nickngreg | Fic: Life Change 21/29

TITLE: LIFE CHANGES
RATING: PG-13 for this chapter
PAIRINGS: Nick/Greg
WARNINGS: Very 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

Greg wasn’t alone in the bubble. Nick was right in there with him. His body may have been outside but his heart, mind and will were in that bubble breathing for Greg; making Greg’s heart beat, making him swallow and do all the things that a functioning body would do for itself.

Their friends, team members and all the uniforms and detectives from the newbie’s on up to Captain Vartann came and spent time with Greg and Nick. When two weeks had gone by and Nick had not left Greg’s side for a second unless the medical team just flat threw him out, Catherine and Warrick began to get worried, really worried, about Nick.

Catherine decided to call in the heavy guns and placed a call to Atlanta and filled Collin, Steven and Larry in on what had happened. Needless to say they were stunned. They had been calling and e-mailing but just thought Nick and Greg had gone away for some down time. They told Catherine not to worry; one or all of them would be there on the next plane. She told them they probably should pick just one because they might need all of them later on. The unspoken thought was there. If Greg died, Nick would need every friend he had and even then she still wasn’t sure he could go on without his partner; his ‘mate’ as he had called Greg one time just for fun. When Greg had almost melted in Nick’s arms, the phrase had stuck. They were smart enough to just use it in private though. Thirty minutes later, Catherine got a text message. “I’m on my way, love Collin.”
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Nick was in his own private world, just him, Greg and all the tubes and containers and machines that kept Greg alive. He vaguely realized that Catherine and Warrick had come and as usual had brought him something to eat. He tried, he really did. He knew he was worrying his friends but his throat just closed up. Maybe it was the lump of unshed tears that stayed there all the time now.

He heard the door open again and someone walked over to him, grabbed the arms of the chair he was sitting in and swung him around. He looked up at a very angry Collin Travis.

Collin dropped to his knees in front of Nick and looked him over for a few seconds and then said, “Well you look like something Rally would dig up at the park except it would smell better than you do.”

“Col? What are you doing here?” Nick’s voice was raspy with disuse. Talking took his attention away from Greg so he didn’t do it very often.

“Trying to figure out what happened to a friend of mine named Nick Stokes. I heard about Greg but not from him. Now it’s pretty obvious that Greg is being well cared for so what the hell is your excuse for looking and smelling like something out of the sewers.”

Collin was appalled. Nick’s teeth were scummy and his breath smelled like rotten meat. His breath was only marginally better than his body odor which was pretty rank. His beard was thick and his hair was shaggy and hanging around his ears and down on his neck.

Nick couldn’t understand what was wrong with Collin. Couldn’t he see that he had to be there to breath and fight for Greg? Greg wasn’t able to do it himself, he had to do it. What difference did it make what he looked like or smelled like? Greg was the only thing that mattered. He tried to tell Collin that but Collin just shook his head and glared at him.

“Nick, Catherine filled me in on what happened on the way in from the airport. I know this is a living hell for you because I know how much you love Greg but do you really think you are doing him any good by acting this way? Jesus Christ, when the poor guy does wake up, he’s going to take one look at you and think he’s died and gone to HELL!”

Nick blinked a few times and tried to process Collin’s tirade. “Do you really think I would scare him?”

“My good God, Nick; I’m in perfect health and you’re scaring me. The only thing going for Greg is the air is filtered in his containment chamber and he can’t smell you. I don’t know how in the hell, Catherine and Warrick have been able to stay in this room and I can’t believe the hospital personnel have let you stay in here in this condition.”

Nick looked at him and said slowly, “What do you want me to do?”

Collin said, “Well the first thing we’re going to do is go to your place and get you cleaned up and fed.”

Nick was shaking his head halfway through, saying no, no, no. He couldn’t leave Greg.

Collin grabbed Nicks face between his hands and said very firmly, “Nick, Greg is not going to die if you leave his side. Catherine and Warrick are here to watch over him. He’s wired into half the machines in the hospital and they are all wired into the ICU control panel. If Greg hiccups, it’s going to show up on a monitor and they will be here in an instant. Greg has made it through the “going to die at any minute” phase. Now we’re just playing a waiting game for him to overcome the drugs and pain and trauma and come back to us. When he does, do you really want him to see you like this?”

Nick looked into Collins eyes and even in his condition, saw the love and fear there. He looked over at Catherine and Warrick and saw the same expression in their eyes. He said, “Am I really that bad?”

