Disclaimer: I don't own CSI, Greg or Nick. Nor do I own any of the movies or musicals that I have "borrowed" lines from.

AN: Not sure how happy I actually am with this story, but thought I'd publish it anyway. I've stolen a couple of lines from the musical "Wicked" (and if you can spot which ones then you may have seen it as many times as me, despite living over 400 miles away from London) and a couple from the movie "Wimbledon". I own neither, but liked the way these lines fitted into my story. The story features AngryNick whom I'm not sure I like and ConfusedGreg who, at least, is always funny. Any reviews appreciated.

Greg wasn't exactly sure what he was doing. He had been randomly driving around a four block radius for the last ten minutes but still couldn't see Nick anywhere.

"Great," Greg thought.

The evening had all started so innocently. Catherine had suggested a few drinks to help Doc Robbins celebrate his 10'000 autopsy (or something like that. Greg never really needed a reason to party) and they had all headed off to hers for some drinks. Everyone was pretty happy because they'd had a really good result earlier. He had been looking forward to an innocent night of fun, despite the strange vibe he was getting from some of his co-workers.

Because Nick had been acting weird with Greg for the last few weeks now and it was beginning to rile. The usual easy banter and playful teasing that they shared as colleagues has disappeared to be replaced by an uneasy tension and atmosphere. And Greg had no explanation for it at all. Nothing significant had happened recently. Greg acted exactly in the way he always had around Nick – he teased and flirted to his best ability without really thinking there was anything behind it. At least on Nick's part.

"Boy, was I wrong about having a fun night," Greg thought to himself as he turned the car down a street he was pretty sure he had been down twice already.

The night had just gone from bad to worse. Hodges had spent the whole time they were at Cathrine's arguing with Wendy. Archie fell asleep on the sofa. Ray and Doc talked about all the horrible autopsy's they had performed in their time until Riley asked them to stop because they were making her feel ill. And Nick was still being weird.

Greg had been watching him all night, which was not something new for him. Greg spent most of his time at work watching Nick, but tonight he had been acting more strangely than he ever had, even recently. He had barely said anything all night which was very unlike him. He had drunk more alcohol than Greg had ever seen him drink before, which had caused him to be extremely rude to both Catherine and Riley. And Greg was pretty sure that Nick had been glaring at him all night as well. And while this would usually have delighted Greg, tonight it gave him a weird sense of foreboding – like he was standing on the edge of something massive.

Eventually the staring had gotten too much for Greg and he had suggested heading to a club to ease the tension. As the designated driver he had taken Riley, Cath and Nick with him and the others had taken a cab. Nick had behaved like a petulant child all the way there, spending his time ignoring questions from the girls and drinking out of a bottle of Jim Beam he had brought along for the ride. Once there, Greg dropped the others off and went to park up. As he walked up to the club he found Nick having an all out screaming match with the bouncer.

"Hey, hey what's going on?" Greg asked the nearest guy, who had one hand restraining Nick from entering the club, while another bouncer held him from behind.

"This your buddy?," he asked Greg. When Greg replied in the positive, eyeing Nick warily as he still fought against the bouncer restraining him, the nearest guy elaborated.

"He lasted two minutes before picking a fight and he's not getting back in."

At this Nick had spun around and disappeared off, throwing a stream of profanities at Greg and the bouncers over his shoulder.

"Which takes me pretty much up to date," thought Greg. "Driving around looking for the very drunk, very angry object of my secret affection." He turned down another street and wondered again what exactly was going on. He had called Cath to tell her why he wasn't currently joining them in celebration and she seemed just as confused about Nick's behaviour as Greg was. "And she doesn't have weeks of weird behaviour to contend with as well."

As Greg turned down another street he finally caught sight of Nick. He stopped the car, got out and walked slowly towards him in a way that he hoped didn't betray how nervous he was. After Nick's weird behaviour in the last few weeks, Greg didn't like to admit he had no idea what was about to happen or how Nick was going to react.

"Nick?" No response.

"What's going on, man? You've kind of got everyone worried." At his voice Nick raised his head and glared at Greg with a look of such venom on his face that it took Greg's breath away for a minute.

