A/N: Hey guys! Wow, some really amazing feedback on the last story, thank you very much :) This story is for cw who asked for Henry and Hodges talking about rumours, as well as a little Morganders. So, I hope you enjoy, and I gave it a bit of a twist too :)

Summary – Henry and Hodges are bored one night, so they start to spread a rumour about Morgan and Greg.

Rumour Has It

Hodges turned to glare at Henry as the soft ping of yet another paper ball bouncing off the rim of his coffee mug distracted the Trace Tech from his work. Henry stopped and looked up at the older man, raising his eyebrow.

"What?"

"Don't you have anything better to be doing other than annoying me?" Hodges asked incredulously.

"Probably" Henry replied with a shrug, and Hodges just rolled his eyes "But nobody has brought in any DNA evidence all night…"

"Well, go do some paper work then!" Hodges said, flinging his arms up in exasperation "because some of us actually do the jobs we're paid to do!"

"Don't get all self-righteous with me!" Henry retorted "Earlier I saw you pretending to read through some book, but I saw it was really a comic book on the inside."

Hodges opened his mouth to protest, but frowned when he realised he had no real excuse. Henry just smiled smugly at this, making the Trace tech even more annoyed. "Damn you" Hodges replied, giving up on his work and going over to sit with Henry.

"So, anything going around on the grapevine?" Henry asked curiously.

Hodges frowned at him "I don't know, why should I?"

Henry scoffed "Because you're the biggest gossip in this place"

"That is so not true!" Hodges argued, looking extremely offended by the accusation. Henry was trying not to laugh. "I mean I'm just….sociable" Hodges settled on.

"Oh yeah, because you're such a people person" Henry said sarcastically.

Hodges just continued to look at him in disbelief "Do I have a kick me sign on my back?" he asked.

"No, but I can make you one if I want" Henry offered "I'm sure Nick and Greg would find it hilarious"

Hodges rolled his eyes in exasperation "You know, I think I preferred it when you were just flicking paper about"

"Well, then tell me some news! I'm bored" Henry whined.

"Okay!" Hodges gave in "Apparently, Mandy now has a skull tattooed on her back which she doesn't even remember getting"

"Really?!" Henry laughed.

"Yeah, she reckons she was drunk at the time and some dude dared her….I told her it was more of a tramp stamp than a tattoo" Hodges said sheepishly.

"Huh? Well you're lucky she didn't punch you" Henry replied.

"I never said she didn't" Hodges mumbled as he rubbed his arm, and Henry laughed once more "It was five days ago, and I still have the bruise."

"Well, you asked for it. What else do you know?"

Hodges thought for a moment "Not a lot else really. I think this is one of the rare occasions where we've had a dry spell in exciting events around here"

"Well…maybe we could create a story of our own to get everyone talking about?" Henry suggested.

"So basically, lie to a bunch of people about a rumour and get it to spread" Hodges deadpanned.

Henry rolled his eyes "You don't have to make it sound so malicious…how about a rumour with a good outcome"

Hodges shrugged "Sure, why not. No one gets hurt and we're entertained for a while."

"Exactly!" Henry grinned "But what rumour should we spread?"

Silence fell in the lab at the two techs tried to come up with a story.

They saw Greg and Morgan walking past, both with their heads down studying files. The CSIs were so deep in thought they didn't notice each other heading in the opposite direction and crashed together. They both dropped their files, apologising repeatedly and scrambling on the floor to pick up the papers. Their hands suddenly met, and they both looked up at each other with adoring eyes, before smiling awkwardly, collecting the files and walking away.

Hodges scoffed "Smooth, Sanders…" and then a sudden idea hit him "I got it!" he exclaimed to Henry "let's tell people Greg and Morgan are going out, then maybe they actually will! I'm sick of them looking so love-struck and embarrassed all the time, and Morgan comes to complain about why Greg won't ask her out at least once a week"

"So you want to try and get Greg and Morgan together for your own selfish gain?" Henry asked raising an eyebrow.

"No….I'm just a friend who believes they'd be good together and I want to move them along a little" Hodges justified.

"But…what if I wanted to ask Morgan out?" Henry asked folding his arms defiantly. Hodges didn't say anything, just looked at the younger man with pity "What, why don't I have a shot with Morgan!?" Henry exclaimed.

"Erm, because you can accurately name all the Doctor Who's backwards and when they played him, you can understand the majority of the Klingon language and you have no idea what the plays from scrimmage are in football" Hodges listed.

"I don't see why those are bad things" Henry replied with a sulkily scowl.

Hodges sighed "Look just help me with this Greg and Morgan thing, and we'll got to a bar later to find a girl for you, okay?"

"Fine" Henry conceded "What exactly should we tell people? And I'm expecting something good, since you've pronounced yourself as a diabolical genius on many occasions"

"Ah, well that is the fun part" Hodges smirked "First, I think it's best if we divide and conquer…"

Later on, Hodges was still in his lab catching up on the work he'd previously been distracted from. Nick and Russell arrived to collect their evidence, and Hodges smiled to himself; Nick was Greg's best friend, he'd be perfect to get the rumour spreading.

"Hey, H" the Texan greeted in an upbeat tone.

"Got those results for us?" Russell asked; he was in case mode as always.

"Yes, boss" Hodges said handing the file over to the supervisor. As Russell flicked through the papers, the lab tech took this as his opportunity to talk to Nick. "Hey, did you hear about Greg and Morgan?"

Nick's interest instantly piqued "No, what about them?"

