Title: One, Two, Three
Author: Battus philenor
Disclaimer: Have I mentioned lately how much I wish they were mine?
A/N: This is a follow up to Grave Danger. This is unbetad, so I apologize up front for any errors.
"Surprise!"
Stopping short at the edge of the break room, a somewhat shaken and teary eyed Nick reached out for the door jam to steady himself. Looking around, he slowly took in all the people who'd packed in there for his first night back after the— ordeal. That's what he took to referring to it as anyway. The unending hours underground, his dirt nap, his romp with the ants, the evening he recorded his final words to his folks, the moment he almost killed himself; while all of those were true, they were all too painful as titles and he was always too close to tears now a days to dwell on pain. It was just his ordeal.
Through his now too familiarly bleary eyes, he focused first on Grissom. And as the lump in his throat grew, he swallowed hard trying with a Texas sized might to fight off both the lump and the tears. While he had been told by Grissom afterward that Warrick's was the first face he'd seen, the only one he remembered seeing was Grissom's. It was Grissom calling him his father's nick-name for him that brought him out of his hell hole. Nick's lip quivered again and his face scrunched up as he could actually feel the break room walls closing in on him, remembering the plexi-glass and sand suffocating him.
Grissom walked the two steps and brought a gentle arm up, resting a steady hand on Nick's shoulder. He gave a squeeze along with a nod of his head and a brief smile.
"Welcome back, Nicky." Grissom offered aloud. Leaning in he carried on with a whispered, "You can do this, Pancho."
With a hard nod in the affirmative, Nick pursed his lips and swallowed hard once again, preparing himself for more sentimental hogwash that would surely come during the moments before his first shift back.
Grissom offered one more assuring squeeze and moved past him to stand against the wall. Still able to observe Nick's face, he wanted to be able to save him if things became too much for him.
The next to approach Nick was Sara. And while Nick had seen her at both the hospital and at his home, she still gave him a hug, surprising him in front of all their co-workers.
"How's Teresa?" Sara asked as she stared pointedly at him, seeming to gauge his reaction to her question.
Looking around before answering, Nick shook his head positively and offered a weak, "She's good." Tightening his hold on her for a moment, he added, "It's going real good Sara, thanks."
"Who's Teresa?" Greg asked in a sing-song like voice.
Sara turned toward the group, apparently ready for the question. "She's an old friend who just had to meet the good looking survivor stud."
With a collective "ah," everybody looked knowingly at each other, not surprised that Nick would now have some groupies.
Sara watched him, suddenly flashing back to watching him in the box, the terror on his face, the terror she felt when the ants came and he started to convulse. Her helplessness as she watched her friend, trapped; her palms were clammy and her own breathing hampered by the confining and inescapable circumstance.
She squeezed him tighter, and with a firm pat on his back Sara broke the hug. Stepping back she gave him her broadest smile as she hoped that there was no look of terror currently on her face. As he only smiled at her in response, Sara realized she must have hidden her fear well.
She began to worry about his answer to her question though; she hoped his response regarding Teresa had been a truthful one. Telling Nick of a good therapist had been something she needed to do, but him realizing how she knew said therapist was a consequence she wasn't sure she was ready to deal with, not yet. To Nick's credit, he never asked her to elaborate and neither spoke of their visits, either to each other or to anybody else for that matter.
As Sara stepped out of the way trying to allow others a moment with the evening's hero, she happened to see Grissom staring at her. He shot her a quick and discreet wink as he nodded his approval and gave her a small smile.
Sara's face reddened and she lowered her head shyly. Grissom knew of Teresa, but until that moment he hadn't known that Sara had offered to share the services of her own therapist with Nick. A pride grew in Grissom in that second. While he had mounds of never-ending proof as to Sara's compassion, he was surprised that she'd exposed her own perceived weakness in order to help someone else. He knew how hard that must have been for her, and was oddly taken aback as he realized that he'd never been more proud of her. He inched closer to Sara's side as the procession greeting Nick carried on around them.
It was Catherine's turn to hug the still slightly swollen Nick. Approaching him without hesitation, Catherine eyed his skin that was visible, noting every ant bite which was still evident. He lowered his eyes under her scrutiny. As her arms enclosed motherly around him, she whispered to him, "I can barley see them anymore Nicky. You were right; there was no need to wear cover-up. I wish… I wish…" Her voice cracked as her throat tightened. It was then that Catherine realized she didn't know what she wished.
She didn't wish it had been Warrick instead. Nick being in that hole had about killed her, but at least she had been able to think. Had it been Warrick, Catherine wasn't sure that she would have been able to hold a thought in her head, not certain at all that she would have been able to carry on. She didn't think it was exactly love she felt for Warrick; she'd only known love once and she'd been much younger, that had ended in a bad marriage and a worse divorce. Having struggled with the Warrick situation for months now, she still wasn't sure what was happening there. The only thing she was certain of was a mutual attraction, and if they ended up acting on it, maybe it would turn into love. She was sure though that she wouldn't have been able to function had it been him instead.
