Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot!
Jillian Stokes had visited her son many times over the years, enough so that she even had her own key to his rather lovely townhouse. This time, however, was special. She had neglected to tell him she was coming, wanting it to be a surprise. She had even shown up a week before his birthday so it was unexpected. The key she had been mailed slid in to the lock easily enough and she stepped through the door quietly, trying to shut it behind her without a sound. She was well aware that her son worked odd hours and that he might not even be up yet. So she walked over to the plush blue couch he must have bought since the last time she visited.
The coffee table was littered with forensic journals and movies sitting out of their cases. Jillian thought that this was slightly odd because usually her boy was a very neat person; he hated leaving movies out. Then she took the time to look around and blinked hard. There had been many changes since her last visit. A rather dark looking poster was hanging on one of the walls, and there was a rather large exotic fish tank against another. Nick, so far as she knew, didn't even like fish. The pictures hanging in their frames were all the same but there was one that hadn't been there before. It showed Nick sitting on the bottom of a set of stairs and a blonde man leaning down over his shoulders in a classic best friends position, both of them wearing black suits and giant smiles. Jillian smiled too because she liked that her boy had good friends.
The elder lady had just picked up the TV remote, intent on quietly watching something until her son awoke, when she was paused by a sudden blast of sound. Her ears rang for a second before she realized that somewhere in the house, very bad music had just been turned on at a volume that should be illegal. It took a moment longer to realize that she could hear someone's voice over the music. Before she could even move to go find her obviously awake son, she was paused in her movement yet again as the blonde man in the framed photo suddenly shot out of nowhere, skidding along the floor on his knees and wailing on an air guitar.
He was wearing nothing but a pair of light blue boxer shorts, and his hair was wildly sleep tousled, but he looked anything but tired. He looked as if he'd been smoking something she didn't want to think about, as his eyes opened wide with joy. Apparently he hadn't yet spotted her. He continued to jam on the air guitar as he rose up to his feet, then the music in the background suddenly cut off and her son's loud, drowsy voice reached her ears.
"I was still asleep you little terror!" she could hear that familiar drawl saying. The blonde man lifted his head, still holding the air in the shape of a guitar, and grinned down the hallway.
"I could have been a rock star," he announced out of nowhere. It seemed to her a very random statement indeed, but she heard only a chuckle in reply. She knew that chuckle, and it meant that not only was Nick not as angry as his words suggested, he was actually pretty happy. Fond even.
"Yeah but you only turned out to be a geek," Nick could be heard to say, the laughter still filling his voice. Jillian watched the blonde man squeak indignantly and put his hands on his hips, eliciting more warm laughter. He tossed his head in a way that was half very manly and half quite feminine, and she had to put a hand across her mouth in an effort not to laugh herself.
"But you love me anyway!" she watched him declare, and her laughter died away. What a thing to say! Then suddenly Nick strolled in to her view and what a view. Something she had never wanted to see was her youngest child standing in nothing but white boxers with dark red hickey marks in a trail from his collar to his navel. She watched as he smiled warmly and approached the man that had been blasting the awful music. The blonde grinned playfully as he backed away until Nick had him cornered against a wall. Jillian watched her son put his hands on either side of the trapped blonde and lean in dangerously close.
"Oh how I love you," she heard him whisper, then before she could process that her brain went in to overload as her son leaned in and kissed the other man. She could do nothing more than sit there as Nick growled low in his throat and pressed their bodies close together, seeking more friction, and the kiss was deepening quickly. Suddenly her son's hands were buried deep in the other man's hair and lithe hands were stroking the back that she could see. Lithe hands, one bearing a shiny platinum band.
When the kiss broke off because they had to come up for air, Jillian felt her own heart beating faster than it ever had in her life. She could see the predatory looks passing between the two in front of her and it shocked her right down to the ground; even more than the unexpected kiss had. Nick was grinning as he took the blonde's hand and turned; perhaps leading him back to the bedroom he had just come out of. But as he turned he spotted her rooted to her spot on the couch and he froze. The strange man asked what was wrong, but he too froze when he followed Nick's line of vision. The three of them stared at each other for a moment before Nick broke the silence.
"Mom…what are you doing here?" he asked in a choked voice. Jillian flickered her eyes down to see his broad calloused hands, one of which was also bearing a platinum band. She felt her eyes widen impossibly farther than they already were and her throat constricted.
