There was no time for time off after the team was rescued. They were all deemed fit to work right away, since they'd been found asleep, so they were fed and put right back on duty. Since they were set to work in the middle of the day, by the end of their real shift every one of them was sagging with exhaustion. They stumbled in to the break room in the lab and flopped on to the couch and chairs. Greg was the only one with enough energy to haul himself to the coffee machine.
His special Blue Hawaiian was rummaged out of it's hiding place when he was sure no one was looking, and just the scent seemed to give a bit of life back to the group. After a cup each, they all felt well enough to drive home – but just barely. Nick slumped in the passenger seat of the Jetta as Greg maneuvered them through the early morning traffic. He fell asleep there and Greg had to carry him inside to bed. The old woman next door observed them with a quiet smile, not calling out because she knew he couldn't wave.
Nick was set very gently in his own bed and, after a moment's hesitation, Greg left and lay down in his own bed. Maybe Warrick was right and this was too hard on him. But no matter how hard it was he knew he couldn't leave. So he rolled over and fiddled with his radio, setting it to a very low volume, just loud enough to put him to sleep.
The rest of the week was fairly normal, if a little tired. But they were all caught up on their sleep by the time Saturday came, and they all gathered at Sara's rather large apartment. Greg had come over an hour before everyone else and helped to decorate. Sara had some reservations about that, but after it was done she grudgingly admitted that he had good decorating taste. Then she told him that his gay was showing and he roared with laughter, flouncing off towards the food with a quirky little swing in his hips.
They were just finished organizing the food on a big long buffet table when Catherine arrived with Lindsey and a preteen friend. Archie and Bobby showed up next, followed by Warrick. Nick came then, complimenting Sara on the tasteful decoration. She gave Greg a wink, then ran for the door to let Wendy inside. Once the entire night shift staff had gathered, there was ten minutes until their intended 'victim' was supposed to arrive, so they all found places to sit and Sara turned out the light. The idea was that when Grissom turned on the light they'd all be sitting there nonchalantly, with no need to jump out and scare him. He was, after all, a high-strung crime fighter. He might pull a gun.
Greg had sat down on one end of Sara's bright red couch when the lights flipped off. Someone in front of him gave a cry of protest and fell backwards, half on him, and half on Hodges who was sitting beside him. They made 'oomph' noises, eliciting snickers from everyone else in the room. Greg inhaled a familiar scent, and spoke without thinking.
"God Nick, you're getting fat! Lay off my icing!" his voice was unexpectedly loud in the quiet room, and all the hidden people burst in to laughter. Nick made some sort of indignant noise and slid off the two people he'd fallen on, finding a seat on the floor between Greg's legs. A few dirty comments came out of the darkness, and Greg tried to resist thinking of where Nick was sitting.
Then there was a knock from outside and, according to the plan, Sara called for Grissom to let himself in. The door opened and a figure stood framed by the mild light before it closed again and Grissom's voice called out, "Sara?" Greg was sure he wasn't the only one covering his mouth trying not to laugh as Sara, who had hidden in the kitchen, yelled through the house for him to just make himself at home.
"Where's your light switch?" he called back. Her voice drifted in, saying somewhere close to his right. There were sounds of a hand groping along a wall, and then a triumphant 'aha' as the switch was found, as well as a click when it was flicked. Light flooded the room and Gil jumped a foot in the air as it revealed myriad smiling faces, including Sara sneaking in from the kitchen.
"Happy birthday!" They all shouted once he was back on the ground, surging up to their feet to go surround him. He grinned in happy shock that they did this for him. Sara fought her way through the mass of bodies and hugged him, telling him it was all her and Greg. Grissom turned to thank his level 1 and found him nowhere in sight. Not worried, he shrugged it off and figured he'd get around to it later.
