Based on the album 'Transatlanticism' by Death Cab for Cutie. Find a way to listen to it if you don't know what I'm talking about. C;
Lightness
And I'm sneaking glances,
Looking for the patterns in static
they start to make sense the longer I'm at it.
August 7th, 2003
Sometimes, Greg Sanders watches people. He tries not to make a habit of it because it's intense and off-putting when people realize he's doing it. But when the likelihood of somebody catching him is low, he does.
He watches Sara a lot. She's interesting. Intense. Of course, it helps that she's easy on the eyes and that she doesn't mind that Greg obviously has a crush on her and asks her out as often as he can without making it seem creepy. Sara's thorough, precise. Her processing is simple, quick, effective, and Greg wonders how much he's learned about field work just by watching her.
He watches Catherine, too, but for different reasons. She walks like she owns the lab, high and mighty, and important-looking. Besides, Greg's shallow, so he doesn't mind looking at her boobs, either. And it helps that she wears low-cut t-shirts that show them off nicely.
He watches Grissom, too, but only because he's always walking around with this far-off look in his eyes or digging through books or something, and sometimes the guy can just appear from nowhere and send you reeling in to space trying to figure out what exactly he means by the words he threw at you. He's caring in the most detached way Greg's ever seen a person. He's interesting.
Greg watches everybody, definitely, but since he started at the lab, his favorite person to watch is Nick. Nick is insanely empathetic, intensely caring without holding back. Greg really respects that, because while he's always considered himself caring to a certain degree – you kind have to be when your mother had a constant watch over you as a child – Nick is so far beyond that. And, Greg's shallowness never failing to kick in, Nick's easy to look at too. He's muscular, reminding Greg every time he sees him just how long it's been since he's had a relationship with another guy, and broad. There's a lack of curves that intrigues the hell out of Greg, and sometimes he wants to do nothing more than reach out and touch—
"Greg?" Catherine's voice interrupts his thoughts from behind him. He spins the chair back around, reluctantly tearing his eyes from Nick, and smiles wide, hoping that she hadn't caught him staring. She looks amused, though, and Greg speaks before she can ask what has him in such a good mood.
"Yes?" He draws out the word flirtatiously, raising his eyebrows with a little wiggle that makes her chuckle.
It's like she's forgotten completely about his staring. Greg relaxes a little. "You have the DNA from the—"
"Abernathy case, right," Greg continues as he turns to a stack of papers sitting on the desk next to him. He shuffles through them, scanning pages until he finds one with Abernathy, Carl written across the top and holds it out to her. She leaves without so much as a thank you, and Greg's good mood is slightly dampened.
He's muttering under his breath about manners when a hand drops on his shoulder from behind. He nearly jumps out of his skin and spins around faster than he ever has in his life.
Nick smiles widely, and for a moment, Greg thinks he might see a little bit of adoration in his eyes, but he writes it off as his perspective being skewed from nearly pissing his pants and the smile returns to his face. "Hey," he says, both cursing and thanking the architects of the crime lab for putting multiple doors in his lab.
Greg thinks that if Nick always greets him with a smile, he could handle freaking out like that every time he entered DNA. Nick continues staring at him, though, expectantly, and Greg tries to remember if he has results for his case or not. He glances down at Nick's hands, which are painfully empty. Greg stares at them for a second too long, wishing he had the drive to reach forward and pull Nick's hands into his own.
But he doesn't.
"Here for anything in particular?" Greg asks, spinning the chair to follow Nick with his eyes as he moves about the lab, picking up vials and hand-held equipment with an interest Greg hasn't seen in too many others.
Nick looks up as he speaks, the smile still in place, though significantly smaller now. Flirtatious, almost. "Just decided to pay my favorite lab tech a visit." Greg forces himself not to blush at the comment, forces the hope that flares up in his chest to settle, and leans forward on his elbows over the desk.
"Don't wanna let Jacqui hear that, you know how territorial she gets over me."
For a moment, Nick just watches him. Greg watches back. A million and one things go through his mind as he waits for Nick to respond. After a long, long moment, Nick says, "I think I can handle her."
Fearing he'll out himself if he keeps going, Greg switches the topic back to work, surprised by the disappointment on Nick's face. "I really don't have anything for you."
"I know. Archie kicked me out of the A/V lab."Disappointing realization floods his head and the cloud Greg had been flying on disappears from underneath him. The drop back into reality hurts a little. "Ahh, so you came to bug me instead." Still, the fact that Nick chose him over any of the other lab techs has to say something, even if Nick would rather spend time with Archie.
