Fic: On Time, Chapter 5 (CSI, Nick Stokes / Greg Sanders)
Title: On Time, Chapter 5
Fandom: CSI
Pair: Nick Stokes / Greg Sanders
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
CSI Las Vegas Main List
On Time, Chapter 1
On Time, Chapter 2
On Time, Chapter 3
On Time, Chapter 4
Greg rushed back to the living room from the kitchen when he heard the sound of breaking glass. Nick was sitting on the couch with his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide. Pieces of Nick’s plate were laying on the floor.
“Now what?”
Nick didn’t answer. His eyes were still fixed to the TV screen. Greg followed his line of sight to the screen where two men were passionately kissing and tearing each others clothes off.
“Nick?”
No response.
“Can you hear me?”
Still nothing.
“They’re gonna send you to the department of ancient relics so they can cut you open and dissect your organs for scientific studies.”
This time Nick blinked and turned to look at him.
“What?”
“Nothing. Why are you imitating a goldfish?”
“Look.” Nick pointed to the screen. “They’re showing things like that! In the middle of the afternoon!”
Greg snapped the remote to check the program data. "That’s Queer as Folk: The next generation. It’s one of those old shows that they redo and call it a re-imagining.”
“That’s…. that’s…. immoral!”
“I know. I have no idea why they do it, the original show was horrible enough.”
“How can they show that on TV?!”
“That’s what I said!”
“Would you shut up for a minute! Two men were kissing and-” Nick paused and blushed furiously. “…. and they did other things too. Is that legal now?”
“It’s been legal for a loooooong time and if you’ve been in college wrestling team it’s almost mandatory.”
“How can you talk about it like that? In my days people would have kept all that indoors and under wraps.”
“Do you have to be so last Millennia about everything? Everyone has kissed a guy at least once, what’s the big deal?”
“Well, I haven’t!”
“High school, two weeks before Christmas break.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You and Mike from the football team. Kisses and a hasty handjob under the bleachers after the practice.”
Nick’s face turned from red to white.
“How do you know about that?”
“We had to map out all the possible consequences of your disappearance, so we went through your whole life with a fine-tooth comb. By the way, is that the right term?”
“What?”
“Fine-tooth comb. Is that the right expression?”
“Yeah.”
“Good, it’s kinda hard to know about those old fashioned idioms. You wanna know what happened to Mike?”
“I know what happened to him. He got married after graduation and they had three kids.”
“That was before your disappearance. In 1972 they divorced and he moved in with a male driving instructor. They lived happily ever after and adopted a goat.”
“Goat?”
“Yeah, they both hated kids.”
Nick took a deep breath. Finally he lifted his eyes from the carpet to meet Greg’s eyes. “We had a men’s magazine.”
“What?”
“You know, a girlie magazine. We weren’t fooling around together or anything like that.”
“And why do you feel a need to specifically mention that?” Greg grinned.
“Because we were kids with a naughty magazine, it had nothing to do with…. that.” He pointed to the TV screen.
“Why is it such a big deal? Sex is sex. People do it because they want to, end of story. And it’s not like they need to do it if they don’t want to. Two or more consenting adults and a lot of squeaky fun. Enjoy it!”
“It’s not meant to be fun!”
“It is! People in your time did exactly the same things people do now. The only difference is that they don’t pretend that they don’t do it.” Greg got up and marched to the direction of his bedroom. “I’m gonna take a shower, I didn’t have time in the morning. Can I leave you alone for ten minutes?”
“I’ll be here.” Nick was staring at the carpet again. Greg shrugged and left. When he came back fifteen minutes later in his bathrobe, Nick was still staring at the rug.
“Should I be worried?”
“I don’t get it.” Nick said faintly. “The whole sex thing. We didn’t even do it with Lizzy, and we were engaged.”
“Different times, different ways. Would it be any consolation if I told you that you got lucky when I took you away from your own time? Your Lizzy started cheating on you five years after you got married.”
“Why?” Nick took one of the empty plates from the coffee table and twisted it around in his hands to keep them occupied.
“If I remember correctly, she told the mailman that her husband was so damn useless in the sack, that your three kids were just lucky shots.”
“Mailman?”
“Ignore it. Maybe she just wasn’t your target audience.”
“I’m not…. I mean….” Nick closed his eyes and groaned. “I don’t know what I mean.”
“Well, you got a lot of time to figure it out. Let’s do a test.”
“A test?”
Greg got up and pulled off his bathrobe. He turned around, wiggling his butt. He heard a loud crack and turned around. Nick had accidentally squeezed the plate so hard it had broken into two pieces.
“Keep doing that and we’ll run out of plates. Any reaction downstairs?”
Nick didn’t answer, but his face turned bright red again.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Greg grinned and twisted his head to admire his own rear end. “My ass is a real beauty, isn’t it?”
He went to his bedroom to get dressed, leaving Nick blushing and clutching the broken pieces of his plate.
TBC