nickngreg | Chapter 6

Last one and then I'm done 'spamming' the comm tonight. Something tells me posting all 30 chapters in one night -wouldn't- be a good thing. Instead, what I'm going to do is link chapter seven at the bottom of this to my page and post the rest of the chapters there....hopefully.

Chapter List

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June

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Nick shut the door leading from the garage into the mudroom with a sigh. He hated working doubles. His case the night before hadn't been anything particularly bad, per se, but there had been a lot of evidence to collect, not to mention sorting through it all. He had cursed Greg thoroughly for having the night off every time he left the DNA lab. Cindy had been in a particularly foul mood all night.

He dropped down onto the bench along the wall to pull off his boots and then groaned once they were off. New boots sucked to work in and he hoped they broke in soon. He wasn't liking how close he was to getting blisters.

The house was oddly quiet as he went into the kitchen and he wondered if Greg was asleep. Joining him if he was was a fantastic idea in his mind, but he was hungry and knew a growling stomach would just keep him awake.

He rubbed his hand over his face as he cracked open the door of the fridge. He dropped his hand and grinned. Someone had left a beautifully made sandwich on the shelf and he wasn't about to pass it up. He grabbed the plate it was on as well as a container of homemade dip for the chips he was already thinking of inhaling.

Once he had his food all settled with a glass of lemonade to go along with it, he decided he didn't want to eat alone. He knew Greg was going to bitch about bringing such crumbly food into the bedroom, but it would be worth it to just have some companionship, no matter if said companion was sleeping or not.

He climbed the stairs and crossed the landing to their room and knocked the ajar door open with his hip, both of his hands too full to open it properly. He stopped short about four steps into the brightly lit room and took in the empty bed and open black out curtains with dismay.

Nick walked back out and paused to think of where his wayward boyfriend might just be. He was home, that much was obvious, since his car was in the garage. Greg was picky about where he slept and if he was awake, there would be noise coming from somewhere in the house.

He wandered down the hallway, heading for the playroom, thinking maybe Greg had kept Elijah home today from daycare. It was as he got closer to the media room, though, that he started to hear loud explosions coming from beyond the closed double doors. He balanced his plate on his arm and pushed open one of the doors.

There was Greg, wrapped up in a blanket and munching on popcorn. He was staring at the screen with wide eyes and Nick turned to see just what had the lab rat so enthralled.

Cartoons. His boyfriend was watching cartoons. While he could see Greg watching Disney or something of that nature with Elijah present, this was just a bit too weird.

He shut the door and went to the closest couch, dropping down into the seat next to Greg. He dropped a kiss to Greg's cheek even as he placed his plate on the wide arm rest, "Hey babe." he said, smiling when Greg turned to look at him.

"Hey Nick." Greg's eyes swiveled back to the screen and his mouth dropped open, "What the..."

Nick looked as well and raised an eyebrow, "What in the world are you watching G?"

"Endless Waltz. I just got it today. I can't believe Heero just did that! Why did he punch Duo...oh, decoy. Smart."

"Do I want to know why you're watching cartoons?" Nick asked, lifting his hefty sandwich to take a bite.

Greg chucked a piece of popcorn at him without even looking. Nick had to admit his aim was pretty good. He picked the stray piece off his sandwich and popped it in his mouth.

"It's not cartoons Nick. It's anime." Greg replied.

Nick looked at Greg, then at the large screen, before looking back at Greg, "There's a difference?"

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Greg turned off the movie player and smiled softly to himself as he adjusted his right arm slightly. Nick was out like a light, despite the loud explosions that had played on the screen for the last half hour of the movie. It amused him somewhat at how Nick could sleep through such racket and it also warmed his heart that he was trusted enough for Nick to get that deep into sleep.

The first few days of Nick living with him hadn't been easy, as Nick had still been experiencing nightmares from dealing with Crane. Every time the Texan had jumped awake, Greg would follow because of the bed shake that the jumping had caused. Greg would then soothe Nick back to sleep but he could never find it in himself to fall back to sleep as well.

