Fic: Facing Up.... (2/5)
Title: Facing Up…. Part Two of Five
Author: Dee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2753
Pairings: Gil/Nick
Characters: Gil, Nick and the some team members
Warnings: Fluff and AU
Spoilers: Season One/Two (ish) - in no particular order.
Disclaimer: In my dreams they are like, totally mine!
Beta: jayceepat and podga for their invaluable help in the Americanisation of the fic and their insightful comments - which I may well have ignored! I thank high_striker for his wonderful icons. I am indebted to them all. Any errors are mine.
A/N: This is my take on what could have happened……and once again my friend Sarah B liked this one!
Part Two
Nick was astounded. He just stared. At Gil Grissom. If he’d been asked who was the least likely person, in the entire universe. to be at his door, he’d have replied, ‘Gil Grissom’.
Grissom pushed past him and entered his condo uninvited. Nick stood in the same position for a few moments longer, and then came partially to his senses, closed the door and turned to face the man he’d come to loathe.
Grissom broke the silence. “Drinking, Nick?” he said as he looked at the drink on the coffee table.
“No, I had intended to but I fell asleep, what’s it to you anyway, I’m not at work, not on call?” He’d suddenly found his balls - he liked the sensation and Grissom looked surprised at the comeback.
“Well no one should drink alone Nick, how ‘bout I join you?” This time Grissom was smirking.
“Okay, please yourself but I’ve only got JD, want that, or a beer?”
“If you’ve got coke, I’ll have the JD, I’m quite partial actually.”
“I’ll get it then.” Nick went into his kitchen on auto pilot and fixed the drink.
“You driving?” Nick asked as he returned with the JD with ice and a can of coke for Grissom to use. Grissom had taken off his jacket and had sat himself down on the end of the couch…Nick remembered his emotional breakdown on that very couch, how long ago it had been he couldn’t rightly say, but, he’d bet his last dollar he looked like shit, like he’d been crying. He could feel the flush start on his neck and then make its way up his face.
“I’ll be here for some time Nicky, my boy, so one drink’ll probably have worked its way out of my system by then.” Grissom suddenly seemed pleasant, almost human.
Nick was stunned; it had been a long time - over a year maybe - since he’d been called ‘Nicky, his boy’. “Some time? Why would you be here some time?” Nick managed to ask.
“To get to the bottom of this resignation, Nick. Why would one of my team, an excellent CSI in whom I’ve invested time and energy to train, with potential to be the best, forsake the second best lab in the country? Where d’you think you’re going and why?”
This was possibly the longest pronouncement Nick had ever heard Gil make. How come, after all this time he’d just become positively verbose? And then the actual words struck him. ‘Excellent’. ‘Potential’. ‘Best’. Grissom was saying these words in relation to him, Nick Stokes. Him? Him? He was stunned into silence and just stared at Grissom. He couldn’t believe it and would you know it that before he could stop himself, big, fat, juicy tears were once more rolling down his cheeks.
Grissom was shocked, he’d thought Nick’s face was just flushed from sleep and then drink, when he’d seen the drink on the coffee table. He had absolutely no idea what to do - where was Catherine when he needed her, really needed her?
Nick stood motionless and soundless. Grissom suddenly knew what he should do, but could he do it? He took several deep breaths and stood up. He moved the short distance to stand in front of Nick and put his arms up and around Nick, in an awkward bear hug.
The floodgates well and truly opened for Nick and he virtually collapsed into Grissom’s arms burying his face in his shoulder and grabbing the front of his shirt in two fists. His sobs were shaking his body and his tears soaking Grissom’s shirt. He was past caring.
Grissom held him and started to relax into the hug. He started to rub his hands up and down Nick’s back and rock to and fro, just a little, and he surprised himself when he started murmuring soothing words, sounds really, to Nick. This was way outside his comfort zone and yet……he felt strangely comfortable.
Nick sobbed for some time, but gradually, Grissom’s soothing gestures and words penetrated his consciousness.
