Previous part of part of The Day Before You.

***

Chapter 7: When Worlds Collide - Part 2

While Greg waited for her around the corner, Catherine returned to handle the trio of irate women. "First, and most importantly, Greg is still suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, so he doesn't need to be approached by an angry mob in a dark parking lot, right?" When she didn't hear anyone protest, she continued, "I'm not with Greg. Not currently, not in the past and not in the future…not even if I'm desperate. Jacqui, you know he's not my type. He's not even from the same universe as my type. I prefer my guys tall, dark and studly."

Jacqui coughed 'Warrick' into her fist.

"Exactly," Catherine snickered, "and do you really think Warrick would turn the other cheek while I tossed some love in Greg's direction?"

"Yeah, I could see Warrick sharing his woman with a needy nerd," Jacqui laughed, "right after hell freezes over."

"Good, now that we have that part cleared up..." Focusing on Mandy, Catherine said, "Greg has serious issues, and I'm not just referring to his ass rash." She struggled to keep a straight face after hearing herself say 'ass rash'. "I'm sure it was blatantly obvious tonight that the guy is a little odd. He's a quirky genius who has his therapist on speed dial…a geek who collects coins, speaks to his mother way too often, and thinks it's cool to have a Pet Rock. I was taking him to lunch because I felt sorry for him. When he expressed his gratitude in the parking lot and got a little misty, I hugged him. Then, I wanted to make him laugh, so I started making fun of Hodges. Any questions?"

"Ugh." Mandy hung her head in shame. "Now I feel bad all over again. Not only did I falsely accuse Greg of being a liar, I scared him and made him have a PTSD flashback. God, I'm an idiot."

Catherine chided the woman who had been gossiping about her and her cleavage for years. "Let this be a learning experience for you." She pointed toward Greg. "I think you owe someone an apology."

---

"I'm sorry," Jillian Stokes whispered to her son's high school graduation photograph as she sat in his old room. Hearing Linda say that Nicky turned gay because he had a poor relationship with his father had left her feeling horribly guilty. "I bit my tongue so many times. In my heart I knew he was being too hard on you, but I let him punish you and lecture you over and over. You tried your best, I know you did, and that's all that should have mattered. You were never going to be Chuck. I knew that, but your father…" She lifted a crumpled tissue to her eyes again, wiping them quickly. "Your father thought he could change you, like he had seen the Marine Corps change so many irresponsible boys into men, but you weren't a Marine, Nicky, you were my baby, and I should have intervened." Staring into his loving brown eyes, her guilt intensified. "If I had put my foot down and said enough is enough, then maybe you wouldn't be so far off the righteous path today."

"I still love you, sweetheart." Running her fingertips over her son's cheek, her heart broke. "I'm sad for you and wish you weren't doin' what you're doin'. Like your sisters, I fear your salvation may be in jeopardy, but I still love you." She wept into her tissue. "It's gonna be ugly, Nicky. Your daddy and Chuck saw red when they heard the news and I don't know what they're plannin' to do to snap you out of this phase you're goin' through."

With a shaky hand, she returned the framed photo to the dresser. "I won't stand there quietly and watch you suffer. Not again. I promise. I've let you down so many times. I hired that animal to babysit you." Ever since she had learned about the sexual abuse, she felt like a failure as mother. "Never again."

---

"One more time, CSI Stokes!" Mrs. Martin's 5th grade class pleaded as their favorite classroom volunteer stood shaking his head and laughing.

"Settle down class," Mrs. Martin ordered. "CSI Stokes has been more than generous with his time already. It's 9:15 and we need to get our desks cleared and get our recorders out for Music Class. "On behalf of the students and myself, I want to say thank you, CSI Stokes. Letting the kids partner up, put on gloves and play CSI, taking saliva swabs and fingerprints was a real treat. Wasn't it?"

"Yeah!"

"The Krispy Kreme donuts were really good too!" Joey yelled from the back row.

"That's good to hear, thanks." Clicking open his kit, Nick said, "Y'all need to know how to eat donuts if you're gonna be LVPD one day. You'll have to learn to like coffee too." He chuckled when the kids grimaced at the thought of drinking java. "Yeah, yeah, y'all will be spendin' five bucks on a cup of coffee in a few years time, mark my words."

The teacher waved Cassie forward. "You know the drill." The same child who was often glum and a loner came alive when CSI Stokes came for a visit. "You can help him pack up while we start music class in the back of the room." She knew the orphaned girl cherished every paternal moment with the man she could get.

"Thanks, Mrs. Martin!" The girl rushed over to the man she considered her personal Superman and the closest thing she had to a father. "That was the coolest lesson yet!"

"Ya liked it, huh?" Nick loved watching her meticulously pack his equipment just like he had taught her. "Look at you go. I don't even have to tell you what to do." Leaning in he whispered, "Don't tell your classmates, but you rocked that assignment better than any of 'em. You're a real natural, Cass."

"I'm gonna be the best CSI this city has ever seen. Well, as good as you anyway."

"Nah, I'm sure you'll be way better than me. You're a heck of a lot smarter than I was when I was your age."

Being praised by the one person who counted more than anyone, the girl bubbled over with pride. "I didn't even have to study to get the As on my last report card. My brother never had to study either. My parents said our IQs were off the charts." Her smile instantly disappeared as she thought of her murdered family.

"Hey!" Nick knew to change the subject quickly. "You just reminded me that I still owe you a reward for gettin' straight A's." She had informed him via email two weeks ago that she pulled another set of perfect marks. "Did you pick what you want to do yet? You wanna go to the Mandalay Bay and see the Shark Reef again? I know that's one of your favorites. Or we could…hmm…"

"I have an idea." Stepping closer so he could hear her over the noise traveling from the back of the classroom, the girl said, "I think we should go looking for a wife for you.

Nick froze like a deer in headlights. It wasn't the first time she had brought up the subject, but it was the first time since he had started a life with Greg. "Um…"

"The clock's ticking Daddy-O." She had started calling him that on Parent Career Day so she wouldn't feel like the only kid in her class without a father. Later that day when he told her it would be okay to keep using the term, her heart soared.

His heart always skipped a beat when the kid called him Daddy-O. "Sweetie, why are you so worried…"

"Because time is running out." She broke the news, "Mama Evelyn told me that I only get nine more months with her and then I'm no longer classified as 'special needs'. I'll be sent to a group home and I'll have to stay there until I graduate high school unless someone adopts me. Do you think a group home will be as fun as living with Mama Evelyn or my own family?" She gave him the usual warning. "Don't baby me."

He had to be honest. "No, honey, I don't think it will be as fun as livin' with Mama Evelyn or with one family. I'm sorry. The foster system is a mess and it's real hard on kids."

"Thanks for always being honest with me." The precocious 11 year old smiled at her savior, "Now I'll be honest with you. You're almost forty. It's time to stop playing the field and settle down, Peter Pan." She laughed at his reaction, "I heard that phrase when Mama Evelyn was watching Dr. Phil. I heard this too - if you don't have a wife by the age of fifty, the odds of living happily ever after with a woman are right up there with the chances of getting struck by lightning and winning the lottery. Have you ever been struck by lightning or won the lottery?"

"No."

"See!" She threw her arms up in the air. "Listen to this, the other night I was sitting on the front porch watching a dad in the neighborhood teaching his daughter how to ride a bike and I got this great idea that you could find a woman who is as old as you and could never have kids. Then, when you tell her all about how you saved my life, she'll be like 'We should adopt her because I love kids and always wanted a girl and you love kids too, Nick, and you've said that Cassie is like a daughter to you a bazillion times!" Although he never said those words to her, she always hoped he did when he spoke to other people. "Can't you kind of see that happening if you think about it? Try it. Close your eyes and…"

"Honey…"

"Don't sell yourself short!" The matchmaker whispered, "Sure, you're a little wrinkly and have a few gray hairs."

"I don't have gray hairs," he protested.

"There's one in the back right now." She pointed to the location. "Don't worry, I know 35 year old women think you're cute, because Mrs. Martin is 35 and she totally crushes on you."

"What makes you say that?" he gulped down the lump building in his throat.

"Because she only dresses up for two people - you and the weatherman from Channel 5. The rest of the days, she wears ugly teacher clothes, flat shoes and no lipstick."

Glancing over at Mrs. Martin, Nick caught her checking her makeup. "I wondered if she dressed like that all the time, 'cause none of my teachers ever did."

"Too bad she's married, huh? She's kinda pretty in a plain sort of way, but she's really, really nice. Would someone like her work?"

"She's um…not really my type, sweetie." As if I don't have enough stress in my life at the moment, the poor kid has to bring all this up again. It had been at least three months since she last asked him to adopt her and he thought she had dropped it for good.

The determined girl pushed for answers, "Then tell me what you do like, so I can keep my eyes open. There are lots of single moms dropping off kids here all the time. Old or young? White or black? Chinese or Japanese? I don't care what she looks like as long as she's nice, do you? For all I care, you could even marry a boy like Mr. Andrews the Art Teacher, he has a wife named Ed. What about that nice lady you work with, the one with the space between her front teeth? I really like her. Is she single? The red haired CSI woman with the big boobs seems a little high-maintenance, but maybe we could work on her and make her like camping and hot dogs. What do you think?"

"Cassie…" Nick felt his cheeks flush. "This really isn't the time or place to discuss findin' me a spouse and you a home. But I know a lot of the Social Services people from workin' with them, maybe…maybe I could help find someone who wants to foster or…" The disappointment in her eyes sliced broke his heart. "Uh…"

"It's okay. You can say it." Smiling through her pain, she nodded. "I'm tough, just like you. Nothing hurts us, remember?" She bit back her tears for what seemed like the millionth time since her family died. "They can bury us alive with fire ants or slit our throats and toss us into the water to die, but we'll outsmart the bad guys with Bubbilicious and survive every time." What she loved most about their stories was how they both used their favorite gum to outwit the bad guys. She had used hers to leave a trail and Nick had put his in his ears when he shot his gun. "We're indestructible Superheroes, you and me. I haven't saved anyone yet like you have, but I'm gonna, I can feel it." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "You'll always be my hero, because if it wasn't for you, I'd be dead. My daddy didn't save me that day, you did. I know my daddy was breaking the law selling drugs in our basement, so not only didn't he save me…his drugs were the reason bad people came to our house in the first place. So, maybe dads are overrated, huh?" Much to her chagrin, a single tear slipped out of the corner of her eye. "Every kid in this class has a dad in their life, but I'm the only one lucky enough to have their very own Superhero." She flicked the tear and fought hard to keep the rest from falling until she could get behind closed doors at home. "I hope you're not mad." The last thing she wanted to do was scare him away. "I promise not to ask you to be my dad ever again."

"Aww, honey, I'm honored, not mad. It's just not a good time for me to be startin' a family. It has nothin' to do with you, I promise. If it was the right time, I'd be beggin' Social Services for you. Do you believe me?"

When she nodded, her tears shook free. "I don't want anyone to see me cry."

"It's okay to cry." Nick caught the drops with his thumbs as he cupped her face. "Superheroes are tough, but even they feel pain sometimes. They all have at least one weakness. Superman had kryptonite. If he got anywhere near the stuff, he became weak. When he fell in love with Lois Lane, he was weaker still, because the bad guys found out that he'd do anything to save her."

"I miss my family."

"I know you do, Sweetie." He fought the urge to hug her since it would look odd in front of her classmates. "Losin' family is the worst thing that can happen to a person." Suddenly on the brink of tears himself, he whispered, "I'm so sorry that it happened to you."

After a deep breath, she forced herself to regroup and answer Nick's original question, "The Shark Reef will be great. Can you call Mama Evelyn and ask if we can go later?"

Remembering the plane tickets he had for that afternoon, Nick replied, "Today would be great, honey. I'll step outside to call Evelyn on my cell right now."

"Thank you."

"No, thank you for givin' me an excuse to see the sharks and eat lots of ice cream." After a wink and the stealthy passing of a clump of tissues, Nick walked out of the classroom smiling. If Cassie could be that tough, so could he. There would be no running to the ranch with his tail between his legs, begging them not to shun him. There was plenty of unconditional love in his life, so if his family couldn't deal with the news, so be it. He would call his mother later and tell her exactly what had been going on with Eileen. He'd expect the worst and hope for the best. But no matter what happened, he knew Greg, Jan, Dave, and Cassie would still love him afterwards. "Hey, Evelyn, it's Nick…"

---

"Do you think I bought too much for Nicky?" Jan asked when she thought of the full shopping bag of new clothes for her future son-in-law. Riding in the car since five that morning, she was thrilled they were only five minutes from the townhouse.

"He's not used to being spoiled, honey." Dave said, "According to Greg, the Stokes kids had to work for everything they got, even their clothing. Whether it be doing chores at home when they were little, or by getting a job when they were old enough to work, they literally earned the clothes on their backs."

Jan sang at the top of her lungs, "Psychos!" She shook her head. "I really don't want those Type-A Totalitarians around my Cambodian grandchildren. They'll stifle little Sokhanya's creativity and dictate her life to her. She'll know what her ancestors felt like living under the Khmer Rouge."

"You truly are adorable when you worry about the grandchildren you don't have yet." Dave patted her hand. "But I think you're being a little harsh comparing Mr. and Mrs. Stokes to a dictatorship responsible for killing over 2 million people and whose motto was 'To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss'".

---

While the women ducked into the McCarran airport Ladies Room, Chuck Stokes said to his father, "We never shoulda brought 'em with us. That boy needs the sense knocked into him and Mama's too damn soft when it comes to her baby. On our own, we could have him admittin' he screwed up in minutes."

"Don't worry, he'll be eatin' dinner at that Love in Action Rehab Center in Memphis tonight."

"I still can't believe you agreed to pay the bill for his treatment. $3,500 for 28 days or $7,000 for three months? That's a shitload of cash. " The eldest son rolled his eyes. "You worked hard too hard for your money to have it wasted on gettin' Nicky to find Jesus and stop bangin' guys."

"Let's hope he's the one doin' the bangin," Bill shuddered to think of the other option. "And what I agreed to was footin' the expenses up front just to get his ass there, but he'll be payin' me every penny back," he confirmed while checking his watch for the second time in two minutes. It was bad enough that their flight had been delayed, but now they were wasting more time. At least Eileen had come to pick them up, so they wouldn't have to fuss with a rental car and directions. "Your mother is probably cryin' again. This is like a repeat of that coffin nightmare. She's not going to sleep for a month again. God damn that boy for causin' her more grief."

"We should have seen the writin' on the wall when he moved to Vegas. How many times did I say he must be hidin' somethin' out here?" The high-powered attorney with his eyes on a political career in Washington, stuffed his hands on his hips and huffed, "If this conversion therapy shit doesn't work out, we can't have him hangin' around us anymore. Unless I become a Dem, I'll never get to the Senate with my queer brother in the family photo. All my support comes from Republican conservatives who know they can bank on the righteousness of the Stokes name. You know as well as I do that you lose their respect when you act like the rules don't apply to you and your family. Look at all the grief Cheney's takin' over his rug munchin' daughter havin' a baby. Did you see the shit he took during that Blitzer interview? That'll be how it is every time I speak out on anti-marriage issues, Dad. Reporters will throw my fag brother in my face and if I denounce him, I'll appear cold and lose the swing vote, but if I support him, I'll be labeled a hypocrite and lose the conservatives. It's a god damn no win situation and I will tear Nicky in two if he ruins my chances at a political career after I've been workin' my ass off to get to Washington since I was president of my 7th grade class!"

"Believe me, I understand where you're comin' from, son." Bill wore his disgust like a neon sign. "Think of all the locker rooms that boy has been in with other guys and what people would say if they knew he had been checkin' out their asses all this time. I'll hear about that from every colleague and friend. Look at what happened to my sister's family thanks to that pillow biter son of hers

Chuck grew ill as a new realization hit him. "Nicky used to babysit cousin Roy, remember? You and Mama made him babysit in exchange for al the help your sister gave her with the twins. What if Roy's queerness comes from all that time he spent with Nicky?"

"Roy was 3 at the time, Chuck."

"I have small children, Dad, they're constantly mimicking my behavior."

Judge Stokes could already hear his sister screaming at him. "All the more reason this situation must be kept quiet and resolve quickly. If your aunt puts that together, we'll never hear the end of it."

---

"I've been hearing about your future children for the last four hours," Dave teased his son as he hugged him tight. Standing in the living room of the townhouse, he announced, "I had this crazy idea when your mother was driving me crazy on the ride here."

"I can hear you!" Jan reminded her man. "There's only an island separating the two rooms, not a wall."

Ignoring her, Dave continued, "So, when your mother was driving me insane with grandchild talk, I had this nutty idea to buy this townhouse from Nick. That way we'd have a place to stay when we came to visit you guys, especially after Lillianka and Sovonna arrive from Cambodia. It will be a good tax write-off and I'll save a fortune in hotel bills."

"Seriously?" Greg asked.

"Your mother loves the master suite here. She says it has a great Jacuzzi tub."

"Yeah, that bathroom is a sex addict's paradise, so you'll love it, Dad. The medicine cabinet has extra wide shelves, which will be handy for that jumbo bottle of Levitra you never leave home without."

"You little shit." Dave yanked his boy close for a crushing hug.

"Don't break the geek!" Greg laughed, "The cowboy will come after you with one of his red neck shotguns if you hurt me."

"He's right!" Nick announced from the entryway as he set down his kit and tossed his jacket. "Hey, family." He opened his arms. "I'm home."

"Nicky!" Since Jan was the closest to the front door, she was the first to dispense some affection. "Just a quick kiss and then it's back to flipping bacon for me. Mmm!" She smooched his cheek. "It's so good to see you again and so soon." As promised, she darted back into the kitchen waving her bacon tongs the whole way. "I bought you some gifts. I'll get them after breakfast."

"Gifts?"

"Morning, Nick." Dave stayed back, so he didn't get in his son's way. "Yes, Jan likes to buy gifts, especially clothes, you'll get used to it."

"Really? Okay." When the hyper puppy in his life came running to greet him, Nick's smile lit the room. "Miss me, G?"

"Hell, yes!" Greg consumed his significant other with a bear hug. "I expected you to look like shit though, what happened?"

"I was thinking the same thing," Dave confessed.

Greg informed his partner, "I told my parents what was going on with your sister, I hope that's okay. They wanted us to join them for dinner and I had to explain why we were bolting."

"Yeah, of course it's okay." With Greg's hand in his, Nick headed for the couch. "Let's sit and I'll tell y'all about my morning and why I'm doin' better. You too, Dave, because I want your opinion."

Greg waited for Nick to take a seat in his usual spot and then he dropped onto the couch and draped his legs over his lover's.

"I bet I can make your mother burn the bacon," Dave joked as he stood in front of the guys. "Honey! Greg is sitting with his legs over Nick's. It's really adorable."

"Ooh! Where's my camera?" Jan rushed from the kitchen looking for her purse. "Look how cute!"

"What about the bacon, honey?" Dave winked at the guys. "You don't want to burn down the house we don't own yet, do you?"

"Oh, shoot!" the conflicted mother tossed her Olympus Stylus at her husband and raced back to the kitchen. "Take a few, honey."

Dave lifted the camera and joked, "Say 'queer', boys."

"Queeeeeeeer," they laughed while posing in a sweet embrace.

"Now tell them to kiss!" Jan directed from the kitchen.

"I dare you to kiss each other in front of me." The jokester father knew they wouldn't have the nerve. "I…oh." Much to his surprise, they boys called his bluff and engaged in a tender lip lock right before his eyes. "Okay, I'm still getting used to the whole man love thing, so..."

"David!" When Jan peered up from her bacon, she scolded, "Why aren't you taking pictures of their first kiss in front of you?"

"Because I'm not watching, honey."

"Have you forgotten about my Scrapbook of Firsts?"

"The things we do for love." Dave snapped a photo just before the boys came up for air. "Okay, that really wasn't too bad. It was tender and sweet in an 'oh God I'm watching guys kiss and one of them is my son' sort of way."

"This time we'll add some tongue," Greg joked while pulling Nick on top of him.

"Like hell we will," Nick protested as his partner tried to tickle him into submission. "Stop it, ya little pervert! Not in front of your parents." He tackled the smart ass to the cushions and straddled him. "Honey, you're gonna lose the wrestling match every time."

"Can't…breathe." Greg bulged his eyes and gulped for air. "Mommy…"

"Boy love is so aggressive, isn't it, Dave?" Jan watched the loving wrestling match from the kitchen. "And yet sweet in its own way." She sighed, "I wish Queer as Folk was still on TV. I really miss watching Brian and Justin fool around."

Ignoring his wacky wife, the supportive, yet maxed-out father strolled into the kitchen discussing anything but man love. "Wow, that bacon smells great. I wonder if we're going to get any rain today? I'm so glad we didn't have any traffic on the way into the city." Just as he reached the island, the front door opened and five people rushed into the townhouse. "Who the hell are you?" he yelled as the crowd filed into the living room like they owned the place.

"Who are you?" Eileen snapped, not recognizing the man. "Is that bacon I smell?"

When she saw her son perched on top of another man's hips, Jillian shrieked and covered her eyes. "He really is gay!"

Linda pointed at the older man and yelled, "Heaven help us, it's a threesome!"

While the Stokes women held hands and prayed, the men turned their backs and cursed like sailors.

"It's a gay-bashing home invasion!" Jan warned after turning off the stove and grabbing a spatula. "I'll protect you!"

Startled and shocked, Nick and Greg had leapt off the couch and then froze in their tracks

Her heart pounding in her chest, Jan instinctually stepped in front of her boys. "I won't let you hurt them!" she told the tall aggressive-looking man leading the pack, who she thought had the body of a linebacker, the face of a movie star and was surprisingly well dressed for a criminal. "You'll have to kill me first!" Standing in front of the men with her arms spread wide, she whispered over her shoulder, "Where's your shotgun, Nicky?"

"They're not strangers, Mom." Greg glanced over at his partner and said in disgust, "Your sister lied to us and sold you out."

"Sister?" Jan shouted over the yelling. "They're your family, Nicky?"

"Excuse me!" Being a calm, observant man, Dave had noticed the family resemblance immediately. "Everyone!" He whistled to get their attention. "Will you please stop yelling before the neighbors call the police?" When the angry mob quieted, he introduced himself, "I'm Nick's partner's father, Dave Sanders."

"Partner. Pfft." Chuck Stokes, the designated speaker for the family, informed the man, "Not to be rude, but we're not here to make friends. We're here to speak with Nicky in private."

Stunned to see his parents, his brother, and his twin sisters in the room, Nick mindlessly fixed his mussed hair and desperately tried to comprehend what was happening.

"This really is an intervention." Greg snapped to anger. "I can't believe you're doing this to him. It's 2007, people! Do you still hunt witches too? Nick's healthy, happy and not hurting anyone, so why can't you let him live in peace? We're not causing you any grief and we're not hurting anyone."

"Shut up, candy ass." Chuck Stokes glared at the geek wearing bowling shoes and a stupid t-shirt. "You're a fag enabler and not a member of our family, so your opinion is worthless to us."

"Hey!" Jan gave the bully a hard shove. "You will not talk to my son that way, especially under his own roof. How dare you barge into his home and insult him. Yes, my son is gay and there's nothing wrong with him. I'm proud to be his mother as a matter of fact."

Eileen nodded at her parents. "See, I told you Greg was a Mama's boy who was encouraged to be a homosexual."

"I didn't make my son gay," Jan chortled. "Where did you get that dumbass idea?"

"From your son," Eileen informed the woman, "he said you tied him to your apron strings and forced him to learn how to cook and do other effeminate things. You even polished his toe nails as a little boy, am I right?"

"She didn't force me to do anything," Greg huffed. "I was cracking a joke about the apron strings. I love cooking. If I wasn't a chemist, I'd probably be a chef. And I liked the smell of the nail polish, that's why I asked her to polish my toes whenever she had the polish out. This is ridiculous. You've interacted with me for two hours total, you don't know me or my family. How dare you dirty up my relationship with my mother."

"Thank you, sweetie." Jan pecked her son's cheek. "You're a boy who loves his mother and enjoys making soufflé, there's nothing wrong with that."

"Soufflé?" Linda and Eileen exchanged all-knowing nods, because if ever there was a food that screamed 'Gay Man', it was soufflé.

The intensity of his father's glare making him shake, Nick subconsciously inched behind Greg for protection.

"Don't feel guilty, Mama," Linda consoled her teary-eyed mother, "Nicky's problems stem from having a distant relationship with Daddy, not you."

"Enough with that BS already," Chuck droned, tired of hearing his sister's psycho-babble. "You are not gonna blame our father for Nicky turnin' queer. He worked hard to put a roof over our heads, provided for our every need and saw that we received the best education. He gave all seven of us kids the same solid foundation and opportunities and six out of seven of us managed to get graduate degrees, get married and have children. Nicky has always been the black sheep of the family and for good reason. He has a track record of makin' bad choices, doin' the wrong things and embarassin' the hell out of the rest of us, so I won't stand here and listen to you blame our father for him choosing to get naked with guys. Daddy didn't tell me he loved me every ten minutes and I think the last time I got a hug from him I was wearing pajamas with feet and yet I never chose to whip out my pecker and stick in a man's ass. That is what you're doin', right? Because I'll friggin vomit if you say you're bitin' a pillow for the Gay Gourmet over here."

"Charles William Stokes!" Jillian grabbed her eldest son by the ear lobe. "You're in mixed company and therefore you will watch your language! If you don't, you'll be gettin'a slap across the face from me, are we clear?"

Dave was silently grateful for the smackdown, because it was still very difficult to think of Greg on the receiving end in bed.

"Yes, ma'am," Chuck contritely replied while his mother continued pinching his ear. "I'm sorry."

Jillian released her grip. "Now apologize to Mrs. Sanders."

"My apologies for the vulgarity, ma'am. Now please allow me to respectfully cut to the chase." The plan was for the politician to do the talking while the judge gave his intimidating 'you better straighten up and fly right' stare. "Nicky, we're upset, confused and terribly worried about you, but we don't hate you. We're your family and just like when you were kidnapped, we all dropped everything to fly out here for you. Nancy was supposed to be here with us, but somethin' happened with Skye and she had to stay back. Marcia's too pregnant to fly and we didn't hear back from Gwen before it was time to leave, or they would be here too." Placing his hand over his heart, he said, "We absolutely don't approve of what you're doin', but we will follow the Lord's advice and hate the sin and not the sinner."