"If you guys are about to start gossiping then I'm out of here" Russell interrupted and walked out the room.

"A thank you would have been nice!" Hodges called after him, but Russell ignored him.

"Dude! What's with Greg and Morgan?" Nick asked.

Hodges smiled at his eagerness "Well, apparently Henry saw them together at a diner earlier today. They were all alone, holding hands across the table and Greg was whispering something in Morgan's ear"

"Really?" Nick asked raising an eyebrow "Do you think they're together now? Why would Greg not tell me?" he frowned.

"I don't know. I mean maybe it's not true, you know what Henry's like, bit of an attention seeker, likes to over exaggerate" Hodges said dismissively.

"I thought you two were friends?" Nick smirked.

"Oh, we are" Hodges said reassuringly, Nick just raised an eyebrow at him "but listen, Greg and Morgan clearly don't want other people to know, so you can't tell anyone else, okay?"

"Sure, sure whatever" Nick said waving his hand flippantly "I better go find Russell, catch you later man" and with that he left the room.

Hodges smirked to himself; reverse psychology was a wonderful thing; he knew damn well Nick was going to tell Russell, and the cycle could begin.

"Hey" Henry said with a smile as he walked into the break room to find Finn and Sara "What's up?"

"Oh, not much" Finn replied "I wish there was something to distract me from this paper work though."

"Hmm, well how about a little story for you then?" Henry suggested as he sat at the table.

Sara raised an eyebrow at him "I didn't think you were a gossip, Henry?"

"Not really, it's just Hodges, he's a very bad influence, and you know, he can't shut up for more than two minutes" Henry replied.

Finn laughed in agreement "So what's your story?"

"Well apparently, Hodges saw Greg and Morgan coming out of Ecklie's office earlier looking a bit dishevelled and awkward…he reckons they were making out in there" Henry added with a whisper.

"In Morgan's dad's office?" Sara said with a grimace.

"Yeah, I mean she's probably always wanted to rebel aginst him, right?" Henry suggested.

"P-lease" Finn said with a roll of her eyes "If Greg and Morgan were together then I'd know about it. I'd know they were together before they'd even know themselves. It's intuition."

"Well clearly mine totally sucks when it comes to relationships" Sara said.

"Believe me or not, that's your call" Henry said standing up "But you can't tell anyone else, okay?" and with that he left the room.

Hodges and Henry met up again, both pleased with their work. As they moved around the lab that night they'd often hear the faint whispers of their rumour going around, and in some instances it had become extremely exaggerated.

"So, now we have to wait for it to get back to Greg and Morgan?" Henry asked.

"Yes, and then hopefully they will get together, and Morgan can stop bugging me with her love filled rants" Hodges said with a roll of his eyes.

"You don't ever get soppy about Elisabetta?" Henry asked.

"No, of course not, it's degrading" Hodges said, sticking his nose in the air in a dignified manner.

Henry smirked "Whatever, I don't believe you"

"Well, as long as people believed me about Greg and Morgan that's all that matters" Hodges argued.

"What about Sanders and my daughter?" a stern voice appeared behind them.

Hodges and Henry shared a wide eyed look, before slowing turning around to face Ecklie.

"Nothing, sir" Henry spoke quietly.

"No, if this concerns Morgan then I want to know" Ecklie pressed.

"Well you see, Greg and Morgan have…" Hodges started, and then bit his lip. It wasn't often he was left stumped for words.

"They've just solved a case together which Russell was a hundred per cent sure was going to go cold. Pretty amazing actually since they had such little evidence to work with…" Henry quickly made up "Not often you prove the boss wrong, ya know?"

"…Right" Ecklie said eyeing them suspiciously, before turning and walking away.

"Wow, nice one Henry" Hodge said patting his friend on the back "You actually lied to the boss"

"Well, I did learn from the best" Henry said teasingly, and Hodges rolled his eyes.

"Henry said we did what?!" a voice from further down the hall suddenly exclaimed. The lab techs looked and saw Morgan talking to Mandy; it seemed the rumour had reached its target.

"Hodges thinks I did what?!" they looked down the other end to see Greg and David.

Almost simultaneously, both CSIs turned to look at the sheepish lab techs; Greg and Morgan both wore harsh glares on their faces as they began to approach Hodges and Henry.

Hodges gulped "This isn't the reaction I was expecting"

"Great! Now what do we do?" Henry whispered.

"There's only one thing we can do" Hodges said, looking nervously between the two advancing CSIs.

"Tell the truth?" Henry asked.

"No stupid, run!" Hodges exclaimed, and both lab techs took off towards the entrance. "This is all your fault!" the Trace tech said, as they slowed to a walk outside the building.

Hey, I'm not taking the whole wrap for this" Henry retorted "You're the one who came up with the story"

Hodges sighed "Well, at least one thing's for sure"

"What's that?" Henry asked.

"You definitely don't have a shot with Morgan now" Hodges jibed. Then he let out a yelp of pain when Henry thumped him in the arm.

"Now it'll match the bruise Mandy gave you" Henry smirked.

Hodges just rubbed his arms and rolled his eyes. Henry could be a real pain sometimes, but he was still one of the Trace techs closest friends; and Henry felt the same about Hodges.

I really enjoyed writing this one, I absolutely LOVE the friendship between Henry and Hodges on the show, a great double act XD I hope I kept them both in character and portrayed their friendship well :)

Some really angsty Morganders next ;)

I'd still love prompts, and please review! Xx