Here it is…. The sequel to Spring Break With The Lab Rats! To those of you who haven't read that, I suggest you go do that. As in, now. I've kin of reinforced the main events of the last story at the end of this one, but still, in order to understand the OCs and the pairings you should definitely read it. This first chapter is basically just getting into the storty, which will follow a similar format to the prequel, a.k.a. the next chapter will be some random pointless conversation between the girls. Because I love random, pointless conversation. And I hope you do too! Also, for those of you who read the last one, in case you didn't notice, I added a prologue for this story at the end of that one. If you wanna read that, do, but its set a while AFTER this chapter, there will be quite a bit more to go, so obviously, spoiler alert. If you're going to read it, do, but please don't say anything about it in the reviews in case you ruin it for somebody else who didn't want to read it. Ah, yes, reviews. As always, reviews are absolutely adored and will spur me on to update sooner rather than later! So please review for me? Please? Anyway, enough babbling! This is… Keeping Up With The Lab Rats!
It was a Friday, around seven o clock, and It had been exactly two months and seven days since Lexi AND Archie got married. Greg and Archie were lounging in the front seats of Greg's red Ferrari, with the roof rolled right down, letting the evening sun stream in. They had been in that exact position for ten minutes now, parked outside Hodges new apartment building, waiting for their friend to arrive. And they were getting a little annoyed.
"How long can one person take to get ready?" Archie asked Greg, leaning against the passenger seat of the Ferrari and tilting his head back into the sun.
"Apparently, a long time." Greg replied, checking Archie's watch again. He was always forgetting to bring his own and so had taken to lifting his friends arm up at random intervals to check the time.
"I thought girls were supposed to be the ones who took ages to get ready?" Archie asked, turning his attention from the blue sky up above him to his friend beside him and reclaiming his arm.
"Girls and Hodges." Greg shrugged, rolling the roof further down.
"Here he comes now!" Archie yelled, pointing.
"Finally!" Greg sighed, turning the car on again.
"What took you so long Hodges?" Archie asked as their friend got into the backseat.
"Yeah, are you sure you're a dude?" Greg asked him.
"Like, have you checked recently?" Archie continued.
"I think we should ask Wendy!" Greg decided "Or have you not gone that far yet?"
"That's just immature." Hodges informed him.
"Oooh, he hasn't!" Archie laughed, poking Hodges in the arm.
"Whatever. I'm here now. Let's go get Nick?" Hodges asked, colouring a little.
"Fine. Did you text him and say we were gonna be late?" Greg asked Archie.
"Yep. Thanks to Hodges." Archie grinned.
"Did you guys take extra nasty pills today or something?" Hodges retorted.
"Hey, just because Wendy won't sleep with you yet doesn't mean you should take it out on us." Greg exclaimed, silently hi-fiving Archie.
"My personal life is nothing to do with you." Hodges insisted snippily.
"I bet it's you. You're the one waiting for marriage, right?"Archie asked him.
"That wouldn't be too hard for you, would it?" Hodges shot back.
"What?" Greg asked, confused.
"Seeing as you got married to what, your first ever girlfriend?" Hodges directed at Archie.
"I've had other girlfriends." Archie protested.
"Computer games don't count Archie. And you did get married really quick." Greg added.
"I didn't see much of a point in waiting." Archie shrugged.
"You're like that guy off Friends." Greg laughed.
"Which one"? Archie asked.
"The guy who gets married all the time." Greg told him, trying to remember his name.
"Ross?" Archie asked.
"Yeah him." Greg nodded.
"Except I've only been married once. And I said her name at the altar, wasn't drunk at the time and so far, doesn't look like she'd going to leave me for somebody called Susan." Archie objected.
"Still. You got married less than a year after starting going out." Archie insisted.
"It still doesn't change the fact you and Wendy haven't slept together yet." Archie told Hodges.
"Who says we haven't?" Hodges argued.
"Wait, you have?" Greg asked.
"I'm not discussing it." Hodges answered, turning to face the window.
"He so hasn't." Archie whispered loudly.
"Oh look, we're at Nick's house." Hodges interrupted.
"Stop changing the subject." Archie told him.
"I'll call him and tell him we're here." Greg offered.
"You do that. I'll continue being annoyed by Archie." Hodges told him.
"Hey Nick. Yeah. Yeah we're outside now. Ok. Uh-huh. – Shhh you guys, I can't hear him - Yeah. See you in a minute."
"Well?" Archie asked Greg once he got off the phone.
"He's coming." Greg smiled.
"And he's here. See Hodges? This is how you're supposed to do it." Archie told him.
"Hey guys. Where you been?" Nick asked, getting into the car.
"Waiting for Hodgella over here." Greg laughed.
"Hurtful!" Hodges exclaimed.
"Come on, let's go." Archie laughed.
"Next stop, Henry's house!" Greg proclaimed.
"Turn that off." Nick told Greg when he attempted to play his Marilyn Manson C.D.
"My car. My music." Greg grinned.
"I don't make you listen to horrible music when you're in my car." Hodges cut in.
"A, it's not horrible music. And B, we never go anywhere in your car." Greg answered him.
"True." Hodges nodded.
They drove for a few more minutes and then all of a sudden, the music went off. Nick started to laugh.
"How did you do that?" Hodges asked Nick.
"No way I'm telling you man." Nick laughed back.
"Come on Nick…" Greg moaned.
"Nope." Nick shook his head.
"Well ha." Greg said, turning the music back on. Seconds later it went off again.