Linda and Eileen joined hands and bowed their heads to pray for their brother to see the light.

"We want to help you," Chuck assured in his most convincing attorney voice. "We've all talked and debated our own opinions before comin' to see you, but I think it's obvious that we're not in agreement about the cause of your problems. We need your input, Nicky, but I don't want the women to be offended by the discussion of homosexuality, so I think it would be best for all involved if I spoke to you alone to get your side of the story." He unfurled his sunniest smile. "Come on, Nicky, let's go for a walk and talk things over, man to man, brother to brother."

"Over my dead body," Greg answered on behalf of his partner. "He's not going anywhere alone with you people, especially you and your father. I know what you two used to do to him when you went camping under the guise of 'making a man out of him'. Leaving a fourteen year old boy alone in the bear-infested woods overnight with only a flashlight, a book of matches and a shotgun? I can totally see you tossing him into a van against his will and driving him to the Gay Rehab place Eileen was raving about." When he realized Nick was hiding behind him, Greg's heart broke. "I won't let you hurt him physically or mentally."

"You really did that?" Jillian stared in horror at her husband. "You left him alone in the woods when he was fourteen?"

"Yes, I did the same thing to Chuck," Bill answered without remorse. "And my daddy did the same thing with me. When I went off to serve my country at eighteen, I was damn grateful that my father had toughened me up. I didn't want my boys to be scared of their own shadows like some of the coddled young men who came to boot camp."

Dave felt compelled to step into the fray. "Did you really come here to force Nick from his home and send him to rehab? You do realize that he's not fourteen and if you hold him against his will, it will be kidnapping."

Judge Stokes resented the accusation, "I sit on the Supreme Court of Texas, Mr. Sanders, and I would never be party to an illegal activity. All we want to do is speak to Nicholas alone, without the liberal influence of you pro-homosexual people. I know indulgent parents when I see them. You'd probably do anything to keep your son's boyfriend pacified, isn't that right? From what I've seen and heard, I think you are the ones doin' the kidnappin'. Eileen told me that you've compensated my son very well recently - fancy dinners, luxury boat vacations and future trips to your Maui home. All he has to do for you is keep your spoiled little boy happy, isn't that right?"

"Stop!" Much to everyone's surprise, Nick stepped in front of his father and confronted him, "The only thing Mr. and Mrs. Sanders are guilty of is welcoming me into their lives with open arms and treating me like a son. I can't believe you're insinuatin' I'm a gigolo who is only with Greg because his parents are compensatin' me. Is that what really think is goin' on here or did you say that for shock value?"

The disappointed father and legal expert retorted, "I'm graspin' for straws, Nicholas, because I can't comprehend why you'd turn your back on the Lord and climb into bed with a man. What you're doin' goes against everything you were taught at home and in church." His disgust grew a little more every second. "You have turned your back on God and your family to live in sin in Sin City. You'll have to forgive me for makin' incorrect assumptions, but you've kept your deviant lifestyle a secret, so don't have much to go on."

"Fair enough," Nick stated in a shaky voice as he readied to officially come out to his family. "I'll clear everything up right now. I was born gay, I will die gay, and in the years I have left, I intend to live openly as a gay man with my partner, Greg. I'm not leavin' my home to go to Gay Rehab, because I'm not broken and there's nothin' to fix. Yes, you raised me just as well as everyone else and me bein' gay has nothin' to do with you or Mama. I'm gay because that's what I'm hardwired to be. I tried to fight nature for years, I assure you. I slept with hundreds of women, but it never felt right. Life with Greg, on the other hand, feels perfect and I'm finally content." Stepping back, he spoke to the group as a whole, "I don't want or expect any of you to change your religious beliefs. I'm not askin' y'all to change for me one bit for me. And because I know you're very uncomfortable with homosexuality, I'll never flaunt my lifestyle in front of you. I'm not sure what Eileen told the rest of you, but Greg and I were not puttin' on a show for her. What Greg and I do behind closed doors isn't anyone's business. Everything that upset Eileen occurred when she was snoopin' or eavesdroppin'."

Just as Eileen was about to protest, she saw Greg ready to bust her as a liar. "I was snoopin' in the name of love!" To upset her mother and get Nick to feel bad, she said, "I snooped to see if they had condoms, because I don't want my baby brother gettin' sick. I found plenty, includin' a used one in the shower. They did it on the sly while I was makin' them chili for dinner. Nice, huh?"

Chuck grimaced. "Spare us the gruesome details, sis."

"I for one am proud of them," Jan responded while patting Greg on the back. "Thank you for practicing safe sex, honey."

"Always have, always will," Greg assured her.

"Safe sex?" Linda glared at the crazy woman sharing her airspace. "They are vile and disgustin' men havin' unnatural, filthy sex, which means they're on the express train to the eternal hellfire; it's anything but safe, ma'am."

Nick laughed at the hypocrisy, "When I was havin' that same type of sex with women whose last names I didn't even know, Dad and Chuck gave me a cigar, a glass of scotch, and patted me on the back. Now here I am in a committed relationship, buyin' a house with a picket fence to live happily ever after, but I'm vile and disgusting. You guys have it backwards, I assure you. My vile and disgusting days are in the past." Gaining strength, Nick's voice stopped shaking, "Mama, I don't expect you to ever fluff a bed for Greg and me at the ranch, but I'd like it if we could stay at a hotel and visit every now and then. I'll send everyone invitations to our commitment ceremony and it would mean a lot if you would attend, but I'll understand if y'all don't show up wearin' smiles and bearin' gifts."

Chuck answered for everyone, "If you think we're bringin' our children to some mock marriage and makin' them watch their beloved Uncle Nicky kiss a guy on the lips, you're out of your frickin' mind, Bro."

"Amen," Linda said, "If we brought our kids, it would be like tellin' them it's okay to be queer. The boys in particular look up to you, Nicky, and now we're in a bind as to what to tell them. Only an incredibly selfish man would do this to us."

Although he was steaming, Nick calmly said, "All I'm gonna ask is that you don't insult me, my partner or his generous parents who have shown me nothin' but kindness since the moment I met them, especially when you're in my home. I think it's a reasonable request, because I know for a fact that respectin' one another in spite of differences is the Christian thing to do."

Although Greg was dying to throw his arms around his partner in a show of pride and support, he refrained and simply whispered, "Nicely done."

"Thanks, G." With a ton of weight off his shoulders, Nick took a calming breath and waited for his family's reaction.

"Honey…" Jillian rushed forward sobbing.

"Here we go," Chuck stuffed his hands on his hips. "Who didn't see this comin'?"

"I still love you, sweetheart," Jillian sobbed, "but I'm so scared for you - mind, body and soul. I don't want you to get AIDS and die on me."

"I'm fine, Mama, I swear. Greg and I have to get HIV and Hepatitis tests every six months because we deal with blood and bodily fluids every day on the job. I'm as healthy as an ox, I promise." Closing his eyes, Nick held his mother tight. "I love you too. I'm sorry you were blindsided. Eileen promised us that she'd let me tell you in person and I have reservations on a flight to Dallas leavin' this afternoon."

Chuck's blood boiled as he watched his mother comfort his queer brother, "Nicky makes Mama cry, Nicky says he's sorry with teary eyes and promises to try harder next time, Mama feels sorry for her baby boy who was born premature and has always been sooooo special, Nicky is forgiven." He laughed at the spectacle. "Nothin' changes. Only Nicky could get a free pass to bang boys. Bravo, Bro! There's an Oscar with your name on it somewhere."

Off in the corner of the room, Jan whispered to her husband, "He's jealous that Nicky's Mama's baby boy."

"Yeah," Dave observed the dynamic. "He's the big brother who had to be tough. He probably resents that Nick could get affection and get away with it."

Chuck snipped, "So what the hell are we doin' here? Are we just gonna say 'good luck bein' queer, Nicky' and go home? I wouldn't have left the office if I knew we would be throwin' in the towel ten minutes into the intervention."

"I'm not givin' up just yet." Judge Stokes appealed to his son's love for his mother, "Nicholas, I heard what you said, but don't you think you should at least try to get some help? How do you know you can't change if you've never tried? For your mother's sake, I think you should. She's not slept a wink since hearin' the news. You're turnin' your back on the Lord and givin' up eternal salvation. I think that's a pretty steep price in return for temporary pleasure and sexual gratification. This place Eileen mentioned, it's a real nice group home. Their success rate is nearly 90 percent."

Releasing his mother, Nick spoke to the points, "I'm already in therapy, Dad. I've reviewed all that stuff with my Psychiatrist and he's in agreement, it's propaganda. The American Psychiatric Association does not support conversion therapy. There are case studies that show it's damaging and has led to a staggering number of suicides."

Chuck's irritation growing, he said, "Livin' as a fag is worse than bein' dead in my book. I say take your chances that you'll see the light without offin' yourself in the process."

Jan couldn't let the comment slide, "You'd rather have your brother dead than alive and gay?"

"That's not what I said," the skilled politician replied. "I won't let you put words in my mouth and get away with it, Mrs. Sanders."

"I can't believe you'd even joke about him dying," Jan said with tears in her eyes, "you almost lost him when he was buried in that coffin."

"Yeah, well, my brother has almost died on several occasions, ma'am, so I'm a little desensitized, not to mention fed up, because every single situation resulted because he wasn't payin' attention." Chuck rolled his eyes at Nick, "Like the time you forgot to look both ways before crossin' the street at the age of 12."

"I did look both ways," Nick replied, ready to unload another secret. "I looked both ways, saw the truck comin' and stepped into the street." When he heard his mother and Jan gasp, he said, "It wasn't an accident."

"My God." Jillian stared at him in disbelief. "Are you…are you tellin' us you were tryin' to kill yourself that day?"

Nick nodded and stepped back to lean on Greg. "I'm sorry, Mama."

"Suicide is a sin," Eileen scolded her brother. "It's the ultimate act of selfishness."

Jillian snarled at her daughter, "Eileen! You'll hush up right now!" A fresh batch of tears streamed down the heartbroken mother's face. "Why, Nicky? Why?"

Greg placed his hand on his partner's shoulder to let him know he was there.

"Uh..." Nick took a deep breath and began telling the dark secret he had already shared with Dr. Henry the day before, "Once puberty hit I started havin' thoughts about boys and eventually I started to actively fantasize. I'd go to the stable for privacy and one afternoon I was out there with one of Gwen's teen magazines full of cute boys when I heard Chuck and his friends run in. They were seniors in high school at the time and they ruled the school if you remember. They were ruthless and that day they had just beaten the hell out of Reggie Healy for being a faggot."

"What?" Chuck pretended not to know what he was talking about. "You're crazy. I never touched that freak in my life." Son of a bitch! I really thought that was goin' to the grave. I can't believe he's known all this time.

"You didn't know I saw you, but I did. Y'all came to the stable to clean up. You had blood spatter on your shirts and Rob Moses was scared he was gonna get caught and lose his college baseball scholarship." As the vivid memory replayed in his mind, Nick's voice cracked, "I heard everything. I heard you, Chuck. Your exact words were 'we won't get in trouble even if we get caught, because everyone hates queers, even God. You said no one would care even if Reggie died and went to hell. You told the guys about some case where guys beat a homosexual teen to death for lookin' at their asses while gettin' dressed in a locker room. You were laughin' as you told him that the jury didn't convict a single one of them, because the queer got what he deserved, that even the guy's parents thanked the killers, because their disgusting son had been making them sick for years."

Chuck shook his head, "Don't you dare blame me for you walkin' in front of a truck."

Bill Stokes was ready to jump to his eldest son's defense if Nick did.

"I'm not, not at all, I did the walkin'." His eyes welling, Nick told his brother, "It's not a secret that I worshipped you growin' up, Bro. In those early years, you were never wrong in my mind." He caught the first tear as it fell. "So, when you said those things, I believed you 110 percent. I ran from that stable believin' I would be doin' God, the world and my family a huge favor." He drew in a choppy breath, "I stepped out in front of a huge truck, but only ended up with a broken leg and a bunch of gashes." He smiled through his tears and paraphrased Sara's words to him, "Clearly, it wasn't my day to die." He shrugged. "Somehow, even though I'm gay, God keeps comin' to my rescue. Imagine that."

"Amen," Jan breathed out, as she walked forward to give Nick the hug she knew her son wished he could. "And I for one am very glad you're still here." In true Jan Sanders fashion, she sobbed while joking, "And I'm not just saying that because you're the best damn gigolo I've ever paid to love my son."

In that moment, Greg's appreciation of his quirky mother grew tenfold. "Jan, you're definitely going into the super-deluxe nursing home when the time comes. No bed sores for my mommy. It'll be BINGO and Ben and Jerry's ice cream every night and twice on Sunday."

Dave, like Jillian, was still too blown away by Nick's confession to move or speak.

Jan wiped her tears and warned Judge Stokes, "If you don't want him anymore, we'll adopt him. I endured six miscarriages and I'm not picky in the least." Continuing to use laughter as medicine, she joked, "You have children to choose from, but for Dave and me, it's the gay kid or nothing, so we're keeping him."

"Don't forget about Jenni," Dave reminded his wife as he snuggled her into his chest.

Jan explained to the remarkably quiet Stokes family, "We're in town because we're adopting a 14 year old orphaned girl that Greg rescued on the job." Her grin expanding, she said, "In a year or two, our family will expand further when Nick and Greg become daddies and I'll welcome any grandchild with open arms."

"Oh, hell no." Chuck grumbled, "Forgive me for interruptin' this very special episode of Days of Our Gay Sons Lives, but things are surreal enough and now you're tellin' me I'm gonna play uncle to a kid with two daddies?"

Greg's ire returned with a vengeance. "It's just been established that you assaulted an innocent kid and laughed about it. So, pardon me if I have a hard time believing that you're better Daddy material than Nick, who saves people on a regular basis. You should see him with Cassie McBride, he's a natural."

With all the drama going on, Nick had forgotten his plans. "I'm takin' her to the Shark Reef today as a matter of fact. How long are you plannin' on stayin, Mama? I'd really like you to meet her, she's the sweetest little girl."

"We're not stayin'," Judge Stokes curtly answered. "We came here hopin' to get you help, but you've made it clear that you don't want it, so we're done here. I'll save you some postage too, Nicholas, we won't be comin' to your commitment ceremony."

"I never said that!" Jillian shot a glare at her husband.

"How the hell can you be anti-gay marriage and go to your son's ceremony, Jilly? What are you going to tell your Preserve the Family political action group, hmm? You sit on the damn Board of Directors!" The Judge who always saw in black and white, laughed at the hypocrisy. "You can't say marriage is only for a man and a woman except your little Nicky can marry a boy if he wants to…at least not without soundin' like the biggest hypocrite in Texas."

"Ha!" Jan couldn't remember the last time she heard something that funny. "She'll be in good company with Bush, Cheney and all their double-talking cronies."

"For God's sake, Jan," Dave warned his wife, "the last thing we need right now is a political debate."

"What's there to debate?" She snarked, "Bush has run the country into the ground. Debate over!"

"The Stokes Family is leaving!" Chuck announced as he marched for the door with his father two steps ahead of him. He hoped rejection would help Nick see the light, since talking sense hadn't helped in the least.

"Was it something I said?" Jan yelled after him.

"Let's go." Chuck motioned for his sisters to hustle it up. "I'm sure the California liberals are anxious to get back to their pot-smoking and nude sunbathin'."

Jan shouted, "Yes, but you left out 'having wild sex in their hot tub!" Not that they didn't partake in the pleasure from time to time.

Chuck ignored the shrew, "Have fun bein' queer, Nicky! We'll miss you in the afterlife! Maybe hell won't be so bad for ya, since you're used to the sweltering Vegas heat."

In silence, Nick watched his family members turn their backs, but when his mother got to the door and said, 'I'm just gettin' my suitcase, honey. I'll be right back. We're gonna talk some more and decide how we'll handle things', he choked up. "Thank you." One of them still loving him was better than none, which is what he had expected.

"We'll work it out," she assured before stepping outside.

"See that!" Greg jumped for joy. "Your mom's not turning her back. I told you she wouldn't, didn't I?"

"Yeah." Nick snatched a hug while he had the chance. "Holy shit! I feel ten feet taller after gettin' all that off my shoulders!" The ring of his cell phone interrupted his celebration. "It's my sister Gwen." He flipped open his phone. "Hello, Dolly."

"Dolly?" Greg queried.

"It's a joke name from Gwendolyn and because she hated playin' Barbies," Nick explained with his hand over the phone. "Hang on a sec." He covered the phone again, "Would you mind if…"

"No problem," Greg smiled. "Take all the time you need, we'll be in my room."

"I'll be in the kitchen," Jan corrected. "I have a brunch to salvage."

"I'm back, Gwen."

"Don't get in the car with Chuck!" she screamed into the phone. "They're comin' to see you and take you to Gay Rehab! They didn't tell me on purpose, because they were afraid I'd take your side and tip you off, which I would have! I found out from Nancy, because she's havin' a nervous breakdown over Skye and she let it slip. Don't you dare believe them if they tell you I don't love you. Do you hear me? I'm spittin' nails over here. I swear I'm gonna kick that pompous ass of a brother of ours square in the nuts when I see him. I'm gonna campaign against him when he hits the trail again!"

"So, um…Nance told you about me?"

After a quick breath, she said, "To be real honest, I kinda knew you might be gay, but was too scared I'd offend you if I asked and was wrong."

"What made you think I was gay?" the surprised brother asked, always believing he had hidden it well.

"You kept stealin' my Tiger Beat magazines and wrinklin' up the boy pages."

He covered his face. "So, we're okay?"

"Are you kiddin'? Eight months ago you handed me your life savings so I could check into Drug Rehab and get out of debt…and you've kept my secret just like you promised. You did all that without a second of hesitation and my mess was my fault. I'll admit that I'm a little freaked out now that I know it's true, but you bein' gay is nothin' you can control, so I'm sure as hell not gonna be pickin' up any stones." Sniffling, she said, "I love you, Nicky. It may be just the two of us by the end of the day, but at least we have each other. Although I think there's a good chance Nancy might not hassle you. She just found out that her perfect daughter, Skye, is seventeen and preggers courtesy of the Pastor's eighteen year old son. We could really use a CSI down here, because the entire congregation is tryin' to figure out how a pregnancy coulda happened because the kids were wearin'purity rings. I told them condoms would have probably worked better at preventin' a pregnancy, you can imagine how much they loved that answer. They weren't allowed to mention contraception in Health Class at that pricy private Christian school the kids go to. Honestly, it's not funny at all, because the girl's life is a mess, but you know Nancy and her holier than thou attitude, so I really can't resist takin' a few private jabs. Does that make me a bitch? Don't answer that."

Nick stood in front of the photo he had of her sitting on the bookcase. "Mama's gonna be a wreck when she finds out about her first grandchild being pregnant. I'm assumin' she's havin' the baby, right?"

"The shotgun went off at ten-fifteen. You'll be gettin' a weddin' invite. It's gonna say 'Nicholas Stokes and Guest', not 'straight guest' so please tell me you'll come and bring your partner. I think every shotgun wedding with a pregnant bride wearin' white needs to have a token gay couple, don't you?"

"I love you, sis." He touched the photo as she touched his heart. "Yeah, we'll do our best to make it down there."

"So this Greg, he's the cute one with the floppy hair, right?"

"Yeah."

"I remember meetin' him when you were in the hospital. He was clutchin' a bag of Skittles and bouncin' all over the waiting room."

"Yeah, that was definitely Greg."

"He's cute, I'd do him if I was single. We have the same taste in men."

Nick released his residual tension in a belly laugh.

"You're the top, right?"

Nick blushed, "I'm hangin' up now. Mama just walked through the door crying. I'll call you later, sis."

"I'll be here explaining how babies are made to the Christian masses."

"Love you," he chuckled, "bye."

"Skye's pregnant!" Jillian cried out to her son. "Your father had a message on his cell." With four members of her family choosing to walk away from Nick, the troubled mother, despondently said, "This whole family is fallin' apart. Where did I go wrong?"

"Oh, please, it's never really the mother's fault," Jan announced from the kitchen. "Pull up a bar stool, Jilly!" The PFLAG warrior slapped a napkin on the counter. "I'll make you a mimosa and we'll talk woman to woman, mother to mother. By the time I'm through with you, you'll be tie-dying a rainbow t-shirt and volunteering to lead a parade."

Nick knew if anyone could work miracles, it would be Jan.

Jillian politely informed the loony woman, "Only my closest friends call me Jilly."

"Good to know, Jilly." Jan handed Nick the bottle of chilled champagne she bought. "I'm sure you can get that cork to pop in record time, jocko." She winked at her newest friend and whispered, "Perk one of having a gay son…they've got very strong fingers because they play a lot of hand ball."

As the cork sailed through the air in record time, Jillian cringed.

Jan snatched the bottle and instructed her future son-in-law, "Grab an apron, Nicky, I'm going to teach you how to make the perfect pancakes for your Cambodian daughters."

"What?" The already overwhelmed mother exclaimed, "You got a Cambodian girl pregnant, Nicky?"

"No, ma'am," he chuckled sweetly, "they would be adopted Cambodian children."

"You mean like that Angelina Jolie did?" Jillian clarified.

"And Brad Pitt," Jan said before purring, "talk about a hottie."

Walking over to the fridge, Nick pulled Cassie's picture out from under a magnet. "I just found out that this little one is gonna be up for adoption." He placed the photo on the counter for both moms to see. "Wouldn't it be nice for Jenni to have a little sister?"

After gazing into the little girl's eyes for a moment, Jan glanced up sniffling, "Yes."

---

"No," Sara answered as she stood at the bathroom counter brushing her teeth with her significant other. "I don't think you were wrong to lie to Ecklie." She grinned while rinsing her toothbrush. "I think Ecklie should be lied to as often as possible."

"The problem with lying to Ecklie is that he follows up and tries to catch you in the lie." Grissom returned his toothbrush to its cup and dried his hands. "Like that time at the awards banquet when I was supposed to give a speech about him. I ducked out and made Catherine take my place, but he bugged me for weeks for a copy of the speech for his scrapbook. Finally I sat down and wrote something out just to get him off my back." Walking towards the bed with Sara, he said, "I'm sure he'll ask Greg for photo proof that he took the time off to welcome Jenni into the family."

"Did you warn Greg so he can snap a few before he leaves for Dallas?"

"Yeah." Climbing into bed, Gil sighed, "Now let's remember our new rule – we don't bring work to bed with us. No discussion of cases, co-workers, or conundrums."

"No problem." Snuggling up to her man, Sara spoke in her sexiest rasp, "It's all about us between the sheets." When Bruno jumped on the bed, she added, "And our high-maintenance boxer."

"Sleep well, honey." Gil pecked his lover's lips.

"You too." She knew he was beat and so was she. "If it's okay with you, I'll take a romance rain check."

"If you insist," Gil replied before breaking into an unruly yawn. Within minutes, he was deeply snoozing.

"It's just you and me, Bruno." Sara surfed through the TV channels. "What are you doing?"

After walking in circles and kneading the bedding with his paws, the dog finally settled down with his eyes on the door so he could protect his loved ones while they slept.

"Look at you." She rewarded the pooch with a scratch. "You're such a good guard dog." Soothed by the rise and fall of her lover's chest and the steady sound of Bruno's breathing, Sara clicked off her lamp. With a permanent roof over her head and family who loved her nearby, the formerly homeless foster kid realized she finally had everything she once lost. With friends struggling through personal problems all around her, she felt blessed that everything in her life was finally going right. Maybe it would stay this way forever, she thought as she drifted, but just in case it didn't, she planned on enjoying every day, no matter how mundane or exhausting, like it might be her last. "Mmm," she contentedly slumbered. Life was good.

---

"Life sucks," Mandy whimpered as she trudged to her car. All that she had to look forward to were her aloof cats, leftover Chinese food, and eight lonely hours of slumber. Then her alarm would ring and she'd go into the Lab and do her monotonous shift over again. "Life sucks." Half way across the parking lot she started to cry.

"Hey, Mandy!" Henry greeted the love of his life as he hurried across the lot to catch her.

The Fingerprint Tech scrambled to wipe her eyes

"I guess you worked some OT too, huh? How…are you crying?"

"No," she replied as her lips quivered and tears poured from her eyes.

"It sure looks like you are."

"I hate my job and my life. I even hate my cats," she confessed. "They're mean to me. It's like they have a clique and I'm not in it. I don't even want to go home to them."

"Um…" Taking a huge risk, Henry said, "How about we grab some takeout breakfast and eat it at my place while watching a funny movie to cheer you up?"

"I don't think so, Henry," she sniffled, "as you can see, I'd be horrible company. I'm miserable."

"All the more reason you shouldn't be alone!" He waved her toward his car. "Come on. I'll drive you back here for your car after the movie." Dangling his keys, he asked, "Your cats are probably expecting you home to feed them, maybe you should teach the little ingrates a lesson and not show up."

"Well, when you put it that way," wiping her tear-stained cheeks, she trudged toward the car, "why not?" She shrugged. "It can't hurt, right?"

"Not unless I'm secretly an axe-murderer," he joked, but when he saw Mandy bawl, he remembered that her old boyfriend had turned out to be a serial killer. God, I'm an idiot! "Um, do you like pancakes?"

"My dead grandma used to make the best pancakes," she sobbed while opening the car door, "I miss her."

"How about eggs instead?"

"Eggs…" She glanced over with red eyes. "Can you hear my eggs? They're drying up inside me. I'm never going to have a baby."

He opted for a joke, "If you want, I'll impregnate you after breakfast."

"But you're gay."

"Oh my God! I'm not gay! I'm not!" He started the car with a huff. "Why does everyone keep thinking I'm gay?" he asked as the soundtrack from Dreamgirls filled the car. "I'm straight and I'm willing to prove it!" He stopped talking to focus on backing out carefully so his white VW convertible wouldn't get scratched. "Gay. Pfft. If anyone is gay, it's Greg Sanders!"

***

Chapter 8: Oops!

After placing his mother's suitcase on the luggage rack, Nick asked, "Think you'll be comfortable here?" He chose the Mandalay Bay because they would be having dinner and seeing the Shark Reef there later with Cassie.

"I'd be more comfortable if you'd let me pay for the room."

