(no subject)
Title: Talisman 13/?
Rating: Hard R
Series: CSI/Angel
Pairing: Greg/Grissom, Greg/Wesley
Timeline: Wesley in his dark place and corresponding season of CSI
Summary: It’s the end of the world as we know it, but someone's gonna get laid.
Warning: beta'd only by me. When done it will be shipped off to someone else to have its ass kicked in its entirety.
Author’s note: So I feel the urge to explain that I end these sections where I do because to move onto the next chunk could easily double their length. I also feel that I’ve gotten out the next nice and shiny nugget of the plot for staring at and examining.
Just as an FYI, all sections are at least 1500 words long. Some closer to 2500.
Author's plea: Ok. *deep breath* You guys have been good. All those lurkers coming out of the ether to tell me all those wonderful things. I don’t have to ask again. Really. I don’t. *bites nails*
Previous parts can be found here.
Greg’s mouth feels like something small and furry crawled up in there and died. About a week ago. He tries to wet his palate but feels incredibly uncoordinated while he does it. He’s laying down with what feels like several layers of blankets holding him in place.
“Thirsty?” A raspy voice asks.
He blinks slowly and opens his eyes. Grissom is sitting next to him and he looks like crap. A black eye is starting to form and there’s a shadow and a bruise forming on his jaw. He opens his mouth to ask, “What happened?” but only manages to croak.
Grissom seems to understand what he says anyway. “They dislocated your shoulder and the doctors are pretty sure your ribs have a hairline fracture.”
Well that explains why he feels compelled to breath shallowly. He watches Grissom turn and grab a pitcher of water and he frowns when Grissom uses his left hand to pour. Greg focuses in on the right hand, holding the cup and sees two shiny silver splints on the middle fingers. Grissom adds a straw to the cub and brings it to Greg’s lips.
He sips carefully until his mouth feels less like embroidery and more like silk. When Grissom takes the cup away, he speaks. “You’re hurt.”
Grimacing, Grissom nods in his direction. “You don’t look so hot yourself.”
“I always look hot.” Greg mutters, trying to smile. But is stopped short at the various aches and pains on his face. “How bad is it?”
Grissom runs his healthy hand through Greg’s hair and takes a deep breath. “Nothing permanent. But you’re gonna look pretty beat up for a while.”
“I meant you.” Greg corrects.
Grissom ducks his head shyly. “Nothing that won’t heal.”
Greg is just about to ask for a detailed list when the door slams open.
“Oh thank god.” Catherine exhales. “All I got was a frantic phone call from Sara about hearing your name over the scanner.”
“We’re fine, Catherine.” Grissom assures her. “Its all non life threatening.” He leans back in his chair. “How many of you should I expect to come bursting in here before the day is done?”
Before Catherine can answer, Nick enters, though a little more sedately. “I got here as quick as I could.”
Grissom raises an eyebrow. “Don’t worry Nick, the party’s just getting started.” He says dryly.
“Hey Nick.” Greg says weakly. “Cath.”
Catherine steps closer and eyes him. “Wow, you look like crap.”
“Thanks, next time someone decides to throw me against a brick wall I’ll be sure to wash up on my way to the hospital.” Greg says mulishly.
She gives him a motherly look. “Did you get a good look at them?” Catherine asks, all business.
Greg shakes his head slowly, wincing a little as he does.
“Catherine can you--” Grissom begins to ask, but is cut off as the door opens for a third time to reveal Sara.
“Warrick’s on his way, he was just finishing in court when I reached him.” Sara says unceremoniously.
The door opens again. “Warrick is here.” He reaches up to loosen his tie as he heads to a free piece of wall to lean against.
“Well perfect, let’s get started.” Catherine throws some clean scrubs at Grissom. “Might as well give me your clothes now, are those Greg’s in the bag over there?” She points to the items bag under the bed.
“Sara and I can hit the scene.” Warrick speaks up. “I just need to change.”
Catherine nods. “Nick, you want to stick with me to finish collecting trace and then sit with them while they make their statements?”
Greg thinks they look like a little whirlwind just winding up. He can almost see all of their gears shift to just about as professional as possible.
Except for Nick who just nods hesitantly at his assignment.
“Brass is on his way, says he pulled rank to make sure this case is done right.” Sara adds. “He should be here soon too.”
Nick is still looking at the proceedings unsure and Grissom is standing stone cold silent. The rest of them start talking, throwing around theories and arranging schedules. Someone asks what they had been doing when they’d been attacked.
