Fic: Afterwards, Chapter 2/2 (CSI, Nick Stokes / Greg Sanders)
Title: Afterwards, Chapter 2/2
Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Nick Stokes / Greg Sanders
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Notes: Set after Fannysmacking (Season 7)
CSI Las Vegas Main List
Chapter 1/2
“Last warning. I said I’ll break down the door if you don’t open it.”
Greg opened the door, looking like he had just gotten out of bed.
“Are you trying to wake up the whole building, Stokes?”
“You didn’t react to the doorbell, I thought-”
“Half of the tenants are senior citizens. You`re lucky nobody called the cops. Yet.”
“For knocking on your door?”
“For pounding it with you fists, by the sound of it, and screaming.”
“I just thought you weren’t going to let me in.” Nick gave him an embarrassed smirk and shoved a cardboard box to his hands. “I brought breakfast.”
“What did you get?”
“Doughnuts.”
“Since when do you eat doughnuts for breakfast?”
“There’s something else for me in there.”
Greg opened the lid. “Bran muffins. I should have guessed.”
“You got coffee?”
“You wake me up in the morning along with the rest of the building, and you ask if I have any coffee?”
“Fine, I’ll make the coffee.”
“You really think I would let you touch my coffee? Even my everyday blend?”
“You want to talk without coffee?” Nick countered. “I know what you’re like when you try to wake up without your coffee.”
“How can you know that when you’re always gone when I wake up?”
Nick took a step back. “Can we talk like grown ups for a while?”
“You wanna talk like grown ups? Then get to the point.”
“Are you going to listen to me?”
“I will, if you say something that actually matters.”
“Okay.” Nick breathe deeply. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Just let me say this. I never imagined that the whole thing would hurt you. Honestly, I didn’t. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal to you.”
“What did you think? That I jump into bed with my co-workers just so we can have some colourful break room gossip later?”
“No, I thought…. I thought you were happy with our arrangement.”
“I asked you out and you said you wanted to keep the whole thing in bed. My bed, to be precise. I’ve never even seen your place.”
“I panicked, okay? It was a new thing and I was afraid everyone at the lab would know.”
“You played hide and seek for a year. Which one do you think is better: A coward or a liar?”
“Greg-”
“You’re lucky because you don’t need to choose. You’re both.” Greg went to the kitchen and started loading the coffeemaker. “Remember what you told Warrick about that waitress? Total bullshit.”
“I just exaggerated little bit-”
“She gave you her number, that was all. It was kind of a shock to sleep with you in the afternoon, then come to work and listen to you explaining how you bedded some leggy blond. You got the leggy and blond parts right, but the rest was pure fiction.”
“That was guy talk.”
“Funny, I’ve never told him some of the really interesting true stories. Maybe I should.”
“Too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“I told him. Last night.”
“Seriously?”
“I was thinking that…. You probably wont even listen to me if I don’t do something for it.”
“How did he take it?”
“He just said: I knew that story about that blond waitress was bogus.”
“I told you…..” Greg chuckled. “Nobody believed that story.”
“Anyway, cat’s out of the bag. I mean, Warrick knows. And Catherine, but that was an accident. She walked in when we were talking and I thought I could kill two birds with one stone.”
“Talk about killing with a stone to a guy who barely survived a beating.”
“Sorry, I-”
“I was kidding.”
“Is that a good sign?” Nick asked carefully.
“Well, it can’t be a bad sign.” Greg snapped the coffee maker on. “You came here to apologise. Okay, I forgive you. What do you want now?”
“Steak. At Carla’s. With fries. And you.”
“You want to take me out to dinner?”
“Yeah.”
“What is it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Is it a date or two buddies hanging out?”
“I don’t take my buddies to Carla’s.”
“So a date?”
“Yeah. I was hoping we could try to start from the beginning.”
“When?”
“Tonight. I got the next two nights off, so I can actually get few beers.”
“Essential part of any first date.”
“Is that a yes?”
Greg took a mug from the cupboard and filled it from the half full pot.
“No. I’m not going out with you tonight.”
“Oh.” For a while Nick didn’t know what to say. “Can we… Are we still friends?”
“You got any idea what it’s like to sit on those wooden chairs for two hours with my bruises? Pure hell.” Greg took a sip from his mug and looked at Nick over the rim. “But we can do that next week.”
“Oh.”
“Nick, that was your second “Oh” in the last thirty seconds.”
“Oh.”
“Third.”
“Stop that.”
“Your fault, Oh-ing doesn’t suit a cowboy.”
“So that’s next week…. What now?”
“Breakfast.” Greg sat down and unfolded the newspaper. “You know where I keep the mugs and coffee is in the pot. And don’t try to steal my doughnuts. You wanted the bran muffin, so you better enjoy the torture all the way till the last bite.”
As if to underline his comment he took a big bite from a chocolate covered doughnut.