Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot!
If asked to pick between his two friends, Warrick would have chosen Greg to be the more likely of them to be a sleep talker, rather than the quiet and self-effacing Nick. The loud and constant chatter that Greg exuded at all times when awake automatically marked him as a certain suspect for unconscious nocturnal conversation. Apparently, however, it was the other way around. Greg was silent and still, something he never was when he was awake. Although if Warrick thought about it rationally it made sense because, after all, he needed a rest some time, right? Yet there was quiet and proper Nick, chattering away as if completely unaware that the sentences he was stringing together weren't connected to each other in any logical way. His eyes remained steadfastly closed and his breathing was even during his rare moments of silence, but his voice reverberated around the room like he was having a normal conversation and his face flexed and jumped in a million different expressions.
When Grissom had sent the three men to this conference in Miami, he'd had a bit of a fight with the sheriff about the spending budget for their accommodations. Apparently the city didn't want to pay for two separate rooms. The graveyard supervisor had flushed a lovely shade of pink while divulging this information to the three guys he was supposed to be sending. However, when he had almost shamefacedly asked Nick and Greg if they were secure enough in their masculinity to share a bed, the two younger men had both been sent off in to uncontrollable laughter at the same moment. No one else had really understood the joke in that question, but Nick had come around fast enough to wipe his suddenly streaming eyes and assure Grissom that they would be fine with that for one night he supposed. For some reason, the stress he put on that last addition sent Greg back in to helpless laughter again.
So now here lay Warrick, alone on his twin mattress, wondering where the two other men found room for both of them in their own bed. Greg lay stretched out on his back with one arm tucked under his head and his face tipped sideways towards his bed companion, despite having the side next to the window. Nick was a contrast to that, sleeping on his stomach with both his arms tucked under the pillow and facing the same direction, over towards Warrick. The dark-skinned man found himself lying on his side with his eyes wide open, fascinated by the unsuspected differences in the men he thought he would have known. Their behavioral patterns were completely different than he would have ever imagined! He felt his face pulling in to a smile as Nick suddenly frowned in his sleep and his voice jumped loudly in to the darkness of the room.
"You can't put that there!" he scolded some unseen person. Moments later his forehead had smoothed out and he was smiling. "Yeah, I think I like it better with the stripes," he muttered. Warrick barely held in his laughter, fighting it back for the millionth time that night. He'd been the first asleep, but woken an hour later to the sound of Nick yelling. Panicking at first, he soon realized that Nick was yelling, "grab the ball you idiot, it's right there!" and had quickly figured out that he was talking in his sleep. Now two hours later he was still awake, rest be damned, amused beyond belief by simply watching the show.
"Well if you would have told me that!" Nick suddenly took on his scolding tone again. "No I don't think those pants make your ass look fat, why would you ask that sweetie?" As smooth as sugar, Nick slipped right in to placating, and Warrick couldn't help the snigger that slipped out. Then he bit his lip to keep from laughing because Nick had just told someone "nice ass". His face was almost as amusing as his words, slipping from angry to worried to happy to amused to jealous and around in circles again and again until Warrick had to give up guessing what would come next. No matter how long he lay here, he found that there was just no pattern to the random things coming from Nick's dreams. Apparently he just belted out whatever was passing across his psyche at any given moment, and lord knew that the man always had a lot on his mind. It was just that Warrick had never known that this type of thing was what was on it!
And then the tall man was paying extra rapt attention, because Greg was finally shifting in his sleep, whimpering and rustling beneath the thin comforter covering the two friends. He reached out above him for something that didn't appear to be there, then rolled over on his side, consequently pressing himself full length up against Nick. Warrick clapped an amused hand over his mouth when Greg's arm reflexively came up and encircled Nick's waist. Nick apparently subconsciously felt the contact, because he smiled and murmured, "I love you", which seemed an appropriately expected reaction to the position he was in. What wasn't expected, however, was what came out next. His brows furrowed and he looked a little annoyed.
"Greg, you forgot to call your mother again," he mentioned as if in passing. Warrick couldn't see how that could have possibly followed, and was about to pass it off as following the no pattern theory, but then Greg was moving again. He grunted and sat up, shoving his legs out of the bed without bothering to throw the covers off first. Luckily he didn't become entangled. Warrick watched in amazement as, with his eyes still closed, Greg marched to the middle of the room where the hotel phone was located, picked up the receiving, and dialed a number blindly. Even more amazing, as soon as he had stood up, he'd begun snoring. Warrick heard a woman's voice pick up the call, but when she voiced her greeting, Greg continued to snore, not uttering a word.
It took Warrick maybe thirty seconds to realize that maybe he should take the phone away and apologize to whatever random person Greg had managed to reach. Grinning madly and terribly amused, he sat up, wincing when his back popped. He crossed the room in three easy steps thanks to his long legs and gently pried the phone away from Greg's sleep numb fingers. The blonde didn't seem to notice; he just stood there and gave an extra loud snore.
"Hello?" Warrick murmured quietly in to the phone line. He didn't really want to wake either of his friends up, no matter how amusing their embarrassment would be right now. At least they were getting sleep.
