Fic: Life Changes 2/29

[jayceepat.livejournal.com]

TITLE: LIFE CHANGES
RATING: PG-13/NC-17 eventually
PAIRINGS: Nick and others
WARNINGS: Adult content and language
SUMMARY: A casual remark can change a life
SPOILERS: None
DISCLAIMER: If you don’t recognize it, it’s mine. Otherwise, everything belongs to Bruckheimer, CBS and Zuicker.

A/N: This is not a new story. When I first wrote it, I couldn't find a home for it. No site seemed to want it. It is Nick and Greg but it's also Nick's journey to get to Greg. Greg is mentioned throughout the story but does not come into it completely until Chapter 13. If you wait till then, you will miss a lot. I still think this is good and I'm posting it now because I want to give it another chance and to show off the spectacular banner Bflyw created.

Previous chapters can be found here



Why did he always wind up back in the kitchen? It was around 11.00 pm which was early in his day. He had cleaned the rest of his apartment; cleaned it hell, you could do brain surgery in his toilet for God’s sakes. He should be ready for a shower, hot threads and a night out, club hopping and looking for a hook-up, instead he was back in the kitchen. Thank God he had gotten more beer when he had done his shopping that afternoon; just goes to show that even on auto pilot, he still had his priorities straight.

While he was cleaning, he had zoned out again only this time it was not “THE TALK”, it was all the people he had known (most of them in the biblical sense). It took a while to get going because he started with the redhead with the great butt and then immediately got into a hot and heavy argument with himself about whether a pick up, whose name you couldn’t even remember, counted as a relationship…sorry, ‘hook-up’. He finally decided that if he didn’t include his pick-ups, he wouldn’t have enough people to make up a good reference list. Now that was really sad!

So, back to the redhead. What had he liked? Well that was pretty obvious; that butt was right up there at the head of the list followed by the sexy, long, red hair. So why hadn’t he ever called her back. He had her number, Hell he had every number she had; work, home, cell, On-Star and pager. He had taken her to a decent mid price hotel, (he didn’t like strangers in his home) and had made sure that she was very happy when it was all over. After all, he was a Southern Gentleman. And a true Southern Gentleman made sure his lady was taken care of. So why no follow up? There was that screechy voice, of course. No guy wants to wake up to that every morning.

Nick sat at his table, drinking his beer and recalled all his experiences. He really was surprised at the number of them, after he had decided to include his pick-ups. He was a trained investigator so he should do what he did on a case; make detailed notes to keep the evidence fresh in his mind. He took his beer and went into his 2nd bedroom which he had turned into an office/library. He had a really nice futon in there so Greg or Warrick could crash after one of their sport/video/man get-togethers. He realized that it had been a long time since Warrick had stayed over. Just once since his marriage, when he and Tina had been fighting and he was so angry Nick really thought for one brief moment that ‘Rick would hit her if he had to put up with her for one more minute. Greg however, was another story. Nick thought sometimes that Greg stayed at his place more than his own. He wasn’t complaining; Greg was great company. They always had fun together and Nick got a laugh out of Greg’s freaky ideas although this last one was right on the edge of insanity.

He fired up his computer and entered all the info he had remembered in his head during the afternoon and evening. When he got through, he printed out the list. Since it was pretty clear he wasn’t going out, he headed for the shower to wash off all the dirt that transferred from his home to him during his cleaning fit. When he got out, he slipped on a pair of old, loose sweats, went to the kitchen and made himself a snack, got another beer and went to get his printouts. He sat down and started reading his list. He read carefully, going back several times to re-read a sentence here and there. When he got through, he gently laid the sheets on the table, leaned back in his chair and realized that he had deliberately screwed up every single relationship he had ever been in from the age of 14 on. The only person he had not pushed away had been Kristi and that was because she got murdered hours after he slept with her. Someone else had done the screw up for him.

They were too clingy; they didn’t need him enough. They were too much out there on the party scene, they were too quiet. They were too much into their own careers; they were too boring to be around. They didn’t understand him or his devotion to the work he did, they understood him so well, they scared him. He had managed to find something wrong with every single person he had ever spent more than 4 nights with.

He went back to the computer. This time, his list was everyone in his life he had ever truly admired and why AND most importantly, how long had they been in his life. Two things stood out in glaring detail; it was surprising how many guys were on his list and the only long standing relationships he had maintained were with his team members

DAMN! He had found fault with every single woman in his life with the exception of his mom, his sisters, Wendy, Mandy, Catherine, Sofia and Sara. The people who influenced him and made him want to stay around them were the females he just mentioned and guys. God, it was almost 8.00 am and he needed to go to bed. His whole world had just tilted on its axis, he needed sleep and he needed to get himself back into ‘work’ mode.

Comments

[donnab810.livejournal.com]

LOL- poor Nick, he has no idea does he?? Ahhh good second chapter.... Well done, oh by the way I love the pictures of Nick and Greg (now) and the pair as old men... Awww thats's what attracted me to this story... Glad i followed my instincts..Or was it Nana Olaf?