Friends to Family
2nd in Series
Author: Lolly4Holly
Pairings: Nick and Greg slash
Contains: M-Preg, M/M slash, Heart Break
Summary: Sequel to Secrets and Desires. As a relationship progresses, a whole new set of challenges arise. Greg thought he was prepared for the next step in their relationship, but it turns out to be a lot more than he bargained for.
Author's Note: Hope you all had an awesome Christmas and I wish you well in the New Year. Here is the much awaited sequel to Secrets and Desires. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you!
~ Holly
Chapter One - Taking the Plunge
Before you take the plunge with your partner into the world of parenthood, you may find it helpful to ask yourselves these questions: Are you both equally committed to becoming parents? Can you afford to take on the responsibility of a new life? Have you thought through how you'll handle childcare responsibilities and balancing your work life with your family? Are you ready to give up sleeping in on Sundays or line up a babysitter every time you want to go out without your baby? Have you thought about how becoming parents may change you and your relationship with those closest to you? Are you prepared for the possibility that your child may have special needs? If you have religious differences, have you discussed how they will affect your baby?
"No, no, no, no and no. We're not ready for any that, are we my little parasite?" Greg sighed heavily, closing the book in his hands as the locker room door suddenly burst open beside him. "Warrick, are you okay?" He ditched the book, jumping to his feet at the sight of the blood pouring down the man's chin. "I thought you were at the precinct talking to the vic's mother?"
"I was." Warrick rushed for the sink, removing his hand from his face to run the cold tap. He cringed as the blood gushed down his face, filling his mouth with its coppery taste. "She hit me." He tried to grab a glob running down his chin, but it already hit his nice new white shirt. "Crazy psycho just thumped me one right there."
"The mother?" Grabbing a wad of tissues, Greg plugged the man's nostrils, leading him over to the bench to sit down. "No don't tilt your head back, you're supposed to lean forwards and breathe through your mouth. If you tilt your head back, the blood pours down your throat."
"Since when did you learn emergency medicine?" The man did as instructed, giving Greg a curious look.
"My Mom. Pinch your nose here." He knelt down in front of the man, making sure it wasn't broken, before Warrick pinched his nose. "After three or four visits to the hospital with a nosebleed, one of the nurses practically insisted that she take a first aid course to take care of me herself at home. She drilled it into my head so many times that I practically know most of it off by heart now." Greg smiled back at him, pulling back to the tissues to see if it was still bleeding. "Why did the victim's mother hit you?"
"Apparently she didn't know that her daughter was an exotic dancer," Wiping the blood from his chin, Warrick leant back on his hands, feeling the thick coppery taste of blood in his throat. "I let it slip when I was telling her where her daughter was found, then she suddenly decked me. Brass had a right go at me, so I thought it was best to slip away up here."
"Yeah, I've been on the receiving end of Brass's wrath many times."
While Greg cleared away the bloody tissues from his nosebleed, Warrick caught sight of the book on the bench. He reached out for it, curiously looking at the title. "How to get ready for a baby? Are you broadening your horizons to childcare, Greggo?"
"No... it's just for..." Greg snatched back the book, hugging it tightly against his chest. "You know, Sadie." He knew that Warrick didn't like talking about his relationship with Nick, so he was hoping that he would drop the subject if he thought it was just for Nick.
"Your moving in with him then," He assumed, showing obvious discomfort with the conversation as he folded his arms tightly across his chest. "Nick told me that you guys were looking at places. Are you serious about moving in with him?"
Greg nodded slightly, stuffing the book into his locker. "I am. We haven't exactly found a place that we can both agree on yet, but I'm serious about living with him. Does that bother you?"
"Do you really care what I think?"
"Yeah." He closed his locker, giving Warrick a smile. "Nick thinks of you as his brother, so that kinda makes us brothers in law now."