Now that the nightmares were few and far between, Greg was finally getting more sleep. He had been crabby at work during that first week, kicking people out of his lab and snapping at others for little things. It had amused Warrick and Bobby to no end and they had wound up causing most of his outbursts because of it.

Greg carded his fingers through Nick's hair and thought about the upcoming week. He was getting anxious about going to Texas. In fact, it was because of the upcoming trip that Nick had finally found out that his inheritance had been more than just the house and the land it was on, though he still hadn't informed Nick on how much money was sitting in his various accounts.

He wasn't even sure exactly how much money Nick had thought he had, as he didn't ask, but with the property taxes, the utilities, the money paid out to Mark for both doing the work and taking care of the expenses for the yard, and what he paid Rayne for her combination babysitting and house cleaning job, there was no way he could afford such an extravagant place on his salary. He was glad, however, that there was no mortgage on the house, which helped save some of his money. Not that he actually had to worry about that.

Thinking back, the look on Nick's face had been priceless. Almost as good as it had been when he had given Nick the tour of the house for the first time. They had then gone on to agree, eventually, about splitting the bills for just about everything. Greg hadn't been particularly happy about that, as some of his bills weren't exactly on the small side, but Nick started going on about fairness since he was living there as well now. All of that because he had offered to pay for a couple of plane tickets.

He leaned down and began kissing Nick's face, starting at his forehead and making his way down to Nick's mouth. It took a few minutes, but eventually Nick began to stir under his ministrations.

He sighed as Nick began to kiss back and then pulled away, "Don't you think you'd be more comfortable in bed?" He asked and squeezed Nick's bicep before pulling away.

Nick sat up and cracked his neck, "Probably."

Greg snorted and climbed to his feet, "Go on then. I'll run the bowl and plate down to the kitchen and check the locks."

"Thanks G." Nick said, standing as well. He pulled Greg close and kissed him, keeping it soft so as not to arouse. He was too tired to do anything but make it to the bed.

Greg pushed Nick away gently and laughed, "Go. I'll be there in a few."

Nick nodded and stumbled out of the room, eyes already half mast at the thought of the comfortable king sized bed waiting for him.

Greg straightened up the room as best he could to lessen Rayne's ire and took the dishes downstairs. He rarely used the upstairs dishwasher, mainly because he had two sets of dishes in the kitchenette off the playroom and didn't need to add the downstairs ones as well. He would also never remember to bring them back down if he did.

After a quick check on the alarm, he headed back upstairs, looking forward to sleep.

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Nick snuck out of bed and pulled the blanket and comforter back up over Greg. Because it was June and temperatures were soaring outside, the air conditioner was on full blast, making for very cold air inside. After brushing his lips over Greg's temple, he slipped into the bathroom to take care of his 'morning' ablutions.

After dressing, he made his way down to the kitchen. It wasn't that late in the day, only around one, but he decided being a little tired at work that night would be worth it because of the fact that this Sunday was a special day. Even on the weekends, they were up at night to keep from throwing off their sleep schedules. The only difference being that Rayne often took Elijah on Saturdays and Sundays while they slept instead of them carting him to daycare.

He smiled when Rayne met him at the doorway with a cup of coffee, "Where is he?"

"Oh honey, I had to keep him outside! That kid has been wired since I explained what today was." Rayne said, pressing the mug into his hand, "Now that you're up, I have to go. Lauren's having us and Chris' parents over for dinner and I offered to make a few dishes for her."

Nick leaned in and kissed Rayne's cheek, "Have fun, tell Lauren we said hi." He had only actually met Rayne's daughter once, at Elijah's birthday party, but it was obvious to him at least, that she and Greg had grown up together. There was barely an age difference between the two, maybe only a year but no more, and their personalities were very similar. Lauren was hyper and loud, even while pregnant, which she had been at the time.

"I always do, honey, even when you don't." Rayne laughed and grabbed her bag, "I'll head out through the side door. Maybe that'll keep Elijah from barreling inside and waking up Greg."

"Good idea. See you tonight."

Once Rayne was gone, Nick set his coffee mug down by the sink and went outside. He stood by the bench and watched with a soft smile as the toddler ran around the yard, chasing after a red ball that he kept kicking away from himself. Nick figured that the kicks, which were giving the ball fairly good distances, were accidents on Elijah's part. He had tried to play a two person version of kickball with him not long ago and the three-year-old had missed the ball most of the time and landed on his butt.

