Title: CSI100Fics Prompt Challenge – No. 1 - Beginnings
Author: Dee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1387
Pairing: Gil/Nick
Characters: Gil Grissom and Nick Stokes
Warnings: V.fluffy and AU.
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: In my dreams they are like, totally mine!
Beta: podga, so the remaining mistakes are all mine!
A/N: This is the first part of a trilogy with prompts 2 and 3 – Middle and Ends. As usual I’ll update quite quickly!

As they drove back to Las Vegas, towards the valley, the heavy sky made it look as if they were driving further into the night rather than the dawn.

 

The billowing dark storm clouds were rolling on top of one another and were suddenly lit by a flash of lightning.  It was as if everything stood still for a few moments and then the crashing sound of the thunder seemed to shake the truck beneath them.  After the first flash there was a moment’s respite and then it began in earnest, lighting the sky before them and creating a pounding thunder where one clap overlapped the next.

 

“I don’t think we’re going to beat the rain back.  This wasn’t forecast, was it?”

 

“No idea; didn’t see the weather report, but then no one mentioned it and you know what it’s like when rain is expected, everyone discusses it, talks about their lawns and their yards, whether the infrastructure will cope with a sustained downpour.”

 

“Do they?”

 

“Sure.  ‘Cause we get so little, it’s an event.”

 

“I suppose it is.” 

 

“Looks like we’re going to get a real heavy downpour.”  Even as Nick spoke large drops of rain hit their windscreen and Gil started the wipers.  In a minute it had gone from raindrops to heavy rain and in another minute it was torrential, the truck’s wiper blades inadequate for their purpose.

 

The noise of the rain pounding on the body of the truck almost drowned out the sound of the rolling thunder, and the lightning itself was hidden behind a wall of water.

 

Gil slowed down to a crawl as visibility became a serious problem.

 

“I think I might have to pull over, I can’t see the end of the hood…can you see any better?”

 

“No, but I’m pretty sure there’s a picnic parking spot ‘round here somewhere.” Nick said, raising his voice to be heard over the drumming rain.

 

“You wanna stop to eat in this weather?”  Gil sounded incredulous and Nick turned to him to make a retort, but could just about make out Gil's grin from the side view.  Gil was leaning over the steering wheel.

 

“Nah...forgot to pack the chips and soda.”

 

“Another time maybe we.…”  Gil never finished the sentence because in that instant the truck went dead: the windscreen wipers, the lights, the radio to LVPD, always crackling in the background, and the engine – stopped.

 

“Shit, man.  The rain’s got into something, I bet.”

 

Gil made no reply as he concentrated on getting the truck onto the side of the road with just the power of the momentum of the truck.  They hit a couple of bumps and slid a little but managed to stop and remained upright and level. 

 

It was pitch black. The rain hadn’t let up for a nanosecond and the noise was deafening.

 

“Okay, what next?  A game of ‘I spy’?”  Gil didn’t appear to be at all fazed by their misfortune.

 

“I’ll activate the auto radio signal; I think the solid battery is good for a couple of hours.”  As he spoke Nick fumbled in his vest, dumped in the footwell, and retrieved his Maglite from a pocket.  He found the cover to the emergency switch, opened it and flicked it on; a little red light started flashing on the radio unit indicating it had been activated.

 

He then found his cell, but there was no signal. He showed Gil, and Gil looked and raised his eyebrows.

 

“Check yours man…it might have a signal.”

 

“Oh, okay.”  Gil did as he was told.  There was no signal, but since they had the same LVPD issue cells, it was a bit of a long shot that one would work when the other didn’t. Both men knew this.

 

“I've got water and some energy bars.  I can climb over the seat and get them, if you’re hungry.”

 

“You’re good in a crisis then?”

 

“Boy scout.  You?”

 

“No.  Wasn’t much of a team player.”

 

“Dad made me go, but I did enjoy it...well…after a few weeks.”

 

“You are a team player, you’d fit into any team; you understand the dynamics.”

 

“Team player but not team leader.”

 

“Who said that?”

 

“Me.”

 

“You think that?”

 

“No; I think everyone else thinks that about me.”

 

“I don’t think that.”

 

Nick looked at Gil who seemed to be genuinely amazed that anyone would think Nick unsuitable for a team leading role.

 

Their shouted conversation was tiring and they sat in silence for a few minutes, although silence was hardly the right word when they could hardly hear themselves think - there had been no let up at all.

 

“I think…” Gil started but then very nearly jumped out of his seat, as did Nick, at the loudest bang either man had ever heard.

 

Through the windscreen and deluge they saw…maybe twelve or fifteen feet in front of them…a bolt of lightning strike a tree.  Even through the blanket of rain they saw the explosion of white hot colour and the heard the crack of the electricity as the tree momentarily lit up like gigantic Christmas tree and even in the rain, short bursts of flames shot from the branches before being extinguished. And the truck rocked backwards and forwards and sideways at the force.

 

“Holy fuck!”

 

“Shit!’

 

The men instinctively reached for each other, their hands hitting across the central console.  Reaching for human contact and comfort after such a shock…in the face of death?

 

“Just remind me Nick…the truck is grounded, isn’t it?”  Gil seemed to have recovered enough to joke and he laughed; but it was a shaky laugh.

 

“Uh-uh.”  Nick hadn’t even regained his power of speech let alone his sense of humour.

 

In a matter of ten seconds, maybe not even as long as that, it was over. Once more the rain and darkness obliterated their view of anything outside the truck.

 

“Will that tree remain upright?  If it falls we could well be in the line of fire.  Do you think we should abandon the truck?”  Gil was fully recovered and was asking the question loudly but in a quite ‘matter of fact’ tone.

 

“You see a lot of storm damaged trees and most of them are still standing.  It’s probably safer to remain with the vehicle.”

 

“Yes, I agree.  Just making sure…I wouldn’t want you to think I was making an assumption on your behalf as well my own.  We should stay put…”

 

“…first rule of survival.”

 

“Yes.” 

 

Nick suddenly realised that their hands were still locked together across the console.  He looked down at them and his movement must have jarred Gil's memory because he too noticed at the same time.

 

Gil laughed.  “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

 

Nick laughed back.  “It’s a deal.”

 

But neither made any effort to move their hand and for a few moments they just sat and looked at their hands.  And then, as one, they let go.

 

“We don’t go out as much as we used to, do we?”  Gil asked, but it was really more of an observation.

 

“No.  Things change; we’ve all got other things going on.”

 

“You seeing anyone?  I mean, is that what you mean when you say ‘other things going on’?”

 

“No.  No one at the moment. Why?”

 

“Just wondered.  We should go out for a beer maybe, you know, talk about that night we broke down in the storm.”

 

“Yeah, that’d be good, I’d like that.”

 

“And me.”

 

“Okay.”

 

They sat in silence and then noticed it was almost silent.  The rain had stopped as fast as it’d started.

 

The clouds were rolling away behind them and they could see out of the truck…the outline of the big tree, still standing firmly and sturdily in place, even if its branches had become charcoal.

 

The truck still wouldn’t start and their cells remained resolutely signal-less, but, a bottle of water each, two snack bars and a piss up a (another) tree, and one hour fifteen minutes later, a patrol found them.

 

They went out for a beer when shift was over and much later, when they reminisced about the ‘night of that storm’, they both agreed it was the real beginning of their relationship.

 

Gil flatly denied he’d been scared.

 

Nick disagreed, but kept that to himself.

 

The End