“Oh man, I am sooo sorry.” He hiccoughed out these words.
“It’s absolutely fine, absolutely fine, just take your time, I’m not going anywhere.”
While Gil heard himself saying these words in a soft and soothing voice, at the same time he wondered where on earth he’d managed to find them. And then it hit him, it was his mom, his own mom, that’s what she’d said to him when he was a little boy and was hurt and in need of comfort. For some reason this realisation caused Gil to feel a little emotional….his mom had died a few years back and he missed her, a lot, she‘d been the sole comfort in his life.
He hugged Nick tighter. “I promise you that I’ll try and make it better Nick, I promise you I’ll try, whatever it is.”
Of course these words only made Nick start crying again. Not as all consuming as before but bad enough. He’d thought he’d exhausted his supply of tears. A little while later Nick felt composed enough to relinquish the hug and stumbled onto the couch, elbows on knees and face held in his hands.
Grissom sat beside him, he could feel the heat from his body and it was comforting. He really needed to blow his nose and wipe his face. He looked sideways at Grissom, whose posture mirrored his own, except for the head in the hands part.
Grissom spoke softly. “Seems to me that dam had been waiting to burst for some time, eh Nicky?”
“Mmm.” Was all he could manage, he felt drained, the analogy was right, the waters had drained out. He was shaky, but he got to his feet and made his way to the bathroom. He blew his nose several times on toilet paper and flushed it away, then stood at the sink and turned on the faucet for the cold water. He glanced up at the mirror but didn’t see his own reflection, but Grissom’s, standing in the doorway behind him. He looked like he cared. Had Nick ever seen this look before? He knew he hadn’t.
He splashed his face with cold water and then rubbed it vigorously with a towel. He felt marginally better.
“Shall I get us both a hot drink, it’ll probably be better than alcohol?” Grissom asked.
“Yeah…..coffee sounds good.” Nick was thankful that his voice seemed steady and gravelly - better than squeaky, he thought.
Grissom left him standing there and he paused, towel in hand, to think about what had just happened. He thought that he should be feeling foolish. He was used to Grissom making him feel foolish anyway, but that was it, he didn’t feel foolish, he felt, what, relieved, calm even.
Nick made his way to his kitchen and it looked as if Grissom had located what he needed and had all angles covered, so Nick went back to the lounge. He retrieved the abandoned drinks and brought them into the kitchen dumping them down the sink.
“Now that’s a waste of good liquor.” Grissom looked ruefully at the sink.
“Ice melted, no good to man or beast.” Nick felt relaxed. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this relaxed.
“We must be getting old Nick, don’t you remember in college, no matter what the state of it was, alcohol was alcohol and must be drunk regardless!”
“I do remember, yeah, I do. Never took you to be a frat boy type though.”
“I was never in a fraternity, Nick, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the importance of alcohol in the life of a student.”
Nick had learned more about Grissom in the last twenty seconds than he had in the preceding year. He was amazed. The coffee was ready and two cups were poured. Grissom carried them to the lounge and set them on the coffee table and sat down once more. Nick followed him back and sat down beside him.
“I’ve got the distinct feeling that this isn’t going to be easy for either of us Nick, but we have started and I think that you, well…..you need to tell me what’s going on.” Grissom was not looking at Nick as he spoke to him.
“Catherine told me that something was wrong some weeks ago, as usual I chose to ignore it, in the hope that it would go away, cure itself. When you asked for those vacation days I thought it was to sort out whatever it was that was wrong and everything would go back to normal, but that was a job interview wasn’t it?” He glanced at Nick, who nodded.
“What’s the job then? Where?”
“CSI 2. Charlotte, North Carolina.”
“A demotion Nick? And not a well known lab.”
“It’s all I could find at short notice and I wanted to be well away from Vegas. I thought…well I thought..….that I wouldn’t get a recommendation for level three from….” Nick’s voice grew quieter and he left the sentence unfinished.
