Disclaimer: not mine

Spoilers: all aired episodes to 802 Al la Cart

Greg looked around the scene, seeing that Nick was all ready speaking with the paramedics. He recognized Hank Pettigrew, Sara's ex boyfriend.

They were investigating a hit-and-run that had left a young girl without her mother. The child had survived the crash, and was being attended to by Hank and his partner. She seemed to be hysterical about something. Hank was trying to calm her down, but she wasn't hearing a word of it.

A closer inspection of the scene revealed the vehicle had been run off the road into an embankment. Greg could see skid marks where the other car had hit them. A quick glance at the sky told him that he and Nick didn't have much time before it started downpouring.

Nick looked up from the skid marks that he had been photographing and seemed to notice Greg watching. He waved him over.

"We've got a hit-and-run." Stokes stated the obvious. "Auto Detail should be here to get the car any minute."

Greg nodded. "They'd better be. Looks like it's going pour out soon."

"Which is why we need to get to work." Stokes said. "Looks like someone ran a little girl and her mother off the road. I've got the road covered. Why don't you see if the little girl remembers anything." He sounded almost depressed, Greg noted.

Greg nodded and watched as Nicky returned his attention to the road. He wished he could think of something to make him feel better. Greg stared at Nick in his tight T-shirt and jeans, wanting to take him home and…

Stop right there. Greg mentally scolded himself. There was no way the Texan would return his feelings. Besides, he had to find out who had left the a young girl without her mother. Greg went over to see if she had seen anything.

The little girl was still clearly very upset, but at least she had stopped crying. Greg forced himself to smile. "Hi."

She sniffed. "Hello."

"My name's Greg. I need to ask you some questions about what happened to you."

She looked him in the eyes. "My name's Emily." She said politely. Then Emily pointed at Hank. "He left Buddy." She looked closed to tears again.

Greg blinked. Had Hank left somebody behind? "Who's Buddy?"

"My friend." She explained. "They left him in the car."

Greg looked over at Hank. The paramedic tried to explain. "I didn't see anyone else."

The weather was starting to take a turn for the worst. Greg knew the ditch that the vehicle was in would flood with water soon.

He ran over to Nick, wondering how Hank could've left Emily's friend in the car. But Greg knew that he didn't have time to worry about that right now. He reached Nick and tried to explain the situation to him.

"Nick, I…" Greg panted, trying to catch his breath.

Stokes looked to see Greg gasping for breath. One look at his friend told that something was wrong. "Easy, Greggo. Breathe."

Greg calmed down enough to speak. "There's still somebody in the car."

Thunder echoed overhead and the rain seemed to be coming down harder then ever. The two of them hurried over to the ditch to assess the situation. It was all ready starting to flood. But they could both there see was something moving in the backseat of the car.

Getting whoever was in the car out wouldn't be easy, Nick knew. But they didn't have time for second thoughts. "Get a rope."

Greg disappeared for a few seconds, then emerged with the requested object. He tossed Nick one end of the rope, having an idea of what Nick had in mind.

Nick looked at Greg, about to tell him he was the one going down to the car. But the look in Greg's eyes suggested that Greg was going, and there was no time to argue. And now that Nick thought about it, it made more sense for Greg to go down, as there was no way Sanders would've been able to pull himself and another person out by himself. He tied his end of the rope round his waist and looked back at Sanders,

"Be careful."

Greg met his eyes, knowing that Nick would rather fall in himself then let him fall. "You too."

Nick nodded, not missing the look of complete trust from Greg. He braced himself and watched as Greg climbed down the slippery slope to car.

The water level was rising, and as Greg neared his objective, he could feel the current trying to send him downstream. His sneakers slipped as he ducked in through a broken window to get the person in the car.

Greg felt the glass slice into his forearm as he scrambled in, too full of adrenaline and focused on getting to the person in the car for the pain to register.

He scrambled into the car and found that the 'person' was a huge yellow Labrador retriever. Greg shook his head and decided that he was lucky Buddy wasn't a Saint Bernard. He grabbed the struggling animal and managed to get the rope around it.

By now the water had risen up to the car window and he pushed animal toward it. Buddy seemed to get the idea, but it wasn't easy getting the big dog out through the small hole.

After a few minutes of pushing, Buddy was finally through and Greg followed. Just as he was pulling his right leg out, the current caused the car to slip on the muddy ground and the broken glass tore a long gash in his leg.

The dog's whimpers forced Greg to push on, despite the fact that his injured leg no longer wanted to cooperate with. He gave a horse shout to Nick.

Nick watched as Greg struggled up the hill against the rising flood. Greg had found Buddy. Nick almost laughed when he realized Buddy was Emily's dog. He pulled up on the rope as Greg reached him.

It took Stokes a few seconds to see that Greg was limping and the substance his pant leg was soaked in wasn't mud. Terrified for his hurt friend, Nick reached down to help.

His hand found Buddy's collar, and he yanked the dog up to the surface. Then, Nick released the dog and he managed to get a hold on Greg's wrist.

It was slick with blood, and Greg wasn't able to climb very well with one leg, but Nick managed to get him up anyway.

He held Greg close while the younger man caught his breath. Stokes could feel him shivering. "Easy, G." He looked from Greg and called for the paramedics.

A/N: Part one of two. First attempt at slash, please let me know what you think. This may earn it's M in part two, so consider yourself warned,

Thanks,

Lefty.