Summary: all they could do is see them endless mountain of bodies. All they want to do is get away, but luckily for them, there's always someone there to bring them back down to earth.
-----------------------------------Needing Peace, Finding Comfort---------------------------------
As hard as Greg tried, he couldn't get the image of 12-year-old Georgia out of his head. She'd been beaten and eventually murdered by those she thought she could trust. As much as he tried, sleep just wouldn't come. The images, the blood, the betrayal just wouldn't go away. Georgia had run and called 911 after her father had pulled at a bat from the closet and ran at her. The police had arrived only seconds too late, being witnesses to the murder after breaking through the door.
Right now, all Greg wanted to do was sleep, but still, it wouldn't come. He wanted to scream, to realise everything that was stuck inside, but nick was asleep only a few inches away. So he slowly and quietly got out of bed, heading for the gym they both used after ruff night like these.
So picking up the gloves, he placed them on his hands out began to beat the crap out of the boxing bag. The harder he hit, the faster the tears began to flow down his face. Punch after punch, kick after kick, nothing seemed to work. The images were still there, but he couldn't stop, he just couldn't.
He slowly began to forget about the world, shouting out every time his body connected with the bag, not aware the Nick had been standing behind him, just a few feet away. After his ankle connected with the bag at a wrong angle, he let out a yelp, but soon ignored the pain as it would only slow him down. Suddenly arms circled around his waist, but he didn't care, he just couldn't stop. After Nick realizing it wasn't working he grabbed Greg wrists and tried to force him to turn around. Greg, not being ready for the sudden force of movement, swung around with the glove connecting with Nick's face.
Nick was thrown back with the sudden force, stumbling backwards and few feet and landing on his ass.
"Oh my god, Nick, I-I'm s-so sorry. I-I'm sorry, I just, I-" Greg said through uncontrollable sobs. After staring at Nick face for only a few seconds, he ripped off the gloves and ran out of the room.
Nick, overcome by shock, could only watch as Greg ran out of the room. After shaking it off, he got up off the floor and followed Greg to their room, where he found Greg had locked himself in their bathroom. Nick could hear Greg's panicked sobs through the bathroom door.
Nick slowly approached the door and began to quietly knock on the door.
"Greg, please come out. Come on"
Soon after, the sobs reduced to sniffles, but the door remained closed.
"Greg, open the door. You can't stay in there forever."
Slowly the door opened but Greg still didn't come out, but a quiet voice sounded from inside.
"Nicky, I'm so sorry, please don't hit me, I didn't mean to I just- I'm so sorry!"
"Jesus Greg, I would never hurt you, you know that. Why would you even say that?"
"I know, but I hit you and, god it was just an accident I swear. After the beating I'm just, I'm afraid of getting hit. I'm sorry!"
"I know baby, I know. Don't you ever think that I'm mad at you. Not ever, do you understand!"
"Nick I-"
"Greg, I love you and I'm here for you always not matter what alright."
"Yeah, yeah alright, I know, I love you too."
Finally as Greg looked up into Nicks eyes, he knew there was no anger or pity in his eye, but love and concern.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah Nick, I'm fine. Just a hard case ya know."
"I know G. I'm not really tired anymore. You hungry?
"Kinda."
"Okay. Come on."
While Greg had been high on adrenaline these past few minutes, he was now calm and fully aware of the throbbing pain from his ankle. As soon as Nick held a hand out and helped Greg up, a second yelp of pain escaped his lips and was sent stumbling back into the floor.
"Greg! Where does it hurt?"
"Ahhh, my ankle. Hit it wrong on the bag. Sorry."
"Sweetie, you have to stop apologizing okay! Lets take a look."
As Nick started to remove Greg's pant leg, he could already see the swelling beginning to come forward, and a bruise starting to appear.
"Ummm Greg? How hard did you hit the bad exactly?"
"I don't know, I mean, I was pretty angry and didn't try to hold back. Nick it really hurts!"
"I know baby, I think you've got a bad sprain. Lets take you to the hospital to get it looked at."
"Nick no, please. Can't we just go see Dr. Robbins or something? Nicky, please."
"Okay, okay. Their shift starts in a few hours so I don't think he'll mind us coming in straight away. Lets have a shower and ill get you something for it."
"Okay."
They quickly showered, dressed and got Greg safely onto the couch with an icepack.
