Fic: Life Changes 16/29

[jayceepat.livejournal.com]

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

Previous chapters can be found here



After 2 months of being wooed, courted and romanced by Nick Stokes, Greg was pretty sure that nothing, but absolutely nothing could surprise him now. Oh he was so wrong.

His epiphany occurred at work in the locker room after the strangest shift Greg had every put in at the LV Crime Lab and believe me, there had been some pretty strange ones. This one came about because of the triple murder he had been working with Catherine and Warrick. The same triple murder that caused him to work a triple which in turn had caused Nick to take him out to Lake Mead.
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When Greg woke, it was dark; stars were shining and a full moon was out in all its splendor. He could tell it was really cold because Nick’s breath was visible in the crisp night air. He was buried so far under the blanket and into Nick’s chest that he was warm and cozy. He decided that he would just stay there forever. He would never move out of Nicks arms; his bladder however had a different outlook on life.

He started trying to untangle himself without waking Nick but the minute he stirred, Nick tightened his hold on him and wouldn’t let him move. Greg finally had to wake up Nick to get him to turn him loose before he peed all over both of them.

He headed for the nearest tree and just barely got his zipper down and his dick clear of his pants before he started to unload. He heard some noises behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Nick standing in front of his own private tree. Evidently he wasn’t the only one who needed to drain the tank.

He finished and went back to their impromptu bed and started to crawl back in when Nick walked up and said he hated to break the mood, but he had to go into work so they needed to get everything back to the truck and he needed to get into the lab. Greg had the night off because of his triple.

It took 2 trips even with both of them making like Sherpa bearers. Nick drove them back to Greg’s apartment and even though he was technically on the clock, he still walked Greg to his door, took his key and opened the door for him and that’s when things changed. Greg started to walk through the door but Nick reached out and took his hand and pulled him back against him. He wrapped his arms around Greg and held him against his chest for a moment and then slowly turned him around. He leaned forward as though he had all the time in the world and finally, finally kissed Greg. It was everything Greg had ever thought a kiss from Nick Stokes would be; slow, deep, gentle and yet so passionate at the same time. Nick let his lips brush across Greg’s so lightly, Greg wasn’t even sure they touched until he felt Nick’s tongue lick delicately at his upper lip and then across his lower and then he felt Nick’s lips close over his own and he just let go and breathed into his mouth. He opened his mouth to let Nick’s tongue in and it felt like it belonged there. He couldn’t get close enough to Nick. He kept trying to get inside his shirt and then he felt like he wanted to get inside his skin. He wanted the kiss to go on forever. He wanted more of Nick’s body. What he didn’t want was for it to end and he moaned out loud when he felt Nick start to pull back. Nick cupped his face in his hands and said, “I would give anything…hell I’d give everything if I didn’t have to leave now but…. “

Greg prayed that his voice would work. When he was sure he could get something out, he smiled at Nick and said, “Yeah but duty calls.”

Nick sort of groaned and said, “Duty Hell; Grissom calls. Go to bed, sleep some more and dream about me. I’ll see you after my shift.”
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When Greg got back to work, the triple murder had moved into high gear and Greg was the reason. The original case had been 3 separate murders, in 3 different unrelated locations. It wasn’t until Hodges had started analyzing some odd smears on the bodies that they discovered that all 3 of their victims were connected. The smears turned out to be powdered honey. The victims had been sexually tortured and eventually died from loss of blood or sepsis from the horrendous violence done to their bodies. They even had bee stings in places where no bee would every willingly go. You would think that with that many elements of the crime in common, someone would have realized that the 3 separate murders were the work of one person but the lab was overworked; all 3 shifts operating short handed because the weird cold spell had brought with it a wave of nasty stomach flu.

Greg was working one of the crimes with Warrick, the day shift had another victim and swing had the 3rd. When they realized that they were connected, Catherine had them assigned to their shift and joined Greg and Warrick on the case. They had gone back and went over all 3 of the crime scenes with a fine tooth comb and during the course of their investigation, Greg had gotten the brilliant idea to look up professional bee keepers because he felt the only way the victims could have been stung in their privates so extensively was by someone with access to a lot of bees.

Catherine and Warrick thought he was delusional but they let him run with his idea. He spent 14 hours interviewing every single bee-keeper in Greater Las Vegas and one guy in particular, made the hairs on his neck stand up. He couldn’t say why. The guy gave all the right answers. He opened his home and shop to Greg and let him look at everything he wanted but still, there was just something that wasn’t right. Greg was almost back to the lab when he realized what was wrong. The guy, Phillip Lawson, had not once asked why Greg was there. Most people started asking questions the minute he pulled out his badge but this guy just smiled and invited him in. Greg knew he had to go back but he wasn’t about to go back by himself. He told Catherine and Warrick what he wanted to do and they almost came to blows over it. Both of them said he was wasting his time. After all, the guy had let him look at everything and there was not one single thing Greg could point to as suspicious. Finally, Catherine told him to see if Mr. Lawson would let him look again but he had to take a uniform with him AND if Lawson said no, Greg had to drop it. Catherine knew they didn’t have enough for a warrant. Greg was sure Lawson would let him look because he realized Lawson thought he had him snowed. To Greg, that meant there was something there to find.

