SUBTLE
by Mila (mila@engineer.com)

DEDICATION:
In the immortal words of the absolutely brilliant Di:
"cute!snarky!Brass. Season 4 Captain Brass...mmmmmmmmmm. ;-)"
The first thing that Jim Brass noticed when he arrived at CSI was Nick Stokes leaning against his car in the middle of the employee parking lot. Not, of course, that there was anything wrong with leaning against cars in parking lots. What made Jim notice was the fact that Nick was staring at the ground with a completely lost look on his face. And it wasn't very often that Jim saw Nick Stokes, uber-confident ladies' man, leaning against his car in the middle of a parking lot at 2 in the morning with a lost look on his face.

With a sigh, he parked his car and walked over to where Nick was. Even as he leaned up against the next car, facing Nick, the texan didn't seem to notice.

After a few minutes of Jim staring at Nick and Nick staring at the ground, Jim broke the silence. "You look lost, Nick," he said matter-of-factly.

Nick glanced up at Jim, eyes searching his face. "I-I--" he stuttered. Then he took a breath and blurted out, "What do you do when you like someone that you really shouldn't like?"

Jim raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, "Like Ecklie?"

Nick winced and replied, "No, not Ecklie. I mean like like."

Jim thought for a second. Nick could like anyone he darned well pleased, as far as CSI was concerned. Except ....

"All I can say," Jim said slowly, "is don't do anything that might tip off the Sheriff or Ecklie that you like the guy."

Nick looked back up. "But ..." he trailed off unsurely, "other than that ..."

"Other than that," Jim said cheerfully. "Go for it." Then he got serious again. "But be subtle. Loose tongues lose lives."

"Subtle. Got it."

"Knock 'em out, Stokes." Jim clapped Nick's shoulder, letting his hand rest there what was perhaps a tad too long -- but then again who would notice? -- and then continuing up the steps into the building.

'Subtle, huh?' Nick thought. 'So that's how he wants to play ... fine with me.' His eyes followed the other man into the building. He still felt the warmth of the other man's hand on his shoulder. Oh yes, he had noticed.
.: THE END :.


I think that this might be the only Brass / Nick out there. Correct me if I'm wrong ... but I haven't found any yet to disprove my hypothesis!