In a World They Forgot

Anything To Make You Smile

It was 4pm and I was sitting in Grissom's office. I couldn't sleep without having nightmares about Miki being shot and she hadn't woken up yet, so I did the first thing I could think of.

Strangely, that was to sit in Grissom's office.

There was something about his office and how cramped and cluttered it appeared that relaxed me and Grissom always seems so calm and collected that a talk to him seemed to work magic on curing my stress or panic.

I looked down at my hands; I could still picture Miki's blood on them. Even though I’d been wearing gloves, I still spent a silly amount of time scrubbing at my hands with soap and water, using disinfectant every now and then too. It must’ve been how Lady Macbeth was when she kept picturing Duncan’s blood on her hands.

"Greg?"

I looked over my shoulder and saw a confused Grissom standing there in the doorway.

"You're early today Griss." I stated, swallowing hard.

"I could say the same for you Greg. Have you slept at all since last night?"

"Not without seeing her blood all over again." I whispered honestly, my voice cracking.

"She'll be okay Greg."

"I can still smell her blood on my hands, I-I can still feel it--"

"Greg, stop this. What you're doing to yourself isn't going to help anyone, especially not yourself. Look, you have worked with Miki more than the rest of us and I know that you're close friends outside of the lab, so surely you must know how much of a fighter she is. She didn't let the bullets beat her then and she doesn't plan on letting them beat her now. She doesn't need us to worry about her, but what she does need us for is to find the person who did it." Grissom told me.

I nodded and took a deep breath of air, my lungs aching.

"The hospital have already agreed to call when she wakes up and I promise you'll be the first to know about it." He concluded.

"Thanks Grissom."

"No problem Greg."

“Have you informed her family?”

“I don’t think this is the best way for her mom to find out about her career choice. However, I would encourage you to persuade her to tell them the truth when this is over.” He looked at his desk and then continued. “The situation could have been much worse and she needs to understand how important it is for them to know where she is.”

I nodded in agreement. It was one thing to not want someone to worry, but Miki could have been in a worse condition and I may have found myself breaking the worst news possible to someone who thought her daughter was a happy-go-lucky pharmacist who just worked nocturnal hours for the sake of it.

"Hey Greg. How are you doing?" The voice was Warrick’s and it was laced with worry and concern.

"It’d be easy to be in a pit of lions right now. Grissom stuck me in the lab for the night though." I didn't look up to greet Warrick as he entered the lab.

"He's only looking out for you. He doesn't want it to all become too much with us doing this investigation." Warrick leant against the desk behind me.

"Well, I probably want this guy caught more than anyone else." I was frustrated. In the lab I couldn’t help with the investigation and I wasn’t with Miki to make sure that she was okay.

"How’s Miki doing?"

I turned around to look at him. "I don't know. She's still not awake and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."