sorry about the delay...and the horrible cliffie...I'm starting a new semester, and adjusting to being back in school, but I will not abandon my boys! (well they aren't mine but you know what I mean!) This is not so much a funny chapter, but it's an important one!

"He what?" Greg asked with quiet shock.

"He reminded me of you okay?" Nick half shouted in his drunken state.

"Oh." Greg said quieter than before. The rest of the ride to Greg's place was spent in tense silence. Greg trying to process everything and Nick trying to process anything. They pulled into the parking lot near the apartments and the younger man helped his friend out of the car. Then he helped him up the stairs and into his own bedroom. There is no point in him waking up with a hangover on the uncomfortable couch. After making his ambiguous friend as comfortable as he could get Greg wandered to his kitchen and opened his freezer. He thought for a moment then backtracked to his bathroom, he retrieved two aspirin and a glass of water and placed them on the bedside table. Then he returned to his freezer. Shuffling around it's contents he decided to nurse his already heavily swollen eye with a bag of frozen peas.

Then he sat on his couch and tried to make some sense of the night. He took Nick to dinner, then to a club. He danced, Nick got smashed. He danced with a guy, Nick kissed a guy. Nick kissed a guy that reminded him of me. There is no way Tony could be right...it was probably just the alcohol. But then again they say you won't do anything drunk that you wouldn't do sober...With that as his last thought Greg slipped into a restless sleep.

The next morning Nick awoke in a strange room to the sound of bare feet on a wooden floor. Then a door slammed causing him to wince. He rolled over and when he saw the aspirin and water he remembered where he was. Taking the pills he decided to make his way into the living room. The unpleasant sounds coming from the bathroom made him wonder if Greg was just as hung-over. Nick sat on the couch and was puzzled as to why there was a bag of peas on one of the cushions. After a moment he heard the toilet flush and Greg emerged.

"What happened to your face G? Did I do that? Oh please tell me I didn't hit you last night!" Hangover be damned Nick leapt off the couch at the sight of his friends ugly bruise.

"No you didn't hit me Nicky, relax. I got into a fight with some jerk and he took a swing at me."

"You? Got into a fight? About what?" Nick's mouth hung open a little.

"Well, um...you."

"Oh I see. Are you gonna tell me the rest of the story?" Nick sat with his jaw set listening to his friend recap the previous night's events. He left out the conversation they had in the car, for obvious reasons.

"Thanks for defending my honor G, even if I did make an ass of myself." He said gently touching his friends bruised cheek. He whistled low. "That explains my whopper of a hangover. Thanks for the aspirin by the way."

"No problem."

Greg spent much of the afternoon trying to figure out how to tell Nick the rest of the story. There was no easy way around it, so finally he decided to just go for it.

"So Nick."

"Yeah G?"

"There is part of the story I haven't told you." He wrung his hands nervously. "Later in the car we had sort of a fight, and I asked you what were you thinking when you were kissing that guy." He stopped dreading Nick's reaction to the continuation of the story.

"Go on..."

"I'm trying, I'm trying. Well you said you kissed him because...heremindedyouofme."

"What? You gotta slow down man, I can't understand you when you talk like that!" Greg took a deep breath and began again.

"You were kissing that guy, and I asked you why exactly you were doing that and..."

"Yeah, I got that much." He prompted.

"You said you kissed him because," Greg closed his eyes "he reminded you of me." He flinched.

"Oh."

"Yeah that was my reaction too." Greg said after a pause long enough for him to realize he was not going to be punched.

"Well, I can see why you hesitated. I guess we have to talk about this now huh?"

"We can pretend it never happened if you'd like." Greg was hopeful that would be the solution.

"I'd like to, but that would only make things worse. See I haven't actually been honest with everyone."

Here we go, I'm going to have an answer for the girls. Greg tried to distract himself from his other thoughts.

"Well, you know how Cath and Sara keep trying to set me up with their friends?" Greg nodded. "Well I went out with them a first, and they were great gals don't get me wrong. But there was something missing. We hit it off and stuff, but there was no spark. Then on one of the dates she had to make a call and the waiter came over, he was being really friendly and then it hit me, we were flirting. I didn't even realize it until after she came back. After I took her home I thought about it for a while and I felt more flirting with him than her. That's when I sort of realized I may be dating the wrong kind of people, if you know what I mean?" Greg nodded again. "I'm telling you this G, because I trust you, a lot, and I know you won't go telling everybody right away." Then the realization hit Greg, he had his answer, but he couldn't tell anyone. He wouldn't do that to Nick. "Then after a while I realized something else. That I get that same feeling when I'm around you. I hope I haven't scared you or anything. I just wanted to let you know. And I know that you and I are different in that department, well...because I read your blog, and that last post..." Nick was beginning to ramble nervously. Greg sat and pretended to be listening. When in reality his brain was picking apart what Nick had just told him. He thinks I'm totally straight, and he thinks I'm cute...and he's still talking...

"Nick, shhh." Greg said putting a finger to Nick's lips. " Now I want to tell you something. I'm not totally straight, you know that. You just met Tony. And you can trust me not to tell anyone about you. And I liked it when you came to the lab too, and when we're on cases together. I like that a lot. I have idolized you since the day I met you, and over the years it's turned into more than that. Now I hope I'm not scaring you at all." Nick shook his head. "Good because I have a question for you. Would you like it if I kissed you?" Nick did not respond right away. It seemed to Greg like he was fighting pretty hard with himself.

"Are you asking me that because of that guy?"

"No, I'm asking you that because I want to kiss you."

"Oh." That was the second time that evening that Nick was rendered nearly speechless. His mouth still frozen in the shape of the vowel, head tilted slightly to one side. Seeing his friend stuck in thought Greg took action. He ever so slowly leaned in, turning his head the opposite way as Nick's and brought their lips together gently. It was a quick soft kiss, he didn't want to put Nick off. Nick sighed heavily and smiled a little. Greg had to use all the self-control he had not to pounce on he co-worker after their lips had touched. He didn't have to hold out for much longer because Nick acted on his thoughts. Leaning in and bringing their lips together again, the kiss was longer the second time. Then Nick sat back.

"You okay Nicky?"

"Yeah, It's just I..." He never finished his sentence though, instead he kissed Greg again.

I hope this is not too much of a cliff hanger. And sorry again about the long break, I was going to finish and post it over the weekend, but I couldn't bring my computer home...I promise the time between posts will get shorter!