“From me Nick, you mean me, don’t you?”
Nick nodded once more, he couldn’t look up and for the life of him he didn’t want the tears starting again.
“Oh, God, Nicky, what on earth have I done to you to make you lose your self esteem, to have you doubt yourself so badly? How have I managed to fuck you up?”
Nick thought Grissom sounded wounded, as if he was about to cry, and that thought alone kept him dry eyed, he looked around at Grissom’s stricken face. He’d never even heard him use a profanity before. He took a very deep breath.
“I sound pathetic I know…but…well…..I can’t do ANYTHIN’ right for you. I try real hard all the time and I know I’ve fucked up badly in the past and I have to earn your respect but so do the others. Man. I love ‘Rick but he left Holly alone and she died, she was one of us and she died - he was gamblin’ on duty - but you’ve forgiven ‘Rick. YOU even left Holly alone on that first shift. You even put ‘Rick in charge of the shift - I’m more senior but you never said a word to me about why you’d chosen him, over me and Sara. And then there’s Sara….” The water may have dried up, but the verbal dam had truly burst and there was no stopping him now. “I know she’s good, man, she’s the female version of you, but she’s rude to people in the lab and she thinks subordination is a game to play, but still ya’ think she’s God’s gift and can do no wrong……” he gulped down air to continue, he didn’t dare look at Grissom now.
“There’s been more stuff than I can even remember Grissom but d’ya know what it was…..d’y’know what the straw was, man, that broke the camel’s back, my back Grissom?” He did look now and found Grissom looking at him, mouth slightly open and shocked - that was the expression - shocked. Grissom shook his head, just a little.
“That case about eight weeks back, the double murder of the Homers? I discovered the link Grissom, and I knew who’d done it, he was in custody and I had him backed in a corner; I just needed the DNA proof to confront him and Greg did the test to prove MY theory right. Who did you thank Grissom? Who did you thank?” Nick was shouting now although his voice still sounded thick from his crying.
Grissom hadn’t moved but Nick saw him flinch. “Greg, I thanked Greg.”
“YES YOU DID. My case, my case, and you thanked Greg, patted him on the back and thanked him. Ignored me. I was standin’ right there Gris, ya’ never even looked at me man, ya’ never even looked at me…….”
The wind had left his sails and he lay back against the back of the couch, he was breathing hard but wasn’t about to cry, he’d exhausted himself but he’d had his say. He’d never released such a tirade against anyone in his life. At least he had a job to go to, God, he hoped Grissom wouldn’t block it after the way he’d just spoken to him. He shivered at the thought that he may have burnt a vital bridge on his escape route.
He chanced a look at Grissom, and was surprised to see him in exactly the same position as before with an even more shocked look about him.
“I, I don’t know what to say Nick…….I really don’t. I need to think about this, to process what you’ve said to me, about me. But Nick?” He looked at Nick and momentarily made eye contact. “You’re right Nick; I know you’re right, even as you said those things I knew they were right, but I never thought about it, never, until now, I don’t know Nick, I just don’t know……..”
Grissom appeared to Nick to be rambling; he’d never heard the man utter one sentence so apparently incoherently. He was taken aback at the words, the ready admission of guilt and the incomprehension in Grissom’s voice and demeanour. Actually, Nick felt suddenly powerful - he had reduced Grissom to this, this state. It was like being with a suspect who’d suddenly admitted their guilt to a crime. And what the hell, Grissom was guilty, he’d made his life a misery for months now - this was payback.
But, Nick was still Nick and the victory was short lived. He soon regretted that he’d reduced Grissom to this display of self doubt. Wasn’t that his domain? Grissom was in control, all the time, and Nick was thrown by Grissom’s unexpected questioning of his own actions.
