Neither one of them could sleep. They both knew that when they woke up tomorrow, it would be two weeks since the plane crash. They had originally thought that they would be on the island for three, four days, tops. Now days were becoming weeks, and they were becoming more and more anxious. They had accustomed themselves to surviving rather nicely, given all of the necessities at their disposal, but being stranded there was beginning to get to them. Fruit and fish no longer sufficed to satisfy their hunger; they could already see one another growing thinner seemingly by the day. Now they were laying in the raft, starting up at the empty blackness of the fire above them, trying to steady their nervous and racing hearts.

"I feel like I did when I was buried alive sometimes," Nick said, speaking suddenly. His voice shattered the silence, causing Greg to jump at the noise. Nick felt the other man flinch at his side and had the sudden urge to wrap his arm around him and pull him close, but he didn't.

Greg was more surprised at what Nick had said than that he had said anything. "What do you mean?" he asked, not wanting to miss a chance to have another intimate conversation with him.

"Since we've been here, I get that feeling I did when I was down there, that I'm somewhere no one will ever find me," he said quietly as he sat up, Greg following his suit. The light from the fire was now flickering across their faces, illuminating their expressions. "That feeling that I was all alone and that it was going to stay like that."

"You were never completely alone," Greg replied. "Someone was always in the room, watching you."

Nick frowned in confusion. "What do you mean, watching me?"

"On the webcam," Greg answered. "In Archie's lab."

When Nick's expression changed from confusion to astonishment and shock, Greg realized that Nick hadn't known about the webcam. But how could he not have known? Surely it had come up in the days after he was rescued. It had to have. There was no way he didn't know. All these thoughts raced through Greg's mind at once, but the look on Nick's face told him that he truly hadn't know until just now.

"You guys could...you could see me?" Nick asked, his voice soft and weak.

Greg nodded weakly. "Gordon sent a flash drive with a link to a camera."

Nick swallowed hard. "I didn't know that," he whispered.

"I'm sorry Nick," Greg said quickly. "I didn't know you hadn't known. I figured Grissom had told you, or your parents, or someone. I assumed you knew. I'm really sorry."

Nick shook his head slowly. "It's not your fault. It's just that I can't really remember anything from that night. Catherine and Warrick always tried to get me to talk about it, ya know? But I really couldn't because I can't remember anything. I remember the light and the fan and the ants, but that's about it. They thought I didn't want to talk about it, but the truth is I actually couldn't."

Greg looked down at his hands in his lap and wished he hadn't have opened his big mouth, yet again. He was about to continue apologizing when Nick spoke again. "Did you watch me?" he asked hesitantly.

Greg looked back up at Nick. He couldn't recall ever seeing so much emotion in someone's eyes ever before. "We all kind of took turns," he replied. "We wanted to keep the light on for you and for someone to always stay with you, even though you didn't know we were there. In case something happened."

"That's how Warrick knew I shot out the light," Nick said, suddenly realizing something to himself. "He talked about that, but I never understood how he knew."

"He thought you shot yourself," Greg said softly. He didn't know why he had said that; it came out on its own.

"What else did I do?" Nick asked. "What did you see me do?"

Greg wanted to look away, but couldn't move his eyes from Nick's. "You were trying to break the glass, to open the lid I guess. You were pushing on all of the walls, just trying to get free. After you calmed down, you kind of just laid there. There wasn't much you could do," he said sadly. "I felt so, so useless. Then we thought we found you, and it was just a dog."

Nick noticed as Greg's hands started to shake slightly. "I can't remember anything before seeing Warrick and Grissom. It's just a flash of them yelling at me to put the gun down and stay still, then I woke up in the hospital. The rest I just pieced together from what everyone else said about that night and the nightmares I've had. I guess I can't remember because I don't want to. All I can remember is thinking that I was going to die."

"But you didn't," Greg said, putting a firm hand on Nick's shoulder both to reassure the older man and get his hands to stop shaking so much. "Everyone else talked about how they would have given up if it had been them down there, but you didn't. You got through it."

"And you guys found me," Nick added with a smile.

Greg smiled as well. "Yeah. And we found you."