He called Mr. Lawson and asked him if he could come back with a uniform. He told him, he didn’t realize he should have had an officer with him because Lawson’s business was technically just outside the city limits. Just as Greg thought, Lawson chuckled and told him to come on back any time he wanted. Greg asked if he could do it now so he could file his paperwork and go home. Lawson agreed and Greg called Brass for a uniform. He was really surprised to see Vartann waiting for him when he dropped by the police station to pick up his escort.

They went back to Lawson’s place. Lawson was so contemptuous of Greg he didn’t even stay in the house while they looked. He told them to help themselves; he had to go pick up some new starter hives and would be back in an hour or so. Greg and Vartann tore the place apart which wasn’t easy because they didn’t dare leave anything out of order so everything they looked at had to be put back exactly the way it was. Finally, even Vartann was ready to give up. He told Greg there just wasn’t anything there and yes, he agreed that Lawson was downright slimy but being a slime ball was not a criminal offense in Las Vegas; at least not yet.

Greg looked around the bedroom one last time and let his eyes drift across the ceiling. He saw an air conditioner vent just over the bed and walked over to look at it from a different angle. He asked Vartann if he thought there was something blocking the vent. Vartann walked over, looked up at the ceiling and asked Greg where he was looking. Greg took hold of the large poster at the foot of the bed and leaned forward to point out the shadow and the finial on top of the poster made a rattling sound. Both men heard it. They looked at each other and Greg shook the poster gently. It rattled again. Vartann started to reach for the finial when Greg stopped him.

He told him he wanted to get his camcorder to document everything they did from that point on. When he was ready, Vartann pulled on a pair of latex gloves and carefully unscrewed the finial and pulled out a set of keys. Greg took pictures from every angle and spoke the date, time and their names into his camcorder. They made sure everything was back in place and left; taking the keys with them. They both agreed that they needed surveillance because the minute Lawson got back they knew he would check his bedroom and when he found the keys gone, he would be running.

Greg dropped Vartann back at PD; he was going to try to track down the door that went with the keys. Greg went back to the lab, fired up his computer and proceeded to tear Mr. Lawson’s life apart. He checked every single thing he could think of including public documents. He found nothing but a checking and savings account for Lawson with reasonable balances. He found no hidden accounts, no other properties, no rap sheets; Christ the guy had never even had a traffic ticket. He was a solid citizen in every sense of the word. Greg was so tired he was almost numb and when he tried to put his coffee cup down, he splashed some coffee on some of the documents he had printed off the internet. He was trying to wipe the coffee off Lawson’s birth certificate when he noticed the names of Lawson’s parent’s. His father’s name was Maize. He thought that was unusual and his tired brain took a moment to remember; Maize was Indian corn. Suddenly, something knocked on the front of his brain. He began to dig through the records he had stacked up all over the room and after a frantic search, he found it. A deed to a parcel of land made out to Maize Lawson. He started to call Vartann but his cell phone rang just as he picked it up. It was Brass. Lawson had run and they were bringing him into the station but they had absolutely nothing to hold him on. Greg told him about the land and gave Brass the legal description. Brass told him to go home and get some sleep. It would take them at least 12 hours, maybe more to get legal documents to investigate the property and make sure all the ‘I’s were dotted and the ‘T’s crossed.
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Greg was called back in to work about 5 hours after Nicky. All hell had broken loose. It took almost 20 hours to get all the paperwork in order and get a judge to sign off on their probable cause to hold Lawson while they checked out the property. Catherine and Warrick were a little pissed when Greg showed up. They had wanted to do the initial search of the property, but Brass AND Vartann had insisted that Greg had developed the lead and he should be there.

After he saw what was in the little cabin on Maize Lawson’s land, Greg half way wished Brass had not been so generous. The cabin was neat as a pin with the exception of the pictures that covered every inch of the walls. Pictures of people, not just the 3 victims they had found but lots of people being tortured, being raped with baseball bats, crowbars, pokers, a two by four; it was almost a shock to see pictures of a couple of men actually being raped by a penis. Men, women and even young children and those were the ones that sent Greg outside to lose his coffee and bagel. There were ledger books with extensive and detailed records of every single victim; name, age, where they were taken, their occupation, how long they had lasted and oh God...exactly what had been done to them. It was obvious from the records that the first victims had been taken by Maize. Phillip had joined the family hobby when he was 13 and demonstrated an unusual talent for torture and perversion. There was no record of Phillips mother nor was there any mention of what had happened to Maize.