It took a little while, but Nick noticed that Greg was still missing. He frowned, searching both the busy kitchen and the crowded living room. It was really odd because normally Greg was the one who tried to always be center of attention, so sitting off in a dark corner somewhere meant something must be wrong. Nick was almost starting to worry for real when he finally ran in to his wacky friend in the hallway that led to the rest of the apartment.
"Greggo, where you been?" he asked, relief in his voice. Greg stopped and blinked, not having expected him to be there. He opened his mouth and shut it once like a fish before actually coming up with a mostly true answer.
"In the bathroom," he said. Nick looked at his watch and grinned dirtily.
"For fifteen minutes? My my, what were we doing in the bathroom for fifteen minutes?" he chuckled and Greg's head almost imploded at the idea of both of them alone in a bathroom. He gave an embarrassed grin and tried to say nothing but Nick insisted. His face heated, knowing the answer he had to give was way too girly. But at least it wasn't a lie; he didn't want to lie. Not to a CSI.
"I…I messed up my hair," he said finally. "Sara's got no hair stuff." He crossed his arms and scrunched his nose; acting completely serious that this was the whole reason he'd escaped from a good time in favor of hanging out in a bathroom. Nick looked at him incredulously, and then burst out laughing at how ridiculous that was. He poked gentle fun at the younger man as they made their way to the kitchen. Then Greg escaped and showed up right in front of Warrick with pleading eyes, challenging him to a drinking game. Warrick knew that look, so he took pity and accepted right away.
The only trouble was that as soon as Greg's request was voiced, it was overheard. Half the people in the party wanted to play. His original idea was a two-person game, so he quickly changed the game to Big Fish Little Fish, grabbing himself a bottle of he-didn't-really-care. It had heavy alcohol content, which was all he cared about. He took careful note of Nick, standing against the wall and chatting to Bobby Dawson, and sat on the floor as far away as he could, wedged between Warrick and Mandy.
The game got underway quickly, and it was the type of game in which people failed very often. That meant drinking, lots and fast. Greg purposefully screwed up many times just to take a much needed drink, ignoring Warrick's elbow jabs and warnings to slow down. He just smiled and took deeper swigs from his bottle, which he now identified as rum. Usually not a drink he would have straight, but he was in the mood tonight.
Across the room, Greg remained oblivious of Nick's watchful eye, even as he himself soon found himself deep in the cups. Nick's conversation with Bobby about an obscure video game became more and more distracted as Bobby began ogling Archie and Nick began to pay more and more attention to his drunker and drunker roommate. He didn't realize he himself was drunk until he went to walk over to Greg and tripped on the carpet. Thankfully, someone nearby was sober enough to set him right again and he grinned his thanks, completely forgetting what his mission had been.
He tottered off to the kitchen to find another cooler. It was a girly drink, but it had a sugar component that reminded him nicely of Greg, and it was vodka, which he enjoyed. He knew that Catherine had brought them for herself, but his alcohol tolerance was so low that she barely noticed the few missing bottles. When Nick straightened from the fridge, Grissom appeared right next to him and he gave a happy shout.
"Gil!" he crowed. "The birthday boy! Did I give you a birthday hug?" Even as he said it he threw his arms around the older man, who patted him lightly on the back.
"Having fun Nicky?" Gil asked. Nick gave him a huge wink, managing to look a little like a crazy person, and tottered off again, making his way to an empty spot on the couch. As he hit the cushion he looked down and found he was sitting right behind Greg, who was still playing his odd drinking game. He watched them for a while until he heard them start shouting.
"That was a big fish you goon! Take a drink!" that sounded somewhat like Wendy, but it was slurred. Greg tried to protest, holding up his hands to show the fish he had made, but the circle of players overrode him, so he presented his bottle of Captain Morgan's and took a deep swig. Interested, Nick slipped off his newly acquired spot on the couch and shimmied up behind Greg.
