DISCLAIMER: I don't own CSI.
SPOILERS: "Playing With Fire" to show you how old this is…
PAIRING: Nick/Greg. That's slash, people. Just warning you before hand.
SUMMARY: Songfic. Sometimes Nick doesn't know when to keep his damn mouth shut, and sometimes, somebody gets hurt by it…
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, I wasn't going to post this ever, since it's a mega suckmonster, but damn it, we need some more Nick/Greg fic up here. So here it is. My first ever attempt at CSI fic, Slash fic and Romance rolled all into one. Read 'n enjoy. And don't forget to review ;)
Wide awakened out of spinning
Round your safest orbit
You controlled the ordinary
I was grateful for it
Wide awake in the beginning
Trembling after the fall
Only half my world remembers
While the other half revolves
Greg glared at Nick as he saw him walking down the Strip. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his head was bent as he walked slowly down the road. Shaking his head, he turned around and walked in the other direction. He couldn't deal with him right now. Not after what happened. It still hurt too much.
Against his own will, his mind drifted back to that day…
Nick was over at his apartment again to play Playstation, just as he had every Friday afternoon for the past three months after the explosion, since he'd been at home recovering.
Nick was the one that had been around the most…well, who he'd allowed to be around him for the most. He couldn't handle Catherine. She always had this guilty expression on her face whenever she looked at him. He always got pitying looks from Warrick and Grissom, and, well, Sara always seemed distracted. But Nick, he still treated him the same. He made him feel…normal. Their friendship had grown a lot over the past three months.
But now, as he sat there, watching as Nick gloated over winning the game, he could feel some unfamiliar stirrings at the pit of his stomach. Stirrings that told him that those friendly feelings just got friendlier.
Nick noticed his dazed expression and stopped his happy dance, raising an eyebrow at him.
"You okay, Greggo?"
It was as if his mind had shut down. All he could register was Nick's lips moving in slow motion. Not being able to stop himself, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Nick's.
Nick sat frozen for a second in shock, before roughly shoving him off of him. Greg fell back, landing heavily on his hands. Nick jumped up, wiping his hands frantically over his lips.
"What the hell was that?!" he yelled.
"I-I just thought…"
"Well, you thought wrong!" he yelled, grabbing his coat. "I think I'm gonna be sick." With that, he stormed out of the apartment, leaving a stunned Greg on the carpet, tears welling up in his eyes.
Cut off 'cause I can't remember
A face that could cut me deeper
But hearts could never leave me bleeding
Becoming the cause and burden
The lesson begins unlearning
And it has never been forgiving, my dear
Greg closed his eyes and shook his head, stepping off the pavement to cross the road. He never would have imagined that anything could hurt so much. He'd taken a huge gamble and lost the pot. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the voice calling out to him, or see the car that was speeding towards him…
It's all too familiar
I've been here before
I'll carry this weight for your smallest reward
Because I'll continue to break down the door
Just let me in I swear
It will not be like before
Nick had been roaming the streets of Las Vegas for hours. He couldn't sleep, not with the look on Greg's face that day floating around in his head. He hadn't really meant what he said. In fact, he'd been thinking about what it'd be like to kiss Greg for a while, but that didn't mean that he expected or wanted it to happen. It had just freaked him out when Greg kissed him. He wasn't ready to admit that he was in love with another man. He'd just needed some time to think, that's all.
He looked up then, and noticed a familiar form, a beloved head of spiky hair, turning around and walking swiftly in the other direction. He sighed sadly. It was too late now, Greg already hated him. He'd avoided him all week, only speaking to him at work, when it was absolutely necessary. Not that he could blame him, but he missed him. A lot.
Nodding his head determinedly, he made up his mind. He was going to make Greg talk to him. He began to jog purposefully towards him, calling to him to wait while he caught up, but Greg just ignored him.