Nick sets down the binder in his hands and continues to another table as he says, "I prefer the term 'enjoy the company of,' but if you prefer bug…"
Greg thinks he must imagine the wink Nick looks up and sends him.
---
The rest of the night passes slowly – very slowly, which is surprising because the majority of Nick's shift is spent in Greg's lab, waiting on Archie to finish processing surveillance videos for his case. Nick's distracting in a silent way, and if Greg weren't so damned attracted to him, he might actually get all of the samples processed. He almost has half the mind to temporarily train Nick in to help him out; after all, if he's going to be there, he might as well help. But he doesn't, just allows himself a few seconds in between processing to enjoy Nick's presence – and body – more often than he's used to.
Nick seems laid back in the lab; safe, almost, and Greg wonders how he can be when it exploded just months ago. Greg doesn't even feel safe all the time anymore. But still, Nick walks around leisurely, admires the books Greg keeps in cupboards and the articles he tapes to the glass walls. He doesn't speak too much, and Greg's glad for it, because he's distracting enough when he's silent.
He asks, once or twice, if he's diverting Greg's attention too greatly and if he'd rather him leave, but Greg's enjoying his company far too much to allow him to leave. Besides, he brings coffee back for Greg without being asked, and if Nick wants to do that, who's Greg to deny him?
Sometimes, he feels like Nick's watching him, but when he looks up, Nick's completely immersed in whatever he's doing. Eventually, after twenty or so times that Greg does it, he writes it off as either paranoia or wishful thinking, and tries to ignore it. 'Try' being the obvious key word.
Really, it doesn't matter if Nick's sneaking glances, because Greg's doing the same thing as often as he can. His weird obsession is almost making him less efficient, almost.
The end of the shift comes just as the sun rises high enough to flood the lab with yellow-orange light. It's like a slap in the face to both of them and Nick stands up and smiles at Greg before walking across the hall to the A/V lab again. Greg closes up shop, so to speak, and leaves his lab with such a bright mood he even smiles at the day-shift DNA tech, who may as well be the spawn of Ecklie and Hodges.
Nick enters the locker room fifteen minutes later, just as Greg closes his locker and bends to tie his shoe, there's a bounce in his step that Greg's never seen before. "Archie finish your tapes?" he asks. Nick shakes his head.
"Nope."
When Nick sends him another wide grin, Greg hates the way his chest burns with hope again.
--
August 8th, 2003
The next shift may as well be the polar opposite to the previous night. Three high-profile cases come in just as graveyard does, and all CSI shifts are called back to work – and Greg's the only DNA tech on duty because Matthew on days had left for Hawaii after his shift.
Greg normally works well under pressure and stress; really, he does. He learns to focus his energy on what he needs to do and not what others expect of him, and normally he comes out with results that please. But when everybody is brought to their last nerve, and Hodges is forced to share a lab with him because Catherine, considerate as she always is, robbed Hodges of the trace lab for some lengthy experiment she could have done in one of the layout rooms had they not all been occupied.
Hodges isn't a terrible person by any means; Greg really thinks he's just such a kiss-ass that nobody really wants to get to know him until the jittery sub comes in instead and they realize just how much they like him. But today, today, Greg's nerves are already shot from having every CSI who walks into his lab not only hand him thousands of samples but complain about their results not being back, as well as Greg being overwhelmed with how much work he has to do, and Hodges is really the last person he wants to be stuck with.
Somehow, the guy seems to realize that Greg's fuse is shorter than normal, because when he walks in with the equipment he needs on a rolling cart, Greg hardly visible behind a mound of evidence bags, he only says, "Need any help?" and proceeds to take anything Greg hands him.
They form a friendship that Greg knows isn't going to last longer than their shift does, and Nick doesn't stop by once all night. Not that Greg's complaining, because when Hodges brought back coffee for the two of them and told him about Nick's blow up in one of the interrogation rooms, Greg views it as a blessing, because he really doesn't want to listen to Nick's complaining, not tonight. Still, when he catches Nick's eye when he looks up, there's a brief moment where time stands still before Greg offers what he hopes is a reassuring smile. The world is righted again when Nick returns it.
---
August 30, 2003
The next few weeks pass by in a blur. Nick spends as much time in Greg's lab as he can, but he doesn't do much talking. Greg finally feels like he has a grip on what Nick really means when he speaks, when he sends Greg looks, but every time Greg makes a decision to finally land on a conclusion, an offhand sentence Nick says to Warrick or Catherine sends him into orbit again.
It's annoying, to say the least.