"Nick, turn around."

Nick blinked slowly and looked up to see Easton standing in front of him, holding one of those paper thin hospital gowns in her hand. He hated hospitals and doctors offices. Despite the fact that he'd seen some pretty traumatic things throughout his career, he couldn't get past the heebie-jeebies the hospitals gave him. The sterile smell, the beeping machines, the doctors in their white coats, nothing about it sat well with him.

"Why do I need to turn around?" he asked, trying to stop his knee from bobbing up and down in a panicky tremor.

"Cause I need to strip down and put this on." She presented the hospital gown to him.

Nick simpered. "East, I've seen you naked, I've touched you naked, you don't need to be shy around me."

Easton just glowered at him until he slowly shifted himself in his chair so that his gaze was directed toward the wall.

"Thank you," she muttered as he could hear her shuffling around behind him.

He warily glanced over his shoulder and watched as she tugged her aquamarine yoga t-shirt over her head, exposing her growing cleavage that was spilling out of her cream coloured bra and expanding abdomen. In Nick's opinion, she'd never looked so exquisite. She hadn't realized he was watching her as she bent down and slipped her jeans off, her creamy panties hugging her butt faultlessly.

As if in a trance, Nick felt his feet walk him across the room and encased him arms around her from the rear, feeling his rough skin flow easily against the downy skin of her belly as he nestled his face in her hair, huffing in her inebriating scent. She startled slightly, leaning her head away from him just as his lips left a gentle caress on her cheek.

"Nick, no." She attempted to step out of his grasp, but he refused to let her go.

"East, I need to be with you again." He turned her around so he could see her face, see the expression he gave him. "I should have never let you go in the first place."

Surprisingly, she stood on her toes and kissed him softly, the impression of her lips burned on his. But as soon as the tenderness was there, she forced herself out of his grasp, putting the hospital gown on, decisively avoiding his stare. "Nick, you never let me go. I left. I didn't know who you were anymore."

" What do you mean by that? I'm still the same person I've always been."

When she looked back up at him, he could see the anger and bitterness in her gaze. "No, Nick you're not." She swallowed hard as if to hold back tears. "Nick after you were kidnapped and buried, I never thought I'd see you again. I remember sitting at the lab with your parents, just hysterical, praying they'd find you. When Grissom let me see the video feed, part of me wanted to tell you to put the gun in your mouth and end it so you didn't have to suffer anymore. But after they found you, you weren't you anymore. You suffered more outside of that box then you did in it, and no matter how hard I tried to help you, I couldn't. You were distant, obsessed with Kelly, lost in your own thoughts. Greg was there for me through that, as a friend at first, but then more came from that, as you drifted further and further away."

Nick didn't know what to say as his vision clouded. "East, you know what I went through after that. If I had known I'd not only lose myself, but you too, then maybe I should've used the gun. Because every day I've had to watch you with Greg makes me wish I was back in that box all over again." It felt like a weight off his shoulders to have finally said the words he'd been meaning to say for a long time. Despite the fact that he was standing in the middle of an obstetricians office, tears running down his face.

He felt fingers on his as Easton reached out and snatched his hand, wrenching him back to her. He knelt his head down and banded his lips to hers, kissing her with every ounce in him.

The door creaked open. "Oh, I'm sorry, I've interrupted."

Nick jumped back from Easton, his cheeks flaming as he embarrassingly smiled at Dr. Rossi. "Oh no, no, it's OK." He backed toward the door. "I was just saying good-bye." He gave Easton a pointed look as he quickly let himself out before she protested. He knew he was supposed to stay to support her, but at the moment, all he needed to do was be alone.