Another round started while he was inching across the carpet, and just as he slid in behind Greg, surrounding the younger man with his legs and leaning his head over his lithe shoulder, it was his turn. He was so shocked to find Nick there that he couldn't respond to his turn, and as a result he had to drink again, sinking his mind farther in to nothing. Neither of them noticed Warrick slipping away, the flash of a camera, or his return. Greg struggled to focus on his fish game, and Nick tried to discern the rules by watching. It seemed hopeless for them both.
Hours later, the game had long since dispersed and half of the party had gone home. The remaining people were all planning on crashing here for the night. Most of them had already crashed somewhere. Nick had lost track of his best friend a while ago, and was now wandering about, searching through the slumped bodies for him. He ran in to Sara and Warrick, smiling goofily at them.
"Oh hello, have seen Greggo? Sometimes referred to as Mr. Cool?" he almost kept eye contact with them, but the shine off of something in the corner of his eye distracted him in the middle and he turned to look at it, ending up asking his question to a bare patch of wall.
"Mr. Cool? Who calls him that?" Sara asked, a laugh in her voice. Nick focused on her briefly enough to answer before swiveling his head to look around.
"Greg," he told her simply. Warrick made a quirky noise.
"Greg calls Greg Mr. Cool?" he clarified. Nick nodded enthusiastically and asked again if they knew where he had gone. Sara asked why he needed to know and he gave her a look as if the answer should have been very obvious.
"Cause I want to go to bed!" he declared petulantly. The other two looked at each other and both sets of eyebrows disappeared in to hairlines. Nick ignored them and turned back to searching the living room again. As they watched him questioning a half-asleep Archie Warrick crossed his arms and leaned over to speak quietly to her.
"Do you get the feeling that Nick's…kind of repressed?" he asked, hoping she would know what he meant. She did of course. Nick stressed the fact that he was straight, yet when they examined the behavior he exhibited towards his very male roommate there was cause for doubt. No straight man held another man the way he held Greg, or so readily sought his arms for comfort. They were all beginning to suspect that the man was simply in denial. Sara sighed and lifted her hands in a large shrug.
"It's funny, they would be perfect together, you know?" she said, receiving a nod of agreement. "And we already know how Greg feels. I think we need to do something about this." As they began to hatch a plan, Nick came back and asked a third time if they knew where his buddy was. He was pointed down the hallway, where Greg was having an animated conversation with a photo on the wall. Warrick and Sara looked at each other and he grinned maliciously.
"I have a feeling this ought to be good," the tall man declared, pulling out his camera. It was quickly flipped over to video mode and trained on Nick's staggering back, the beep as it began recording lost on the drunken pair. Nick stumbled closer to Greg and listened to him chatter aimlessly to no one about how Sara's portrait of them all cast him in a bad light and made him look fat. He snuck up behind him and put his arms around the younger man's middle, causing him to stop talking.
"Hey Nicky!" Greg greeted him in a high-pitched voice, pleasantly surprised to be held like this. Nick chuckled and leaned in next to his ear. Warrick and Sara frowned because he began whispering, and neither their ears nor the cameras speakers would be able to pick up what was said. Greg shuddered as hot breath puffed softly over his ear.
"You know I had this weird dream the other night…was kind of nice," Nick was saying. Greg barely managed to ask what it was; his knees were weak and his heart was fluttering at top speed. Nick was only too happy to tell him, his words slurred by drink. "There was you. And me. You were walking towards me all funny like then you just shoved me up against this wall."
He paused here and, though Greg knew what usually came next, he couldn't decide between the two possible scenarios in his head. He asked what happened next, his voice low and husky. Nick's warm breath was driving him wild and he wouldn't stop it for the world.
"You were all rough. And I liked it. Then you kissed me and it wasn't a single bit gentle. Do you want to kiss me Greggo?" Greg's eyes, which he didn't remember closing, flew open at this out of place invitation. He shouldn't. It was the worst idea he'd ever let take a hold in his head. But he couldn't resist it, not when Nick was so blatantly telling him it was ok. The drink fogging his brain was telling him that it was allowed just for tonight, and after that he couldn't stop himself.
