AN: Don't own 'em, just love 'em.
Here ya go, Lily G. Hope I didn't make you wait too long. ;0)
The rest of the week sped by for the staff and the small group of friends saw little of each other. The first week back at school was always busy and it didn't help that the campus was so spread out and that their lunch periods were not on the same schedule. Most breaks the teachers spent in their individual rooms just playing catch up with schedule changes, student questions, and the never ending paperwork. Friday's lunch seemed to be the exception.
Greg wandered into the noisy break room to find it busy with many teachers he had yet to meet. He thought he might take Grissom's advice and try to introduce himself to a few other young teachers and get the low down on the social scene in Vegas. He had put in some long hours over the past week and really needed the stress relief that going out would provide. As he ventured farther into the room he spied Warrick and Catherine sitting over to one side by themselves.
Greg waved when the home ec teacher looked up and she motioned him over. "Hey, Greg. I haven't seen you all week. How's it going over in the science department?" she asked, indicating that he should sit down and eat his sack lunch with her and Warrick. The green-eyed man nodded at him, offering his own bag of corn chips. Greg declined the offer of the snack and settled down and opened his lunch.
"Busy, Cath. I'm really enjoying it, but I am sooo ready for the weekend. I'm going a little stir crazy in my apartment. I really want to go out and mingle with some other adults. Do you have any suggestions for a club I could check out on my own?" he looked at the blond woman wistfully. He had hoped that by now he would have had a chance to spend some time with Nick, but although the other teacher put in long hours at the school, many of them were spent in the gym or out on the football field.
Catherine opened her mouth to answer his question, but the driver's ed instructor was first with a response. "How about going to the football game with us tomorrow, Greg? I bet we can get a group to go out afterwards."
Warrick knew he could get Nick to agree to going out and really didn't want the young man sitting across from him to meet someone in a club before his best friend at least had a chance to investigate a relationship with the new teacher. He hoped that the time they would spend in the car driving to and from the out of town game would give him an opportunity to delve into Greg's interests a little deeper.
Greg looked at the tall man and smiled. "The football game? I'd love to go, Warrick. Is that okay with you, Cath?" He looked at her eagerly and her first thought was he looked like a puppy at the pound hoping to be adopted. Catherine realized that he must be lonely, and although he was too old to be her child, she decided that she was going to be the one adopting the new teacher.
"Greg, just make sure we get your address and phone number before you leave today and we'll get everything set up. I think going out after the game sounds like fun. Lindsey's staying overnight with a friend tomorrow night, so I'm free as a bird," she replied.
Greg gave her a questioning look and asked, "Who's Lindsey?"
Warrick gave a chuckle. "Lindsey is Catherine's daughter. She is one of the football cheerleaders. So no staring at the young ladies in the short skirts tomorrow, Greg."
Catherine gave Warrick a nasty look. "Don't even go there, 'Rick. I'd dress her in a nun's habit if I had my choice."
Her companion laughed out loud and smiled at the blue-eyed woman. "Lindsey dresses just like you, Cath. And while you're not happy with her wardrobe, let me just say, I'm definitely happy with yours."
The home ec teacher turned to elbow the joking man, but stopped when she locked eyes with his. Her eyes softened and she unconsciously leaned closer to him. "You like what I wear?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah," came a whispered response.
Greg shifted uncomfortably in his seat and took a bite of his sandwich while glancing around the room at the other occupants. He mentally tried to put names, or at least disciplines, to as many faces as possible. He was pleased to find at least a few that he could identify before a cough brought him back to the couple across from him.
"Sorry, Greg." Catherine said softly.
Greg smiled at her. "No problem, Cath. You two are really lucky to have found each other. I can honestly say I'm a little jealous of you both. I've spent a few years testing the waters, but haven't been able to find anyone that could make me feel the way you two looked just now. Don't let me, or anyone else, deny you the opportunity to share those moments with each other."
Catherine felt her heart catch at his statement. She leaned forward and placed a hand on his arm. "Greg, we are going to change that for you, sweetie. Just let Auntie Catherine do a little planning." She turned to Warrick to give him a peck on the cheek and didn't see Greg's face pale. "Oh, I gotta go, I have a student coming in. Get Greg's info, okay?" She gathered up her lunch debris and with a wave to the new teacher swept out of the room.
Greg looked over to Warrick with wide eyes and whispered, "Auntie Catherine?"
The other man just laughed. "Let me know when she crosses the line, okay Greg? That woman is definitely a planner. I'll try to influence her anyway I can, but you'll have to let me know what floats your boat. There's nothing worse than getting setup with someone that doesn't attract you in the least."
The young man just nodded his head, but didn't provide any information other than his address and phone number before leaving the break room for the safety of the crowded hallways and a classroom of teenagers registered for advanced chemistry.
Warrick got out his cell phone and began texting his best friend.
Nick left the entire football team and his assistant coaches sitting in the AV room with Archie watching video of the opposing team they would be facing the following afternoon. He used the excuse of a bathroom break, but headed down the hallway in the opposite direction towards Warrick's classroom.