"I couldn't let you do that, Mama." Nick grabbed the ice bucket sitting on the dresser. "You're here for me, so the least I can do is pay for your stay and spoil you a little. Is there anything else I can get for you before I go home to sleep? I'll get you some ice and there's a soda machine out there. Feel free to grab stuff from the mini-bar and order room service on me too."

"No, I don't need anything else. Jan's breakfast was very filling and I'm going to take a nap, because I'm exhausted from the travel and the stress."

"I'm sorry about the grief, Mom."

"Honestly, I'm more devastated about Skye than you, honey. At least you're an adult who has an education, owns a home and has a good job. Skye is only graduatin' high school in a few weeks. After that she was leavin' for a French Immersion program in Paris for the summer and then startin' Harvard in the Fall. Now she'll be at home bent over a toilet with morning sickness instead of tourin' the Louvre, and while all her friends are takin' final exams in December, she'll be in the throes of labor. I'm sick over it."

"With the right support at home, she can still go to college locally, even after the baby's born."

"Yes, but that's hardly the future she had. One night of irresponsibility ruined everything she's worked so hard for all these years." Taking a seat on the bed, she motioned for him to join her. "You can get ice in a minute."

Thrilled that she wanted to talk, Nick quickly returned the bucket to the dresser and took a seat on the bed.

"You know I'm a firm believer in honesty bein' the best policy."

"Yes, ma'am." He nodded. "And I want you to be completely honest with me."

After taking his hand between hers, she looked him in the eyes and said, "I don't want you to be gay, Nicky, but if you really are I won't turn my back, but maybe you really aren't. Maybe you're legitimately confused because of the sexual abuse you suffered. Isn't there a good chance that you're not attracted to women because of what that animal did to you when you were a boy?"

"I thought the very same thing, Mama. I even talked it out with my friend Sara. She minored in Forensic Psychology and did a lot of research on the effects of physical and sexual abuse on children. She explained it real good and basically it comes down to this…the abuse could make me subconsciously hate women and make it difficult for me to bond with them, but it wouldn't make me physically attracted to men. And it's not like I turned to men because I was repulsed by women, I've been with hoards of women. If anything, the abuse confused me and delayed my acceptance of bein' gay."

"Oh."

"I talked this through with my therapist too just to be sure. He's in agreement."

"Okay, I just wanted to make sure you had considered that." Sighing, she said, "I guess I just can't believe it's really true, that you're absolutely sure. Are you sure, Nicky? I need to be convinced that you're sure."

"Okay." He placed his free hand on top of hers. "I apologize if this is too much for you to hear."

Jillian braced for a shock.

"At 35 years old, I had never once felt anything emotional when I was physically with someone. I had fun with women, some more than others and I was physically satisfied during and after relations, but somethin' was always missin'." Averting his eyes, he continued, "I'd be with a woman and I could tell she felt a connection. She'd want to snuggle up after and I could see her truly in the afterglow, but for me it was different. The ones I liked felt like fun friends that I had sex with, but nothin' beyond that. The ones I didn't like…I just wanted to do it and bolt. I'd make excuses to leave and say I'd call, but I wouldn't. With most of 'em, I honestly didn't care if I ever saw them again, because there was just nothin' there."

The troubled mother grasped for a straw, "Maybe you were datin' the wrong kind of girl, Nicky."

"Yeah, I thought that too," he assured her. "I tried datin' women I was friends with, but even though we'd be havin' a great time on a date, when it came to the physical, it was flat, no sparks or fireworks. There were a couple of exceptions over the years and before I became involved with Greg, I woulda told you that it was the real deal with them, but not now." He shook his head. "I don't want to offend you, so I won't say too much, but the first time I touched Greg, I felt a thrill that I never felt before. The first time we kissed, I really did see stars, and when he held me in his arms, I felt a peace I've never known. The last thing I want to do after we're together is bolt. I love curling up and fallin' asleep with him. In Greg's arms is where I want to be from now until the day I die. I'm not just sayin' that, I feel it. I feel it with a conviction that I can't explain other than to be hokey and say it's true love."

"How can you be so sure so soon, honey?"

"It's not soon, we've been together for eight years. Greg was a co-worker first, and then a friend. In the last two years, he's become my best friend. Now he's my best friend and my lover." He lifted his gaze to hers, letting her see the joy in his eyes. "For the first time in my life, I'm in love. He loves me too, Mama, so much. He's like a puppy sometimes, running to the door to greet me with bright eyes." He chuckled, "He's as wacky as he dresses, and he's the only person on this planet that knows how to cheer me up after a bad day on the job. He's just what I needed."

"You're really happy," she cried, "I can see it in your eyes and hear it in your voice."

"I really am." He clutched her hand and spoke from the heart, "I wish I could be happy without hurtin' you and causin' problems for the family, I really do, but I can't. Even after today and seein' how disgusted Chuck and Daddy are, I can't go back to my life before Greg." Smiling he said, "You always say life is like a country song, Mama, well mine is like that Rascal Flatts song, The Day Before You, you've heard that one, right?" When she nodded, he said, "I never wanna go back to the day before Greg. If I had to go through everything I've gone through in life just for fate to place me in the right place at the right time to get to his love, then I'd do it all again, even the bad parts - the abuse, the car accident, the stalker…even the coffin. It's that perfect, Mama. It feels that right."

Tears pooling in her eyes waiting to spill, Jillian said, "I believe you, honey." She placed a trembling hand on his cheek. "I believe that you are livin' the way you're most happy. I'm not sure yet how I reconcile that with my religious beliefs though. You know me, I'll have to do some readin' and prayin' to figure things out. I also don't know how to handle my work with my Preserve the Family group. I don't know how I'm going to cope, but what I do know is that it would be illogical for me to be angry or upset with you for bein' who you're meant to be, and that you'd never intentionally do anything that would hurt me."

"That's absolutely true, Mama."

"I'll work on things back home, okay?"

"Thank you."

"I don't think it will ever be great with your father, Chuck and the twins, but I think I can at least make things tolerable for you and Greg to visit as long as you don't..."

"Act too gay? We'll just act like we do when we're at work." He kissed her cheek. "Thank you."

---

"You're welcome, sweetie." Jan pressed a kiss to Greg's cheek before grabbing her purse. "Your father and I are going to check into the Mandalay and take a nap, because we got up at four to make the drive. We'll head to the hospital around five to hang out with Jenni and get her ready for her big evening on the town. That girl is so excited about her three hours of freedom, I can't imagine what she'll be like on Thursday when she gets to leave for good."

"I hope she hits it off with Cassie." Greg walked his mother to the door. "But how can they not considering their similar situations, right? They're both really intelligent and great students too." He opened the door and saw his father just pulling into the driveway. "Cool, Dad's just getting back from the store."

"I have a gut feeling that it's going to be off the charts perfect."

"And I predict you'll fall in love with Cassie in 2.5 seconds. That kid is freakin' adorable." He waved to his father. "See you later, Dad." He watched his mother walk to the passenger door. "Thanks again for all your help with Nick's family."

"My pleasure," Jan shouted back. "Now get in there and set the mood for your man. Candles, soft music and a good back rub should get him relaxed a bit." She snickered, "Then practice some of that safe sex we were talking about this morning. I want my money's worth from that gigolo!"

Dave plugged his ears and sang, "I'm not listening to my wife tell my son how to get it on with his gay lover."

"Remember this, Greggy!" Jan shouted as they pulled away, "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker!"

---

Holding up another bottle of Chardonnay, Henry tipsily asked, "Should we open a third?"

"No way!" Mandy yelled from the couch, where she was splayed like a drunken fool. "We definitely shouldn't have a third bottle…but do it anyway."

"You're kind of a lightweight, huh?" Henry struggled to pop the cork. "Me too actually, I never drink this much."

"Need some help?"

"No, I've got it," he lied. The cork wasn't budging.

While staring at her polished toes, which she was wiggling, Mandy exclaimed, "I'm having much more fun with you than on my date with Greg Coin Boy Sanders. That was the worst date of my life."

"So, there's no chance the two of you will…"

"Nooooooooo!" She burst out laughing, "If he was the last geek on Earth, I would pass, and not just because he has an ass rash, likes to collect coins and can't drink booze."

"Can't drink booze?" Henry released a primal scream as the cork finally moved. "Got it!" He proudly displayed the uncorked bottle. "What makes you think Greg can't drink? I overheard him talking with Sara last night and he was telling her all about this locally brewed beer he drank while he was on vacation last week."

"He wasn't on vacation," she corrected. "He was at a conference in Long Beach."

"Only for the first few days." Henry filled their glasses. "I distinctly heard him talking about being on vacation with someone named Cletus. That's why I'm sure he's gay. This guy Cletus bought him a shell bracelet. Straight guys don't buy each other shell bracelets." He cleared his throat and puffed out his tiny chest. "I know that, because I'm, straight and I never would. I think there's a good chance that your date from hell was a beard date."

"A beard date?" In her inebriated state, Mandy tried to make sense of everything. "Oh! Oh my God!"

"What? Is something wrong with the wine?" He sampled from his glass. "Seems fine to me."

Mandy jumped to her feet. "Cletus is Nick!"

"Nick who?"

"Nick Stokes!"

Henry burst out laughing. "Does all wine make you delusional? Or just Chardonnay? Nick's not gay."

"I saw Nick and Greg at the grocery store." Pacing Henry's immaculate living room, she excitedly relayed the details, "I turned the corner and saw Greg with his hand on Nick's cheek. They totally looked like a couple and I was going to bolt, but Greg saw me, so I walked over to say hi. When I looked into their cart, there were jumbo boxes of condoms and Astroglide."

"Ooh!"

"Exactly!"

"Wait…" The drunken man sought clarification, "Did you see jumbo-sized condoms or jumbo boxes of regular-size condoms?"

She burst into a fit of giggles. "Jumbo boxes."

"Cool." Henry joined in the laughter.

"They saw me glance into the cart, and that's when Greg asked to speak to me in private. When Nick left, he told me this story about comforting Nick and then he asked me out. Fast forward to last night and our date from hell."

"But how do you know Nick is Cletus?"

She slurred, "Right, right, I forgot that part." After guzzling the jumbo glass of wine Henry had poured her, she wiped her lips and sat on the couch next to her host. "I was heading toward the cash registers when I heard some hick shout 'Yo, Cletus! Grab me some Skittles!' I laughed out loud, because Cletus is such a redneck name and I couldn't believe people were actually named that for real. When I glanced down the aisle I was in front of, there was Nick was holding a big bag of Skittles while Greg pushed their shopping cart."

"Whoa."

Pretending she was a CSI, she continued her analysis, "And you said Cletus bought him a shell bracelet, right? Well, when we were at Peter Piper Pizza last night, a kid threw a Skee Ball off to the side and it hit Greg's wrist just as he was leaning forward to pick up his next ball. He totally panicked that the hard ball broke the shells of his bracelet. He frantically checked every shell on it to make sure it was safe. Clearly, it was very special."

Stunned by the revelation, Henry fell back against the cushions. "Wow…I really can't imagine Nick Stokes being gay."

"I can, but only as a top." Snickering, Mandy grabbed the wine bottle to refill her glass.

"As a top of what?"

"Wow." Mandy stopped pouring. "You really aren't gay, are you?"

"Would a gay man do this?" he asked before cupping her face and bestowing a passionate kiss.

---

"Mmm," Nick broke the welcome-back kiss and grabbed Greg's hand. "I'm dyin' to dive under the covers."

"Let's go." Greg led the way down the hall to the bedroom. "Check it out."

When Nick peered into the dimly lit room, he saw a half dozen flickering candles. "What's this?"

"A little tranquility after the storm." Greg whispered against his partner's ear, "Lose your clothes and meet me under the sheets for the best back rub of your life."

"You won't have to ask me twice."

They stripped in record time and met in the center of the mattress.

"I'm so happy things went well for you when you spoke to your mom." Greg stole a kiss before his lover could respond. "Now that the big confrontation is behind us, I'll confess that a teeny tiny part of me was scared shitless that you were going to panic and feel conflicted enough to need a break from me or something." He bumped their noses together, "Did you have any doubts?"

"Nope, not even for two seconds."

"Cool." Greg rubbed his hands together. "Ready for your back rub?"

"Definitely." Nick rolled onto his stomach and watched Greg reach into the nightstand for lotion. "Thanks for the room and everything."

"You're welcome." Greg stashed some additional supplies under a bed pillow. "If you want to work out some of your tension the old fashioned way, you know where to find what you need." He straddled his tense partner's thighs.

"Your mommy would be proud of you for encouragin' safe sex," Nick chuckled.

"Holy shit, I thought for sure you'd lose it when your mother started bawling and saying she didn't want you to get AIDS. But you were totally calm and told her about how we get HIV tests every six months because of the job and that we're responsible, that was great. You seemed so prepared that I thought you were going to whip out test results."

"I have to credit Dr. Henry for running through all the stuff they might bring up, so I wasn't surprised."

"Of course, now my mom is totally freaked that I'm going to die from handling body fluids all day on the job. And then you made it worse by blabbing about me getting bit at work by that psycho bitch who didn't want me to swab her." He had spilled the beans at breakfast. "She probably won't let that go until I hand her a clean bill of health in a year."

"Sorry," Nick chuckled, "I regretted it the second I said it." Moments later his knots were being expertly kneaded and the morning's tension was melting away. "Mmm, that's good."

"Just tell me what you want and I'll do it."

"Shouldn't that be my line since I'm the gigolo?"

"Ha!" After singing from the chorus of 'I'm Just a Gigolo', Greg swooped in for a kiss. "I love you."

"In spite of family. God, they were awful. I'm especially sorry you had to hear those nasty things my brother said. They're still echoin' in my head." I'll vomit if you say you're bitin' a pillow for the Gay Gourmet over here. "I hate that he made it sound like you're just…"

"Some candy ass bottom you mercilessly bang when I'm not busy cooking for you?"

"Yeah and how I'd be better off dead if it was the other way around." Nick's nausea returned. "God, I hate him for that and 99 percent of everything else he says or does."

"You know what," the masseuse strengthened his grip, "just let it all go and relax. That abusive pig isn't worth talking about."

"I couldn't agree more."

A few minutes later, Greg felt the tightness dissipating. "Feeling better?"

"Much." But truthfully his brother's nasty words were still weighing heavy on his mind.

"Your shoulders and back are looser."

"Yeah." Nick whispered, "Go a little lower, G."

"You got it." Greg swirled his palms down to his partner's lower back. "How's that?"

Glancing over his shoulder, Nick spoke as soft as the music filling the room, "Lower."

Greg laughed, "But I'm not allowed near your backdoor."

"You are today," Nick slipped his hand under the pillow to retrieve what had been stowed.

"Hold up." Greg slid next to his lover. "Exactly what do you want me to do?"

The usually dominant partner handed over the supplies and said, "I want you to take a turn in the driver's seat."

"What?" Staring at the items in his palm, Greg asked, "Is this about what your brother said?"

"A little bit," Nick honestly answered. "He made it sound like I take advantage of you."

"But you know that you don't."

"But I kinda feel like am."

"How?"

"From the stuff people say like 'I hope you're the top'. Even things you say, like when you told me your dad is struggling with the idea of you bein' my bitch."

"I was joking."

"I know, but it's like they're sayin' you're…"

"Beneath you?" Greg joked.

"You know what I mean, smart ass."

"You have nothing to worry about." Greg handed back the supplies. "I love having you in the driver's seat."

"That's part of it too though." Nick opened his lover's hand and pressed the supplies into his palm. "I want to know if I would love it."

The genius suddenly came to a conclusion. "I think there's a little more to this request than curiosity."

"Okay, okay." Nick burst into a wild grin, "My daddy hates me for givin' it to guys, so think how much he'd hate me if he knew I took it just as well as I gave it."

"I knew it!" Greg laughed.

"Come on, G, pop my cherry." Nick egged him on with kisses and wandering hands. "I want to be 100 percent queer so my daddy hates me real good. After we're done, I'm gonna Fed Ex him my bitten pillow with a note that says 'I'll see you in hell, you nasty bastard.'"

Staring at the bottle in his hand, Greg sighed, "And what would your therapist say about this scenario?"

"I think he'd say it was a healthy release of my anger and an excellent way to gain closure."

Greg laughed, "You think so, huh? I don't know about this."

With his hand in just the right place, Nick playfully said, "Well, your mind may have doubts, but your body is definitely game."

"Confession time."

Nick stopped pelting Greg's chest with kisses. "What's wrong?"

"I've um…I never…not with a guy or a girl."

"Seriously? Not even with the Bunny Ranch girl you paid to go around the world on your first time?"

"Nah, I chickened out before I crossed the International Dateline." Greg gripped his hair. "I would have downed a few more mimosas at brunch if I knew I was going to be under performance pressure."

"Don't worry." After a reassuring kiss, Nick whispered against his nervous lover's lips, "I guarantee you'll be the best I ever had." He playfully tugged on his bottom lip with his mouth while pressing their heating bodies together. "Come on, I want to squirm like I make you squirm." He popped the lid of the bottle. "I want to know why you go insane every time I hit the spot." After a lingering a kiss over his partner's mouth, he turned so they were spooning. "Touch me."

"I can't believe you want me to do this." More than a little unnerved, Greg started by dropping innocent butterfly kisses on Nick's shoulder and caressing his thigh.

"Mmm, that's nice."

"Hey…" Greg leaned forward and caught his lover's eyes, "I'll do this if it's because we love each other and want to have some fun, but not if it's about pissing off your father or because you have something to prove."

With a wink, Nick replied, "I love ya, G, let's have some fun."

Although he still believed the request had been made for the wrong reasons, Greg forged on.

"You are gonna warm that stuff up, right?"

"Nope." When his partner whimpered from the cool liquid, Greg continued parroting the words he heard during his first time on The Freyja, "I like to warm it up after it's on the body."

The first touch sent a wave of panic coursing through Nick's body and with an anxious chuckle, he admitted, "Suddenly, I'm feelin' pretty vulnerable."

"You should feel vulnerable." Greg let his hot breath drift over Nick's earlobe as he spoke, "Because you're in a very vulnerable position, Mr. Control Freak." He lingered a slow, wet kiss over the edgy virgin's neck while gently exploring previously uncharted territory. "Luckily you're with someone who loves you and would never hurt you. Relax, Cletus."

While gripping the pillow in front of him, Nick sweetly replied, "I'm findin' out that relaxin' is easier said than done in this situation."

"We're just fooling around and having some fun, remember? There's no reason to be tense." Getting playful, Greg said, "I call this next game 'treasure hunt'." Seconds later, when Nick was squirming, he joked, "X-tasy marks the spot and from the sound of things, I'd say I found it. Did I?"

Nick replied by reaching back, threading his finger's through his lover's hair and gently tugging. "Yes." The pleasure was excruciating and all he wanted was more of the tortuous joy.

After a few minutes, Greg whispered, "We can bring things to a close like this if you'd rather."

Since the warm-up felt phenomenal, Nick was looking forward to the main attraction. "No, keep going." But his panic returned when he heard the rip of a wrapper. "But go slow."

"Of course." When he felt him tensing, Greg lied, "I just need a minute, okay?" As soon as his partner relaxed though, he made his big move.

Falling for his own edgy virgin trick, Nick was surprised by the invasion. "Damn, that's," he gulped air, "you really like when I do this to you?"

"No, I love when you do this to me." Greg murmured in his struggling partner's ear, "You have to relax and give it a minute or two." He sprinkled kisses as he spoke, "Tell me when you're ready."

Nick waited for what seemed like an eternity and when he didn't feel any better, he decided to continue anyway. "Okay."

After a tender kiss to his partner's cheek, Greg continued and after a minute of awkward silence, he whispered,"How does it feel now?"

"Just keep goin'," Nick answered, hoping it would start to feel pleasurable soon.

Being in the dominant position felt highly unnatural for Greg and the outrageous joy he usually felt when they made love was noticeably absent. This is officially weird. After a couple more minutes of mediocrity, he anxiously asked, "Are you loving it?" I'm not! He missed the thrill of being dominated and physically possessed by another man.

"Um…" Nick didn't want to hurt his self-conscious lover's feelings, so he focused on the positive, "I loved the warm-up." But while that small invasion had felt fantastic, the large one felt awful. "This is…it's different." It wasn't just the physical discomfort that he wasn't enjoying, it was the idea of someone taking and possessing him, even though it was someone that he loved.

"Different good? Or different bad?" I vote bad!

Nick pulled in air through his nose and forcibly exhaled. "It's um…just different." He was growing increasingly uncomfortable. Of all the times for the hyper little pervert to show restraint! He closed his eyes and willed his lover to finish.

"I promise I won't be offended if you say you don't like it." Greg cringed as his discomfort intensified. When he didn't get an answer, he pushed, "Come on, Cletus, we need to be totally honest with each other in bed, especially if something hurts. If you don't like it, all you have to do is tell me to stop."

"Stop!"

Grateful for the reprieve, Greg carefully retreated and flopped onto the mattress. "Wow."

After a huge gulp of oxygen, Nick rolled onto his back and faced the ceiling. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Glancing over at his partner, Greg deadpanned, "We can try it again some other time…like when hell freezes over."

"You hated it too?" Nick asked with relief flooding his voice.

"Let's just say that I'd rather have root canal than top you again." Greg burst out laughing, "I'm such a big nelly bottom! I mean I always had my suspicions, but now I know for sure. God, that was awful."

"What does 'big nelly bottom' mean exactly?"

"It means I like it the way I like it and you don't have to feel guilty for driving ever again." Greg shivered. "I hated that Alpha-Neanderthal feeling of imposing myself on you. No, I loathed it. Seriously, I could never work for Lady Heather, because dominating feels so weird and unnatural to me. And besides that, it's too much frickin' work. Color me lazy, but I much prefer just showing up and having my toes curled for me. It wasn't remotely fun." He playfully poked his partner in the ribs and whimpered, "Don't make me be the boy again, Cletus, it was scary."

"Hey, I'm just the gigolo," Nick laughed, "I'll do what I'm told."

"Damn straight, ya big himbo. Now get this condom off me!" Laughing with his lover, Greg pointed to his groin. "My boy is traumatized from the dark, claustrophobic conditions he was forced to endure and he can't breathe. Get it off!"

Like a good gigolo, Nick did as requested. "Trust and honesty in bed isn't somethin' I'm used to. It's nice."

"Yeah." Greg rested his hands on the pillows above his head. "Now stop talking and right the universe, cowboy."

Knowing exactly what his partner wanted, Nick clamped his hands around the dedicated bottom's wrists, covered his body, and then kissed him with newfound ferocity. "Better?" It felt perfect to him.

"Mmm, that was the top-est kiss ever." Greg savored the crush of Nick's body against his heated flesh and the fire in his eyes. "So perfect." He breathlessly urged his aggressive lover, "Now do it again."

---

"I can't," Henry panted as Mandy loomed over him naked and hungry. "I…I don't think I have a condom left." She was eyeing him like prey and he feared she would eat him if he didn't service her again. "Sorry, I only had the one in my wallet."

"Seriously?" With wild eyes the horny woman glanced around the room. "Check under the bed! Maybe one fell there the last time you were making love."

The exhausted geek whimpered, "If it fell there the last time I was making love, it would be expired by now."

---

"Expired?" Hodges stared at his computer screen. "I can't believe I let that lunch box get away from me because my credit card expired." He woke up believing he would be the proud owner of a Brady Bunch Silver Platters lunch pail, but was greeted with a nasty email that said he had tried to pay using an expired card and lost the item. "What a way to start the night."

Leaning back in his home office chair, he stared at the photos tacked to the corkboard on the wall. With the exception of the ones of Nick and Greg, they were all pictures of him with his parents or his pets. "My life really does suck, doesn't it?" He shifted his eyes to his pet snake. "Don't answer that."

Forcing himself from his chair, he decided to cheer himself up by going to the Mandalay Bay to see the sharks. While attending a convention there a few weeks ago, he had won six free admissions to the attraction along with six coupons for the Bayside Buffet. "I'll troll for depressed women stuffing their mouths with comfort food." He had done that at the Rio a few times with some success. "Look out, lonely ladies!" After tossing his clothes, he posed and admired his body. "Davey Hodges is on the prowl tonight." He growled like a tiger. "And he's hungry."

---

"I hardly ate any lunch," Jenni told her new guardians. "I wanted to save my appetite for the buffet dinner. Nurse Patti told me the one at the Mandalay is really good too. She said they have a million desserts to choose from."

While his wife fixed the girl's hair, Dave said, "And the best part is, you don't have to choose. You can take ten things and sample all of them."

"I'm so glad you guys came early." It was only four and they weren't scheduled to have dinner until six-thirty.

"We came early because we have a few things to discuss with you," Jan cheerily informed the teen.

"You're not changing your mind, are you?" Fear ripped through the parentless girl's body and mind.

"Goodness, no," Jan patted her cheek. "I'm counting the minutes until you're out of here. We just have something to tell you about Greg. Then, we have some family decisions to make and want to include you in them."

"Oh." Jenni's pulse stopped notching. "What about Greg? He's not hurt, is he?"

"No, it's nothing bad at all. You know his co-worker and roommate, Nick Stokes?" After the curious girl nodded, Jan said, "Well, the truth is…he's actually a little more than a friend to Greg. He's his life partner."

The almost-fifteen year old whispered, "You mean they're gay?"

"Yes." Jan resumed brushing Jenni's hair. "It's okay to ask questions or say you're uncomfortable. We weren't hiding it from you and would have told you sooner, but Greg has only recently come out to us." She snickered, "Although we certainly had our suspicions."

"No, I'm not uncomfortable at all," she assured the worried parents. "I was friends with a gay guy at school last year. He was totally cool. He had the best fashion advice. I miss him, he had to move to DC with his parents at the end of last year."

When he saw the teen burst into a sunny smile, Dave curiously asked, "Why so happy, honey?"

"Greg being gay totally explains why he wasn't crushing on me when I was crushing on him." Now that time had passed and she wasn't severely stressed, she could laugh about her unrealistic love for a 32 year old man. "If he was straight, he would have waited for me."

---

"Maybe we should wait and see," Greg whispered to Nick as they snuggled under the covers in the dark bedroom. After five hours of deep sleep, they had woken to the alarm they had set and quickly decided they had enough time to laze around for another ten minutes. "I know we're not ready to start a family now, but maybe nine months from now when Cassie has to leave, I'd be up for it. I guess I'm just worried that you're going to feel bad watching my dad raise the kid you've bonded with for almost two years."

