Title: Living on Standby
Author: DarkDreamer56
Archive: If you want it, ask please!
Rating: T
Pairing: Nick/Sara/Warrick/Greg friendship
Disclaimer: If I owned them, Season 6 would be starting right about now…
Spoilers: General spoilers for Grave Danger

A/N: Hmm, I'm not too sure what to say about this one. I think it's a little bit different than the fics I usually write. I was trying for something different, so there's really no dialogue contained. It's more of a stream of consciousness consisting of Nick's thoughts, there's no real plot to speak of. It's just this idea I've had floating around for awhile, about what day to day life would be for Nick with everyone hovering around (which, even if we don't see on the show, I think is safe to assume). Hope you enjoy!

Nick's living room was no longer his own. Neither was the rest of his house really, but the living room was the most noticeable; to the outside world at least. Over the summer, things had made their way over, and never really left. He supposed he could say the same of his friends; Warrick, Sara, and Greg had pretty much taken up residence in his house, it only made sense that their things had followed suit.

Greg's X-Box sat in front of the television, an array of games spread out next to the half of Warrick's DVD collection that had trickled over. Sara's laptop sat on the coffee table, beside Greg's I-pod, and Nick was certain that a bottle of nail polish lay somewhere underneath the stack of forensics journals, Cosmos, and Maxims. Nick figured they all needed their diversions while they waited for him to fall apart.

And that was just the living room. The bathroom practically resembled a war zone, full of razors, toothbrushes, contact lens solution, deodorant…not to mention Sara's flat iron, her other girly things, and someone's phone charger. The other three were scattered throughout the house, wherever there was an open outlet. Nick swore that the first time he found a box of tampons on the counter, he was kicking everyone out.

If asked, not one of them would be able to recall the last time they actually slept in their own homes. Subsequently, copious amounts of laundry began to build up. At first, each had taken their own home a few times a week, but as the time at their own homes dwindled, the laundry at Nick's piled up. They finally began to do community loads, though after a few cheeky comments, Greg was forbidden from touching Sara's underwear. Nick or Sara usually ran the loads, and Nick found some comfort in the normalcy of folding laundry. He had surprisingly become pretty good at separating everyone's stuff; he knew his own, Sara's was easy to pick out from the rest, and very rarely did he end up mixing up any of Warrick's or Greg's stuff. Afterwards, he made a round of the house, depositing Greg's in a basket at the end of the couch, Warrick's on the bed in Nick's spare bedroom, and Sara's on the chair in Nick's room. His always went straight to the closet or drawer where it was supposed to be; with so much stuff already taking over the house, he didn't want to leave anything unnecessary lying around. This sometimes made him laugh; before everything had happened, his clothes usually sat in baskets or strewn about his room until they became too wrinkled to wear in public.

Warrick and Greg usually handled food, whether it was grocery shopping and cooking, or ordering takeout. They were both surprisingly good cooks, and mindful of Sara's aversion to meat while still making sure that the rest of them got their fill of USDA choice beef. Sometimes Catherine came over and made something, inviting Grissom, and sometimes even Jim, over, and they ate as an entire team again. At first Nick had found it strange, not often having had everyone over to his house at once, but slowly he had grown to look forward to the times when everyone was together; it reminded him of the meals they had spent before the team split, before he had gone through the horrible ordeal of being buried alive.

Still, Nick was a man who highly valued his privacy; it had been an issue with him, ever since the incident with his babysitter, and it had been magnified after Nigel Crane. Knowing that the entire team, not to mention several other people from the lab, had witnessed what he went through underground only made it worse. To suddenly have three other people living in his house, and their things taking over his rooms, was very unsettling for him at times. Nick could count on one hand, the number of times he'd been left alone in his house for more than a few hours since he'd been released from the hospital. There was always someone getting ready for work, taking a shower, or trying to keep Nick occupied. He appreciated the concern of his friends, and if he was honest with himself, he wasn't really ready to be left alone, but sometimes it was all he could do, not to scream at them all to get their stuff and get the hell out of his house.

Those were usually the times that he started to clean and straighten up, if Sara hadn't already beaten him to it. Nick almost thought it would be worth it to buy stock in Lysol or Clorox with the way that he and Sara used it. The kitchen and bathroom were scrubbed daily, and Sara had become a bit manic when it came to vacuuming and dusting. Still, sometimes it seemed pointless to try and pick up; as soon as one room was straightened and everything was put away, or at least stacked neatly in some corner, it was only a matter of time before it was messed up again. Nick thought that it was kind of like living with kids, if the way his sisters complained was any indication. At least it gave him something to do while he waited for sleep.

Nick had realized early on that he was not going to be able to sleep without waking up from terrifying nightmares several times a night. It took several nights for him even to allow anyone to get close enough to comfort him, but now he needed someone in the room with him whenever he slept. Sara was the one to provide him with the most comfort; for awhile, she had slept in the armchair of Nick's room, coming over to the bed to soothe Nick when he woke up screaming. She would sit next to him, stroking his hair and murmuring softly into his ear. It didn't matter what she was saying; in fact, Nick often couldn't remember, but it was the reassurance that someone else was with him that Nick needed. When they were particularly bad, she would hold him.

For awhile though, the nightmares were coming so frequently, that Sara dozed next to Nick between rounds, too exhausted to get up. Nick found that it was easier to stay asleep longer with Sara sleeping next to him, and he didn't wake up screaming as often; sometimes he was able to calm himself down without waking her up. Maybe he was soothed by her deep, even breathing, or maybe it was that he finally didn't feel guilty that he was keeping her awake all night.

The first time that Sara had to work a double, Greg offered to stay in the chair so that Nick could get some sleep, but Nick realized quickly that it was not going to work. Instead, he and Greg stayed up the entire time, watching a Kevin Smith movie marathon. When Sara dragged herself in around lunchtime, she took one look at Nick and Greg, and pulled Nick up off the couch and into the bedroom. Ten minutes later, they were both asleep. Now Sara stayed with him every night, curled up against his side, with her head usually ending up in the crook of his shoulder. Nick wasn't ready to try sleeping on his own, or even trying to sleep with someone else across the room, but there were times that Nick felt he was being selfish, that he was taking advantage of Sara's friendship, of all their friendship. Once he even said as much to Warrick. They sat in silence for awhile, before Warrick responded, that they were all there because they wanted to be, and as for Sara, well, he didn't think that Sara ended up in a guy's bed unless it was something that she wanted to do, so Nick better enjoy it while it lasted. Warrick had tried to keep the tone in his voice light and teasing, but the seriousness of his meaning lingered in the air. Nick didn't bring it up again.

Warrick and Greg did their best to help out, Nick knew they woke up every time he screamed; one of them usually came in to check after giving Sara some time to calm him down, but they really couldn't provide Nick with the same comfort that Sara could. Sometimes, he just needed to feel her warm body curled up against him, reminding him that he was alive and aboveground. Though Nick knew it couldn't go on forever, as long as Sara seemed content with the arrangement, he wasn't going to say anything. Nick knew that in Warrick and Greg's minds, they had to be there, that they wanted to be there for him; it was the only way that they knew to help, and they needed the reassurance that he was still alive just as much as he did. So Nick wouldn't tell them that they could be there for him, and still get a good day's sleep in their own beds. He would allow them to distract him while he waited for sleep to come, while he waited for normalcy to return at some undetermined point in time. Until then, he would deal with the crowding and the taking over of his space, with trying to discern his razor from Warrick's and Greg's, and having to figure out where the hell Sara left the vacuum cleaner after her latest cleaning frenzy.

But he just might start charging them rent.

FIN.

Let me know what you think in a review!