nickngreg | Fic: Life Changes 6/29 (Reply)

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

A/N: I know I said I would be posting Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday but I’m going into the hospital tomorrow and I don’t know when I will be back.

Previous chapters can be found here

Nick stretched until his back popped. His new bed was great and he was almost comfortable while he waited for the Aleve he had taken to kick in and let him go to sleep. It was his last night at home in Texas and he hurt in places he didn’t know he had. He had stayed 4 days longer than he planned and the last 5 days had been work from ‘can to can’t’. My Lord, he hadn’t thought about that in years. His Grandma Stokes used to say that. Men worked from the time they can see their shadow until the time they can’t. Of course, now with electricity, he had worked a lot longer than can’t.

Savannah had found a house. Of course it wasn’t one of the ones they had looked at. She had gone to the hospital where she was going to start work in two weeks to fill out some paper work and see if she could get her orientation out of the way. While talking to one of the doctors she would be working with, she had mentioned her problems trying to find a house. The doctor, Martin Wheeler, had lost his wife to cancer 2 years before and he had walked out of their house and never gone back. He gave her the keys and told her to go look at the house. If she liked it, they would work something out. She was worried that he might be uncomfortable with her living in his home but he told her he would take comfort from knowing that children would be living in the house. He and his wife had always wanted kids, but her cancer had taken away every chance they might have had.

She called Nick immediately. He had driven down to the hospital to pick her up and take her over to the house. It was a nice house in a good neighborhood; great schools and close to the hospital BUT, it had been closed and locked for 2 years. The food had been left in the fridge and needless to say, it had spoiled in the last 2 years. Mice had gotten into the house, the hot water heater had sprung a leak and most of the carpets were ruined. S’annah was torn. There were a lot of good points but the inside was a disaster. Nick suggested they go get their Mom and have her come look.

She took one look and said very seriously, “Oh my, what a mess…..but it has good bones. We can do a lot with this.” Within 2 hours, Mama Stokes had assembled the Stokes clan and 2 hours after that; a work plan was in order.

That had been 5 days ago and in the last 5 days, the Stokes men (when work was needed all the son-in-laws were considered Stokes men) and women had scrubbed the house from top to bottom, torn out every inch of carpet, laid pre-finished wood floors in every room except the baths which were tiled or slated. The bathrooms had new vanities, toilets and tubs. The kitchen had been completely stripped down to the studs and they had installed new sheetrock, cabinets and appliances. Then they had painted any and everything that didn't move. Nick told his brother Bill that they would have been better off to tear the old house down and just build a new one.

Every one of the Stokes clan, men and women, knew how to paint, paper, tile, clean, you name it. They were raised to be self-sufficient and it was a point of pride that they never had to go outside the family for simple home repairs. Nick was really quite good at cabinet making and loved to make furniture so he had done almost all the kitchen work, bookcases and bed frames for the kids. After the first night, he realized that his boyhood bed was not going to cut it. So when they went shopping for S’annah and the kids, he bought himself a queen bed for his room at home.

Now he was blessing that bed while he tried to relax enough to get to sleep. He had intended to think through his plans for the next few days and go through the pages he had printed off the internet for the next stage of his trip but as he began to get drowsy, he decided he could do it on the plane or when he got back home to Vegas.
======================================================================
Well, he was home finally and damn if he wasn’t back in the kitchen. The house had been dusty and stale when he got back so he had spent a few hours airing the place out, running a Swiffer duster over everything and just generally spiffing up the place. Now he was showered, fixing a snack and settling down to decide a few important things before he got on with his plans.

