CSI: Braden Sanders-Stokes: Tenth Year

Summary: Greg finds Nick in tears early one morning during a forensics conference in NYC and isn't sure what he should do about it. Braden is nine years old, in this, the eleventh chapter.

Greg was always a light sleeper when he stayed in hotel rooms. Therefore, he wasn't surprised when Nick's shifting woke him up. But Nick hardly ever moved when he slept. Wondering what had him up, he reached out blindly for him, his hand brushing against warm skin close to the edge of the bed.

"Nicky?"

"Go back to sleep sweetie." Greg heard the barely audible tremble in Nick's voice and was wide awake in an instant, sitting up.

"What's wrong?" he whispered, mindful of their son sound asleep in the next bed over.

Nick was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring off into space, as he moved closer, wrapping his arms around him, pressing his chest into Nick's back.

Nick pointed at the alarm clock which read 12:05AM in it's brilliant red numbers.

"What?" Greg was confused. Of course working nights then attending a forensics conference during the day would screw with anyone's sleep schedule.

Then he remembered his last thoughts before falling asleep. Quickly, he changed position so that he was sitting in Nick's lap, facing him. He framed his husband's face with both of his hands, watching silent tears run down Nick's cheeks. He felt them on his own, his eyes watering until Nick was a blurry form in front of him. Not bothering to wipe them away, he crushed their lips together in a bruising kiss. When he was out of breath he pulled away to stare into Nick's eyes, still shimmering with tears.

"Someone once told me the passion dies after the tenth year."

"They must have been high on something."

"Yeah, crack." Greg leaned in and softly kissed a tear away. "I love you." He kissed another tear away. "I love you." Another tear. "I love you."

Finally, Nick claimed his lips, effectively stopping him. "I love you too... but please, don't go overboard here." Nick inclined his head toward the other bed.

"I won't. Talked to Warrick last night. His morning is empty as far as panel discussions go so he agreed to take Braden and do some fun stuff with him."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Remember how he got Braid all excited about the Natural History Museum yesterday? And the Statue of Liberty?"

"He'll love that. So... What does that give us?"

"About five hours all to ourselves... complete with room service. And I told housekeeping to show up at noon, no earlier. They'll strip everything."

Nick groaned. "I'm so glad he's a deep sleeper and didn't hear what you just said."

"Not like he'd have understood it anyway." Greg gave a low snicker, before shifting and pulling Nick back onto the bed, resting his head on the pillow.

Nick caressed his ear and cheek before giving him a sweet kiss. "I love you," he whispered, before kissing him again. "Happy anniversary."

A/N: Hi guys. Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out and I'm sorry it's so short. Really, I couldn't think of anything that needed to be added to it. I know I haven't been on the Fort in ages, but you probably won't see me there until the season opener... OMG... I can't wait! Lol, life is busy, as you know. I'll try to update this when I can, but National Novel Writing Month is coming up and I need to gear up for that, getting my notes ready for my novel and planning events in my area.

The best place to find updates on me and my work, whether it be my fanfic or my original fic such as the fantasy novel I'll be writing in November entitled Servants of Darkness, would be my wiki. All the news I have is posted on the home page, or, if you join, you can get instant PM updates on everything from wiki updates, to posts of my novel as I write it. You can find said wiki at: queenoftheuniverse(dot)wetpaint(dot)com. I hope you visit, and I would love to know what you think!