Title: Angel By My Side
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Ryan Wolfe
Fandom: CSI: Las Vegas/CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
Table: Un-themed 8, mission_insane
Prompt: 6, Angel
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Ryan Wolfe, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Ryan propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at Greg as he slept. He had to remind himself not to reach out and touch the beautiful man sleeping so peacefully by his side; he didn't want to wake Greg, not when nightmares had kept him up for part of the past week.

He hated to think of his boyfriend having bad dreams; he knew only too well how nightmares could seep into the fabric of a person's life, and how they could focus on those bad dreams until it seemed that they would always be there in the background, never quite going away.

Those dreams seemed to be nowhere near Greg now, Ryan reflected, a smile settling on his lips as he looked down at his boyfriend. Greg was smiling in his sleep; Ryan hoped that his lover was dreaming about him. He liked to think that he could bring that sort of look to Greg's face.

He'd thought that Greg must be an angel who had fallen to this realm from the heavens the first time he'd seen him, but now, when his boyfriend was sleeping so peacefully, he was even more sure of that. No one had ever looked so beautiful to him -- or so utterly desirable.

Greg was the most beautiful man he'd ever seen, whether he was asleep or awake. If he'd searched for the rest of his life, he would never have been able to find anyone who fit every image of perfection he'd ever held in his mind's eye, or who fulfilled every desire he'd ever had.

Greg was all he'd ever wanted, all he'd ever needed. This man meant more to him than he could begin to put into words. Greg was simply .... everything. Ryan was sure that his boyfriend encompassed his entire world, and that he needed nothing else but Greg in his life to make him completely happy.

What would his life have been like if he'd never decided to leave Miami and come to Vegas? Would he ever have found someone who could be a part of his very heart and soul in the way that Greg was? He didn't think so. No, that wasn't true, Ryan told himself. He knew so.

He would never have found anyone else like Greg, even if he'd searched the entire world over for the rest of his life. Greg was his angel from above, his heart, his soul, his life, the very air that he breathed. Greg was a part of him, everything to him. Greg was all that he was, and all that he could ever be.

Would it have been possible for him to come to Vegas and not meet Greg, if he hadn't been working as a CSI or as a cop? He didn't think that was possible, either. Yes. this was a big city -- but there was no way he could be so close to Greg and not have found him.

This angel had been his destiny from the moment they were first conceived. He believed that utterly and completely; he knew in his heart and soul that Greg had always been intended for him, just as he'd been meant to love Greg and spend their lives together.

Maybe other people would scoff at that, but it was what he believed. And every time he looked at Greg, every time his angel smiled at him, or they made love, or even just simply held each other as they fell asleep, he was more sure that this was where he'd always been meant to be.

Loving Greg was his destiny; everything else he did in his life was only a sidetrack. Yes, he loved being a CSI, just as he'd loved being a cop -- but his passion for his work fell into the background compared with his love for Greg and the passion that flared between them.

He himself was no angel, even though he knew that Greg thought of him as being one. Ryan's lips quirked in a rueful smile as he looked back over all of the things he'd done -- some of which he wasn't proud of. But he wasn't entirely sure that he wouldn't do most of them over again.

He'd gotten himself into trouble more than once -- sometimes serious trouble that he'd been fairly sure would cost him his job, as well as other things that were precious to him. There had even been times when the trouble he courted might have cost him his life.

But he couldn't really regret anything he'd done, good or bad -- because in the end, everything in his life had brought him here to Vegas, and to Greg. If he regretted even one single thing and wanted to do it over again, that could change his life to the point where he would no longer be with his angel.

That was a thought that he didn't want to contemplate. Greg was everything to him; losing his angel wasn't an option. It never had been, not from the first moment he'd laid eyes on Greg, from that first smile, that first handshake, the gleam of interest he'd seen in those remarkable eyes.

Even at that first meeting, when he hadn't known anything about Greg, he'd been convinced that he was looking into the eyes of an angel. He'd been short of breath, his heart pounding in his chest, the desire that he'd felt unrivaled by anything he'd ever known before.

Greg definitely wasn't perfect, Ryan told himself as he reached out to gently brush back a lock of his boyfriend's hair from his face with a gentle, feather-light touch. But they were perfect for each other -- and in the end, nothing else really mattered.

Greg had been his guiding star ever since they'd first met; there was no telling what kind of trouble he might have gotten into if he didn't have this man by his side to hold him back from his worst impulses. He could have ended up falling back into his gambling habits, or worse.

Ryan shuddered at the idea, pulling his thoughts away from that area quickly. He wasn't going to start the gambling again; he was far past that, and this angel was one of the reasons he would never succumb to that instinct. He would do something that would let Greg down so badly.

His angel deserved the best from him, and that's what he would get, Ryan told himself firmly. He would try with all of his heart to never disappoint Greg; his angel made him want to be a better man, not only for Greg, but for himself, as well. He wanted to be worthy of the man by his side.

So far, he felt as though he'd done a good job of that. He'd managed to turn his back on what he felt were some of his less-than-admirable qualities, and lock them away. He wasn't perfect either, of course. But he was trying to be the best person that he could be.

Did Greg have those same thoughts? he wondered. Did his boyfriend try to make himself a better person so that he could feel he was worthy of being with Ryan? He couldn't imagine Greg having to do that; in his eyes, his boyfriend couldn't be any better.

Ryan couldn't help smiling wryly at that thought, knowing that Greg would laugh if he could hear what he was thinking. Greg didn't consider himself an angel; he would say that Ryan was being silly, and that he had a lot of faults that he still needed to overcome.

But to him, Greg was an angel. Greg was here for him whenever he needed love in his life; Greg held him when one of his nightmares gripped him, loved him unconditionally even when he felt that he didn't deserve that love. Greg was a part of him, heart, body and soul.

Without Greg, his life would be much emptier and lonelier than it was now, and Ryan didn't want to think about how it would feel to not have that love in his life. Not being with Greg would never be an option for him; he was in this relationship for the long run, no matter what might come their way.

As long as he had his angel by his side and in his arms, he would be a happy man. He had the life that he'd always wanted, and now that he had found love, he wasn't going to let it slip away; everything was as he wanted it to be, and he intended to keep it that way.

With another soft smile, he bent to press a kiss against Greg's cheek before he settled down against the pillows again, closing his eyes. He could go back to sleep now, secure in the comfort of knowing that his angel was by his side, and that neither of them were going anywhere.

***