What had he learned from his stay at home? The most important thing and at the top of his list was that he wanted some one to grow old with. He had thought for a long time that maybe he wasn’t meant to be married and faithful to one special person but he knew now that was exactly what he wanted. How had S’annah put it? Oh yeah, the difference between 5 alarm chili and oatmeal. Lord knows he did love his chili and he wasn’t that high on oatmeal no matter how good it was for your cholesterol. He wanted that feeling. He wanted to feel like he couldn’t stay in his own skin, he wanted his mouth to go dry and he wanted someone he was so crazy about that he wanted to touch them anywhere, everywhere, anytime, all the time. He wanted his blood to boil and then freeze at a touch. And most of all, he wanted that to last forever. He wanted someone he loved so much that after 20 or 25 years he still had the urge to grope their ass every chance he got. He damn sure wanted someone who loved him back enough to return the grope. He also realized that he wanted kids. He knew that was going to be the deal breaker on anyone he considered.

He made a tentative list of people he thought he might be interested in. It was really tentative and would be refined after the next stage of his search. He concentrated on people he worked with. He knew that most people felt you shouldn’t get involved with co-workers but with the hours he worked, who else did he get to see often enough to even consider. He added a few other people like the attendant on the plane coming home from Texas. She had been very attentive and the whole trip had gone by so fast mainly because of her pleasant company. When the pilot told them they were about to descend, he had gotten his seat ready for landing and just before she went to buckle herself in she had stopped by his seat and gave him a piece of paper with her name, address, cell, pager and home numbers. He had told her he would be out of town for several weeks but would call her when he got back. He knew he really would; it wasn’t just talk. She was pretty, great voice, great body and altogether ‘fuckable’.

He got the stack of papers he had gotten from his searches on the internet and laid out his plans for the next week. He had discovered that according to the 2000 Census, the top ten cities for gay male couples were San Francisco; Miami/Fort Lauderdale; Santa Fe; Atlanta; San Diego; Orlando; Los Angeles; Seattle; Austin; and Portland, Maine. San Francisco was a cliché, Miami/Fort Lauderdale would be too much like going back to college and Santa Fe was just like being in Texas so it looked as though Atlanta was his first choice.

He had done extensive research, it was amazing the things you could find on the internet. The biggest concentration of gay males was in a place called Buckhead. Buckhead was an older part of Atlanta that had been attracting young, professional gays & lesbians since the middle 80’s. It was now a very interesting, artistic, area loaded with shops, clubs, art galleries, restaurants and gay men; just what he wanted. He did not want to explore this part of his character on his own home turf. In the first place, it was too dangerous and in the 2nd place, what if he was completely repulsed by the whole process.

He had also done some research on that while on line. He had looked at the sex toys, the sites that catered to gay men and had read an awful lot of slash fiction. He knew the mechanics but that was like saying he could do brain surgery because he had read a medical book. Good God, could he even kiss a man much less let a man touch him, put his hands on him, maybe his mouth and most of all, could he possibly let a man put his dick up his ass. He had read all the stuff about the prostate and how great it was when it was stimulated but the last physical he’d endured (which included a rectal exam, after all he was now 40) had not made him hard and excited, it had just plain hurt. For that matter, could he put his dick up some guy’s ass? He knew that you were supposed to stretch your partner using your fingers but Jesus, the thought of sticking his finger in some guy’s butt almost made him gag. He was almost sure that this was not going to be an option for him but he had been looking at a lot of guys at work just before he took off and he had to admit, he did like to touch Greg and Warrick and Bobby and Archie and there were several detectives that he played basketball with and he did kind of like it when they put their hands on his ass when they were guarding him. It was all done as part of the game and he had never taken it any further, but he had noticed that they all sort of sneaked peeks at each other when they showered at the gym after a workout or a game. Maybe he really could do it. It all depended on who he met and how they acted.
======================================================================
Nick pulled into the front space at the Crowne Plaza in Buckhead. It had been a toss up between the Grand Hyatt, the Crowne Plaza and the Ritz Carlton. They were all expensive but Nick was not worrying about money right now. He had decided that if he was going to do this, he was going all the way. He was going to treat himself and be completely selfish for once in his life. He had decided on the Crowne Plaza because it was only 1 mile from the heart of Buckhead and it had shuttle service that would take him anywhere within a mile of the hotel.