"I thought of that, believe me." Nick sighed, "But I still think it's the right thing to do. Yeah, I love her to pieces, but we can't give her the stable home life she needs, not with our hours and the stress we're under at the moment. We've been emotional every day this week, G. We can't be parents when we're head cases."

"Like my mom isn't a head case?" Greg laughed.

"You know what I mean. And even if Cassie is okay with two dads right now, the truth is she's gonna hit puberty real soon and I think it would best if she had a mom and a big sister around for that. I think it's gonna make her miss her birth mom more if she has ask her dads to buy tampons. It would be totally different adopting a little kid who didn't know what she was missin', but as an almost teenager who still cries for her mom every night, she would really benefit from your mom's love…no matter how nutty Jan is at times."

"Very true."

"And we need time to build our relationship before bringin' a child into the mix." Nick smiled at his partner, "It's like marriages that fail when people agree to marry because of a pregnancy. The couple moves in together and then the baby comes right away with all the stress of parenthood; it can be a disaster. I know that's exactly what will happen with Skye bein' forced to marry her 18 year old boyfriend of four months."

"No shit."

"We need to rid our lives of stress before takin' on any more." Running his fingers through Greg's tousled hair he said, "I've waited forever to have a relationship, so I don't think it's selfish to want to enjoy us bein' just a couple for a while. If there was no other option for Cassie, then yeah, but since there's a better option for her, I don't feel bad thinkin' of what's best for us too. We're in the new lovers phase and I like bein' able to walk around here naked and fool around in the kitchen if the mood strikes us. We're still discoverin' each other, as evident by our experience earlier."

Greg feigned a shiver. "Shh, I'm blocking the ordeal, remember?"

"Right." Nick laughed with his lover. "But my point is, I want the flexibility to have awful sex with you."

"Put me in the driver's seat again and it's a guarantee."

"And I want to have plenty of good times too." After a kiss, Nick said, "I'm happy, G. After all we've been through in the last couple of years, I think we've earned some time to just be as happy and unstressed as possible."

Greg initiated an Eskimo kiss, "I'm not ready, but I would have risen to the challenge if we needed to for Cassie's sake or for you."

"Thank you. I appreciate that."

"I just wanted to make sure you had really thought it through and you have, so…we're good."

"We're also late." Nick tossed off the covers and jumped out of bed. "I really hope your parents buy that big house they were talkin' about and live here for the school year and in California in the summer. Then I'll be able to be a big brother to Cassie all the time."

"I love how my parents went from no house in Vegas, to buying your townhouse for visits, to buying a big house and moving here." Greg laughed, "All within a matter of hours! Now you know where I get my hyperness from my crazy mother."

"Yeah, you get your naughtiness from her too." Nick smacked his cheeky lover's ass. "I still can't believe some of that stuff you said to me in bed."

"Oh, come on, I can't possibly talk dirtier than some of the scandalous babes you used to bang." When he saw Nick shoot him a look, he laughed, "No way! I was that bad? But you enjoyed it, right? I mean it's not something I'd want to do every time, but it's fun to crazy once in a while."

"Actually…" Nick shook his head, "It was too much."

"Seriously?" Greg panicked. "I really thought you were turned on, not off."

"No, I'm an old-fashioned guy," Nick continuing to yank his lover's chain. "I don't know, maybe my mom is right and I should try lovin' a nice girl like sweet little Mandy Webster."

---

I'm such a raging slut! Mandy silently screamed when she woke up next to Henry hung over and naked. I can't believe I slept with him…thrice! Staring at the exhausted man, she thought, He's so not gay…and so not my type. She stared in horror at the wall covered in framed Playbills, one from every musical Henry ever attended – all 127 of them. I hate showtunes! I hate how everyone suddenly breaks into song and miraculously knows all the words. That doesn't happen in the real world! Henry's fascination with musicals wasn't quite as scary as her ex-boyfriend/serial killer's discovered collection of pinky fingers, but it was a close second.

Embarrassed by her outrageously trampy behavior, she carefully slipped out of bed to find her clothes. I can't believe I rode him and shrieked, 'Yee Haw! I'm Cowgirl Mandy and ridin' you is sweeter than candy!' While peeling a discarded condom wrapper from her foot, she muttered under her breath,"Hopefully he won't remember anything." Where are my glasses? Suddenly she tripped over a shoe and yelped.

Startled, Henry flicked on his bedside lamp. "Where are you going, Cowgirl Mandy?"

He remembers! Even her toes were cringing. Now I wish he was an axe murderer so he could kill me and put me out of my misery.

"Are you leaving?" He couldn't believe she was trying to sneak out without saying goodbye.

"Um, yeah. I… I feel bad that I didn't feed my cats, so I need to run."

---

Cassie ran to the door when she heard the bell. "They're here, Mama Evelyn!"

"Calm down, honey," The sixty-three year old African American woman stood as fast as her arthritic knees would allow her. "Check the peephole first and make sure." Since one of the girls she was fostering was there because her gang-member father killed her mother, she was always worried the violent man would show up on her doorstep.

"It's them!" the girl shouted after checking the peephole.

Evelyn had said several prayers throughout the day hoping that the potential parents Nick had raved about would be as wonderful as he claimed. "Baby girl, you remember to mind your manners when you meet these folks at the restaurant tonight." The child had no idea she was being considered for adoption. "Remember to thank Mr. and Mrs. Sanders for their hospitality. It was very nice of them to include you in this family gathering." If all went well, then she would pull every string she had to get Social Services to process their application quickly.

"I promise," Cassie assured her guardian.

"Okay then, open the door." In her thirty years of doing temporary foster care for severely traumatized children, Evelyn had never fallen harder for a kid than she had for Cassie, who was the smartest and bravest child she had ever known.

"Howdy!" Cassie greeted the two men standing on the front porch.

"Hey there!" Greg cheerily replied. "I'm from L.A., so I don't do the howdy thing like Tex, here."

"Howdy, Cass." Nick tipped his imaginary cowboy hat. "Howdy to you too, ma'am."

"Thanks so much for takin' her out tonight, Nick." The foster mother laughed at herself for looking for signs of gayness now that she knew the man's secret.

Nick patted Cassie on the back. "Ready to chow down?"

"Yep." The girl pointed to Greg, whom she had first met when she was in the hospital and who had come to her classroom with Nick on two occasions. "Aren't you going to introduce Mama Evelyn to your boyfriend before we go?"

Although he had told Cassie about Greg earlier that morning and had outted himself to Evelyn over the phone, Nick was still thrown off balance by hearing the words 'your boyfriend' in public. "Yeah, of course. Where are my manners?" Nick motioned for Greg to step beside him. "Evelyn Delaney, this is my partner and co-worker, Greg Sanders.

"Nice to meet you." Greg shook the woman's hand and couldn't help wonder if she recognized him from the Demetrius James nightmare. "Nick's told me all about you and the program you run here. I think it's amazing that you've helped so many kids."

"Thank you." She couldn't help but stare at the man's face. "Sorry for gaping, but I expected you to look a whole lot worse from that senseless beating you took."

"Ah." With his question answered, Greg relaxed, "My parents are close friends with the best plastic surgeon in Vegas. I had some work done."

Cassie pointed to her throat. "Do you think that doctor could make my scar disappear? 'Cause then I wouldn't see it every time I looked in the mirror. Every time I see it, I think about what happened."

Nodding, Greg said, "I'm sure if I called him, he'd take a look at it and let us know if he could help."

---

"Let me help," Jan rushed to assist her husband in getting Jenni out of the car and into her wheelchair. "I called ahead and verified that the Shark Reef and the restaurant are handicap accessible, so we won't have to get you out of the chair once you're in it, dear."

"I can't wait until I'm out of it permanently," the teen sighed. "That's all I want for Christmas this year." She silently chided herself for complaining when so many of her classmates were dead because of the accident her mother had caused. "But if not, that's okay. I know I'm lucky to be alive."

"It's okay to want to be healthy, honey." Jan kissed the top of her head. "And you can't feel guilty for being alive." She tried to lift her spirits. "I love the Christmas season. I'm not happy unless our house has enough lights to be seen for miles."

"Yeah, and the way Jan shops, you're bound to get a few dozen gifts." Dave winked at the girl. "I think you should ask for a puppy, because Jan won't be able to tell you no."

"Dave's been wanting a darn dog for years, but I keep telling him no."

"Hey, if you get your wish for Cambodian grandchildren, I'm getting a dog."

Jan dreaded the idea of a demanding, filthy animal running through her clean house.

---

"Bruno!" Sara shouted as the dog rushed into the townhouse. "Bruno, no!" But it was too late, muddy paw prints were everywhere. "Three…two…one."

"Sara!" Gil shouted as he came whirling around the corner holding Bruno by the collar. "His feet are muddy and he jumped all over the bed."

"I was taking him to the sink to wash his paws, but lost my grip on him."

"Having a dog would be much easier if we had a yard."

"Maybe we should move," she suggested while wetting a towel at the sink. "We could use a bigger place. I know you hate sharing your home office with me."

"I don't hate sharing it with you, I just hate that there's not enough space for both of us."

"We should move." She wrung out the towel. "With the money you get from this place and the money I've saved, we could get a place that costs ten thousand dollars more than what you get for this place." She laughed, "I had a lot of graduate school student loans to pay off, so I couldn't save much over the years. Catalog shopping didn't help either."

"That's a big step, buying a place together."

"It's not as big as buying a dog together. You can sell a house and divide the profit. We can't divide the dog."

"Right." Gil sighed and glanced down at the pooch. "But keep messing up my bed and I'll relinquish the rights to my half."

Bruno stared at the man holding his collar.

"Don't look at me with sad eyes," Gil warned. "You're trouble with a capital T and you know it." When the dog continued to stare, his anger dissipated, "I fall for those sad eyes every time."

"I know," Sara knelt down next to the dog and began washing his paws with a wet towel. "I got your sympathy that way more than a few times." She spoke to the pooch, "Your daddy is pushover when it comes to a stray with sad eyes."

---

"We have to adopt her," Dave remarked to Jan when Greg took the girls to the buffet and Nick showed his mother to the restroom. "How the hell could that monster cut her and toss her off a boat to die?" His blood boiled just thinking about it. "There's a special place in hell for that bastard."

"I hope there's still room for murderers in hell," Jan rolled her eyes while swirling the wine in her glass. "With all the homosexuals taking up space, they're bound to run out of room soon. Can you believe those people put gay men on par with killers and rapists?"

"Let's not rehash the insanity. Jillian is being very respectful to Greg and she's clearly not as fanatical as her husband, son and the Bible Twins we met this morning."

"I'm going to get more of those yummy mashed potatoes to soothe me." She stood and pushed in her chair. "We're watching everyone's things, so don't leave the table, honey."

"Why would I leave?" He chuckled, "I've got a mondo plate of sushi to keep me happy."

With her taste buds working overtime, Jan made a beeline for her favorite comfort food. She was so preoccupied with getting her spuds, she bumped into a man trying to get to the roasted turkey. "Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going."

"No harm done," Hodges replied to the attractive older woman who had perky blonde hair, a radiant tan and a killer smile. Hmm, maybe an older woman would appreciate me more than those pretty young things I keep chasing. Christie Brinkly is 52 and she's still hot as hell. This fifty-something babe could be an ex-model herself and she seems very energetic. When he saw her piling mashed potatoes onto a plate, his LWR (Lonely Woman Radar) sounded. Comfort food…lots of it. He tested his breath by blowing into his palm and when he didn't smell garlic, he forged on with his plan. "We meet again," he suavely greeted the brown-eyed beauty. "Are the mashed potatoes good here?"

"Yes, they're delicious!" Jan enthused. "Every time I come here I end up having two servings. You should try them."

"Maybe you should feed me some, sweetheart," he laughed like the rogue he was. "In bed."

"I'd love to." Jan filled her fork and smiled, "Open up and I'll give you a little preview, honey." When the pig did as requested, she flung the heap of spuds onto his face. "Enjoy!" she marched off to tell her husband about the jerk.

As potatoes slipped off his face, Hodges sighed, "There's another pickup line to cross off the list." He grabbed a cloth napkin from the display table and wiped his face as he huffed toward the dessert section of the buffet.

Meanwhile, Nick scanned the massive restaurant room for Greg and the girls. "Dessert, I should have guessed." Greg was just as bad as the kids when it came to sweets. "That's it, I'm cuttin' you off, G!" he scolded, upon seeing his partner popping a cream puff into his mouth. "Eatin' in the buffet line is totally tacky."

"You can't not eat these cream puffs." Leaning against the rail of the buffet line next to Nick, Greg held up a puff. "Open up, Cletus" He couldn't think of a better way to pass the time while Cassie wheeled Jenni past the desserts and helped her pick. "Yummy yummy."

"You aren't feedin' me in a public place." Nick reminded his lover, "That's how Cath busted us." Greg dropped that bomb on the drive to pick up Cassie.

"Well it was that and your sister telling her we were flaming homos who liked to get it on in the shower." Greg snickered, "Not that she was wrong."

"Put the puff down," Nick ordered before turning and whispering in his lover's ear, "If you're good, I'll let you feed me in bed later when we…Hodges." Hodges was standing right next to him. Shit.

Grinning wildly, Hodges queried, "When you say 'If you're good, I'll let you feed me in bed later' are you speaking metaphorically or are the two of you really," he used air quotes, "'flaming homos who like to get it on in the shower'?'"

Greg didn't miss a beat. "We only said that stuff because we saw you standing behind us. We're not really gay."

Cassie came racing over with Jenni. "Look at all the yummy stuff we got!" The observant girl noticed the man standing with Nick and Greg. "Who's he? Do you know him?"

"Yeah," Nick answered, "we know him." But before he could elaborate, Cassie fired off her next question.

"Is he gay too?"

As Hodges broke into a Cheshire grin, Greg sighed, "No, both men and women dislike him."

---

"I like him," Mandy whimpered into the phone to Wendy, "and the sex was good, but he's a showtune obsessed Mama's boy who makes you take your shoes off in the entryway and compulsively straightens the throw rug fringe when he thinks you're not looking."

"Are you sure the sex was good?" Wendy queried, unable to picture Henry as a stud. "How much did you have to drink? Because sometimes the sex seems good, but really it was the wine or tequila that was good."

"We did tear through three bottles of Chardonnay," Mandy moaned while holding her throbbing head. "Three bottles of wine, three love making rounds and one…oh my god!"

"What? What?"

"One condom! We only had one condom."

"How did you have sex three times with one condom?"

"We didn't!" Mandy shrieked as she rocked in the fetal position on her bed. "We did it without protection twice."

"Are you insane?" Wendy scolded her friend, "Why would you do that?"

"I was under the influence of wine and desperation."

"Did you at least have the talk?"

"The talk?"

"You know, how long has it been, have you been tested, etc, etc, etc."

"Yes," Mandy remembered feeling confident that Henry was disease free. "But he was worried about pregnancy, so I told him I took the pill."

"Oh." Wendy released a sigh of relief. "Then there's probably nothing to worry about, because if ever there was a clean guy, it's Toxicologist Andrews. He's notoriously neat."

"There's just one problem." Mandy hurried to check her daytimer. "I haven't taken a birth control pill since 2004."

"You lied to him?"

"No! I said I took the pill. I never said when I took it." The concerned liar flipped through her daytimer.

"When was your last period?"

"I'm checking right now."

"Peak fertility is usually between day 13 and day 18 of the menstrual cycle."

"12…13…14…15…16." Mandy dropped into her home office chair. "It's Day 16 of my perfectly regular 28-day cycle."

"Oops."

***

Chapter 9: Moments of Truth - Part 1

"Supper's ready!" Jillian Stokes announced as she walked into her son's living room. "I set it up buffet style since you don't have a big enough kitchen table for a sit-down meal. Y'all can fix a plate and bring it back to the living room to finish your game of Trivial Pursuit." Nick and Greg were partnered up against Dave, Jan and Jenni, and from the sound of things, she knew it was a heated competition.

Tantalized by the delicious aromas wafting from the kitchen, Jan was the first to stand. "Jilly, it was so nice of you to make a celebration dinner while the boys were sleeping and we were busy getting Jenni discharged."

The well-mannered Texan had given up trying to get the crazy California liberal to stop calling her by the nickname reserved for her husband and two closest friends. "Well, I wanted to cook Nicky all his childhood favorites before I returned home and he suggested we treat you tofu-eatin' beach bums to some cholesterol. Those were his words, not mine. I made cornbread with honey butter, chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes with white gravy, fried okra, Grandma's Coconut-Pecan Frosted Texas Sheet Cake and sweet tea." Smiling, she said, "I have a waiver for y'all to sign. It states that you know you're eatin' the heart attack special and you won't sue me should your healthy bodies go into shock."

"Wait 'til you taste my mother's chicken-fried steak, G." After jumping up, Nick grabbed his partner's hand and yanked him to his feet. "It'll melt in your mouth."

"It smells fantastic." Greg mindlessly swooped in for a quick peck to his lover's lips. "How…" When he saw Jillian turn away in disgust, he groveled, "Sorry, Mrs. Stokes. That kiss wasn't intentional. I was just…"

"Acting like a madly in love normal person?" Jan huffed, but her husband stealthily covered her mouth before she could voice the rest of her opinion on the woman's ridiculous 'no PDA' rule.

But Jenni, an insatiably curious girl, freely asked, "Why can't they kiss?"

Jillian didn't hide her feelings on the subject, "Because it makes me uncomfortable to see members of the same sex kissing each other, dear, so I've asked them not to get physical in front of me."

"Really?" The teen giggled, "I think they look cute when they're all mushy in love."

Eager to avoid another heated debate, Dave said, "We better eat or supper's gonna get cold."

"That would be a crime." Nick tossed his arm around his mother and walked her into the kitchen.

While his father helped Jenni, Greg escorted his mother onto the back patio for a quick chat. "Please stop, Mom. Tomorrow is Friday and she'll be on her way home at noon. I don't want Nick to be stressed on his first night back at work."

"Don't you feel bad when she looks funny at you?"

"No, because people have been looking at me funny my whole life…for a variety of reasons," he laughed. "The only ones who concern me now are the ones who are looking at me funny because they want to hurt or kill me, other than that…" He shrugged, "Who cares? Chuck Stokes can call me a pillow biter until he's blue in the face, but it won't hurt me. I know my pillows are bite mark free. As for Jillian's look of horror, I don't hold it against her. It is weird to see two guys kiss each other if you're not used to it. Dad is just getting used to it and he hasn't had 73 years of conservative programming telling him that same sex couples are going to hell."

"I still think it's rude to openly show your disgust like she does."

"It's not disgust. Jillian is genuinely worried about her son's fate, that's why she gets freaked out. She truly believes every kiss pushes her baby boy a little closer to the eternal hellfire. Admit it - if I was doing something that you truly believed was going to make me suffer for eternity, you'd cringe, right? No, you'd scream at me."

"I hate debating with you."

"Because I always win," he chuckled "Now promise me you'll back off."

"Fine!" Jan tossed her arms in the air. "It's normal for the mother and mother-in-law to butt heads, right? I'll keep my mouth shut for the rest of the evening." When her son laughed in her face, she smacked his arm. "Okay, I'll try to keep my mouth shut, smart ass."

As Greg accompanied his mother into the house, he thought, now if only Hodges would do the same.

---

When Grissom saw Hodges strolling into the locker room several hours ahead of schedule, he asked, "What are you doing here so early?"

"I'm sucking up of course." The Lab Tech grinned as he strolled by his boss. "Is it working?"

"No," Grissom droned.

"I'm also here because I'm turning over a new leaf."

Remembering Sara's insight about his disdain for Hodges, Grissom softened slightly. "Fine, I'll bite. How are you turning over a new leaf?"

The giddy employee flipped open his messenger bag and informed his boss, "After hearing you say that I wasn't worthy of your company, I did some soul searching and concluded that I should be nicer to my co-workers, especially to co-workers who aren't my intellectual equals. After all, they don't intentionally try to annoy people like us, right? They're just incapable of keeping up with our superior minds."

Grissom rolled his eyes.

Hodges lowered his voice to a whisper, "I'm starting with Nick and I'll work my way up from him in IQ order."

"How could you possibly know everyone's IQ?"

"I'll never tell."

"What is…" Grissom silently read the sign's message, which was fancily printed in flaming flamingo pink - Welcome back, Nick! Have a FABULOUS shift! He knows. But how does he know? I really doubt they'd tell him. The expert CSI began questioning the guilty party, "What was your inspiration for the message?"

"Well…" Hodges stared at the sign wearing a smirk. "He's returning, so I thought 'welcome back' was appropriate and since we all want him to do well tonight, I thought 'have a fabulous shift' fit the bill. Originally I put 'wonderful', but it wasn't enough. Magnificent was my next choice, but once I saw it on paper, it seemed like too much." His smirk expanded into a shit-eating grin before he lisped, "Fabulous, on the other hand, seemed jussssst right."

Before Grissom could ask another question, he received a text message. "I can't wait to see Nick's reaction," he huffed on his way out of the room. As soon as his feet hit the hallway, he glanced down to read the message from Sara.

Found your missing shoe…in Bruno's mouth.
Steamy sex later to ease the pain of your loss?

"That dog." He grinned. "You need to eat my shoes more often, Bru..."

"Grissom!" Ecklie shouted when the absentminded professor crashed into him, causing him to spill his gourmet iced coffee and drop his stainless steel mug. "Dammit!"

"Sorry, Conrad." Still stunned from the unexpected crash, Grissom didn't realize he had dropped his phone.

"Maybe you're getting too old to read and walk at the same time." When Ecklie crouched down to pick up his mug he snuck a peek at the message displayed on the dropped phone. "A promise of steamy sex from none other than CSI Sidle." He snatched the cell and handed it over with a smirk. "No wonder you were distracted." He cherished the aggravation building in Gil's eyes. "So, you took my advice and got a life. Good for you, Gil, good for you."

Although Grissom hated the thought of Ecklie knowing about him and Sara, he loathed the idea that the pompous jerk was taking credit for the relationship.

"Since your carelessness caused me to spill my coffee, you'll clean this mess." The Assistant Lab Director strolled away smirking. "And remember what I said, Gil…if you let the relationship interfere with work, I'll have no choice but to remove CSI Sidle from your team."

Grissom didn't dignify the threat with an answer.

"What happened, boss?" Hodges queried as he joined Grissom in front of a puddle of spilled coffee and ice cubes.

"I don't know," the irate Supervisor snapped, "but clean it up!" He marched for the exit, so he could call Sara and grab some fresh air.

---

"Let's take a stroll, Jenni." Dave Sanders suggested while bringing the girl's wheelchair over to the couch. "We'll walk the guys to the parking lot, wave them off to work, and then I'll take you around the neighborhood. You need as much fresh air as you can get after being holed up in that hospital for nearly two months."

"You got that right, Dad," the teen replied, eager to use the paternal term as much as possible. "I used to go running four times a week before the accident. I really miss it. Are you coming, Mom?"

Jan felt a tug on her heartstrings every time her new daughter used the maternal term. "Thanks, honey, but it wouldn't be fair to stick Jillian with the mess, so I'm going to stay back and help her tidy up."

"I can handle the clean up by myself." The mentally exhausted woman assured, "I'll be fine, you go on the stroll with your family."

"Don't be silly, Jilly," Jan cheerily donned a smile and an apron. "It'll give us more time to bond before you return home tomorrow."

That's what I was afraid of. Jillian forced a smile. "If you insist."

"I think it's best that we get closer since our sons are planning to spend the rest of their lives together." Jan tossed her arm around the crazy fundamentalist. "As different as we are, we can bond for the sake of our boys, right?"

"Yes, yes of course." With six annoying mother-in-law's to deal with already, the last thing she needed was another one.

"As the mother-of-the-bride," Jan joked, "hosting the commitment ceremony and reception is my responsibility, but I'd love to share my ideas with you and hear your thoughts about what I have planned. I'm willing to be flexible, but I'm going to have to insist on a kiss when they're pronounced life partners or whatever they choose to be called."

As she settled into her wheelchair, Jenni excitedly asked, "Do I get to be a bridesmaid since I'm the sister of the bride?"

"You bet, honey. Cassie too."

"Cool!"

Jillian found the idea of child bridesmaids at a faux marriage ceremony for gay men highly unnerving.

"Hey, Jilly," Jan queried, "Do you have a little granddaughter who could be the Flower Girl? What about a grandson to be Ring Bearer?"

"I'm sure Gwen would allow little Kayla to participate, she's four, but the only little boy is Chuck's son and he, like Eileen, Linda, Marcia and my husband have all informed me they will not be in attendance."

"Come on, G!" Nick shouted as he hurried into the house. "Where is he?" he asked the family members loitering in the kitchen. "G! Let's go!" he yelled down the hall. "I packed my truck and your car already, what the heck is takin' so long? You have thirty seconds, or I'm leavin' without ya!" Since Dr. Henry had fought to get him back at work a week early, he couldn't wait to prove to Ecklie that he wasn't incompetent. "I don't want to be late."

"Geeeeeeez! We're going in three hours early!" Greg reminded his partner when he rushed into the living room buttoning his shirt. "We can't be late if we're going in early."

Jan rushed over with open arms. "Have a great shift, Nicky!"

Jillian cringed every time she heard the other mother call her son by his childhood name. It's Nick to you! The only thing she could stand to hear even less was Greg referring to him as 'Cletus'.

"Save some mommy hugs for me, Cletus!" Greg half-joked.

Ugh. Jillian busied herself wiping the counter.

Dave couldn't decide who was more resentful of affection being showered on Nick – Greg or Jillian. "Don't forget to hug your son, Jan. He's looking a little green."

Realizing his father was right, Greg chuckled, "Hey, I went from being an only child to sharing my mommy with Nick and Jenni. You have to give this spoiled Mama's Boy time to adjust."

"Aww, come here, sweetie." Jan smothered her boy with kisses. "Better?"

"A batch of Snickerdoodles waiting for me on the kitchen counter when I get home would really help too." Greg ducked in time to miss his mother's playful smack.

While the carefree Sanders clan laughed and joked with one another, Jillian lovingly adjusted her son's shirt collar and quietly said, "Have a good shift, honey. Promise me you'll stay alert out there, okay?"

