A/N: Ok, so I'm slightly annoyed because the stupid line-thingy won't work and I had to substitute words instead. So anytime you see CSI:CRIMESCENEINVESTIGATIONCSI:CRIMESCENEINVESTIGATIONCSI:CRIMESCENEINVESTIGATION, it's a break, alright? Anyways, even though I'm on vacation, my brother was kind enough to upload this so that I could publish it for the masses eagerly awaiting it. But seriously...This chapter isn't as long as the other two, but it's still over 2000 words (rock!), so, usual disclaimer applies. Enjoy.

Chapter 3

"We've got each other
And that's a lot
For love"

As the rest of the team filed out of the morgue, Nick slipped in. He crossed over to where Greg lay on the cot. He wasn't sleeping; Nick could tell by his breathing. Greg sat up as Nick approached. Even though he had to be going through hell, Greg still managed a weak version of his patented grin. "Nicky," he said softly, and this was all it took to set Nick off.

He started crying, big, helpless sobs that shook his body. Greg didn't try to stop him, merely pulling him onto the cot with him and stroking his hair gently. "Shh," he whispered soothingly, brushing tears from Nick's cheeks.

Nick sat up, sniffling. "Greg," he whispered, voice cracking. "Greggo, I don't want to lose you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me."

"I know," whispered Greg, beginning to cry softly himself. "God, Nick, I'm so scared. Scared that I'm going to die…scared that I'll never see you again."

"Hey," said Nick softly, pulling Greg close to him, "you're not going to die. I won't let you die."

Greg just looked at Nick, endless despair in his dark eyes. "Nick, I don't think that this is something I can beat," he whispered. "Maybe it's just meant to be."

"No," whispered Nick, swallowing hard. "No, don't you dare give up on me. Don't you dare. I will find that antidote. I swear it." He swallowed again. "Did you give up on me when I was buried alive?"

Greg looked up, eyes wide. Nick rarely talked about what had happened. "Never," he whispered.

"Then don't give up on me now." Greg bit his lip, a tear spilling down his cheek, and just shook his head. Nick put his hands on either side of Greg's face, forcing him to look up at him. Nick searched his eyes desperately, looking for one shred of the beautiful, loving man that he knew, one shred that hadn't been reduced to this shell of hopelessness before him, just one shred to hold onto for all that he was worth. "I promise you," he said fiercely before leaning in and kissing him with a force driven by despair. Greg kissed him back so hard that Nick almost fell over.

They broke apart and Nick ran his thumb over Greg's cheek, gently stroking it. "I promise you," he said in a gentler tone. "I promise you that we will spend the rest of our lives together. I promise you that we'll get a dog, a cute little puppy like you always wanted. I promise that we'll adopt a kid and raise him as our own. I promise…I promise that I will marry you, that I will stand before you in front of a Justice of the Peace and swear to be your forever."

Greg stared at him, shocked. "You're serious?" he breathed, hardly daring to believe it. "But…but…it's not legal in Nevada."

Nick broke into a sad grin. "Then, hell, we'll go to Massachusetts or something." His features turned somber. "I promise you, if we fight this together, there is nothing that can beat us."

Greg wove his hand with Nick's, looking down at their intertwined fingers. "That's an awful lot of big promises, Mr. Stokes," he said quietly. "How do I know you'll keep them?"

"I'll prove it to you," said Nick, equally quiet, but with an edge of desperation. "I'll…I'll come up with some way…I'll…I'll…I'll come out to the team."

Greg's eyes widened and his mouth opened as he gaped at Nick. "N…Now?" he stammered, voice rising an octave.

It was then that Nick realized that for all of Greg's big talk of coming out to the team, he was just as terrified to do it as Nick, but then, Nick realized that he wasn't really afraid anymore. In the face of a much greater adversary, the possibility of losing some of his colleagues' respect no longer fazed him. Instead, he looked Greg in the eye and nodded. "Yes," he said firmly. "As soon as I leave here today, I will tell everyone that you and I are together, and we're very, very happy."

Now the fear in Greg's eyes turned to open admiration as he asked shyly, "You'd really do that? For me? To prove to me that you'll keep all your promises?"

