Chapter 7: One for all, and all for...two?

Disclaimer: CSI belongs to the writers!! Um…and also legally CBS, Mr. Jerry Bruckheimer, etc…therefore I'm not making any money off this, but as everyone's favourite former Lab Rat once said, "I'm not about the money."


Crime Lab: Grissom's Office

"Anybody care to elaborate? Because as much as I'd like to help, I need to know what happened first in order for me to do anything about it," Grissom sat behind his desk, waiting for Nick or Warrick to continue after they had burst into his office moments before. But he was rapidly losing his patience now as he saw that neither had plans to speak any time soon.

Warrick suddenly looked up from his position near the only window inside the room, "I was trying to think of the best way to tell you this, but I guess…I guess I'll just begin at the beginning." He stole a glance towards a visibly troubled Nick, who sat on the nearby sofa with his head in his hands, and elbows resting on his knees, being held by Catherine in a light embrace. Sara still sat in the chair opposite the desk but she'd turned it so she could both see Warrick, who was leaning against the wall opposite the sofa, and keep an eye on Nick who was sitting to her right.

Seeing that Nick wasn't going to protest, he began to explain the series of events that had lead to their current presence in Grissom's office...

.Oo0oO. Oo0oO. Oo0oO.

"Hey Rick! You done for the day?" Brass walked into the room to catch the CSI changing in front of his locker.

"Hey Brass, ya, just wrapped up my case. We got the suspect in custody right now, and it's my night off tonight!"

"Good to hear man. I can't wait to get home, hit the showers, and hit the hay!"

Warrick snickered good naturedly as he replied, "Ya, old man, want a cane to go with that walk?"

"Ha-ha, very funny Warrick. Really, I'm laughing on the inside. So anyway, have you seen your buddy Nick?"

"Nope, haven't seen him since I started shift. I heard he got two back-to-back cases--"

"Who'd you hear that from?"

"Catherine."

Brass smirked, "Catherine, huh? So how's it goin' with that?"

Warrick threw Brass a confused look, "How's it goin' with what?"

"Alright, if that's how you wanna play it…"

"That's how I wanna play it," Warrick confirmed with a friendly grin and continued, "So why'd you ask me about Nick anyway? I thought he was working wit you?"

"Oh, yeah, it was just that I'd never seen him rearing to get outta that interrogation room as fast as he did today. I just wanted to make sure that he was alright. I called his cell phone, once I left our latest scumbag in a holding cell, but all I got was a busy signal."

"Why don't you try Greg? Maybe Nick's phone was just acting up."

"Nah, the kid's at home sick…apparently he wasn't feeling well and had asked Nick to take over the case for him."

Warrick furrowed his brow in confusion; he'd seen Greg earlier in the night when the former Lab Rat had been sitting in the trace lab and talking animatedly to Hodges. He looked perfectly fine then, so what had happened to him between then and now?

"Huh, well I dunno what to tell you man. I haven't talked to either of em' since I started my shift, and I only saw Greg briefly while I was walking past the trace lab to go see Bobby about my case."

"Well, if you see or hear from Nick, would you remind him that I can only hold Roland Hughes for 72 hours without charging him?"

"Roland who?"

"The scumbag I told you about earlier, a suspect in our current investigation. He's the one we were talking to when Nick pulled out mid-interrogation and told me to hold the guy until he could confirm something with Greg…and then he called me back from his cell saying that he needed Greg to be there for the interrogation part, so until then he couldn't do anything, and hung up without going into detail. I figured he must have got a hot new lead or something, you know how Nick gets when he's focused on somethin'…"

Warrick laughed good-naturedly, "Yup, like a race horse with blinders on…"

"…exactly, so I figured it must have been pretty important, for Nick to take off like that. Anyway, I know he knows the rules, but remind him just in case if you talk to him will ya?"

Warrick quickly assured the Captain, "Ok, Brass. Will do."

He watched Brass walk out the door to head home, while two Day shift Lab Techs walked in talking animatedly about something. They shut up as soon as they saw Warrick, now standing in front of his locker and sorting through the dirty laundry he'd accumulated over the past week.