"Hey, I wouldn't go that far." The man pushed himself to his feet, making his way over to the sink to wash away the blood from his hands. "But no, it doesn't bother me. I'm actually pretty happy for you, especially if you're taking an interest in raising Sadie with him. You both deserve a little happiness."
"Thanks." Greg handed him a towel, motioning over his shoulder towards the door. "I better get back. I'll see you this afternoon at Sadie's party, right? Nick said he invited most of the guys from the lab."
"I wouldn't miss it." Warrick waved him off, turning to check out his nose in the mirror. He was relieved that she hadn't broken it when she thumped him right in the face, but it still hurt like hell. He made his way out of the locker room, heading for the break room to see if he could find some ice, bumping into the tiny receptionist on his route. "Oh... hi, were you looking for me?"
"Mr Grissom says that you need to fill out an incident report... for your nose. By the end of your shift." She handed the paper work over to him, giving him a smile, before she slipped away back to her desk. "Oh, Mr Sanders. A Doctor Bennett called three times trying to get hold of you." She handed the message card over to him. "It seems kinda urgent. Is there something wrong?"
"No." Greg spoke softly, reading the message card in his hands. "Thank you." He stuffed the card into his pocket, figuring it was just another doctor that wanted in on his case.
It was the worst part of having a rare gene flaw in his mind. His case had been openly discussed with curious doctors, wanting to get in on his case to make their mark or publish a paper about his abnormality. He was trying to avoid the subject at all costs for the time being, focusing more on work rather than the baby that was rapidly growing inside of him.
Roughly eight centimetres long from rump to crown, the baby was rapidly starting to take on more human appearances. The morning sickness that had been causing him to lose his appetite had died down a little, although he still got bouts of it now and then, especially to certain smells. He tried to avoid autopsies at all costs after splattering Doctor Robbins' floor with vomit, but he had managed to keep it hidden from everyone at the lab, despite the slight protrusion in his abdomen.
"Greg..." Sara caught up to him outside his old lab. "Did you hear about what happened to Warrick down in the station?"
"Victim's Mom tried to break his nose?" He gave her a nod. "Your case?"
"Yeah, I tried to tell him that she didn't know, but he had already said it when he realised what I was mouthing to him. If someone had done that to me, I would have pressed charges. You can't just go around hitting people because they told you a few home truths about your daughter."
"She just 'lost' her daughter though. He shouldn't have told her that."
"It's no excuse." She followed him round to the AV lab. "So, Sadie's first birthday this afternoon. Are you going?"
"You already know I am. Nick told me that you know about us." Greg gave her a knowing grin, pushing the door to the lab open with his back. "So much for the strictly down low status. I think everyone knows now."
"Doesn't it feel a little better with everyone knowing?"
"Sometimes." He nodded slightly, holding the door open to usher her inside. "It was kinda fun having a secret for a while though. I miss that honeymoon, butterflies in the tummy phase with him sometimes. But I guess, eight months in it's bound to slow down a little, right?"
"You've been dating for eight months?" Sara looked at him surprised. "Wow, I didn't think it had been that long."
"And Sadie's turning one already." He couldn't believe it himself, but it was really happening. "You know she's calling me Papa now. It's more like pa most days, but she's getting really vocal now. Not actual words a lot of the time, but Nick's trying to get her to construct sentences together."
"Is she walking yet?"
Greg shook his head, taking a seat at the table. "She's standing and crawling, but she's not really walking yet. She gets into everything though. Cupboards, drawers, my kit... I have to be careful about things I leave on the floor now. She's gonna be a little menace when she does start walking."
Sara loved watching the younger man light up. She hadn't seen him this happy in a long time, making her even more grateful that Nick stuck around. "I'll see you later at the party then. I went shopping with Catherine for a birthday present, so she should like it."