Their two spectators, still recording them, gasped in shock when suddenly Greg whipped around in Nick's arms, threw him at the wall almost hard enough to crack the plaster, and clashed their lips together with deadly force. They could only stare as Nick responded, grabbing his face, pulling him closer by the hair. Their tongues entwined and danced feverishly as they both gave off sexy little manly grunts of approval. Greg's hands were planted on the wall on both sides of Nick's head, clawing at it as if he wanted to move them and didn't want to at the same time. It was when Nick tried to pull his hips closer that reality came crashing in to Greg's head, forcing him to fall away.
Nick stared after him, a keening noise rising in the back of his throat. His eyes were half lidded with pleasure and he half reached out to pull Greg back, but the younger man shook his head violently, trying to clear it. When that turned out to hurt he held his hands to his head.
"I can't. You…oh God you'd kill me…you don't want it Nicky…I just can't." Greg turned and stumbled away, his face stricken, and he disappeared in to one of the empty spare bedrooms. Warrick kept recording Nick, who leaned against the wall with a dazed and confused look on his face. He seemed flustered, as one should be after an amazing kiss. Then he closed his eyes and rubbed them with the backs on his hands, the idea of going to bed once more flooding his brain. He followed Greg in to the bedroom.
The camera dinged as it turned off and Warrick stared at it in disbelief, still not sure that its contents had really just happened. He and Sara looked at each other, silent for long moments. Then she suggested a walk and they turned as one, grabbing their coats and the still awake and sober Gil Grissom before they slipped out in to the night. Grissom asked what this was about, but they waited until they were halfway down the street before telling him.
"We need a plan," Sara stated bluntly after they had explained everything. The other two agreed and they began brain storming as they walked around her block. On the third round they had formulated a plan of action each, to be executed separately. Sara's was a little complicated, as it involved scoping out both boys' feelings in that subtle way that only a woman can. Grissom's role was to make sure that they were not to work together for a little while so that he could observe how being forced apart would affect them both. Warrick's plan was simplicity itself. Friday nights were now to be deemed Guy's Nights, in which he was going to show up with beer every week and watch the sparks fly.
Satisfied that these three things in tandem would reveal all they needed to know, they finally took the steps back in to Sara's building. Within a couple months they would know just how deep Greg's feelings ran, and they would know if there was any possibility of Nick returning those feelings. They were observers, and observing is what they intended to do. Grissom's offhand comment that it would be fun to observe something not dead for a change had them pausing outside Sara's door to let their laughter subside. Then they went in and found places to sleep, hardly able to wait for Monday, when the plans would be set in motion.
Monday came quickly, thankfully for the three lying in wait, and Greg and Nick arrived together like usual, today in Nick's truck. As they stepped inside the cool building, they were completely unaware that three pair of eyes followed them everywhere, cataloging their every movement, their every casual touch. They went to the lockers together, coming up to the break room not five minutes later in their work clothes. Grissom gave everyone their assignment, setting Nick with Warrick and Greg with Sara. Greg and Sara set off together in her car to investigate a DB found on the interstate. The whole way there she kept her conversation centered on Nick, just to watch his face and listen to the inflections in his voice.
As they processed the scene she delicately asked questions that seemed harmless enough to him, but to her revealed a whole world of insight in to his feelings. She already knew that Greg had feelings for Nick and that he called them love. What she needed to find out was if his terminology was correct. As he was lifting a substance off the victim's ankle, he suddenly looked up at Sara and narrowed his eyes.
"Why are we only talking about Nick?" he asked. She realized that she had almost been caught and floundered around for an answer, spouting the first one that came out of her head.
"He interests me, that's all." Her words were quick and only after they had been said did she realize how they sounded. Greg's left eye twitched but his features remained almost too casual as he looked away.