"Oh, hello, where's Nicholas?" a woman's voice answered him. Warrick paused and actually took the phone away from his ear to stare at it for a few seconds. Could Greg have actually gotten the number right? Then he returned it to the side of his face and, even though his conversation partner couldn't see it, he assumed a confused look and held a confused hand in the air, palm up.
"I'm sorry who's this?" he asked. A delicate little chuckle met his ears.
"Wendy Sanders, Greg's mother. Do tell him he called, won't you?" and she said it so casually that it could only mean that this had happened before. Many times. But that didn't explain why she had asked where Nick was. When he asked her she gave a second tiny little laugh, reminding him of small tinkling bells. "Oh because Nicholas usually takes the phone away from him when he calls. Tell the two darlings I said hello please, and ask if Nicholas got that package I sent him." When Warrick bemusedly agreed, the polite woman who claimed to be Greg's mother bid him goodbye and hung up. He stayed holding the phone a little longer until a massive snore brought him back to the real world and he looked up. Greg was still standing there, slumped over but on his feet, dead to the world, unaware that he wasn't in fact in bed.
Warrick set the phone down, shaking his head and still mightily confused. He decided that he would get his answers in the morning. Waking his two pals up right now wouldn't really endear him to them very much and their annoyance would probably prevent them from answering his questions. Especially Greg, who was rumored to be not a morning person at all. As if reminded yet again that the blonde man was still there, Warrick put his hand on the sleeping Californian's shoulder.
"Greg, go back to bed," he said quietly but with authority. Greg grunted and shuffled his way back to the side of bed he had crawled out of. He groped about for the covers blindly, then slid under then and flopped on to his side. Warrick thought he was going to stay there, but apparently he hadn't been shocked enough for one night, because Greg automatically shimmied over to wrap Nick up in his arms and bury his face against the back of the Texan's neck, inhaling lightly and right away ceasing to snore. Nick smiled and squirmed in to his touch.
"Love you Greg," Nick's voice was clear as day and completely unhesitant, like he said it all the time. Like they slept together like this all the time. Warrick sat down heavily on the edge of his bed, bouncing a little, and stared at them with his jaw dropped, unable to believe what he had just seen and heard. He stared and stared until his eyes screamed for him to blink, then he settled for just gazing at his two best friends in complete awe, wondering how he could have missed something like this. Of course, the fact that it was unexpected could be an excuse, but weren't people like him supposed to expect the unexpected? Boy was he a horrible investigator, to miss something this big. Right under his nose too.
Warrick was still sitting awake in the same spot when dawn came and Greg began to stir. It was at least another three hours until they had to wake up, but that didn't seem to deter the young CSI. He yawned a little and tightened his arms around the man he was holding, digger his face deeper and inhaling lightly again. When Nick smiled and muttered, "got to go to the store", Greg chuckled very softly and opened his eyes. He seemed completely unfazed to see whom he was lying with. Actually, it wasn't until he looked down and realized where he was that he showed any signs of concern at all. He immediately rolled away and sat up, stretching his arms above his head.
"Wow, wouldn't want to have to explain that one to Warrick," he muttered to himself before yawning again and scratching his shoulder lazily. Across the room, Warrick lifted an eyebrow and crossed his arms.
"Oh you're already going to have to explain it," he declared. Greg yelped loudly, almost jumping out of his skin when he whipped around to see that the man he didn't want to see awake, was awake. Their gazes met and his was the more panicked of the two, until Warrick lowered his eyebrow and pulled on a calm façade. "Did Nick get that package your mother sent him?" he asked as casually as he could make it sound. Greg laughed nervously and his eyes bolted this way and that, ostensibly looking for an escape route.
"Um, did Nick mention that?" he asked hopefully. Warrick fought to keep his face calm and unassuming.
"No. Actually, she mentioned that," was his reply. Greg's eyes bugged out, but before he could say anything, Warrick continued. "You called your mom G. She says hi. Says hi to Nick too, apparently. You want to explain to me why Nick is the one that takes the calls you make while you're sleeping?" He raised the eyebrow again just to move something, anything, afraid if he didn't he would break the calm and burst in to fits of laughter. Greg deliberated for a minute like he was trying to come up with a plausible sounding answer. Finally he just laughed and looked fondly down at the still sleeping Nick, running a hand through the dark hair presented to him.
"That's just why we go so well together. He talks in his sleep and I…well I listen in mine." Then Greg grinned up at Warrick and in that exact second, he got it. He understood. He could see the love and happiness coming out of Greg's eyes, reflected in the sleepy smile on Nick's face as he muttered brokenly about a baseball bat. And he could tell that, yes, they would go well together. Polar opposites they might be, but it created a balance so perfect that Warrick had never seen anything like it. It was as if they were created for each other, meant to come together, just to be complete other halves to each other. The dark man grinned easily all of a sudden and shook his head in bewilderment.
"Go back to sleep Greg," he suggested quietly. It was, after all, still quite early. Greg smiled again though.
"Nah, I'm all ready to go," he insisted. "Just don't wake Nick, he's a right grouch in the morning." And Warrick started as yet another expectation flew out the window. Happily though, because he spent the next little while getting to know whom his two best friends really were.