It was his 30th birthday, but that's not why he had remembered it so well. The day before, the team had solved a very high profile and difficult case, so the next day was like a double party. It had been such a nice day out that they had all gone out to Lake Mead for a cookout. They were all sitting on the beach, talking and having a great time. After Grissom had made a comment on how Greg had found a key piece of evidence by accident, everyone had laughed at how Greg had tried to play it off like he had meant to lean against the loose doorframe and knock out the board with the killer's blood and fingerprints on the inside.
Greg had that smile on that he always had when he was truly happy. After the lab explosion, that smile had almost faded completely. But then he started dating Nick, and it gradually started coming back. Now it was in full swing, and even became a little brighter when Nick wrapped his arm around Greg's shoulders. Nick gently pulled Greg towards him and kissed him lightly on the side of his head, right on his hairline above his left eye. The mystery camera man had chosen that second to take a picture of the two, and now it was sitting in Greg's hands.
Looking at himself smiling like that only made him think more about how happy Nick made him. It had seemed like Nick's main goal in life was to make Greg smile or laugh as much as possible. He was really good at it too. Even on the worst days after the saddest cases, Nick still managed to make Greg smile. Greg remembered how when he asked him once how he was able to do it, Nick simply said "I learned it from you. You're always so happy and upbeat, and when you're not like that I'd do anything to see you smile."
A single tear slowly rolled down Greg's cheek. He wiped it away before it made it to his jawline where it would have dripped off and fallen onto the picture in his shaking hands. He bit the inside of his cheek to try and stop himself from crying again. It had been a while since he had looked at this picture, but everytime he did he couldn't help but cry. The picture had been taken two years ago. Yesterday was his 32nd birthday.
Happy for the distraction, Greg quickly picked up his cell phone when he heard it vibrating quietly on the bed next to him. As quiet as it was, he didn't want to wake Catherine up. He flipped it open and read the display screen.
NEW VOICEMAIL
He pressed SEND and waited while the automated voice told him he had a message in his inbox. Then it began playing the message.
"Hey Greg." Greg's heart skipped a beat when he heard the Texan accent come out of his phone. "I was just calling to say happy birthday. I didn't forget...I was just asleep all day yesterday. Anyway, I hope you had a good birthday G."
Greg hung up the phone and dropped it beside him as he closed his eyes. He knew he was probably imagining things, but something in Nick's voice made him sound truly sorry. Greg shook his head. Nick had lied to him. He had broken his heart, he couldn't trust him.
Greg slowly opened his eyes and looked down at the picture still clutched in his hands. He ran his finger over Nick and whispered, "I miss you."
As soon as Nick had finished leaving Greg his belated birthday voicemail, Warrick had walked through his door. He had tried to be quiet, but once he saw Nick was awake he forgot all about that and dropped his bags at the door before walking over to where Nick was sitting. Nick stood up from the couch just in time to hug his best friend. They sat down on the couch after their brief hug, and Warrick wasted no time in finding out how Nick was doing.
"How are you feeling?" He asked. He had talked to Nick earlier, letting him know he was on his way and would be there soon. He sounded okay on the phone, but seeing him now told a different story. He was extremely pale and his eyes were bloodshot with dark cirlces underneath them. Warrick could tell just from the hug and looking at him that Nick had lost a lot of weight that he shouldn't have.
"Better than last week." Nick said with a small smile.
"There was no where to go but up though buddy." Warrick said, smiling slightly himself.
Nick nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's true." Their conversation was inturrupted by Nick's phone ringing. He picked it up quickly, hoping it was Greg. He rolled his eyes when he saw who it really was.
"Hey Jess." He said. "Yeah, he's here." Nick looked at Warrick as he answered the question. He listened for a minute before saying, "Well that's no surprise. Tell Andy I said hi." Nick pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it, realizing Jess had hung up on him. He shrugging and dropped it onto the couch next to him with a sigh.
"Who's Andy?" Warrick asked.
"Jess' law partner. But I'm 99 percent sure he didn't go to law school, and I've never met the guy."
"Then how do you know?"
"I ran into this women Jess works with a couple weeks ago. She's never heard of an Andy, and Jess doesn't have a partner."
Warrick shook his head. "Tell me again why you're still with her then."
Nick sighed again. "Because...I don't know. I really couldn't care less about anything anymore."
"Then what are you wasting your time here for?" Warrick still couldn't understand why Nick had left.
"Where am I supposed to go?" Nick asked.
Warrick wished Nick knew the answer as well as he did. "Where you belong. With who you belong with."
In Las Vegas. With Greg.
Everyday that went by where Greg didn't call Nick only made him think about the Texan more. He wanted to hear his voice again so he could tell if maybe Nick still felt something. But he couldn't bring himself to call him for fear of yet another let down. So he talked himself out of it for months until he figured it was too late.
Nick had been gone for two years. He wasn't coming back.
Greg kept trying to move on even though it was useless. How can he be expected to move on from something that he had been a part of for five years? And then it just suddenly ended and he was left with nothing but a picture and a sweatshirt. It wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to deal with. He couldn't keep himself from thinking about what he'd done to make Nick leave. He had to have done something to cause the sudden change. But he couldn't think of anything, and the more he thought about it the sadder it made him.
A part of him wanted to see Nick again, wanted to start over and make everything go back to normal. The other part of him wanted to yell at him and do anything to make the pain go away. Hating Nick should be so easy.
So why was getting over him so hard?
Nick knocked on Jess' door again. He had been standing out there for a few minutes waiting for her to answer. He knew she was home, and all he needed to do was grab his jacket that he had left there a couple days ago. Forgetting his polite upbringing, Nick opened the unlocked door and stepped inside. He walked through the kitchen and into the living room, where he found not only his jacket, but the reason for Jess not coming to do the door. She had been pretty busy.
Jess saw Nick walk into the room before Andy did, so she had to push him off of her so she could wrap them in the blanket on the back of the couch they were currently having sex on. Nick looked down at the floor and grabbed his jacket off of the chair to his left.
"Sorry if I sound rude, but who the hell are you?" Andy asked.
"Jess' ex-boyfriend." Nick said, looking at Jess coldly.
"Nick, wait. Let me explain." Jess pleaded.
"You don't have to. This actually is going to be very easy, seeing as how none of your stuff is at my apartment or anything. So I'll just leave you two to finish what you started and hopefully never talk to you again."
"You're breaking up with me?" Jess asked, shocked.
Nick nodded. "Yeah, that's usually what happens after you cheat on someone." Nick turned to walk away, but was stopped by Jess' voice.
"What did you expect me to do? We've been together for a very long time and haven't had sex once. You wouldn't even let me blow you. I need physical relationships too Nick."
Nick turned back and shook his head slowly. "I never said I blamed you."
Warrick was in the middle of unlocking his car when his phone rang. He snapped it off his belt and opened it, happy to see that it was Nick calling him and not Grissom asking for him to come back in to work.
"What's up Nicky?" He asked as he got into his car.
"I have good news."
"The Red Sox won again?" Warrick asked with a laugh.
"No, better." Nick paused before saying, "I'm coming home. For good."
