Disclaimer: The characters of CSI belong to CBS and I'm only doing this for fun. No money is involved in this posting.
A/N: I am a Nick and Greg slasher. If you don't like that kind of thinking consider yourself warned. English (the UK version) is my second language, so any grammatical errors are simply lack of knowledge on my side. This is the first fic I ever wrote and I've had it posted elsewhere. For those of you who also ready read it, there is going to be a few changes. Most are simply grammatical but also the occasional lost word.
Dagdrommer: Thank you for your kind words. I absolutely adore Greg, so I had to write all wonderful like that.
Four weeks in Vegas had already passed; he had gotten over his short bout of homesickness and now that his first paycheck had arrived things were looking better.
As most evenings he was walking to work and tonight he took the same route as on the first night. They say that nothing grows old in Vegas and tonight proved it. Two shops were under reconstruction one had a clearing sale and the cozy Greek restaurant two blocks away from the Lab was now a salad bar. The thought of salad lead him to think of Nick who was still quite an enigma to him. To begin with he was sure Nick wouldn't know of him because he knew, but he had continuously sought his company even though Nick often spend half the time apologizing for being such a burden.
Most of the time he enjoyed having Nick around laughing or crying that was okay; but the excuses the fears the apologies and the denials were all heartbreaking. Technically so was the crying but he figured that since he was able to comfort Nick it wasn't that painful.
'Now you've gone and done it again Greggo thinking about that man. You should focus on getting to work.' He found himself lost in thought more and more lately and always with Nick in the focus.
A quick survey of the parking lot told him that only Grissom was in yet, sometimes he wondered if the man ever went home. The thought put the smile back on his face and when he walked down the hallway he was his usual energetic self. Coffee on and backpack in the locker and then Gruesome Grissom broke his routine by calling him into his office.
"Greg you are of Scandinavian descent right?"
"Yep I'm mostly Norwegian why?"
"Well I've just come across this mosquito that supposedly should be from Norway."
"Aha, well I've only been there three times I'm third generation here."
"How much crossbreeding does that implicate?" Only Grissom could ask something like that. But instead of feeling insulted Greg felt rather curious and started explaining.
"Since the Vikings are my ancestors I believe that there was already plenty of crossbreeding a thousand years ago. They raided far of countries and brought slaves back with them. But three of my grandparents are all Norwegian and the fourth is of English and Polish heritage. If that is what you mean?"
Grissom gave him a little small crooked smile and held out a paper bag.
"Put your hand into it."
Greg did as told and regretted it the instant he felt the sting. Grissom was holding the bag closed around his wrist when he wanted to pull his hand to himself.
"Aw. What have you got in there it freaking hurts!" His voice pitching much higher than normal.
"The mosquito I was telling you about. I just want to see the normal reaction pattern compared to how others have reacted." The man all innocence.
"The normal reaction! It itches like hell and I'll scratch it till I go mad. I hate mosquito bites." The hurt in voice way too obvious for his own liking, but he knew he had walked straight into that one.
"Greg you can't touch it. It's an experiment!" The things that man would demand but Greg had a feeling that he had probably already done it himself.
"Do you really expect me to leave it alone?"
"Yes off course. It is an experiment and I want a picture taken every half hour tonight to document." Greg just looked unbelieving at him.
"Sure okay." He walked of towards his coffee awaiting in the break room where he found Archie filling a water bottle.
"Why the long face man?"
Greg just showed Archie his already swelling hand.
"Ouch! Another one of Grissom's experiments?"
"Aha. Some supposedly Norwegian mosquito that he wanted to see the natural reaction to." Greg pouted and stared at his hand desperately trying not to itch back.
"Follow me, I'll show you my green-eyed monster."
Greg followed Archie into the AV-lab and Archie pulled a picture up on a laptop.
"Is that… all of them combined?" Greg was looking at a person apparently constructed out of the four CSI's.
"Yes indeed. Grissom for body, Catherine for hair, Warrick for eyes and Nicky-boy's big win-them-all smile."
The picture worked and momentarily Greg forgot all about the bug bite and just giggled like another teenage girl.
"I always use it to overcome what ever they serve me. And trust me he has done this to everybody. But usually the latest arrival at the lab gets the most." If Archie was trying o comfort him he failed miserably.
An hour later the bite was driving him mad, no matter how focused he stayed on the samples his hand found something to scratch against for relief. He had to find a way to keep his hand from doing things unnoticed without covering it. Looking around the lab he saw the first aid kit and opted for the sling. With the arm in the sling he had full control over his hands whereabouts but working had gotten a whole lot more complicated. At least the bug bite had cleared his mind from his Nick worries, first time he thought about him was when then guy leaned in over him.
"What's happened to your arm?" Warm breath close to his ear and neck, Nick hadn't turned the music down like other people would. Greg reached for the volume control brushing against Nick's chest causing a serious onset of gooseflesh.
"Arm… Eh… Grissom… mosquito…" Greg was desperately grasping for self control especially over his tongue.
"Grissom is testing a mosquito, well actually more how people react to being bitten by that particular bitch." Finally his mouth and brain cooperating again.
"It sucks being the new one."
"Yeah I think the man is taking the word lab-rat a little too serious."