"You're…interested in Nick?" he tried to clarify calmly. Sara grinned then. Showing jealousy, this was just too good! Deciding that her mind had inadvertently come up with the best possible answer, she ran with it, nodding and knowing he was watching her from the corner of his eye. Then she spouted some kind of nonsense about his intriguing personality. Greg pouted for the rest of day, and Sara did a small victory dance in her head. Her joy was dampened when there were no direct leads on the case.
In the lab she met up with Warrick and they exchanged winks behind their partners' backs, noting the way they seemed to immediately gravitate towards each other, forgetting all else. The two observers grinned at the way they reached out to touch each other more frequently than was normal. Not even living together made you do that; they didn't even seem to realize that they were doing it.
The next day Sara dragged her young friend in to the same conversations as the day before, and they solved the case only because Greg escaped her for some quiet time away from her observations on how Nick looked in the jeans he was wearing. On Wednesday Grissom paired Sara with Nick and she began the process again, easily working Greg in to all of their conversations. Being less suspicious, he was only too happy to go along with it. Since she couldn't pretend to be interested in a gay man, she couldn't test Nick's jealousy that way. Undeterred, she continued with her questions and gentle probing. He suspected nothing.
Then on Thursday Grissom was sitting in his office completing some paperwork he was behind on when Conrad strolled in and demanded to talk in the snooty way he did everything. Grissom sighed and set aside his pen, weaving his hands together and assuming the patient expression he knew drove the day supervisor wild.
"Why hasn't Sanders attended the annual conferences yet?" he asked. Grissom knitted his brows together. There was a conference held once a year in New York City for all the new level one CSIs in the country. Greg had been a CSI for a couple years now, yet he'd never gone.
"Oh yes, I remember now," he mumbled as it came to him with a flash. "He was in the hospital when he was scheduled to go. It simply slipped my mind after that." He shrugged and pushed his glasses farther up his nose. Conrad sneered at him; it seemed to be his favorite expression when talking to Gil.
"There's a plane leaving for New York in 12 hours, and his butt better be on it or I'll have him fired for not following the proper training protocol!" With that, Ecklie gave one last sneer, turned, and disappeared down the hallways. Gil stared after him with his face calm until he was sure the other man wouldn't turn around and come back, then he allowed a smile of triumph to fill his face, and he paged Warrick and Sara in to his office. When they heard what had happened, they too smiled.
"This is perfect!" Sara crowed. "Separate them for a whole week and see what happens! Oh this is just amazing! I think I might even get Ecklie something for Christmas!" Warrick punched the air in victory and then he and Sara danced a small jig together, much to their boss' amusement. He forced them to calm down, then called everyone in. When the team was gathered together in the room he cleared his throat.
"Alright we've got some shuffling to do with our cases," he began, "we're going to be short a pair of hands for the next week. Greg I need you to go home early and pack. It's colder in New York so bring a nice coat." Greg opened his mouth to ask what was going on but Gil beat him to it. "You're leaving in twelve hours for the training conference you missed when you were in the hospital after the Demetrius James incident. If you don't go Ecklie's threatened to have you fired. So Nick that means you're joining Warrick on that case, Sara you'll have to work alone, and Catherine I'll be with you." He looked up to make sure they all understood and noticed Greg and Nick looking particularly dejected about this sudden turn of events.
Catherine left to fetch her case file so she could fill Grissom in on what was going on. Sara left to go work her now solo scene. Nick and Greg looked at each other for a long moment before Nick gave him a small quick hug and told him to have fun, then he shoved his hands sadly in his pockets and left with Warrick trailing behind him. Greg slumped in to the chair in front of his boss.
"A whole week, are you serious?" he asked. When he got a nod in return he made a discontented noise. "Why didn't we get more warning?" Grissom shrugged and Greg sighed. It was just like Ecklie to spring this kind of thing on them. It was pretty likely that he had noticed the situation a week ago and had made up excuses to put off telling them, just to see if he could trip them up. The man existed only to make their lives difficult.