It all happened in slow motion after that. Greg stepped off the curb, not watching where he was going. A car sped towards him; bright headlights surrounding his body, making him look like some ethereal being. Nick didn't even notice when he started to run, or when he screamed Greg's name. Greg didn't even look up. He sprinted across the road, roughly knocking him out of the way just as the car reached him.
Then all he felt was blinding pain as the car slammed into his body and he rolled off the hood and onto the dark asphalt, before two pairs of tires drove over him and squealed off.
Nick groaned as his vision blurred and came back into focus sporadically. He could barely make out Greg's face hovering over him. That pained look that seemed so familiar etched over his features was the last thing he saw before his eyes rolled back into his head. At least he was safe. That's all he needed to know.
The last thing he heard before slipping into unconsciousness was Greg's strangled voice.
"Nick…?"
Can't think of what to say
Can't think of what to do
I just think I might be losing my mind
Can't stop this agony
Cancel my therapy
Cause I just thought of you
And now I feel fine
Collecting the strangest conscience
Apathy returns its offence
But only after I get moving
Relax and begin the change
In time for the newest age
To help me find out what I'm missing in here
It's all too familiar
I've been here before
I'll carry this weight for your smallest reward
Because I'll continue to break down the door
Just let me in I swear
It will not be like before
He didn't have the slightest clue of how he got there. One minute he was watching as the paramedics fought to revive Nick with the defibrillator, his body arching off the stretcher with every shock to his stopped heart, and the next he was thrust into this blurry white world. It was like someone spilt a gigantic bottle of whiteout on the world, then tried to cover their mistake by wiping it away with bleach. Colours bled together like a rain-soaked painting making one shape completely indistinguishable from the other. The sounds were muffled, though he supposed they were regular, run-of-the-mill hospital sounds.
He was sitting in the waiting room, his left arm draped around his legs and his head resting on his knees, staring blankly at the wall. He held his injured right-hand tightly between his chest and thighs as he rocked back and forth on the cold linoleum, the same scene replaying in his head over and over again. Each time ending exactly the same. Each replay sending a sledgehammer through his chest and collapsing his lungs.
Nick's voice yelling his name.
The ground flying up to meet him as he was shoved out of the way.
The sickening crunch of metal striking bone and soft flesh and hard muscle.
That final thud as the car ran over Nick's prone body and sped off into the night, a man-sized dent in the hood and a fresh coat of blood on the shattered windshield and burnt rubber of the tires.
He hoped that guy drove into a brick wall, whoever he was.
A fresh pool of tears flooded his brown eyes, blurring his vision further, and soaking his red cheeks in salty water as he thought of Nick just…lying there.
"…Sanders and Nick Stokes…" a tense voice said, penetrating his thoughts. He could hear another person reply in a higher pitched voice, but couldn't be bothered to listen to the words. He already knew what she would say. Mr. So-and-so is still in surgery, blah, blah, blah. Same old bull hospital staff everywhere are trained to regurgitate whenever they're asked a question, which basically translated into 'you're not wearing a white lab-coat therefore you don't deserve to know.'
He absently wondered if he would get answers faster if he had on his lab coat.
"Grissom, over here," Brass said. Greg didn't look up, not even remotely interested in where Brass came out from. There was the sound of shoes scraping on linoleum as Grissom, and he assumed the rest of the team, shuffled over to them.
"How bad is it?" Catherine asked worriedly.
"Bad," Brass said grimly. He paused for a second, glancing at Greg. "Maybe we should move over here."
Brass waited until they were out of Greg's earshot before turning to the questioning gazes of four worried CSIs.
"The kid didn't need to hear about it again," he said by way of explanation.
"What happened, Jim?" Grissom asked.
"Hit and run," he stated sourly. "Nick pushed Sanders out of the way and got run over in the process. Son-of-a-bitch didn't even stop to look back before he drove off." He shook his head. "I got a plate number on him. My boys should've picked him up by now."
"I-is he gonna be alright?" Sara asked, tearing up.
"Hit like that…?" Brass trailed off. "He flat lined on the scene. They had to use paddles."