"But that doesn't explain the sling Greggo."
"All right I'll spell it out for you. I am not allowed to touch cover or treat the bite. When my arm is in the sling my hand won't suddenly be scratching at the edge of a desk or anything else within reach. That good enough for you Mr. Cop?"
"Hey no need to get defensive man! I was just worried about…" Nick trailed off and started to blush slightly. Greg took advantage of it and gave Nick a coy look from under his thick eyelashes and adding his most charming smile too. Now it was clear that Nick's brain had lost control and the man stood burning red holding a bag of evidence.
"Nick I could really do with a strong man later on." Greg let the speechless man suffer a bit longer before adding: "You know to go pick up my couch."
"Oh yeah off course no problem. Eh can you process these it's just two swabs?" Nick had regained the ability to speak and the color in his cheeks was fading. For the first time it dawned on Greg that he was affecting Nick just as much as Nick was affecting him. He hadn't realized earlier that he could make Nick loose his cool so easily at work.
Grissom knocked on the doorframe and pointed to his watch, time for documentation. He only thought about the bite when it was time for the photo session, the majority of his thoughts were yet again occupied by Nick and especially Nick's reaction to the obvious flirtatious move he had made. Finally morning arrived and they were all able to go home, it didn't happen that often and Greg was thrilled; he was so looking forward to finally have a couch.
They were both hot and sweaty when the couch was in place in Greg's living room. Greg got a couple of cold beers for them and they both dumped down on the dark gray fabric.
"Have you got anything eatable or should we have stopped and picked some up?" Nick added to the audible rumble from his stomach.
"I have some meatballs and a potato salad from yesterday and the good thing is that you can eat it cold." He padded of to the kitchen and returned with plates and a couple of plastic containers. They ate in silence.
Greg was trying to put a question together about going on a date. But it kept coming up all wrong and a part of him was having a hysterical fit about dating someone stuck in the closet. He noticed how pensive Nick looked and would have given a lot to know what was going on in the Texans mind, but how could he expect Nick to open up when he couldn't himself. Nick left straight after finishing the meal with an excuse about having laundry to do.
With his mind still spinning Greg knew sleep was far of and he opted for a run. Not something he did normally unless it would get him somewhere important. After two hours of running around the neighborhood he was exhausted enough to drop dead to the world when he came home.
Before leaving for work he wrote invitations to everyone on the nightshift to come to his housewarming party in two weeks so he could pass them around that night.
The day before the housewarming was all cleaning and preparing food and of course Nick was helping. His excuse had been that he needed to pay of for the three trips to the club in the past week. A case of child porn that had dragged out over three nights and Nick had needed a shoulder to cry on. Greg wasn't any closer to figure out what lay beneath Nick's total lack of distance in these cases, he knew that Nick took all cases very personal. But the children they were the most intense and it left Nick as a trembling wreck. So for three days they had slept side by side not that it had moved things along because Nick had simply been to far gone for that.
They managed four hours of sleep that afternoon after having finished preparing. This time Greg was too exhausted to think about going to sleep with a coherent Nick lying next to him. When the alarm went of he found himself lying with his head on Nick's chest and an arm slung across his waist and Nick was awake looking at him. He got up a little too fast and felt so lightheaded he had to reach for support; Nick caught him before he fell.
"Take it easy Greggo!" His voice warm and soft. Greg finally managed to turn of the alarm and headed for the shower.
The shift was fairly uneventful. Well not for the victims but the cases were rather simple and nothing too gory. So everybody was in a good mood for the morning's housewarming. It was the first time Greg threw a party that started at 9 am but that didn't deter anyone from partying the way other people would at night. The first to leave was Hodges and soon Brass and Grissom followed suit. Catherine's husband Eddie got drunk and she hauled him of home and the party sorted of ended then. Nick had drunk way too much so Warrick dropped him off on his way home. In the end it was just him and Archie and they started to clear away the bottles and plates that were scattered on most surfaces in the living room.
"I have never seen Nick drink so much." Archie was clearing away bottles at the end of couch where Nick had sat.
"Maybe he was just getting that child porn case out his system." Archie continued.
"Cases with children just cracks him up."
"Do you know why Archie?" Greg wasn't sure he really wanted to know but maybe if he knew he could help.
"Nah, figure he's seen something as a kid, but I don't know, he never talks about it. To begin with I thought perhaps he had lost a child of his own. But as far as I've been able to find out he's never had any children."
"Hmm… that wouldn't involve any use of government databases for personal gain?" Greg did a full Grissom imitation and Archie doubled over laughing.
"Oh man you're so wicked. You're the perfect countermeasure for Hodges." Archie was laughing so hard now that tears were falling from his eyes. The alcohol in their systems only encouraged the laughing spell and Greg didn't stop till his stomach started cramping up.
Archie left once he stopped laughing and Greg headed for bed, he still had work to go to work tonight. It had disappointed him that Nick had gotten so bloody drunk, yesterday had been so nice and then this sudden change. Everything that Nick did caused a strong reaction in him; any feeling regarding Nick was a million times stronger than for any other person. No one had done this to him before, Sammie had stirred some pretty strong feelings but they didn't even come close to what he felt now.