Title: Overhanging Clouds
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Nick Stokes
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1drabble
Prompt: 1, Clouds
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 Nick Stokes, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Greg turned the steering wheel to pull in behind Nick's truck, his hands shaking.

He hated this. He hated seeing someone who looked like Shane and falling apart. He didn't want to think that he was so weak, so unable to handle himself.

He'd been told by the therapist he'd spent some time with that it would take a while for him to learn to handle stress well, but he hadn't really been given any advice on just how to handle that stress. When he saw someone who in any way resembled Shane, his stress level skyrocketed.

Everything had been fine until he'd left the grocery store and pushed the cart out to his car. That was when he'd seen the man who looked like Shane in the parking lot.

He'd practically thrown the groceries into the trunk and left.

He hadn't even bothered to put the cart back into the proper place; he'd just left it sitting there in his parking space. He felt a little guilty about doing that.

But all he'd wanted was to get out of there as quickly as he could. He had kept an almost panicked eye on the road behind him as he'd driven home, wondering if he was being followed, but he didn't think so. If he was, then the man was a master at hiding himself in traffic.

He didn't think Shane was that good. He was almost sure that the man hadn't been Shane. He hadn't been driving the car that Greg had grown used to, for one thing.

But Shane could have gotten a new car. He could have cut his hair. He could have altered his appearance. There were all kinds of ways he could have disguised himself.

Life had been going so well lately, Greg thought as he turned off the engine and leaned his forehead against the warm leather of the steering wheel, closing his eyes. The cloud that had been hanging over his head, the cloud that was his past, seemed to have dissipated.

And now, this random sighting of his ex had unnerved him, and sent him back to right where he'd been when all of this had started.

He couldn't get out of the car. He was rooted in place.

Greg sat there for a few more minutes, trying to clear his head and wipe away the vision of Shane's face that hung over him like a gathering of black clouds.

If only that face would leave his memories and never bother him again, he thought as he opened the car door. But that wasn't going to happen, not until Shane had been put behind bars and he knew that he no longer had anything to fear from his past.

His legs were slightly shaky, but he could walk. He went to the back of the car, took out some of the groceries, and headed for the front door.

The clouds that had darkened his day wouldn't be going away any time soon.

***