Catherine, God bless her wicked little tongue, said, “Nicky, the only way Warrick and I have been able to stand it in here is to put Vick’s up our nose before we come in.”

‘Rick chimed in and said, “Yeah bro, I swear I’ve smelled decomp’s that were sweeter than you are.”

Nick looked at his two long suffering friends and thought how much he loved them. “Do you promise you will stay here with Greg until either I come back or someone else comes to stay?”

‘Rick looked at him and almost growled, “Do you really think we would leave our friend alone? Get the hell out of here. Maybe when you get the stink off, your brain will start working again.”
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Nick and Collin drove to his place. Collin had the windows down all the way and asked Nick if he had any car deodorizer at his place. Nick snarled back at him that he had made his point; he didn’t have to keep beating a dead horse. Collin asked him what made him think he was trying to persuade Nick, he was dead serious. He was sure he was going to puke if he didn’t get Nick cleaned up and fast.

When they got to Nick’s place, Collin pulled into the garage. He made Nick strip naked in the garage and told him to get his ass straight into the bathroom and he expected him to run the hot water heat down to cold before he got out. Nick said, that would take some doing. He and Greg had installed tankless hot water heaters throughout the house when they moved in. Collin just told him to see what he could do then to stress the system. He wanted him clean and smelling like a baby when he got through.

“And don’t forget to brush your skanky teeth. Use mouthwash and wash your hair a couple of times.”
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While Nick was getting cleaned up, Collin found his kit and got some latex gloves out. He grabbed a trash bag, went out to the garage and carefully picked up Nicks clothes and dropped them in to the bag. He even threw in his shoes. He took the bag out to the back and stuffed it in the collection bin. He threw in the gloves and then went back to the house. He looked in the fridge but after no one being there for 2 weeks, there wasn’t anything edible or at least not anything he considered edible. He went over to the phone and looked in the drawer just under it and found the stack of take out menus. He decided that Nick could handle Chinese better than any thing else, called and ordered for both of them. Then he put on water for hot tea. He knew Nick had tea bags of all sorts and sure enough, he had some jasmine tea. Perfect for Chinese.

While Nick was getting week’s worth of filth off him, Collin called ‘Rick and Cath to see how things were going. When they said no changes at all, Greg was peaceful and quiet; he asked them if they could arrange to have someone with Greg for the rest of the day and hopefully the night. He was going to try to convince Nick to get a decent night’s sleep in his own bed and he wanted to take him to a barber and get his hair cut. They said they’d take care of Greg; he needed to take care of Nick.

Nick was hard to persuade but Collin was a force to be reckoned with when he wanted to be and he knew if things didn’t change and change quick, there was a chance they might lose Nick as well as Greg.

They finally compromised. Nick would do what Collin wanted if he could call the hospital every hour and see how Greg was. After a lot of heated negotiation, they agreed on every 2 hours up till 10.00pm. They ate, did laundry, dusted, swept and vacuumed and headed out to get some groceries and a hair cut for Nick.
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Nick’s barber was located in his day spa and Collin forced Nick to spend a couple of hours being pampered. When they got through, even Nick had to admit he felt a lot better and more hopeful about the future.

Collin just grinned and told him, “It’s amazing what being clean can do for your spirits.”

Nick couldn’t even argue and the fact that Jim and Annie had taken over from Cath and ‘Rick and were watching over his love made him feel that maybe things really would get better. Annie said Jim was reading to Greg. Ever since Nick had brought Jim the detective DVD collection all those years ago, Jim had been reading up on fictional detectives and was thinking about writing a book. He was going to compare the crime fighters of fiction to the real thing and try to show how each author had made their creation unique. Right now, he was working his way through the Mike Hammer series by Mickey Spillane and reading them out loud to Greg made him feel like he was connecting with the man he still called “the kid”.
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Collin stayed for 3 days and he and Nick set up a schedule. He convinced Nick that he owed it to Greg to keep himself in the same physical condition he had always maintained. He never said ‘IF’ but always “WHEN”; WHEN Greg woke up he needed to see his lover the way he remembered him. WHEN Greg came home, Nick had to be in tip top shape because Greg was going to require lots of physical assistance and then there would be rehab to try to get Greg back in shape. He gave Nick hope and more importantly, he gave him a plan for the future.

