Most of the CSI in the night shif were friends and as friends they knew what made the other tick, how to make the other smile,
Warning: Character death, and the timeline is probably really screwed up. Greg and Hodges knew each other in the past in this fic. Slashy thoughts.
Disclaimer: I don't own the show or the song
Most of the CSI in the night shift were friends and as friends they knew what made the other tick, how to make the other smile, they knew when another was mourning, they knew the others emotions from the things little things the person themselves don't realize they do like…Greg when one of the things that Greg finds the most important is lost or almost gone he sings. Not just any song but the same song each time. Greg himself usually didn't notice it but all the other CSI (and some people from the lab) did.
The first one to notice was Grissom when Greg's Papa Olaf died. He hadn't known anything about the death at first, it wasn't until Greg's mother called him asking if Greg could have a couple days off to go to the funeral that he knew what it meant when he passed the lab again that day and heard Greg's voice singing once again.
Cyrus Jones 1810 to 1913
Made his great grandchildren believe
You could live to a 103
A hundred and three is forever when you're just a little kid
So, Cyrus Jones lived forever
Gil decided to tell Greg about his vacation time later, right now the boy needed to mourn alone a bit longer.
The second to notice was Catherine, when the explosion happened Greg lost all feeling of safety for a while; He sang the song for a long time after the explosion. At first she though he did it on purpose, to make her feel guilty, but she knew Greg wasn't the type to hold a grudge. She then thought it might just be one of those few slow-ish songs that Greg gets obsessed with for short periods of time, but he had been singing it for 2 months not 2 weeks and she had heard him sing that song before, it wasn't until she realized when that song had been sung that she started to understand. Greg lost something precious in that explosion, she had no clue what it was, but whatever it is she let him grieve in peace.
Third to notice was Hodges surprisingly enough. For as long as he was in the lab (and from before, even if the wouldn't talk about it they've known each other since before the job) David Hodges always noticed the tune that his co-worker sung or hummed or sometimes whistled, but it was always on the same day, April 20th. It wasn't until he saw the calendar inside of Greg's locker and saw the words Jane and Lucy R.I.P on it that Hodgess left him alone whenever that song came up. Though of course David had to ask one day why Greg was singing that song, the lab rat's only response was a confused look and Greg asking "what song?".
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Greg afterwards hummed what David now knew to be the chorus, completely oblivious of what he was doing, and Hodgess never again bothered him on that day or asked anything about the song.
Next person to notice was Sara. When visiting Greg in the hospital she found said man laying on the bed looking tired and beat-up as ever, and humming, every time she visited he was humming the tune. She didn't understand what it was about the tune but she noticed he started singing it after being told the boy he hit with his car had died. The blond didn't cry, he didn't show many signs of knowing what he had done (even if something was justified most people are in a state of shock when they accidentally kill someone) he just started singing. She tuned in once again for the lyrics and heard his whispering voice sing…
Muriel Stonewall 1903 to 1954
Lost both of her babies in the second great war
Now, you should never have to watch as your only children are lowered in the ground
I mean you should never have to bury your own babies
That was when it hit her. He was mourning though the song. While not wanting to break his happy-go-lucky mask he grieved and cried like the rest of them, and he was giving the boy a different kind of goodbye, he was giving the boy his last respects even if most people didn't understand what he was doing. No parent should have to bury his or her child, even if the kid was a murderer; Greg knew this better than anyone.
Brass noticed next. The usually exuberant ex-lab-rat had been sporting a rather somber expression for the past week and Brass, being the detective he was, was trying to solve the mystery. He tried outright asking how Greg was at first, he only got a sad and lonesome fine, then he tried subtle hints, showing that he knew something was wrong, and tried to find any fluctuation in mood, body language, or in his (Greg's) voice when he said anything about the boys home life, that plan was shot down quickly, Jim had tried every trick in the book after that to try to get the younger man to talk but needless to say none of it worked. Jim Brass was about to tie the boy up and make him spill his entire home-life until he heard the boy hum. I was a song he heard before and he silently added the lyrics in his head…
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Brass the tried something he never thought he would, Asking someone about the young mans mood. He (after a lot of consideration) asked Gil simply because, while the guy was emotionally constipated and socially retarded, he watched people more than anyone else he knew (and more accurately too). Grissom spent a grand total of 10 seconds explaining.