Warrick casually said hello to both and continued with the clean up, when he noticed their sudden quiet. He looked up in question and found the two Techs silently looking at each other like they didn't know what to do with themselves.

"What's up guys? Do I smell or somethin'?" Warrick jokingly inquired.

"Uhh…no, no, it's just that…" Ray Jennings wavered, looking at his friend briefly before he continued, "Did you know that Sanders was gay?"

"WHAT?! Where the hell did that come from?" Warrick was suddenly furious; he didn't think anyone else knew about Greg's sexual preferences because the blonde hadn't explicitly come out at work. His friend just didn't see the point in yelling out that he was bi from the roof tops, especially being in the profession they were in, but he always told people the truth if he was asked about it.

"Whoa! Don't get mad, I heard it from Stokes earlier today when he was yelling at Greg in the parking lot…it looked pretty serious. I mean it looked like Stokes was pretty mad that Sanders was sleepin' with Hodges, it almost looked like Nick was jealous…I just didn't think either of them would swing that way you know? Hodges, ya, I can see that happening, but Stokes?" Ray suddenly stopped mid-ramble and took a step backward as he saw Warrick pull himself to his full height and give him a murderous glare.

"Jennings, if I were you, I wouldn't be gossiping about either of them, or even Hodges for that matter. You know slander is legally actionable right?" Warrick was bluffing, but they didn't know that.

"No way man! I wouldn't dream of it…I just wanted to let you know 'cause you guys are close buds, and well I thought I'd give you a heads up about Nick's situation…" Ray trailed off weakly, as even to his ears the BS he was spewing was embarrassingly obvious.

Warrick quickly packed up and brushed past the two guilty looking men to get to his car. He tried calling Nick's cell and found that it was still busy so he decided to try Greg instead, which also yielded him with nothing. Now he was getting worried, as he had no way of confirming if what he'd heard from Jennings was true or false and a horrible feeling was starting to form in his gut as he recalled what Brass had said to him earlier.

. Oo0oO. Oo0oO. Oo0oO.

Once again, the rapid succession of knocks against Grissom's door interrupted Warrick's recounting of the events that had occurred about 5 hours earlier. I really need to get one of those DO NOT DISTURB signs for my door, Grissom idly thought but made no move to answer the persistent tapping. Sara however was the first to react as she quickly walked over to the door, and after checking to make sure the wrong person wasn't on the other side, let in an extremely frustrated Jim Brass before shutting and locking the door behind him.

Brass looked slightly relieved when he caught sight of Nick on the sofa, with Catherine now holding his hand in silent support. The Captain quickly took a seat across from them and, leaning back on the spare chair, he dryly observed, "Guess I didn't get the memo on the family meeting huh?"


Crime Lab: Basement Bathroom

"Hodges, I have no idea what you're on but there is just no way that Nick liked me romantically…I'm not even sure if he even likes me as a human being…I just want this whole situation to go away. I want a new start, and I'm not sure if I have the strength to continue working here after what happened…Can you, after going through something so humiliating in front of your co-workers? …I just want this whole situation to go away…I want a new start… I'm not sure if I have the strength to continue…Can you, after going through something so humiliating in front of your co-workers?"

The words echoed within his mind in a continuous loop, taunting him, reminding him of his former life in L.A. where he'd carved himself a niche, a safe place to call his own and do something he loved, but his superiors were arrogant enough to take all that away from him.

They uprooted him, like a rotten tree that needed to be removed to prevent its disease from infesting the life surrounding it, and transplanted him without a second consideration. Human beings really were a mystery, he thought; one could never understand how one moment people could be so compassionate and caring, and in another so completely unforgiving. He had learned long ago that life didn't deal in "get out of jail free" cards; that the monsters under his bed weren't real, but the humans who harm the innocent were. And he had learned too late that life wasn't fair; however cliché it sounded--it was the truth. A truth that was absolute.

