Subtext is everything

Title: Scar Tissue and Soft Cotton
Author: iamshadow
Fandom: CSI
Pairings: Nick/Greg
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,533
Summary: From the way Greg scrapes his composure together whenever anyone walks in his lab, he seems to think or hope that no one else has noticed how fragile he is.
You have, but every time you decide to say something, it feels like someone's hand is on your shoulder, holding you back, keeping you from shattering the illusion. It's your instinct to show kindness, but in this case it feels a little too close to cruelty to mention that you've seen the cracks in his armour.
Content: Hurt/comfort, episode tag, friends to lovers, first time.
A/N: I wrote this fic purely because I wanted to play with the emotional and physical fallout of the lab explosion. Though getting blown up isn't a traditional rite of passage, it was an important part of Greg's evolution and maturation from lab rat to field mouse, so I'm counting this as a fill for my coming of age/rites of passage square for trope-bingo, though I didn't write it with that aim in mind and only checked my card for complementary themes after the story was complete.

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Title: Murder Backwards
Author: iamshadow
Fandom: CSI
Pairings: Gen, Greg & Nick
Rating: G
Word Count: 2,263
Summary: Let it go, Warrick says, and though he's a friend, Nick can't just smile and pretend it doesn't matter that Catherine did what she did.
Content: Hurt/comfort, episode tag (s07e13: Redrum), friendship.
A/N: This isn't a songfic, but in the course of looking for a title for this story, I stumbled across a song called Murder Backwards by Wind In Sails, and by sheer coincidence, the lyrics are all about letting go of the past and moving forwards. It's pretty nice guy-and-guitar melancholy stuff, so if that's your thing, you can watch the film clip on Youtube or buy a digital copy of the album from the band website.

Read on AO3 & Read on DW & Read on LJ & Read on WMTDB