They sat in silence for quite a few minutes and it wasn’t a ‘comfortable’ silence, like they talk about in books. The coffees had gone cold, untouched. Nick made a sudden movement to retrieve them, intending to get fresh ones. But his movement caused Grissom to jump, startled. He looked at Nick and Nick kept the eye contact.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want you to leave, but I’ll understand if you do. I need some time with this Nick, will you give me some time, I don’t deserve it, I know I don’t, but don’t commit yourself to leaving just yet, please?”
This was better than his previous statement, a more flowing speech than before and Nick was feeling calmer, but he didn’t think he could be that coherent in replying to this ‘new’ type of Grissom.
“Er……yeah…okay….yeah.” Nick paused and then continued, “Well…just how long Gris?” This was first time he’d used the nickname in a long time.
“Days Nick. A couple of days, you’ve given me considerable food for thought…I need to think it through….”
Now this was more like Grissom, he’d regrouped and was getting back to his normal self. He’d admitted his guilt to Nick, but did this mean that when he’d looked at the ‘evidence’ he’d rescind that admission and his status quo would be returned and Nick would still be on his way to Charlotte. Grissom obviously saw this flicker of apprehension in Nick and reached out and put a hand on Nick’s shoulder.
“I meant what I said Nick, I’ve behaved badly toward you, I know I have, but I want to know why. Whatever possessed me to treat you so differently from the rest - and you’re right, you have pulled some idiotic stunts, but haven’t we all Nick, haven’t we all.”
These weren’t questions they were statements.
Nick took a deep breath. “Alright then, I can live with it for a few days longer.” And he tried a tentative smile - and he was rewarded with a similarly tentative one from Gris.
“I’ll get going then - are you okay? Do I need to stay a little longer?”
“No, I’m okay; actually, I feel better than I have in a long time.
“I’m not surprised Nick, you’ve been carrying a load there and it’d appear I’ve been adding to it, brick by brick. Will I see you tonight?”
“Yeah, yeah, you will.”
Grissom walked to the door picking up his jacket as he went, he turned as he opened the door and to his, and certainly Nick Stokes’ amazement, ruffled Nick’s hair in a friendly, comforting manner - something else his mom did to him when he was a boy - and then turned and left.
End of Part Two
Author: Dee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2753
Pairings: Gil/Nick
Characters: Gil, Nick and the some team members
Warnings: Fluff and AU
Spoilers: Season One/Two (ish) - in no particular order.
Disclaimer: In my dreams they are like, totally mine!
Beta: jayceepat and podga for their invaluable help in the Americanisation of the fic and their insightful comments - which I may well have ignored! I thank high_striker for his wonderful icons. I am indebted to them all. Any errors are mine.
A/N: This is my take on what could have happened……and once again my friend Sarah B liked this one!
Part Two
Nick was astounded. He just stared. At Gil Grissom. If he’d been asked who was the least likely person, in the entire universe. to be at his door, he’d have replied, ‘Gil Grissom’.
Grissom pushed past him and entered his condo uninvited. Nick stood in the same position for a few moments longer, and then came partially to his senses, closed the door and turned to face the man he’d come to loathe.
Grissom broke the silence. “Drinking, Nick?” he said as he looked at the drink on the coffee table.
“No, I had intended to but I fell asleep, what’s it to you anyway, I’m not at work, not on call?” He’d suddenly found his balls - he liked the sensation and Grissom looked surprised at the comeback.
“Well no one should drink alone Nick, how ‘bout I join you?” This time Grissom was smirking.
“Okay, please yourself but I’ve only got JD, want that, or a beer?”
“If you’ve got coke, I’ll have the JD, I’m quite partial actually.”
“I’ll get it then.” Nick went into his kitchen on auto pilot and fixed the drink.
“You driving?” Nick asked as he returned with the JD with ice and a can of coke for Grissom to use. Grissom had taken off his jacket and had sat himself down on the end of the couch…Nick remembered his emotional breakdown on that very couch, how long ago it had been he couldn’t rightly say, but, he’d bet his last dollar he looked like shit, like he’d been crying. He could feel the flush start on his neck and then make its way up his face.
