Title: Blast From the Past
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Ryan Wolfe
Fandom: CSI: Vegas/CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
Table: 7, 12_stories
Prompt: 2, Decisions
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my 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.

***

"Are you going to tell the rest of the team about the Cuban mob guy?" Greg asked, looking over at Ryan as the two of them got dressed for work. "They really should know, Ry. It's not like they can look out for the guy if they don't even know he's around."

Ryan nodded slowly, frowning as he sat down on the edge of their bed. "I've made the decision to tell them about him, but it's not like I can spill out the whole story," he said, shaking his head, the words coming out reluctantly. "I don't want them to know everything."

Greg nodded, agreeing with him. "I wouldn't want them to know everything, either," he said softly, moving across the room to sit down next to Ryan on the bed. He reached for Ryan's hand, twining their fingers together and taking a deep breath.

"Ry, I know we can't tell everybody about the two of us," he began, his voice soft and a little hesitant. "But I've got a feeling that even if they don't know we're involved, they all know we're close to each other. And I think everybody on the team thinks a lot of you, too."

"I think a lot of them," Ryan said absently, his mind not really on what Greg was saying. "But I don't think they need to know the whole story behind why that guy might be here. If he's gunning for me, I'm pretty sure he wants to finish what he started in Miami."

An involuntary shudder went through his body at the thought; he didn't want to remember what had been done to him when he'd been kidnapped by the Cuban mob, but the memories were rushing back in a wave that threatened to swamp him completely.

Greg's arm slipped around his waist, pulling him closer to the other man; Ryan didn't resist, letting himself lean against Greg and closing his eyes. At the moment, he needed the support, needed to feel Greg close to him, to know that he was safe.

He didn't need to think about that horrible time in Miami, that last bad situation he'd been in when he was still part of the CSI team there. He had been sure that he wouldn't come out of that alive; he'd considered himself lucky to still be in one piece.

He hadn't felt that he was still in one piece right after he'd gone through that ordeal. He had felt scattered, as though he'd been bruised and battered and ripped into millions of tiny shards. It had been one of the worst experiences of his life, one that he never wanted to repeat.

It wouldn't be repeated, he told himself as he rested his head against his boyfriend's shoulder. He wasn't going to be weak and afraid, or back away from any kind of confrontation with the man who had tortured him. He wasn't going to be put in that situation again.

"Nobody's going to let that happen," Greg whispered, hugging Ryan close against him. "He's not going to get close enough to you for anything even remotely like that, Ry. I promise. We'll keep him away from you. But the rest of the team has to know what kind of threat he is."

Ryan nodded, sighing as he did so. "I know they do. He could be gunning for any one of them, too. One thing I've learned about any kind of mob -- they go for the people their targets are closest to. And that means ...." Ryan swallowed hard, his voice trailing off.

"That means he could come after me, especially if he knows that we're personally involved," Greg finished for him, his tone wry. "I know that, Ryan. And yeah, it scares me. But I'm not going to let him get to me, either. We'll both be protected."

"How can you be sure of that?" Ryan demanded, raising his head to look directly into his boyfriend's eyes. "Nobody can be with us all the time, Greg. And we wouldn't want them to be. We shouldn't have to live in fear, always looking over our shoulders."

"We won't have to. We'll catch this guy before he has a chance to get near either one of us." Greg's voice was strong and firm, as though he really believed what he was saying; either he was a lot more confident than Ryan felt, or he had an almost innocent belief in his team.

Maybe it was a little bit of both, Ryan told himself. Greg might be a couple of years older than him, and he might even have been a CSI for longer than Ryan had been. But Ryan felt that he'd been through a lot more; he'd lost any last remaining shreds of his innocence long ago.

Greg still retained some of that innocence, no matter how many ugly things he'd seen due to working with the crime lab for so long. He could be as open and ingenuous as a child, and it was one of the things that Ryan loved about him and never wanted him to lose.

