Greg sat alone for several more minutes, becoming more on edge as each minute passed. He heard his name called and looked up when he heard the familiar voice. "Sara?!" He stood up and came up to him and hugged him.
"I heard about what happened and came over as soon as I could," she said as she held onto him.
He felt her warmth and it made him feel better to know there was still someone else out there who cared. He held onto her a moment before speaking. "How did you hear?"
She let go of him and pulled him down to sit down. "You should know that news of any cop being shot goes through the office fast. I heard it was Nick and came as soon as I can. Do we know how he is?"
Greg shook his head woefully. "No, and it's driving me crazy." He ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
She looked at him and could see he was a nervous wreck. She knew his history and worried about him with a situation like this. "He's going to be okay, I am sure of it." She tired reassuring him.
He looked at her and frowned. "Where have you been? I have not seen you in months." She sighed and bowed her head.
"I've been out of town with Grissom. I am actually only in town for a couple of weeks right now. I have officially resigned from the lab here. I gave them my notice yesterday. I am going to be staying with Grissom in France where he has been teaching. I got a job there too now. I was going to stop by to visit you two tomorrow. Then I heard and had to come out here," she told him.
"So you are permanently leaving Las Vegas?" Greg asked her, feeling his world falling around him a little more.
She looked sadly at him. "Yes, I am in a couple of days. I know the timing sucks right now for you but I am sure Nick will be okay." She said to him.
He looked up and shook his head. He didn't say anything but what he was thinking was everyone leaves him. She reached out to him. "Hey, I will stay in contact, okay." He looked at her and nodded but he was feeling worse by the minute as time went by with no word on Nick.
She decided to keep him preoccupied until they heard about Nick. "So I hear you got a job finally."
He nodded. He was not in the mood to talk about himself but he understood what she was trying to do. "Yeah, it's nothing great. Just working at a new bar for more upscale cliental, mostly. It's called the Golden Ram."
"Oh yeah, I heard about the place. Sounds like a fairly nice place," she said to him.
He gazed at her. "You mean nicer than the place I used to work." Sara frowned. "I didn't mean it that way, Greg and you know it." But Greg was not paying attention to her anymore as he saw a doctor in scrubs coming out of the double doors he had been staring at for hours now.
"I'm looking for Detective Spires," he said aloud. Jack had been talking to other officers at a corner table when he stood up at his name. Greg popped up immediately and went over to the doctor.
"Is this about Nick Stokes?" He asked as he went over. The doctor ignored him and paid attention to Jack. "Dr. Reynolds," he said as he shook Jack's hand. Greg was on the verge of screaming if someone didn't say how he was.
Jack saw his edginess. "Dr. Reynolds, this is Greg Sanders. He is Nick's significant other. We are both eager to hear how he is." Greg gave a silent thank you to Jack for acknowledging him to the doctor.
"I'm sorry about that Mr. Sanders. Mr. Stokes is out of surgery. He is very lucky that the bullet narrowly missed his heart. He lost a lot of blood but he will be okay. He'll need to take it easy for a while but he should have a full recovery. He will be moved to a room soon and then he can have visitors," the doctor told them.
Greg breathed a sigh of relief at hearing he would be okay. "So he's really going to be okay?" He asked the doctor for reconfirmation. The doctor nodded. "I don't foresee any obstacles as long as he takes it easy for a while. Now I have to be on my way. A nurse will let you know his room number once he is settled in."
"Thank you," Greg said in unison with Jack. They both looked at each other and nodded in respect. Greg knew that Jack was close to Nick and he cared about him too, just in a totally different way. Jack was as straight as they come.
Sara came over to Greg and hugged him again. "See I told you he would be okay."
"Yeah you did. Thanks for staying positive. It's not always easy for me anymore," he said to her as he pulled out of her hug. She noticed he still looked so sad. "You aren't alone, Greg. You still have people who care about you."
"Very few, Sara, very few," he said somberly. She hated seeing him like this but he had been this way since he came back to Vegas. Of course he was better than he had been when she first saw him again but she was sad he still felt the way he did. She thought he was better.
"I want you to know you can contact me whenever you need to talk. I don't care what time it is where I am in the future. I will be there for you," she promised him. He smiled a little. "Thanks Sara, that means a lot."
"Look, when was the last time you had something to eat? Why don't we go to the cafeteria and grab something. I am sure by the time we get back you'll be able to see Nick," she said to him. He looked at Jack a moment who nodded to go ahead.
"Okay, fine," He agreed.
They came back up about 25 minutes later and Greg saw Jack still sitting there. "Still no word on when we can see him?" He asked his work partner. Jack actually gave him a small smile. "Well they just told me which room he was in, but I figured you needed to see him more than me. He can only have one visitor at a time. They said he was not awake yet but might be waking soon. He's in room 214."
Greg was taken aback by Jack's gesture. "Thanks, truly." He smiled at Jack and then at Sara, who just waved him to go ahead.
Greg's feet couldn't carry him there quickly enough but once he reached the door he stopped a moment. He remembered the last time he walked into a hospital room of a loved one and what that meant to him. This time was not going to be the last time he saw his loved one. He had to tell himself that. Nick was going to be okay.