"I promise, Mama." The dutiful son placed a kiss on his mother's cheek. "With all the baggage I've dumped recently, I'm actually a whole lot less distracted."

"Good." She placed a palm on his cheek and whispered, "Would it be too much to ask you to come alone tomorrow for breakfast and drivin' me to the airport? It's hard to get a word in with this crowd, and I'd love to spend a little quiet time with you before leavin'."

"I already told Greg that I wanted to see you off alone. He understands." Nick waved goodnight. "I'll see you about 9:30."

---

"It's ten," Mandy whimpered as she sat on the couch wallowing in shame and regret. "Do I sound sick?" she asked her cats while doing her best nasal voice.

The aloof felines responded by slinking off.

"I heard you laugh at me!" She grabbed her cordless phone and punched in Grissom's number. "Hopefully he's not at his desk."

Three rings and the phone clicked to her Supervisor's voicemail. "Hi, Grissom, it's Mandy. I…" she inserted a phlegmy cough, "I'm really sorry, but I'm still too sick to come in tonight. I have a 103 fever and…" she forced a powerful sneeze, "I think it's flu. I hate to miss two nights in a row, but…" she added another cough for good measure. "I'll call Jacqui and make sure she knows about all my pending work. Thanks for understanding. I'll keep you posted. Bye."

---

"Hello there," Catherine greeted her bedmate when he opened his eyes. "Time to wake up."

Warrick brought a hand to his weary head. "Really?"

"Yep." With her mother at home with her daughter, Catherine had enjoyed her first sleepover party at her boyfriend's new apartment. "We should have gone to bed earlier."

"Yeah." Reaching over, he tucked his lover's tousled hair behind her ear. "We should have gone to bed years ago."

"Mmm, but it was worth the wait," she murmured as their lips met for a sultry kiss. "Mmm…keep kissing me like that and I won't want to get out of bed."

"Let's call in sick, baby," Warrick suggested while exploring the creamy expanse of Catherine's neck with his mouth.

"And miss Nick's first night back? I think he's counting on us to be there for moral support, don't you?"

Warrick's silence spoke volumes.

"You're worried about seeing him, aren't you?" She saw the answer in his eyes. "This is exactly why I told you to call him yesterday. You should have cleared the air before meeting up at work."

"Easier said than done, y'know? And I didn't think he'd be comin' back tonight, I thought I had a week." He quietly admitted, "I'm a little freaked to be totally honest. Nick is my best friend and it's so…so…"

"Awkward for you?"

"Yeah."

"He's the same guy he was a month ago," Catherine reminded him.

"Yeah, but I'm not the same guy. A month ago I didn't know Nick was having sex with Greg, but now I do." It was nice having someone around to confide in again. "It's gonna be hard not to think about that when I see him and when I do, I get uncomfortable." Snuggling closer, he whispered, "Nick's a perceptive guy. He's gonna see me struggling and I don't want him to, y'know? I don't want to hurt him like that. I just want the status quo. I want to be a great friend to him, but how can I be when I can't talk about his love life anymore?" Anxious laughter filled the room. "For the last eight years, him and me – we swapped stories about the ladies we went out with, I'm talkin' serious details." Crashing back on his pillow, he said, "But I guess he was bullshitting me, huh?"

"You think he was lying to you?"

"What would you call it?"

"He wasn't lying," she explained, "he was repressed and living a lie. He really did sleep with those women and the conversations he had with you were real. He wasn't yanking your chain or laughing at you behind your back."

Warrick chuckled at the hilarious memories, "He'd say he had a good time, but there would always be somethin' that turned him off and kept him from calling the lady or seein' her again. Sometimes it was big stuff like the time he hooked up with a devil worshipper on Halloween. He thought she was jokin' around, but when they got to her place, it was Satan's lair. Most of the time it would be stupid little stuff like she didn't enjoy country music or keep her fridge clean enough." Sighing, he said, "The only time he ever really fell for a girl was Kristy."

"Yeah, but now that I think about it in context, I think that was Nick the Hero in action, not Nick falling in love. He wanted to save Kristy and the rush he got from being her savior made him feel good."

"I guess." Inching closer still, Warrick confessed, "I'm open-minded and I'm happy that they're happy, I really am, but I gotta be honest, I can't deal with Nick tellin' me about him and Sanders gettin' it on and I can't imagine watchin' anything more than what we saw the other night."

"The finger sucking incident?"

The memory sent a shiver up his spine. "See, I can't go there. And how am I supposed to tell my best friend who has shared everything with me for years, that I don't want to know the details anymore? That I can talk about my romances, but his are off limits now. It sounds like shitty double standard, doesn't it? I should be able to hear him say that he's exhausted because he spent too much time gettin' his freak on with Greg. "

Seeing the distress on Warrick's face, Catherine sweetly counseled, "First of all, I really doubt he's going to share any details of his love life. Just like straight guys who dish about chicks they're dating stop talking about their love life once they marry a respectable woman, Nick's in committed relationship now and the details are off limits."

"Okay, yeah, I could see it that way. But I still don't know how I'm going to react when he sees me and says something."

"When I stopped by their place yesterday, he could barely look at me. I had to be the one to break the ice and after a few minutes and a couple of jokes, he was the same old Nick. He just needed to know that nothing changed."

"But it has!" Warrick nervously laughed. "He's sleeping with Sanders, that's a huge change in my book, Cath. Not only do I have to deal with the knowledge that my best friend of eight years is gay, I have to cope with the imagery of him giving it to Greg of all geeks."

"What makes you think he's doing all the giving? Lots of gay couples take turns in the driver's seat." Seeing the horror in her man's eyes, Catherine said, "Is that the face you don't want him to see?"

"Yeah."

"I don't blame you." She playfully shook him to his senses. "Grow up! Boys kiss. It's no big deal."

"I know!" Warrick covered his face with his hands. "I don't want to make the face!" He laughed, "It just happens. It's how I was raised. Boys don't play hide the salami in the hood. Well, I'm sure some of them do, but they sure as hell don't talk about it."

"Come on." Catherine tossed off the covers. "The sooner you see him and get it behind you, the better."

"Behind?"

She snickered, "Humor is the way to go with this. Just look for an opportunity to crack a joke that says 'no ifs ands or buts, you're still great friends'. Once he knows that you're still buds, you quietly and respectfully tell the cowboy that whatever happens on Brokeback Mountain is his business and you don't need the details. He'll be fine with that arrangement, trust me."

"You think?"

"No doubt in my mind."

---

"Having second thoughts?" Greg asked his significant other when he found him leaning against his truck in the Lab's parking lot.

"What? No." Nick anxiously replied, "I was just waitin' on you before goin' in. Where were you?"

Greg held up two Venti cups. "Starbucks, remember?"

"Right, right." Nick pulled in a healthy dose of night air.

"Coffee of the day, cream, no sugar, right?" When his partner nodded, Greg handed over the cup. "See, I know my guy. I know how he takes his coffee…I know he's worried about how people are going to look at him after his freak out on the job…I know he's worried that he's going to get the worst case imaginable on the first night back and have a relapse, and I know he worries way too much. You're gonna be fine, Cletus, and the sooner you get in that building, the sooner you'll prove it."

"Thanks for the kick in the ass." The nervous CSI lifted his cup. "And for the coffee."

"Let's go." Greg started for the door. "I don't know about you, but I can't wait to hear what Hodges has to say…not."

"He promised he wouldn't tell anyone and after talking with him, I really don't think he'll be an ass."

"But he's always an ass," Greg laughed.

"Except when he saved our lives by figurin' out the coffin would explode if Griss and Warrick pulled me out of it."

Greg's laughter ceased, "Okay, yeah. There's that, that was cool."

"If you think about it, he's technically responsible for our happiness right now."

The perpetual smartass quietly replied, "No, I'm pretty positive you're responsible for my happiness today, not Hodges. That's why I was moaning 'So good, Cowboy' earlier instead of 'So good, Dorkboy'."

Nick shook his head. "You're too much sometimes."

"Really?" Greg caught his lover's eye, "Because I can never get enough of you."

"And here I thought I was the romantic one."

When Greg saw his partner's face light up, he sweetly whispered, "Have a great shift, CSI Stokes and if you have a problem while we're not working together tonight, you know I'm just a phone call away."

---

"That's my cell," Jillian remarked while at the sink with Jan. Grabbing a dishtowel, she dried her hands on the way to her purse. "It better not be Eileen again. The last time she called, she accused me of turning Injun."

"Turning Injun?" Jan huffed in disgust.

"You know…livin' with gay men is makin' me think there's nothin' wrong with their lifestyle."

"Yes, I understood why she said it, I was just stunned that the degrading phrase was still being uttered in 2007."

Jillian was grateful she had to answer the phone instead of replying.

"I'll give you some privacy." Jan hurried down the hall and into Greg's room. "My in-laws are a bunch of redneck wackos," she muttered while dumping laundry out of her son's hamper. "I can't believe…" She froze when she heard Jillian screaming in the kitchen. "What's wrong?" She raced for the door. "What's going on?"

When Jan reached the living room, she saw the 73 year old woman holding her head and clutching the phone to her ear. "What happened?"

"It's my granddaughter, Skye," Jillian replied as the first tears fell from her eyes.

From the look on the woman's face, Jan knew something terrible had happened. "What's wrong?"

"There's been an accident."

"How bad is it?"

---

"Things couldn't be better," Nick informed the Assistant Lab Director, who had been exiting the lab just as he was approaching with Greg. "And just like Dr. Henry told ya, I'm ready to get back to work. I even came in early, 'cause I'm excited to get back in the groove."

"Welcome back." Ecklie had to remind himself not to drool. "The place wasn't the same without you, Stokes." He had more fantasies about the Texan having his way with him than he could count on his hands. His favorite entailed the cowboy wearing skin tight Levis, a plaid flannel shirt, worn cowboy boots and a black Stetson.

"You wanted to see me, boss?" The cowboy pushed up the brim of his hat to reveal his intense brown eyes.

"Come in, Stokes." Ecklie walked around his desk to greet the Texan. "How was your shift?"

The CSI removed his hat and wiped his gritty brow. "Hot and dirty, just like I like it."

"Ecklie?" Nick gave the man a tap on the shoulder. "You seem a little preoccupied."

"Um." Although it was abundantly clear that the Ladies Man was a straight shooter, a guy could dream, especially a guy who had spent one too many decades in the closet. "If there's anything you need that you're not getting from Grissom," he dropped a hand on the cowboy's shoulder and gave it a squeeze, "you come see me, okay?"

"Uh…" Nick stammered as he bristled from the personal space violation, "Yeah, sure…sounds good, thanks."

It sounds heavenly actually. Ecklie reluctantly removed his hand. "And what about you, Sanders?" he snipped, having little tolerance for the sissified Mama's Boy. "How did it go with the family on your emergency vacation?"

"Great, thanks for asking."

"Really?" The suspicious boss wouldn't believe it without evidence. "Got any pictures from the occasion?"

"As a matter of fact I do." Since Grissom had warned him that Ecklie would passive-aggressively ask for proof, he pulled two photos from his jacket. "That's us at The Shark Reef together and the second one is us having dinner. We're one big happy family. It's great having a sibling after 32 years as an only child."

"No more time off until the new shift is in place, do you hear me?"

"Yes, Sir."

After sneering at Greg, Ecklie took one last opportunity to ogle Nick. "Stop by my office before you leave in the morning, Stokes. We'll chat about your first night back."

"Sure."

When the weasel was across the parking lot, Greg said, "Holy shit, he was totally cruising you!"

"What?"

"The way he was looking at you, the shoulder squeeze. The line he laid on you." Greg mocked the man's voice, "If there's anything you need that you're not getting from Grissom…" He burst out laughing, "He think's your gay and hooked up with Grissom. He's trying to woo you away."

"Would you stop! Ecklie's not gay. He's just…weird."

"I'm serious, Cletus. I always had my suspicions about him, because I totally got a 'beard marriage' vibe when he introduced me to his wife a few years ago." Watching Ecklie zip out of the parking lot in his Mercedes convertible, Greg laughed, "Holy Sexual Harassment Suit, Batman! Ecklie wants to lasso my cowboy."

"I refuse to believe you." Nick's whole body cringed. "Because…eww! And it makes no sense, because if he's gay, why did he treat you like shit just now? You seem way gayer than me, so why not come on to you?"

"Duh." Greg released a giddy laugh. "Because he's a Big Nelly Bottom like me, so he's not attracted to me. All magnets are magnets, but some attract and some repel. Just because a guy is gay, doesn't mean he's attracted to every gay man. I'm a turn off, but you're just the top he's looking for."

"I still don't believe you," Nick laughed. "I mean, how many gay guys could be workin' here? What are the odds?"

"The lab is a microcosm and if ten percent of the population is gay, then it's quite possible that ten percent of the lab's population is gay."

"Really? Like who else?"

"Ballistics Bobby for sure."

"No way!" The Texan riotously laughed. "He's an Okie."

"Like there aren't gay people in Oklahoma?" Greg cracked up. "I saw the musical, believe me, those guys were gay with a capital G."

"Twenty bucks says Bobby's not gay."

"I'll take your action."

"I'd say Henry's the only one that's gay for sure."

"Henry's so not gay," Greg's laughter returned with a vengeance. "He's a showtune singing Mama's Boy, but he's straight as an arrow."

"Are you kiddin' me?"

Greg plucked a c-note from his wallet. "Not gay."

"The c-note plus two weeks of laundry."

Greg couldn't wait to watch his partner slaving over a hot dryer. "You're on." He started for the front door.

"Wanna keep going?"

"Hell, yes! Your gaydar sucks and I need spending money."

"Gaydar?" Nick rolled his eyes.

"What about Archie?" Greg asked while walking into the building.

"Not gay," Nick answered without hesitation. "He's dished about a couple of girls over the years."

"So have you." Greg weighed the evidence as he strolled into the locker room. "I'd say he's Bi leaning straight."

"What the…" Nick stood gaping at the flaming pink sign on his locker. "Fabulous?"

"Hodges," Greg droned.

"He's not gay," Nick huffed as his blood boiled, "he's a dead man."

---

"She could have died." Jillian wiped her eyes, but fresh tears kept coming. Sitting on the couch with Jan holding her hand, she said in a shaky voice, "Skye's best friend, Annie, told my daughter that she was terrified about the pregnancy and didn't want the baby. She didn't want to marry at 18 and she didn't want to lose out on Paris or Harvard. Annie offered to take her for an abortion, but she said Skye refused, sayin' that if her mother found out, she'd kick her out of the house, just like her cousin Roy was thrown out for bein' gay."

Jan handed over another clump of tissues.

"Her plan was to go for a ride on her horse and pretend it got spooked. She thought the fall would make her lose the baby like it did women on soap operas." Jillian's voice shook as he tried to make sense of it all as she retold the story. "Annie is goin' to A&M for pre-med and she says she warned her that it was too dangerous, that she could hemorrhage while losin' the baby or ruin her chances for children in the future, but she said Skye was adamant that she'd rather take a chance at preservin' the future she wanted, than to be stuck livin' one she didn't." Resting her head on Jan's shoulder, she said, "She thought she was in a soft pasture, but there were hidden rocks and when she threw herself off the horse, she smacked her head on one of them. Luckily Annie had her phone to call 911." Sobbing against the woman's sweater, she squeaked, "They had to drill holes in her head to relieve the pressure from the bleeding and they don't know if there's brain damage or…"

"Did she lose the baby?" Jan asked in a whisper as she hugged the devastated grandmother tight.

Jillian nodded. "And while everyone was at the hospital waitin' to hear if Skye would make it, there was a huge blow up over Nicky. Chuck said somethin' horrible and Gwen started yellin' at him and of course the twins jumped to his defense in the name of the Lord. In the heat of the moment, Gwen confessed that she had been in drug rehab for a month, not on a business trip like she and her husband had told us. She said that Nicky had given her the money to go and to pay off the bills that had piled up because of her wipin' out the savings account to feed her habit. She couldn't stand there and listen to Chuck say her brother was worthless when he meant the world to her and her family."

"I think I'm going to like Gwen."

"People had come from church to show their support and they heard everything…Skye pregnant, Nicky gay, and Gwen a recoverin' addict. We aren't the perfect Stokes family anymore." Clutching her throbbing head, she asked, "Why are so many members of my family fallin' apart?"

"Contents under pressure are bound to explode," Jan softly replied. "Perfection is too high of a standard, Jillian, it's too much. When Greg was five he was declared a prodigy and we were invited to join this special group for exceptional children and their parents. Dave and I took him and we immediately bought in to the insanity. Within a month's time we had Greg in piano lessons, violin lessons, doing math and science clubs for child prodigies. We were desperate to get him speaking a second foreign language, because it seemed that all the other kids spoke at least three fluently and Greg only spoke English and Norwegian. Not long after that, Disney tunes were replaced by classical music and his bike gathered dust, because he had to play chess with his tutor every day for an hour."

"Did something bad happen?"

"No, thankfully, my father snapped us to our senses. One day, when Greg was sitting at the piano crying because he hadn't been allowed to go swimming all summer, my father scooped him up in his arms and yelled 'the craziness stops now!'" She smiled at the bittersweet memory. "He thought Greg would be better off happy and mediocre than living as a miserable genius. He said 'I'm taking my grandson to the ocean for the day and when we get back, all the flashcards and stupidity better be gone'. He told us he'd sue for custody because he considered what we were doing to be child abuse and he feared that Greg would throw himself off a bridge by the time he was sixteen if things didn't change. He was right. One of the other boys in the group, Brandon Maynard, committed suicide at 16. That could have been Greg if we kept pushing him and making him a freak prodigy instead of letting him have a normal childhood."

"I need to get back to Dallas and the people who really do have problems." Bonding over tears, Jillian said, "I'm not needed here, because there's nothing wrong with Nicky. He's healthy and happy and loved by your son, that's been blatantly obvious the past few days." She lifted her soaked, red eyes to Jan's. "You raised a wonderful son."

"So have you." Jan smiled through her tears. "I know they're going to live happily ever after."

"Is it okay for the mother of the groom to wear off-white at her gay son's commitment ceremony or do the standard wedding rules apply?"

"I think you could wear a paper bag to the ceremony and look amazing in Nick's eyes." Tears of joy streaming from her eyes, Jan said, "Wear anything you want, just be there for your son on the happiest day of his life."

---

"This night stinks," Henry lamented when he found out that Mandy had called in sick again. She hadn't returned his phone calls or emails, not even to thank him for the dozen roses he had sent to her house. "I can't believe she's ignoring me." He paced his lab like a caged animal. "No wonder her cats don't like her. She's not nice. I know she's not really sick. She's faking! She's faking because she doesn't want to see me. She knows I have the next two nights off, so I bet she miraculously recovers tomorrow."

"Hey, Henry," Sara greeted the sweet Toxicologist that always treated her extra nice.

"What do you want, Sidle?" he snarled.

"Uh…"

"Sorry." Henry dropped onto a stool. "I'm having a bad night."

"Henry!" Nick boisterously greeted the man he knew without a doubt was as gay as the Liberace museum. "What's up, man? Did you miss me?" While Greg waited in silence, Nick tried to get the evidence he needed to win a hundred bucks and two weeks of laundry.

"He's having a bad night," Sara announced. "Don't hassle him unless you want your head bitten off." She pointed to her neck. "I found out the hard way, see the bite marks?"

"I said I was sorry!" the heartbroken man yelled. "I'm having girlfriend problems."

Greg coughed loudly into his fist. "I think I caught what Mandy has." He mouthed 'laundry' at Nick while wishing he had upped the ante to include ironing.

"You caught what Mandy has?" Henry blurted. "Then you must have a case of liar-itis! Because that's what she has! She's a liar. She's not really sick, she's avoiding me because she regrets sleeping with me not once, but thrice! And you should talk, Mister 'look at the cool bracelet I got from Cletus!' That's right! I overheard you and I know Cletus is Nick and I know you took Mandy on a beard date from hell, and because you did, she got drunk and had revenge sex with me, not once, but thrice!" He shivered. "I feel so used, and I can't believe we didn't use a condom the two out of three times. My mother will kill me if she finds out. She'll be too disgusted to take me on our annual Best of Broadway trip this year." When he saw three gaped-mouth people staring at him, he realized that he had indeed been speaking out loud. After a harsh clearing of his throat, the Tech said, "About those test results on the Stark case." He hurried to retriever the folder. "I've got them right here, Sara."

"Uh…" Sara decided to uncomplicate matters by pretending Henry hadn't been talking out loud.

Greg walked over to his partner and held out his palm. "I'm jonesing for some Red Vines from the vending machine, so I'll take that c-note right about now." He winked, "Laundry included sorting, right? I'll put my hamper in the hallway as soon as I get home."

Nick slapped a hundred dollar bill in his lover's hand.

"Cool." Greg placed his winnings in his wallet and then dug in his pockets for change to buy his Red Vines. "Uh, can I borrow 75 cents, Cletus?"

As Nick opened his hand full of change, Henry knocked over a beaker and startled him. "Shit!" When he jumped, all of his change went flying.

"Finders keepers!" Laughing, Greg dove for the money. "Papa needs a brand new bag of Red Vines!"

"Hey! Save some for me!" Nick raced to pick up his quarters.

"Henry!" Warrick cheerily greeted the Tech as he strolled in. "Do you have…" The sight of Greg on all fours with Nick behind him rendered him momentarily speechless. "Uh…you're swamped. I should come back later."

Waving two work slips, Grissom hurried into the room. "I wondered where everyone was. Nick and Warrick, you have a 419 at The Lava Room."

"Aww! No strip club for me?" Greg laughed as he jumped to his feet.

Warrick snatched the slip from his boss. "I'll meet you there, buddy!" He bolted while he had the chance.

"Yeah, I guess so," Nick replied to the blur rushing out of the room. "I'll see you later, guys." He trudged out of the room wondering if his friend would ever look him in the eyes again.

"Fear not, Greg," Grissom couldn't contain his grin, "I have something very special for you." He handed over the slip. "B&E at Naughty World, a new adult store set to open next week."

"Yessssss! This is that upscale porn shop opening on the edge of a good neighborhood. They're trying to appeal to the upper-middle-class who won't shop at the dirty places."

Grissom praised his employee, "It's good to know you have your fingers on the pulse of the city, Greg."

"Thanks, boss," the CSI 1 beamed with pride. "I'm your go-to guy for erotica."

"Sara," Grissom cheerily dropped the bomb, "you're with Greg in a tutorial role, because he hasn't had a lot of B&E experience. Let him lead and correct him when necessary. Enjoy!"

"Wait! Why not Catherine?" Sara asked, not wanting to spend hours in an adult entertainment store being entertained by Greg.

"She's busy," he replied while heading for the door.

"Is this about your shoes?" she yelled as she chased after her boss/lover.

"Hey, Henry," Greg walked over with a friendly smile. "Sorry to hear things didn't go so well with you and Mandy. If there's anything I can do to help…"

"I think you did enough damage already," Henry huffed as he swept up the last of the broken beaker. "You should have told her the truth at the grocery store, not asked her out on a fake date."

"I got painted into a corner and I panicked." Greg quietly explained, "You and I take a lot of shit around here for being lab geeks with questionable sexuality, but in here it's manageable. It's not as easy in the field. I've already taken a ton of abuse from cops for letting myself get beaten to a pulp and they'd have a field day if they found out Nick and I were together. I got scared and I went into self-preservation mode. I didn't mean to hurt Mandy and cause you any residual grief. I honestly thought we'd go out, the date would suck and we'd laugh it off."

"She really liked you," Henry scolded. "You had to know that, because I knew." He deflated, "I knew she liked you and was upset that you lied to her and...and...and I slept with her anyway." The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. "I'm scum. No wonder she's not talking to me."

"You're not scum." Greg assured the panicked man,."You're like the nicest guy at the lab."

"A nice guy wouldn't have slept with Mandy when she was drunk and desperate."

"Why did you sleep with her?"

"Because I was drunk and desperate," Henry confessed, "and totally, madly in love with her. I have been for years, but I was invisible to her as a man and then suddenly...I wasn't. I couldn't stop myself."

Feeling terrible for the guy, Greg said, "If you think it will help, I'll talk to her. Maybe she's not angry at you, maybe she hates men because I used her and if I apologize, she'll stop taking it out on you."

"You think?"

"It couldn't hurt, right?" With a hopeful lilt in his voice, Greg said, "I'm sure she'll come to her senses and realize you're a great catch."

"Would you date me if I was gay?"

"No." Greg laughed, "Because it would be like dating myself. You're a scientist, you should know opposites attract. And you're a little over-the-top about the show tune thing to be completely honest. That wall of Playbills in your apartment and the pictures of you and your mother outside every theater marquis…not good. The Little Orphan Annie throw pillows…disastrous. Did you ever see the movie Fever Pitch? It's a chick flick about an obsessive Red Sox fan."

"I don't do football movies."

"Red Sox are baseball," Greg laughed, "geeks have to learn this stuff when they go into the field or the cops eat them alive." He headed for the door. "Rent the movie, you'll know why you needed to see it when you're watching it. Try to get Hodges and Archie to watch it with you, because they have the same issue."

"Greg!" Henry sweetly said, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about Cletus."

"Thanks, dude." Grinning, Greg held up his cell. "And don't you worry, 'cause The Love Doctor is in da house!"

***

Chapter 10: Moments of Truth - Part 2

When his wife returned to their hotel room, Dave muted the TV and asked, "Is she okay?" Upon returning to The Mandalay Bay, Jan had walked Jillian to her hotel room. "You were gone a while. I was starting to worry."

"She's as okay as she can be while waiting to find out if her granddaughter has brain damage." Jan shivered every time she thought of the depressing situation. "To take her mind off things, we chatted about our boys. She's actually excited about the commitment ceremony."

"I wouldn't have thought that possible 24 hours ago."

"Me either. I'm a little disappointed that it can't be on the beach at the Maui house, but it's more important to have her there."

"Did you tell her we'd pay the airfare?"

"It's not the money, she's too afraid to fly over water." Jan took a seat on the suite's couch and nestled into her loving husband's arms. "Remember the wedding Kitty Reno threw for her daughter in Malibu last year? I'm going to see if I can rent that beach house, because Greg loved it. He spent half the reception snooping around the place."