The two men had made plans to meet immediately after school, however the tall, green-eyed driver's ed teacher had a student stop in unexpectedly and before he was free, Nick had to leave for football practice. Warrick couldn't wait around until Nick was done with practice, as he had plans to take Catherine and Lindsey out to an early dinner, before the younger female went out with friends her own age. So here was Nick sneaking down the hallway like a freshman girl without a hall pass on her way to talk to her BFF about her latest crush.
He poked his head into the classroom and spied Warrick writing in his lesson plan book. "Is the coast clear, 'Rick?" he asked. When his friend nodded his head in assent, Nick entered the room and closed the door, crossing over to sit on the top of the desk closest to Warrick.
"So what's so important that you'd term it life or death, man. I really gotta get back to practice. Did you and Catherine have a fight or something?" Nick tried to focus on his friend, and not the clock on the wall behind Warrick's head.
"Greg," was all he said.
Nick's attention was suddenly centered on Warrick with no thought of the clock or the football players waiting for him down the hall. "What about Greg."
Warrick looked at his friend and decided it would be a little fun to play with Nick's head. Just a little, not enough to cause him pain, but maybe enough to earn him a good chuckle, or two.
"He came into the break room today and asked Catherine for the name of a club where he could go to spend time with other adults. Said he wanted to go on his own, mingle. Mingle, Nick. With other adults. I wonder what he meant by that?" Warrick watched Nick's jaw clench and could almost see the wheels spinning in the phys ed teacher's head. He started to feel a little sorry for his verbal jab, when he saw pain in the brown eyes trained on him. "Don't worry though, man, I had your back."
The Texan stood up from his seat on top of the student desk and approached the grinning man. "How did you have my back, 'Rick?" He didn't elaborate, he just waited for a response from the man across from him who was enjoying drawing the interchange from the break room out.
"I invited him to the football game tomorrow with Cath and I, and told him I'd talk to some coworkers about going out as a group tomorrow night. So how about it, Nick. If I babysit Greg tomorrow afternoon, do you want to go along tomorrow night and take over the night shift?" he smiled at his buddy and was glad to see a huge grin in return.
"Thanks, 'Rick. I'd like that. I wanted to talk to him several times this week, but could never find him in his room when I had some free time. I didn't think to get his phone number on Monday. I almost broke down and called Gris for it, but was afraid Sara would be around and she would definitely question that request."
"Well, I can hook you up with his phone number and address, Nick." He handed his friend a slip of paper. "But I have to warn you, Catherine has made Greg her new pet project. She has decided that little Greg needs to find someone special so he won't be so lonely. I guarantee you she is right now, at this very moment, making a list of every single girl she can think of that might put a smile on that chemistry teacher's face. You better move quick, or Catherine will take your legs from under you without even realizing it."
Nick walked over to the window and rubbed a hand over his face, his eyes not even focusing on anything outside the glass. Warrick could tell his friend was trying to make an important decision. When he turned from the window, Nick looked at Warrick with resolve in his eyes. "'Rick, maybe it's time that someone other than you knows about my sexual preferences."
Warrick nodded his head and gave Nick a look that said, it's about time. "Catherine is good at keeping secrets, Nicky. She loves you like a brother and will fight for your happiness. Anything you tell her will only make things easier for you in the long run."
He paused, and then continued. "If you had been honest with her earlier, she wouldn't have tried setting you up with so many women the first few years you taught here. She only gave up because she was running out of single women to push at you."
Nick gave a slight shudder. "There were so many. I didn't know someone could have so many single friends."
"If you had been honest with her, she would have set you up with single men instead, Nick. She knows plenty of them too. That little fact has driven me crazy for years." Warrick shook his head in laughter. "I'll try to tame down any plans she is cooking up for tomorrow, but I have to warn you, she may have already put some in motion. You need to talk to her as soon as possible."
"Okay 'Rick, I'll have a little heart to heart with her as soon as I can. I just want to do it face to face so that I can gauge her reaction." Nick wasn't looking forward to the encounter. He had experienced the same discussion a few times back in Dallas, before moving to Vegas, and those talks had never ended well. In fact those very discussions were the impetus for his move to another city. Hell, to another state.
Warrick knew this was a very tough decision for his friend to make and wanted to lighten the mood before sending him back down the hallway to his assistant coaches and players. "Don't worry Nick, Catherine loves you. Maybe not as much as she loves me, but that's understandable because you won't jump her bones and make her scream with pleasure. But she still loves you like a brother. It's all good, man."
Nick gave his best friend a snort and shook his head. "I gotta get back, Warrick. They are all going to think I have the world's worst case of diarrhea or have spent the last half hour jerking off. Either way, I have to get back. Please try to rein in Catherine for at least twenty four more hours, okay."
"I'll do what I can." As Nick headed toward the door, Warrick gave a snort and one final parting shot, "A half an hour jerk off, Nick? In your dreams."
Greg was in the shower and didn't hear it ring, but the message that was waiting for him when he checked his phone before getting into bed made him smile. "Hey Greg, it's Nick. Talked to Warrick about Saturday. If I don't get a chance to talk to you at the game, I'll definitely see you tomorrow night. Can't wait to see you."
Greg placed the phone on the nightstand beside his bed and pulled the covers up over his body. He snuggled down under the comforter and gave a relaxed sigh. It was the first time in over a week that he didn't feel lonely in his own apartment. Life was good.
AN: Anyone up for a game of football? ;0)
Reviews appreciated.