "I'm fine. Is Brass here?"

"No, but I think he'll be here in a minute or two."

"Well, you wanna grab a coffee and wait with me?"

"Wish I could, but I have a lot of work to do. Talk to you later, alright?" He patted Greg's shoulder as he walked off.

Greg decided to wait in Brass' office, instead, and instantly spotted a letter on the desk. He identified the signature as Spencer's, so he decided to snoop and read it. Once he was finished with it, he grabbed it and ran out to find the officer. "Hey!" He spotted him at the door.

Spencer stopped. "Yeah?"

"What's this?" He showed him the letter.

"...You read it?" he asked angered.

"I know I shouldn't have, but I'm glad I did. You're resigning?"

He hesitated to answer. "...Yes, I am."

"...Why?"

"Come on, why do you think?"

"Because of what happened to Turner?"

"Yeah, and... because of what happened between us because of it."

Greg shook his head. "We worked this out, Spencer. There's no need for you to do this."

"No, I absolutely do. I respect you too much to force you to work with me. It's not right."

"...So what, you're running away from this job as soon as things get difficult? If you really want to do this, I won't stay in your way. But don't blame this on me."

The anger in Spencer's face faded. Desperation took it's place. "I just don't know what's right, Greg. I never wanted to hurt you and I'm so scared I might do it again if I stay."

"Well, I'm not scared about it anymore, so you shouldn't be, either. It's in your hand. If you don't want it, just don't do it. We'll be alright, okay?"

Spencer nodded hesitantly as he wiped the tears falling down his cheeks.

"I'm gonna rip this apart now, alright?" Greg did just that. "If you should ever think about quitting your job again, just tell me, alright?"

Greg walked into the break room and sat down at the table exhausted. He exhaled as he put his head down on the table.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked as he sipped from his coffee.

"I just talked Spencer out of quitting his job."

He raised his eyebrows. "He wanted to quit?"

Greg nodded as he lifted his head. "He's scared I might have a problem with us working together."

"...Well, do you?"

"No! Not at all. It's all been worked out. I don't feel uncomfortable with him anymore. He's a great police officer and a good person."

"Mhm..." Nick looked thoughtful. "So you talked him out of it?"

"Yeah, I hope he didn't just act like it. I'd really hate to see him leave."

"Look, I think it's nice that you tried. ...And I really hope you were successful. But if not... you shouldn't give it too much thought. Spencer's a grown man, he can do whatever he wants and I'm sure he knows best what's good for him."

Greg flashed him a sarcastic smile. "You wouldn't mind him leaving, huh?"

Greg adressed Spencer's desire to leave the job a few times in the following weeks, trying to make sure the officer will stay. Spencer was touched by Greg's efforts, it assured him that he actually wanted him to stay and didn't just say it because he thought it was right.

While Frankie Patton was awaiting his trial, the man who hired him to kill officer Turner hadn't been found. There were some theories about different drug lords, but nothing concrete they could prove, and Patton didn't talk to the police.

As time went by, Greg and Spencer managed to leave this whole ordeal behind them as good as they could. Their lives were as close to being back to normal as they could be under the circumstances.

Greg was looking for officer Spencer to talk to him about one of their cases. He found him in the police station's locker room, putting the items inside one locker into a box. "Spencer. What are you doing?" he asked shocked.

"Hey Greg," he exclaimed joyful. "I'm just cleaning out Turner's locker. It's been long overdue."

"...Oh. I thought you... nevermind. Why are you doing it?"

"I asked Brass if I could do it. I know he wasn't who I thought he was but... the person I knew still was my partner, you know?"

Greg nodded with a sad, pitying smile on his face. He knew a thing or two about co-workers showing a very different, horrifying side of themselves. But your own partner being a completely different person from who he actually was was something Greg couldn't even begin to imagine what it felt like. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm good, actually. I try not to think about who he... really was, you know? I only knew who he pretended to be. ...I know that sounds screwed up, but..." He shrugged.

"No, I think it's... one way to deal with this. So did you find anything interesting in there?"

"Not really. Just evidence of his chocolate addiction." He chuckled as he threw a bunch of chocolate bar wrappers into the trash can.

Greg smiled as he leaned against the doorframe. "I don't think the guy we knew was all made up or something. He was this guy, he just had some... darker sides to his personality, you know?"

Turner nodded as he shrugged. "Maybe. It doesn't really matter, either way, right?"

"Probably."

Spencer nodded his head as he kept looking through Turner's stuff. "Heh, look at that." He showed the CSI a picture. "I almost forgot about that. That's him and I after our first week as partners together. You know how he's always been quite grumpy? I annoyed him so much because I was always in a good mood. So after our first week, this guy starts shooting at us. Almost hit me, Turner saved my life that day. And that's when..." Spencer paused. The smile on his face started to fade. "We became friends that day."

Greg walked a few steps closer to him. "It's a nice picture."

"It is, isn't it? He was so annoyed that I wanted to take a picture, but I made a joke to make him laugh. He would've looked as grumpy as he usually did otherwise." Spencer stared at the picture. "I can't believe he kept it for all these years."

Greg felt like he could read Spencer's mind. "It's okay if you want to keep it."

"...Huh?"

"Don't throw it away. You have nice memories attached to it, keep it."

"...Are you sure? I mean..."

"What he did doesn't change the fact that you two had a good connection."

"Yeah I know but..."

"Are you sure you want to throw it out?" When Spencer shook his head, he went on, "Then don't. You might want to in a few days or weeks, or even years. But you're not sure now so... don't. There's time to do it later if you want to, but you might regret doing it if you do it now."

"I guess you're right." Spencer sighed. "Why is this so hard?"

"It'll get easier with time." He patted the officer's shoulder. "Now come on, let me help you sort through his stuff."

"Really? Okay, well... Chocolate bar wrappers go into the trashcan, everything else into the box. I'll drop it off his sister's house later. You wanna come with me when I visit her?"

Greg rembered seeing her at the funeral. "...Uhm, no thanks. That'd be too awkward."

"Awkward?"

"Yeah, at the funeral... I don't think she'd be happy to see me."

"Oh don't be ridiculous!" the officer exclaimed in his usual joyful tone. "Why wouldn't she?"

Greg smiled at him. He was impressed by his resilience. Even in the darkest of times, Spencer managed to keep his happy nature. He wasn't over Turner's death yet, but he would come out of this ordeal stronger.

Ende.