Title: Holiday Blues
Author: Carina Scott
Pairing: Jim/Warrick (Nick/Greg implied)
Rating: FRM
Summary: Warrick and Jim get drunk on Christmas Eve.
Author's Notes: This one is for Mara, I had fun writing this one and I hope you have fun reading it.

~*~

Walking into the tavern, Jim stood for a moment, allowing his eyes time to adjust to the dimly lit bar having just come in from the well-let Strip. Sighing, he made his way to the bar, taking a vacant stool. Looking over at the bartender, Sam if he was remembering correctly, he gestured that he was ready to order.

"Hey Captain, haven't seen you around this way in a while. What can I get you?"

"Scotch on the rocks, and keep 'em coming."

"That bad huh?" Sam replied as he placed the requested drink in front of Jim.

"Yeah, the worse. But," taking a long swig of scotch, "this should help me forget it."

"Well, you know listening is coded in a bartender's DNA. If you wanna talk, I'm all ears."

"Thanks Sam, but I don't think so." With a nod of his head, Sam hurried to the other end of the bar where two customers were getting a little rowdy.

The last thing Jim wanted to do was talk. That was exactly what he had been doing the last hour. 'More like begging,' he thought as he took another sip of his drink. In all honesty, begging really was more fitting for what he had done.

~flashback~

"Come on, Ellie; you said you'd come."

He could here the sarcasm over the phone just as clearly as if she were standing in front of him. "No Dad, I said I'd think about coming. I thought about it and decided I didn't want to come to Vegas to spend Christmas in a crappy restaurant, with crappy service, listening to you try to tell me what's wrong with my crappy life. No thanks!"

Sighing, Jim rubbed his eyes as he looked through the window of his office. Most people were scurrying around, trying to tie up loose ends before they headed home to spend the holidays with family and friends. Sighing again, he replied, "Ellie, I thought we talked about this. I'm not trying to control you, you are an adult. The choices you make are your own. I just want to spend Christmas with you, that's all."

"Yeah Dad, sure. In case you didn't take the hint when I left after you woke up in the hospital, I don't want to see you or talk to you. I only came to make sure you didn't die; and you didn't. Don't expect your near death experience to make me feel anything different. Our relationship hasn't changed, sorry if you assumed it did."

Heart shattering upon hearing her hurtful words, Jim tried again, "Ellie, don't be like this. Please, just come and spend breakfast with me, I'll take you wherever you want to go after that. You said you were gonna be in town anyway. It's just breakfast. Please."

"Nothing is never 'just' anything with you. Look Dad, I gotta go. Sorry."

And with that she hung up, leaving her distraught father sitting alone in his office staring at the phone.

He sat there for a few minutes, willing himself not to cry, but when he realized the tears were inevitable, he stood and walked over to his office window to draw his blinds. Sitting back behind his desk, he didn't even bother to wipe the tears that spilled down his cheeks.

~end flashback~

Feeling like an idiot for crying he had left his office in search of a bar he figured none of his colleagues would seek out, considering its distance from both the precinct and the lab.

Shooting back another glass of scotch, Jim gestured to Sam that he was ready for another one.

Taking the fourth empty glass from his patron, Sam looked at Jim in concern, "You sure you want more?"

"Don't baby me Sam. I can handle it," Jim said as he slurred his words slightly. It had been quite a while since he had drunk this much, years in fact, but he wasn't numb enough yet. His heart still ached.

~*~

Sitting in a back corner, Warrick Brown frowned down at his half empty glass of bourbon. It wasn't helping, and it was his third glass. Considering he didn't drink unless it was a special occasion because of his job, that was pretty major as he should have been feeling the affects long ago. But since he could still feel the pain left over from yet another failure, he figured he could take more.

Raising his hand, he signaled to the waitress that he wanted another one. Smiling, she nodded her head, and headed up to the bar.

As he waited he couldn't help but think about his latest failure; his marriage. He had tried to make it work, even after he pretty much caught her cheating on him while investigating the case in which Jim was shot, but he had still failed. And to make matters worse, he hadn't even been the one to break it off. She had just up and told him it was over. Just like that, no warning at all. To say he was dumbfounded was an understatement. She asked him to leave, and since he didn't want any confrontation he just left without argument.

Luckily Nick was very understanding, and offered to let him stay at his place until he found a new apartment. Nick had tried to cheer him up, even enlisting Greg to help, but nothing had worked. He had been so depressed since the break up that he could only muster up enough energy to make it to work, and back home at the end of the day. His depression wasn't affecting his work, but people had begun to notice that something wasn't quite right. Catherine and Gil had asked him on several occasions if things were okay, but he just smiled and told them that he would be fine as soon as the divorce was final.

But it was a lie. Two weeks ago he had signed the papers, setting him free, and he still felt like crap. He thought moving into his own apartment would help but it didn't, he still felt like a hopeless failure. And the holiday season was only making matters worse. Since the death of his Grams about two years ago, the holidays had been hard. But when he married Tina, he figured being with her would ease the pain the holidays brought. And it had. Last year, although he still felt the pain, it wasn't at the forefront of his mind because he had someone to distract him and keep him occupied. But this year? He only had himself since Nick had gone home for the holidays, taking Greg along with him to meet the family, and Catherine had taken Lindsey to visit some cousins in Chicago for the Christmas holiday. Gil had gone to visit his mother in LA, and Sara; hell who knew where she was. He wouldn't have spent the holiday with her anyway. So he was alone for the holiday, and he was depressed. Not the best combination.