Greg looks at Grissom and takes in his stiff stance and thinned lips and begins to worry.
When Grissom doesn’t answer, Catherine repeats the question distractedly, while going through her kit looking for the proper tools.
“Stop.” Grissom says quietly.
They freeze.
“What?” Sara asks confused.
Grissom stands. “Just. Stop.” His hands wave in front of his body in a ‘cease’ motion. “Everybody out.” His voice is low and serious. When no one moves he adds, “Now.” Louder and sharper.
This is when Greg remembers the parting words of their attackers.
Catherine gives him a serious look and begins to motion all of them out. “We can’t leave you alone together, especially not now that you’ve asked us to. A good defense lawyer gets wind of that and we have a conspiracy to knock down.”
Grissom doesn’t crack. He just gives her a hard look and nods. “Nick can stay.”
She looks hurt, but doesn’t protest. “We’ll be outside.”
Nick is left standing alone on the other side of the room. Greg has never seen him more awkward. He’s willing to bet he never has been. “Is this what I think it was?” He asks carefully.
Greg and Grissom make eye contact before Grissom answers carefully. “No, but someone wants it to look that way.”
Nick pulls up a chair and sits on the other side of Greg. “So there’s something else going on here?”
Grissom sits back down and nods.
Greg watches him slump into the chair and wishes things could be different, because now its all about what they’re willing to tell and what they’re not. And he thinks that it would almost be easier to bite the bullet and hide behind the gay bashing story.
Nick squints at them “I’m getting that you don’t want to tell me what this was really about.”
Greg is sure they have the guiltiest looks in the known universe plastered all over their faces.
“We’d prefer not to get into it, yes.” Grissom confirms.
“Well,” Nick says after some thought, “For now I’ll let it go, because I’m going to assume it’s nothing illegal.”
“It’s not.” Grissom confirms.
Just utterly unbelievable.
Nick looks at them curiously. “You don’t strike me as the type for PDAs.” He says suddenly.
Grissom stiffens and Greg gets ready to defend, whatever they gave him for the pain is starting to wear off and there’s this annoying throb coming from his chest and shoulder.
“What are you getting at Nick?” Grissom asks, obviously not in the mood for games.
“Just that maybe it was a guess?” Nick suggests. “Maybe they took a chance that the suggestion alone would deter you.”
Grissom nods. “It’s a thought, but not a very helpful one. If there’s any reason whatsoever to go back over our whereabouts for the last few days...” He trails off, leaving the rest of the sentence in the air.
“Damning evidence?” Nick asks.
“Of a sort.” Grissom confirms sighing and then wincing.
Greg struggles to sit up. “What’s wrong? You still haven’t told me what they did to you.”
Grissom gently pushes him back down. “Some sprained fingers, bruised ribs and a colorful face. Nothing serious.” He admonishes gently.
Greg hears the beginning of the bruised jaw impairing Grissom’s speech. It’s gotta hurt like a mother fucker, but true to form, Grissom just plows through it. Greg winces. “Hope they gave you some tylenol or something.”
Grissom smiles gently, but awkwardly. “Ibuprofen to help with the swelling, I refused anything stronger.” He makes an abortive gesture towards Greg which just ends up making it look like his injured hand has some sort of twitch before it lands back in Grissom’s lap.
Nick eyes them carefully. “So how do you wanna play this?”
Grissom considers the question carefully before answering. “You lead, I’ll tell Catherine I need her to take charge, I won’t be able to come back full time for at least a day anyway.” He runs his uninjured hand through his hair. “If you need help, tap Warrick. Run the evidence, but keep it just shy interviewing the suspects, hopefully by then it won’t matter and that other subject will be long done. Sound ok?”
Greg is surprised that the last question is aimed at him. “It’s your call.” He says. “I’m good either way.”
This time Grissom’s hand deliberately reaches out and squeezes Greg’s. Greg gives him credit even if he does look shakier than before when he’s done with the gesture.
Nick gives them a goofy smile. “I still say it’s weird.” He chuckles. “But its also really cute.”
Grissom gives him an exasperated look. “How about you go outside and tell the rest of them to come on in.”
Catherine takes the news with surprising aplomb, she mentions something about having browsed their charts and expecting as much. Which makes Greg frown and wonder how serious both of their injuries really are.
Sara looks about as disgruntled as he expected. But Grissom gives her some song and dance about wanting this to look textbook perfect when it goes to trial. Greg mentally snorts at that. He goes on to say that Nick handled the first case with Greg’s name and the two incidents are too close together to be dismissed as mere coincidence.
