Hi everyone, happy new year! Let's hope we'll get to enjoy many great Morganders moments this year! :D
So, here we go with my first story of 2015 - a one shot based on Monday night's CSI episode The Greater Good. I don't think there's really any major spoilers, so if you haven't seen that episode, I think it's safe to read! ;)
Hope you guys like it and of course, if you do (or don't...): just let me know!

Stay the night

The collar around her neck…

"What is this place?"

The lights pointed at her…

"It's hell…"

Ellie with the gun in her hands…

The pain in her back…

Darkness.

Screaming, Morgan sat up in bed. She felt her hair glued to her forehead, her heart beating twice as fast as usual. She breathed in and out heavily. What was going on?

It took her a few moments to realize she was in her own bed in her own house. She had nothing around her neck, there were no lights around her and there was no Ellie.

With a relieved sigh Morgan leaned back against the pillows. It was just a nightmare, there was nothing wrong. She was safely at home… where no one could hurt her.

She knew why she was suddenly dreaming about her kidnapping again. Everything that had been going on with Maya today had unconsciously brought back the memories of her kidnapping… and with it the nightmares she had been having constantly during the first few weeks after she had been found. At work she had of course pretended she was fine as she didn't want people to feel sorry for her. The only person she had been able to fool, was Greg. He had really been there for her during those first few weeks: giving her a shoulder to cry on and a hug whenever she needed it and he had always been willing to listen to her whenever she needed to talk.

Thanks to those talks, and the many more they had had in the past, her nightmares had disappeared. She had forced herself to think about them before she closed her eyes at night (although forcing was a big word as she didn't mind thinking about Greg at all!) and she would be able to sleep without having any nightmares. She had never told Greg as she felt a little embarrassed about it. How would he react if she told him she was thinking about him on purpose before she went to sleep?

Smiling, Morgan lay back down in bed, sending her thoughts towards the colleague she liked so much. Suddenly, she sat up again. Was that a sound? Too afraid to move she just sat there and listened. Was there someone in her house?

Shaking, she reached out to the light switch. Her hand trembled as she reached for her gun. She slowly got out of bed and moved towards the door. She couldn't hear anything anymore, but she was sure she had heard something before.

Quietly she left her bedroom, switching on the light in the hallway. Room by room she checked her house, switching on the lights in every room. Of course there was no one else in the house but her, it was just the nightmare that had scared her.

"Come on, Morgan, get a grip!" she whispered to herself. A sudden sound made her jump up, but it was just the newspaper being delivered. She felt her knees trembling as she breathed out. What was wrong with her? There was nothing going on, it was just a stupid nightmare!

She went back to her bedroom and crawled into bed, her gun close by on her nightstand. She tried to go back to sleep, but it seemed like she kept hearing sounds around her. Trying to ignore them, she closed her eyes, only to open them a second later as she was sure she had heard something by the door. She sat up and saw the shirt she had been wearing yesterday had fallen off the chair she had put it on.

"What is wrong with you?" she whispered to herself. She felt the first few tears appearing in her eyes. They rolled down her cheeks slowly, but then quicker and quicker. She wrapped her arms around her knees as she completely broke down, unable to hold back any longer.

The next morning, as she arrived at work, she pretended she hadn't just spent most of the night crying. She greeted Nick with a smile in the locker room and put away her car keys and wallet, not noticing Nick was watching her.

"I just got a call: double homicide in Henderson," he said after a moment. "Feel like joining me?"

"Oh, eh…" She had actually hoped she'd be able to grab a cup of coffee first or at least talk to…

"Hey!" Greg appeared in the doorway of the locker room. Morgan's face immediately lit up. Smiling at him, she repeated his greeting: "Hey!"

"Russell just gave me the info on a 419 in an elevator," he said. "Wanna come?"

"Wow, I feel popular all of a sudden," she grinned. "First Nick asks me to join him, now you!"

She saw Greg looking at Nick with a bit of a suspicious look in his eyes.

"But if I have to choose between a double homicide and a dead body in an elevator…" she quickly continued, smiling at Greg again. "Then I'll have to go with a dead body in an elevator! After all we have experience with dead bodies in elevators, right?"

To her relief, he smiled back at her. "That's true! Alright, let's go and check out if we have another murder by playing card! You go ahead to the car, I just need to grab my kit."

"Okay!" She took the address he handed her and left the locker room.

Greg waited till he couldn't see her anymore before he looked at Nick. "What's going on? Why did you ask Morgan to join you?"

