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Title: So Beautiful.
Chapter: Eleven.
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None, really.
Genre: Angst. Romance. Post-Ep.
Summary: Post ep for Feeling the Heat. Greg's angst about the case and the events afterwards.

”So this is it, Amelia. This is where Daddy grew up.” Nick pulled the rental car over to a rest stop on the way to the ranch, to stop and stretch his legs. Opening the rear passenger door, he unstrapped Amelia from her car-seat and walked over to a small patch of grass, sitting down and placing her between his legs. “It’s nice out here. I used to hate Texas. But now when I come back, I feel like I can breathe again. Not that I don't love Vegas. I mean, you're in Vegas. And Daddy is in Vegas, and I love you both. I just miss home sometimes. There's no place like home, as they say. Well, you'll understand that popular culture reference when you're a bit older."

He looked down at her playfully kicking her legs and throwing her arms about, a piece of grass stuck in between her fingers. Carefully pulling it out, he smiled at her bubbly giggle.

“You’re not listening at all, are you?” He leaned down and kissed her head, sighing softly at the feel of her skin. He could feel his cell phone digging into his back pocket and he retrieved it, staring at it intently. “Should we call Daddy? Yeah, let’s call him.”

Dialling Greg’s new home number, Nick brought the phone to his ear and waited patiently for an answer.

“Hey, you’ve reached Greg. I’m not home right now, so leave me a message and I’ll call you back.”

“Oh, hey Greg. It’s me. Uh, it’s … It’s Nick. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we got into Texa-“

Nick was cut off by the sound of the phone being picked up, and a sleepy-sounding Greg.

“Nick?”

”Greg? I thought you weren’t home.”

”I was sleeping.”

“Oh, sorry bab- I mean, yeah. Sorry.”

”Forget about it. How was the flight?”

”Uh, interesting to say the least.”

“Was she okay?”

”Yeah, for most of it. Fed her just after takeoff, she slept for awhile after that.”

“Good. Um, this is going to sound really stupid but can I talk to her?”

“Sure.”

Bringing the phone down to Amelia’s ear, he held it away from her slightly as he knew Greg had a tendency to talk loudly anyway, and he didn’t want to damage her hearing. He smiled as he heard Greg talking to her.

”Hey beautiful girl. Daddy misses you. Yes, he does. He wants you to come home, but you’re going to meet you'r grandma and your grandpa. Is that exciting, honey?” Nick heard Greg sigh and speak a little softer, but still loud enough for him to be able to hear. “Look after Daddy, Amelia. I miss him too.”

Nick brought the phone back up to his own ear and pretended not to have heard.

“Greg?”

”Oh, yeah. Is she smiling?”

”She’s always smiling.”

“I know, I just want to make sure she hasn’t forgotten me.”

”It’s been less than twelve hours. She hasn’t forgotten you.”

”I know.” A pause. “I saw Warrick.”

Aw, crap.

”Oh yeah?” That’s right Nick, pretend you have no idea what he’s talking about.

”Yeah. He was telling me that you saw you at the airport. With your niece, Amelia. Funny, I didn’t know you had a niece called Amelia.”

“Look, about that… I mean, what was I supposed to tell him?”

”The truth?”

”I don’t want to have this argument with you right now, I’m on the side of the road and Amelia looks tired.”

“Yeah, well that makes two of us.”

”I’m sorry for waking you up, Greg.”

”I know. It’s okay. I wanted to talk to her anyway. And …”

”Yeah?”

”Well, I wanted to talk to you too. It gets pretty lonely here sometimes. I love ‘Melia, but she’s not the best conversation starter.”

Nick chuckled and felt his heart swell at the thought that Greg was missing him as much as he was missing Greg.

”I know how you feel.”

An awkward silence in the conversation forced Nick to realise that getting Greg back wasn’t going to be as easy as he had thought. There was an endless amount of tension between the two that neither was sure would ever be resolved. But for all their insecurities and their tensions, Nick was positive that Greg still loved him. And he was positive that he still felt the same way too. It was just a matter of how do they overcome everything that they’d said and done to each other and be a family again.

“I’ve gotta get going, Greg. I told my parents I’d be at the ranch by sunset.”

”Nervous?”

”Yeah. But I’ll be okay.”

”I know. Call me after you get there.”

“Really?”

”Yeah, I’ll want to say goodnight to Amelia.”

”Oh.”

”And I want to know how it goes. Especially call me if it doesn’t go well.”

”I will. Uh, well … I’ll talk to you then.”

”Bye. Oh, and Nick?”

”Yeah?”

”Whatever your parents say, whatever they do … I … well, I love you.”

”… I love you too, G.”

“Bye.”

It wasn’t a great revelation that would change anything, Nick knew that. They’d always loved each other, that was never the problem. It was just that maybe sometimes they loved each other too much, too hard, too intensely for them to function together. Or for them to function without any kind of conflict.

Nick picked up his daughter and carried her back to the car, gently strapping her into the car seat. Kissing her on the forehead, he shut the door and walked around to the drivers side, getting in and doing up his seatbelt.

“Here goes nothing, sweetie.” He smiled into the rear-view mirror at the almost-sleeping baby and started the car, pulling out once again onto the road. The radio provided soft background music as a distraction to Nick, and he changed the station just in time to hear the end of a song.

And it’s hard to take control when your enemy’s old and afraid of you
You discover that the monster you were running from is the monster in you
Better to hold on to love.
Better to hold on to love.
Change will come.

A tear trickled down the side of his face as he drove toward his childhood home.

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being grounded is the suck, but at least i get alot of writing done.