"He wasn't snooping, he was avoiding you, because you were annoying the hell out of him by trying to fix him up with women."

Laughing, she said, "What a colossal waste of my time, huh?"

"Yep."

After a kiss to Dave's cheek, Jan said, "I need to tuck Jenni in for the night."

"She's already asleep." The content father smiled, "You're going to love this. While she was changing and brushing her teeth in the bathroom, I put a glass of ice water on the nightstand for her and turned down the bed. I told her about how whenever I wasn't working late or traveling, I insisted on doing the bedtime routine with Greg, because it was my favorite daddy thing to do. She told me her mom never tucked her in and read her stories like the other kids said their parents did. I assured her that fourteen wasn't too old to be tucked in, that I read to Greg until he was sixteen. Then I grabbed that ratty copy of Harry Potter she cherishes and started reading."

"Aww."

"She was so happy, she cried. Then I cried because she was crying."

"Seriously?" Jan turned to look at her husband. "You never cry." The last time he shed a tear was at the hospital when they saw Greg after the beating.

Stroking his wife's hair, Dave quietly said, "I'm really happy, honey. I loved watching Greg these past few days, seeing the excitement in his eyes when he talks about buying that house with Nick and getting a dog. It's like seeing the fruits of our parenting labor and now we get to do it again…two more times, if all goes well with Cassie's adoption."

"Cassie's caseworker told me the adoption will sail through. She said we have the longest marriage and the largest financial portfolio she's seen in her fourteen years working in Social Services."

"I'm going to take full advantage of this second shot at being an involved father, because I missed way too much with Greg. I wasn't in the right place to be a hands-on dad back then. I had too many demons to conquer to stop and smell the roses." He brushed a kiss over Jan's lips. "But I'm ready now and I think it's going to be just as good for our marriage as it is for the kids. Not every guy gets a chance to relax and enjoy his family like I'll be able to, I'm a lucky man."

"You didn't get it, David, you earned it by working your ass off for the last forty years." Jan stood and took her husband's hand. "Since our little girl is sound asleep for the night, let's finish this conversation in the bedroom, shall we?"

"Twist my arm." Happy that he had popped a Levitra fifteen minutes ago, Dave jumped to his feet smirking. "What do you have in mind my naughty little minx?"

---

"How do you feel about bondage?" Greg mischievously asked his co-worker while snapping photos of a shattered display case full of S&M items. "Ever try it?"

"Not my cup of tea," Sara stated as she labeled evidence bags.

"Me either." Greg continued to snap photos. "Joking around with fuzzy handcuffs or a blindfold is fun, but not the hardcore stuff and definitely not the whacked out scenarios being played out at Lady Heather's nightly."

Sara rolled her eyes at the mention of the woman's name. "So all those stories of Liquid Latex and…"

"Lies, all of them." From behind his camera, Greg sweetly admitted, "When it comes to guys, I even saved a certain part of myself for Mr. Right."

Stunned by the revelation, she blurted, "Nick was the first guy you slept with?" Embarrassed for asking the invasive question, she blushed, "I'm so shutting up now. Sorry."

"It's okay," Greg laughed, "Girlfriends are supposed to dish about their boyfriends and trade secrets." Crouching down to get a close up of the broken glass, he said, "Remember the hockey case. You and I had a conversation and you said sex wasn't a game to you. I felt the same way. Don't get me wrong, I had plenty of fun doing other things at clubs and on campus, but never trusted anyone enough to let things get that serious, not after getting burned by my almost-fiancée. You know what I mean?"

"Unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean."

"I've been waiting for my safety girl or guy…a person I loved being with and never have to worry about finding them in bed with someone else after making love with me." Glancing up, Greg smiled, "Can you relate?"

"Perfectly." Feeling comfortable enough to get personal, she quietly asked, "Even with your safety guy, there are still moments of insecurity, right? It's not always perfect, is it?"

"Uh…you heard our imperfections through the wall at The Coast Hotel, remember?"

"Right." She shifted her eyes to the floor. "I got really unnerved listening to the two of you fight, because that kind of raw anger clashes with some of my baggage. It was weird though…at the same time I didn't want to be you, I was incredibly jealous that you could fling all that emotion out there and risk everything to fight for the relationship you wanted. It takes guts to stick around and work things out, because the easiest thing to do is walk away."

"You should have been in Catalina for round two," he said while snapping photos and shaking off the bad memory. "Nick got a call from his sister and he totally freaked and decided to throw in the towel. I was completely blissed out thinking we were going to have a great day and he blindsided me. I don't do well with surprise betrayals, so it got real ugly, real fast. I practically threw him overboard. You know how they say the darkest hour is before the dawn? That's how it went, one minute I was losing everything, including my mind, and then there he was…giving me everything I ever wanted and more."

"This is so not the conversation I thought we'd be having at Naughty World." Sara returned her gaze to her friend. "I was expecting very immature discourse about edible underwear and blow up dolls."

"I'm gonna get to that, don't worry." He winked. "I'm growing up, but I'll always be part goofball."

"Good." She held open an evidence envelope for him. "Because life wouldn't be the same without you and your goofballishness."

He responded by living up to his reputation and grabbing a jar of chocolate body paint from a shelf. "Ever use this?"

"Can't say that I have," she chuckled.

"It's delicious, nutritious, and really augments the giver's experience, if you catch my drift." He wiggled his brows. "Trust me, I have a Ph.D in oral gratification."

"Is that why Nick was able to chill out in record time?"

"Duh, of course!" he half-joked.

Opening another evidence bag, Sara said, "And now I'm desperately trying to block the image of what we're discussing."

"Kind of freaky, huh?" He bent down to lift a print off the case.

"A little bit, yeah. Not because I'm homophobic in any way, it's awkward because you're Greg and Nick…you're my friends and my pseudo-brothers." She laughed, "No girl wants to think of her pseudo-brothers being naked together."

"It's like the first time I thought about you and Griss doing it. Yuck."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, but…" he winked, "no guy wants to think of his pseudo-dad boinking his fantasy girl. But if it's any consolation, you looked hot when I was envisioning you naked, almost as hot as you did that day in our decontamination shower."

"I thought you said you didn't peek."

"Ha!" He slapped his thigh while he riotously laughed, "I can't believe you bought that lie. Of course I looked! I'm a scientist for crying out loud. After I had been undressing you in my mind for years, I had to check and see if I had deducted correctly."

"Were you as disappointed as I was when you saw the real deal?"

"Oh!"

"Sounds like a party in here," Vartann stated as he walked toward the laughing CSIs.

"What are you doing at a B&E?" Sara asked the Homicide Detective.

Greg's smile faded when he saw Vartann staring him down.

"Dawson Kent, the owner of this fine preppy porn shack was just found dead in his home. Shot five times at close range."

"The plot thickens," Sara remarked to her co-worker while grabbing her cell. "I'll let Grissom know. Be right back."

"Haven't seen you in a while, Sanders." The Detective postured before the pretty boy. "I thought the pressure finally got to you."

"Sorry to disappoint you and your cronies, but I was gone for a week at a conference and then I took a little vacation time for a family matter, my parents adopted Jenni Riley, the girl I found in the ravine at that bus crash a couple of months ago."

"No shit, really?"

"Pretty cool, huh?"

The detective stepped closer, lowering his voice to a husky whisper, "I heard McKeen accused you of coming on to that kid."

"No, some stupid nurse with a grudge against me did."

"Yeah, she'd have to be pretty friggin' stupid to think you were chasing a skirt," the deeply closeted man replied, hoping for the confirmation he had been seeking for years. Every time he thought he knew for sure, he'd see Sanders flirting with Sidle or a stripper and think he had it all wrong.

Locking eyes, Greg calmly asked, "What's that supposed to mean, Detective?"

Vartann's hunger for the deliciously delicate CSI grew stronger every time he saw him. "You know exactly I mean." This time the fantasy was so rich, he could feel himself gripping the submissive man's mop of golden brown hair as it bobbed in front of his hips.

Greg rolled his eyes and walked over to his kit for more supplies. "I get it, it's a slow night and you haven't run into any obese women or homeless guys to pick on, so I'm filling the gap. Lucky me."

"Sounds like I hit a nerve," Vartann commented as he enjoyed the rear view even more than the front.

Bent over grabbing another jar of print powder, Greg calmly asked, "Why don't you ever say this shit in front of Sara or Grissom? Oh, right, because then I'd have witnesses to the harassment."

"You think that's why?" The guy had it all wrong.

"I know that's why." Greg walked over to the counter and began dusting.

"Nice technique," Vartann needled, "it's all in the wrist, isn't it?" Laughing, he held up a limp right hand. "Yeah, I bet having a loose wrist helps a lot." He stepped behind the CSI and peered over his shoulder. "I'm very impressed with your technique, Nancy."

"Fuck off," Greg snapped, realizing he was cornered against the counter.

"Aww, why don't you like my queer jokes, Sanders? Hmm?"

Getting twitchy from the physical threat, the former victim looked over his shoulder and authoritatively said, "You're invading my personal space, Detective."

"Am I?"

"Yes."

Their eyes locked, Vartann boldly pressed his body closer and made his future intentions clear.

"Is that your gun in my ass?" Greg asked as his heart hammered in his chest.

"No."

"I didn't think so." And I told Nick his gaydar sucks!

"I think you should send Sara back to the Lab with some evidence. Then you and I can have a private chat about the case in the back office." Vartann smirked as he continued jabbing at the surprised man's ass. "A long, hard chat." When he used the same lines with Ecklie, they worked like a charm.

The beep of a police two-way radio startled both men and ended the staring contest.

"Vartann," the anxious detective barked into his radio.

Greg was thrilled to see Sara returning. "I got some prints!" he yelled over to her. "Come here." When she was at his side, he whispered, "I'm going to ask you to leave, but don't." He raised his voice, "Sara, can you rush these prints back to the lab?" He returned to a panicked whisper, "I'll explain later, just please don't leave me alone with him."

---

Although Warrick had been working side by side with Nick at The Lava Room for forty minutes, the presence of the Coroner precluded them from getting personal.

"Thanks, SuperDave," Nick waved at his co-worker who was wheeling the DB out on a stretcher. "We'll see you in autopsy after we check the vic's apartment."

"Take your time, we're swamped. She won't be on my slab for hours."

Alone in the club manager's office with his gay pal, Warrick knew the moment of truth had finally arrived. "So…"

"I don't think we're looking at a drug overdose, man." Nick shook his head. "Yeah, she died from OD'ing, but I don't think she knew what she was taking, not after talkin' to her friends and co-workers. I think someone drugged her on the sly. Maybe someone didn't like her makin' the most money in the house and gettin' fawned over. Some of these girls are vicious competitors."

"That's your bleedin' heart talking." Warrick looked at the soiled spot where the stripper's body used to be. "She was a party girl who got carried away partying and lost track of what she had taken."

"You care to back up that statement?" It was just like old times. "My murdered girl against your party girl? Fifty?"

Warrick replied with his customary line, "You know I don't get out of bed for less than a bill."

"Now that you're hooked up with Catherine, I'm surprised you get out of bed at all." Nick laughed, "I was surprised you got into bed with her too, 'cause you swore up and down that you'd never it get that far, because it would mess up things at work."

Remembering his girlfriend's advice about cracking a joke if the opportunity arose, Warrick quipped, "Yeah, well…you said you liked banging chicks, but you're sharing a bed with Sanders." He immediately averted his eyes. "Cath told me to break the ice with a joke, but if that wasn't funny…"

"It was." Nick chuckled, "I really shouldn't be throwin' stones about inner-office dating."

Warrick anxiously cleared his throat. "For the record, I'm happy for you guys."

"Thanks, man."

"I wish I found out a different way than…"

"Yeah, sorry about that." Nick sobered, "It all happened pretty fast, but I was gonna tell you as soon as I figured out how to say it. Kinda shocking, huh?"

"Yeah," Warrick didn't lie.

"Hell, it was a shock to me too."

"The shock is starting to wear off a little." The supportive friend lifted his gaze to make eye contact for the first time since discovering the truth. "I think it would be easier if it was some guy I didn't know, but it's Greggo and that's…it's a little out there for me just yet, but it'll be cool, and I'm…I'm cool with you bein' gay." He tried to eliminate the tension in his voice. "Cath said to tell you that whatever happens on Brokeback Mountain is none of my business and I don't want any details. That sounded good in theory, but standing in front of you, it feels wrong to say that I don't want to know about half your life. It feels like I'm saying what you're doing is wrong and shameful."

"According to 95 of my family it is. Most of them will only talk to me to tell me I'm goin' to hell. You haven't condemned me to burn, so you're doin' great in my books, buddy."

Realizing Catherine was right and Nick really was the same person, Warrick smiled at his friend. "If hell's full of people like you, then I'll be spending eternity in damn good company."

"Thanks, man." Normally Nick would have given his friend a pat on the arm, but he refrained, thinking it would be awkward. "And as far as sharin' details goes…Cath's been like a sister to me, so I don't want hear the nitty gritty about you guys either. How about we keep things general instead of gettin' down and dirty like when we were playin' the field?"

"Sounds good to me."

"So, we're cool then?"

"Yeah."

"Great."

"Okay."

After two minutes of working in awkward silence, Nick casually announced, "I'm the top."

"Yeah, I was pretty sure." Warrick burst into a grin. "Cath's an animal in bed."

"Yeah, I was pretty sure." Laughing, Nick pulled out his car keys. "I'll meet you at Murdered Girl's house in twenty."

"No, I'll meet you at Party Girl's house in thirty, 'cause I'm gonna stop for burgers at In and Out to celebrate your new status."

"Cool!" Nick winked, "Make mine animal style in honor of your new girlfriend."

---

"Have you talked to Mandy yet?" Henry whispered into his cell. "Do I have a girlfriend or not?"

"Sorry, she didn't answer," Greg replied. "I left her a voicemail. Maybe she doesn't keep the same schedule when she's not working and she's sleeping instead of being up at 3am."

"No, she told me that she always stays on schedule because it's too hard to adjust."

"Sara and I will be tied up here for at least another three hours, but if I don't hear from Mandy by then, I'll stop by her place. Okay?"

"Okay," Henry moped.

"Stay chilled and have faith in the Love Doctor."

---

"The doctors believe Skye will make a full recovery," Jillian told Jan as she stood in the door of her hotel room at six am. "I just hung up from telling Nicky. I told him about changing my flight and we said our goodbyes over the phone since he's in the middle of case at work."

"Thank goodness your granddaughter will be alright." Jan hugged her newest friend.

"I'm on my way down to the lobby for a taxi to the airport, but wanted to say thank you for helpin' me yesterday and to give you this paper with my phone number and email address. I want to continue helpin' plan the commitment ceremony and reception."

---

"Will I be invited?" Sara asked as she walked into Paradise Bakery with Greg.

"Of course." Greg joked, "You wanna be my Maid of Honor?"

"Do I have to wear a frosty pink taffeta gown?"

"Hell no, we're going barefoot on the beach at sunset."

"That I can do." Sara glanced up at the menu posted on the wall. "You were kidding about the Maid of Honor thing, right?"

"Yeah. Nick and I wanted to keep it really simple, but my mom told Jenni and Cassie they could be bridesmaids and we just found out that Nick's 4 year old niece Kayla is going to be a flower girl. Jenni is going to have my ring for Nick and Cassie is going to have Nick's ring for me."

"How are you going to explain wearing matching wedding bands without coming out?"

"My mother hasn't gotten to that part of the plan yet," he laughed. "What do you want for breakfast?" Greg held up his wallet. "It's on me."

Waving a crisp one hundred dollar bill, Warrick said, "Breakfast is on me. Unless you're too pissed from losing our bet to break bread with me."

"I'll have to take a raincheck." Nick shut his locker. "I already made plans." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hodges. "Hey! Get in here, pal."

The Trace Tech had successfully avoided the CSI for the entire shift until now. "If it's about the Doug's Diner case, I…"

"No." Nick shook his head. "It's about that flaming pink sign you hung on my locker."

"I'll handle this clown," Warrick informed his best friend. "You have plans."

"Thanks, 'Rick." Nick enjoyed the fear in the Tech's eyes. "See ya, Hodges. Well, assuming you survive."

The geek's pulse notched as the muscular CSI loomed over him.

"That wasn't cool what you did."

"I…um…"

Warrick narrowed his eyes. "From now on you're gonna keep your mouth shut and your hot pink markers capped, right?"

"Y…yes."

"Good answer."

"I was just trying to be one of the guys and joke around."

"Yeah, but you're not one of the guys." Warrick shut his locker. "And you're never gonna be if you keep pullin' shit like that sign. Nick and Greg's personal lives are off limits. Got it?"

"Loud and clear."

---

"I know you can hear me, Mandy," Greg said through the door. "Come on, I brought you breakfast. I even brought options…four kinds of muffins, two pastries, a couple of bagels, and an egg sandwich." He softened his voice, "Please open the door so I can look you in the eyes and apologize."

"What kind of muffins?"

"Blueberry, Chocolate Chip, Banana Walnut, and Lemon Poppy Seed." Greg smiled when he heard the twisting of locks.

"You had me at Chocolate Chip," Mandy said while waving in the unexpected guest. Dressed in floral flannel pajamas and a fluffy raspberry robe, she wasn't expecting to entertain. "I look like a wreck and so does my apartment."

"Contrary to gay stereotypes, I'm not a neat freak, and even though you're a rumpled mess, you look adorable." He handed over the two bags of food. "Thanks for giving me a chance to apologize."

"You only got a chance because I'm starving." She trudged into the kitchen for plates and napkins. "Which one are you eating?"

"No, it's all for you. I chowed a bagel dog on the drive over." While his friend meticulously peeled the wrapper from her muffin, he walked over and quietly said, "I'm really sorry I lied to you and used you. When you saw us in the grocery store, I panicked, because Nick had only come out the week before and he was terrified of being found out. When you love someone as much as I love him, you'll do anything to protect him. That's all I was trying to do. I never thought I'd hurt you. I figured we'd go out, have a sucky time and I'd look pathetic. I figured you'd be laughing your ass off at me with Wendy for months. I never thought you'd feel bad or take your anger at me out on Henry."

"Is that what he told you I'm doing?" she asked with a mouthful of muffin. "Wait…he told you what happened?"

"The guy's crazy about you and he's heartbroken. He needed someone to talk to and get advice from. He told me what happened."

"Oh!" She covered her eyes with her hands. "How much detail did he give you?"

"Not much and he didn't mean to give any, but he was so out of his head, he blurted things."

"What kind of things?" she asked through her parted fingers.

"That you guys did it um…thrice and two of the times you didn't use anything." Slipping into big brother mode he said, "I know you were trashed and emotional, but you shouldn't have had unprotected sex with Henry. You shouldn't have unprotected sex with anyone. Even though a guy is sweet and clean cut, you never know if he's carrying something. Even the best people have momentary lapses in judgment. You're proof of that, right? Safe sex isn't an option, it's a requirement. If you don't have a condom, there are plenty of other ways to have fun."

"I thought you were here to apologize, not lecture me."

"Sorry," he flustered. "A good friend of mine died of AIDS, so it's a sensitive issue for me. He was in a committed relationship and never thought his partner would cheat on him, but the guy had a one night stand and never told him. But I honestly don't think you have to worry about anything. Henry assured me he's clean as a whistle and he said you're on birth control pills, so…" When she turned her gaze to the floor, Greg asked, "Did you lie to him about being on the pill?"

"Not exactly," she confessed, "I said I took birth control pills, I just didn't say that I had stopped taking them years ago."

"Mandy Lynn Webster!" he shouted in the voice of Jan Sanders. "How could you do that?"

"I know! I know!" Tears formed in her eyes. "I was just so tired of being lonely. All my sisters are happily married with kids and more on the way. I'm the loser of the family."

"You're not a loser." He took her in his arms. "You're smart and funny and cute."

"Puppies are cute, I don't want to be cute, I want to be sexy and beautiful."

"Henry thinks you're sexy and beautiful."

"I know I just got done saying I was desperate and lonely, so this will sound terrible," she sniffled into her friend's chest, "but Henry's so…"

"Gay?" Greg laughed. "But he's really not. He's just a Mama's Boy who loves musicals waaaaaay too much. But I really think there's hope for him."

"This hug feels so nice," she whimpered. "Is there any chance you're Bi?"

"I am Bi actually, but it's not a casual thing with Nick." He laughed, "I'm his bitch and you don't want to get in the way, because he's a territorial guy."

---

Sitting in a booth across from Nick, Vartann said, "Thanks for the invite." It had been a few months since they had one of their breakfast and blackjack outings after work.

"You're welcome." Nick stirred his coffee with a smile.

"Did you have a good first night back?"

"Most of it was good."

"You shouldn't feel bad about your flip out, man. We all want to bash the shit out of baby killers. Cops won't look at you funny, they'll respect you for getting that close to offing the bastard."

"Yeah, a few of 'em said as much tonight." Nick tapped his spoon on the side of his mug and rested it on his napkin. "How's the family?"

"The kids are great, but my wife is driving me to drink. All she does is nag and bitch about what we don't have."

"What don't you have?"

"You name it."

"Greg," Nick calmly stated with his eyes fixed on Vartann's.

"What?" The detective's heart skipped a beat.

"You heard me."

Vartann tried to laugh it off. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"Do I look like I'm laughing?" Placing his steel-toe boot firmly against the bastard's crotch, Nick coolly said, "I'm only going to say this once, so listen up."

Vartann gasped for a breath as his balls were crushed against the hard wood booth.

"If you ever lay a hand or any other body part on Greg again, I'll shove this boot so far up your ass you'll be tasting leather for a week. He's not yours to touch," the possessive boyfriend snarled, "I don't even want you to look him in the eyes going forward. If you have to talk to him on the job, you'll do it respectfully and from an appropriate distance. Do we have an understanding?" He pressed harder.

"I swear I didn't know," Vartann grimaced as his face turned red.

"Now you do." Nick returned his foot to the ground. "Take my advice…get some therapy, man, you're only hurting yourself and your family by living a lie. Dr. Henry at LVPD will be very sympathetic to your situation."

With his hand cradling his throbbing crotch, Vartann snarked, "Okay, Oprah."

Wearing a cocky smirk, Nick stood and fished his keys out of his pocket, "If you'll excuse me, I'm goin' home to have breakfast in bed."

---

"Bruno! I'm home!" Sara called out on approach to the dog crate. "Hey." She unlocked the door and let her pooch tackle her to the floor with kisses. "I missed you too."

After showing his love, the boxer raced to the front door.

"Gotta go, huh?" She grabbed his leash from the hook. "Yeah, I always have to go as soon as I wake up too. Lately it seems that I'm going all the time. I'm like one of the pregnant women at the Lab." She stopped dead in her tracks. "No way. I just had my period last week." But it had barely come and then uncharacteristically disappeared in less than a day. "No." She laughed, knowing she was letting her imagination run away.

"Let's go, boy!" Still laughing, she walked outside with her dog.

"Morning!" A pregnant woman cheerily greeted her neighbor while power walking down the sidewalk.

"Morning," Sara replied while trying to convince herself it wasn't a sign. It was one time, she scolded her runaway mind. Getting pregnant the one time you have unprotected sex only happens on soap operas. When she saw a mother pushing twins in a stroller, her panic returned."Bruno, we need to go to the drug store and do something before your Daddy gets home."

---

"I'm home!" Nick announced from his position leaning in his bedroom doorway. Curled up in bed reading a Harry Potter book, Greg looked even more vulnerable than he had sounded when he called about Vartann...

"He wants to what?" Nick yelled into his cell. "Are you sure?"

"Uh, yeah! He cornered me against the counter at the scene and then he pressed his hard-on into my ass! Then he told me to get rid of Sara and meet him in the back office for a long, hard chat. It was a total power play, the stuff rape fantasies are made of!"

"Calm down."

"That's a little hard to do when the guy who wants to bend me over has a gun!"

"G! Hey! G, listen…" Nick softened his voice, "I'll take care of it."

With his IPod turned up, the edgy man hadn't heard the front door or the alarm chime. "You scared me, Cletus." He tugged off his headphones and nervously asked, "How did it go with Asshat?"

"Mission accomplished." Nick took a seat on the edge of the bed.

"You're sure?"

"110 percent."

His lover's steady gaze convincing him, Greg finally relaxed. "Thanks."

"No need to thank me." Nick stroked his partner's cheek with his thumb. "No one is going to do that shit to you and get away with it."

Greg threw back the covers. "Come to bed." He tossed his book and IPod. "What are you waiting for, take it off, cowboy."

"I'm waitin' on stripper music?" Nick joked, happy to see a smile on his partner's face.

Greg flipped on the bedside boom box. "Better?"

"No, strippin' to Marilyn Manson is so not my style." Laughing, Nick rushed to remove everything, but kept his briefs since his bedmate was wearing boxers. "Okay, please turn off that so called 'music'."

After clicking the power button, Greg lunged for the nightstand for supplies.

"Not necessary." Nick grabbed his lover's hand as it dove into the drawer. "That's the last thing I want to do after protecting you."

Greg stared in confusion. "Huh?"

"I just want to love you."

"So why can't we…"

"Because…" Their eyes meeting, Nick quietly said, "That's not about love."

"How is sex not about love?"

"C'mere."

"I'm totally confused."

"Maybe this'll help." Nick filled his perplexed partner's mouth with a passionate kiss while pressing their bodies together from head to toe.

"It's definitely helping," Greg said with a smile. In the arms of the man who would always fight to protect him, he felt desired and loved and safe, incredibly safe.

"I got a huge rush when I confronted that bastard."

The grateful boyfriend nipped at his lover's ear lobe while murmuring, "What did you tell him?"

Rolling them onto their sides, Nick let his hand drift over the posterior of his partner's soft cotton boxers. "I told him your ass wasn't his to touch."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Nick dispensed information in between wet, sloppy kisses to Greg's neck and chest. "I stared him down…and told him…if he ever touched you again…I'd shove a boot so far up his ass…he'd taste leather…I told him I didn't even want him to make eye contact with you."

Greg's mind and body flooded with desire upon hearing the possessive words. "What else did you say?"

"I told him if he had to talk to you at work, he better damn well do it from a safe distance."

Greg pawed at his lover's briefs, tugging them down and removing them with a push of his foot.

To even things up, Nick removed his impatient lover's boxers. "Mmm. I always love that first brush."

"Me too."

