Fic. Soaps R Us, Chapter 14 (CSI/CSI NY/CSI Miami, Ryan / Eric, Nick / Greg)
Title: Soaps R Us, Chapter 14
Pairing: Nick Stokes / Greg Sanders,
Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko,
Don Flack / Sheldon Hawkes
Rating: PG
Genre: AU
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Summery: Daytime soap Lights of Vegas has a new head writer. Life and fiction don’t always mix nicely, and the line between the two can be very narrow.
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7
Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 (NC-17)
CSI Las Vegas Main List CSI Miami Main List CSI New York Main List
“Has anyone told you that you look like a re-erected zombie?” Sara asked. “Insomnia?”
“Company.” Eric grinned and sat into the make-up chair.
“Should have known. You got that disgusting look on your face.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“The same look you have when cafeteria has those double stuffed doughnuts.” Sara shrugged. “Just make sure you don’t gain weight, because I’m not redoing your costumes.”
“Trust me, I got plenty of exercise.”
“You mean exercise or exercise?”
“The latter one. With the capital letter.”
“Who’s your trainer?”
“I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Since when?”
“Since I can get cut off if I open my mouth.”
“So it’s Wolfe.”
“How did you know?”
“It’s that whole love-hate-sexual-tension situation. Grissom used that plot more times than I can remember.”
“How did it end?”
“Let me think… Carla whisked Tony to some weird clinic in the Alps so he could have some experimental brain surgery, and no one ever mentioned them again. Aaron dumped Ella when he found out she had been cheating on him with his father. And grandfather if memory serves me correctly. Jimmy skipped town after Marc died in that car accident, except that he didn’t really die and he came back later with a new face and a new name to avenge-”
“Stop right there. Are they all like that?”
“Most of them.”
“That’s not very encouraging.”
“But I saved the best for last.” Sara gave him a gap-toothed grin. “David and Brigitte moved to Australia to start a sheep farm. Better?”
“Yeah. I don’t like sheeps, but that’s a step up from the experimental brain surgery.”
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“Stokes?” Ryan knocked on the door and walked into the dressing room. “News for you. We had to switch the schedule, we’re now doing the scenes with you and Warrick we were going to do tomorrow.”
“I haven’t even read them yet!” Nick protested.
“Neither has Warrick. And you can blame it all on Willows, she`s resting at home.”
“Is she sick?”
“No, just an allergic reaction.”
“Shellfish again?”
“No, chimpanzee embryo extract. She went to a beauty salon for a facial and now she looks like a smoked blowfish.”
“I didn’t know anyone smokes blowfish.”
“I hope they don’t because it doesn’t look very appetising.” Ryan smirked. “Not that I would touch her even with her normal face.”
“You’re in a good mood.” Nick commented. “Everything okay in the Latin front?”
“Eric told you, didn’t he?”
“No, he just told me he was going to try to patch things up. That’s all. And since you’re looking cheerful even when you have to do last minute changes and Eric looked totally exhausted when he came in.....”
“I may have had something to do with his state.” Ryan admitted and his grin turned even wider.
“Well, congratulations anyway.”
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“I’m gonna have to kill him….” Greg groaned and banged his head against his desk. Warrick gave him an amused glance and sat down on the opposite side of the desk.
“Feeling the pressure?”
“What pressure?”
“Being the boss.”
“Are you kidding? That part is easy, I was talking about my new assistant.”
“The one who was playing X-box outside your door?”
“Yeah. Henry’s out in some training for a week and I’m stuck with that thing. If I put a blow-up doll in his place it would probably do a better job.”
“I’m listening, man. Just let it all out.”
“That Cooper.... something, I can`t remember his first name was here when I got in this morning answering the phone. He called one of the network bosses a “creepy dude”, told a reporter he would love to pose for their “Share & Bare 4 Chimps of Our Zoos” issue, and managed to set a small fire on his desk. All that in the first fifteen minutes.”
“Can I do something?”
“Lock him into some dark closet and keep him there for the rest of the week.”
“Consider it done.”
“Thanks.” Greg sighed. “Great day, absolutely frigging fantastic. First we have to shuffle all the shooting schedules because of Willows, and now the reporters are harassing everyone.”
