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[jengeorge.livejournal.com]

Title:  I'd Just Be Fool Enough To Fall
Chapter: Two: A Half a Mile a Day
Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Summary: Where Nick learns that everything he's ever wanted is right in front of him.

A/N Thank you to all who have read and commented.  I'm all smiley inside! 

So, this chapter is a little procedural, but hang in there with me. They won’t all be like this. Where the first chapter gave the guys a chance to get to know each other outside of work, I felt it important to show how that continues under the confines of their work environment. Lot's of flirting ensues!

Also, a very large thank you to carolinecrane  and saras_girl for the excellent beta and for making me feel as though I'm not complete failure as a writer!

Chapter One can be found HERE

Chapter Two- A Half a Mile a Day

“I’m walking into the lab right now, Grissom. Call me if you find anything else.” Nick snaps his cell phone shut and treads down the hall with bags to drop off at the evidence room and an obscene amount of samples collected at the scene to deliver to Greg that he hopes will help shed light on the case he, Sara, and Grissom have been at all night.

Nick takes a deep breath to settle the nervousness that he feels as he makes his way down to the lab. It’s been a little over a week since his dinner with Greg, and even though he gave himself a long talk that night about not falling for a co-worker, he wants to see him. Because Greg has been flirting with him. A lot. And Nick has been shamelessly flirting back. He just doesn’t know if Greg means anything by it.

There have been a few too many innocent touches, playful innuendos, and Nick knows that he has spent more time in DNA than has been necessary for the job. But he has also realized that Greg is a great person to bounce ideas and theories off. He listens with a focus that is almost unnerving and when he does offer input, the analytical and reasoned responses he gives makes Nick think that the rumors about Greg wanting to be a CSI are true.

“Hey G—I hope you’re not busy.”

“Never too busy for you,” says Greg, a smile lighting his face as he looks up from his microscope. He steps over to the back counter and picks up a cup of coffee that he then hands to Nick. 

Nick’s pretty sure Greg doesn’t just leave his prized coffee sitting around and he rarely shares. His surprise must show on his face, because Greg shrugs and tells Nick, “Grissom called a few minutes ago to tell me you were coming in. I thought you might need this.”

“And you would be correct. Thanks.” Nick takes a sip of the perfectly brewed coffee and is thankful that Greg must like his coffee the same way Nick does, because it is the perfect balance of sweet and creamy he enjoys. “But you might take this back when you see what I’ve brought.” 

Nick proceeds to pile bag after bag of samples in front of Greg. “We might have a live one missing, so Grissom told me to tell you that this case is first priority tonight.” Nick steps back as he takes in Greg’s staggered expression at the mound in front of him.

Nick leans against the door frame to Greg’s lab and watches him sort through the stack of samples that he and Sara have collected from a poker game gone bad at an old warehouse. Three DB’s on the scene and it appears that another victim has been dragged away. The team is struggling to obtain the identity of the missing person and hopefully find him alive along with the perpetrator.

“Christ, Nicky, just when exactly are you hoping I’ll have this finished?” Greg looks stunned at the sheer volume of items that need to be processed.

Nick knows it’s a tall order, so he decides to kick the ego stroking up a notch. “C’mon, G—who else here can do this? You know, with great power comes great responsibility,” Nick attempts to keep a straight face as he goes on. “The force is strong in you young…” Nick is cut off by Greg’s snort of laughter.

“Alright! Enough with the bad movie pep talk. You’ve got me.”   Greg rolls his eyes and waves Nick over.  He’s trying to look petulant, but the small smile gives away the fact that he’s flattered at Nick’s words. “Do you have a particular place you want me to start?”

Smiling at Greg’s reaction, Nick crosses the room to stand beside Greg and walk him through the scene and what samples might lead them to the missing persons.

“There were five seats at the table, so everything has been numbered: seat one, seat two, and so on. The victim at seat three was found in his chair with a GSW through the head. The two other vics were on the floor, near seat one and seat four- both with multiple shots.” Nick pauses as he takes in the look of concentration on Greg’s face and is impressed when he realizes that Greg is putting the scene together in his head.

“Do you think they were shot trying to flee after Seat Three was shot? Was point of entry through the chest or the back?” 

“Well, Dave’s preliminary at the scene indicates that Seat One has one through the chest and two in the back, and Seat Four has one in the back of the neck and one in his leg. So that’s a good theory, Greg.” Nick takes in the flush spreading up Greg’s neck from the praise and briefly loses his focus, wondering just how far down that flush goes, until he notices Greg watching him expectantly.

