Ever wondered what Greg and Hodges got up to on their man-dates? Well I have!
Set early season 11, rumblings of unrequited Sandle and also Wedges.
Enjoy, please review!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything...apart from my perverse mind!
Flashbacks to Innocent Downfalls
The bar they had chosen as their meeting place was like any other almost run-down boozer in the city. It was the sort of place where only the usuals were tolerated and masculinity was prided. It was the place where gun totting aggressors went looking for someone as willing as themselves to get into a brawl.
It was most certainly not the place for these two.
They don't fit in.
For a start neither one of them could drink whiskey until the cows came home, that was a role reserved for their Southern friend and co-worker Nick Stokes. Neither one of them had neck tattoos. And they both had regular jobs. But in an odd way they had started to establish themselves as regulars.
Every Friday after shift they would come here, one of the only places open early enough in the day for them to be able to visit straight after work. Every Friday the bar tender, a particularly burly man, would offer them fruity cocktails, as friendly teasing, only to place what he referred to as real ale on the dusty bar for them. Every Friday they would watch a fight break out and eventually someone step in.
Today was no different.
Greg and Hodges made their way to what had become their usual seats with their pint glasses in their hands.
"So how's your mother?" Greg asked out of genuine interest. Over these meetings Hodges had told Greg enough about his mother that he felt as if he knew this bizarre woman he had never met. Their conversations generally followed the same patterns. They would talk about Hodge's mother, eventually prompting Greg to recall memories of his own mother. Both of them would avoid the real issues and reasons why they found themselves in each other's company every Friday; pining for women they could never have or had lost.
"She's fine, taken up gardening...however it is more like just ruining the yard...she's been watching day time television, and has gotten into this whole self sustaining thing..." Hodges explained his mother's current obsession. Greg had discovered that she went through many different phases, obsessing over this and that, over the weeks that they had been meeting.
"My mum went through that stage...thought I was being killed by pesticides...so I was only allowed to eat home grown organic foods." Greg sympathised.
"How did that turn out for you?" Hodges asked as he tried not to laugh.
"Not good...from what I remember." Greg responded blankly. Greg loved his mother very much, as did Hodges, but every so often they would find themselves thinking about the two women that had brought them up, and they would wonder how on earth they managed to become the human beings they were today.
For Greg it was not until now, as an adult, in an occupation where he met parents who had lost their children every day that he fully begun to understand how his mother had felt and why she had acted in the way that she had done. As a child he used to humour, her as a grownup he understood her.
"Well I hope my mother soon snaps out of it...I don't think I'll be able to take this stuff for much longer...the next thing I know she'll be forcing me to eat organic home grown vegetables..." Hodges chuckled slightly.
"You found a new place yet?" Greg inquired about the house hunting that Hodges had embarked on. Just the mention had caused the older man to take a large gulp from his drink.
"No...Too many of the places I've been to see have at some point been crime scenes." Hodges responded, but in honesty he wasn't surprised...he was after all house hunting in Las Vegas, apart from the brand new buildings almost everything had a history, more often than not, a sordid history.
"This is Las Vegas after all." Greg pointed out exactly what Hodges had been thinking.
They had never imagined that they would get on this well. Usually they didn't do much but bicker in the lab. But Hodges had found himself looking forward to his Friday drinks with Greg Sanders.
"So tell me Mr Ladies Man, any unfortunate girl caught your eye...or dare I say it...your heart?" Hodges would ask every time hoping that Greg had found himself someone, just so that he could live through the younger man.
"No...The night shift doesn't really allow for a healthy love life...shame really...those girls are missing out." Greg said in a slightly dejected way.
"Oh...I don't think they are." Hodges laughed taking another large sip from his ale.
"Well...what about you? What do you have to offer?" Greg asked in jest.
"As an older refined man...much I'd like to think." The word "refined" caused Greg to snort at his companion.