“I’ll be here for some time Nicky, my boy, so one drink’ll probably have worked its way out of my system by then.” Grissom suddenly seemed pleasant, almost human.
Nick was stunned; it had been a long time - over a year maybe - since he’d been called ‘Nicky, his boy’. “Some time? Why would you be here some time?” Nick managed to ask.
“To get to the bottom of this resignation, Nick. Why would one of my team, an excellent CSI in whom I’ve invested time and energy to train, with potential to be the best, forsake the second best lab in the country? Where d’you think you’re going and why?”
This was possibly the longest pronouncement Nick had ever heard Gil make. How come, after all this time he’d just become positively verbose? And then the actual words struck him. ‘Excellent’. ‘Potential’. ‘Best’. Grissom was saying these words in relation to him, Nick Stokes. Him? Him? He was stunned into silence and just stared at Grissom. He couldn’t believe it and would you know it that before he could stop himself, big, fat, juicy tears were once more rolling down his cheeks.
Grissom was shocked, he’d thought Nick’s face was just flushed from sleep and then drink, when he’d seen the drink on the coffee table. He had absolutely no idea what to do - where was Catherine when he needed her, really needed her?
Nick stood motionless and soundless. Grissom suddenly knew what he should do, but could he do it? He took several deep breaths and stood up. He moved the short distance to stand in front of Nick and put his arms up and around Nick, in an awkward bear hug.
The floodgates well and truly opened for Nick and he virtually collapsed into Grissom’s arms burying his face in his shoulder and grabbing the front of his shirt in two fists. His sobs were shaking his body and his tears soaking Grissom’s shirt. He was past caring.
Grissom held him and started to relax into the hug. He started to rub his hands up and down Nick’s back and rock to and fro, just a little, and he surprised himself when he started murmuring soothing words, sounds really, to Nick. This was way outside his comfort zone and yet……he felt strangely comfortable.
Nick sobbed for some time, but gradually, Grissom’s soothing gestures and words penetrated his consciousness.
“Oh man, I am sooo sorry.” He hiccoughed out these words.
“It’s absolutely fine, absolutely fine, just take your time, I’m not going anywhere.”
While Gil heard himself saying these words in a soft and soothing voice, at the same time he wondered where on earth he’d managed to find them. And then it hit him, it was his mom, his own mom, that’s what she’d said to him when he was a little boy and was hurt and in need of comfort. For some reason this realisation caused Gil to feel a little emotional….his mom had died a few years back and he missed her, a lot, she‘d been the sole comfort in his life.
He hugged Nick tighter. “I promise you that I’ll try and make it better Nick, I promise you I’ll try, whatever it is.”
Of course these words only made Nick start crying again. Not as all consuming as before but bad enough. He’d thought he’d exhausted his supply of tears. A little while later Nick felt composed enough to relinquish the hug and stumbled onto the couch, elbows on knees and face held in his hands.
Grissom sat beside him, he could feel the heat from his body and it was comforting. He really needed to blow his nose and wipe his face. He looked sideways at Grissom, whose posture mirrored his own, except for the head in the hands part.
Grissom spoke softly. “Seems to me that dam had been waiting to burst for some time, eh Nicky?”
“Mmm.” Was all he could manage, he felt drained, the analogy was right, the waters had drained out. He was shaky, but he got to his feet and made his way to the bathroom. He blew his nose several times on toilet paper and flushed it away, then stood at the sink and turned on the faucet for the cold water. He glanced up at the mirror but didn’t see his own reflection, but Grissom’s, standing in the doorway behind him. He looked like he cared. Had Nick ever seen this look before? He knew he hadn’t.
He splashed his face with cold water and then rubbed it vigorously with a towel. He felt marginally better.
“Shall I get us both a hot drink, it’ll probably be better than alcohol?” Grissom asked.
“Yeah…..coffee sounds good.” Nick was thankful that his voice seemed steady and gravelly - better than squeaky, he thought.