Clearing his throat, Nick continues, “Now here’s where it gets interesting. Both seats two and five have a good amount of spatter, but the chair at seat two was knocked over and there were several cards on both the table and floor with large blood drops on them as well as a blood drop on the carpet behind the chair leading away. I’m betting that the shooter was sitting at seat five, but I have no idea what happened to the guy sitting in seat two. It could be that the shooter is Seat Two and Seat Five incapacitated him. Brass is trying to find anyone with info on the players’ identities; none of them had ID on them, so who knows how long that will take.”

“Maybe the shooter took their identification knowing it would hold things up?” Greg says as Nick nods his head.

“Could be, but that doesn’t help us in finding either of them,” Nick answers, his frustration evident in his tone. “The amount of blood at the scene indicates that Seat Two has a significant injury, but we don’t know if he is dead or alive, if he’s the shooter or an accomplice, or if he’s been taken against his will. Identifying Seat Two needs to be our priority, so you should start with those samples.” 

Nick lets out a deep sigh as he thinks of the work ahead of him when he feels Greg’s hand lightly touch his upper back and his thumb make slow passes over his shoulder blade. Nick wonders if he should feel uncomfortable by the intimacy of the gesture, but instead he leans into the touch and gives Greg a small smile. “Thanks, Greg.”

“I’ll get right to it then- first the stuff from Seat Two and then I’ll start processing Seat Five.” Greg’s look is resolute, and Nick is bolstered by his enthusiasm and warmed by his affection.

They stand like that for a moment, when he feels Greg’s hip bump him. “You need to shoo, because I won’t be able to concentrate with you in here.”

Nick notices Greg’s trepidation at the admission and can’t help but push a little. “Even if I’m very quiet and stand over there?” Nick grins and points to the corner. “I like watching you work, you get such an intense look on your face.” Nick wills away the blush forming on his cheeks at the boldness of his words, but it’s worth it to see the surprised look on Greg’s face.

“It’s not just your talking that will distract me,” Greg shoots back.

Greg looks at Nick for a moment and Nick has to struggle not to fidget as Greg’s eyes flick down his body.  “Now scram or I’ll never get this done.”

Nick lets out a shaky laugh. “Alright, I’m going. Page me when you’ve got anything.” 

As Nick heads out the door, Sara grabs him to go over the case file. They stand there several minutes going over the information before Nick chances a look in Greg’s direction. Greg is staring intently at Nick’s body, completely unaware that Nick is watching him. There is a look of raw desire in his eyes and when Greg lightly runs his tongue over his bottom lip, Nick can’t help the small shiver that runs through him.

Sara is so focused on the file she doesn’t notice Nick’s reaction, but Greg does. He locks eyes with Nick, unable to hide the deep flush of embarrassment at having been caught out staring. Greg’s eyes widen and a small smile plays on his lips as he throws his hand out in a gesture that says, ‘See, you’re distracting me!’

“…earth to Nicky!” Sara shakes Nick. “Are you even paying attention?”

Nick realizes he hasn’t heard a thing that Sara’s said for the past minute or so. “Sorry ‘bout that.” Nick cringes repentantly. “Let’s head to the break room so we can sit down. I promise to pay attention.” Nick flashes Sara the smile that Warrick says could get a poor man to give up his last dollar.

“Whatever. Save the smile for someone who’ll buy it.” Sara’s voice sounds exasperated, but the tilt of her head lets Nick know he’s off the hook.

As Nick starts down the hall, he takes one last glimpse at Greg. His head is down and his eyes are focused on the work in front of him, but he makes no attempt to hide his smirk as he goes about preparing the samples.   

It’s going to be a long night, Nick tells himself. Because he knows there is no way he is going to be able to get the memory of Greg’s look out of his head.

Shortly after, Nick is called out to a scene. Police had stopped to check out a car that appeared to be broken down on the side of Boulder Highway and discovered two men dead in the front seats. Warrick’s handling it, but Grissom asked Nick to check it out because it’s only a few miles away from the warehouse. That’s a lot of dead bodies to be so close together.

“Based on the liver temp of the driver, he’s been dead about four hours,” explains David. “There’s a gunshot entry wound under his right arm, with no exit point. We’ll pull it when we get him on the table.”

Warrick nudges Nick to direct his attention to the passenger side foot well. “What do you want to bet that the bullet matches that?” Warrick points to the gun lying on the floor.

“I don’t take bets I’m likely to lose,” chuffs Nick. “Hey Dave, he got any ID on him?”

