Sorry for the delay. You know the drill. I don't own CSI or its characters, le gasp. If I did own CSI, Ray would be gone and Riley would still be flirting with Greg over bondage toys (; Thanks to the reviewers. Oh, and I changed the summary and title because I've had a plot change. So without further ado, here's chapter two!
The first thing Greg could comprehend after he'd opened his tired brown eyes was the dull beating in his head. The feeling of the bumps reminded Greg that he'd been drinking last night. He knew he hadn't drunk enough to suffer from a bent over the toilet all day kind of hangover and he'd been known to carry a few times. He raised his arms and curled his hands into fists, bringing them back down to his eyes as he rubbed at them, much like a toddler would after waking from a midday nap.
The next thing Greg realized since waking to the Vegas sun coming into his room through the window was that he was alone in the bed. He turned his head on his pillow, coming face to face with empty mattress. He'd remembered a certain flirtatious, downright gorgeous co-worker sharing his company and his bed the previous night. He let out a yawn before sitting up, the sheet falling to his waist. Greg brought his hands to his temples and slowly rubbed what he could out of the headache coursing through his skull. He let out a small groan as he lowered his hands to his lap and aimlessly looked around his room, moving his eyes from the window, slowly around the room, his eyes making their way to the halfway open door to the connecting bathroom.
"You make a lot of noise when you wake up." The voice coming from the doorway startled the former lab rat as he turned his head towards the origin of the voice. Greg heart pounded out of his chest, not expecting anyone to speak out of the blue. He narrowed his eyes at the smirking woman.
"Christ you scared me, Ri." He said, putting his hand over his heart in mock pain, a smirk mirroring hers as one formed at one corner of his mouth. He followed Riley's movements as she made her way to the bed, sitting down on the edge and turning facing him with her legs crossed underneath her. She handed him the two white aspirin and glass of water. He thanked her with a mumble as he downed the two pills along with almost the whole content of the glass before sitting it down on his nightstand. When he did so, he glanced at the clock and his eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Fuck, I forgot about work." He said, about to throw the covers off of his body and moved to get out of the bed before he felt Riley's hand on his thigh, holding back a small snicker. Greg raised his eyebrow in curiosity.
Riley spoke, answering his silent question. "Did the booze mess you up that bad? We're off for the next two days. Remember Catherine telling us that she had to go to that conference and since Nick's in charge and work is slow, we don't have to come in unless there's a case since we're all caught up on paperwork." Riley explained in one breath, this time not holding the small laugh as Greg's face shifted from confusion to understanding.
Greg nodded, remembering the sequence of events that Riley had just explained to him. He looked down, seeing that Riley's hand still rested on his thigh and as he slowly moved his eyes upwards, he'd taken Riley's apparel into account for the first time that morning. She'd been wearing nothing but one of his button down shirts, that he'd only really worn for formal occasions or the occasional testimony over a case, and a pair of his boxers he'd assumed she found on the floor. "Wanna do something?" Greg asked, once again raising an eyebrow, but this time in a sneaky sort of way.
Seeming to know his idea just by looking at his lust filled eyes, not to mention the small tent that had begun to pitch under the sheet, Riley slyly moved forward on her knees, landing into his lap, her arms slinging over his neck and bringing her lips dangerously close to his quickly drying ones and spoke in a husky whisper. "Does that something involve a someone?" she asked and as she attempted to pull away from Greg to see his reaction, his own hands gripped the back of her head, bringing her lips down to his almost painfully. The two of them let out simultaneous groans as they fell back on the bed.
Greg's headache was soon forgotten about for the time being as he had much more pressing matters, no pun intended, to deal with at the moment. He reluctantly pulled his lips away from Riley after a few long moments of kissing to look at her. "Come on, let's go take a shower." He suggested as the two of them sat back up and Riley stood off the bed as did Greg.
An hour and two satisfied CSI's later, the mentioned pair sat curled up on the couch. Greg had his hand resting on Riley's hip as she sat next to him while she had her head near his shoulder. She'd occasionally take her glance from the television to Greg and when she'd do so, a small smile would grace her face like a love struck teenager. She smiled a bit bigger when Greg took his own eyes away from the show to meet her gray ones. They stared at each other for a while with a comfortable silence looming over them.
It was a few minutes before Riley spoke, lifting her head up and sitting up straighter with Greg's hand still comfortably on her hip. "Greg, what are we?" she asked, pushing her damp, shower made wet hair behind her shoulder and continued to look at Greg for a reply to her question.
Greg smiled and answered smoothly. "Crime scene investigators employed by the LVPD." He said, a half smirk adorning his face that told Riley that he'd purposely answered that way even though she knew he knew what she had meant in the first place. Letting out a deep sigh, Greg answered in the way that Riley had originally planned on him doing. "We're us. I know this happened really fast and maybe the drinks I had last night didn't help much but-"he paused, reaching out and tucking a strand of Riley's hair she hadn't pushed behind her shoulder, behind her ear. He moved his hand slowly from her ear to rest on her cheek as he finished talking. "- I know this feels right and that's something I haven't been able to feel in a while. I just want something in my life that won't up and leave at the most unneeded times." He said and smiled as Riley reached up and put her hand over his own that was still caressing her cheek and brought it to her lips, kissing it gently and releasing it.
