Nick had wanted to just go home, put a movie in, have a beer and forget everything for the time being. But as soon as him and Ryan had gotten down from the roof and were almost out the door of the crime lab, Nick knew that wasn't going to happen. Jim Brass came through the glass doors at the exact same moment Nick and Ryan turned the corner on their way there. When Nick saw the expression on Brass' face, he stopped dead in his tracks and knew this wasn't going to be good. Ryan stopped as well and looked at his brother, who had a look of total and utter defeat on his face.

"We need to talk," Brass said as he came within range of the CSI.

"About what?" Nick asked.

Brass shrugged. "What difference does it make? We're going to, right now."

Without any more comment, Brass turned and headed for Grissom's office. Nick sighed heavily and followed him with Ryan close behind. Ryan knew that if Brass didn't want him to attend this meeting, he would have said so. Ryan was here to help, and he knew that everyone else who wanted to do the same for Nick wasn't going to exclude him from anything concerning his younger brother. They walked into Grissom's office and could tell by the atmosphere that it wasn't going to be pretty. Nick sat down heavily in the lone chair in front of Grissom's desk while Ryan stood behind him with his arms folded across his chest. Grissom and Brass stood behind the desk, Grissom with his hands in his pocket and Brass' bracing himself as he leaned forward against the top of Grissom's desk.

Nick decided the break the tension. "What's going on?" he asked.

"IA has been investigating what happened to Warrick quite thoroughly," Grissom replied. "And you've become a person of interest in their investigation."

"How?" Nick asked, frowning in confusion.

"Little things are making them curious," Brass said. "Like the fact that you loaned Warrick a good deal of money and you were so defensive about everyone that questioned Warrick even for a second while he was in custody. Not to mention the fact that you shot at McKean when there was no need to."

"He killed my best friend," Nick said calmly, despite the anger that was welling up inside him. "That's a good enough reason itself, aside from him begging me to put him out of his misery after he taunted me with the fact that he had killed Warrick. I was just scaring him to get him to shut up. Believe me, if I had wanted to kill him, I would have."

Brass shook his head. "I think you did want to kill him, but chickened out."

Before Nick could respond to that, Grissom intervened. "We know you had nothing to do with what happened Nick. But IA is curious as to how involved you were. They're suspicious of everyone in the department because of what happened with Pritchard and McKean. They're not taking any chances and want to make sure you had nothing to do with anything. So they're going to talk to you, and when they do, be honest. Stick to the truth because that's what everyone else has already told them."

"Who's everyone else?" Nick wanted to know.

"Hodges is one of them," Brass said. "He clued them in to how you jumped down his throat about how he told IA about Warrick's phone call he got in this office. They take that as you acting suspiciously."

Nick shook his head. "Fucking Hodges," he mumbled. "I didn't do anything wrong. My best friend was being accused of something I knew he didn't do, I-"

"You didn't know he didn't do it," Brass said, cutting him off. "You had no idea what happened, just like the rest of us."

"Unlike you, I always had faith in him. I knew he would never do something like that. I never gave up on him, but you clearly did," Nick shot back.

Brass scoffed. "He got lucky. I didn't want to believe that Warrick could kill anyone, but it was hard to believe anything when I felt like I didn't even know the guy anymore. He was running around on his own trying to take down gangsters. He was hiring private detectives and sleeping with strippers, which is something you're familiar with."

Nick rose from his chair and threw his hands in the air. "Who the fuck do you think you are man? What's gotten into you? You're acting like I'm a criminal instead of someone you've known for years."

"You might as well be a criminal," Brass said. "I don't feel like I know you at all. I feel the same way I do about you as I did when Warrick started on his self-destruction path."

"Guys, calm down," Grissom said. "We all need to be civil if we're going to help anyone with anything."

Nick laughed. "He doesn't want to help me," he said. "Just like he didn't want to help Warrick. He acted like a total jackass, like he is now, and did nothing to prevent anything bad from happening."

"And what did you do Nick? You funded his drug problem and the PI that got killed as a result of all this. You just fueled the fire kid," Brass said, shrugging casually.

"So what's your plan here? To yell at me and make me so mad and frustrated that I just go finally kill myself? Finally get it over with? You pushed Warrick until he was at the edge, and then when he finally took a few steps back you shrugged it off and acted like he was a murderer. You turned your back on someone who needed your help. Have you ever thought that maybe the reason I'm so against you helping me is that I know you're only going to do the same to me?"

Brass moved to go around the desk and towards Nick, but Grissom grabbed him by the arm and held him in place. "The only motive you have for helping me is to try and erase the guilt you feel for not doing more to help Warrick. You don't want it to happen to me because letting it happen two times would be too much for you," Nick continued. "I feel like giving up and letting whatever's going to happen to me happen just to spite your sorry ass."