The assistant coroner pulls a wallet from the victim’s pocket and hands it to Warrick. “Victor Wallace, address in Henderson, and...Whoa,” Warrick pulls out what looks to be a few thousand in hundred dollar bills, “Check out this money roll. Usually there’s a reason for carrying that kind of cash.”

They’re moving to the other side of the car to watch David begin his prelim of the passenger when Nick’s phone rings.

“Stokes.”

“Faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound… is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s SuperGreg!” Nick can’t help the smile that forms at hearing Greg’s voice.

“I thought we were done with the movie comparisons, G”

“It seemed fitting in this situation. I am pretty amazing.”

“Well, why don’t you tell me what you’ve got, and I’ll be the judge of that.” Oh god, Nick thinks, did I really just say that out loud? He takes a quick look around to see if anyone is paying attention. Thankfully, everyone seems too busy to be listening in on Nick’s conversation.

There’s a pause on the other end of the line before Greg clears his throat and answers, “I don’t know if you’ve got that kind of time just now, so how about I tell you what I know about Seat Two?”

Now Nick really hopes no one’s looking, because he’s pretty sure anyone would notice the redness he can feel blooming on his face. Focus…crime scene…work…, Nick says to himself. Or at least he thinks he does, until he hears Greg chuckle.

“Right….focus, work. OK, so here’s what I’ve got. I was able to pull DNA from the blood you collected near chair two. I also collected a saliva sample off the napkin from that seat. They’re the same donor. So I went ahead and ran it through CODIS. I got a match.”

Pushing past his humiliation at his apparent lack of a thought-to-speech filter when speaking to Greg, Nick is thrilled by this new information. “Awesome. Have you told Sara yet?”

“Umm… no. I figured I’d tell you first. I’ll page her as soon as we’re done,” Greg says sheepishly.

Nick can almost picture the look on Sara’s face if she finds out about Greg’s blatantly preferential treatment toward Nick. The case is both of theirs, after all, but Nick will take any advantage he can get.

“So your guy is Herbert Wallace, age forty-six. Current address is in Henderson. He’s got several priors for illegal gambling and a blanket casino ban from the Nevada Gaming Commission. Apparently he’s been caught cheating at the poker tables.”

Nick takes in the information. “Wallace, huh? Do they list any known associates?” Greg doesn’t know it yet, but Nick’s pretty sure he’s just been given information to significantly move along both his and Warrick’s cases. “Maybe a Victor Wallace?”

“What are you, psychic? My Nana would be impressed. She had The Gift, you know.” After hearing Nick give a small snort, Greg gets down to business. “As a matter of fact, Victor is his brother. The two of them were arrested eighteen months ago for a leading a scheme with three other accomplices at the poker tables at the Tropicana. They were attempting to pass cards. That’s what led to the casino ban as well as eighteen months at Nevada Correctional Center. He and his brother were released last month.” Greg pauses to take a breath after his lengthy explanation. “So how do you know about Victor?”

“I’m looking at him. He’s the dead driver in Warrick’s case. Hold on a sec, let me check something.” Nick pulls the phone away before he calls out, “Hey ‘Rick you got an ID on the passenger yet?” even though he’s pretty sure what the answer’s going to be.

“Yeah, a Herbert Wallace from Henderson. I figure they must be related,” Warrick answers. “Why, you know something?”

“Yep, I sure do. Give me a second and I’ll fill you in.” Nick puts the phone back up to his ear. “Looks like our buddy Herbert had a bad night. He’s the DB in the passenger seat.” Nick’s mind is spinning as he puts the pieces together of everything he’s just learned. “Hey Greggo, do me a favor, see if you can pull up anything on the other three accomplices from the Tropicana. If you have photos, give them to Sara to run down to Doc to compare against our three vics from the game. I have a feeling you’ve just helped identify them.”

“I’m on it,” replies Greg, his pride in being useful to Nick’s case apparent in his voice. “You so owe me, Stokes,” he adds, the tone of his voice low and seductive which shoots a pulse straight to Nick’s groin.

“So I do,” Nick answers in an almost whisper. Because suddenly rushing through his mind are images of just how he would like to thank Greg for his information, and none of them are appropriate while at a crime scene.

Nick’s trying to collect himself when Warrick calls out to him. “Hey, Nick, you’re going to want to get over here and take a look at these injuries before they move the body.”

“Hey, Greg, I gotta get back to the scene,” Nick says, thankful for the distraction. He moves a little further away before he adds, “Thanks, SuperGreg.  Oh, make sure you fill Sara in. You don’t want her to find out she’s not really your favorite CSI. She’ll be so disappointed.”

