![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
flipflopadd1ct.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
nickngregChapter 4 of “It Started Out With a Kiss” is here! Don’t let the title scare you, lol.
Overall summary: Greg appears at Nick’s door, drunk. So what does Nick do? He lets him in, of course. One simple act of kindness leads to a both confusing and happy time in Nick Stokes’ life.
Title: It Started Out With a Kiss
Chapter: 4/5
Rating: NC-17 overall, but this chapter is PG-13.
X-posted!
Chapter 1: Drunk. Very Drunk. (PG)
Chapter 2: Chatting Over Coffee (PG-13)
Chapter 3: Hot and Heavy (NC-17)
It Started Out With a Kiss 4/5
“Death and Decisions”
Nick kept thinking the same words over and over again. “I promise, Nick.” Greg had looked him in the eyes and said it. He’d sworn that he wouldn’t run away. Only, Nick woke to find Greg gone without a trace. Hadn’t that night of mind-blowing sex meant anything?
At first he was in denial. Greg must’ve gotten called in to work early, right? That changed to anger when Nick realized that the other man would have left a note if he had to go, or maybe he would have woken Nick up. Anger slipped into sadness liked Nick’s feet on the wet shower floor. He thought maybe, just maybe, he and Greg could have had something. He stood under the spray, mulling his thoughts over until the water ran cold.
The Texan spent the rest of his morning in a numb haze. Getting dressed, shaving, even eating was automatic. He spent a good ten minutes sittin in silence, staring at his phone. Nick picked it up three times and on the fourth he had almost completed dialing Greg’s number when he stopped himself, throwing it to the other end of the couch. Calling would just make things worse. Running his hands over his face, Nick choked back a sob.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nick made it to CSI safely. “C’mon, Nicky,” he told himself. “Forget last night and move on.” He put on his best “everything’s fine” face and stepped out of his truck.
As soon as he was inside, Catherine caught him. “D.B. on the outskirts of town!” she said, pulling him along by the arm. “Warrick’s waiting.”
Luckily, Nick didn’t think about Greg at all on the drive to the crime scene. He, Warrick, and Catherine made small talk about the weather, local news, the song playing on the radio. Nick laughed along with them and by the time they arrived, Greg Sanders was the last thing on his mind.
The three CSIs stepped into the hot Vegas sun, standing before Detective Jim Brass. “A teenager and a couple of her friends were driving down the road, saw this as they turned the corner,” he pointed to a nude body behind him.
“Damn,” Nick drawled.
“Shit,” Warrick said.
“Wow,” Catherine gasped.
The woman was naked, bloody. Tiny cuts turned the once-pretty twenty-something into a horrid mess. Both legs, both arms, her face and her stomach were marked by red lines. After a few seconds of staring in disbelief, Catherine spoke.
“Have we found the murder weapon?”
Brass held his hands up. “That’s your job. I just got here.”
“Typical,” the blonde teased. “Nicky, Warrick, fan out.”
They didn’t have to go far. The coroner had arrived, and in moving the body, a bloody knife was revealed covered in mud. Surprising himself, Nick offered to take the weapon back to the lab for testing. I’m not going just to see Greg, he told himself.
Nick hitched a ride with Brass, absentmindedly responding to the detective’s chatter with “Yeah”s and “Uh-huh”s. His first stop was to visit Mia in DNA, but he made a detour into the breakroom. On his way to the coffee, he heard parts of Sara and Hodges’ conversation.
“I thought no one knew where Greg was?” Hodges said.
“No, he called in sick. Grissom said he didn’t sound good, but it was very vague,” Sara replied.
Behind them, Nick spilled his coffee.
The two looked up at this and Nick grinned, embarassed. “Uh, it was hot.”
Sara giggled as she watched Nick scramble to clean up the mess. “Yeah, Nick, coffee tends to be that way.” She turned back to Hodges. “So, we’re not sure what’s going on with Greg...” was the last thing the Texan heard on his way out the door.