Grissom left him standing there and he paused, towel in hand, to think about what had just happened. He thought that he should be feeling foolish. He was used to Grissom making him feel foolish anyway, but that was it, he didn’t feel foolish, he felt, what, relieved, calm even.
Nick made his way to his kitchen and it looked as if Grissom had located what he needed and had all angles covered, so Nick went back to the lounge. He retrieved the abandoned drinks and brought them into the kitchen dumping them down the sink.
“Now that’s a waste of good liquor.” Grissom looked ruefully at the sink.
“Ice melted, no good to man or beast.” Nick felt relaxed. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this relaxed.
“We must be getting old Nick, don’t you remember in college, no matter what the state of it was, alcohol was alcohol and must be drunk regardless!”
“I do remember, yeah, I do. Never took you to be a frat boy type though.”
“I was never in a fraternity, Nick, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the importance of alcohol in the life of a student.”
Nick had learned more about Grissom in the last twenty seconds than he had in the preceding year. He was amazed. The coffee was ready and two cups were poured. Grissom carried them to the lounge and set them on the coffee table and sat down once more. Nick followed him back and sat down beside him.
“I’ve got the distinct feeling that this isn’t going to be easy for either of us Nick, but we have started and I think that you, well…..you need to tell me what’s going on.” Grissom was not looking at Nick as he spoke to him.
“Catherine told me that something was wrong some weeks ago, as usual I chose to ignore it, in the hope that it would go away, cure itself. When you asked for those vacation days I thought it was to sort out whatever it was that was wrong and everything would go back to normal, but that was a job interview wasn’t it?” He glanced at Nick, who nodded.
“What’s the job then? Where?”
“CSI 2. Charlotte, North Carolina.”
“A demotion Nick? And not a well known lab.”
“It’s all I could find at short notice and I wanted to be well away from Vegas. I thought…well I thought..….that I wouldn’t get a recommendation for level three from….” Nick’s voice grew quieter and he left the sentence unfinished.
“From me Nick, you mean me, don’t you?”
Nick nodded once more, he couldn’t look up and for the life of him he didn’t want the tears starting again.
“Oh, God, Nicky, what on earth have I done to you to make you lose your self esteem, to have you doubt yourself so badly? How have I managed to fuck you up?”
Nick thought Grissom sounded wounded, as if he was about to cry, and that thought alone kept him dry eyed, he looked around at Grissom’s stricken face. He’d never even heard him use a profanity before. He took a very deep breath.
“I sound pathetic I know…but…well…..I can’t do ANYTHIN’ right for you. I try real hard all the time and I know I’ve fucked up badly in the past and I have to earn your respect but so do the others. Man. I love ‘Rick but he left Holly alone and she died, she was one of us and she died - he was gamblin’ on duty - but you’ve forgiven ‘Rick. YOU even left Holly alone on that first shift. You even put ‘Rick in charge of the shift - I’m more senior but you never said a word to me about why you’d chosen him, over me and Sara. And then there’s Sara….” The water may have dried up, but the verbal dam had truly burst and there was no stopping him now. “I know she’s good, man, she’s the female version of you, but she’s rude to people in the lab and she thinks subordination is a game to play, but still ya’ think she’s God’s gift and can do no wrong……” he gulped down air to continue, he didn’t dare look at Grissom now.
“There’s been more stuff than I can even remember Grissom but d’ya know what it was…..d’y’know what the straw was, man, that broke the camel’s back, my back Grissom?” He did look now and found Grissom looking at him, mouth slightly open and shocked - that was the expression - shocked. Grissom shook his head, just a little.
“That case about eight weeks back, the double murder of the Homers? I discovered the link Grissom, and I knew who’d done it, he was in custody and I had him backed in a corner; I just needed the DNA proof to confront him and Greg did the test to prove MY theory right. Who did you thank Grissom? Who did you thank?” Nick was shouting now although his voice still sounded thick from his crying.
Grissom hadn’t moved but Nick saw him flinch. “Greg, I thanked Greg.”
