nickngreg | Is it worth it

Title: Louise's birthday, chapter 20
Pairing: Nick and Greg
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Greg has a few worries before her birthday party.
Warning/Spoiler: Set after Grave Danger.
Disclaimer: They belong to the CBS and not me.

The next week passed by in a blur of work and sex for him. His whole life evolved around Nick and Louise. They started to plan her birthday party and Nick managed to drive down the Strip and back again without panicking. The ants in the garden was however still a cause of major anxiety whenever they made an appearance. But Nick had taken well to the idea of facing his fear, in form of the ants, and attacked them with boiling water.

His stuff slowly made its way from his apartment to the house. Nick threw out a lot of old stuff to make room for his things and he in turn also discarded a lot. But it had to be done in Nick’s pace, sometimes if too many things changed in one day Nick would be panicking the next and unable to find his way around the house.

They had their first real fight when it came to the study and the amount of space that each should have. It was short and they argued their way to a solution leaving them both satisfied. It had always been his worst fear in a relationship that fights could not be resolved. But with Nick it worked, even though in the midst of the fight he felt no love at all for the Texan.

Louise grew and started to take her first steps holding their hands for security. She had outgrown most of the clothes that Mette had given them and since she was starting to walk they also had to buy shoes for her. Nick had been ready to buy the whole baby-shop for her and it took a lot to convince him that she could just have the things for her birthday. They had invited their parents and siblings and of course their colleagues.

“Hey Greggo mind if I take off now. I’m meeting Tina.” Warrick was more than eager to leave on time and they were just playing the waiting game for the police to find their suspect.
“If it’s ok by Griss, sure go ahead.” He waved Warrick off and returned to his coffee.
“You ok?” There was only a slight hint of worry to be heard from Warrick
“Fine, just putting off a phone call.” He threw Warrick his goofball smile.

After Warrick left he went down the hallway to see who was still there and if they could entertain him. He had yet to tell Nick about Christmas in Norway and now where half of his family was coming there would be no chance in hell to keep Nick from finding out. He dragged his feet back to the break room for another cup of coffee.

They had agreed, actually Nick had insisted upon him sending a message if he was to stay longer at work.
Hey baby am running late. Waiting for a suspect. He hit send on the cell phone and got up again, hoping that there would be something to do. He had probably passed Grissom’s office 5 times within 10 minutes without noticing his boss presence.

“Greg?” Grissom called after him on his return from the men’s room and he nearly jumped, because he was certain that his boss wasn’t there.
“Yeah.” He leaned on the doorframe not really knowing if it was an invitation to come in.
“Why are you still here?” He stopped himself from babbling some long lame excuse and just shrugged his shoulders.
“Greg? You’re not having problems… at home?” Grissom’s mothering act had taken him a lot to get used to and it still came out kinda odd.

“No, but I will if I don’t get this over with.” If one day he ever became a suspect, he would not stand a chance against someone like Grissom, when his boss said nothing he babbled on despite his resolution no to.
“You know how I put in for vacation for this Christmas ages ago and now I won’t need it because I’ll be on ma… paternity leave right?” Grissom nodded.
“Well it’s because I’m going to Norway for Christmas and a wedding and I haven’t told Nick and he’s already talking about Christmas in Texas.”

The blue eyes just looked at him waiting for an answer in that annoyingly quiet way Grissom had down to perfection.
“And I really don’t want to go alone to Norway and now everybody is coming for Louise’s birthday and I need to tell him before that, but what if he doesn’t wanna go and what if he can’t afford the ticket and I have to pay for two children and I’m not even sure I can afford that.” He ran out of breath.

Grissom still just looked at him waiting for him to finish his ramblings.
“So I kinda wanna ask my parents for money for the plane tickets, because whoever can afford it helps out when there are big family things happening. But what if Nick doesn’t want them helping us?” He was pacing around in Grissom’s office trying to gather the courage to have ‘the talk’ with Nick. Money and relationships was something that he had never gotten right.