"Yes," whispered Nick. He kissed Greg gently. "I really will." He leaned back and looked at Greg seriously. "You just need to promise me one thing, alright?"

"Ok," said Greg, slightly apprehensive.

Nick looked him in the eye. "Promise me that you will hold on and fight as long as you can. Promise me that you won't let go, no matter what. Promise me…" His voice broke. "Promise me that if anything happens, you'll still love until the end of time."

Greg swallowed, hard. "I promise," he whispered, tears clogging his throat. "I promise."

Nick nodded and kissed him, so gently and sweetly that it almost broke Greg's heart. "I'll call you later," he said, "before I…before I head home."

Greg nodded painfully. Reality was setting in that he wouldn't be going home tonight, that he may never go home again. 'I love you," he whispered suddenly, looking up at Nick.

Nick's expression softened. "I love you, too," he said, reaching out to stroke Greg's cheek once more before he turned and left the morgue. He had important news to tell the team

CSI:CRIMESCENCEINVESTIGATIONCSI:CRIMESCENEINVESTIGATIONCSI:CRIMESCENEINVESTIGATION

The entire team sat in the break room, morosely browsing through Senator O'Neil's case file. Grissom sighed and rubbed his temples. "Alright, so Al said he would be able to delay the results of his autopsy for a few days before the Feds get too worried, but that's all he can give us." He turned to Nick. "Bring us up to speed on the rest."

Nick gulped and looked down at the file he held in his hands. This was it, his chance to keep his promise to Greg. He swallowed again before looking up. "Uh…prints on the envelope came back to the mail carrier, no surprise there. No prints on the letter itself other than the Senator's. Brass is running the return address to see if it actually exists. If it does, I'll go out and interview whoever it is. Um, saliva from the envelope is in DNA, I'm gay, and Hodges is running the envelope for any other trace."

Nodding once, Catherine began, "Ok, so—" before stopping, her face turning the most peculiar shade of red. "Er, Nick, did I hear you right?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, man," said Warrick with a nervous laugh, "cuz I coulda sworn you just said you were gay."

Nick looked at them calmly. "I am," he said quietly. "I am gay, and Greg and I have been dating for almost a year now."

Stunned silence met his announcement as everyone stared at him, open-mouthed. Sara was the first to regain her voice, though all she could manage was a spluttered, "Wha…what?" She looked around at everyone else. "Did any of you know?"

Catherine just shook her head dazedly as Warrick looked down at the table and swallowed hard. "No," he answered, still determinedly avoiding Nick's eyes. "No, apparently my best friend couldn't find the time in his busy schedule to let me know."

Nick sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Look, man, it wasn't like that—" he started, but his cell phone cut him off. He pulled it out and looked at the display. "Jim has the results on the return address," he announced before standing. He looked around the room once. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you all sooner," he said quietly, "but it was my fault, not Greg's. He wanted to tell you from day one, but I…I just couldn't." He gathered up his notes and put them back in the file folder before striding from the room.

The same stunned silence fell again as everyone sat digesting the news. Once again, it was Sara who broke the silence. "Grissom, you've been awfully quiet. Don't you have anything to say?"

Grissom looked up at them, blue eyes stoic as usual. "I knew," he said simply.

"What!" exclaimed Warrick. "They told you without telling us?"

"No," said Grissom, shaking his head. "I sign off on change of address forms. About a month ago, Greg filed one for change of primary address. I couldn't help but notice that Greg's new address is the same as Nick's." He paused. "I didn't say anything because it's their business, not mine."

"They moved in together?" mused Catherine aloud, a small smile beginning to stretch her mouth. "They must be pretty serious about each other." She looked around the room. "C'mon, you can't honestly tell me that you don't think it's at least a little sweet."

Sara started to smile as well. "It is sweet," she admitted. "I just can't believe that we CSIs weren't able to figure it out awhile ago."

"Yeah, well, I can't believe that my best friend didn't tell me about this," said Warrick bitterly. He looked at Sara. "I mean, Jesus, Sara, Greg's your best friend. Doesn't it bother you that he didn't tell you?"