After a few minutes, Elijah caught sight of Nick and let out a healthy squeal before running towards him at full speed, ball forgotten, "nicky!"

Nick swung him up through the air before dropping him down onto his hip, "So, Rayne told you what today is?"

Elijah nodded wildly, "fadders day! speshil daddy day!"

"That's right. So, daddy's going to be sleeping for another two hours or so, unless we wake him up. First though, we need to go and get him a gift and a card."

"k!" Elijah settled against Nick and rubbed the bridge of his nose, a trait he had picked up from his father that Nick loved to see. It was...enduring when both of the Sanders men did it, "what get?"

"Ah, well...I don't know." Nick shrugged and started for the garage, "Hey, what's daddy's favorite breakfast food? I know he eats a lot of eggs and bacon, but there's gotta be something else."

Elijah's smile, which had dimmed at the thought of what to get his dad, suddenly grew to epic proportions, "kwingle! love lotses."

"Kringle..." Nick trailed off. He had no idea what the hell that was, but he knew someone who would. After he strapped Elijah into his car seat in the backseat of the Tahoe, he pulled out his cell and thumbed through his contacts list. Hitting the call button, he held the phone to his ear.

//Grissom.//

"Gris? It's Nick."

//Nick? It's one o'clock. A little early yet.//

Nick slid into the Tahoe and frowned, "Did I wake you?"

He heard a stifled yawn before his boss answered//Actually, I haven't been to bed yet. What can I do for you?//

"I have a question and figured you'd be the best person to ask."

//Okay, what's the question?//

"What the heck is Kringle?"

After Grissom explained what the dish was, a danish coffee cake of sorts, and where in the city to find it, Nick pulled out of the garage and made his way to the mall. He decided to stop at one of the bakeries near the house to get the Kringle on the way home.

Nick pulled into the mall's parking lot and found a parking spot near the back. For it being Father's Day, the place was amazingly packed. After releasing Elijah from his car seat, he swung the toddler up onto his shoulders and went inside. He went first to Hallmark to pick out a card. Elijah had fun, leaning over with his chest resting on his own leg and against Nick's head, pointing at various cards for Nick to read out loud to him.

After going through about fifteen cards, Elijah finally picked one that he liked. Oddly enough, or maybe not so odd, it was the first one Nick had read. On the cover was a cartoon dog and puppy, done up in blue with white spots and the caption read, 'From your son , We're two neat guys, we're two awesome dudes, we're cool and we have attitudes...' The inside was blank except for the continuation of the verse which read, 'But best of all, our lives are fun – cause you're my dad and I'm your son.'

Nick had been fretting about a gift for them to pick out for the young father, but Elijah had taken care of that one with ease. They had window shopped along the way back to the truck and Elijah found the 'bestest gift' displayed in the window of a store near the entrance they had taken.

Now, they were standing in the bakery that was a few miles from the house, staring at the menu behind the counter that was displaying the different varieties of baked goods. Elijah was comfortably ensconced in Nick's arms, his eyes glued to the case off to the left which held the frosted cookies.

"I'll get you one, little man, but we have to pick out the Kringle for daddy." Nick said with a thoughtful frown.

"dat one." Elijah said, pointing to the right of the menu, where two flavors of Kringle were displayed by a picture.

Nick read the flavors and shrugged. It sounded okay to him. He stepped up to the counter and placed the order for the Kringle, as well as ordering three of the heavily frosted cookies. The wait for the Kringle wasn't long, barely fifteen minutes, and after their order was wrapped, they were back at the house within a half an hour.

Elijah bounced at the island while Nick placed the present in a gift bag and dug out a pen from the junk drawer. He then helped Elijah sign his name to the spot on the front of the card they had found and wrote a small message inside and helped Elijah sign his name a second time. After slipping the card inside its envelope, he cut up the two Kringle, making up three plates. He and Elijah hadn't eaten that afternoon and both were hungry as well.