She backs down after that.
Thank god. Tenacious pit bull. He loves Sara like a sister sometimes, other times like the hot mama she is, that doesn’t mean he ever wants to be on the wrong side of an investigation with her around.
Catherine and Sara say their goodbyes just as Brass appears. Warrick heads off to the scene of the crime and Greg has a fleeting thought that he might run into some eye witnesses with some interesting things to say, but Warrick probably won’t make too much of it and Nick will hopefully dismiss it as a case of mistaken identity.
“Go ahead and start collecting while I take their statements.” Brass tells Nick.
He nods and opens his case.
“So what happened?” Brass’s gruff voice asks.
“We were walking and then we weren’t.” Greg says. Wincing slightly as Nick scrapes under his nails. The movement of his fingers sending small jolts of pain up his arm. “Someone grabbed me, I didn’t get to see much other than the brick wall my face got mashed into. After that it was a hit to the ribs and the searing pain as they ripped my arm out of its socket.” His speech is beginning to slur in pain, so he finishes his version of events quickly. “That’s when it gets pretty hazy.”
Brass’s demeanor actually softens a bit as he writes down the rest of the statement. “What about you Gil?”
Grissom takes a deep breath. “There were three of them.” He begins. “The first one, tall and muscular, body builder type build, dark hair, olive skin. He was wearing blue jeans and an olive green t-shirt. He’s the one that grabbed Greg. The other two held me back.” Grissom’s voice is emotionless as he tells his tale. “I struggled for a bit but the right hook to the jaw settled me down. That’s when they did this.” He waves his splinted fingers in front of Brass’s face. “It was a kick to the ribs after that and the whole thing was rounded off with this.” He points to his now truly black eye.
Brass nods and continues to write. “Can you give me anything on the other two?”
Grissom shakes his head. “Tall, not quite as large in the upper body, but they kept me facing Greg and his attacker. Making me watch.”
“Hair color?” Brass asks.
“Brown.” Grissom says frowning.
“Ok, you know the drill, we’ll get you guys in with the sketch artists sometime soon.” he puts away his notepad. “So what were you guys doing at the time of the incident.
Greg’s heart starts hammering in his chest, but Grissom doesn’t blink an eye before responding. “I bought him dinner Sort of a ‘sorry you got arrested’ free meal.”
Brass smiles. “Hey, if we could stop some false arrest law suits with free meals I’d be the first one to volunteer to catch the tab. Because then the department could afford to give me a raise.” He says conversationally.
Grissom gives an ironic tilt to his head. “You might be right Jim.”
“Well, that’s it.” Brass says as he stands up. “We’ll be in touch, I know how to find you if I need to.”
Grissom smiles. “Thanks Jim.”
“I’m off, see you around.” Brass takes his leave and its just the three of them in the room again.
“I’m just about done here too.” Nick announces. “Just need your clothes.”
Greg blinks at him in surprise. Wow, he knows Nick is good, but he’s never been privy to it on this level before. He didn’t even see Nick, he’d blended into the background so well.
He watches Grissom stand slowly and take the scrubs to the bathroom. Greg takes in the slightly stilted gait and sighs unhappily.
“He wasn’t lying. Its all just injuries of inconvenience.” Nick assures him.
“Yeah, they knew what they were doing, maximum pain, minimum damage.” Greg mutters.
Grissom reappears quickly, his clothing neatly folded. Nick silently holds open an evidence bag and its sealed in tightly. “Can we try and avoid ruining them?”
“I’ll do my best boss.” Nick winks. “I swung by the lab and picked up Greg’s spare clothes and both of your extra sets of shoes.”
“You couldn’t get my clothes as well?” Grissom asks, taking the spares.
“It was weird enough going in there and getting your shoes.” Nick answers, bright smile on his face.
“Thanks Nicky.” Grissom says a bit of exasperation showing through. He sits down and shuffles his chair closer to Greg’s bed. “We’ll be here for a little bit and then Greg’s going to be staying at my place for the night.”
He is? “I am?”
Nick blushes scarlet and Grissom rolls his eyes. “Oh please, he hit his head, he’s got a hairline fracture on his ribs and that arm is going to be useless for a while.”
Nick looks supremely embarrassed.
Greg feels ok with that. “Big doofus.” He says. “But thanks for all the help anyway.”
“No problem Greggo.” Nick picks up his case and leaves without ceremony.
Greg’s hand reaches for Grissom. “Now what?”
Grissom squeezes his fingers. “Now.” He says carefully. “Now we call Wesley.”
