Title: Claming Down
By: Perpetual Motion
Pairing: Greg/Warrick
Disclaimer: CBS and Bruckheimer own them. I just pair them up. Author's Notes: For Julian Lee, just in case she's not sleeping again.

"Warrick, could I see you for a minute?" Gil motioned Warrick into his office with a crook of his finger.

Warrick walked into the office and leaned against the wall as Gil closed the door. "What's up?"

"Have you noticed that Greg's hands are shaking?"

Warrick said nothing for a few moments, then just barely scratched out a raw-sounding, "yeah." He stared at his shoes for a moment, obviously uncomfortable.

"Have you talked to him about it?"

"He...I can't get him to say anything. He won't even talk about the nightmares he's having." Warrick sighed and rubbed his face. "He's slept on the couch the last couple of nights. I can't get him to come to bed with me."

"I'm not concerned about his work being affected. Greg's already assured me he can handle it, but if he doesn't get help soon, he's going to collapse personally."

"I *know*." Warrick looked peeved. "I'm trying, Gris."

Gil held up a hand to stop him from going off. "I know you're trying, Warrick. I just wanted to make sure you realized how serious this is. Some people pull the wool over their own eyes when someone they love gets injured like Greg was."

"Not me."

"I realize that. Sorry, I stepped out of bounds."

Warrick relaxed slightly. "That's okay. Thanks for the heads up." He left Gil's office and went to the lab, pausing in the doorway and watching Greg work for a moment. He rapped lightly on the doorframe and returned the small smile Greg gave him. "Hey."

"Hey." Greg put down the beaker he was working with. "What's up?"

"Gris just talked to me. Said your hands were shaking."

Greg looked pissed for a moment. "I told him I could handle it."

"You've slept on the couch the last two nights."

"So I wouldn't wake you."

Warrick grabbed Greg's arm as he tried to turn away. "Hey, look at me." He waited for Greg to look up at him. "What happened, the explosion, it scared the shit out of me. More so when I saw you get rolled out on the stretcher, and then, when I found out it was my fault for what happened-"

"It wasn't your fault."

"Yeah, it was. Catherine put that fluid under the hood, but I should have remembered to check the hot plate."

"It wasn't-" Greg cut himself off when he saw the look on Warrick's face. He wasn't going to win this arguement. "If you think I resent you, I don't. No one planned this. I'm not shaking because I'm scared of you."

Warrick wasn't sure how to respond to that. He'd secretly been wondering if Greg's reaction had been out of fear or anger. He loosened his grip on Greg's arm. "You've been sleeping on the couch. You won't talk about your nightmares."

"I just...I don't know *how* to talk about it."

"You wake me up and say, 'Warrick, I had a nightmare, and this is what happened', and after you do, I'll rub your back, hold you close, and do whatever else you need me to do to help you go back to sleep."

"Even sex?" Greg watched Warrick suck in a hard breath. He didn't know why he felt disappointed. Warrick had barely touched him since the explosion. "I didn't think so."

Warrick made a grap for Greg's arm again. "Hold on." He looked into Greg's eyes and felt his libido flare up. "What makes you think I wouldn't make love to you?"

"I can barely get you to touch me lately. It isn't a hard leap in logic."

"I haven't done anything because you haven't given me the go-ahead."

Greg gaped for a few seconds. "What?"

"You went through a glass wall and got really injured a few weeks ago. I've been waiting for you to decide when you're ready before I did anything. I didn't want to pressure you into sex before you felt you were healthy enough to do it." Warrick watched, more confused than before, as Greg started laughing a little hysterically. "What's so funny?"

"Have you-" Greg cut off to laugh again. "Have you ever known me to be *pressured* into anything?" He laughed some more, and suddenly, he was crying. He was crying hard and his knees were shaking. "Oh, God." His voice broke, and he started slipping to the floor.

Warrick managed to get his arms around Greg's waist and get him to the floor without hurting either of them. He murmured comforting noises into Greg's ear as he rocked him slowly. He had wondered how long it would take for Greg to break down. "Greg, hey, Greg. Talk to me. Tell me what's going on."

It took a few seconds, but Greg started speaking through the crying. "I was just standing there, working, and then-" He cut off and hicupped. "And then I was on the floor and there was glass around me, and it felt like my skin was trying to peel off my body, and I was so scared. I was so scared, Warrick." Greg hicupped again, and his hands came up to tighten around Warrick's arms. "I saw Sara, and I couldn't help her, and I wondered if you'd been hurt, if you'd been blown up, if I'd see you in the morgue, if I'd be running shreds of your clothes through the lab to identify the chemical that blew up."

Warrick felt his blood run cold. He hadn't thought about the hell Greg had gone through, not knowing where he was or if he'd been hurt. "I'm right here, Greg. I'm okay."

"I find you in my nightmares, and you're covered in blood, and there's glass falling down on us like little, jagged snowflakes, and when I touch you, you burst into flames, and I have to take your ashes and try to find something to identify you with because no one will believe me when I tell them you've died."

"God, Greg." Warrick didn't know what else to say. He held Greg more tightly against him and carefully moved him until they were both standing up. "Come on; walk with me."

Greg still had his head buried in Warrick's shoulder. "Where are we going?"

"Home. To bed. We're going to sleep, then we're going to talk, and then we're both calling in sick tomorrow and start working through the rest of this."

"Oh. Okay." Greg let himself be led down the hall and out towards the parking lot. He looked down at himself as Warrick unlocked the doors to the car and realized his hands had stopped shaking. For the first time since the explosion, he felt calm.