“Coincidence. It’s all a coincidence. This has nothing to do with me-”
“Nick?” Mia asked.
“Yeah?” he replied, shaken out of his reverie.
“You were standing there muttering to yourself. You can take the knife to fingerprinting now; I’ve got what I need.”
She was studying Nick with an odd expression. He put on his best smile and took the evidence, hurrying out of the glass-walled lab.
After putting the vic’s prints into AFIS, Nick found Catherine and Warrick, who filled him in on what they had discovered. The vic’s clothes were found not too far from the crime scene, but there was no evidence of another person at the scene. She had not yet been identified, but Cath was on her way to autopsy to learn more.
AFIS came back with a hit. She was twenty-one-year-old Alana Riotti. She had one prior, a vandalism charge from her high school years. Nick joined Warrick to notify the parents.
The first thing out of the mother’s mouth was, “Have you found her boyfriend? I never trusted him.” Her husband nodded.
“Ma’am, what was his name?” Nick asked.
“Jake...something.”
“Perry,” the father supplied.
“Yes, that’s it. Jake Perry. She met him at a college party. There was something about him that I just didn’t like.”
“Drugs? Illegal gambling?” Warrick asked.
“We didn’t know for sure what he was into,” the father answered.
“Can we see her?” the mother asked.
Nick glanced at Warrick, then back to the parents. “This way.”
They had the reaction that Nick and Warrick had expected: temporary disbelief, then came the tears. But after this the parents had nothing to add to the investigation, and the CSIs let them go.
“Guess we’ve got to get Brass’ guys on this Luke fellow,” Nick said as he and Warrick turned the corner.
“I’m on it,” Warrick said, and he left.
Catherine found Nick and filled him in on...nothing. Inside, Alana Riotti was perfectly fine. With the case at a temporary standstill – DNA results wouldn’t be back until tomorrow - and shift at its end, Nick and Catherine parted ways.
At home, the Texan CSI tried to push all thoughts of Greg out of his head. Exhausted from working the case and the developments of the night before, Nick crashed, waking with barely enough time to get ready for next shift.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nick hadn’t been expecting a call from Greg, but the fact that there wasn’t one made him feel sad again. He had woken up thinking about Greg and he was pretty sure he had dreamt about Greg. He slapped himself once. He couldn’t keep pining over a one night stand with his coworker. A mug of hot coffee and Nick was ready to face the world again.
Their case had taken an interesting turn. The boyfriend was found, but his background suggested no criminal activity. In questioning, he revealed that he had just broken up with Alana and that they had fought. Alana had stormed out of their apartment. “I would’ve chased after her,” Jake said, “but she pissed me off pretty bad.”
“Did you know where she was going?” Catherine asked.
“Whenever she blows up like that, she never tells me. We were done, though, so I didn’t care. There’s probably something you should know, though.”
“And that is?” Nick spoke up.
“Lana had problems. Emotional problems. She would cut herself if she got too worked up. She had meds, but I don’t think she took them that day.”
Realization dawned on both Catherine and Nick’s faces as they turned to look at each other.
“She would do it pretty bad, sometimes. All up and down her arm. Sometimes in more places. She said the knife made all the other pain go away,” Jake continued.
“Thanks, Mr. Perry,” Catherine spoke. “You’ve been a great help.”
“I’m free to go, then?”
“You sure are.” Jake smiled, leaving the interrogation room.
“You thinking suicide?” Nick asked, once they had left.
“Looks that way. Depends on the knife results.”
Warrick appeared out of nowhere, holding the DNA printout. “All the blood on the knife was the vic’s.”
“What about the prints?” the Texan CSI asked.
“Her’s too.”
“She did do this herself,” Catherine said softly. “Wow. I’ll go write up the report.”
The blonde turned to walk away, but Nick stopped her. “Hey, Cath, since we solved the case, do you mind if I take the rest of shift off?”
“You both can. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow,” she winked.