"I couldn't wait to get home to you."

Greg was still focused on the confrontation. "How did you leave it with Asshat?"

"I told him I was going home to have breakfast in bed with you." Their bodies grinding in a slow dance, Nick said, "He was so friggin' jealous. Of course he was, who wouldn't want to be with you? You're irresistible." While engaged in a fevered kiss, he reached down and wrapped his hand around their equally energized anatomy. "Read about this in that ridiculous how-to book when we were on The Freyja." Locking his gaze on his lover's wild eyes, he confessed, "Been dyin' to give it a try. It said alignment of the top two inches is critical. What do you think?"

The always enthusiastic lover shuddered with pleasure. "I'd say you got it just right, cowboy."

After nudging Greg onto his back, Nick angled over him and found the perfect rhythm. "I love lookin' directly in your eyes." He raided Greg's open mouth, exploring every inch with his tongue. "Sometimes I hate that I can't reach your lips during sex." He returned to devour him a second time. "I love kissin' you," he confessed in a sexy whisper. Emotionally charged intimacy was exactly what the starving romantic had been craving. "I love you, G." Their raunchy romps were satisfying and fun, but they never quite touched his heart. "Can you tell how much?" He desperately wanted him to know.

Greg stopped swooning long enough to form a coherent answer, "Absolutely."

After a few minutes of steadily escalating moans, Nick rasped into his groaning lover's ear. "Do you like this, baby?" It felt like making love more than any of the sex they had thus far.

"God yes!" The aural stimulation was as good as the physical. "Keep talking, I'm liking that too."

Foreheads pressed together as they squirmed in perfect harmony, Nick passionately huffed, "No one will ever love you like I do."

Close to the edge, a gasp prefaced the reply, "No one."

His body on fire, the territorial jock prodded, "Mmm, who takes care of you, baby?"

Frantically pulling in oxygen, Greg struggled to reply, "You do…so good…so god damn good."

"You think Vartann could make your toes curl like I do?"

"Hell no."

When he saw his partner nearing the brink, Nick pleaded, "Wait."

Greg replied through clenched teeth. "Can't." His whole body trembled from desperately trying to delay the inevitable.

"Try."

"Really..." The consistently quick finisher envied his adept lover's control.

"Okay, baby," Nick sweetly replied when he knew it was a lost cause.

Primal sounds and fractured words were frenetically exchanged as they rushed to the finish line together. Then, eyes closed, noses and mouths erratically bumping, they clung to each other until the last drop of passion spilled onto their overheated flesh.

"That was…" Brushing back his sweaty hair, Greg laughed at the ridiculousness of the ecstasy. "That was insanely fantastic."

It took all of Nick's remaining energy to nod and crash onto his back.

"That how-to book just earned a higher place on the shelf."

"Shit, I…" Nick desperately pulled oxygen through his nose.

"Even the jock got a workout," Greg joked as he dug in the sheets for his discarded boxers.

Breathing steady again, Nick said, "I just realized we have your mother to thank for that book and consequently, the ecstasy."

"Eww."

"Yeah, let's pretend elves left the book."

"Wouldn't fairies be more appropriate considering the subject matter?" Greg doused his lover with grateful kisses while affectionately wiping away the evidence of their passion with his boxer shorts. "I love you. That was incredibly hot and erotic and passionate and insert every word that means you rocked my world like it's never been rocked before. Did I mention I love you? That was borderline Tantric."

"What do you know about Tantric Sex, G?"

"Only what I've read in books," the geek answered in a laugh. "And I saw the movie Kama Sutra. Did I tell you I love you?"

"Yes, and I'm lovin' the way you're lookin' at me." With his palm on his partner's flushed cheek, Nick softly asked, "Now do you understand why I didn't want to have sex?"

"Yeah." Greg's smile faded. "Actually, no, I don't. I'm still confused about that."

Facing his partner, Nick explained, "Maybe it's different for other gay guys in relationships, but to me, even though we're a couple and we're totally committed to each other, that act is still all about physical gratification and power."

"What?"

"It's totally about feeling dominant and submissive for us, not love. Two seconds after I told you I handled Vartann for you, you felt compelled to dive for a condom so you could play bitch to my alpha male. I wasn't in the mood for that this morning, because I didn't want to take advantage of your vulnerability."

Trying to figure out where the concern came from, Greg asked, "Let me guess, Warrick made some top and bottom jokes and you felt bad again."

"No," Nick sweetly laughed. "It was about me cravin' somethin' more than aggressive sex. I wanted to make love with you, not manhandle you."

"I totally get what you're saying and I completely agree that what we just experienced was beyond intense, but I think you're projecting your negative feelings about bottoming onto me. I really regret switching roles, because now you can't get that negativity out of your head and it's turning you off of sex."

"Believe me, I'm not turned off about sex," Nick laughed, "not at all. I just don't associate the sex we've been having with feelings of love. We can do crazy shit because we love and trust each other, but playin' Dex and Jocko in the shower isn't me makin' love to you. I don't associate that with romantic love at all."

"Why?"

"Because it's an aggressive act and I can't feel romantic when I'm dominating and hurting you."

"But you're not hurting me," Greg said in exasperation. "We've already been through this."

"G…" Nick laughed, "maybe hurt isn't the right word, but you can't look me in the eyes and say that it's not at least mildly uncomfortable part of the time. I see you grippin' the bedding or the towel rack. Hell, you have to contort yourself like a pretzel to kiss me sometimes. Why can't you admit there's some discomfort?"

"Okay, fine, there are moments of discomfort even with a skilled partner such as yourself, but it's offset by the pleasure."

"I thank you for the compliment and the honesty."

"You hate it, but I enjoy it - for whatever reason." Greg laughed, "Let's blame my mother."

After laughing with his still-confused lover, Nick continued, "Even though you enjoy it and associate it with love, I don't consider it a loving activity. I've not once been behind you thinkin' about how much I love you, all I think about is how good it feels physically and what a trip it is to be in charge. After we're done, I don't feel equal to you, I feel like I just finished showin' you who's boss. I was never conflicted like this when I did it with women, because love never factored in, it truly was always about me dominating them - wham, bam, thank you for lettin' me in the backdoor, ma'am."

"Maybe you're messed up because you've had sex without love your whole life?" Greg posited. "Maybe you were giving it to women in anger because you were abused by a woman, so it's hard to make it about love now."

"I really don't think so, but I'll ask my gay shrink," Nick chuckled. "Maybe if we handled the sex differently sometimes, if we went real slow and tried to make it romantic, but the way you like it, ya little perv…I half expect you to ask for a dog collar for Christmas."

Greg barked.

"Yeah, Rover," Nick ruffled his hair, "you love to roll over, doncha?" Laughing with his crazy lover, he asked, "How the hell can you expect me to feel romantic when you're talkin' like a porn star or pretendin' that I'm a football player punishing you for dropping the soap in the locker room. Maybe if I was a skilled schizophrenic…"

"Okay, okay." Greg made the time-out sign. "I think I get it. There's hot sex and there's romantic sex and I don't know how to have the latter, because I've spent most of my life playing handball while fantasizing about being manhandled by jocks in the locker room. I'm a horny 17 year old trapped in a 32 year old body making up for lost time."

"Hallelujah! That's exactly it," Nick rejoiced. "I liked the different vibe just now. I think our roles were still the same, but you were my woman, not my bitch," he chuckled. "Seriously, I felt close to you after. I felt like we shared somethin' special and the way you looked at me after was drastically different than how you look at me after you've been my bitch. After we have sex, I feel like the king of the world, but you're always spent and headed to the bathroom to clean up. You never look at me like you did just now, all fired up and tellin' me you loved me a half dozen times. True?"

"True."

"I'm not Vartann, I don't just want your ass in bed, I want your heart and soul too. Not every time," Nick laughed, "Playin' porn star with you is fun and I may even get you that dog collar, but I'm a romantic guy and sometimes I'm gonna want to break out the candles and champagne."

"What color collar?" Greg mischievously asked. "Rhinestones or studs?"

"I don't want to ruin the surprise." Nick playfully smacked his partner's ass. "Enough talk, I'm hungry. Normally I feel guilty askin' you to make breakfast after havin' my way with you, but you can get your untouched ass in the kitchen today."

"Is that why you always volunteer?"

Nick winked, "One of your Denver omelets will do just fine, sweetheart."

"You got it." Greg slipped out of bed and padded to the dresser for a fresh pair of boxers. "I really do feel different."

"Yeah, you're not walkin' funny." Nick grinned as he lunged for the remote. "It's The Love, baby!"

---

"This pregnancy test is taking forever," Sara anxiously informed her loyal dog as they sat on the living room couch. "We can't have a baby on the way." The more she insisted she wasn't pregnant, the greater her symptoms became. "Do my boobs look bigger to you?" She checked her profile in a wall mirror. "I'm being completely ridiculous. Excess peeing and one light period do not make me pregnant."

The dog, unlike his owner, wasn't stressed at all. He could barely keep his eyes open.

Checking her watch, Sara griped, "Three minutes has turned into an eternity. We still have…"

The sound of keys in the front door made both owner and pooch jump to their feet.

"Hey, honey." Gil trudged into the room holding a bouquet of wild flowers. "I hate Ecklie, but I love you, so I bought you flowers." One look at his significant other's face and he knew something was up. "What's wrong?"

***

Chapter 11: In a Family Way

"Three minutes is up," she said before moving her eyes to the small white stick. "Two lines means pregnant, one line means not pregnant." Staring at the two dark lines, she wondered if she could be misinterpreting the instructions. "Two lines means pregnant." Mandy glanced over at Wendy who had both of her hands clamped over her mouth. "Do you see two lines?"

Wendy nodded.

"Two lines means pregnant." Feeling weak in the knees, Mandy plopped down on the closed toilet. "Do you think the test is wrong?" she asked her best friend.

With her hands still firmly clamped over her mouth, Wendy shook her head.

After peering at the stick to see if the results had changed, Mandy mumbled, "I slept with Henry a little over a month ago, I missed my period, my boobs are killing me, and the stick says I'm pregnant." She glanced up at her silent best friend. "I think I'm going to repeat the test, just in case there was something wrong with this stick. I've heard stories about defective tests giving inaccurate results."

Three and half minutes later…

"Two lines," Mandy looked to Wendy for confirmation. "I slept with Henry a little over a month ago, I missed my period, my boobs are killing me, and two out of two sticks say I'm pregnant. That probably means I'm really am, huh?"

Wendy nodded.

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

"Because I don't know if you want me to be happy for you, because you're having a baby and you love babies, or should I be terribly concerned for you because you're having a baby, and while babies are wonderful, you don't want to have Henry's baby. Which one am I supposed to be?"

Mandy glanced down at her stomach. "I'm having a baby."

"So, you're going to have it?"

"What do you mean?" Mandy asked with a wrinkled brow.

"I mean you're going to have the baby as opposed to getting an abortion."

Mandy gasped and wrapped her arms around her waist. "I couldn't do that to my baby." The words resonated. "My baby. I'm having a baby."

"You and Henry are having a baby," Wendy reminded her. "You have to tell him." When she saw her friend caressing her stomach, she knelt down in front of her. "Congratulations, Mom."

"Mom," Mandy's eyes flooded. "I've always wanted to be a mommy."

"So, we're happy, right?" Wendy smiled. "I can be happy for you."

Mandy hugged her pal. "You're my best friend."

"And you're my best friend."

"I love you like a sister."

"Aww, I love you like a sister too."

"Will you tell Henry for me?"

"Fat chance, sister!" Wendy stood laughing, "You slept with him, you're telling he's gonna be a daddy."

---

"Come to, Daddy!" Standing in the middle of the backyard, Nick clapped his hands. "C'mere, Chico!" When the Yellow Lab came running with a slobbered tennis ball in his mouth, the proud parent cheered, "Good, boy! Good, Chico!" Kneeling down, he praised the dog with a hug and scratches. "I can't believe those nasty old owners of yours said you couldn't be trained. We're showin' them, huh?"

The grateful one year old dog sloppily kissed the kind man who had been showering him with affection since leaving the pound together three days earlier.

"Do you love your new big back yard? I do. I love havin' a doggie in it. Yeah, we like to play in our backyard, don't we, Chico?"

When Greg stepped onto the patio of his new home, he announced, "Dinner's ready, boys! Fajitas for the human, kibble for the canine."

"Chico!" Nick ordered, "Git Mommy!"

Without hesitation, the dog raced over to Greg.

Nick joined them laughing. "I didn't even teach him that, he just instinctively knows you're the woman."

Greg crouched down to hug the pooch. "Yeah, Chico, we had to get a male dog, because there can only be one bitch in this house."

"Ha!"

Greg stood and brushed the dog hair from his shirt. "This is why my mother didn't like dogs – the shedding drove her crazy."

"Uh oh, are you turnin' into your Mama, G?"

"No." Greg had to force himself to stop obsessively removing hair from his black t-shirt.

"C'mere." Nick wrapped his arms around his partner's waist. "Kiss me. Kiss me in our backyard."

"What about the neighbors?"

"We only have to worry about the two-story on the right, and they can only see into the side yard."

"CSI Stokes has been doing a little trajectory work I see."

"Yeah, and I'm happy to report there are no sight lines into the Jacuzzi or swimming pool."

"Good, because California boys lovvvvvve nekkid hot tubbing."

Nick lingered a slow, wet kiss over his lover's lips. "Thanks for makin' dinner, honey."

"Dinner?" Greg feigned dizziness. "What dinner? I think I need to lie down…with you...on top of me. Seriously, you better carry me to the bedroom, I feel woozy."

---

"I'm getting dizzy," Sara remarked to Gil while holding her head. "The paint fumes are getting to me."

"Are you sure it's not a pregnancy sign, honey?"

Rolling her eyes, Sara rested her paint brush on the tray.

"Hey, honey." Gil trudged into the room holding a bouquet of wild flowers. "I hate Ecklie, but I love you, so I bought you flowers." One look at his significant other's face and he knew something was up. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Not wanting to be a party to the lie, Bruno trotted out of the room.

"What did our beloved dog do this time?" Gil droned.

"Nothing."

"I'm a skilled investigator, Sara, but even a rookie would intuit that you're hiding something from me."

"Stop being paranoid."

When Gil saw Bruno standing behind Sara holding what appeared to be the box of an EPT box, he asked, "Is our dog worried that he impregnated the neighbor's Shih Tzu or did you buy a pregnancy test for yourself?"

Sara whirled around just in time to see their Boxer ripping the box to shreds.

"When were you going to tell me?"

The beep of the oven timer startled the edgy couple.

"You're just doing the test?" Gil quizzed. "You don't know the results yet?"

Staring at the floor, Sara shook her head.

"How could you be pregnant?" Gil asked, trying to mask the fear in his voice.

"Uh…you have a PhD in Biology…"

"You know what I mean, Sara!" Gil snapped while tossing his belongings on the couch.

"You're yelling at me for this?" Hurt, she marched into the kitchen to quiet the timer. "Allow me to refresh your memory - one night we didn't have a condom and you didn't want to wait for me to…"

"I forgot about that night." He scratched his head. "You said you just finished your period, so we wouldn't have to worry."

"Yeah, well...here we are worrying."

"I'm sorry for snapping. I just feel completely blindsided."

When Sara saw her significant other's hands were shaking, she forgave him for yelling. "It's okay. My plan was to do the test and if it was negative, I wouldn't tell you, because what would be the point?"

"And if it was positive?"

"I honestly couldn't even consider that possibility, so…I don't know what I would…we need to check, because the test will be void after a few minutes." Sara quietly asked, "Can you look for me, for us? It's in our bathroom."

"Without you?"

"Please." A minute later, when Sara saw Gil standing in the doorway looking pale, she panicked, "No, really? I'm …"

"No."

"I'm not?"

"No, you're not pregnant." Gil walked into the kitchen and threw the stick in the trash.

"From the look on your face…" She dropped onto the couch. "I'm peeing all the time and I have this bloated feeling, I really thought…"

"Maybe it's a bladder infection," Gil said while washing his hands.

"Why do you look so freaked out if it's negative?"

"Because…" He tossed the dishtowel on the counter. "Because it was…I don't know what it was."

"Are you disappointed?" she asked, stunned by the prospect.

"Are you?"

"No, I'm relieved."

Gil took a seat on the couch next to her. "Me too."

Bruno didn't want to miss out on a golden opportunity for duel affection, so he placed his head between his parents.

"I love my family," Sara whispered as she scratched the dog's head with one hand and slipped the other into Gil's still trembling palm. "Just the way it is."

His pulse rate finally slowing, Gil rested his head on Sara's shoulder. "Me too."

"Can you imagine us with a baby?" Her nerves making her laugh, she said, "We can't even handle a grown dog." Not wanting to deal with the possibility ever again, Sara suggested, "Maybe you should get a vasectomy. Since the pill makes me sick, we're never going to be able to fall into bed without…"

"You want me to get snipped?" Gil remarked in shock.

"You don't want to have kids, so why not?"

"There's a big difference between not wanting children and not being able to have them."

Sara pondered the statement. "You like the idea you could have children if you wanted them, even though you don't want them? Are you sure you don't want them?"

"I'm 51, Sara."

"Men have kids when they're 70."

"But you said you don't want kids."

"I don't."

"So how am I going to have kids, when you don't want kids?"

"You'd have to find someone else."

Gil had to laugh. "It took me almost ten years to work up the nerve to be with you. I would be 70 if I had to do it all over again with someone new and I don't want someone new, I want you."

"And I wish I could get an IUD, but my GYN said no because of my fibroid issues. If it wasn't an invasive procedure, I'd get my tubes tied, but that's a much bigger deal than a vasectomy. I'm just being logical."

He feigned irritation, "How dare you use logic to manipulate me."

"You're very tense," Sara massaged her man's shoulders.

"You would be too if you were getting your balls snipped on Monday."

"Aww, I'll be right there holding your hand."

---

"I'll stand next to you, but you have to tell him." Wendy knocked on Henry's door for her jittery friend. "Ready?"

"No!" Even though she wasn't ready, the door was opening and there was no turning back.

"What are you two doing here?" Henry asked, surprised to see his co-workers on his doorstep. It was the first weekend of the new 'weekends off' schedule and he couldn't believe Wendy and Mandy would want to spend any of their cherished free time with him.

When Mandy didn't speak up, Wendy explained, "We were in the neighborhood and thought we'd drop by to say hi." And tell you you're going to be a daddy. "May we come in?"

"Uh…my place is kind of a mess."

Peering over her height-challenged co-worker's shoulder, Wendy saw an impeccably neat living room and kitchen. "Are you kidding me? I have laundry piled on my couch and a three-day old pizza box on my kitchen counter. Let us in."

Henry reluctantly stepped back to give the uninvited guests access. "Fine." Then, remembering his manners, he politely asked, "Would you like something to drink? I have wine, beer and iced tea…and water of course…and milk. Or I could put on a pot of coffee if you…"

"Wine for me," Wendy answered, "a nice big glass."

"Chardonnay or Merlot?"

"Chardonnay, thanks."

"What about you, Mandy?"

"She'll have ice water," Wendy answered on behalf of her pregnant friend whose lips were clamped tighter than a clam shell.

"Be right back." Henry moped into the kitchen.

"I am not telling him!" Wendy heatedly whispered. "Start talking, girlfriend!" But when she saw her friend's eyes were glassy and her hands shaking, she backed off.

A couple of minutes later, Henry returned to the living room with two glasses.

"Mandy told me that you had a collection of Playbills on the wall." Wendy took her glass of Chardonnay. "Where is it?" The apartment looked very mature and stylishly decorated to her, not at all the childish musical-obsessed haven of bad taste that her friend had described.

"Oh, um…" Henry handed the ice water to his ex-lover without making eye contact. "I got the urge to do a little re-decorating about a month ago."

Sitting on his couch with Hodges and Archie in silence, Henry watched the credits of Fever Pitch roll on his plasma TV.

"Why do you think Sanders said the three of us should watch this movie about a guy obsessed with the Red Sox?" Archie looked to his co-workers for an answer. "He knows I hate baseball."

"Don't look at me." Clutching an empty popcorn bucket, Hodges disappointedly said, "I assumed it was going to be porn because Sanders recommended it and I heard Fevered Bitch when we got the invite, not Fever Pitch."

"Um…" Henry shut off the TV and stood in front of his wall of Playbills. "I think Greg thought we could learn something, because we're kind of like the guy in the movie."

"We don't have anything in common with that sports nut," Archie laughed. "That guy was a total loser."

Henry delicately asked, "How many Star Trek toys do you have in your collection, Archie?"

"1,416. Why?"

"And Hodges…what kind of shower curtain do you have hanging in your bathroom?"

"Partridge family in the Master and Land of the Lost in the guest bath. Why?"

The men on the couch watched Henry point to his wall of Playbills. "We're all obsessed with something quirky and aren't getting laid."

"Speak for yourself!" Hodges huffed with indignation. "I have sex all the time."

"Blow up dolls don't count."

"Oh." Hodges lowered his eyes to the empty popcorn bucket.

After removing a framed Playbill from the wall, Henry said, "If we want to have girlfriends, we need to make some changes."

"I moved my collection into binders." Henry retrieved a volume from the shelf. "My mother crocheted the covers. He proudly showed it off to Wendy. "This is Volume G through M."

Wendy immediately flipped to the M's. "Mamma Mia. I've thought about getting tickets for that when it comes to the Mandalay Bay in August. Is it about a woman who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant?"

Mandy burst into tears, partly because she was nervous, but mostly because she was afraid her unborn baby would be forced to suffer through Cats.

"What's wrong with her?" Henry asked with concern in his voice.

"She's going through an emotional phase," Wendy replied while returning the binder to its spot on the shelf. "It's expected to last for nine months."

"Nine months? What kind of emotional phase lasts for…nine mon…m….m…mamma mia." He gripped his head. "Is she…did you come here to tell me that…"

"Yep." Wendy dropped a hand on the panicked man's shoulder. "You and Mamma Mia got drunk, fell into bed and made a baby. Congratulatons!"

"We made a baby," Henry parroted, unable to believe the news.

Wendy set her half-full glass on the coffee table. "You have a lot of talking to do, so I'm going to leave you to it."

"What?" Mandy protested as tears poured down her cheeks. "You're not going to help us?"

"You didn't need me here to make the baby, did you? Nope!" Knowing it was best, Wendy waved goodbye to her friends. "This is a family matter. Good luck, Mom and Dad!"

"Parents." Henry gulped the remainder of Wendy's wine. "We're going to be parents."

---

"Congratulations, Mom and Dad!" Greg read out loud from his laptop screen as he lounged on the couch with his family. "Look for a gift basket for your new boy to arrive shortly. We'll stop by and see him and your new house on Friday when we come to town for our final Social Services interview and your non-surprise birthday party. I still can't believe you snooped and spoiled the surprise Nick was working on! (I would have done the same thing LOL…like mother, like gay son!) Cross your fingers, if all goes well, we'll be able to set the adoption court date for next month. Jenni's doing great with her walker, thank you for asking, you know she loves to impress her big brother. The physical therapist said that if she works hard all summer, she'll be as good as new by the time she starts Butterfield Academy with Cassie on August 27th. I've decided that we're going to celebrate closing on the Summerlin house with a big carpet picnic in the empty living room, just like we did when we moved into the Santa Monica house, you loved that, remember? We'll eat pizza and watch movies in sleeping bags. The girls are counting on you two being there, so June 7th better be circled on your calendar. I know Nicky will remember, he's such a responsible young man. Please don't bring the dog though. I love my furry grandson, but I don't want his fur on my new Berber carpet. Love, Mom." Glancing over, he said, "I emailed my parents our Adoption Day photos with Chico."

"You told her you found out about the party while you were snoopin'?"

"I didn't want to tell her the truth."

"Cletus! I'm home!" Greg tossed his keys on one of the many unpacked boxes.

"What are doing home?" Nick anxiously asked his partner as he rushed into the living room. "You weren't supposed to be home for hours." He glanced over his shoulder. "Why didn't you call to say you were on your way?"

"My court appearance got bumped to tomorrow morning. I didn't call, because I wanted to surprise you." Noting the tension on his partner's face, Greg asked, "Why is it upsetting that I'm home earlier? We just moved in yesterday, we have a ton of stuff to do, so I thought…" When he saw an attractive man exiting the hall bathroom, his breath caught in his throat.

"The marble in that bathroom is fabulous," the flamboyantly gay man declared as he finished zippering his fly. "And don't worry, handsome, I recovered just fine from that dirty little romp."

"This isn't happening." Greg's panic grew as Nick's did.

"Looks like we're busted, cowboy," the man shook his head. "I thought you said he would be tied up for hours?"

"G! It's not what you think." Nick stepped forward to take his partner's hand. "He's…"

Greg bolted to the other side of the room. "That's exactly what Lacey said every time I saw her with that asshole!" His heart pounding in his chest, he screamed, "I can't believe this is happening!"

"Calm down, Drama Queen." Trey laughed at the silly misunderstanding. "I didn't touch your man. Cowboy here is so not my type. I'm into leather." He chuckled, "Maybe if he wore chaps, only chaps, I'd consider it, but even then, probably not, he's just too…clean. I like my men just like I enjoy my martinis…dirty."

"He's a party planner, G." Nick held up the man's business card. "Dr. Henry recommended him."

Confused and biting back tears, Greg remained silent.

"I hired him to cater a party around the pool for your birthday. It was gonna be a surprise." Desperate to make everything alright, Nick kept rambling, "Your mom knows about the party. Cath and Warrick too! I wanted to do somethin' special."

"Fine, okay, he's a party planner!" Still shaking, Greg said, "But why was he talking about recovering from a dirty romp? That doesn't make any sense, handsome!"

Trey huffed, "I was dirty because your damn dog tackled me in the backyard. That beast got mud prints on my Armani slacks and he shoved his slobbery tongue in my mouth. I'm into a lot of kinky shit, but even I don't enjoy Bestiality."

"Here's your money." Nick handed the man the required deposit check. "Sorry again about what happened with Chico, we just adopted him yesterday and he's not trained yet. He won't be out during the party." He hurried to the front door and opened it.

"Time for makeup sex!" Pocketing the check, Trey snickered, "That bitch deserves a good cropping for doubting your fidelity, cowboy."

Feeling horrible for thinking the worst, Greg sat on the couch and lowered his head into his hands. "Shit."