Nick placed the plates on a serving tray he found in the pantry along with two glasses of milk and Elijah's sippy cup. He handed Elijah the gift bag and the two of them made their way upstairs to the bedroom. Peaking through the door, they saw that Greg was still asleep, arms spread wide across the bed and his legs tangled up in the blankets.

After setting the tray on the end table, Nick nodded his head at the toddler. Elijah let out a squeal and jumped onto the bed and consequently, onto Greg.

Greg's eyes flew open as he let out a grunt from the impact. His eyes narrowed when they landed on his son and he set about tickling the toddler off of his chest. He laughed along with Elijah and managed to roll them onto their sides so Greg was facing Nick and the table. His eyes widened when they fell on the tray and he shot upwards so he was sitting, eyes glued still on the tray, "Nick...is that..."

Nick smiled, "Kringle."

"How in the world did you..." Greg trailed off, his mouth gaping. He hadn't had Kringle since his nana had made it the last time he had been home to San Francisco. It wasn't a common dish for him, since the dough took nearly three days and a crap load of butter to make.

"Found a bakery here that made it." Nick sat down on the bed, bracketing Elijah between the two men. He lifted the tray and set it on Greg's lap.

"happy fadders day!" Elijah said, hugging Greg's arm.

Greg, who was in the process of lifting his glass of milk, paused, "Ah, fathers day?"

Nick slanted a look at Greg, "You forgot?"

"Oh yeah. I'll have to call my dad and papa later." Greg took a drink of his milk before smacking his lips, "So, cherry and pecan Kringle, my two absolute favorites. I think you two did good." He bit into one of his pecan slices with a moan of happiness. It had really been too long.

Nick watched as Greg and Elijah dug into the Kringle with gusto before looking down at his own plate. He wasn't a picky eater by any means, but it was always hard to try a new food. He picked up a frosted slice of the cherry Kringle and took a small bite off the end. He didn't get any of the filling or frosting, but the pastry was good. He took a bigger bite and nearly moaned along with Greg. It was really good.

Greg pushed the tray away with a happy sigh before turning to his son and boyfriend with raised eyebrows, "So? Where's my gift?"

Nick burped behind his fist as he dropped his plate onto the tray, "What makes you think we got you a gift, daddy?" He asked with a smirk.

Elijah scoffed, "got daddy pwesent, nicky." He scrambled to his hands and knees and crawled to the end of the edge of the bed to grab at the bag he had dropped before jumping onto the bed.

As the toddler dangled off the edge, Nick scoffed, "That kid can't take a joke." He paused, "...just to let you know, everything we did and got was his idea."

Greg smiled as Elijah dragged the bag onto the bed and to his dad, "hewe." he said, a big grin on his small face.

Greg took the bag, pulling out the card first. He laughed when he read it and then pressed a kiss to the top of Elijah's head before digging into the bag. He let out a whoop as he pulled the gift out and read the box, "Electronic chess! This is so awesome! Thanks sproglet!"

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Rayne walked into the house and let out a gasp as a small body collided with hers, "Elijah, sweetheart, Aunty Rayne's carrying some things that shouldn't be dropped. You have to be careful, honey."

Elijah muttered a "sowwy." before looking up at her lightly lined face, "daddy in kitshun. pwayin pway-do." He said, a grin stretching across his face.

"Really?" Rayne asked as she headed towards the door separating the mudroom from the kitchen, "What are you making?"

"kitty! daddy makin puppy. go woof!" He giggled and barged through the door. He ran back to his seat at the island and went back to sculpting his purple play-doh, tongue sticking out in concentration as he attempted to shape the head of his cat.

Greg looked up as Rayne set the bag on the counter, "My stuff?" He asked, sitting up straighter to try and peer into the bag.

"Yes." Rayne replied, as she grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, "Well? What are you waiting for? Go change your shirt and grab a rag."

"Yes ma'am." Greg said, saluting his 'aunt.' He got up and went out the door she had come through, heading for his room.

While he was changing, Rayne picked up the chunks of red play-doh spread out on Greg's side of the island, making sure to leave everything out but set off to the side. He would need something to do while waiting for the time to pass. Usually, he went for one of his puzzle books and she wasn't sure if he would this time or not, so the clean up was just in case he did.