"She's a baby. She thinks a ribbon is amazing. I'm sure she'll love your present." Greg smiled at the woman, waving her off. He finally got to work on the surveillance cameras from his crime scene, desperately trying to keep his eyes open as he searched through over thirty hours of footage from multiple cameras. He was surprised that a dingy motel like this would even have fully functioning cameras, especially so many covering multiple hallways and angles of the car park. He finally found the car that dumped their body off, along with multiple angles of the suspect dragging the body through the hallway towards the room he was found in, but no clear image of his face.
"Hey," Catherine burst through the door to the AV lab. "Any luck? Autopsy gave us nothing. Doc Robbins is backed up with bodies from that suspicious bus crash, so he didn't give me anything. He won't be able to give us a full autopsy until later. Best he can tell, our victim died of the GSW to the head. He won't be able to dig it out for a while yet though. Our vic has knee shaped bruises on his chest, restraint marks around his wrists and ankles. Signs of torture and the Doc thinks he was starved for quite some time. Malnourished." She remembered the word he used.
"I've got our suspect's car and our suspect dragging our vic through the motel." He motioned towards the screens. "But no clear images of the suspect's face. He's wearing a sweatshirt with the hood up and a baseball cap underneath, low enough to hide his features. I've got the make and model of his car... but the plates have been covered."
"Smart." Catherine leant forwards, looking at the cardboard tapped over the licence plate. "What about the VIN number?"
"He drives straight in and backs out the same way. None of the cameras are looking in that direction. I should be able to search owners of the car with the make and model in the city, but it could be hundreds."
"BMW three series, try thousands." The woman sighed, already thinking of three men she had dated who owned one. "Maybe once we ID our victim, it might be easier to figure out who the suspect is. Did you give the prints to Mandy?"
"Yeah, she's got all the sets from the crime scene to go through too. I'll tell her to rush the vic's." He pushed himself away from the table, catching Catherine staring at him weirdly. "What? Have I got something on my face?"
"No. You just," Tilting her head to the side, Catherine examined him closely, thinking there was something different about him, but she couldn't put her finger on what. "Look different. Like you're glowing or something. No reason why you shouldn't be, it is technically your daughter's first birthday today. But I've never seen you like this before. Happy." She smiled at him, realising his eyes weren't telling the same story. "But you're not happy? Why aren't you happy?"
"I am, don't psycho analyse me. I'll go talk to Mandy." Greg pushed himself to his feet, holding his lower back as he got up. He avoided the look Catherine was giving him, quickly making his way towards the print lab next door. "Jayne, please tell me Mandy finished processing the victim's prints from my case."
Nervous lab technician, Jayne anxiously bit her bottom lip, sucking in a sharp breath as she realised they had yet to be processed. "I can do em right now for you." She hurried around the table, snapping on a fresh pair of gloves. "Mandy had an emergency family thing, so she didn't quite finish. I'm supposed to be covering for her, until she can get back." The woman pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose, getting to work on the prints as quickly as she could. She anxiously bit her lip as they didn't come up with a match, turning to look at the man stood over her. "I can run them again. Maybe there was dust on the lens or something."
"Or he's not in the system." Greg pointed out to her, giving out a soft sigh. "Let me know if you get any hits from the crime scene prints. I'm on my cell." He gave her a reassuring smile, backing away towards the door. He held his stomach as he stepped out into the hall, feeling a cramp that he hoped was just hunger. He caught Catherine suspiciously watching him again, returning with a smile. He couldn't deal with anyone else knowing about his current situation. It was hard enough Nick knowing about it. He couldn't bear the thought of everyone else knowing.
It was too horrible to even think about.
"Flowers... it's a baby's birthday party." The man dismissed his sister's idea, tying off the balloon he had just blown up. He grabbed a piece of the curled purple ribbon from the table, making his best attempt to tie a bow around the end. "Besides your kids, Sadie's goin' to be the only baby attendin' the party, so I don't think it really matters if we decorate the whole house."
"Oh but you gotta go all out. It's her first birthday." Gwen climbed onto a chair beside the kitchen door, tying some of the balloons to the top of the blind pole.
