Loser takes all by tenofswords
Disclaimer – I don't own CSI. Wow, that was boring. I'm out of practice. Notes – This is a truly tiny (and fairly pathetic) one-shot ficlet set during the first part of 'Grave Danger', so spoilers and dialogue are present if for some weird reason you haven't seen this truly hair-raising episode yet."Oh, my two favourite guys. So, I've got an assault at Stripperama and a trash run at Flamingo and Koval. I'm too busy to play favourites, so duke it out."
And with that, Catherine turned on her heel and departed for her office, hoping that she could hide all of Grissom's bug-samples and foetal pigs before her boyfriend arrived. Meanwhile, Nick and Warrick had a situation to work out…
"Duke it out?" Warrick made a show of making a fist.
" Better flip a coin. I'll hurt you." Nick was all up for it, not knowing just how high the stakes were as the coin tumbled in the air.
Fate spoke, and so did Warrick. He said: "Have fun at the trash run."
Nick sighed. "You know, I'd do two out of three, but you got a gambling problem." It was a cheap shot, and he knew it, but he wanted strippers, dammit! He gave Warrick his coin back and headed off to face the nasty.
As he passed the break room, he saw Greg and Hodges making an ultimately doomed effort to be civil to one-another. It looked like they were playing…what was that, Monopoly? No, hold on, it was…
Hodges whooped in jubilation. "All right! I just stole me Boss Hogg's girlfriend. You suck, Sanders!"
"Whoops, look at that. I just got paged. Game forfeit."
"Bullshit! I didn't hear anything."
"It's on vibration." Greg was already walking faster than was polite out of the break room.
"I have ears like a hawk and I didn't hear it vibrate!" Hodges yelled vainly after him. Nick smiled and followed Greg down the corridor.
"You didn't actually get paged, did you?"
"What's it gonna take for you not to tell Hodges?"
"The keys to your Blue Hawaiian."
"Damn you, Stokes!"Nick grinned. "Yes or no, Greg."
"Forget it. Silence and Hodges' dignity aren't worth that much."
Nick scowled. "Well, ain't this just my lucky day!"
Greg looked up, interested. "Why? What's up?"
"Ahh, just assignments, is all. I got stuck with a trash run, and guess what Warrick got? Assault at Stripperama. It's not fair, man." Nick was growling.
Greg, however, looked confused. "Warrick is going to Stripperama?"
"That's what I said."
"And he's…excited about going?"
Nick looked the young lab tech right in the eye. "How would you react?"
Greg still looked confused, even more so. "Well, I'd be pretty pissed at Cath for sending me there. I mean, Stripperama is a gay club, so…hey, wait. Wait! What'd I say?"
For Nick was on his way out of the lab, his laughter rebounding off the walls.
It was the last he would laugh for a very long time.
Fin.