"I don't think refined is the right word." a casual smile playing on his lips.
They would joke about their non-existent love lives but a dull ache would make itself known in Greg's chest. He would think about how he had lied to Hodges. Not a girl, but a woman had caught his heart; a woman eight years older than him, his former mentor and now his previous supervisor's wife.
"You glad about Sara being back from visiting Grissom? You missed her most." Hodges observed. He would never vocalise his suspicions that it was in fact Sara that Greg was pining for. He had noticed the way he looked at the brunette. It had been common knowledge that Greg had a crush on her back before she was with Grissom. As Hodges saw it, this had obviously developed into something more. The way Greg looked at Sara almost mirrored the way he had looked at Wendy.
"Yeah." Greg responded. It was his turn to take a long gulp from his drink in order to hide his reaction.
"You don't sound it." Hodges pointed out.
"I am." As glad as Greg was to be able to see Sara again a part of him wished she were still away so that he could push her to the peripheral of his mind. But here she was all five foot nine and a half of her back in his life as if she'd never been away.
The dull gold ring on her left hand was a reminder that it was too late.
Greg thought of how she had hugged him after shift the other night. Elated by the end of a tough case he had held her a little too tight. Not thinking he had pulled her too close. And as if it was the right thing to do he had trapped her in his arms for too long. When she'd pulled away there was a strange expression on her face, one he couldn't read but it was one that made him nervous. It had sent shivers down his spine, and he felt an echo of that reaction just then as he sat in the more than warm bar.
"I can't believe they're married." Hodges exclaimed waking Greg from his thoughts.
"Yeah it's weird." Greg half heartedly agreed.
"Never thought that Grissom was the marrying type...well unless...marrying bugs is now legal." They both laughed at the thought.
"I should have done a Grissom." Hodges mused, his eyes glazing over.
"Done a what?" Greg asked a frown appeared on his face as he attempted to verify that he had heard Hodges correctly.
"A Grissom...I should have chased after her...or at least done something to make her stay." The object of Hodges's pining made itself apparent. He'd never admit it, but he always feared that he would end up alone (the male equivalent of "the crazy cat lady"). But Wendy had shown him that was not set in stone. She had showed him the life he could have.
Greg silently patted Hodges on the shoulder not really knowing how to respond. Every week his almost friend would spill a bit more about his regrets.
"Hey, you ladies up for a game?" A man from the bar called. They looked up to be faced with Bucket, a man who was always there. They had always wondered where he had gotten his nick name from but there was something oddly unsettling about the man so they had decided to keep quiet.
Every week they would accept to play a game of darts with the other regulars gathered there on a Friday morning. Every week it would surprise Greg how good was Hodges was at darts. Today was no different; with a double sixteen left he got a sixteen, an eight and a double four. This ability to play darts had gained some respect from the men that drank there. It was partially what helped them fit in better.
"For the winner." A flaming scambuca shot was placed in front Hodges at the bar. He hesitantly took the shot as the rest of the bar erupted in applause.
The focus the game required, the drinks that they had been given while playing and the feeling of winning generally served a brilliant distraction from their earlier thoughts.
For the first time in a week both men would put their lost love aside and focus on the moment not letting lingering touches haunt their memories. They would think about how close they had been. How much they wish they had done this or that. The mix of liquors, the company they never knew they could enjoy, stopped them from flashbacks to moments that had led to their respective downfalls into (what had recently become) a bitter existence.
The two men would step out into the mid-day heat of Las Vegas and before they climbed into their separate taxies to head home in order to sleep off their mildly drunken states, they would share a look.
A look that said let's see how next week goes, let's hope that love will stop being so painful, let's pretend the women we're pining for will eventually love us back.
Their silent goodbyes would also share the knowledge that the things they wished for were not going to happen.
They would have a shared glance which really meant; same time, same place?
Because as it had turned out that in losing someone had also acquired an unexpected friend in each other.
The End