He lived by it, worked by it, and now pondering the question his friend had just posed, he replied, "Greg, you need to learn something and its better you learn it now than 10 years down the road, when you're still single, unmarried, and alone."

"Ha! And what would that be David?"

"Life isn't fair."

Greg bit back a frustrated groan. Why had he ever imagined that David Hodges could possibly understand what he was going through? Why had he felt compelled to spill his story, his fears, and his doubts to the older man? He should have known that David could never understand him.

"I understand this better than you may think Sanders…"

"How does he do that?"

"…because I've had about a decade more of life than you to become jaded."

"Oh shit, that's just freaky!!"

Hodges threw a sly glance to see that his guess had hit the mark. Greg was looking at him as if the trace tech could read minds. David ignored this and continued, "You know that old saying, if life gives you lemons…make lemonade. Well, I suggest you stop blaming yourself, the world, and everything else for the situation you're in and start taking responsibility for your actions."

Greg could not believe the tech was accusing him of being lazy and irresponsible. He made to argue but was quickly cut off as the older man gestured for him to shut up and threw the CSI's own words back at him, "Just listen to me, will you? Maybe you'll learn something!"


Crime Lab: Grissom's Office

"Brass, I thought you were home already?" Grissom asked at the same time Warrick inquired in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

"I was home, but I came back to get something from my office that I'd forgotten earlier," Brass pointedly looked at Warrick, who decided to drop his questioning for now. "That's when I heard some of the Day Shift talking, about some things that I couldn't imagine being true…and when I couldn't reach Nick, I guess I got a little worried. I can see now that he's ok, but obviously I was coming to see you Gil to ask if you knew anything about what was going on out there…and I'm guessing you guys know something or you wouldn't all be here together." Brass politely observed, as he didn't want to ask the wrong question and upset Nick even further, he decided to explain how he'd gotten there and hoped that there would be an explanation offered on Nick's part as well.

Nick continued to stay mute, so Warrick took the lead again as it was obvious no one else in the room was going to speak up.

"I was just in the middle of explaining the whole situation to them. I just got to the part when I left the Crime Lab after hearing the same rumours you did, right after you left, so you haven't really missed anything."

"Oh good! In that case, it's good to know that I'm still in the loop."

Warrick ignored the slight jibe from the Captain and gestured to Catherine, "Remember when I called you earlier?"

The blonde nodded an affirmative, "Well, I wasn't completely telling the truth when I told you that I needed to talk to Nick about his case. Actually, Brass did ask me to tell Nick something, but it wasn't the main reason why I called…

. Oo0oO. Oo0oO. Oo0oO.

The incessant ringing of the telephone welcomed Catherine into consciousness as she tiredly turned over in her bed to grab the phone off its hook. She sent up a silent prayer to any and all deities out there that she wouldn't have to go into work again, so soon after coming home just a few hours ago.

"'lo?"

"Hey babe, sorry if I woke you up."

Catherine's sour mood changed instantly as the familiar warm baritone of Warrick's voice reached her ears. "Mmm s'ok, I'm just glad to hear your voice, so what's up?"

"I just wanted to say hi and catch up with you. So, how was your day?"

"It was pretty brutal, but I managed to make some progress with the case so I decided to head home and rest before I pick it up again tomorrow. I'm still waiting on DNA and Tox to get back to me…but ya, if Nicky hadn't helped me earlier, I'd still be at that house collecting the damn evidence." Catherine sighed gratefully.

"Ya, thank God for small mercies! Hey, speaking of which, did you see Nick before you left?"

"Nope, the last I had a glimpse of him was when he and Greg were heading out to the parking lot…Grissom later told me that they were chasing a new lead on their case, so I assume that's where they were going. Why? What's up?"

"Oh, it's no big deal…I was just talking to Brass and he told me to tell Nick something. I wasn't sure if Nick was still working, or at home sleeping 'cause I really didn't feel like disturbing him if he was resting," Warrick lied smoothly, as he knew that if Cath got wind of the real reason behind his questioning, she would freak and go into full-on protective mode…and right now, he knew that she needed her rest so he didn't elaborate any further.

