"Are you serious?!" Nick shouted. Grissom's brow furrowed.

"What do you mean am I serious, why would I joke about something like this?"

Nick stood in his supervisor's office with his jaw literally dropped and a look of anger mixed with shock washing over his face. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. That sanctimonious little prick, was all Nick's mind kept repeating in loop until he finally closed his mouth and started grinding his teeth.

"Grissom you know that kiss ass will do anything no matter who it hurts to get ahead in this lab, that spineless lab rat has nothing better to do all day except find ways to make you notice him or give him some sort of approval." Nick was trying to choose his words carefully instead of screaming all the wonderful names he really wanted to call Hodges at this point.

Grissom tilted his head to the side the way a dog might when contemplating something.

"First, don't throw the term "lab rat" around so lightly, isn't Mandy one?" Nick frowned, that was beside the point, she was different, he thought, "and second, if that's true and he's trying to win my praise, then why would he attack you? He knows I favor you."

Nick stood silent for a moment.

"I dunno, maybe it was a miscalculation on his part." Nick didn't really have an answer to Grissom's question.

"I don't think so Nick, Hodges doesn't really make miscalculations."

Nick's jaw clenched so hard he thought his teeth might break.

"So you're on his side then, is that what you're saying?" Nick was furious, it took all the will power he had in reserve to maintain some sort of composure.

It seemed that directly after Nick left the lab the night before to go to Mandy's, Hodges had made good on his word that he would tell people who needed to know about their display in the print lab. He went directly to Grissom and told him everything, leaving out all the scheming on his part, or the taunting of Nick on his part, or the plotting to sabotage Nick, also on his part.

"I'm not on a side Nick; you know I don't take sides, Hodges is perfectly within his rights to complain about this, but then again I know him and I know that he's not doing this because he's concerned about company policy. And honestly if I was doing what I get paid to do, we wouldn't be sitting in my office discussing this, we would be chatting with Ecklie determining your future."

As if a switch had been flipped, Nick relaxed his shoulders and removed his fingernails from the palms of his clenched fists.

"He didn't already go to Ecklie?" Nick asked with a hint of confusion. He figured that Hodges would have told him and only him first.

"No, he didn't, apparently he has some sort of tact, either that or he's playing a game that's bigger than us both, but honestly, as smart as he may think he is, he's still not smart enough to pull one over on me, so my bet is on the former of the two possibilities."

Why, rang in Nick's head. Why did he stop at Grissom? What was he playing at? Why would he say anything in the first place if he wasn't going to drive the nail home?

"All this aside Nick, what were you thinking? Why would you do something so dumb in such a place where someone was bound to see you? Even if Miss Webster didn't file a complaint, a display like that could still be constituted as sexual harassment or at the very least providing a hostile work environment for another employee who saw you and was either shocked or offended."

What was I thinking? He thought to himself, I was thinking that I couldn't take it any longer, that I had to taste her, I had to touch her, I had to have my hands on her, my mouth on hers, I had to have her or I would die. Nick answered Grissom's questions to himself.

"I wasn't thinking Grissom, that's what happens when I'm around her, I can't think, she's so, I dunno, she's so perfect, I couldn't contain myself, I know it was dumb, but, what can I do? She's not going to get in trouble is she?" Nick asked that last question saturated with worry.

"No, the complaint wasn't against her, it was solely against you on the grounds that you initiated the incident and she stopped it, so no, she's in no trouble."

Nick breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't know if Hodges in his anger would try to punish Mandy as well.

"But that brings us to something else," Grissom said, "If her influence over you is that strong, so much so that you would jeopardize yours and hers' careers, then should you be working together?"

Nick's stomach dropped. After last night and the majority of this morning, he couldn't imagine the lab or his life without her. He needed her, just as much as he figured she needed him, but they both needed their jobs as well, and making either of them transfer would kill them both.

"Grissom, I swear to you, on everything that I am it will never happen again, we won't even look at each other unless I have something for her to process, you have my word."

Grissom smiled, "I know I do Nicky and I believe you, but, no one else will. I have to do something to you so that it looks like you're being reprimanded or Hodges might just go to Ecklie after all. You're relationship with her wouldn't have been a problem if you would have kept it outside of the lab, now we all have to walk a fine line because you couldn't hold it together for a few hours until your shift was over, do you understand what I'm saying?"

Nick averted his eyes from his supervisor and nodded. In his mind he was weighing the feeling of Mandy's skin under his hands against the consequences that may or may not happen. He suddenly felt very stupid in front of the man he admired the most. He continued with the I'm sorry and the, it wont happen again until Grissom finally told him that he needed time to think and that for the time being Nick was to look ashamed and downtrodden, at least in front of Hodges, until he could think of something to do to Nick.

He wanted to pound Hodges' sniveling face in; the urge to break something was becoming more prevalent by the second. But if he wanted to salvage his job and ultimately his and Mandy's relationship, he was going to have to keep his cool. He would finish his shift after telling Mandy about the ordeal, and then after their shift they would disappear into one another and forget about it until the situation reared its ugly head again the next day. And hopefully Grissom would have thought about his punishment so that he could begin to put this whole nerve racking thing behind them.

Or so he hoped

--

Hodges was standing outside of Grissom's office door trying hard to listen to the conversation within and yet not look too conspicuous. He had indeed told like he said he would, but instead of going to Ecklie like he may have done in the past, he kept this between Grissom and himself. If he would have gone to Ecklie then Mandy's job and reputation would have been tarnished, and the last thing he wanted to do was harm her. No, he just wanted Nick to see that he was good on his word, and that he didn't chicken out even though the probability that Nick would burry his fist in Hodges' face was still running around his mind. He hoped with everything he had that this would send a message to Nick to leave her alone. If it didn't, then he would have to employ plan B, and he almost like the sound of that better than if Nick just walked away now.

After Nick's various petty insults, he heard Grissom say that "he doesn't make miscalculations" and that ensured a perma-smile on Hodges' face for the remainder of the night. Grissom knew that Hodges wasn't stupid, and that's why he knew Gil would handle this with discretion to ensure that Nick wouldn't be fired or transferred, and hopefully he would come out of this with a new found respect for Hodges that he was always trying to pry from Grissom.

Deep down, Hodges knew that Nick probably wouldn't walk away from Mandy that easily. So as Wendy walked by he caught her attention and began to tell her some things that would set plan B into motion. It was almost too easy.