“Reporters?”
“They all wanna know about last night. The kooky baldy with the baseball bat. Normally those calls would go to Hawkes, but he’s not here and that’s pretty much part of the problem because that’s how this whole thing started, unless it had something to do with that letter and….” He paused long enough to take a deep breath. “… and when I’m stressed, I start babbling.”
“Stressed, hungry, angry, horny-”
“Alright, it’s my default setting. I don’t even know when he’s coming back to work!”
“Henry?”
“Hawkes.” Greg glared at the desk phone. It had started to shriek once again.
“It happened last night, I doubt he’ll be back anytime soon.”
“This day’s just getting better and better.” Greg picked up the received of his landline and slammed it back down. “I need some silence or I won’t get anything done.”
“Do what they do in politics.” Warrick suggested. “Pick a scapegoat and throw it to the lions den.”
“You got any ideas?”
“How bout your new buddy Cooper?”
“Actually….” Greg giggled. “That’s not a bad idea.” He grabbed a stack of messages from his desk and handed them over to Warrick. “Tell him to contact them all, no matter how long it takes. Comments for everybody! Even if it takes the whole day!”
“I’ll handle it.”
“And tell him to keep his clothes on. I heard that last year Soapy Weekly banned all the stories about the show for months after Grissoms streaked in a press conference.”
“Why the hell did he do that?”
“According to Nick, it was a protest. Grissom and some of the extras were playing poker and he lost his straw-hat.”
-------------------------------------------
“Go ahead, don’t be shy. Make yourself at home.” Eric commented from the door.
“I was waiting for you, I got the new schedules.” Ryan said and got comfortable on the couch.
“So you just got comfy in my dressing room.” Eric closed the door and sat down next to him. “Not that I mind.”
“You wanna take a look?”
“Take if off, querido….”
“I was talking about the schedule.”
“Don’t get my hopes up like that.”
“If you’re so interested in seeing some bare flesh in the middle of the day….” Ryan pulled a large scrapbook from the table. “…. maybe you should take a look at this.”
“You found it….”
“You hid it under a stack of magazines, I’ve seen guilty teens hiding their porn better than that.”
“Just say it. I know you want to ask the question, so just do it.”
“Here it goes: What kind of a guy keeps a scrapbook of himself?”
“One who appreciates aesthetics?”
“Try again.”
“Okay, I kept it as an ego boost. I don`t do that anymore.”
“I know, the last clipping is three years old.”
“It was fun for a while, but it got old pretty soon.”
“I had scrapbook about you too.” Ryan smiled. “I don’t have it anymore.”
“You mean after….”
“I threw it away last year.”
“Last year?”
“I kept it in the back of my closet for ages, and then it spend at least a year in a bottom of a moving box. I didn’t wanna touch it, but I could throw it away either.”
“So you just kept it around?”
“Yeah. Finally I decided it was time to get rid of it.” Ryan bit his bottom lip and flipped the book open. “But this is pretty funny.” He picked up one of the clippings. “Is the Latin boom coming to an end? Last years hot newcomer Eric Delko was dethroned from his position as the hottest of daytime hunks. Last years winner got dumped down to the third place while his co-start Nick Stokes took the second place.”
“I only kept that one for the pictures.” Eric groaned. “I looked hot, admit it.”
“You did, but not enough. Third place?”
“It was voted by the panel, not the viewers. It had nothing to do with my looks.”
“Is that why they used an old picture for the article?”
“Just put it away.”
“And this….” Ryan moved on to the next clipping. “How ab-tastic: Soap charmer shares his exercise secrets.”
“The PR-department set that up. I was the new kid, so I went along with it.”
“And enjoyed the attention.”
“Yeah, but that was a long time ago.” Eric unfolded the next clipping and checked the headline. “Like looking at another person.”
“Yeah.” Ryan admitted. “Like teenage crushes. You know how they go. First one hits you hard and the end is usually bittersweet.” He closed the book.
“I meant what I said.” Eric stated. “That’s guy’s like a different person.”
“I know....”
“But?”
“I….” He placed the book on the table. “I just don’t want any reminders of your prototype.”
Chapter 15