Title: Afterglow
By: crimescenetape
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Spoilers: It's a post after for "Mea Culpa" so if you haven't seen the episode then don't read.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Greg knows.
Disclaimer: Not mine. :'(
Notes: Greg angst. This is also a songfic/story type of thing.

***

Just when the days start getting colder,
I walk the streets I never knew
There's some words I never told you,
The sound rings out like the truth

It happened. Nick wasn't working with Greg anymore. They had been split up by a power-hungry asshole that referred to himself as Ecklie. Greg was still on Graveyard shift and Nick was on swing. Why couldn't Sara or Sophia go on Swing? Why did Ecklie have to take the one and only thing Greg cherished? Why did he have to take Nick away from him?

He stepped on the gas pedal as his car roared down the empty back streets of Las Vegas. He felt the hot tears began to form in his eyes as he hastily turned his steering wheel to the right and the car took a sharp turn, barely missing a curb. His grip on the steering wheel was tight, his knuckles white. He bit on his lip hard as the taste of his own blood filled his mouth. Greg didn't care if he bled, not now. Nothing could take the pain away.

He didn't even tell Nick how he truly felt. He was planning to today. Today he was going to tell Nick his true feelings and pray to God that Nick felt the same way. But, Nick wasn't there. He searched the whole lab and no sign of Nick and Warrick. He had found Catherine who explained to him everything. How Ecklie had split them up and that Warrick and Nick were having their last breakfast with Grissom.

And if you could see what's come over me
Then you would know
Cause I'm walking free
The wind at my back
Bathed in afterglow

Greg arrived in his apartment early that morning. Probably because he had just been driving like a maniac and had darted out of the crime lab moments before. He threw his car keys across the room, watching as they slide across the floor and came to a stop, meeting the wall.

He kicked his shoes off before stumbling into the kitchen, ripping open the fridge door and pulling out a beer. God knows how many he'll need of these to just drown his sorrow down. Greg opened the bottle and took a swig. And another. Followed by yet another. He didn't even realize that in a matter of seconds he had finished the whole bottle. "Fuck, I do need to get drunk," he told himself as he retreated back to the fridge and grabbed a couple more.

And as I sit here in this dark room
All I seem to feel is light
And I see color
I see the Maroon
Of the blood in this life that's ours

After the fourth bottle of beer he began to feel the effect. He was becoming dizzy so he fell onto the bathroom floor just lying there. Hoping that by lying down would make the world stop turning so damn fast. Maybe he could rewind things. Or maybe he was having a horrible nightmare, karma for eating that huge sundae before going to bed the other night.

"No more pain," he said to the floor as he rested his cheek against the cool tile, the tears began to fall from his eyes. He took in a deep breathe and let it out. He knew he looked childish but the thought of not having Nick...he couldn't think about it.

Then his phone rang.

And rang.

And rang.

He didn't bother to answer it. He let the answering machine pick it up.

Hold me now and see the sun fill the sky
Let me down and see the day has gone by

Song: "Afterglow" by Vanessa Carlton

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