"Well, Griss mentioned that the case was finally getting hot after a pretty frustrating cold spell. So I'm pretty sure the boys are still working it, so they could get as much in as they can. Why don't you try Greg, if you don't wanna disturb Nick? That kid's like an energizer bunny, he doesn't go to bed right away when he gets home so you'll more than likely catch him awake either way!"

"Thanks Cath, maybe I will. I'll let you get some rest now, sorry again for waking you from your beauty sleep," Warrick gently teased.

"Well, Mr. Brown, I'm not sure if I can let you off that easy…it's quite hard for me to find time to rest, seeing as I'm a busy lady, but I can always let you make it up to me somehow."

"How does a nice, romantic dinner at a restaurant of your choice…followed by some mouth watering dessert at my place sound?"

"Sounds perfect! Thanks for makin' my day; I can catch some shut-eye now, 'night Rick."

"'night Cath, sweet dreams," Warrick hung up his phone and continued driving towards Nick's apartment. If he wasn't before, he was definitely panicking now as he still hadn't managed to reach Nick or Greg at their respective homes or on their cell phones. This was getting ridiculous. As he reached Nick's place, he slammed his hand against the steering wheel in frustration when he took note that Nick's car wasn't in his drive way. Warrick quickly changed directions without bothering to stop at Nick's place, and headed towards Greg's apartment instead. However, he was completely unprepared to meet one very distraught Nick Stokes pacing in the parking lot, with a cell phone attached to his right ear, desperately muttering something to himself.

Warrick quickly parked and jumped out of his car, with relief washing over him at seeing his best friend unharmed and relatively well. "Nick! What's going on man? Where have you been the past hour? I've been trying to reach you over the phone, even drove out to your place…what are you doing here?!"

Nick stopped his pacing and looked up in surprise, as he hadn't seen or heard Warrick drive up and park his car beside Nick's own truck.

"I can't reach him Rick…and I've been trying and trying and I don't know what to do! I don't know where he is…I tried calling his cell phone, home phone, and even tried banging down his damn apartment door!! The neighbor told me that he hadn't seen him all day and even let me in to his place with his spare key to check if anyone was in…and I don't know, oh man, I shouldn't have said all those things…terrible things…I didn't mean any of it, I didn't mean it I swear! I—"

Nick's anguished rambling was uncontrollable and he kept at it until Warrick suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders to shake him out of his state, "Nick, slow down! I can't help you if I can't make heads or tails of what you're saying! I need you to calm down ok? Can you do that for me Nicky? Calm down, stop talking and breathe."

As Nick tried to comply, Warrick walked him over to his car and managed to extract a bottle of water to give to Nick. "Drink this, and get into the car. How long has it been since you ate?"

"I don't know, I just want to find him. Please Rick, I need to find him, to apologize, tell him how stupid I've really been, I—"

"Nick! What did I tell you? Take a deep breath and try to answer my questions as directly as possible, ok?" Seeing Nick nod reluctantly as they both got into his vehicle, he continued, "When was the last time you ate?"

"…I haven't had anything to eat since I started shift…about 13 hours ago…but I think it's been about 5 hours since I had coffee in the break room," Nick managed between breaths as he tried not to hyperventilate from his panic.

"When did you leave the Crime Lab?"

"…it's been a coupla hours."

"And you were searching for Sanders this whole time?" Warrick tried to remain calm as he drove them to the nearest diner.

"Ya, I…I did something terrible War…and I'm not sure if he'll ever forgive me for this…"

"Well…why don't we get something to eat, you tell me what happened, and we'll see how much damage control we are facing here."

Nick winced as he thought back to the moments that had preceded the big fight that he'd had with Greg in the parking lot.

-&-

"Wait, he hurt Jason? When? How? You didn't think to tell me this before when we were at the Fleming's?"