"Ha." Nick replied.
"Ha." Greg said, turning it back on.
"HA." Nick yelled as it went off again.
"HAA." Greg echoed, as the music wen
"HAA!" Greg yelled, putting it back on.
"HAAAAA!" Nick yelled, turning it off mysteriously.
"Okay you win. What do you want to listen to?" Greg asked, rifling through his CD rack while trying to keep his eyes on the road. This didn't go very well, and ended up with Archie leaning over him to take the steering wheel and drive the car to avoid being hit by a truck. Once they had recovered, Greg repeated the question again.
"How about.." Nick begun, but Greg cut him off.
"No country music." He told him. Then he turned to Hodges "Or classical. Or anything else suckish."
"Suckish." Hodges repeated.
"Problem?" Greg asked.
"Your vocabulary." Hodges answered.
"Your mom." Archie cut in.
"Now that's immature." Hodges told him.
"That's a classic." Archie insisted.
"Your mom?" Nick asked, confused.
"Yeah. Gamers say it to each other when they're talking online to try and psych each other out." Greg explained.
"Oh." Nick nodded, still not quite understanding.
"You really must stop refusing to play online games." Archie told him.
"Yeah. You're like the only one in our little society who doesn't play." Greg
"Even though Hodges is so bad it hardly counts." Archie added.
"Leave me alone." Hodges moaned.
"Can we just change the subject? I don't wanna play your games." Nick asked.
"Yeah, good idea." Hodges nodded.
"So….what you guys doing tomorrow?" Nick attempted.
"Your mom." Archie told him.
"Ouch. I gettit. That is pretty annoying." Nick laughed.
"Especially when you hold your mother in such high esteem like Hodges does." Greg added.
"At least I know how to dress myself." Hodges shot back.
"Wait, what?" Nick asked.
"You missed it. Greg came into work the other day with his shirt on inside out." Hodges told him.
"I was in a hurry okay?" Greg protested.
"Any particular reason you and Kelly both arrived into work late Greg?" Archie asked him.
"Traffic." Greg replied, a little too quickly.
"Sure." Archie said sarcastically.
"Oh look, Henry's outside waiting for us. You taking notes, Hodges?" Greg asked him.
"No." Hodges said snippily.
"Henry!" Nick yelled out the window.
"Hey guys." Henry smiled, taking the last available seat in the car.
"Hey." Archie replied.
"Nice shirt." Greg told him.
"Thank you." Henry grinned.
"You never told me you liked my shirt." Nick protested.
"I don't." Greg shrugged.
"Hey! Well, I don't like yours either." Nick told him.
"Mines the best." Archie insisted, pointing to his shirt.
"No way, mine is the best." Hodges interjected.
"Don't you wear that every day?" Archie asked him.
"No. I just have several similar ones." Hodges explained.
"Mines the best." Nick told them.
"No way. We all have to agree that it's mine." Greg argued.
"It is pretty awesome." Henry nodded.
"Thatnk you Henry. You can be second best." Greg told him.
"Hey look, we're here." Archie said, realising that the car had stopped and they had reached their destination.
"Nothing gets past you Archie." Greg said sarcastically.
"That was uncalled for." Archie insisted.
"Come on you guys, the girls are probably already here and waiting." Nick said, getting out of the car.
"It's kinda funny how we still arrive by gender even though we're all living in pairs." Henry said.
"That is pretty strange. But I would never go in a pink Bentley." Nick laughed.
"And the guys in my Ferrari is kind of a classic." Greg added.
"I suppose it is." Hodges mused.
"Now come on." Archie said, waving them forward.
And the lab rat club followed him into the cinema.
The funny thing was, they weren't even all lab rats anymore. Wendy and Archie were newly appointed CSI's, along with Greg and Nick, who were now supervisor and assistant supervisor of the nightshift.
Greg and Archie still lived two doors down from each other in their apartment building, although Greg now lived with Kelly, his girlfriend, and Archie lived with Lexi, his wife. Hodges had finally moved out of his mothers house, and Wendy had bought Mandy's half of their once shared apartment off her. Wendy and Hodges now lived their, while Mandy and Henry had bought a little suburban house together so they would have more room for the baby Mandy was expecting in two months time. Nick and Abby had bought a new apartment together, and Nick had been walking around with an engagement ring in his jacket pocket for three weeks now, still waiting for the right moment to pop the question.
So a lot had changed. Yet they still referred to themselves as the lab rats. They almost missed the old thrill of having to sneak around under Ecklie and Grissoms noses, now that they had a whole shift to themselves. They all missed Bobby, their old ballistics tech who was currently in Paris with his wife. Nick and Greg missed Sara and Grissom, who had gotten married and lived together now, and Catherine and Warrick, who worked the dayshift now. But they were actually quite happy together. Happy with the way things were. And even though they saw each other all the time, Greg was still always organising their little outings and meetings and random yet fun activities. Tonight they were going to the cinema to see some Barbie and Unicorns Go To Magical Fairy Flower Universe film. Their plan was to sit next to random children with the Barbie dolls Archie had bought and make conversation about the movie. Also, they were going to cry whenever anything remotedly sad happened and laugh much longer and louder than everyone else. All in all, a great night out.
A lot of things had changed. They were living together now, in couples as supposed to as friends. But they still called themselves the lab rats. And with all the people getting engaged and married and pregnant and promoted, things were probably going to keep changing. It was going to be hard to keep up with the lab rats.
Here's an idea! Review?