“YES YOU DID. My case, my case, and you thanked Greg, patted him on the back and thanked him. Ignored me. I was standin’ right there Gris, ya’ never even looked at me man, ya’ never even looked at me…….”
The wind had left his sails and he lay back against the back of the couch, he was breathing hard but wasn’t about to cry, he’d exhausted himself but he’d had his say. He’d never released such a tirade against anyone in his life. At least he had a job to go to, God, he hoped Grissom wouldn’t block it after the way he’d just spoken to him. He shivered at the thought that he may have burnt a vital bridge on his escape route.
He chanced a look at Grissom, and was surprised to see him in exactly the same position as before with an even more shocked look about him.
“I, I don’t know what to say Nick…….I really don’t. I need to think about this, to process what you’ve said to me, about me. But Nick?” He looked at Nick and momentarily made eye contact. “You’re right Nick; I know you’re right, even as you said those things I knew they were right, but I never thought about it, never, until now, I don’t know Nick, I just don’t know……..”
Grissom appeared to Nick to be rambling; he’d never heard the man utter one sentence so apparently incoherently. He was taken aback at the words, the ready admission of guilt and the incomprehension in Grissom’s voice and demeanour. Actually, Nick felt suddenly powerful - he had reduced Grissom to this, this state. It was like being with a suspect who’d suddenly admitted their guilt to a crime. And what the hell, Grissom was guilty, he’d made his life a misery for months now - this was payback.
But, Nick was still Nick and the victory was short lived. He soon regretted that he’d reduced Grissom to this display of self doubt. Wasn’t that his domain? Grissom was in control, all the time, and Nick was thrown by Grissom’s unexpected questioning of his own actions.
They sat in silence for quite a few minutes and it wasn’t a ‘comfortable’ silence, like they talk about in books. The coffees had gone cold, untouched. Nick made a sudden movement to retrieve them, intending to get fresh ones. But his movement caused Grissom to jump, startled. He looked at Nick and Nick kept the eye contact.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want you to leave, but I’ll understand if you do. I need some time with this Nick, will you give me some time, I don’t deserve it, I know I don’t, but don’t commit yourself to leaving just yet, please?”
This was better than his previous statement, a more flowing speech than before and Nick was feeling calmer, but he didn’t think he could be that coherent in replying to this ‘new’ type of Grissom.
“Er……yeah…okay….yeah.” Nick paused and then continued, “Well…just how long Gris?” This was first time he’d used the nickname in a long time.
“Days Nick. A couple of days, you’ve given me considerable food for thought…I need to think it through….”
Now this was more like Grissom, he’d regrouped and was getting back to his normal self. He’d admitted his guilt to Nick, but did this mean that when he’d looked at the ‘evidence’ he’d rescind that admission and his status quo would be returned and Nick would still be on his way to Charlotte. Grissom obviously saw this flicker of apprehension in Nick and reached out and put a hand on Nick’s shoulder.
“I meant what I said Nick, I’ve behaved badly toward you, I know I have, but I want to know why. Whatever possessed me to treat you so differently from the rest - and you’re right, you have pulled some idiotic stunts, but haven’t we all Nick, haven’t we all.”
These weren’t questions they were statements.
Nick took a deep breath. “Alright then, I can live with it for a few days longer.” And he tried a tentative smile - and he was rewarded with a similarly tentative one from Gris.
“I’ll get going then - are you okay? Do I need to stay a little longer?”
“No, I’m okay; actually, I feel better than I have in a long time.
“I’m not surprised Nick, you’ve been carrying a load there and it’d appear I’ve been adding to it, brick by brick. Will I see you tonight?”
“Yeah, yeah, you will.”
Grissom walked to the door picking up his jacket as he went, he turned as he opened the door and to his, and certainly Nick Stokes’ amazement, ruffled Nick’s hair in a friendly, comforting manner - something else his mom did to him when he was a boy - and then turned and left.
End of Part Two