After he received a thorough briefing on what to expect at the conference Greg was sent home to pack. He got all the way to the parking lot before he realized that Nick had driven that day, so he had to call a cab on his cell phone. He'd thought of asking if Nick could take a bit of time to drive him home, but figured that the answer would be no. The cab smelled like wet dog, and he was glad to get out when they pulled up to his building. The old lady next door wasn't out on her front lawn yet, it still being the wee hours after midnight, and he found that he missed her call of greeting.
It took forever to find his battered suitcase in the back of his closet, under a load of things he never used anymore. But it only took about two hours to gather everything he needed. One corner of the suitcase was completely devoted to hair products, and he knew it would make Nick smile to see it. That only made him frown. Since he still had about six hours, Greg took a nap for one of them, and then called a new cab to the airport. His gate eluded him for a while, and when he found it, it was full of old people that smelled bad. He spent the wait planning new and interesting ways to kill Conrad Ecklie.
Warrick kept a wide eye on Nick the rest of that day. He'd come to work in a good mood, but knowing that he was going home alone sent him right down in the pits for some reason that the Texan didn't understand. He worked quietly beside his friend, answering his questions monotonously. When Grissom walked by as dawn began to spread, Warrick sent him a smirk.
When he got home Nick automatically waved at the lady next door and ignored her curious face, as she wondered why Greg wasn't with him. He opened their front door and set his kit down gently, listening to the silence with a frown. He wandered in to the living room, then the kitchen, then both their bedrooms. It just bothered him that there were no signs of Greg. There wasn't even a hint that he lived here, since all his things were gone with him, and it just felt wrong.
It took until after he'd eaten an entire jar of jam for his dinner that Nick admitted to himself that it wasn't being alone that bothered him. He could deal with being alone for a little while. It was the absence of Greg. The bathroom sink looked too big without bottles of gel and mousse and hair bleach surrounding it. The TV was too big to play games on in single player mode. The stove was too big to cook for just one person, and the table was too long to eat at alone. And his bed was too big for one person.
It was crazy, he knew, because they didn't sleep together every single night. He'd spent plenty of nights stretched out across the top of his covers alone, wishing for a bigger bed. He'd slept without Greg many times without the blonde crossing his mind. But somehow, lying here and knowing that if he crossed the hall there wouldn't be a warm comforting friend to curl in behind, Nick was suddenly hit by the biggest wave of loneliness he'd ever had. He turned his head and looked at the clock. It was seven o'clock in the morning, which meant that in Texas it would be nine. He picked up the phone.
The line rang five times before it was picked up, and before he could respond to the greeting of a female voice, said voice took the phone away from their mouth and hollered at someone else running by. Nick smiled, the familiarity of his childhood home easing the knots in his stomach. He was the only Stokes child that had moved off the farm.
"I'm sorry about that, hello is anyone still there?"
"Hey Jennie, it's-" a squeal cut him off.
"Nicky! Everyone come quickly, Nicky's on the phone! Hold on baby brother, I'll put you on speaker!" Nick could hear a beep, and then the speaker picked up the sounds of running feet and excited voices babbling all at once. His heart lifted a little. Maybe he should call home more often, if this was the reception he would get. Many voices were yelling at the speaker and he laughed out loud.
"One at a time!" he yelled at them good-naturedly. They quieted – slowly – and his mother's voice rose above the crowd.
"How are you darling?"
"I'm fine Momma. A little lonely."
"What's got you lonely? I thought you had that roommate? Greg was it?" Nick felt the knots in his stomach twisting again as he felt the emptiness of the apartment squeezing in on him.
"He's gone for a week," he admitted. His sister's voice came through the earpiece, and her words gave him pause.
"Goody! If he's not there you can talk about him. Tell us what he's like. We want to know that whoever's rooming with you is a good guy!"
"Spend my hard earned money on a long distance call to Texas talking about Greg?" Nick rolled on to his back and smiled gently at the ceiling. "I can do that."