He opened the door slowly and saw Nick looking pale but breathing. He could hear the heart monitor as he walked up closer and took a seat next to the bed. He took his hand and held it. He felt warm and he felt more relief.
"You can't scare me like this. I don't handle it well," Greg told him, knowing he probably could not hear him.
"Sorry," he barely heard Nick say. His eyes widened in shock as Nick cracked open his eyes. "You're awake!" he exclaimed. He smiled and said it again. "You're awake."
"Barely," Nick said with a grimace.
"The doctor said you are going to be okay but you will need some recovery time."
Nick looked at Greg and could see he looked like hell but then so did he probably. "Jack told you?"
Greg smiled. "Yeah, I love you too. Just don't ever scare me like this again. I seriously can't handle it."
Nick clutched his hand tighter. "You haven't done anything stupid," he asked him. That made Greg a little ticked off. Everyone seemed to think first thing he would do is run back to drugs. He let go of Nick's hand.
"No, I came straight here to the hospital after Jack called me. I had no time to do anything stupid but damned if everyone doesn't think I did." He got up and stood with his back to Nick, trying to calm his emotions.
Nick felt bad for jumping to conclusions. Obviously he had not been the only one. He knew Greg didn't need that. "I'm sorry. I should have known better. I'm just doped up and not thinking clearly. Please Greg." He saw Greg's shoulders slump and then turned around. His eyes were watery.
"I'm trying my damnedest to hold it together here for you. Please don't make it any more difficult," Greg pleaded with him. Nick waved him to come back to sit by him. He came over and sat down. Nick turned his hand over so Greg could take it. Greg chewed his bottom lip a moment before taking his hand. He lifted his eyes to look at Nick and felt guilty. He was getting mad at a man who just was shot in the chest and got out of surgery only hours ago.
"I'm sorry. Here you are lying in the hospital and again I am making it all about me. I'm so selfish," he said woefully as he looked down, shaking his head.
"Hey, stop that. You said the doctor's said I am going to be okay, let's just concentrate on that." Greg nodded. "Okay. You probably should get some more sleep. I'll be here when you wake up," Greg replied to him.
"Sure, remember I love you." Greg smiled. "I love you too, now sleep some more."
When Nick woke up later, Greg let Jack and others visit him. He stepped out of the room and went downstairs. He had held it together pretty well when sitting with Nick but now his nerves were jarred. He knew Nick was going to be okay but still how close he came to losing him made him realize just how dangerous a job Nick worked. It was actually far more dangerous than being a CSI was and yet they both had suffered when they were CSI's. He couldn't think of his life without Nick now. He remembered Nick saying to him a few months ago to let him be his drugs and he basically had been.
Greg knew he should probably try to get some sleep, but he couldn't sleep with his nerves. He stepped out of the hospital and went across the street to a convenience store there. He walked in and decided to try to keep himself awake then until his nerves calmed down. He bought a Red Bull and a bag of chips. He went to cash out and the clerk asked him if he wanted anything else. He eyed the cigarettes and chewed on his lower lip.
"Uh, yeah, a pack of 305's," he said and then grabbed a lighter that was on the counter to add to the bill. He put a $20 down and the clerk finished his transaction. He walked outside and went around to the side of the store. He opened the pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. He looked at it a moment, pondering what he was about to do but then he went ahead and put it in his mouth. He lit the lighter and lit up the cigarette. He took a long slow intake of it and then blew it out slowly.
After a couple puffs, he opened the Red Bull and drank it down in one take. Then he finished off the cigarette and started a second one. Once his hands stopped shaking he put the cigarette out. Something about the action of smoking calmed his nerves.
He looked back at the hospital and knew he should probably head back inside. He was walking back and realized he smelled like the cigarette. He couldn't go into Nick's room with that smell on him and alarm him. He tried to think of how to get rid of the smell without changing clothes, which he had none to change to. Then he remembered he used to have cologne in his glove compartment of his car for his 'dates'. He never wanted to go see a client smelling super bad. He wondered if he still had any in there. He went to the parking garage of the hospital to where his car was parked. He opened the passenger side door and looked in his glove compartment. He shuffled through some papers and then saw a small bottle. He smiled when he saw it still had some stuff in it. He sprayed it on. He stepped back a moment, trying to detect the cigarette smell. He only smelled the cologne now. He decided to put the cigarettes and lighter in the glove compartment too. If he needed a smoke, he could just come down to his car and have one.
He headed back upstairs to the hospital floor that Nick was on. He stopped momentarily outside the door to check that he didn't smell like smoke again. He felt like he passed his own test so we entered Nick's room.
Nick was sound asleep and he was glad for it. He sat back and watched him sleep. He looked at the heart monitor attached to him and realized he almost died. He knew if he lost Nick he would not make it himself. He knew the call of drugs would be too strong. He shook his head though because Nick was going to be fine. He didn't need to go down into the darkness as long as Nick was around. He could make it, he told himself. He had to keep those dark thoughts out of his head.
He knew he needed to stop this line of thinking and focus on something else. Since he just drank the Red Bull he knew sleeping would not be happening anytime soon. He pulled out his cell phone and started playing games on it while Nick slept.
