Lab Rat, Field Mouse- Demon Faith
Shiver, hack, cough.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Never should’ve followed Nick. Shouldn’t have left their bed.
Sniffle, cough, cough.
Laughing stock of the lab, of the CSIs. Hell, Nick won’t even speak to him. Don’t blame him.
Sneeze, cough, hack. Die.
Greg pulled the covers closer, and shivered into the icy linen. What the hell was wrong with this house? Had Nick forgotten to pay the gas company or was there a window open someplace?
Burying his head into the pillow, he reviewed his last shift. Disapproving looks from the lab technicians – not that he blamed them, he had royally screwed up in the field and made them all look bad. And, even worse, platitudes and pity from the CSIs – as if he needed to look any worse in their eyes!
And Nick, dear God, Nick. As if his reproachful look when he’d showed up hadn’t been enough. The pagers had gone in the early hours, and they’d both woken in surprise. Nick had disappeared out of the door, and Greg had thought ‘Well, I’ve been paged, why shouldn’t I go?’ Big mistake.
No warm jacket in the freezing Nevada night, and Nick had called him on it like some Mother Hen. Stuck making notes for his oh-so-superior boyfriend, and then the blood. A little trickle of blood and he froze, Nick shouting at him with more worry for him than for the dying man in his arms. What a failure.
Then, the stuttering apologies, like he was some teenager who’d set fire to the Chem labs. Yeah, and Nick was dating him why? Surely that couldn’t last long with this kind of disgrace. Grissom would see him differently, tell him his boyfriend was a liability. After he’d fought so hard for Nick’s friends to know about them, this was the consequence of that knowledge. He screwed up, Nick was caught in the shadow of his disgrace.
Tears now – what was wrong with him? He brushed angrily at the salty rivulets, then sniffled into a tissue. Shivering again, he tried to disappear under the duvet but his head hurt and wouldn’t move. Damn.
The door slammed too loudly, and a far-too-cheerful Nick yelled, “I’m home.” Greg couldn’t even find his voice.
“Greg? You’re not asleep already, are you?”
He tried to focus on the figure entering the room, but for some reason, the room blurred. Nick leaned closer, frowning.
“God, you’re pale,” a warm hand settled on his forehead and he leaned into the tough, “And you’re burning up! Geez, Greg, why didn’t you say something?”
And then he was gone. Greg almost whimpered. Way to go, Greg he grimaced That’s the way to show your maturity.
Suddenly, his head was blistering hot but his fingers stayed numb from cold. He blinked in confusion, but his fuzzy brain finally made the connection. Fever.
Cold water hit his forehead and he cried out, but a touch soothed his skin, as Nick shushed him.
“It’s alright, I’m here, calm down. I’ve got the thermometer – don’t worry, it’s not David’s meat spike – here, under your tongue.”
Greg parted cracked lips and Nick settled the thermometer in his mouth, brushing back his hair as he did so.
“You’re an idiot, you know that. Why didn’t you call me?”
“Bithee. Dnt wan t dithcrth yew,” Greg mumbled around the thermometer, and Nick sighed in exasperation.
“Whatever your reason, it wasn’t good enough. You’re sick, you call me. No excuses.”
The thermometer beeped and Nick removed it.
“Thirty-nine degrees Celsius. Well, that’d not too high for now, but I’d better call you in sick for tomorrow. And I might work the half-shift…”
“I can work,” Greg insisted. It would’ve been convincing had his voice now decided to rasp and he hasn’t sneezed spectacularly in the middle. Nick passes him a handkerchief.
“Yeah, because contaminated samples are the way to go. You’re staying home and no arguments!”
“I need to prove I can do my job. I can’t be sick right now!”
Greg didn’t even realise he’d spoken out loud until he registered Nick’s look of horror. He began to apologise, to correct himself, but Nick stopped him.
“We’ve made you feel like that? *I’ve* made you…I…”
Nick placed his hands on Greg’s burning cheeks, and looked him straight in the eye, his voice shaking.
“You are the best lab technician this city has, and I am damn proud of you. You froze, it happens. You’ll be ready next time, and there will be a next time. I love you, and I never want you to forget that.”
He kissed him then, and Greg let the aches and sniffles fall away as he concentrated on Nick and that kiss. Finally, Nick pulled away grinning, and Greg smiled weakly in return.
“I’m going to give you my cold,” he warned, but Nick just smiled.
“It’s worth it.”
He kicked off his shoes and slipped under the cover, wrapping himself around Greg, who shivered in his arms.
“Thank you. For believing in me.”
“Always, Greg. Always.”