Rating: Hard R
Series: CSI/Angel
Pairing: Greg/Grissom, Greg/Wesley
Timeline: Wesley in his dark place and corresponding season of CSI
Summary: It’s the end of the world as we know it, but someone's gonna get laid.
Warning: beta'd only by me. When done it will be shipped off to someone else to have its ass kicked in its entirety.
Author’s note: So I feel the urge to explain that I end these sections where I do because to move onto the next chunk could easily double their length. I also feel that I’ve gotten out the next nice and shiny nugget of the plot for staring at and examining.
Just as an FYI, all sections are at least 1500 words long. Some closer to 2500.
Author's plea: Ok. *deep breath* You guys have been good. All those lurkers coming out of the ether to tell me all those wonderful things. I don’t have to ask again. Really. I don’t. *bites nails*
Previous parts can be found here.
Greg’s mouth feels like something small and furry crawled up in there and died. About a week ago. He tries to wet his palate but feels incredibly uncoordinated while he does it. He’s laying down with what feels like several layers of blankets holding him in place.
“Thirsty?” A raspy voice asks.
He blinks slowly and opens his eyes. Grissom is sitting next to him and he looks like crap. A black eye is starting to form and there’s a shadow and a bruise forming on his jaw. He opens his mouth to ask, “What happened?” but only manages to croak.
Grissom seems to understand what he says anyway. “They dislocated your shoulder and the doctors are pretty sure your ribs have a hairline fracture.”
Well that explains why he feels compelled to breath shallowly. He watches Grissom turn and grab a pitcher of water and he frowns when Grissom uses his left hand to pour. Greg focuses in on the right hand, holding the cup and sees two shiny silver splints on the middle fingers. Grissom adds a straw to the cub and brings it to Greg’s lips.
He sips carefully until his mouth feels less like embroidery and more like silk. When Grissom takes the cup away, he speaks. “You’re hurt.”
Grimacing, Grissom nods in his direction. “You don’t look so hot yourself.”
“I always look hot.” Greg mutters, trying to smile. But is stopped short at the various aches and pains on his face. “How bad is it?”
Grissom runs his healthy hand through Greg’s hair and takes a deep breath. “Nothing permanent. But you’re gonna look pretty beat up for a while.”
“I meant you.” Greg corrects.
Grissom ducks his head shyly. “Nothing that won’t heal.”
Greg is just about to ask for a detailed list when the door slams open.
“Oh thank god.” Catherine exhales. “All I got was a frantic phone call from Sara about hearing your name over the scanner.”
“We’re fine, Catherine.” Grissom assures her. “Its all non life threatening.” He leans back in his chair. “How many of you should I expect to come bursting in here before the day is done?”
Before Catherine can answer, Nick enters, though a little more sedately. “I got here as quick as I could.”
Grissom raises an eyebrow. “Don’t worry Nick, the party’s just getting started.” He says dryly.
“Hey Nick.” Greg says weakly. “Cath.”
Catherine steps closer and eyes him. “Wow, you look like crap.”
“Thanks, next time someone decides to throw me against a brick wall I’ll be sure to wash up on my way to the hospital.” Greg says mulishly.
She gives him a motherly look. “Did you get a good look at them?” Catherine asks, all business.
Greg shakes his head slowly, wincing a little as he does.
“Catherine can you--” Grissom begins to ask, but is cut off as the door opens for a third time to reveal Sara.
“Warrick’s on his way, he was just finishing in court when I reached him.” Sara says unceremoniously.
The door opens again. “Warrick is here.” He reaches up to loosen his tie as he heads to a free piece of wall to lean against.
“Well perfect, let’s get started.” Catherine throws some clean scrubs at Grissom. “Might as well give me your clothes now, are those Greg’s in the bag over there?” She points to the items bag under the bed.
“Sara and I can hit the scene.” Warrick speaks up. “I just need to change.”
Catherine nods. “Nick, you want to stick with me to finish collecting trace and then sit with them while they make their statements?”
Greg thinks they look like a little whirlwind just winding up. He can almost see all of their gears shift to just about as professional as possible.
Except for Nick who just nods hesitantly at his assignment.
“Brass is on his way, says he pulled rank to make sure this case is done right.” Sara adds. “He should be here soon too.”
Nick is still looking at the proceedings unsure and Grissom is standing stone cold silent. The rest of them start talking, throwing around theories and arranging schedules. Someone asks what they had been doing when they’d been attacked.
Greg looks at Grissom and takes in his stiff stance and thinned lips and begins to worry.
