Warrick isn't in this one. :( This is why Robert came in; I know, I could have went the Wendy as a CSI route, or even made a chick, but... I don't know. I kind of like Robert. eyebrow waggle I know this is short, too; I've got the next piece written and I'm hoping you'll have it next Friday at the latest. I just want to make sure that I've got quite a bit of it written before I start posting everything. This is self-beta'd, because I haven't heard from my beta in a while... And I apologize for the cliffhanger. OH! And for those of you who are other-parings-phobic, Nick does have a girlfriend-and she's actually a big part of this, so, uh. Yeah. But I promise it's eventual NickxGreg, otherwise I wouldn't have said that.
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"You're late." He's not used to Grissom's voice. Two weeks of vacation in "San Francisco" to "visit his parents" (in actuality, he had locked himself in his apartment and gotten drunk night after night) kept away the voice of his boss, telling him where to go and what to do, who to talk to and everything else that came with being a CSI level one.
"Alarm didn't go off."
Ignoring the concerned look that crossed Grissom's face, Greg walked to the coffee pot in the break room and began pouring himself a cup. "We're short. Robert called in sick and Wendy's not qualified for field yet."
"Sorry." Greg downed the coffee he was holding and began emptying the pot. "I'll make sure to watch it tomorrow night."
"Greg, if you're not ready for field work again…"
"I'm ready for field work, okay?" Guilt creeping up at him for snapping at his boss, Greg shook his head apologetically. "Sorry, it was a long two weeks and I wasn't exactly ready to come back to work."
Nodding, Grissom handed him a slip with an address. "Be that as it may, I'm glad to have you back, Greg. The lab's not the same without you." With that, Grissom exited the break room, leaving Greg with his thoughts.
--
Five weeks ago, a suspect had run from a room and managed to escape Brass and the few officers standing around, running right into Greg, who had been holding an armload of evidence. Having had the suspect run into him, the evidence was compromised and Greg's wrist had been fractured. With this accident to add to the growing list of failed attempts at starting a life in Vegas, Greg had started to rethink his post-college decision of starting over in Las Vegas and began seriously thinking about returning home.
He had yet to mention it to anyone, even his parents, though he knew that they would be ecstatic to hear that he was thinking about it. Since he told his mother he was working in the field, she was more worried about him than she used to be, and that paired with the fact that both his parents were getting old and needed help with things from time to time was almost enough to get Greg to pack up his things and move right away.
There used to be one person keeping Greg in Las Vegas, and that person came in the form of Nick Stokes. He had become almost certain that Nick had felt the same, only to come to work with intentions of telling him and be shot down. Nick had a girlfriend. He claimed that they had been dating a few months, which meant that they were well on the road to commitment.
News of a girlfriend only made Greg realize that he had no future in Nick Stokes, no matter how many people he consulted to ask them if there was. Though the people more often than not told him that yes, he was interested, Greg couldn't bring himself to say anything. If he was correct, sometime this month was Nick's six month anniversary with the girlfriend he'd yet to meet, and he still hadn't said anything. They'd known each other eight years but he didn't say a word.
And now… Now he didn't have a chance. Nick was dating some girl and Greg couldn't do a damn thing about it.
Weeks passed and Greg tried everything to block the images of Nick and someone else, over-the-counter drugs, alcohol, sleep medication, anything. At one point he tried illegal drugs but the thought of losing his job and screwing up his life even more scared him away from ever doing it again. No matter what he took, he was left with an imprint in his mind that Nick was going to be with this girl forever, regardless of any attempt to stop it on Greg's part.
"A year?" A low whistle from Robert, the CSI who had replaced Warrick, caught Greg's attention. "Damn, my last relationship last all of two months, and we were nowhere near as happy as you and this girl sound."
"Yeah, I think we're in it for the long haul." Hearing Nick sound so genuinely happy made Greg's heart ache and swell with happiness at the same time. While he wanted so badly to be the person in Nick's life that would make him so happy, he couldn't say that he wanted Nick to be miserable. The man deserved happiness, especially with all the things that had been thrown at him in life, and who was Greg to deny that?
He decided to bypass the locker room and head straight for the morgue. San Francisco was sounding better everyday, but even with a brand new start in front of him, Greg wasn't sure he could leave behind his life just like that.
Greg changed directions again and started for Grissom's office. Once there, he pushed open the door, surprised when Grissom was actually sitting in a chair, looking through files. The sound of his office door closing brought him from his work. "Greg?"
Licking his lips nervously, Greg took a deep breath and made the decision to change his life forever. "I'd like to request a shift change. I want to work days."