He got out of his truck and walked around to go inside and register and almost fell over a good looking young man who had rushed out of the hotel to meet him. The ‘greeter’, Nick had no idea what to call him, asked Nick if he could take care of his luggage for him while he registered. Nick said sure and asked if he could leave his truck there or should he move it. The ‘cutie’ said he would take care of that also and bring Nick’s keys up to his room. Nick decided to shoot the works and asked if they had some sort of detail service or at least somewhere he could get the truck washed after his trip. They would take care of that for him and it would be charged to his room. Nick headed into the hotel with the youngster following behind him with his bags. The young man said he would stay with Nick until he had his luggage up in his room and then he would take care of his vehicle.

Nick was smiling as he walked up to the desk. The young attendant touched a bell on the desk and Nick heard someone say, “I’ll be right there.” Almost before the guy finished the sentence he was walking through a door behind the desk and heading for Nick. He gave him a big smile and asked how he could help him.

Nick stared at him for a moment and then looked around the lobby and saw other young men bringing drinks to people seated in the lounge area, going out to the curb to greet other guests and generally picking up the place. They were all great looking. There wasn’t a bad apple in the bunch. Nick thought to himself, “My god, do they breed these guys somewhere on a farm outside of town. They are all gorgeous.”

Nick turned back to the desk and saw the clerk looking at him with a smile on his face. He gave him his name and his confirmation number. The young man looked everything up, asked for a credit card and then he said, “Mr. Stokes, my name is Steven Anderson and I’m the day manager. Please call me Steve or Steven if you prefer. I see you’re a criminalist from Las Vegas. Is this your first time in Atlanta?”

Nick said it was and if he was going to call him Steve, then Steve was to call him Nick. Mr. Stokes was his father and he was there for pleasure and did not want to feel as old as his dad.

Steve smiled at him and asked him what kind of pleasure he was looking for. Nick suddenly realized that Steve might be the day manager but he was just barely 25 if even that and he was flirting with him outrageously. Nick almost couldn’t answer him he was so surprised but he finally managed to get his brain working and told Steve, he wanted to see the Coke plant and CNN and the Braves play at Turner Field and he had read something about a place called Covington Gardens. He also had read about the night life in Buckhead and he definitely wanted to experience that.

Steve asked him if he had any specific clubs in mind. Nick said he’d heard about several that sounded interesting; Johnny’s Hideaway, Sambuca, Club Kreme. Steve asked him if he had any preference. Nick told him he wanted something a little upscale; no dives, something that catered to a slightly more sophisticated crowd say 28 to 45 in age. Steve smiled again and said, “I know just what you want. Will you trust me? I know you’ve just met me but I swear I can make your vacation something you will remember forever if you just give me a chance.”

Nick thought for a moment that Steve was propositioning him but thank god, he didn’t blurt that out. He looked at Steve and said, “I have no reason not to trust you Steve but you realize that in my line of work, I have to be very careful.”

Steve said, “I know that and I won’t get you into anything you can’t handle. Now, the place I’m thinking of doesn’t have a dress code per se but it is expected that their clientele will meet certain standards. A nice pair of slacks and good jacket is the norm for this place. Will that be a problem?”

Nick thought about his wardrobe and decided that he did have things that would do but he probably would never do anything like this again so why not shoot the works. He said, “Yes I do but I think I would like to experience everything that Buckhead has to offer. Do you have someplace in mind that could take care of me?”

Steve laughed out loud. “Oh do I ever. It will take a little while to get things set up.”

Nick said, “That’s fine with me. I’m tired, I want to take a shower, get something to eat and take a short nap.”

“That’s perfect. You go on up to your room. We have room service and a great restaurant here in the hotel. Just order what you want, take a shower and a nap and I’ll give you a call in a couple of hours.”

And that’s exactly what Nick did.
======================================================================
Authors Note: All of these places are real and so are the facts about the 10 largest concentrations of gays in the US.