“Haven’t you talked finances?” Grissom stared in mild disbelief at him.
“No.” He admitted sheepishly.
“It’s not really something that I’m good with. Talking about money in a relationship I mean.” He mumbled and took a seat in front of Grissom.
“Even I know that you have to talk about money when living together.” Grissom sighed, took of his glasses and performed his nose pinching routine.

His pager went off and Grissom nodded his permission to check it.
“Ah, they found our suspect out on the I-15 and will have him here in hour or so.”
“Then you have time to make some calls.” Grissom said and got up.
“Use my phone.” It came out as one of those orders that there was no arguing against and Grissom closed the door on the way out.

“Hello.”
“Hi dad.”
“Hey son how are things?” His father sounded cheerful.
“Hmm okay. But eh… I haven’t talked to Nick about Norway.” He cleared his throat several times to get it said.
“You’re kidding?” His father sounded anything but cheerful.
“Nope, kinda been waiting for the right moment.” The words even sounded lame to him.

“What are you doing talking to me then?” There was reproach in the words and it stung badly.
“Eh… Do you know how much extra it is for children? I mean the plane tickets.” His voice sounded squeaky and he cleared his throat again.
“No need to worry there, your mother and mormor yakked for hours last night and they competed on who was to pay for the kids and sit with the new baby. Guess who had cold dinner?” His father was the master of mock insult and he managed a weak laugh in return.

“Better talk to Nick then.” He swallowed the proverbial lump in his throat and finished the call with his father. It took him a few minutes before he picked up the phone again.
It didn’t connect right away and the static was slowly driving him towards the edge. When it finally began ringing it rang for ages before being answered.
“Holmes repair shop how may I help?” He had hit the wrong buttons and he stuttered an excuse before hanging up.

“Stokes.” Nick answered the phone after one ring and he sounded very awake and alert.
“Hey kjære.” His voice sounded honey-coated and it would so not do for work.
“Hey doll. Have you found your suspect?” Nick was all sweetness.
“Yeah, he’ll be ready for interview in an hour or so.” He was mustering as much mental strength as possible for ‘the talk’ and small talk wasn’t helping.

“Oh, so you’ll be home in two three hours?” There was a hint of disappointment in Nick’s words but not much.
“Umm yeah I guess. Nick there’s something we need to talk about.” He cleared his throat again.
“Sure, what?”
“Christmas.” He replied in the smallest voice he had used for a very long time.

“Christmas?”
“Yeah, eh I’m… eh it’s been planned for ages that the whole family is going to Norway for Christmas and one of my cousins is throwing in her wedding as well.” He looked at his free hand and hated that it was shaking uncontrollably.
“Oh, but… can we go to Paris too then?” Nick asked the classic question for people who hadn’t been to Europe before.

“I don’t think there’ll be time for that. It takes like a day to get there and costs a fortune.” His brain only then caught up with the fact that Nick had accepted the trip that easy.
“So you’ll come with me?” He gasped.
“Yeah it’s only every second year that my parents gets us all together for Christmas and that’s even years.” Nick explained it just like that; there was no harsh words about him not having been told before.

“You’re not mad at me for not saying it sooner?” His need to know would one day become his death he was certain of that.
“I kinda knew. I mean Catherine only gave me two days of for Christmas and when I asked she mentioned something about you being gone for a long time. Besides your dad said something when they were here and now when you told me it all added up.” Nick took a deep breath.

“I love you.” He whispered since he was not really confident with his voice at that moment.
“Love you too sweetie, anyway I guess I wasn’t entitled to know before we actually had something going.” Nick took it all so easy and he had dreaded this conversation for quite a while.
“Maybe we should talk money when I get home then?” His hand had stopped shaking.
“Yeah it has to be done I guess.” Nick sighed and maybe it wasn’t going to be all that hard after all.

2 hours and 45 minutes later he parked his car in the drive and with an unmistakable bounce in his moves he got out of the car.
“Honey I’m home!” He proclaimed upon opening the door.
“Kitchen!” Nick’s reply was muffled in a weird way. Keys and shoes landed somewhere near their appropriate places as he hurried through to the kitchen. He was greeted with a kiss from both Louise and Nick.

