In a World They Forgot

The Skeletons Are Catching Up

I looked around the empty lab. Greg's jacket was hanging up telling me that he hadn't gone out to a scene. It was his favourite dark green jacket--he wouldn’t leave it anywhere he wasn't.

"Hodges." I poked my head into the next lab along from the one I was already in.

"What is it?"

"Have you seen Greg?" I asked with a smile, hoping that it'd convince Hodges not to be so cold to me.

"Not since I gave him some results earlier. He threatened me and took off in search of Catherine." Hodges didn't even look up from his desk and spoke as if he was tired and bored of me.

We'd barely exchanged words in the whole time I had worked there. I was close friends with Greg which therefore instantly made me his enemy.

I left and returned to my own desk, looking at the DNA I had to process for the case I was working on with Warrick. I slipped my black jacket off and picked my lab coat up, wincing slightly as I stretched and a short pain spread across my wounds. I checked the clock. I was due to take the painkillers the doctor gave me any minute now. I got some water from the fountain and made sure Greg wasn't around. If he saw that I was taking them he'd panic, think I was still in pain, tell Grissom and do everything to get me home and into bed....In my bed to get some rest that is!

Pssh, I wish.

I tipped the two pills into my hand and that was when the lab door opened and I quickly pretended that I was working.

"Hey Greg." I said.

"Hey Miks. You can take your painkillers." Damn, that boy knew everything about me.

"What?"

"I know you were about to take them."

I nodded and took them quickly before actually starting to process the DNA I had.

"I didn't expect you to come back and not be in any pain Miks, so don't feel as if you have to pretend that you're invincible around me. Even us CSI's get hurt." Greg explained as he hunted through his mass of files that he'd brought in with him.

I knew everything about that boy too, so I knew that something was bothering him.

"Greg, what's up?" I asked him, waiting for the DNA to scan itself into the system and start up a search.

"Nothing." He looked up and I noticed in his eyes that he was hiding something.

I folded my arms and gave him a hard stare. He shook his head to himself and looked around before walking over to the stereo and turning it off, allowing Funeral For A Friend to vanish the lab before he took my arm and guided me to our seats at the back of the lab, sitting me down before scooting closer.

"What's going on?" I asked him, the nerves building up inside of me.

"We've been looking into some stuff to do with the case I’m working with Catherine."

"And?"

Greg paused and looked down at me; his eyes seemed to be filled with sadness.

"The guy who shot you... we don't think he was after evidence we'd collected." Greg told me.

"Then what did he want in the back of a CSI van?" I asked, feeling confused about where Greg was going with this.

"We think he was trying to kill you."

"What?"

"We don't think that Kyle Cavendish wanted any of the evidence we had collected. We think he set out that night to kill you, but he failed." Greg told me softly.

"How are they related?!" Finding out that someone wanted me dead, scared me more than being shot did.

"Grissom is looking into it in more detail. Miki, I think you need to sit down." Greg tried to put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down.

"Why the hell would someone want me dead?" I asked, starting to mess with my hair--a nervous habit I had.

"We-we're not sure Miks--"

"This is something to do with my father isn't it?"

"Why would you think that?"

"I may never have known him but I know of him. He spent a lot of his life trying to make a great future for him to raise a family in. He also foolishly gambled with some bad guys and then grassed their drug smuggling operation to the cops. The next thing, there’s a bullet in his heart and a child without a father." I said sitting down and trying to control my shaking hands.

"Why would they want you dead though?"

"How the hell should I know?"

Greg pulled me into a hug. "We're not going to let anyone hurt you Miks. I swear down that no one will touch you, ever." He whispered as I wrapped my arms around him, glad to have someone there for me.

I heard the door open but didn't bother to look up and Greg didn’t move from me.

"I’ve told her. I couldn’t wait for confirmation from Griss.”

“We know Greg.” The voice belonged to Sara. None of us spoke. I just held onto the back of Greg's shirt even tighter as fear filled me.

"I came by to tell you that Grissom confirmed the connection between Mitchell and Kyle Cavendish. He's speaking with Ecklie now about what we can do next."

"I never even knew my father so why the hell would they want me dead!?" I asked angrily.

"We don't know Miks, but I promise you that we'll find out." Greg whispered, toying with my dark hair.

"I'll go and find out if Grissom has got anything new for you guys." Sara said quietly.

"I never even knew him..."

"Shh. Don't worry. I won't let anyone hurt you Miki. Not again." Greg said quietly, kissing my head softly.

Something told me that as long as Greg was around, no one would be able to hurt me.

Unless of course, that person was Greg.