"She's not even goin' to remember any of it. She thinks it's just any other day." Nick smiled at her, grabbing another balloon from the bag in front of him. "Her tenth birthday, that's a big one. Milestones like the first double digits. Sixteen. Eighteen. Twenty One. Those are birthdays she'll actually remember. Her first birthday is just for us."
"Not the pink ones, I said purple and white only." Gwen clambered down off the chair, snatching away the pink balloon, before he brother blew it up. "Purple and white is the theme. You can't just throw in a pink one, it won't match any of the cups, plates or little party bags that I picked up."
"Most of the people attendin' this party are over thirty." Nick pointed out to her, pushing himself to his feet from the table. "They're not gonna want party bags." He grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, making his way over to the travel cot in the front room to check on the birthday girl. She had no idea that today was any different from yesterday as she continued to snooze on.
"Where are you going?" Gwen appeared at his side with a handful of balloons floating behind her.
"The store, like I told you I would." He adjusted his jacket collar, beginning to feel as though he was living with a nagging wife, rather than his sister. He bent over the travel cot side to press a kiss to his daughter's forehead, letting her continue her nap, while he made his way out to his truck. "Do you need anythin'?" He noticed the shadow of balloons tailing him down the driveway.
"No, I bought extras of everything already. Unless you're coming around to the flowers idea..." She hoped, but he shook his head. "No." She gave out a soft sigh. "Does Greg like anything in particular? We haven't really got the chance to know each other and I think that he'd really like me if he got the chance to know me."
"How do you know he doesn't already like you? Stop tryin' so hard." He knew saying that was useless as his sister had a history of trying too hard to make people like her. His mother called her the over achiever of the family, but her tendencies to try too hard to get people to like her often made her come off as a phony. "I'll be back soon. Sadie should be asleep for another hour yet. If she wakes up, don't feed her lunch yet."
"Lunch... it's barely ten o' clock."
"Exactly, don't feed her lunch if she wakes up. She'll be cranky for the party if you do. So don't." He warned her, waiting for her to nod in understanding, before he climbed into his truck. He waved goodbye to her from the end of the drive, giving out a soft sigh of relief as he was finally free of her obsessive nature.
He had to find a new place to live. He felt as though he'd go crazy if he spent another hour with her.
"Seven years ago," Catherine burst into the AV lab where Greg was sat, holding a file in her hands. "Our victim had a little plastic surgery done. I found his records after I pulled the serial number off his butt implant." She grinned at the younger man, setting the paper thin file down in front of him. "Bradley Kingston. Thirty two years old. He was a botanical lab technician. His colleagues filed a missing persons report about eight months ago. His parents are in Florida. You know he kinda looks like you." She held the photo up beside him, comparing the two men. "If you stopped shaving again, you could actually look just like him."
Greg grabbed for the picture, taking a look at the image. Their victim actually looked pretty handsome being alive and all. He wasn't his type, but there was a certain charm to him. "He doesn't look anything like me. And Grissom thought I had started heavily drinking, so I had to shave the beard."
Catherine threw her head back with laughter, collecting up the folder from beside him. "If only he knew the real reason was for your boyfriend. I bet he was upset about it."
"A little yeah." He remembered the argument he had with the man after he shaved without telling him first. They laughed it off in the end, but it still scared him that he could do something that Nick would never forgive him for and lose him for good.
"Alright, are you coming to the vic's house with me?"
"Can't, I'm finishing early. I'm strictly lab bound until my shift is over." He reminded her, tapping his watch. He hated leaving a case halfway through, but he couldn't let Sadie down on her first birthday.
Sadie had come into his life unexpectedly and he had grown to love her over time, but he took comfort in the fact that she wasn't his sole responsibility. He adored her completely and would feel lost without her, but she had a loving parent already who would be there to help and support her through all the difficult things in life, giving him all the easy duties of hugs and kisses.
Having a baby of his own would change everything in his life and he didn't feel ready for any of it.