Warrick and Nick walked to the locker room. “Hey, man, you heard about Greg?” Warrick asked.
Nick turned slowly. “What about him?”
“No one knows what’s up with him. He didn’t show up today, either. He just called in sick, didn’t say why.” Warrick paused. “You think you could talk to him?”
“Why me?”
“I don’t know, you and him always seemed close. He won’t return anyone’s calls and night shift’s beginning to get a little worried.”
“Huh. I’ll see what I can do,” Nick replied.
“Cool. See you tomorrow, man,” and Warrick was gone.
“Night, ‘Rick!” Nick called. When he was alone, he hit his head once on his locker.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The silence of Nick’s apartment set the Texan at ease. He plopped down on the couch, face down. I’m not gonna think about Greg, he thought.
The phone, on the other hand, had a different idea.
Nick ignored the ringing. He didn’t want to get up and see who was calling. Even if it was Greg, he wasn’t sure exactly what he would say.
The answering machine picked up. “Shit, Nick,” came a familiar voice. Nick sat straight up, listening intently. “I’m sorry. So fucking sorry. I don’t know what happened, I just...freaked. I need to talk to you. I need to see you. Come over when you can, because I’ve got to set this straight with you.” The voice on the other line laughed nervously. “I don’t know how straight this’ll end up. This is dumb. I doubt you want to hear from me, but please, Nick, just come over...” the line clicked, ending the call.
Nick stared at the phone, daring it to ring again. After a minutes’ deliberation, he grabbed his keys and was at the door. He drove fast. Somehow he remember where Greg’s apartment was, even though the last party Greg had thrown had been months ago.
He ran up the steps, almost tripping in front of a nice old lady holding a bag of groceries. Nick regained his composure and stopped outside Greg’s door.
He could’ve been there for a minute, he could’ve been there for an hour. Nick didn’t know how long he waited. He took a deep breath, calmed his nerves, raised a fist, and knocked.
Overall summary: Greg appears at Nick’s door, drunk. So what does Nick do? He lets him in, of course. One simple act of kindness leads to a both confusing and happy time in Nick Stokes’ life.
Title: It Started Out With a Kiss
Chapter: 4/5
Rating: NC-17 overall, but this chapter is PG-13.
X-posted!
Chapter 1: Drunk. Very Drunk. (PG)
Chapter 2: Chatting Over Coffee (PG-13)
Chapter 3: Hot and Heavy (NC-17)
It Started Out With a Kiss 4/5
“Death and Decisions”
Nick kept thinking the same words over and over again. “I promise, Nick.” Greg had looked him in the eyes and said it. He’d sworn that he wouldn’t run away. Only, Nick woke to find Greg gone without a trace. Hadn’t that night of mind-blowing sex meant anything?
At first he was in denial. Greg must’ve gotten called in to work early, right? That changed to anger when Nick realized that the other man would have left a note if he had to go, or maybe he would have woken Nick up. Anger slipped into sadness liked Nick’s feet on the wet shower floor. He thought maybe, just maybe, he and Greg could have had something. He stood under the spray, mulling his thoughts over until the water ran cold.
The Texan spent the rest of his morning in a numb haze. Getting dressed, shaving, even eating was automatic. He spent a good ten minutes sittin in silence, staring at his phone. Nick picked it up three times and on the fourth he had almost completed dialing Greg’s number when he stopped himself, throwing it to the other end of the couch. Calling would just make things worse. Running his hands over his face, Nick choked back a sob.
Nick made it to CSI safely. “C’mon, Nicky,” he told himself. “Forget last night and move on.” He put on his best “everything’s fine” face and stepped out of his truck.
As soon as he was inside, Catherine caught him. “D.B. on the outskirts of town!” she said, pulling him along by the arm. “Warrick’s waiting.”
Luckily, Nick didn’t think about Greg at all on the drive to the crime scene. He, Warrick, and Catherine made small talk about the weather, local news, the song playing on the radio. Nick laughed along with them and by the time they arrived, Greg Sanders was the last thing on his mind.