Nick never knew how much Collin paid for the support he gave him; paid in emotional pain. Collin had never stopped loving Nick; not even when he joined the existing relationship between Larry and Steven. He had been honest with his new partners. It hadn’t been as difficult as he had thought it would be. He had come to love them both but Nick was always there in the back of his mind. He thought he’d put Nick in the category of ‘once upon a time’ but seeing him in the hospital, seeing the misery and pain on his face had made him realize that he wasn’t over Nick and probably would never be. Watching Nick come alive only because of what he needed to do for Greg was both rewarding and heart breaking at the same time. It didn’t help that Nick asked Collin to sleep with him every night he was there. Sleeping in the same bed beside a body that he knew as well as his own meant that for Collin, there was very little sleep.
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After Collin left, Nick stuck to his plan. He did make one change. He worked out and ate good healthy meals. He kept himself and their home clean and neat but he slept in the chair beside Greg every night. He was only able to sleep in their bed when Collin was in the bed with him. The first night he tried it alone, he woke up sobbing with nightmares and got up and went to be with Greg. Greg had always kept the nightmares away and he still did it even inside his plastic bubble.
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It must have been almost 3 weeks later, when time started again for Nick. He was going over some case files. The lab was slowly getting back to normal or as normal as it could be in the aftermath of the robbery. ‘Rick was back at work taking care of days. Marcie had swing ticking like a Swiss clock. Graveyard was struggling. With both Nick and Greg gone, they had taken the hardest hit in personnel and all of the team members including their lab support were still coping with the emotional fallout. They were trying to get back in the groove for themselves and for their missing friends. Grissom had talked with the regents at the University and they had given him their complete support for anything he needed. He was now acting graveyard supervisor and he had brought 3 of his best students with him after working out a deal with the said regents to give his students full credit for the work they did with the lab. They could not work anything by themselves of course but they were a big help with the grunt work both out in the field and back in the lab.

As part of his plan, Grissom had continued to teach as many of his classes as he could and got the Crime Lab personnel to fill in for him when he was either too tired or too busy to do them himself. The substitutes were a huge success. Bobby Dawson was such a hit they had to move the classes to a bigger auditorium when he lectured and oddly enough, so was Hodges. Catherine and Warrick packed the place and the president of the university was heard to say, they were going to have to commandeer Celine’s theater if any more students tried to audit their sessions.

Grissom had also started reviewing the cases with Nick. At first it was just Grissom talking and Nick focusing on Greg but after Collin came and worked his mojo, Nick began to pay attention and slowly over the 3 weeks had started really listening, asking questions and making suggestions. Gil had left copies of one case file with Nick and he was going over it in detail when he heard a strange, unfamiliar noise.

He dropped the file on his chair and went over and checked Greg’s monitors. He knew the process as well as the nursing staff by now. The monitors were clicking, humming and beeping perfectly. Nick then checked the various tubes running out of the containment bubble. Greg had a colostomy tube that would be attached to a portable bag if…WHEN he woke up. He had a urine catheter, a port in his stomach they used to feed him and several drain’s that allowed possible infectious liquids to drain from his wound. Another port had been installed in the large vein just below his neck so they could inject various medications without disturbing him. Everything was working exactly as it should. Nick leaned over to check the sterilizer that cleaned every particle of air that went into Greg’s bubble and found himself looking directly into Greg’s brown eyes.

Greg was puzzled and his eyes were clotted with discharge and he had not spoken in months so between the breathing apparatus and his swollen, sore throat, his voice was unrecognizable but Nick could see he was trying to say his name. He just stood there and looked at Greg with his mouth open. Greg was awake. Greg was looking at him. Dear God above, Greg was saying his name. Then Greg’s face twisted and he cried out, “Hurts, Hurts, Hurts!”

Nick ran for the door, threw it open and yelled for help. Nurses came running and went immediately to the bubble and the always quiet room exploded with activity. Syringes of pain medication and more antibiotics were injected in the IV port. One nurse was on the phone trying to reach Dr. Jannings, the wound specialist who had been caring for Greg ever since he came out of surgery alive.

Nick just leaned back against the wall and stayed out of their way. The door flew open and Dr. Jannings rushed in. He checked everything that Nick and then the nurses had checked and examined the chart interrogating the nurses; demanding to know every single move they had made from the moment they entered the room. Nick did not like Dr. Jannings. He didn’t exactly know why. The man might have been brilliant in his field but he was a poor excuse for a human being. But he kept Greg alive and for that, Nick could forgive him anything.