“Cheeky,” scoffs Greg. “I think she’ll get over it. Besides, I’m pretty sure it’s not my attention she’s after.” 

Nick notices that Greg makes no attempt to refute his claim, and files away the questions for Greg about whose attention Sara wants for later.

“I’ll pull up those pictures and page Sara ASAP. I’ll see you later.” 

“See ya, G.”

Nick ends up working until almost noon, having to wrap up all the details himself since Sara got pulled off the case to cover a B&E. He’s tired, a little grumpy, and just wants to get home to bed. At least the case will be wrapped. 

A call from Doc confirms that the three DB’s he has on ice are in fact the Wallace brothers’ buddies from the Tropicana. All were released last week. An interview with the wife of Ernie Watson, aka Seat Four, reveals that the group most likely had gotten together to work on a few new deceptions they picked up during their supposed rehabilitation at NCC.

Janie, the wife, explains to Nick that she figured something was up when Herbert picked up Ernie, for what he called a ‘guys’ night out’. Ernie had promised he would stay out of trouble, but as Nick learned on this job long ago, the wife always knows when something is up.  She also reveals that Herbert had quite the temper, and has pulled a gun out to get his point across on more than one occasion.

All the evidence—the GSR on Herbert’s hands, the bullets from the warehouse and the one found in Victor matching Herbert’s gun -- confirms him to be the shooter. Warrick matches a knife found on Victor to the wound marks in Herbert, which leads Nick to believe that Victor stabbed Herbert at the game, leaving the large blood drops near the chair. Whether to defend himself or to stop the shooting, they may never know. 

Apparently, Herbert and Victor left the game together. Once in the car, they drove about five minutes before pulling off the road. Herbert had lost a significant amount of blood, but managed to shoot his brother before dying himself. The Wallace brothers learned the hard way that, really, crime doesn’t pay.

By the time Nick returns to the lab to write up his report Greg is long gone. He pushes away his feeling of disappointment and reminds himself that the fewer distractions he has, the sooner he’ll actually get to leave. When he stops at his locker to hang up his jacket, he finds a small note on bright blue paper sitting inside that must have been slipped through the door vents.

You’ve had a long night, and I’m feeling benevolent. My coffee stash is hidden in the back of the lowest drawer of my filing cabinet in an evidence tin labeled ‘human fecal samples’. Don’t let Grissom see you, though- this is the longest I’ve been able to hide it from him.   –G

Nick doesn’t bother to hide his smile as he rereads the note. He doesn’t even try to rationalize the twinge he feels in his chest. Because as he heads down the hall to covertly obtain the prized coffee, Nick comes to the realization that he’s not just attracted to Greg physically, but there is a new and far messier feeling developing for the younger man. 

He knows that professionally there are risks- there’s a reason Nick does nothing to correct his ladies’ man image among many of his co-workers, but he gets the feeling Greg already understands this. And even though it’s kind of scary- Nick’s been ‘the job’ for longer than he can remember -- he wants to see where this thing with Greg might be headed.

“You so owe me, Stokes.” Nick recalls Greg’s earlier words. And Nick thinks he might have a plan that thanks Greg for his help and maybe opens up the opportunity to find out where things stand between them. 

As Nick sits down to write his report and enjoy Greg’s coffee at the end of what feels like the world’s longest shift, he can’t help but look forward to coming back in tonight and seeing Greg.

 

Comments

[pikajodi.livejournal.com]

!!! Enjoyed this chapter, especially the flirting between the boys ;)

Looking forward to more :D

[maldeluxx.livejournal.com]

*giggling* How cute. :)

[jengeorge.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[jengeorge.livejournal.com]

It makes me grin too!

[jengeorge.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[lillyg.livejournal.com]

Sweet!

Just one thing grates on my nerves in this fandom. IN A LAB YOU CAN'T DRINK COFFEE, YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE BREAKROOM! either that or you loose your accreditation. I see that in 90% of the fics and it pisses me off...

[burrollie.livejournal.com]

I loved all the flirting!

I can't wait to find out what Nick's plan is to 'thank' Greg. I think I'll have sweet dreams tonight thinking about, though ;)

[jengeorge.livejournal.com]

Good point, I hadn't really thought of that.

[jengeorge.livejournal.com]

They flirt well together, so it practically writes itself!

[recordplayer69.livejournal.com]

have greatly enjoyed this so far.....my boyfriend and I are speculating what's gonna happen next. Keep up the good work. Jaxson and Randy

[jengeorge.livejournal.com]

Thank you both for the praise and taking time to comment!