When Grissom doesn’t answer, Catherine repeats the question distractedly, while going through her kit looking for the proper tools.
“Stop.” Grissom says quietly.
They freeze.
“What?” Sara asks confused.
Grissom stands. “Just. Stop.” His hands wave in front of his body in a ‘cease’ motion. “Everybody out.” His voice is low and serious. When no one moves he adds, “Now.” Louder and sharper.
This is when Greg remembers the parting words of their attackers.
Catherine gives him a serious look and begins to motion all of them out. “We can’t leave you alone together, especially not now that you’ve asked us to. A good defense lawyer gets wind of that and we have a conspiracy to knock down.”
Grissom doesn’t crack. He just gives her a hard look and nods. “Nick can stay.”
She looks hurt, but doesn’t protest. “We’ll be outside.”
Nick is left standing alone on the other side of the room. Greg has never seen him more awkward. He’s willing to bet he never has been. “Is this what I think it was?” He asks carefully.
Greg and Grissom make eye contact before Grissom answers carefully. “No, but someone wants it to look that way.”
Nick pulls up a chair and sits on the other side of Greg. “So there’s something else going on here?”
Grissom sits back down and nods.
Greg watches him slump into the chair and wishes things could be different, because now its all about what they’re willing to tell and what they’re not. And he thinks that it would almost be easier to bite the bullet and hide behind the gay bashing story.
Nick squints at them “I’m getting that you don’t want to tell me what this was really about.”
Greg is sure they have the guiltiest looks in the known universe plastered all over their faces.
“We’d prefer not to get into it, yes.” Grissom confirms.
“Well,” Nick says after some thought, “For now I’ll let it go, because I’m going to assume it’s nothing illegal.”
“It’s not.” Grissom confirms.
Just utterly unbelievable.
Nick looks at them curiously. “You don’t strike me as the type for PDAs.” He says suddenly.
Grissom stiffens and Greg gets ready to defend, whatever they gave him for the pain is starting to wear off and there’s this annoying throb coming from his chest and shoulder.
“What are you getting at Nick?” Grissom asks, obviously not in the mood for games.
“Just that maybe it was a guess?” Nick suggests. “Maybe they took a chance that the suggestion alone would deter you.”
Grissom nods. “It’s a thought, but not a very helpful one. If there’s any reason whatsoever to go back over our whereabouts for the last few days...” He trails off, leaving the rest of the sentence in the air.
“Damning evidence?” Nick asks.
“Of a sort.” Grissom confirms sighing and then wincing.
Greg struggles to sit up. “What’s wrong? You still haven’t told me what they did to you.”
Grissom gently pushes him back down. “Some sprained fingers, bruised ribs and a colorful face. Nothing serious.” He admonishes gently.
Greg hears the beginning of the bruised jaw impairing Grissom’s speech. It’s gotta hurt like a mother fucker, but true to form, Grissom just plows through it. Greg winces. “Hope they gave you some tylenol or something.”
Grissom smiles gently, but awkwardly. “Ibuprofen to help with the swelling, I refused anything stronger.” He makes an abortive gesture towards Greg which just ends up making it look like his injured hand has some sort of twitch before it lands back in Grissom’s lap.
Nick eyes them carefully. “So how do you wanna play this?”
Grissom considers the question carefully before answering. “You lead, I’ll tell Catherine I need her to take charge, I won’t be able to come back full time for at least a day anyway.” He runs his uninjured hand through his hair. “If you need help, tap Warrick. Run the evidence, but keep it just shy interviewing the suspects, hopefully by then it won’t matter and that other subject will be long done. Sound ok?”
Greg is surprised that the last question is aimed at him. “It’s your call.” He says. “I’m good either way.”
This time Grissom’s hand deliberately reaches out and squeezes Greg’s. Greg gives him credit even if he does look shakier than before when he’s done with the gesture.
Nick gives them a goofy smile. “I still say it’s weird.” He chuckles. “But its also really cute.”
Grissom gives him an exasperated look. “How about you go outside and tell the rest of them to come on in.”
Catherine takes the news with surprising aplomb, she mentions something about having browsed their charts and expecting as much. Which makes Greg frown and wonder how serious both of their injuries really are.
Sara looks about as disgruntled as he expected. But Grissom gives her some song and dance about wanting this to look textbook perfect when it goes to trial. Greg mentally snorts at that. He goes on to say that Nick handled the first case with Greg’s name and the two incidents are too close together to be dismissed as mere coincidence.
