Author: partlybouncy (PurplePopple)
Prompt: Nick/Greg friendship or slash from jenbachand
Spoilers: General season 7
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI. These characters do not belong to me. Any errors, typos and characterization problems on the other hand do.
Summary: Nick and Greg make beer. Nick invites Sara over to sample it.
"Why are we doing this again?" Nick asked Greg as they lugged supplies from the Denali to Nick's apartment.
"You go drinking with Warrick and Sara all the time," Greg said.
"Go drinking, grab a beer, chug one down. Good times, man, good times. This isn't the same thing."
Greg shifted the contents in his arms, impatiently waiting for Nick to open the door. They'd bought a plastic fermentor, a bunch of bottles, and a capper earlier in the day. Greg saw it as a good investment. Start small, handle the basics of making beer then invest more to start tweaking the recipe. All that equipment was now sitting in Nick's apartment. After that, they'd gone back and bought a few beer making kits.
"Of course it's not the same thing. It's better than the same thing!" Greg said, trying to instill as much enthusiasm into his voice as possible. "It's like a science experiment, with beer. It's biology of getting the yeast right," Greg went on.
Nick raised an eyebrow, giving Greg a look. "Whatever you say, but this better be good." He finally opened the door and headed toward the kitchen.
"It will be better than good. I only drink the best, the best coffee, the best beer, the finest water that Vegas has to offer," Greg said, trailing behind in Nick's wake.
Nick sighed in resignation. He was somewhat amused by Greg's enthusiasm, which was half the reason he'd agreed with Greg's request. The other half involved his own best friends being involved with other things, other people. Warrick was trying to fix up the mess of his marriage and Sara wasn't sharing who she was spending her time with, just that she wasn't available to hang out. Plus Greg needed support because of all the crap he was dealing with at the lab. The Texan went to his fridge, and pulled two bottles of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. He passed one to Greg. "So what do we do first?" he asked.
"Well, first we clean all of our supplies..."
Two hours later, the pair was relaxing on the Nick's couch, a University of Texas football game blaring on the television. Their beer was started. It would be ready for bottling in a week, and ready for drinking in a month and a half.
----
"You and Greg made beer?" Sara asked Nick as she looked through a microscope.
"Yeah, turned out pretty good too."
"Huh," Sara said.
Nick leaned back in his chair and smirked. "He was a bit neurotic, coming over all the time, wanting to check the temperature and specific gravity before we bottled it. I made it easier on myself by just giving him a key to my place."
Sara turned to stare at Nick for a second before she made some notes on a form, and switched out slides. Nick leaned further back in his chair and just barely resisted laughing. She finally looked up and smiled at Nick. "That was nice of you. Greg really needs all the support he can get right now."
Nick sat up. "What? No smart remark? No questions about if Greg is moving in with me?"
Sara looked thoughtful for a second as she looked back at the slide. "No, no smart remarks." She waited a beat. "You're capable of making those yourself," she quipped.
Nick sagged back into his chair. "You're no fun. Whoever you're dating has turned you into a bore."
"Yeah, yeah, wouldn't you like to know. So when are War and I getting an invite to check out your and Greg's love nest and drink your premium made home brew?"
"I don't think I want to invite, if you're going to be like that, Sar," Nick said.
"Hit a little to close to home did I?" Sara shot back.
"No," Nick said. He stood up and stood next to Sara. He made a motion with his hands, asking permission to look at what was on the slide. Sara backed off enough to let him look through it. "That's not going to help us match," Nick said with a sigh. He took a look at the form Sara had been filling it out and then set it back on the table. It was a slow day in the lab which was why he was bugging Sara. "We're all off on Sunday. Why don't you and your boy toy come by and we'll have a nice little beer tasting."
"I'll do better than that. I'll talk Griss, Cat and Brass into coming along."
"Aw, man. Grissom? Really, Sara. Grissom? That will just kill the party."
Sara swivelled a bit in her chair. "Yeah, Grissom. You invited Greg to our little after work get together. I get to invite Grissom."
Nick sighed. "Man, Grissom."
"Uh, yeah, Grissom. You get to date Greg and make beer with Greg and give Greg the key to your place. I get to invite Grissom, Brass and Cat to your get together on the night we normally go out as a group. Fair is fair, Nicky," Sara said testily.
"Chill Sara, chill. Grissom can come. I'm not saying he can't. He can. Don't worry about it," Nick said. Sensing a losing battle with a now inexplicably testy Sara, he looked around for a good excuse to leave the room. "Oh hey, my pager went off. Got to go. Catch you later." With that, he left before Sara had a chance to say anything else.