"Nick, relax ok. I would have known if the kid was not telling me something. Don't jump to conclusions before…"

"Don't jump to conclusions? Greg, have you ever dealt with kids who have been abused before?! Do you even know how they act? Because that's what they do, they act, they pretend that everything's ok, until eventually they start to believe their own stories. You don't know how deep some of these kids bury their shit!" Nick was reeling from his anger, and from what he saw as Greg's incompetence.

"Listen, I said I'm sorry. And as a somewhat experienced CSI myself, I didn't think the situation even warranted an alarm let alone further investigation ok?..."

"I see that you still have much to learn Greg because rule number 1, that every rookie CSI learns, is that you never keep your team members out of the loop, no matter how insignificant a piece of information you might think you have……where do you think you're going Sanders? I wasn't finished here!"

"Yes you are Stokes! I'm not going to sit there and let you berate me like a 6 year old, when you know damn well that if it was Sara or Warrick in my place you would have just agreed with them or even let it slide without even questioning their judgment."

"No Sanders, if it had been Sara or Warrick they wouldn't have made the mistake of assuming that everything was alright in the first place."

"So what are you saying Nick, that I can't do my job right? That I'm not cut out to be a CSI just because the handsome and perfect Nick Stokes commands it so?"

"You said it, not me!"

"What the…that is such a stupid line to use because it's a coward's way out! Why don't you grow a pair and tell me how you really feel about me Stokes? Seriously, because I'd love to know what my former best friend really thought about me all this time."

"If you really want to know Sanders, up until yesterday I thought you weren't such a bad guy but then I found out that you're an incompetent, narcissistic, CSI wannabe who's only goal is to suck up to Grissom in order to further his career…hey, look at that, I just described you're new best friend, David Hodges!...Huh, I never really thought about this before, but you guys are just perfect for each other aren't you? Everything makes sense now, I mean the way you two were being all chummy earlier…you're banging Hodges aren't you?! Is he good for you Greg? Do you like it when he's ramming you?"

-&-

Parked in front of the diner, Nick had finished relaying his story to Warrick a few minutes ago and he was now looking at the dark skinned man for some sort of a reaction. Warrick had been strangely quiet the whole time; although he had been listening carefully to every word that had passed Nick's lips, he hadn't uttered a word yet to indicate how he was feeling.

Suddenly, Nick broke the silence, "War…say something! Please?"

Warrick finally looked over at his best friend and calmly stated, "Nick, I have no idea why you acted the way you did today, but I swear to GOD, if that kid has done something to hurt himself or worse…I'm going to kick your ass," with that Warrick pealed out of the parking lot heading towards the only man he knew who could possibly fix all of this—Gil Grissom, Night Shift Supervisor, and--Warrick prayed, the resident Miracle Worker.

.Oo0oO. Oo0oO. Oo0oO.

The silence was overwhelming as Warrick finished with a sigh and silently stared at his co-workers, who were all looking at Nick with different degrees of confusion evident in their eyes and body language. Granted, Catherine was the only one in the room to know the full extent of what exactly had set Nick off; they were all still clueless as to why Nick would take his frustrations out on Greg to such a degree. It hurt to think how Greg might be taking all of this, and where he might be at this very moment. They were all silently wishing that this was all a bad dream and that everything would once again be peachy fine next morning…if only life were like that.


Crime Lab: Basement

"I don't want any interruptions because I know you might not like what is going to come out of my mouth, but it's a truth that you need to know and remember the rest of your life."

Seeing that Greg was too shocked to object, he continued, "Work with what you got, go after what you want, and don't long for perfection because it's definitely overrated. You've been wasting so much time longing for Nick Stokes that you've been blind to see that the guy's been in love with you this whole time."

As Greg made to object, David quickly shushed him. "I know what you're going to say, so save it! As I told you before Sanders, unlike you I'm not blind or deaf. I saw everything, but I just didn't connect all the pieces of the puzzle until Nick walked outta my lab earlier with murder on his mind. And I can tell you now, that it was my murder he was plotting. You didn't see him, but I did, and he positively turned cold when he caught you earlier trying to hug me. You know, did you ever stop to think why his mood changed so quickly from what I predict a happier one earlier in the shift?"

