Author's Note: I have no idea if the percentages I proposed in this chapter actually exist or not - - I just made them up. Also, I received a request that I explain how the two first got together, so here it is!

v.v.v

Grissom had warned him of the case's nature and told him that if he couldn't handle it that he could work with Warrick and Catherine on their case. But Greg said that just because he himself had been blown up in a crime lab didn't mean that the next case would personally affect him.

But the more of the case he investigated, the more his hands began to shake.

Another crime lab on the outskirts of Nevada had an explosion which not just obliterated the DNA lab and the walls of the trace lab, but the entire building, including part of the adjacent police station. Greg said that he was able to handle it and would provide the point of view that maybe the case required.

Nick picked up the three rolls of film from the one-hour photo place and the clerk gave him a sad face. "Does he have cancer?" she asked in a bubblegum ditzy voice and Nick wanted to slap her.

"Yeah," Nick whispered, choking on his words. "But he's getting better."

She bowed her head in either respect or embarrassment and squeaked out a small, 'I'm sorry' that Nick thought was fake and let him have the pictures without paying.

His hands began to shake so bad that he couldn't write his final report - - an unknown chemical reaction had occurred near flammable items and caused the fatal explosion. No one was at fault and the whole incident would be ruled out as an accident. Everyone who had died had 'smoke inhalation' or 'severe burns' on their autopsy reports.

Greg ignored Grissom's shut door and went racing right in and up to his boss' desk, shoving his vibrating hands in Grissom's face, panicked and scared, wondering if his "problem" was going to affect his work.

"Look!" Greg shouted and when he saw how Grissom felt just by looking at his eyes, he shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down at his feet. "I was getting better but this case...it was exactly like what happened to me, except worse. Instead of just blowing up the lonely lab tech, it killed people Gris - - this accident didn't just cost money. People lost their lives."

He quietly shut Greg's hospital door and slid into his normal chair, dropping the box of photos and photo album onto the ground and reach for his lover's hand. Greg's eyes opened just enough to see Nick sitting there and he closed them again, smiling faintly. Nick brought Greg's hand up to his mouth and slowly kissed his fingertips and knuckles.

"I'm glad your back," Greg said faintly over the noise of his heart rate beeping every second. His breathing was slow and labored, but he just finished his fourth treatment a couple of hours ago and this has been the worse yet. And Nick got upset because the treatments were supposed to get even worse and he couldn't imagine Greg making it through any more that he already had.

Nick smiled and kissed the tip of Greg's pinkie finger. "I told you I'd be back soon."

Greg tried not to cry as Grissom asked to see his hands. He extracted them from his pockets and they shook even more as they get closer to Grissom's own and is felt like Grissom shocked him as their hands make contact. Grissom doesn't notice but Greg pulled his hands away quickly, fingers numb and that's when he noticed someone out of the corner of his eye.

Nick was sitting in a chair, case file in hand and mouth wide open in shock. He hadn't said anything and it took him a second to register the fact that his two colleagues had gone silent and Greg is staring at him but when he did, he began fumbling with an apology and Grissom told him to stop talking.

"Nick, this is not to leave this room - - do you understand me?" Nick nodded his head absent mindedly and Grissom went back to examining Greg's hands, but the young CSI hasdalready fled the office and was nowhere in sight.

The doctor came in and told Greg and Nick that the pains Greg had been having in his abdomen was actually another tumor. If Greg has the tumor removed in the next forty-eight hours, his chances of the cancerous cells spreading went from seventy-five percent to five percent. The tumor was fairly small and could be removed in a quick, one hour surgery.

Greg wasn't so sure if he could spare the energy for a surgery but Nick explained to Greg that waiting could cost him even more. Greg agreed to have the surgery the following morning.

He was wheeled in first thing Wednesday morning. Nick barely had time to go home, shower and drive back before Greg was being wheeled back into his room, even more tubes and machines attached than before and it made Nick feel sick to his stomach.

Nick pulled out a camera and took pictures of Greg asleep on the gurney, doctors wheeling him down the hall.

When Nick left work, the shadow of the lab cast out over the parking lot and his car. That was when Nick noticed someone's shadow from atop the roof and before he even turned around, he knew it was Greg, his back to the parking lot. He was staring at the sun setting over the city, watching the Strip come to life just a few miles away.

Nick walked up to the roof; by then, Greg had moved to the far corner, toes hanging over the edge of the roof and hands held out in front of them, shaking worse than before. There was a shake in his shoulders that Nick noticed as he quietly shut the heavy door.

"I never had time to be scared," Greg declared and Nick wondered how Greg knew it was him.

"It happened so fast, I had no time to cry."

Nick cried when Greg asked him to take pictures of the stitches on his stomach. "They look like thorns," Greg decided. "Black, angry thorns on a cactus that is slowly killing me."

Greg was mourning his upcoming death day and Nick was upset that he was so willing in accepting his death. That he wasn't going to fight harder. And that made Greg cry.

"I already cheated death once - - no man has enough luck to beat it twice, Nick. I was ready to die fifteen years ago, so imagine my surprise when I celebrated my fifteenth birthday, a feat I had already accepted as not happening."

Both men cried until Greg's painkillers kicked in and knock him out. He gave Nick one final kiss before his eyes slid shut.

All Greg could remember from last night was being terribly drunk. And now he was waking up in Nick's bed, wrapped in Nick's arms and only dressed in his boxers. The same couldn't be said for Nick though and Greg could tell as Nick grinded up against him.

But I'm not gay! was what Greg's mind was shouting as he slid away from Nick's arms and silently looked for the rest of his clothes. He had always guessed that Nick hit for both teams but it was always just a joke with himself and Bobby Dawson who "had it on good measure" that Nick was indeed gay.

Greg stopped when he was pulling on his pants when he noticed his hands and the lack of shaking. Normally, they were at their worse when he first woke up but as he watched them now, there wasn't even a shake in them from how cold he was. They were still like a lake early in the morning, untouched and quiet.

He looked back up at Nick, who had rolled over, and smiled. Although he wasn't gay, he felt different knowing that he could wake up in Nick's strong arms every morning. It was a safe, confident feeling and instead of sneaking away from Nick's house and leaving his...well, what was Nick now?

Had it just been some pity fuck or one night stand? Or was there actually a relationship to come out of it? Because either Greg could continue to call Nick just a friend or colleague, or now Nick was his boyfriend, his lover.

Nick Stokes, my boyfriend and Greg liked how it sounded when he thought about it. So he stripped down to his boxers and crawled back into Nick's bed, wrapping his arms around his new - - and first - - boyfriend.