Nick held up his hands. "I didn't mean anything, man, I swear! It's just… She looked a little down, so I thought she could use some distraction, that's all. You know I'm not interested in her, right?"

"Right," Greg murmured, feeling a little embarrassed now. Of course Nick wasn't interested in Morgan, he knew that!

"Go talk to her, I think she can use a friend right now," Nick advised him. "Or more than a friend, of course, but I'm not going to waste my breath on that anyway as you never seem to find the courage to tell her how you feel! Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find myself another date for my double homicide! Ah, Sara, just the person I was looking for!"

Greg grinned as he saw Sara's surprised face. He then quickly grabbed his kit and hurried outside. Morgan had already started the car and programmed the navigation system, waiting patiently for him now. When she smiled at him, he noticed her face was indeed a little more pale than usual.

"You okay?" he asked her. She smiled at him again. "Yeah, I'm fine, why? Don't trust me to drive?"

"I never trust you to drive," he seriously said to her. It made him feel happy when she grinned at him. "Yeah, I know you don't! Just fasten your seatbelt and close your eyes, it'll be over before you know it!"

"That's what I'm afraid of," he teased her. He avoided her elbow and grinned at her, feeling happy again when she grinned as well. Only for a moment, though, as he knew something was definitely wrong with her.

While they worked the crime scene, Morgan could feel Greg watching her. He knows you're not fine, she heard a little voice saying in her head. Just tell him what's going on! She told the voice to shut up and concentrated on the piece of paper she had just found. A crime scene was not the right place to tell him what was bothering her!

Then tell him when you're back at the lab, the voice in her head sounded.

"Shut up!" she whispered. Too loudly, as Greg looked up. "What did you say?"

"Oh, nothing!" She quickly smiled. "I, eh, found something here, think it might mean something?"

He kneeled down next to her, studying the piece of paper. As he was so close to her, she couldn't keep her eyes off of him anymore all of a sudden. She immediately heard the voice in her head again: You have to tell him…

She let out a sigh, hoping Greg wouldn't notice. Yes, she knew she had to tell him, she just… couldn't…

When they were back at the lab, Greg started running the finger prints they had found through the database. Morgan uploaded the crime scene photos onto the computer and started printing them. Why couldn't she just tell him? It was not like he would laugh at her or call her silly… She could trust him, he was the one person in the world she knew who would never let her down. Then why was she so hesitant?

"Morgan!"

She looked up, not understanding why Greg was suddenly calling out her name.

"You've printed the same photo twelve times already, didn't you hear me say anything after the fifth?" he said with a frown. "What's going on?"

She turned away from the computer, looking at him without saying a word.

"I'll close the door," he understood. She waited till he had done as he had said and sat down on a chair opposite of her.

"I dreamed about my kidnapping last night," she finally confessed. She told him everything: about the nightmare, about the sounds she had thought she had heard, about how she had walked around with her gun and switched on the lights in every room, about the breakdown she had had…

"I just don't understand, it's been over a year!" she called out, frustrated. "Why can't I just get over it?"

Greg got up from his chair and kneeled down in front of her. "Because you've been through a lot… The whole situation with Maya scared me too! When I saw she wasn't in the car, it was like not finding you in that car all over again…"

Morgan shook her head, fighting back the tears. "But it shouldn't be like this! What am I supposed to do now? Sleep with the lights on every night? I just wish…"

She shook her head. That was something she couldn't say out loud!

"You just wish what?" Greg urged her. He gently wiped the one tear from her face. "You just wish what, Morgan?"

She looked up at him. "I just wish I had someone to stay the night…"

He looked back at her. "You know I'll always be there for you when you need me to, right?"

"Right…" It was barely a whisper. He was still looking directly at her with those beautiful brown eyes that always made her feel like her heart was standing still. All of a sudden she couldn't hold back anymore. She leaned in and kissed him.

When she pulled back and he didn't say anything, she felt like she had just ruined whatever it was they had had. The word 'Sorry' was already on her lips when he suddenly leaned in towards her and kissed her. She quickly responded, feeling him deepening their kiss. She allowed him to pull her from the chair, his arms wrapped tightly around her. It was like they were both trying to show everything they had been holding back for so long with just this one kiss.

The end of the story was of course they didn't get much work done anymore. They left a little earlier than usual, hoping no one would notice, and drove straight to Morgan's house. Morgan shivered for a moment when she entered the dark house, but as soon as she felt Greg's hand on her back, she smiled again. She knew she had nothing to worry about anymore: from now on she'd always have someone to stay the night with her.