She then turned to the bag and pulled out a small, square plastic bag and some latex gloves, both of which she set to the side. Next came a tall bottle of developer, a tube of blond hair dye, a tint brush, a pick and a metal bowl. Greg came back into the room as she carried the dye, bowl and developer to the sink to make the mixture.

As she got it going, Elijah let out a cough from the smell and announced he was going up to the playroom. Greg shook his head in amusement as the toddler all but ran from the room and turned slightly to pull the square package towards him, opening it once it was in front of him. He then groaned as he pulled it out, "Oh come on, Rayne. Why can't you use tinfoil or something?"

Rayne walked back over and dropped the bowl on the island, making Greg wince as metal collided with granite, "Because your hair is too short. Quite complaining. Nick's at work and Elijah is upstairs now. I don't have a camera so I'll be the only one to see you with it on."

Greg stared up at the woman he had called aunty his whole life and sighed. He pulled the hat onto his head and crossed his arms while silently telling himself he was not pouting.

"There's a good boy." Rayne said, grabbing up the pick. Greg stuck out his tongue in response.

Rayne spent the next ten minutes poking through the holes in the plastic cap and pulling strands of his hair through. She dutifully ignored each "ow" Greg let out and slapped his shoulder every time he tried to move away.

She had owned her own salon at one point in time and had always been the one to do his hair, his father claiming she was cheap, meaning free, and did good work. That also meant he would only get a hair cut at the beginning of summer when they visited his uncle, which had been fine with him. He had always had fun, and still did, trying to come up new hair styles when his hair got long during the winter months.

As she started to apply the dye to his hair, they heard the garage door shut and Nick's voice echo, "What the hell is that smell? Greg!" The Texan burst through the door and came to a halt immediately as his eyes settled on his boyfriend and Rayne. All the concern and worry that had been displayed on his face from when he had first smelled the developers peroxide faded away at the sight of Greg in a plastic cap with small tufts of hair poking through its holes and a petulant look on his face.

He pressed his lips together to ward off the laughter he could feel bubbling at the back of his throat. He then had to leave the room all together as Greg's eyes narrowed and darkened in irritation.

Greg groaned and went to bury his face in his arms, but Rayne poked him with a sharp finger nail, "Don't even think about it." She said, never stopping the application.

The only time she actually stopped before the brown locks were fully coated was when a flash came from the doorway by the fridge, "Nick Stokes!" Greg hollered, covering his face, "You're sleeping on the couch tonight."

Rayne rolled her eyes and went back to work, pretty much ignoring the two men.

Nick set the camera on the table and sat down at the island across from Greg, "Couldn't help it Greggo. You just look so ridiculous sitting there with that thing on your head."

"Oh yeah, so on the couch." Greg muttered, re-crossing his arms. He then looked up at Nick and cocked an eyebrow, "So?"

"So what?" Nick asked, head tilting to the side as he watched Rayne.

"Any takers? You said the open house ended at two and it's four now." Greg said. He accepted the timer Rayne pressed into his hands and watched her as she gathered the bowl and brush to rinse out in the sink in the mudroom.

"Yeah, there were some offers. Two of them were even over asking price." Nick replied. He motioned towards the cap, "Why are you dying your hair?"

"Highlighting or frosting or whatever you wanna call it. Was in the mood to do something different."

"Again."

"That was not my fault." Greg said, knowing which incident Nick was referring too.

"Greg, you know the saying 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?' You played barber with Elijah twice. Ya think you would have learned not to do that after the first time." Nick said, grinning at the memory of the ever shortening locks of hair over his boyfriend's ears. The first time had happened before they were even together. He and Warrick had even made a bet about what had happened to the hair above Greg's ears. Sadly, neither of them won because, at the time, they didn't know about Elijah.

Greg twisted the cap off his soda and flung it at Nick. He watched it in dismay as it bounced against the broad chest and fell to the floor with the Texan barely acknowledging it. He sighed and pulled his puzzle book towards him, "Shut up." He mumbled as Nick started laughing, "I'm ignoring you now."

TBC...

Chapter 7