She also didn't wish it had been her in that tomb. While probably the politically correct thing to say, she wouldn't have meant it. There would have been nobody to comfort Lindsay. While work had taken most of her time, her first priority was to her daughter.
With thoughts turning quickly from her daughter to Sam, Catherine began to feel trapped herself. The choice she'd made had been an easy one; she needed to save her friend, her employee, her charge. It was the only way to save Nick, and when it came down to it Catherine knew there really was no choice, he had been buried alive and crying.
Nick's voice pulled Catherine from her nasty memories. "No point wishing anything, I'm out and it's all good, Catherine." Nick offered, giving her a grin and another small squeeze before letting her go.
While he knew the reasons Catherine couldn't finish her sentence, he was thankful to her. She cared and did what she had to do to help get him out. She bit the bullet and begged for him. There'd been talk about Catherine's morals coming and going as they suited her, but she was there for him. Not everybody would have thrown out their own ideals to get ransom money for him. Even though he was uncertain of the details, he knew of only one place she could have gotten that kind of dough, and she did it without hesitation and for that he would be forever grateful.
As Nick and Catherine's reunion ended, Grissom had managed to sidle up to Sara. Giving her a sideways glance he leaned over, bumping her arm with his. Turning her head slightly towards him, she raised her eyebrows questioningly. He smiled at her and whispered, "That was nice, Sara."
Squinting she pretended not to understand what Grissom was referring to. "You know what I mean, Sidle, don't play dumb with me. You forget I have access to those remarkable IQ scores of yours." He punctuated his sentence with a wink before turning back just in time to watch Warrick approach Nick.
With his hand extended, Warrick walked smoothly toward his friend. Nick reached out as well and their hand shake turned into their own special crime-fighter's secret geek shake they'd worked on while Nick had recuperated at home. The surrounding crowd laughed when they got to the part where they pretended to be using magnifying glasses ala Sherlock Holmes. Stopping short of the practiced ending to their long sequenced shake, they both broke into smiles as they pulled each other into a bear hug. Patting Nick on the back Warrick spoke from the heart, "It's great to have you back, bro."
Warrick's mind raced back to Nick being stuffed into his plexi-glass crypt and the light shining brightly in his face. The gun entering the picture as its shadow moved across Nick's face, the barrel coming to rest under his chin. The clenching in his gut just as real during the memories as it had been at that moment, beads of sweat formed on Warrick's lip.
A cough from Nick brought Warrick back to the present as he uncontrollably gripped his friend harder.
With his eyes threatening to well up again, Nick responded quickly, "It's good to be back, man." Looking over Warrick's shoulder and focusing on Grissom he added, "There's no face I would rather have seen first, my friend."
Grissom visibly flinched and he inhaled a gulp of air quickly as he stared back at Nick's intense gaze, but the only one who noticed was Sara. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as his chest puffed up and his jaw clenched. Sara smiled to herself, always satisfied when Grissom showed emotion.
Laughing, Warrick added, "Me either!"
That drew more laughter from the crowd as they all remembered the dog Warrick had dug up first. The two broke their hug with their hands still joined. Each giving a small nod and letting go before Warrick moved to the end of the line next to Catherine.
With a deep breath Nick began, a little more loudly as if trying to gain control over his emotions, "Get over here Greggo, and give Daddy a hug."
Ever the entertainer, Greg played up to the laughter of those watching as he ran over to Nick's open arms and allowed Nick to pick him up. "Dang you've gotten big while I've been away, son!"
"Sure, make fun of the rookie." Greg smiled and let Nick have his fun. He realized Nick needed a minute to gather himself, to raise his confidence and strength. Even though he'd played a big part in the investigation, Greg couldn't help feeling a bit on the outside through it all. Nick's response to him now though made him feel more a part of their group, in with those he'd strived to be like over the previous years. So he'd let Nick use him now, helping him out since he obviously needed it. He didn't want to see Nick cry anymore than Nick wanted to cry in front of them all.
"I missed you, man." Nick said as he got serious again.
"I missed you too, Nick. I'm glad you're back." Greg said warmly as he let go of Nick. "Your rookie jokes mean so much more than everybody else's." Greg joked.
With a wink at Greg, Nick then looked past him at the sea of people still waiting to say a quick hello. With a deep breath he prepared himself for the rest of the niceties. While appreciative of all the love that seemed to be flowing, he really just couldn't wait for things to get back to normal. As the line moved along more quickly now though, he realized that things would never be normal, at least not the normal he was used to.
Things were different now, relationships had changed, even shifts had changed, as now he and Warrick were back with Grissom, and Catherine got some new faces added to her shift as replacements.
They all seemed tighter now as a group, even though there were more secrets between them. He seemed to have shared something with each of them, things the others knew nothing about. He wondered if the others now shared things as well, things that happened while he was in that hole, things that he would never be privy to. And while the secrets he shared with them drew him closer with each of them, he wondered if they were harmless enough, or if they would eventually break them as a group.
End
Battus philenor