Smiling (if you could call it that), at the waitress that had just come over, he took the beverage and handed her his empty glass. "Thanks."

She smiled and hurried off to the next table.

Taking a gulp of his drink, he reveled in the burn he felt as the liquid traveled to his stomach. It was the only other feeling besides depression he had felt, and he liked feeling anything else.

Sighing again, Warrick shook his head. He really wished he could get out from under this dark cloud, but no matter what he tried, nothing helped.

"Care if I join you," said a slurred voice off to his right. Looking towards the voice, Warrick smiled. Maybe he had found something that would help after all. "Sure Jim. Have a seat."

~*~

The last thing he expected when he turned in his stool to look at the mildly deserted bar behind him was to see Warrick Brown sitting alone in a darkened corner. The fact that Warrick was in the bar wasn't as strange as seeing him alone in the bar. In fact, he couldn't understand why Warrick was alone. He had heard that Warrick had finalized his divorce a few weeks ago, and after being with a woman that had cheated on him, something Warrick had discovered in the worst of ways; he figured Warrick would be celebrating being free from that trash. But obviously, that wasn't so.

Stepping down from his stool, Jim swayed slightly before he managed to put one foot in front of the other and walk in Warrick's direction. If Ellie didn't want to spend the holiday with him, he could at least use his available time to cheer up a friend.

Stopping next to his table, Jim spoke up, "Care if I join you?" Realizing Warrick might not want company, considering where the bar was located, Jim waited anxiously for his answer.

To his great relief, Warrick smiled, "Sure Jim. Have a seat."

~*~

Opening his eyes, Warrick groaned in agony, and closed his eyes again. His head ached, his mouth tasted like crap, and he had the lingering feeling that he had done something extremely stupid the night before. But try as he might, he couldn't for the life of him remember what the hell had happened the night before. He had gone to the bar to drown his sorrows, but after that, things got pretty hazy.

Opening his eyes slowly, Warrick waited for the pain to subside and the wave of nausea to pass. Looking around the dimly lit room, Warrick immediately recognized that he was not in his bedroom. "What the hell did you do last night, Warrick?" he thought.

Feeling movement behind him, Warrick froze. Whatever he had done, he obviously hadn't done it alone. Lifting the covers, Warrick looked down and realized that he was stark naked. Oh yeah, he'd definitely done something stupid. 'Maybe I can leave without her noticing,' he thought as he began to look around the room for his discarded clothing. They weren't there so he figured they were in the living room. As he was about to move to get out of the bed, he heard a groan of agony come from the direction of his bedmate. "Too late for that, bro." he thought as he turned towards the other occupant of the bed.

Jaw dropping wide open, Warrick gasped, "Jim?" He was sleeping in Jim Brass' bed, stark naked. What had happened last night?

"Huh? What?" came the groggy reply. When Jim opened his eyes, slowly as not to disturb his pounding head, he stared in wide eyed shock at Warrick. "Warrick?"

Recovering slightly, Warrick pulled the covers up higher, trying to hide his obvious nudity, then feeling like an idiot for doing so. 'I think he's seen it all anyway, Warrick,' said his subconscious, that sounded strangely like Nick.

"Umm, so… uh, do you know what happened to my clothes?" Warrick asked, wanting to make his escape, but realizing he would need his clothes to do so.

"Clothes?" Jim asked still reeling from the shock that an obviously naked Warrick was in his bed. Sitting up, he looked around the room and then back at Warrick, "What happened last night?"

"Your guess is better than mine. I only remember going to the bar, anything after that is a big blur."

"Yeah, all I remember is I had an argument with Ellie, went to the bar to get a drink, and then I saw you sitting in the bar. After that, I can't recall anything."

Sitting for a few moments in awkward silence, Warrick looked over at Jim, "You don't think anything happened, do you?"

"Considering the fact that we are both naked, I think something happened. I'm just not sure what that something is."

"Well, I don't think anything happened. At least not what we're thinking."

"Really? how do you know?"

"First off, I'm not sticky or sore. And considering we can't even remember getting here, I think we would have been too drunk to get it up anyway."

Blushing slightly, Jim smirked, "Good point." Looking at Warrick, Jim considered his next question, but decided to throw caution to the wind. "Would you have regretted it if something had happened?"

Contemplating the question for a minute, Warrick thought about everything that had happened over the last year. Jim's shooting, Tina's affair, marriage counseling, and finally the divorce. Nodding his head, Warrick replied. "Yes, I think I would regret it."

Deflating, Jim simply replied, "Oh."

Reaching across the bed, he grabbed Jim's hand and squeezed it. "I meant I would regret it because I want to remember making love to you."

"Oh," Jim replied before moving to close the distance between them.

Before their lips could meet, Warrick pulled away slightly, "Jim, I think I'm gonna throw up."

Before Jim could even be insulted, Warrick bolted from the bed in a mad dash to the restroom. Jim only had a moment to appreciate the sight of Warrick's beautiful muscular ass disappearing from his view, before his stomach had him following the same path.

THE END