Sara just shrugged, her smiled fading. Warrick shrugged as well before standing. "Well, it bothers me."

He turned to leave but Grissom stopped him. "Warrick, however angry you might be at Nick right now, he needs his best friend." He paused. "Warrick, don't make him go through this alone."

"He's not alone," snapped Warrick angrily. "He's got Greg now." He left without looking back, oblivious to the worried glances everyone exchanged.

CSI:CRIMESCENCEINVESTIGATIONCSI:CRIMESCENEINVESTIGATIONCSI:CRIMESCENEINVESTIGATION

Nick had dialed Brass' number before he even got out of the break room. "Tell me you've got some good news, and our guy didn't use a fake," he said as way of greeting.

Brass chuckled dryly. "No, either he wasn't smart enough of it's not his address. House belongs to a Vincent G. Doziglia."

"Looks like I'm heading out to Cali, then."

Brass' voice turned serious. "Sure, but you're not going alone."

Nick sighed. "Look, Brass, I'll be fine by myself. I'm a big boy, and—"

"It's not you I'm worried about," said Brass shortly.

There was a pause as Nick tried to decide if he should waste energy on feeling insulted. He decided against. "Look, Jim, I'm not gonna beat the shit out of him," said Nick wearily.

"I know that you think that now, but when you're looking him in the eyes, it may be a different story," said Brass calmly. His voice softened. "I know about you and Greg, Nick."

Choking on his own saliva, Nick gaped at his cell phone. "How?" he exclaimed, running a hand through his hair. "I only just told the team. Don't tell me they called you already."

"Please," snorted Brass. "They're CSIs. Brilliant when it comes to dead guys, helplessly clueless when they're living. No, I've been watching you and Sanders for awhile now. At work, you guys used to seem a lot closer, but then you two got more…professional. Now, either you two were fighting or were trying not to jump each other…and it didn't take a rocket science to realize it was the latter."

"You figured that all out by yourself, Jim?" asked Nick, mild admiration and surprise in his voice.

Brass chuckled. "Well, and the kiss I saw Greg give you one day in the locker room didn't hurt either."

Nick grinned. "Alright, Brass, whatever." He sobered. "Look, come if you want, but come in your own car and bring some muscle just in case things go south."

"You want me to call in some reinforcements from LAPD?" offered Brass.

"Nah," said Nick, shaking his head. "It shouldn't be that bad."

"Alright. What time do you want to leave?"

Nick checked his watch and groaned. Five o'clock in the afternoon…he had been working since ten the night before. "How 'bout nine tomorrow morning so we can all try and sleep?"

"Fine," agreed Brass. "I'll meet you in the parking lot at nine tomorrow."

"Thanks Brass," said Nick before hanging up. He headed to the locker room, dialing a number he knew by heart. "Hey, Greg," he said into the phone as he sat down on the bench. "How're you feeling? Did you have any more tremors?"

He continued talking to Greg as he changed shirts and shoes. "Alright, well, I'm heading home," he told Greg finally. His voice softened. "I love you, Greg. Bye."

As he hung up, he heard a locker slam next to him. Warrick stood there, glaring at Nick. "Man, what is your problem?" asked Nick, raising an eyebrow at him.

Warrick just shrugged. "There's no problem here," he said coolly, eyeing Nick with open disdain.

Nick looked up at Warrick, hurt and frustration in his dark eyes. "C'mon, man, what is it? Is it because I'm gay? Or because I didn't tell you?"

Warrick just shook his head before turning away. "I just don't want to talk to you right now, ok?"

"Fine," said Nick shortly. He paused before saying tentatively, "You're still my best friend, 'Rick—"

"Yeah?" interrupted Warrick, jaw clenched. 'Well, you've got a shitty way of showing it." He paused, shaking his head. "Some best friend, man, who can't even trust his bro with his secrets. Some goddamn best friend."

He strode from the locker room, Nick calling after him, "Warrick! Warrick!" Nick groaned and rested his head against the cool metal of his locker. Why did everything always go wrong for him?