She backs down after that.
Thank god. Tenacious pit bull. He loves Sara like a sister sometimes, other times like the hot mama she is, that doesn’t mean he ever wants to be on the wrong side of an investigation with her around.
Catherine and Sara say their goodbyes just as Brass appears. Warrick heads off to the scene of the crime and Greg has a fleeting thought that he might run into some eye witnesses with some interesting things to say, but Warrick probably won’t make too much of it and Nick will hopefully dismiss it as a case of mistaken identity.
“Go ahead and start collecting while I take their statements.” Brass tells Nick.
He nods and opens his case.
“So what happened?” Brass’s gruff voice asks.
“We were walking and then we weren’t.” Greg says. Wincing slightly as Nick scrapes under his nails. The movement of his fingers sending small jolts of pain up his arm. “Someone grabbed me, I didn’t get to see much other than the brick wall my face got mashed into. After that it was a hit to the ribs and the searing pain as they ripped my arm out of its socket.” His speech is beginning to slur in pain, so he finishes his version of events quickly. “That’s when it gets pretty hazy.”
Brass’s demeanor actually softens a bit as he writes down the rest of the statement. “What about you Gil?”
Grissom takes a deep breath. “There were three of them.” He begins. “The first one, tall and muscular, body builder type build, dark hair, olive skin. He was wearing blue jeans and an olive green t-shirt. He’s the one that grabbed Greg. The other two held me back.” Grissom’s voice is emotionless as he tells his tale. “I struggled for a bit but the right hook to the jaw settled me down. That’s when they did this.” He waves his splinted fingers in front of Brass’s face. “It was a kick to the ribs after that and the whole thing was rounded off with this.” He points to his now truly black eye.
Brass nods and continues to write. “Can you give me anything on the other two?”
Grissom shakes his head. “Tall, not quite as large in the upper body, but they kept me facing Greg and his attacker. Making me watch.”
“Hair color?” Brass asks.
“Brown.” Grissom says frowning.
“Ok, you know the drill, we’ll get you guys in with the sketch artists sometime soon.” he puts away his notepad. “So what were you guys doing at the time of the incident.
Greg’s heart starts hammering in his chest, but Grissom doesn’t blink an eye before responding. “I bought him dinner Sort of a ‘sorry you got arrested’ free meal.”
Brass smiles. “Hey, if we could stop some false arrest law suits with free meals I’d be the first one to volunteer to catch the tab. Because then the department could afford to give me a raise.” He says conversationally.
Grissom gives an ironic tilt to his head. “You might be right Jim.”
“Well, that’s it.” Brass says as he stands up. “We’ll be in touch, I know how to find you if I need to.”
Grissom smiles. “Thanks Jim.”
“I’m off, see you around.” Brass takes his leave and its just the three of them in the room again.
“I’m just about done here too.” Nick announces. “Just need your clothes.”
Greg blinks at him in surprise. Wow, he knows Nick is good, but he’s never been privy to it on this level before. He didn’t even see Nick, he’d blended into the background so well.
He watches Grissom stand slowly and take the scrubs to the bathroom. Greg takes in the slightly stilted gait and sighs unhappily.
“He wasn’t lying. Its all just injuries of inconvenience.” Nick assures him.
“Yeah, they knew what they were doing, maximum pain, minimum damage.” Greg mutters.
Grissom reappears quickly, his clothing neatly folded. Nick silently holds open an evidence bag and its sealed in tightly. “Can we try and avoid ruining them?”
“I’ll do my best boss.” Nick winks. “I swung by the lab and picked up Greg’s spare clothes and both of your extra sets of shoes.”
“You couldn’t get my clothes as well?” Grissom asks, taking the spares.
“It was weird enough going in there and getting your shoes.” Nick answers, bright smile on his face.
“Thanks Nicky.” Grissom says a bit of exasperation showing through. He sits down and shuffles his chair closer to Greg’s bed. “We’ll be here for a little bit and then Greg’s going to be staying at my place for the night.”
He is? “I am?”
Nick blushes scarlet and Grissom rolls his eyes. “Oh please, he hit his head, he’s got a hairline fracture on his ribs and that arm is going to be useless for a while.”
Nick looks supremely embarrassed.
Greg feels ok with that. “Big doofus.” He says. “But thanks for all the help anyway.”
“No problem Greggo.” Nick picks up his case and leaves without ceremony.
Greg’s hand reaches for Grissom. “Now what?”
Grissom squeezes his fingers. “Now.” He says carefully. “Now we call Wesley.”