"K, I'm gonna go start the truck and call Griss, then come back for you okay?"
"Yeah, sounds good."
(outside starting the car)
"Grissom."
"Hey Griss."
"Nick, what can I do for you?"
"I was actually wondering if Dr. Robbins was in today?"
"Yes, as far as I know. Can I ask why?"
"Ummm, Greg come home from a rough shift and had an accident last night."
"Yeah, he had the tough case of the night, there was no one else to do it, I felt bad for the kid but it had to be done. Is he okay? What happened?"
"He's fine now. He decided it was a good idea to do some boxing in the middle of the night, hit the bag wrong, and busted his ankle."
"Why don't you take him to the hospital to get looked at?"
"He won't go. Ever since the beating, hospitals haven't exactly been his favourite place to hang out.
"That's totals understandable. Bring him in as soon as you like, sorry you have to come in on your day off, especially under the circumstances. See you soon."
"Yeah, thanks Griss, bye."
(back inside the house)
"Hey, what did Grissom say?"
"He said we can come on in anytime, come on, the trucks ready so lets head on up."
"K."
"Come on, I'll help you into the car okay?"
"Yeah, don't trust myself to get their on my own right now!" they both laughed.
On their way to the lab, the usual hand-on-hand combat for the radio took place the whole way there. Once they arrived, Nick gently helped Greg out of the truck and onto the sidewalk, place Greg's arm over his shoulders and taking all of the weight off his ankle.
Everyone at the crime lab knew about their relationship so it wasn't unusual for them to come in together, in fact it very unusual for them to come in separately, which often meant they had had a fight, and that make the particular shift horrible for everyone. Whenever this happened, everyone made sure that by the end of the shift they had the problem worked out, because working with a snappy Nick and I quiet Greg was unsettling and you were in for a dreadful shift. So when Nick came in that shift, practically carrying Greg, this left everyone dazed and very confused.
"Griss!"
"Oh, hey guys. I told the doc you would be coming in to see him sometime today so he's ready whenever. I've really got to go. Hope you feel better Greg." And he left.
"Hey Nick, what are you guys doing- Greg! What the hell happened to your ankle, its black and blue!"
"We probably should have gone with the long pants, this is gonna be a long day!"
"Well, what happened? Don't tell me you guys had another fight?!"
"What, no, no, I errr- well I kinda was a little upset last night coz of the case and got into a fight with the boxing bag… and the bag won."
"Oh good, oh, I mean, that you to didn't get into another fight or anything, Anyways, what are you guys doing here?"
"We came to see the doc, for Greg,"
"Oh, well I won't keep you guys here any longer. Have fun!"
"We'll try. Catch up with ya later. Bye!"
After many questions and explanation of Greg's shoeless black and blue ankle, they were finally on their way to the morgue.
"Hello Greg. Grissom told me you would be coming into see me sometime today. What can I do for you?"
"I need you to take a look at my ankle, done something to it boxing last night."
"Oh my, I can see that. Well let's get you up here and have a look shall we. Okay then. Well at first look it looks badly bruised. Can you move it at all?"
"No."
"Okay, lets get you an x-ray."
After many long and painful minutes, it turns out that Greg had a bad sprain, with deep bruising and would have to stay off it for the next few weeks, which was much to Greg's disappointment. After that was over, they headed home with a spare pair of crutches Dr. Robbins had lying around. The rest of the day was spent cuddling on the couch, sleeping and full of lazy (but hot!) kisses.
As the days went on, Greg remained in the lab, doing whatever he could to help, with his backside glued to the chair (after being banned from moving by Nick). After a hard day a work for the whole team, everyone was one edge. There had been a triple homicide, a child molester and a rape victim that all connected together, turn into one bit nightmare. When Nick and Greg got home, Nick couldn't hold it in any longer letting his anger out on what happened to be their bedroom door. Greg had known something like this would happen because of the case involving the child, so he let Nick work through it like he always did, by himself.
After 10 minutes of Nick in the gym, Greg began to worry. Nick had never spent this long in the gym while working out his anger. It was usually just a few minutes, and then he found comfort in Greg. Greg slowly walked into the gym, making sure to alert Nick to his present by coughing as he entered behind Nick, but with the music blaring (Greg's music) Nick obviously hadn't heard him. As soon as Nick had felt a hand on his shoulder, not knowing it was Greg, he lashed out with all he had, hitting Greg square in the face with both fists this time with Greg flying through the air and into the wall, hitting his head of the shelf on the way down.