"Nicholas…I…you're married?!" she fought not to faint. Nick lifted his hand up to look at the wedding ring he wore and looked over at his partner's matching ring. They smiled sheepishly at each other and that was really all the answer she needed. Her son coughed a bit but didn't release the lithe hand he held in his own.
"It's kind of a new thing," he admitted to her. "We were in Canada on a conference last month and it's not legal here so we…well we took the opportunity and eloped I guess." The newlyweds smiled at each other again and, seeming to forget she was here for a moment, Nick gave his partner an Eskimo kiss, rubbing their noses together in a way she might have found adorable if it had been a woman he was touching. But it wasn't.
"He's a man!" she blurted suddenly. So much for all those years her mother spent training her to be a polite lady. So much for diplomacy. Jillian watched as her son turned back to her, his face calm. He gave her an expectant smile and shrugged a little and she wondered how long he had known he was gay. Certainly she and her husband had had no clue. Oh dear god her husband! This would not sit well with the judge. Nick seemed to read her thoughts even as they crossed her mind, because he raised his chin defiantly and unconsciously held his husband's hand tighter.
"If you and Cisco can't accept me as I am then that's just too bad," he announced. "I love Greg. I'd give my life for him; he makes me happy. This has always been who I am and I can't change it. I wouldn't even try if I had the chance." She watched Greg, now that she knew his name, and saw the way his eyes lit up with disbelieving pride at her son's words. His whole face glowed, and their love was all too obvious on both their faces. She looked down again and studied the platinum bands that she had always thought would be exchanged with a woman some day. Maybe it looked all right there too, she decided.
For a moment Jillian didn't answer her son's defiant declaration of self. She took a bit to look around at the living room walls again and see how the place had really changed. It had two people's personal touches now. It was Greg's fish, Greg's poster, Greg who left out the movies. It was a wedding photo hanging on the wall. It was a bigger couch for two people to curl up on together. It was a warmer atmosphere because the house was filled with love, and her boy was no longer lonely. She smiled then as she turned back to the pair.
"I'll always love you for who you are Nicholas," she assured them both with that statement. She could see them both relax visibly. "You're father might take some time to come around but I'm sure he won't disown you or any such drastic thing." Nick smiled and finally let go of his partner, coming forward to hug her. She returned the hug and then stood and approached the man that had stolen her son's heart, and gave him a good once over.
He was tall, only an inch shorter than six foot Nick. His blonde hair was, up close, actually brown at the roots, obviously dyed. He was skinny but muscular, like a swimmer might be. His chocolate brown eyes were so wide and expressive she wondered if that was what had first caught Nick's attention, because they were certainly catching hers. He looked back at her and fidgeted under her gaze, obviously waiting nervously for her opinion. Obviously hoping he met par. She was about to give her verdict when Nick stepped forward.
"Greg, show her your back," her son said quietly. She wondered why he would say this, and her curiosity rose even higher when she saw Greg's face fill with trepidation and doubt. Self doubt. But he would do anything for Nick, so he turned and Jillian couldn't stop the cry that was torn from her lips as she took in the lace of scars presented to her. They slashed up, down, side to side, and in every imaginable direction. And each of them was overlaid with the horrible skin melt she had seen on her grandmother's useless burnt leg as a little girl. "Greg was…in the middle of an explosion in the lab. I almost lost him to it. You might tell Cisco…that the only thing that keeps us going, is each other."
Jillian felt her eyes prickle with tears at Nick's words. They reached down in to her heart and pulled at her in such a wonderful way. She could not have found a more perfect way to put that. It was amazing and pure and just beautiful. Greg turned back around and she could see the slight coloring of his cheeks, saying he was embarrassed by his own body. But the way he had burst in to the room at first wearing nothing but boxers said that he had no doubts about how Nick looked at him. They were no different in each other's eyes for everything they had gone through. Nick's bite scars from the fire ants were as much a part of him as Greg's burn scars from the explosion.
She smiled and wiped at her eyes and rushed forward to hug her son's husband, murmuring in his ear to welcome him in to the family. When she pulled away she was staggered by the brilliance of his smile and again wondered if maybe that was what had caught her boy's attention at first. What ever it was, she suddenly realized that it was meant to be. This was right, her boy with this man. They went together so well, and obviously helped each other so much, that she couldn't have a problem with it even if she wanted to. Which she didn't.
"Well my dears, the day is young, and your father is not here. Why don't you tell me how the two of you got together, hmm?" At her words, she saw the two of them look at each other and blush, smiles immediately turning shy. This could be the start of something wonderful, she thought to herself. And she was right. Even if this was not the beginning.