"Oh god," Catherine gasped, bringing a hand to her mouth in shock.
"What about Greg?" Grissom asked, trying to get all the facts first before he reacted too much.
"Refuses to let the paramedics look at him until they fix Nick. From what I can tell, it looks like he busted a wrist." Brass scratched his balding head with a sigh, looking down the hallway at the young lab-tech, remembering how he'd clung to Nick's body at the scene, sobbing. "Poor kid."
Nick's eyes blinked open, squinting at the bright lights in the white hospital room. A nurse was standing next to him, checking his IV. He tried to talk, but all that came out was a low groan. The plump woman looked down and smiled at him warmly. She finished what she was doing, and then leaned over him.
"Wha-…" he stopped, swallowing against a dry, sore throat.
"It'll be difficult to talk," she said as she reached over to the bedside table to pour him some water. "You just got off the respirator two days ago. There'll still be some irritation after having a tube down your throat for four weeks." She raised the bed a little, and then fed him some water. He drank eagerly of the cool liquid, choking slightly in the process. "Whoa, careful there."
Nick winced as he began to cough, the action alerting his mind to the pain in the rest of his body.
"Wha…hap'm?" he rasped.
"You don't remember?" The nurse tsked under her breath as she lowered the bed again and fluffed his pillows. "You were run over by a car after you pushed that young man out of the way…"
Nick tuned out the woman as the memories flooded back to him in a rush of images. The one that stood out was of Greg, just inches away from being mowed over by that car.
"Greg!" he exclaimed, sitting up suddenly in the bed. He cried out as a sharp pain shot through his ribs, back, sides…pretty much everywhere in his torso. He took quick, shallow breaths as the pain hit him. The nurse gently pushed him down, wiping his forehead soothingly.
"Where's Greg?" he panted.
"The other young man? He's just fine. You pushed him out of the way just in time. All he got was a fractured wrist from the fall. He's been in everyday…"
Nick sighed in relief, not hearing anything the nurse had said after 'He's just fine'. At least Greg was okay. He'd been through enough without adding being road kill to the list. Just the thought of Greg being all right was enough to wash the pain away. If only he would just forgive him…
Can't think of what to say
Can't think of what to do
Can't stop this agony
Cancel my therapy
Cause I just thought of you
And now I feel fine
"Nick," a voice gasped from the doorway, breaking through his thoughts.
He squeezed his eyes shut. That voice. He knew it well. He had to be imagining it. It couldn't be…Opening his eyes slowly, he looked to his right to see if it was true.
"Greg…"
Greg slipped into the chair at his bedside and grabbed Nick's right hand in his left. He raised his other casted hand and lightly traced his fingers over Nick's face. Nick closed his eyes and sighed.
Greg was so relieved to see Nick awake. He'd been in a coma for a month and they feared that he would never wake up. Leaning down, he tentatively brushed his lips against Nick's, afraid of his reaction, but unable to stop himself. Nick's eyes slipped shut and he sighed as Greg's lips descended onto his. This time, he didn't pull away. Lightly, Nick moved his lips against his, smiling to himself when Greg gasped in surprise before melting into him.
Can't think of what to say
Can't think of what to do
I just think I might be losing my mind
Can't stop this agony
Cancel my therapy
Cause I just thought of you
And now I feel fine
I covered all the ground 'til I uncovered our design
And every second I have spent has come to remind me in time
Wide awakened out of spinning
Round your safest orbit
You controlled the ordinary
I was grateful for it
I was grateful for it
Can't think of what to say
Can't think of what to do
I just think I might be losing my mind
Can't stop this agony
Cancel my therapy
Cause I just thought of you
And now I feel fine
Can't think of what to say
Can't think of what to do
I just think I might be losing my mind
Can't stop this agony
Cancel my therapy
Cause I just thought of you
And now I feel fine
Fine.
Don't forget to review. What do you think? This was new territory for me. Was it okay, or should I just stick to horror, action and sci-fi?