"I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, Greg." She said, reassuring him if only for the moment but in both of their minds, this moment was all they really needed. Greg moved his lips to hers, smiling as the met halfway. He knew that Riley was going to turn out to be something different.
A good different. Sure, he had at one point or another, crushes on a lot of his female coworkers but he knew that nothing would or could happen from them. Sara obviously had eyes for someone else, as did Wendy for another certain lab rat. Catherine would eventually see Greg only as a son-like figure and even if she hadn't, she knew her heart was taken by a late CSI and she could never feel the same about anyone as she did for Warrick. But like mentioned before, Riley was different. It seemed as if his attraction to hers was the only one he'd felt was reciprocated back to him. If one good thing could come from the wreckage that was Warrick's death and the departure of two more friends, it would be Riley.
Riley hadn't even realized that the two of them had fallen asleep on the couch until she awoke a comforting mass underneath her. She was able to stand off the couch without waking Greg and tossed the thin blanket that was draped over the back of his couch over his sleeping frame. Riley looked down at her watch, seeing that it was nearly noon and that she should get home for awhile if not just to change her clothes and check everything because she knew she'd eventually be back.
Kissing his cheek lightly, Riley walked back into his bedroom and stripped herself of the clothes she'd borrowed for the time being and redressed herself in the clothes and shoes she'd worn last night that were scattered throughout the room. Getting a sly half smirk she walked into Greg's bathroom and spotted his shaving cream. Picking it up, Riley began to shake it and laughed to her reflection. "Hopefully he doesn't love this mirror as much as he loves himself." She said to herself before leaning her body onto the sink and pressed the nozzle to the mirror, writing in big, bold letters.
'BE BACK LATER. CALL ME IF YOU WANT.' Riley managed to make a little heart and a winking face at the end of her 'note' She thought it was much more fun to write than the traditional old sticky note on the fridge type thing that was so clichéd in the movies and on TV.
Reaching for the keys still deep within her pockets, she was thankful that she hadn't drunk as much as Greg last night and was the one to drive him back to his place. She managed to tiptoe out of the apartment and shut the door behind her. Usually people had accompanied the days after a night like last night with the 'walk of shame.' But Riley felt no shame. She was just happy that Greg hadn't considered it a one night thing like most of her previous dates had. It must have been something in the water considering that no relationship she had back in St. Louis seemed to work out for her.
Making her way to the parking garage, Riley smiled nicely at returning and leaving occupants as they did the same to her. She managed to get back to her car and when she had the thumb on the car unlock button, she noticed that her car was already unlocked. Raising an eyebrow, she just chalked it up to last night's foolishness and having to help Greg into and up the stairs of the building. She shrugged her shoulders and unlocked her door. She got into the car and shut the door again and when she reached back to grab the seatbelt, all she felt were hands covering her mouth and throat.
-
Greg was shook awake by the chirping of his house phone. He reached an arm backwards feeling around on his side table for the device that had waked him up in the first place. He clicked the call button as he put it to his ear. His eyes were still closed as he answered, holding back a yawn. "Sanders." He called out to whoever was on the other side.
His eyes shot open hearing Nick's voice on the other end of the telephone. "Greggo. Did you just wake up?" Nick almost sounded shocked and the reason why, Greg couldn't put a finger on. Greg sat up on his couch and in doing so realized that Riley was once again not in sight. He shrugged off the fact thinking she might have been in the bathroom or even on the balcony without him knowing due to the curtains being closed behind the sliding doors.
"Yeah, sleeping can be pretty fun on your day off." He said with a smart aleck tone as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched one of his arms behind his head, scratching his scalp as he yawned again. He looked over at the television and read the clock over the television telling him that it was nearing two o'clock. "Why? You sound surprised." Greg chuckled as he stood up and walked into his bedroom, raising an eyebrow at the open and empty bathroom. Once again, Greg shrugged it off and walked in, flicking on the light. He felt a smile on his face as he read the note that he assumed Riley had left him.
But the smile faded and turned upside down into a frown as Nick spoke. "I am. There's a 427-"Nick paused and took a breath before continuing. "-in the parking garage at your apartment building. Just giving you a heads up that I'm on my way. Catherine's out of town meaning I'm in charge for the time being. It's up to you if you want to work this or not. I have your stuff in my Denali if you want it." Nick spoke.
Swallowing the paranoid feeling in his throat, Greg got out an answer. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll work it." Greg hung up the phone quickly without giving Nick a time to answer. His eyes fixated on the message as he told himself it was just a coincidence and Riley had gotten home or at least to wherever she was going, safely.
The thing of it is; Greg wasn't sure that she had.
Sorry for the delay. I know its clichéd and a bit rushed, but there's reasoning behind it, so just give it a try and go along with the story line? I hope you guys are enjoying it. I write for you guys. Reviews are love.