Jannings finally looked over at Nick and told him this was a breakthrough but not to expect miracles. Just because Greg had spoke once did not mean he would become Chatty Cathy over night. Nick gritted his teeth and ground his nails into his palms to keep from smacking the sarcastic son-of-a-bitch in his teeth. He told the ‘good’ doctor he didn’t expect him to but just the fact that he had woke up and obviously knew who Nick was had to be good news. Jannings told him they had given Greg a large dose of morphine and he would be sleeping for the next 8 hours at least. He wanted a nurse with him round the clock for the next 24 hours; which meant, he wanted Nick out of there. Nick had already decided he would leave for a while; he had to call a lot of people who deserved to hear some good news for a change. But he had no intention of letting Robodoc chase him out so he told him he would be leaving for the next few hours but he would be back to spend the night with Greg.

Jannings tried to forbid him, telling him he would just be in the way. Nick gave him his ‘take no prisoners’ look and told him that was tough shit. He would be in the chair beside his husband’s side for the night just as he had for the last 9 years. Jannings said, “Fine” and stomped out of the room. Nick had already turned back to watch Greg and missed the look of disgust on Robodoc’s face.
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Nick’s good news energized his friends, the lab and even the PD officers and detectives. Everyone wanted to come and see for themselves. Everyone prayed that Greg would open his eyes just for a moment while they were there. The next few weeks were full of little miracles as Greg began to stay awake for longer and longer. He was able to talk with Nick and the first time he saw Catherine, Warrick, Annie and Jim the tears flowed on both sides of the bubble. He also cried when LeAnn Campbell came to see him as she had every single day since the shooting. He kept trying to tell her he was sorry. It was still hard to understand him but LeAnn knew and told him he had nothing to be sorry for. She was grateful to him. It was an honor to know that a man Jacob had admired as much as he had admired Greg had been with him and trying to protect him when he died. She said she would always consider him and Nick part of her family and he was never to use the word ‘sorry’ in her presence again.

Things were going so well, that at the end of the fourth week a conference was called with all of Greg’s doctors present. Nick was also invited to sit in and the chief topic of discussion was the removal of the ‘bubble’. Nick was so excited he could hardly contain himself. He had not touched Greg for months now and the thought of being able to feel his hair or his cheek or even hold his hand was more than he had hoped for. His hopes were soon dashed when they started explaining that IF they removed the bubble, access to Greg would be severely restricted compared to what he and their friends had now.

Greg was abnormally prone to infection. No one would be allowed near him without full sterile gear. No one could stay in the room with him for more than 5 minutes every hour and Nick could no longer stay with him at night. When Nick started to protest, Dr. Richter, the surgeon who was the head of Greg’s team of doctor’s told him, he knew it would be painful for him but that was the only way they would even consider removing the containment chamber and the longer Greg stayed in it, the longer it would take to acclimate him to the real world again. Nick very reluctantly agreed to the terms. Again he missed the smirk of satisfaction on Jannings face. Nick was too busy trying to figure how he was going to get any sleep without nightmares if he wasn’t with Greg.

The bubble was removed and life started on a new path. Starting at 8.00am, Greg could have someone in his room (other than his medical personnel) for 5 minutes every hour. Since it took 15 minutes to decontaminate and get into the sterile outfit and another 10 minutes after to get out of the sterile outfit and back into real clothes; that meant that 30 minutes of every hour was used up. Nick drew up a list of people who could see Greg and resigned himself to giving up a precious 5 minutes for the sake of their loyal friends. Nick always claimed the first and the last 5 minutes of the day for himself.

This regimen went on for another 3 weeks and one day, while Nick was going through his morning routine, Nancy, one of Greg’s main nurses who had been with him from the beginning told him, he could stay for 10 minutes from now on.

Everything was going so well, Nick had started going into the lab during the day just to pass the time until he could be with Greg again. He had decided that instead of praying for a miraculous recovery, he would just thank God for every precious victory they achieved. He was really blindsided when he got to the hospital at the end of a long day and found Greg’s room the center of an ant hill of activity. He caught Nancy in the hall and asked her what was going on. She looked at Nick and then he noticed the tears in her eyes. She didn’t even try to be professional. She just put her hand on his arm and said, “Nick, his wound is infected. He’s running a high fever. Jannings is going to take him back into surgery and try to excise the diseased material. “

Nick took a moment to try to understand what she was saying and then said, “But Jannings isn’t a surgeon; why is he going to do the work on Greg?”

Nancy said it was true he wasn’t a surgeon but as a wound specialist, he was the one who knew what to remove from the site.

Nick was back in Hell again and the man he loved was at the mercy of the devil.