They both laid back down to try and get some sleep, but it took a while for either one of them to relax enough to fall asleep. They were both extremely conscious of the fact that they were laying closer together than they ever had, but neither one of them thought the other noticed, and it wasn't like they minded, they actually enjoyed it. They finally drifted off to sleep, but it wasn't long before Nick woke up when the dim light started pouring into the cave's entrance. He became aware of the lack of heat to his left, looking over and seeing that Greg was gone. He forced his stiff and tired body to get up, crawling out of the raft and walking out of the cave, where he found Greg sitting on the beach, watching the sunrise. Nick walked up to the shoreline and sat down next to his friend, who had to try very hard not to be visibly excited by Nick's presence. They sat in silence for a few moments, watching the sun come up and shed bright reds, yellows, and oranges across the sky that was reflected off of the blue ocean.

"Thanks for telling me that last night," Nick said. "I know you didn't do it on purpose, but I'm glad you did. It makes me feel better about what happened, knowing that you guys were there the whole time."

Greg was relieved that Nick wasn't tormented by the thought of having his friends watching him suffer underground. "I'm glad it helped you," he said simply.

He stood to go up and get some fruit for them to eat, but Nick stood up quickly and gently grabbed his wrist to keep him from walking away. Greg looked down in shock at the action and was taken aback by the electricity that shot through Nick's hand up his arm all the way to his chest, making his heart flutter. He slowly lifted his eyes from Nick's hand up to his dark brown eyes, which were staring right into his.

Their eyes were locked, and they both knew that this was the most intense moment that they had ever been apart of because of the tension between them that they were both now just realizing that the other had noticed as well. Nick's whole arm was tense, and it looked to Greg like he was debating whether or not to turn around and run away. But he didn't, maybe because he knew there was nowhere for him to run to. But Greg didn't have much time to think of the reason why because suddenly, Nick was gently pulling him forward by his wrist. Greg was pulled off balance and had to step forward, which Nick did as well. The older man reached up with his other hand and threaded it through Greg's hair as he pulled their bodies flush together and didn't hesitate, not for a second, as he brought their lips crashing together.

Greg was so surprised at the sudden turn of events that he just stood there, letting Nick's hold in him place. It took a few moments for him to register what was going on, and as soon as he did, he opened his mouth and kissed Nick back as hard as he could. He grabbed the Texan's hip, making them as close as possible. They kissed until they were out of breath, at which point they pulled apart reluctantly so they could look at each other, but still stood close together, holding onto one another.

Nick swallowed the taste of Greg that he figured would never leave his tongue. "Have you ever done that before?" he asked quietly.

"What do you mean? Have I ever made out with a guy, or made out on a beach during a sunrise?"

Nick smiled and ran his hand through Greg's impossibly soft hair. "Either one, I guess," he replied with a small laugh.

"Neither," Greg answered honestly. "And I'm willing to bet you haven't either. The first one, at least."

Nick nodded. "I'm not attracted to guys," he said. Greg's heart dropped to his stomach at the thought that Nick was going to say he had made a mistake. But then Nick kissed him again before pulling away slightly to say against his lips, "I'm only attracted to you."

"But I'm a guy," Greg said dumbly.

"I know that," Nick said as he ground his hips slowly against Greg's calling attention to their growing arousal. "But you're the only guy I've ever thought about like that before."

Greg nodded slightly, understanding what Nick meant because he felt the same way about the older man. "Is this just because we're just on a stranded island together?" he asked, afraid of what the answer was going to be.

Nick shook his head immediately. "No," he answered. "It's because you've always had something about you that I wanted more of."

Greg pulled Nick in for another kiss as soon as the last syllable left his lips. The sensation was so new and exciting for the both of them. They were both used to being the aggressive ones when it came to physical contact, but they found a new sanctification from battling for control with the other. Nick pushed himself against Greg's body, and he pushed back just as hard. The heat that was emanating from their hard bodies pressed against each other was unlike anything they had ever experienced before, and neither one of them could get enough.

When they had to pull apart to breathe again, Greg took the opportunity to speak this time. "Where do we go from here? I mean, I don't exactly know how to do this, but I know I really want to," he said, his mouth next to Nick's ear and his hot breath spilling over his neck.

Nick felt goosebumps cover his skin at the feeling of Greg's breath on his flesh. "I don't know either," he answered honestly. "I don't know how to go about this, and I don't want to try and do something and end up hurting you or anything."

Greg nodded slightly and moved his head so his lips were hovering over Nick's. "Well, why don't we go back to the raft and get comfortable?" He kissed Nick again, each encounter of their lips, tongues and teeth getting more and more passionate. "I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out."