They found the ‘playpen’, Phillips words not Greg’s, when they investigated what appeared to be a storm shelter out behind the cabin. Brass, Vartann and one of the uniforms went down the stairs first. Their flashlights moved around the rather large room making strange horrible flash cards that would have Greg waking up screaming for months after. Finally, Greg heard the click of a switch and bright overhead lights came on and they all got to see the true horror of what had happened on Maize Lawson’s property.

Because the ledger’s proved conclusively that some of the victims had been taken in other states and brought back to the old homestead to play with, the FBI had to be involved.
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He was working on logging and tagging all the evidence of the ‘PlayPen’ murders (Lord Greg hated the media and their need for something sensational to suck in the public) when his work room was invaded by Brass, Ecklie, Atwater and several ‘suits’ he didn’t know but recognized immediately as FBI. Grissom was bringing up the rear arguing vehemently with the Feeb’s and Atwater.

Greg was so overwhelmed with them all that it took him a minute to realize they were followed by several photographers and that’s when everything hit him at once. The shock of the murders, the hours searching Lawson’s home knowing all the while that Lawson was laughing at him behind his polite face combined with the interlude with Nick at the Lake followed by that one (and only one) magical kiss followed by being dragged out of bed and back to the hell on earth that was Maize Lawson’s cabin was too much for Greg.

He shouted at all of them in a voice that even he didn’t recognize. “Get the hell out of my work space right now you dumb shits. I’ve got evidence spread all over the place and if one of you fuckers dares to even breathe on something, I’ll take you back out to the ‘Playpen’ and give you a personal introduction to some of the ‘toys’. “

There was dead silence in the room. Greg suddenly saw the end of his career and wondered if he would even be able to get a job teaching science to 6th graders when they all got through with him. He almost collapsed when one of the Feeb’s turned to the photographers and said, “Mr. Sanders may be a little forceful with his language but he’s completely correct about our actions. Everyone; back out of here right now. Mr. Sanders, would you please secure your evidence and join us in Sheriff Atwater’s office as soon as possible.”

As quickly as they all appeared, they disappeared down the hall heading for Atwater’s office. Greg just dropped back on his stool and sat there shaking. He looked up to see Nick and Grissom standing in the doorway. They walked in and Nick said, “Greg, tell us what you need us to do and let’s get this secured.”

Greg decided later that having CSI 3 Stokes and Gil Grissom taking orders from him had to be the weirdest thing of all in a very weird day. When he got to Atwater’s office, followed by Nick and Grissom, he found that Catherine and Warrick were there also. He was congratulated, photographed with everyone in the room at least once and told that he would be receiving an award in a public ceremony just as soon as they could get it all set up. It seems that Mr. Lawson had been on the FBI’s Most Wanted List as a John Doe for 27 years and Greg Sanders, CSI Level 1 had captured him. And that brings us up to Greg’s epiphany in the locker room at the end of that shift.

Among other things, Greg had been given the night off and it just happened that Nick also had the night off because he’d already put in 2 doubles and a triple and was beat. You would think that nothing could phase Greg after what he’d just been through but when Nick Stokes; conservative, good-ole-boy Nick Stokes leaned over and told him to go home and get a lot of sleep because he; conservative, good-ole-boy Nick Stokes was taking Greg out to ‘Inferno’ that evening, Greg knew he had passed over into another dimension…another time and place. He was now in the twilight zone for sure. Inferno was the hottest club in town; at least it was if you were gay and into what was often called ‘an alternative life-style’. Greg would have bet real money that Nick didn’t even know where Inferno was much less be willing to set foot in it.

He looked up at Nick with a bewildered look on his face and said, “Nicky, would you do something for me? Would you pinch me because I know I’ve got to be dreaming.”

Nick laughed out loud, leaned down and gently scratched his fingernails across Greg’s left nipple. Greg almost jumped off the bench. Nick said, “Nope, you seem pretty awake to me. Now go home and sleep. I’ll pick you up around 9.30. I expect you to be outrageously gorgeous.” He let his fingernails wander over to Greg’s right nipple and gently scratched over it too. Greg let out a very unmanly whimper which Nick stifled with his mouth. Between having his nipples stimulated in the locker room by a guy who’d only kissed him one time and had kept him in a state of sexual tension for weeks now and having said guy tell him to get gorgeous because he was taking him out to a hot gay bar, Greg was pretty sure he was actually confined somewhere in a room with padding on the walls and he was just hallucinating all of this.

There was only one thing left to do. Go home, go to bed and if he woke up and was not in a straight jacket, he would get outrageously gorgeous.

Comments

[donnab810.livejournal.com]

Aww poor Greg being teased like that... Nick is really teasing poor old Greg... And YAY Greg cracked the case... Good for him!!!

Well done great chapter... Can't wait for more!!!

[donnab810.livejournal.com]

Oh by the way- I want more... I cant get enough of this story!!!!