Greg remained speechless as he tried to take in the implication of the Lab Rat's words. "And you told me that Nick started yelling at you in the car out of nowhere, but did you ever stop to consider your own actions and how they might have affected him? I don't agree with the way he chose to reprimand you, but as the more experienced CSI he had the right and responsibility to make sure you were reprimanded. What you did was wrong Greg, and you need to understand that being wrong isn't the same as being incompetent. Nick might have come off that way because he let his jealousy colour his words, but the crux of the matter is you're too young and still not experienced enough to have known what to do in a situation like that. Have you ever thought about how Grissom got to where he is right now?"

The sudden question, which seemed to be completely off-topic, caught Greg off-guard and all he could do was to shake his head "no".

"Contrary to what some people might think, Grissom didn't just sprout out of nowhere with all that knowledge in his head pre-programmed. He got to the position he's in right now by asking questions and accepting help, because he knew that no one person can have all the answers…sometimes you have to step up and ask someone for help, because that's how you learn and that's how you gain experience. You got that, Sanders?"

A new realization suddenly dawned on Greg as he heard the older man explain the situation without bias. Nick always took cases that dealt with minors pretty hard, and seeing that the tension between them had already been thick, the Texan had just let his frustration build and finally bubble over unchecked. He had let his prior bad mood color his words as he tried to hide the fact that he was scared. Scared that they may have missed something, scared that something terrible and unspeakable had happened to Jason Fleming, and scared because he couldn't control the situation he was in with Greg. Greg had taken away that control by refusing to hear out his apology, and Grissom had unwittingly aided in making the situation worse by making Greg the primary on their case.

The older man took on a more gentler tone as he continued, "You need to understand that you were wrong to assume that it was ok to leave Nick out when you interviewed the boy. Yeah, you didn't know the kid was going to admit to any form of abuse but the minute you caught even a slight indication of it, you should have mentioned it to Nick privately, if not in front of the kid. He was still the more experienced CSI there, and there is a reason why they partner CSIs up to solve certain cases...it's because one may see what another might miss in a situation like that."

Hodges paused to let Greg think about the tussle in the parking lot in a new light. He hoped that Greg would realize that life wasn't going to give him anything without putting up some sort of a fight; and that he should be willing to fight hard to get what he wanted, instead of longing for it from the protection of his mind.


Crime Lab: Grissom's Office

"So, what's our game plan?" Brass was the first to break the silence as he'd always been the "hands on" one in the group…or so he liked to think. "We have to find Greg, and we can't do it from the safety of your office Gil."

"I agree. We've already wasted time in trying to catch up. Sara, I want you to check up on all of Greg's old haunts. Think of any places that he may have gone to right after the altercation and check it out. Warrick, I want you to track down Hodges. We have no idea if he's involved in this in anyway but since we weren't able to reach him I want to cover all my bases just in case. Brass, I need you to use your contacts in uniform to quietly look out for anyone that fits Greg's description. Cath, I need you to stay here with Nick to make sure someone's here on the off chance that Greg calls or drops by. I'm going to find and "update" Ecklie on what's going on and to assure him that everything was just a misunderstanding…" Grissom paused to address the Texan on a gentler note, "And Nick, I sincerely hope that it was a misunderstanding, on both your parts, and I hope you'll come to realize that not everything is as it appears to be."

With that peculiar statement, Nick was once again left alone to brood over his thoughts while Catherine quietly slipped away to grab him something to eat. She had left, reassuring him that they were going to find Greg, safe and sound, and that everything will get sorted out in due time.


A/N: "Begin at the beginning" (Gum Drops) is one of my favourite lines from CSI, mainly because it was part of one of my favourite Nick moments ever! I let Warrick use it, as an homage of sorts, a really twisted one…but an homage nonetheless and because I really wanted to use it, and so, there it is! hehe :) Thanks again for reading guys; y'all make my day with your reviews/ concrits :-) Ugh, had a hard time uploading, but I prevailed!! :D