"The boy lost his grandmother, it's his way of grieving"
But Jim Brass knew that, while blunt, it was the best way of explaining anything to him without getting exasperated at people trying to sugar coat anything. So he thanked his friend and went on his way, hoping the whole time to see the usual smile creep back into the face of the youngest CSI.
Warrick Brown was a good guy, a (somewhat) tolerant guy but, if he had to hear one more Marilyn Manson song or whatever the hell other crap Greg listened to he might have to kill the guy or himself (but Greg seemed like a better target so he could live with murder). Greg was at the lab again for a week because the current one (Warrick can't really think of their name with the noise around him) had a 'Family emergency' (every one knew they where just taking a vacation but had called in sick too many days to call it that) and had gone for the week. At first everything was great (they were getting results in faster than they had for a long while) but that night he had worked a double, most of it spent in the lab, and during the entire time Greg was listening to that infernal noise (he refuse to call it music) and it was grinding on his last nerve. So when he got in two days later (he had a night off) and found the lab sans that horrible sound he was pretty happy. He did find it a little bit odd that the temporary Lab-Rat was singing something soft and that had to be played with actual notes, he just passed it off as Greg developing some taste in actual music. It took Catherine telling him that Greg had a case in which a father had murdered his own little girl (well if he was completely honest with himself it took a bit more than that because Greg handled cases with kids better that all of them), then she proceeded to tell him how Greg got there in time to hold the girl as she died but the ambulance hadn't arrived nearly as fast, the little girl died while smiling because even if it was a stranger someone cared enough to hold her in the moment of her passing. It was truly then when he understood why there was no Manson that day and instead Greg's voice singing a D.M.B song filled the lab instead…
Ring around the rosey
Pocket full o'posey
Ashes to ashes
We all fall down
When realization of what that song fully hit the level 2 CSI he for once wished for a Manson C.D. and then realized something else….
He never wanted to hear Greg sing a song with actual notes in it again. Especially not if they mean something similar to this one. Because Warrick Brown was a good guy and he could tolerate his friends taste in music (noise) as long as it mean the boy was happy.
Nick didn't noticed. Not until it was way too late. The Texan knew most things there were to know about the Californian. He knew that when the blond tapped his fingers on his leg it meant he was exited but can't say what about (it usually meant he found something out but was told to keep it a secret). The brunette knew that when the other man was nervous he would wear something green (when asked he said something about the color having a calming effect on him). In short he knew everything there was to know about his co-worker but that one crucial detail. So when he announced his engagement he just passed the song off as Greg having stuck in his head, probably got obsessed with the song recently and heard it so many times he couldn't get it out of his mind. So he let Greg sing.
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Oh Gravedigger
Nick Stokes CSI extraordinaire never noticed Greg's heart breaking, or the fact that Greg what mourning the loss of something important, that Greg was grieving the loss of his love. So he was the most surprised (and probably the most hurt) when (after Greg not answering any calls for the past hour) they went to check on the exuberant blond and found the man's corpse instead.
Little Mikey Carson '67 to '75
He rode his bike like the devil until the day he died
When he grows up he wants to be Mr. Vertigo on the flying trapeze
Oh, 1940 to 1992--
The younger CSI killed himself about two hours before they had arrived. His method of choice being a bottle of Grey Goose Vodka he was given for his last birthday (he refused to open it at the party saying something that expensive would be used on a more important occasion 'maybe promotion' he said) and a bottle of sleeping pills he recently got because of recent nightmares (most of them had to do with nick being buried again and ended with nick saying he hated him for not getting him out). He left a note stating to give anything he had to his parents and apologizing, his explanation being 'I can't mourn anymore, I decided to leave the pain behind but I want to feel the rain too'.
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
I can feel the rain
I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Gravedigger
Nick never did get what that part of the note meant nor did he get the looks his co-workers gave him, but he mourned and blamed himself just the same, and every year nick puts on a Manson C.D. in the D.N.A. lab. His own way of saying goodbye to the man he fell in love with. The man he gave up on after seeing his almost fatal attraction to Sarah.
Ok originally the ending was going to be different but the story just kind of finished itself. Please review con-crit appreciated.