The three CSIs stepped into the hot Vegas sun, standing before Detective Jim Brass. “A teenager and a couple of her friends were driving down the road, saw this as they turned the corner,” he pointed to a nude body behind him.
“Damn,” Nick drawled.
“Shit,” Warrick said.
“Wow,” Catherine gasped.
The woman was naked, bloody. Tiny cuts turned the once-pretty twenty-something into a horrid mess. Both legs, both arms, her face and her stomach were marked by red lines. After a few seconds of staring in disbelief, Catherine spoke.
“Have we found the murder weapon?”
Brass held his hands up. “That’s your job. I just got here.”
“Typical,” the blonde teased. “Nicky, Warrick, fan out.”
They didn’t have to go far. The coroner had arrived, and in moving the body, a bloody knife was revealed covered in mud. Surprising himself, Nick offered to take the weapon back to the lab for testing. I’m not going just to see Greg, he told himself.
Nick hitched a ride with Brass, absentmindedly responding to the detective’s chatter with “Yeah”s and “Uh-huh”s. His first stop was to visit Mia in DNA, but he made a detour into the breakroom. On his way to the coffee, he heard parts of Sara and Hodges’ conversation.
“I thought no one knew where Greg was?” Hodges said.
“No, he called in sick. Grissom said he didn’t sound good, but it was very vague,” Sara replied.
Behind them, Nick spilled his coffee.
The two looked up at this and Nick grinned, embarassed. “Uh, it was hot.”
Sara giggled as she watched Nick scramble to clean up the mess. “Yeah, Nick, coffee tends to be that way.” She turned back to Hodges. “So, we’re not sure what’s going on with Greg...” was the last thing the Texan heard on his way out the door.
“Coincidence. It’s all a coincidence. This has nothing to do with me-”
“Nick?” Mia asked.
“Yeah?” he replied, shaken out of his reverie.
“You were standing there muttering to yourself. You can take the knife to fingerprinting now; I’ve got what I need.”
She was studying Nick with an odd expression. He put on his best smile and took the evidence, hurrying out of the glass-walled lab.
After putting the vic’s prints into AFIS, Nick found Catherine and Warrick, who filled him in on what they had discovered. The vic’s clothes were found not too far from the crime scene, but there was no evidence of another person at the scene. She had not yet been identified, but Cath was on her way to autopsy to learn more.
AFIS came back with a hit. She was twenty-one-year-old Alana Riotti. She had one prior, a vandalism charge from her high school years. Nick joined Warrick to notify the parents.
The first thing out of the mother’s mouth was, “Have you found her boyfriend? I never trusted him.” Her husband nodded.
“Ma’am, what was his name?” Nick asked.
“Jake...something.”
“Perry,” the father supplied.
“Yes, that’s it. Jake Perry. She met him at a college party. There was something about him that I just didn’t like.”
“Drugs? Illegal gambling?” Warrick asked.
“We didn’t know for sure what he was into,” the father answered.
“Can we see her?” the mother asked.
Nick glanced at Warrick, then back to the parents. “This way.”
They had the reaction that Nick and Warrick had expected: temporary disbelief, then came the tears. But after this the parents had nothing to add to the investigation, and the CSIs let them go.
“Guess we’ve got to get Brass’ guys on this Luke fellow,” Nick said as he and Warrick turned the corner.
“I’m on it,” Warrick said, and he left.
Catherine found Nick and filled him in on...nothing. Inside, Alana Riotti was perfectly fine. With the case at a temporary standstill – DNA results wouldn’t be back until tomorrow - and shift at its end, Nick and Catherine parted ways.
At home, the Texan CSI tried to push all thoughts of Greg out of his head. Exhausted from working the case and the developments of the night before, Nick crashed, waking with barely enough time to get ready for next shift.