At the end of his shift, Greg made his way back to his apartment, sorting through his mail as he approached the front door. He tore open a letter from the hospital before he even unlocked it, hoping that the doctors were writing to apologise about the big mix up of accidentally telling him he was pregnant.
But it turned out to be a rejection from his insurance company.
"Rejected?" He put his back to his front door, frowning as he read through the letter. "We're rejecting your application for . . . what? . . . failed to notify . . . existing condition..." Sighing heavily, Greg searched through his pockets for his keys, jamming them into the lock of his front door. He forced the door open with his elbow, ditching his things on the counter, before he pulled the door shut. He slid the lock into place, kicking his sneakers off just as his cell started to ring. "Sanders."
"Oh hi, Mr Sanders," Nervous Jayne answered, sorting through the papers in front of her. "I got an ID from one set of prints in the motel room. According to your notes, the prints were lifted from the door frame in the bathroom."
"The ones in the victim's blood." He remembered, forgetting he wasn't actually on the case for a moment. "Okay, who'd they match to?"
"I found him in the system. He was arrested ten years ago for assault. The case was dropped in court, but then he was arrested and convicted two years later for assault of the same guy. He served five years before he was released. He's living in Las Vegas now." Jayne shuffled through the papers, finding his information on the back. "Uh... I had his name somewhere... oh here... his name is Stuart Telesco."
"Stuart..." Greg paused in his front room, spotting the man in question sat on his bed. He looked so casual as though he thought Greg should have been expecting him, but he hadn't seen the man in nearly six months, since he tried to forcefully propose to him outside of his apartment. "I gotta go. Make sure you tell Catherine Willows what you found out." He hung up his cell, holding it at his side as he examined his unwanted guest closely. He didn't appear to have any blood on his clothes or defensive wounds on his exposed arms or face, making him hope that Jayne had got it wrong.
"Aren't you gonna say 'hi, nice to see you' or something?" Stuart opened his mouth, pushing himself up from the bed. "I have to say, it's really nice to see you again, Greg."
"Where have you been?" Greg took a slight step backwards towards the kitchen counter, wondering if he should go for one of the knifes in the drawer or just run straight for the front door.
"Around." The man took a few steps closer towards Greg, examining his long lost love closely. "You look good. You've put on a little weight, but I guess that happens when the boyfriend leaves you." He motioned over his shoulder towards the bedroom. "None of his stuff is here, so I figured you two broke up. I told you he'd never love you like I love you."
Instead of retaliating with the facts, Greg decided to keep his mouth shut, making another small step towards the door.
"So, I guess you're in the market for a new guy. Ah, ah, don't take another step." The man pulled out the concealed weapon from behind his back, pointing the barrel of his stolen gun directly at Greg. "I didn't come here to hurt you, Greg. But if you leave me with no other choice, I will not hesitate to put a bullet in your head. I'd rather see you dead then with another man."
Stuart hurried to his side, snatching Greg's arm away from him before he made his escape. He pried the phone out of his hand, holding it out of his reach before he could attempt plan B and hit one of his speed dials.
"You know I'll always take you back. You only have to ask." He pushed him against the door, pinning the younger man between himself and his only escape. He studied his expression for a moment, before his eyes turned towards his lips. "You were always my favourite, Greg. I've never met anyone like you before."
"Is that what you told, Bradley?" He had to ask. "Your ex boyfriend, Brad. I should have connected the dots sooner, but I didn't think you would ever do something like that."
Stuart grinned, lifting his gaze to meet Greg's. "Don't worry, he's got nothing on you, babe. He thought he could do better without me too, but look where that got him." He reached his hand up, brushing the barrel of the gun against Greg's chin. "I know this thing you had with this other guy was just a fluke, so I'm going to forgive you and take you back. Do you want that?" He raised the gun to the side of his head with a sinister grin plastered across his lips as he felt him shaking. "Now there's a good boy."
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it, remember to leave me a review.
Happy New Year!
~ Holly