"Like you care," Nick spat at him, turning away and trying to bury himself in the alley wall.

"Of course I do! I've spent the last ten minutes looking for you! What is going on?" Greg was getting increasingly angry and reached out to turn Nick around.

"None of your god damm business," Nick spat back throwing off Greg's arm.

Greg was now face to face with Nick in the alley. "This is ridiculous, Nick! You've drunk too much, let's just go and you can.."

Nick's fist collided with Greg's jaw before he managed to finish his sentence and Greg landed flat on his back, searing pain coursing through his face.

It was a couple of seconds before Greg's brain processed what had just happened.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME! You fucking hit me! What is going ON?" Greg exclaimed from the ground. Nick's only response was to drag Greg to his feet before backing him into the alley wall. Nick grabbed him again and pinioned his arms so that they were above his head.

Greg had never seen anyone look so insane. Nick was panting heavily, eyes boring into Greg's, sweat pouring off him. Despite the circumstances Greg was horrified to find that his attraction to Nick still overrode his desire to try to preserve his facial features as they were supposed to be. He had never been this close to Nick and despite Nick's temper and behaviour, Greg was ridiculously turned on.

Nick still hadn't said anything. He was just staring at Greg and breathing heavily as if trying to get himself under control.

As always when under pressure Greg started babbling. "So, due to our long friendship, I might be willing to overlook the recent punching and weeks of strange behaviour, if you will just tell me what the fuck is going on with you. I don't get it.."

Nick moaned in obvious frustration. "You don't get it. You've never gotten it. How can you not understand?"

Nick stared straight at him again whilst repositioning his hands so that only one of Nick's hands was holding both of Greg's above his head. Nick brought his free hand down to touch the part of Greg's jaw that was slowly turning purple. Greg couldn't breathe. The shear force of tension that hung in the air had made even thinking difficult.

Shakily Greg said "I'm gonna ask you one more time. What's going on?"

Nick moved his thumb up and down Greg's swollen jaw, before moving right into Greg's space. Their faces were inches apart and Greg could practically taste Nick all over him. Nick took one shaky breath before talking.

"You're mine, OK. Mine. No-one else's. I can't handle it anymore. I can't spend another day watching you flirt with Riley and strut about the lab. Not one more day. Mine."

And he reached in to close the distance between them, kissing Greg with all the force he had previously put behind his punch.

Greg was pretty sure this was what heaven felt like, because he was in complete sensory overload. Nick was kissing him desperately, like a man possessed, slowly trailing his one free hand down Greg's swollen face while the other held Greg's hands fast above his head. His tongue was desperately trying to push into Greg's mouth and as Greg slowly parted his lips an involuntary groan issued from both men.

When they finally broke apart they were both panting hard. Nick finally let Greg's hands free and Greg didn't think twice about smacking Nick right in the jaw.

Nick barely flinched and only backed away slightly, as if moving away from Greg was more distressing than being punched in the face. He smiled lazily and said "Feel better?"

"Yes, I do."

"Good." Nick chuckled and Greg saw red.

"You could have just said something, Nick! But NO. Communication is too much for hard man Nick Stokes. So instead the way you tell me that you love me is by punching my lights out in an alley. While wasted! SO not romantic. I mean, you could have just said something, and then I could have told you that I love you too and we wouldn't have had any alcohol related problems! Or months of infantile behaviour! It's just ridiculous for a grown man to.."

"What did you say?" Nick interrupted taking a step back.

" I said," started Greg again exasperatedly "that you are behaving ridiculously for a grown.."

"No, not that bit," Nick cut in. "Before that."

"I love you," Greg replied more quietly. "It's not a difficult thing to actually say, you know."

Nick moved forward again and rested his forehead against Greg's. "That's good. I thought I was alone in the love thing."

"Well, you're not," Greg replied still slightly annoyed. "Although there are better ways to express it."

"Hmm," Nick whispered quietly into his ear. "Maybe you can show me those later on."

Greg squirmed at the obvious desire in Nick's voice and forced Nick to make eye contact.

Nick stared directly into his eyes. "Mine," he stated with finality.

"Yours," Greg agreed.