By the time Greg was on the ground, he was barely conscious.
"GREG! Greg baby, can you hear me?"
As Nick reached around to lift Greg up, his hand caught something wet and sticky. As he pulled his hand away he saw blood. Greg's blood.
"Oh my god, what have I done? Greg? Come on Greg please, GREG!"
"Nicky?"
"Greg, don't move, I'm gonna take you to the hospital okay?"
"No! Nicky please." Greg's word still coming out as slurs.
"I have to Greg, I can't fix this by my self this time. I'm so sorry G."
"Nicky, my head hurts." At this point, Nick was on the verge of tears.
"I know, come on, let's get you up."
By the time they had made it to the truck, Greg had pass out, and needed to get to the hospital A.S.A.P, this was gonna be a hard one to explain to Grissom, let alone Sara and Catharine! Nick had a feeling he was gonna be black and blue by the time he finished telling them.
"Grissom."
"Griss, it's me."
"Nick, what wrong."
Nick could no longer hold in the tears and they came running down his cheeks.
"I don't know what I'm gonna do Griss, it was just an accident! I didn't mean to hurt him. "
"Nick, what have you done?"
"I was in the gym after shift, when Greg came in. I didn't hear him and the next thing I know, my fist are connecting with his face, then he fall back and hits his head of the shelf. Damn it Griss! He was bleeding. I'm on my way to the hospital right now. Can one of you guys meet me there?"
"We'll all be there in a few minutes alright?"
"Okay, it was just an accident!"
"I know Nicky, I know. Just get there safe okay, we don't need two accidents."
"Okay. See you there."
Nick managed to get the without a hitch. Greg was taken into a private room while Nick waited in the seating area, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive.
"Nicholas James Stokes! What did you do to Greg?!" Nick could hear Sara screaming down the hallway.
"N-nothing, it was an accident, I swear Sara!"
"An accident, I don't call hitting your boyfriend in the face and knocking him unconscious and accident!"
Nick began to panic as he was crowed around by his friends. His breathing sped up and he was losing his balance. This time it was Grissom who spoke up.
"Nick, are you okay?"
Nick's legs on longer could hold him up and he began to tumble towards the floor.
"Nick!"
"Nick, you there?"
"What? Yeah, I'm fine, just got a little dizzy. Look I'm sorry guys, it really was an accident."
"No Nick, don't be sorry, I shouldn't have shouted at out like that. I was just worried. I'm sorry."
After Nick had explained what had happened, a doctor began walking towards them.
"Nicholas Stokes?"
"Yeah, that's me"
"My name is Dr. Casey, I'm Greg's doctor. Greg has a concussion and some nasty bruising on his wrist from the fall. I also noticed his ankle was swollen but it is an older injury. Would you happen to know about that?"
"Yeah, he hit a boxing bag wrong last week. He's been staying off it; fall on it when he hurt his head. Is he okay?"
"Yes, he's going to be fine. I would like to keep him overnight just as a precaution because of his concussion. I assume he has been using crutches?"
"Yes."
"Okay then, as long as he keeps on using them for at least another 3-4 weeks that should heal up nicely, although he'll be having troubles getting around until he can use his wrist."
"He'll be fine, I'll there 24/7. Can I-we see him?"
"Yes, he'll be waking up shortly."
"Thanks"
As soon as Nick entered the room, Greg sleepy eyes popped open.
"Hey"
"Hey G, baby, I'm so sorry."
"It okay, we're even now I guess."
"What?-No, Greg, I didn't do It on purpose I swear."
"I know Nicky, just joking. Hey guys."
"Hey, how are you feeling?"
"Head feels like the after math of a long Saturday night, but other than that, I'm fine."
"And you would know right?!"
Laughter ran throughout the room and everybody made themselves comfortable. The hospital had provided them with extra chairs allowing them to stay a while after visiting hours. They had seen enough law enforcement teams come in and out, to know they always took care of their own and never gave up without a fight. After a few hours, everyone but Nick headed home for the night.
A nurse doing her rounds a few hours later found Nick asleep on his bed, both tight in each others arms. She quietly grabbed the extra blanket, draping it across them both. He didn't have the heart to wake him and send him home, even if she did; she knew he wouldn't leave anyway.
The end!