Nick hadn’t been expecting a call from Greg, but the fact that there wasn’t one made him feel sad again. He had woken up thinking about Greg and he was pretty sure he had dreamt about Greg. He slapped himself once. He couldn’t keep pining over a one night stand with his coworker. A mug of hot coffee and Nick was ready to face the world again.
Their case had taken an interesting turn. The boyfriend was found, but his background suggested no criminal activity. In questioning, he revealed that he had just broken up with Alana and that they had fought. Alana had stormed out of their apartment. “I would’ve chased after her,” Jake said, “but she pissed me off pretty bad.”
“Did you know where she was going?” Catherine asked.
“Whenever she blows up like that, she never tells me. We were done, though, so I didn’t care. There’s probably something you should know, though.”
“And that is?” Nick spoke up.
“Lana had problems. Emotional problems. She would cut herself if she got too worked up. She had meds, but I don’t think she took them that day.”
Realization dawned on both Catherine and Nick’s faces as they turned to look at each other.
“She would do it pretty bad, sometimes. All up and down her arm. Sometimes in more places. She said the knife made all the other pain go away,” Jake continued.
“Thanks, Mr. Perry,” Catherine spoke. “You’ve been a great help.”
“I’m free to go, then?”
“You sure are.” Jake smiled, leaving the interrogation room.
“You thinking suicide?” Nick asked, once they had left.
“Looks that way. Depends on the knife results.”
Warrick appeared out of nowhere, holding the DNA printout. “All the blood on the knife was the vic’s.”
“What about the prints?” the Texan CSI asked.
“Her’s too.”
“She did do this herself,” Catherine said softly. “Wow. I’ll go write up the report.”
The blonde turned to walk away, but Nick stopped her. “Hey, Cath, since we solved the case, do you mind if I take the rest of shift off?”
“You both can. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow,” she winked.
Warrick and Nick walked to the locker room. “Hey, man, you heard about Greg?” Warrick asked.
Nick turned slowly. “What about him?”
“No one knows what’s up with him. He didn’t show up today, either. He just called in sick, didn’t say why.” Warrick paused. “You think you could talk to him?”
“Why me?”
“I don’t know, you and him always seemed close. He won’t return anyone’s calls and night shift’s beginning to get a little worried.”
“Huh. I’ll see what I can do,” Nick replied.
“Cool. See you tomorrow, man,” and Warrick was gone.
“Night, ‘Rick!” Nick called. When he was alone, he hit his head once on his locker.
The silence of Nick’s apartment set the Texan at ease. He plopped down on the couch, face down. I’m not gonna think about Greg, he thought.
The phone, on the other hand, had a different idea.
Nick ignored the ringing. He didn’t want to get up and see who was calling. Even if it was Greg, he wasn’t sure exactly what he would say.
The answering machine picked up. “Shit, Nick,” came a familiar voice. Nick sat straight up, listening intently. “I’m sorry. So fucking sorry. I don’t know what happened, I just...freaked. I need to talk to you. I need to see you. Come over when you can, because I’ve got to set this straight with you.” The voice on the other line laughed nervously. “I don’t know how straight this’ll end up. This is dumb. I doubt you want to hear from me, but please, Nick, just come over...” the line clicked, ending the call.
Nick stared at the phone, daring it to ring again. After a minutes’ deliberation, he grabbed his keys and was at the door. He drove fast. Somehow he remember where Greg’s apartment was, even though the last party Greg had thrown had been months ago.
He ran up the steps, almost tripping in front of a nice old lady holding a bag of groceries. Nick regained his composure and stopped outside Greg’s door.
He could’ve been there for a minute, he could’ve been there for an hour. Nick didn’t know how long he waited. He took a deep breath, calmed his nerves, raised a fist, and knocked.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 04:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 05:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 06:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 09:56 am (UTC)You are killing me!!!!
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 01:19 pm (UTC)But its GREAT so far. **drumming fingers on desk waiting for 5th installment**
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 06:35 pm (UTC)