He didn't want Greg to lose that faith in his team, the faith that made him so completely sure that those people he trusted would keep both of them safe. Ryan had been there before; he'd had that kind of faith in his team members when he'd been in Miami.

It had been a crushing blow to realize that even though they considered him a team member, he wasn't as valuable to them as they were to him. They didn't have that unshakable trust in him -- and what was more, they had failed more than once to be there when he had needed them.

It had taken seven years of working with them for his boss to call him by his first name. He had been "Mr. Wolfe" to Horatio for so long that he had been shocked to hear the other man call him by his first name when he had been badly injured during a tornado.

Things were different here; the team seemed much more accepting of him than the one in Miami had been. But then, in coming here, he hadn't been "replacing" a dead man, as he had been in the minds of the Miami team who had never quite fully accepted him.

He'd made the best decision of his life when he had come here to Vegas, Ryan told himself. Even if he'd been followed by his past, he had the resources here to stop that threat in its tracks -- and people who would be more than willing to help him do so.

"I hope you're right, baby," he forced himself to say aloud, not wanting to confide his doubts and fears. It wasn't that he wasn't sharing his feelings with Greg, he told himself. He just didn't want to worry the other man, to make him feel more paranoid than he had to be.

Greg knew well enough that the two of them would have to be even more careful and vigilant from now on, both on and off the job. Until they had this man behind bars -- and hopefully found out just what he was doing here in Vegas -- they could both be in more danger than they knew.

It wasn't himself he was worried about, Ryan thought, lifting his head from his boyfriend's shoulder and glancing at the other man. It was Greg. Greg would be the target now, more than he would. Hurting Greg would be their way of getting at him.

Ryan was absolutely sure that this man had been following him, without his knowledge. He hadn't been looking for that, hadn't been aware that anyone would be on his trail, so he hadn't been keeping an eye out. It would have been incredibly easy for his nemesis to track him.

And in doing so, to find out that he had a personal relationship with the man who was his partner at work. That would make everything click into place for the Cuban mob; they would know that going after Greg would be the surest way of neutralizing Ryan.

Or maybe taking him out wasn't what they wanted. They might want what the Russian mob had demanded of him when they had kidnapped him a few years ago -- to have a man inside the CSI team, to infiltrate crime scenes and remove evidence.

"We'll all look out for each other," Greg said softly, squeezing his hand. "We always have. You're part of the team now, Ryan, even if they don't know how much you mean to me personally. Nobody's going to let anything happen to you."

Ryan nodded, not feeling as confident as Greg obviously did, but feeling better about the future. He wasn't alone in this. He could tell the rest of the team that there was someone from his past here who could be after him, and they would help protect both Greg and himself.

"I know we will," Ryan answered, his voice soft and husky. As long as he had Greg by his side, nothing else really mattered. He would do everything in his power to keep Greg safe and protected; it didn't matter if anyone was watching out for him or not.

Greg was the important one here, Ryan told himself firmly. He was the most likely target, the one who could be in the most danger from these old enemies. He was the one who everyone needed to be focused on, the one who most needed protection.

Making the decision to tell the team about what had happened to him in Miami was the only way to ensure that they would all be on the lookout for this man, to keep both Greg and himself protected as fully as they could be. And he didn't have to tell everything.

All that they needed to know was that this man had kidnapped and tortured him. They didn't have to know the rest. But the decision to tell them about how dangerous this person could be was already taken out of his hands. If he didn't tell them, then Greg would.

"We'll keep each other safe," Greg told him, sounding confident and sure of himself. "That guy is going to be behind bars before much longer, Ryan. And until he is, the team will all be watching out for each other -- and especially for you. There's nothing to worry about."

With those words, he got to his feet, tugging Ryan up along with him. Ryan allowed himself to be pulled onto his feet, knowing that they had to go to work and start their day. All he could do was hope that this blast from the past would be vanquished quickly, with no harm coming to anyone.

***