Nick was done talking, so he turned and left Grissom's office without another word. Ryan followed wordlessly as his brother made his way to the door, but was once again stopped from exiting, but this time from a voice behind them.

"Nicky," Grissom called out. Nick stopped but didn't turn around. "You're gonna need to have a cooler head than that when you talk to IA. I'm not going to be able to save your job if you blow up at them like that."

Nick turned around to face his boss. "If they act like a complete jackass and verbally attack me, then I can't rule anything out."

Grissom sighed. "I can't rule anything out with you anymore," he said sadly. "I never thought I'd have to say this about you, but I wish the old Nick was still around. I wish I didn't have to wish for you to be the person you used to be, but I guess the new you doesn't even care about that anyway."

"Of course I care," Nick said. "I always care, that's my problem. I care too much, especially about what happened to Warrick. That's why I'm like this. But there's no reason for Brass to be acting like-"

"Like what?" Grissom asked. "Like Brass has always acted? He's always used tough love on you guys, that's what helps to make you such good CSIs. When you act like a reckless idiot and he doesn't know what else to do, he's gonna get desperate to try and help. And when you refuse that help and just act worse, what do you expect him to do? He just had to watch this same exact thing happen to Warrick. You're a grown man Nick. He's not gonna hold your hand and tell you it's going to be okay. He's gonna make damn sure you know that you're heading down a dangerous road and that he's not going to sit by and just let it happen. You're not surprised at how he's acting towards you, you're scared because you know by the way he's treating you just how serious this is."

Nick watched in silent defeat as Grissom turned and headed back into his office, closing the door behind him. Nick wanted to go back into his office and apologize to Brass and talk to him so he wouldn't leave things the way he had, but he didn't think he had the energy in him to do that. He needed time to think, and he figured Brass did as well. Nick found it so easy lately to pick fights with people and do everything he could to keep the fight going to make himself believe that his anger was over something other than losing his best friend.

Ryan walked up behind his brother and put his hand on his shoulder. "Come on Nick, let's go home," he said softly.

Nick nodded silently and followed Ryan out to the car. He handed his older brother the keys and got in the passenger seat, in no mood or mental state to be driving. Nick stared out the open window the whole ride home, not saying anything. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Ryan kept looking over at him to see if he was okay, but he clearly wasn't. When they got back to Nick's house, Ryan turned the car off and took and keys out of the ignition, ready to go in the house, but Nick didn't even unbuckle his seat belt.

"I can't do this," he said quietly.

Ryan frowned. "Do what?"

"This," Nick repeated. "Whatever this is. Whatever it is that I have to do to get back to the old me, I can't do it. I can't go through what I just went through with Brass over and over again with everyone that I know and love. I feel like my heart is shattering. I can't take it."

"It doesn't have to be like it just was," Ryan reassured him. "You're both very stubborn people and hardly ever admit when you're wrong, especially to each other. He obviously cares about what's going to happen to you because if he didn't, he wouldn't even talk to you. He'd just ignore you and wait for you to break down completely. But he's willing to yell and fight with you because he cares."

Nick shook his head. "Everyone is going to be willing to fight with me. You are, Brass and Grissom obviously are. Hodges already tattled on me like a fucking little kid, and who knows what Catherine and Greg are gonna have to say to me about all of this. And then there's IA who think I had something to do with what happened to Warrick. This is all so fucked up."

"Because you let it get this way," Ryan said. "I hate seeing you like this. I hate that I can't just snap my fingers and make it all better, but just because it's going to be hard doesn't mean it can't be done. You know that all too well. You can't give up before you even try, because once you try you're not going to want to give up. You wanna make this right, and you know you can. So do it, no matter what it takes. You owe it to your friends, and you owe it to yourself."

Ryan left it at that and left Nick in the car and headed into the house. He knew Nick would follow if and when he was ready. A few minutes later, Nick unbuckled his seat belt, but that was as far as he got to leaving the car before Warrick came up to the open window and propped himself on his elbows against the car.

"Rough night?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

Nick sighed. "Yeah, and it's only going to get worse."

Warrick shrugged. "It has to get worse before it gets better. Look at me. I had to completely hit rock bottom and wake up next to a dead guy to get my shit together. But it got through to me."

"And then you died," Nick replied. "So what good did it do you to even get better?"

"I died with peace of mind," Warrick answered. "Believe it or not, I accepted what happened to me because I knew you guys knew I was innocent and would have been okay had I lived. Knowing that I was able to get better and back to being as close to my old self as possible was a great feeling. A feeling you're working towards."

Nick ran his hands through his dark hair as he shook his head slowly. "Right now I feel crazy for even thinking that this is going to work."

Warrick smiled. "You may say I'm a dreamer," he said, beginning one of his favorite lyrics by John Lennon.

Nick couldn't help but smile as well as he finished, "But I'm not the only one."