Nick served them breakfast and they talked about Norway and the wedding and after circling the money issue for a while they finally talked that over too. It didn’t really surprise him that Nick’s family had a lot of money and that Nick didn’t lack any either. But they still agreed that he paid his share of the mortgage and the daily necessities. All while they had talked, they had played with Louise and when she became all red eyed, they put her to bed.

“Playtime.” Nick purred playfully into his ear and his somewhat exhausted body got an energy boost.
“You’re on.” He crash tackled Nick onto the bed and eagerly removed their clothes. Up until then it had been sweet gentle lovemaking, but he needed to get all his tension over the mornings issues out and hence he forgot all about being gentle.

“You’re an eager beaver aren’t you?” Nick teased and when he held up the lube, he just received a confirming nod from his lover. He skipped all foreplay and went straight to preparing Nick, who in turn seemed more than ready for him.
“Spoon me.” Nick moaned and hardly had the words been spoken before he was in position, entering in one fluid motion. He reached his hand round to take care of Nick’s hard cock and in what seemed like no time at all they both climaxed.

Neither spoke, they were just there still connected in the most intimate way possible and it became all about love again. He kissed the back of Nick’s neck and his hand gently caressed the parts of the body that it could reach.
“Nick?”
“Hmm.”
“Was I too rough?” Hindsight was sobering him up fast.
“No, eager but not rough.” He could hear the smile in Nick’s words and his heart melted.

“I could make it up to you?” He pulled out, before he got too hard again.
“How?” Nick rolled over and kissed him.
“I could ride you.” The smile on Nick’s face grew and so did something else. He gently pushed Nick onto his back and found the lube to prepare himself. It was slow and sensual and he was so boneless afterwards that Nick practically carried him to the shower.

Mette had also been invited for Louise’s birthday but had declined, saying she would rather come over on her actual birthday and so she did. Her pregnancy had begun to show, but she wasn’t bothered much by it. She had bought a little blue teddy for Louise and it was the only present that day that she bothered to play with. They had gotten her some shoes and one of those ‘play to learn’ things with different shapes.

“I’m so glad that we did this Greg and I guess you really hit the jackpot.” Mette smiled and watched as Nick fed Louise some banana.
“You look so much better today.” He had turned down his flirting lately, but he still couldn’t help himself.
“Thanks and I’m so sure that I’m not ready for children yet. I had this client yesterday and she had a little boy with her about her age I guess and he was on my nerves from the second they arrived to they left.” She sighed and patted her belly.
“So this one is yours for sure.”

The day of the birthday party arrived and so did a lot of people. He had studied Nick’s family albums and Nick had studied his, but chaos reigned for the first couple of hours. However when his grandmother’s birthday cake for Louise was served some kind of order descended upon them all. They held the party in the garden since there was no possible way to fit 38 people into the living room.

“Where are we gonna have all this stuff for her?” He surveyed the table designated for Louise’s presents with Nick.
“I have no idea, now I see why you stopped me the other day in the baby-shop.”
“Don’t worry it’ll get worse as they grow older.” Catherine had made her way over to them.
“That’s what I’m afraid off.” He sighed and held up another cute pink dress, wondering if she would ever manage to wear them all just once.

It was late before the last guests left and technically not all did, since Nick’s parents and one of his sisters with children would be sleeping over. His parents and grandparents had borrowed his apartment for the weekend and would meet them in the morning for brunch in one of their favorite morning restaurants.

“What a day.” Nick sighed after they had gone to bed with Louise safely tucked between them.
“You can say that again.” He was flat on his back and even though he had caught a few hours of sleep after work, his body clock was officially screwed up.
“It all went pretty well though, I mean no big awkward moments.” Nick said with relief.
“Nah, I had my doubts about Tina, but I didn’t notice anything.” He yawned.
“Me neither, she seems kinda nice.” Nick yawned too and they only mustered a simple kiss on the lips for goodnight.