"He's gone." When Greg didn't move, Nick crossed the room. "Look at me, G."

"I can't. I feel horrible for thinking you cheated on me. I know you'd never…god, you must hate for thinking that. I can't believe I…"

"Listen to me." Nick knelt in front of his partner. "I know you believe I'd never cheat on you. All the evidence pointed toward me deceivin' you and bein' with that guy. You had a very understandable knee-jerk reaction. I'm not mad or disappointed. As a guy with PTSD issues, I totally get how quickly the brain jumps to conclusions and makes a guy with emotional baggage panic." Taking his partner's trembling hand, he softly said, " I don't know what it feels like to walk in on a loved one havin' sex with someone else, but I do know that kind of betrayal cuts deep and old wounds are easily opened under the right circumstances. Are you hearin' me, G? I'm not angry. I feel bad that I made you worry."

"I'm sorry," Greg tearfully apologized while accepting the hug he was offered. "I'm sorry." Squeezing tight, he said, "Life is so freaking perfect right now. We just bought this great house and adopted the coolest dog...I'm so ridiculously happy."

"Me too."

"I keep waiting for disaster to strike and take all the happiness away."

"Considerin' all the shit we've already gone through in life, there's a good chance that we've hit our disaster quota and all we have left is a well-deserved happily ever after. Isn't that possible?"

"That's not what I mean exactly." The shaky geek confessed, "We can't ignore the fact that you've never been with another guy. You came out and went right into a relationship with me. I think maybe there's a tiny little part of me worried that you'll get curious…because it would be normal for you to be curious. How could you not be curious?" Relieved and terrified to be vocalizing his worst fear, Greg said, "I'm a goofy Chem nerd with a flat ass who was out bench-pressed by a girl at the gym last week. You're a hot, fun guy and an insanely good lover. You could do much better than me. It's only been a couple of months. You're only starting to get comfortable with being gay beyond the privacy of our home, but if you went out on Saturday night and immersed yourself in the gay community, you'd see that you're slumming it. What happens when you realize that six months from now when you are comfortable out there?"

"I've already realized it, G." Deciding honesty was the only option, Nick said, "I've already been curious. But whenever I've thought of other guys, not once did I come to the conclusion that I'd be happier with someone else. I know I have everything I need with you. I'd be crazy to believe I could do better than perfect."

"Me, perfect?" Greg scoffed, "How can I believe you when you're obviously BSing to make me feel better?"

"Okay, if you're talkin' in terms of the hottest ass and the best six-pack, then no, you're not perfect. You have a two-pack and your ass looks flatter than a pancake in jeans." Nick smiled, "But I'm not 21, I'm 35, and scorin' a different piece of hot ass every Saturday night isn't my top priority anymore. I'm focused on sharing my life with someone who wants a house, a retriever and a kid someday. Don't get me wrong, I still love sex on Saturday nights, but unlike 10 years ago, I want to know the person I'm bedding…I want to eat breakfast with them in the morning. I need them to be my lover and my best friend, not just a good lay." Cupping his partner's face, he affectionately whispered, "When I say you're perfect, I mean you're perfect for me and the life I want today and thirty years from now."

"I love you," Greg sniffled.

"And I love this life we're making together." Nick pulled him in his arms. "You've made me the happiest guy."

"But what about the curiosity factor?"

"Honey, when it comes to meaningless sex in a dark room, a mouth is a mouth and an ass is an ass." Nick chuckled, "Yeah, they were all women, but it's safe to say my wild oats have been sowed. I've even had a few threesomes."

"How many threesomes?"

"I don't know…a dozen or so. Rick and I made a few Spring Break trips to Cancun back in the day and loose doesn't begin to describe some of those girls," Nick laughed at the ridiculous memories. "G, if anyone should be worried, it's me, because I know you have unsowed oats."

"Yeah, but I'm living out my fantasies with you."

"And you are by far the most fun I've ever had between the sheets. I'm thrilled with our love life. It's unpredictable…hot, erotic, sweet, dirty, I never know what it's gonna be and your lack of a perfect six-pack hasn't stopped you from rockin' my world, believe me." He stole a kiss. "Personally, I hope your unfilled fantasy checklist is ten pages long."

"I'm not that pathetic." Greg laughed, "It's nine pages. We'll need a blow up doll to work my threesome work though."

"I could buy you a threesome at one of Nevada's fine legal brothels for your birthday." Thinking about the scenario, Nick winked, "I'll kill any guy who touches you, but it would be fun watchin' you get handled by a couple of workin' girls."

"Seriously?" Greg's laughter intensified.

"I already got you that Best Buy gift card you wanted, but I can always save that for Christmas."

"And you'd just sit there and watch?"

"Hell no, I'd drink booze and cheer you on."

Imagining the scenario, Greg joked, "Hmm, with you as my audience, I could check off exhibitionism too."

"Hey, before you get carried away fantasizing, Spanky," Nick sobered, "I need you to hear you say that you believe me, that you believe I'm not like Lacey. When I wear your ring and say it's forever, it will be forever, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. I'm an old fashioned guy who still believes a promise is a promise." He placed a kiss on Greg's shell bracelet. "You know, all my sisters had panic attacks about the future when they were engaged and plannin' the ceremony. It's normal to have doubts, but now that I've reassured you, I need you to have complete faith in me.

"I do," Greg answered without hesitation.

"Say it just like that on the beach in July, baby! Loud and confident."

"I promise." Greg nodded and pulled in a steadying breath. "I can't believe you hired a flamer who is into kinky sex with dirty bikers to cater my birthday party. Eww."

"He doesn't touch the food, he just hires the caterers." Nick was relieved to see a smile on his partner's face. "Trey handled Dr. Henry's commitment ceremony and he said he did an awesome job."

"I can't believe you're throwing me a big surprise party."

"Yeah, too bad it's not a surprise anymore." Nick bumped their noses. "After all you went through since your last birthday, I figured you earned a top-notch celebration. And I want all our friends to know how much I love you." His face exploded into a smile. "Even though we really didn't fight, we can still have hot makeup sex if you want. I've got a riding crop if you want me to use it, my little perv."

"Really?"

"MmmHmm."

Greg darted for the stairs. "Let's go, Tex!"

"Damn, I'm gettin' hot just thinkin' about that romp." Nick checked his watch. "Too bad we don't have time to re-enact it. 'Rick is due here any minute to help me move that IKEA stuff upstairs."

"I could have carried it."

"No, we're not takin' a chance with your shoulder." It had been severely dislocated during the beating and was easily aggravated. "You already hurt yourself when you tried to bench press too much weight."

When the doorbell rang, Greg jumped to answer it. "You better get rid of that wood or he'll get squicked." Their friend got quite a shock when he caught them stealing a kiss in the garage on moving day.

Catherine yelled through the door, "Stop kissing and open up!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!"

"Yeah, that's exactly what Warrick's afraid of."

When Greg opened the door he pretended to be zipping his fly. "Nick will be here in a minute, it was his turn to hose down our rubber sheets."

"He's kidding!" Nick yelled from the living room.

Greg nodded, "The sheets are actually vinyl."

---

While standing in the bedding department of Linens and Things trying to decide if 300 thread-count sheets were worth the money, Hodges saw Wendy strolling by. "Shopping on your weekend off?"

Surprised to see her co-worker, Wendy did a double take. "What are you doing here?"

"Upgrading my bedding."

"I didn't think blow-up dolls cared what they slept on."

"Unlike you, my blow up doll can say she has a hot date tonight."

"It's only eight o'clock, I'm getting picked up at nine."

"What's his name?" Hodges snickered, "George Glass or Keyser Soze?"

"Okay, fine, I don't have a date, but it's by choice." Stuffing her arms across her chest, she said, "I have a healthy enough self –esteem to spend Saturday night alone. I going to the movies."

"Have you ever been to a movie alone on a Saturday night?" Hodges laughed, "You may as well hang a neon arrow over your head that says Dateless Loser."

"That's what I was afraid of." Her enthusiasm deflated. "I really want to see 28 Weeks Later."

"Really?" He was surprised to hear it. "I plan on seeing it tomorrow. I loved the first one, saw it five times in the theater."

"Me too. I hope the sequel is as good. You never know about sequels though, sometimes they really suck. Still, it's a zombie movie, so it has to be good."

---

"You don't like zombie movies?" Greg handed Catherine her requested glass of wine. "Cletus and I have been looking forward to seeing the movie all week. We're going to the midnight showing if you and 'Rick change your minds."

"He's taking me out for a candlelit dinner and a night of dancing both vertically and horizontally. Your zombie movie can't compete with that line up."

"True, but I can't get my boyfriend to romance me in public or dance with me, so I'm thrilled he'll see a scary movie with me and brush up against my hand in our popcorn bucket."

"Nick loves to dance. He won't dance with you? Not even in private?"

"Nope." Greg shook his head while bringing his beer bottle to his lips. "He thinks it's too queer."

"Dancing is too queer? As opposed to having sex with you?" While Greg choked on his swig of beer, she laughed, "Honey, if he gets to put it where the sun don't shine, you should get a dance. Where is that hick?" She marched off to find him.

"Got it." Warrick angled the large box slightly to the right and made it through the doorway. "I'm in, so keep walking."

"Thanks for helpin' me with this, man."

"The little woman wasn't up to it, huh?"

Happy that his friend had grown comfortable enough to crack jokes, Nick said, "His shoulder's still not right. He's back in PT, but honestly, I don't think it's ever gonna be right."

Glancing around the masculine bedroom, Warrick joked, "I expected the love shack to look different. Plaid and hunting ducks with knotty pine furniture doesn't scream gay man to me. I was expecting pink leopard and plether."

"Gay isn't just for cupcakes and bikers anymore."

"I guess not."

"So, are ya takin' Cath out for fried chicken and watermelon tonight?"

Warrick laughed, "Point taken. I shouldn't be proppin' stereotypes after the shit that just went down."

Opening the furniture box, Nick said, "The supervisor gig? I don't know, man. Maybe you should have taken it anyway."

"How would you feel if you were offered a job only because you were gay? It's the same thing. The Sheriff needed a black face in management after all the shit with the James family."

"If I knew I was qualified for the job..."

"But that's not what anyone would see."

"Outsiders maybe, but not anyone who knows you."

"Yeah, well…what's done is done." Warrick shrugged. "With Cath and I hooked up, it's good being on the same schedule. If I was working the weekends and days, we'd never see each other and I've already been down that route with Tina and we all know how well that turned out. Especially now that we just got weekends off, y'know? We have a shot at a semi-normal life."

"I hear ya."

"Life's too short to spend it answering it to Ecklie and being the Sheriff's token black."

"You're right, why help them and feel like you sold out? You need it to happen on your own terms when it's good for you."

"Exactly." Walking out of the room with his pal, Warrick said, "And I woulda missed workin' with my gay brothers."

"Nicky!" Catherine marched down the hall. "Can I have a word with you, please?"

"I know that tone." Warrick continued downstairs. "I'm outta here."

"Why won't you dance with Greg?"

"Uh…" Nick flustered, "When did that become a problem for you?"

Just in case Greg was at the bottom of the stairs listening, Catherine lowered her voice to a whisper, "Think about it, he's one of those geeky guys who didn't go to his senior prom. He's probably having nerd flashbacks every time you tell him no. Make the little wallflower's night…give him a dance with the school heartthrob."

"Cath, we're in the closet except for our friends. It's a little hard to be in the middle of a dance floor cuddlin' Greg without people noticing."

"Then dance in the living room or the bedroom. It doesn't have to be public."

"Wow, look at the time." Nick pointed to his watch. "We have a movie to catch."

"Four hours from now."

"G!" Nick yelled downstairs. "Let's catch the earlier flick, 'cause I can't wait to see it."

---

Standing in the movie theater parking lot, Wendy lectured Hodges, "Let's talk ground rules."

"Ground rules?"

"This is not a date. You are not to refer to it that way at any time. We're two co-workers with a mutual interest in zombie movies who didn't want to wait until Sunday afternoon to see a movie, so we're accompanying each other on Saturday night. We're not sharing any food or drinks. We're not even sharing an arm rest. There'll be no touching at all. Do you think you can live by those rules?"

"Yes, because I don't want your cooties, Simms, and I'd be horrified if anyone thought we dated." He feigned a shiver. "We'll just walk in together, get our snacks in a mutually appreciated silence, and then take our seats."

When Hodges's arm brushed against Wendy's as they strolled up to the entrance, she snipped, "I'd like to maintain two feet of distance at all times." A sudden bang sent her lurching for her co-worker. "Was that a gunshot?"

"No, it was just a car backfiring." Hodges held her tight. "It did sound like a gunshot, but really, it's okay."

A cat call was the next sound the jittery woman heard, followed by Nick breaking into song.

"Hodges and Wendy sittin' in a tree…"

"Shut up, Stokes!" she blasted. "We're not on a date."

"Then why are you holdin' his arm with a vice grip?" Nick asked while nudging his partner. "Don't they make a cute couple, G?"

Wendy jumped back. "We are not a couple!"

"Surrrrrrrrre, you're not," Greg replied while winking. "Trust me, we understand the meaning of discretion. Only a handful of people know about us."

Wendy shoved her non-date, "Say something, Hodges!"

Hodges gladly obliged his non-date, "Wen and I have been looking forward to seeing this for weeks. We're both huge zombie fans." Tossing an arm around her shoulder, he squeezed. "Isn't that right, Snookums?"

"Stop it!" she shrieked.

"They're our friends, honey, we don't have to hide in front of them." Hodges couldn't remember the last time he smiled so wide.

"We'll leave you two lovebirds alone." Nick grabbed his date by the elbow. "Let's go, Snookums."

"We're not dating!" Wendy yelled at their backs. "You're a dead man, Hodges!"

Standing in front of the 28 Weeks Later poster, Hodges snickered, "I think someone is coming down with a nasty case of rage virus."

"You just lost yourself a movie partner, jerk!" Wendy stomped off. "I'm seeing it with Nick and Greg!"

"No, I am!"

They raced to get to the guys first.

"I'm sitting with you!" Wendy and Hodges both yelled at their co-workers.

"Uh, not you're not," Greg replied, "because four's a crowd."

---

"Baby makes three," Henry whispered as he sat on the couch staring at the front door of his apartment. Maybe I shouldn't have yelled at her for lying and kicked her out. But she shouldn't have lied! I trusted her when she told me she was on the pill. Of course I trusted her, we've been working together for years. I have every right to be angry that she intentionally deceived me. She used me as a free sperm bank!

He sank deeper into the cushions. Who am I kidding? She's probably horrified that she has my elephant-eared nerd progeny inside of her. She only told me because she felt obligated, not because she wants to be with me. I'm going to be a dad, but she wants me to be a dad with visitation rights, not a full-time daddy and husband. Tears formed in his eyes as he thought of what he and his son or daughter would be missing. "I'm sorry," the boy who grew up without a dad around said to his unborn child. "I'm so sorry."

---

"You should be sorry," Greg grumbled, "I can't believe you're crashing my date!" Since the movie was crowded, he had volunteered to get seats while Nick went to the concession stand. "I didn't expect to spend our first weekend off hanging out with you."

Smirking, Hodges leaned in and whispered, "Aww, are you going to be too shy to suck face with your boyfriend now?" He puckered up and made smoochy noises.

"Hello, boys!"

Greg and Hodges both jumped in their seats when Paula, the Lab's annoying Evidence Room Head Clerk, showed up in the aisle next to them.

"I always had my suspicions about you two," the 53 year old busybody whispered just above the din of the theater. "I got a big 'ol ping on my gaydar just now when you were playing kissy-face. How long have you been a couple?"

"We're not a couple," Greg protested. "We're here with Nick and Wendy."

"Now those two make a hot couple." Paula momentarily lapsed into one of her Nick Stokes cowboy fantasies. "Mmm."

"Seriously, we're not on a double date with Wendy and Nick and we're not a couple."

Paula winked, "Surrrrrrrrre you're not a couple." She puckered up and made smoochy noises. "I haven't busted a couple making out at the movies since I was in high school. I feel 16 again," she giggled. "Enjoy the movie, lovebirds. Excited to have a contribution for Monday morning's gossip and coffee session on the smoker's patio, she walked away grinning.

Sneering at his co-worker, Greg said, "Nice going, jerk."

"How do you think I feel?" Hodges asked with indignation. "If I'm going to be mislabeled queer, I want to be hooked up with Nick, not you."

"So, you're ruining my date and insulting me? Dude, I'll solve the mystery of why you're alone every Saturday night…you're alone because you're an insufferable ass." When he saw Nick returning, Greg slid over a seat. "You sit next to him, I've had my fill."

"Should I uninvite him to your non-surprise party, G?" Nick took a seat on the opposite side of Greg, forcing Wendy to sit next to Hodges. "Sorry, sweetheart," he informed his disappointed co-worker in a laugh, "but I gotta share my popcorn with my date."

---

"Here you go." Sara handed her significant other a steaming bowl of popcorn. "Is the movie in?"

Gil patted the sofa. "We're all set."

Dressed in her comfiest loungewear, Sara kicked up her feet on the coffee table and settled in next to her man. "I love oldies."

"Are you talking about me or the Hepburn film?"

"You're only as old as you feel."

"Okay." After clicking off the light, Gil draped his arm around his lover. "Wanna make out?" he joked, feeling seventeen.

Sara replied in her sexiest rasp, "Just get me home by curfew, stud." Much to her delight, she was met with the sensual kiss of a loving man, instead of a joke kiss from a horny teen.

"Thankfully I don't have to take you home by midnight." He brushed his moist lips over hers. "I get to wake up in your arms tomorrow."

"And you were worried about having weekends off."

"I'm not always a genius, Sara." The recovering workaholic smiled, "The old me would have been bored to tears, but now that I have someone spectacular to spend my Saturday nights with, I'm going to handle this 'weekends off' mandate just fine."

"Really?"

"Yes." The soft sound of Bruno's snoring and peace in Sara's beautiful brown eyes warmed his heart. "I'm going to be a family man."

---

"Our boy's asleep, G," Nick whispered, as he stood in the doorway of their large laundry room. Quietly shutting the door and backing away, he said, "Chico really loves that microbead bed you bought him."

Greg beamed, "I did something right as a daddy."

"I don't know why you're surprised." Nick took his hand, leading him into the family room. "Unlike me, you've got a great dad as a role model. So, even though you've never had any hands-on daddy experience, everything he's done is in your head and you're gonna be a natural because of it. Me, I have to break the cycle of psycho fathering I grew up with and figure out how to be a good dad on my own."

"I'm not worried about you at all. Kids love you." When Greg saw his partner turning on the stereo he asked, "I thought we were going for a swim."

"After."

"After…" Greg smiled, waiting to find out what his grinning lover had in mind.

"After we dance a slow one." Nick slipped his arms around his ecstatic partner's waist. "Catherine isn't always wrong. I should have danced with you when you asked. When we go to LA in a couple of weeks, I think I might be comfortable enough to go to a club and break a sweat dancin' with you too."

"Seriously? I'd love that."

Swaying to the music and falling a little deeper in love, Nick said, "I figure we gotta get a bunch of party nights in before our family gets bigger than a retriever."

"I…" Multiple rings of the doorbell halted Greg's words.

"Who could that be?" Nick led the way to the door and when he peered through the peephole, he was surprised to see his co-worker. "It's Mandy and she's cryin'."

Greg threw open the door. "Mandy, what's going on?"

The hysterical woman shrieked, "I'm pregnant and it's all your fault!"

"G…" Nick cleared his throat. "Is there something you forgot to tell me about your date with Mandy?"

"I'm just as surprised as you, Cletus." Greg watched Mandy storm into the house. "All we did was play Skeeball, but she had unprotected sex with Henry."

"It's Henry's baby," she bawled, while dropping onto the couch. "And he hates me." Caressing her belly, she cried, "My baby's daddy hates me."

"Sounds like a rap song I heard earlier," Greg started beat boxing. "My baby's daddy hates me, so I ain't got no mon-nay. He doesn't think I'm sexy, 'cause I've got a big bel-lay."

"G!" Nick smacked him upside the head. "What the hell, man? The woman is cryin' her eyes out. No wonder you always struck out with girls." He hurried to the couch. "C'mere."

Mandy fell into the gentlemanly arms being offered by the sweet man next to her.

"I'm sorry!" Greg flustered when Mandy sobbed harder. "Breaking into song was a really stupid thing to do when you're obviously upset. To be honest, I had a few drinks tonight."

"Henry would have loved it, because he loves musicals!" Her tears staining the cotton of Nick's black t-shirt, she whimpered, "I hate musicals and now Henry hates me."

Greg sat on the coffee table. "I'm sure he doesn't hate you. Did you just tell him about the baby?" When she nodded, he said, "Then he's in shock. When people are in shock and upset, they say things they don't mean. Right, Nick?"

"Absolutely." The brother of five sisters expertly consoled the emotional wreck in his arms. "He just needs a little time to absorb the information, sweetheart. He'll come around."

"Yeah." Nodding, Greg added, "Henry would never turn his back on his child. His dad was a deadbeat father who was out of the picture by the time he was three. I specifically remember him saying that if he ever had kids, he'd be a totally involved dad who tucked his kid into bed every night."

"Oh my God! No wonder he hates me," Mandy cried, "I told him that I didn't expect him to be involved, that I could raise the baby on my own."

"Ooh." Greg confirmed, "That would totally tweak his baggage. He's probably bawling his eyes out thinking about how the cycle will be repeated when his kid grows up without his dad around."

"G!" Nick scolded him with his eyes. "My t-shirt is shrinking from the tears here."

"Sorry!" Greg reached out and smoothed his palm over her back. "Don't worry, we'll come up with a plan to help you smooth things out and make you one big happy family."

***

Chapter 12: Cause for Celebration – Part 1

"Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Sanders." Coretta Markson, Cassie's Social Services caseworker, extended her hand. "I called in a few favors, and got you in with the judge on June 6th. It helped that Judge Ruiz has a soft spot for kids that have been through hell. By 10am on the 6th, Cassie will legally be your daughter."

Her eyes welling, Jan hugged the hardworking woman. "Thank you for everything you've done to make this sail through."

"If every prospective couple had your history and financials, I could make every adoption sail through. Sadly, we have more children than interested parents and a portion of those interested aren't approved."

"Maybe we could take in one more," Jan sniffled.

"Honey…" Dave shook his head. "We talked about this, remember? We have two girls who need a lot of extra attention because of their baggage."

"Your husband is right, Mrs. Sanders." Coretta patted the bleeding heart's arm. "As much as I'd love to move another child into your loving home, I want Jenni and Cassie to get the individualized attention they need."

"I know you're both right. It's just hard not to feel bad for the kids that no one wants because they're too old or damaged goods."

---

"What's up with you, Sara?" Nick asked his co-worker as they stood sipping coffee in The Hearty Hen while waiting for their To Go breakfast order. After working a 419 out in the desert for hours and processing a suspect's trailer in Pahrump, they were grabbing breakfast before driving back to Vegas. "You barely said a non-work related word all night while we were workin' and it's not just today, you've been a little out of it all week if I'm bein' totally honest. You look tense as hell right now as a matter of fact."

"It's that kid screaming over there." Holding her head, she grumbled, "Shouldn't the mother take him outside for a talk instead of letting him shriek?"

After glancing over his shoulder, Nick said, "I don't even think he's a year old, Sara. You can't reason with a ten month old. He's probably hungry. The mom looks like she's searchin' for somethin', probably a bag of Cheerios."

"Sorry!" The frazzled mom apologized to the entire restaurant after popping her son's binky in his mouth. "I couldn't find his pacifier." Embarrassed, she sat back down and started shoving food into her mouth, so she could finish before her son got cranky again.

Nick smiled at his friend, "Better?"

Sara nodded.

"You really don't like kids much, huh?"

"Can we not…"

"26!"

"That's us." Nick hustled over waving his receipt. "Sara, do you need…" When he saw his co-worker walking out of the place, he smiled at the cashier. "Could ya throw in some extra hot sauce, thanks."

"You and your girlfriend in a fight?" the 33 year old woman asked the hot guy in uniform. "No offense, but she looks kind of bitchy. Maybe you should see other woman…like me for example." Reading his jacket, she addressed him by name, "What do you say, Officer Stokes?"

"Actually, I'm a Crime Scene Investigator, not a Police Officer."

"That's okay, I'm a sucker for any man in uniform."

Reading the woman's name tag, he smiled, "She's not my girlfriend, Traci, but I'm gettin' hitched in July to someone real special, so I'll have to politely decline your offer."

"Figures," she sighed, "all the cute ones are gay or taken."

"Or both." He winked before grabbing the bag of food. "Have a good day."

When Nick stepped outside, he saw Sara sitting on a bench staring at her coffee cup. "I wondered where ya went."

"I couldn't breathe in there."

"It doesn't look like you're breathin' too well out here either." Concerned, he took a seat. "If you need an ear…"

"I don't want to have a baby."

Stunned by the intensely personal statement, Nick stammered, "Um…I…are you…"

Sara shook her head and took the napkin her friend was offering. "I don't want to have a baby in the future."

"And Gris does?" he guessed.

"He says he doesn't."

"But you think he does?"

In desperate need of an outside opinion, she confided in her pseudo-brother, "For health reasons, I can't take the pill or get an IUD. We had this little scare that neither of us enjoyed, so I suggested he get a vasectomy to make things easy and worry-free."

Nick shivered at the sound of the v-word.

"He was supposed to get it done on Monday, but when he went to the doctor, he changed his mind. When I asked him what that meant, he said he still didn't want kids, but he just couldn't go through with the vasectomy. He's says there's nothing more to it than that."

"But you think otherwise?"

She nodded and pushed out a breath.

"I don't know, Sara." Nick relaxed against the bench. "I don't see what he'd have to gain by lyin' to you. If you don't want kids and he does, it's not like he has a lot of time to waste, you know? Why wouldn't he end things and try to start over with someone else who was kid-crazy?"

"I've asked myself that a million times."

"Maybe it seems like…I don't know…that he's less of man?"

"But that's ridiculous. People who can't have kids aren't worth less than those who can."

"Logically yeah, but…" He paused for a sip and to find the right words. "When I was thinkin' that I'd never have a family, it was depressing. I'd be home for the holidays sittin' in the living room with all my siblings' spouses and kids and it felt awful."

"Because you wanted a spouse and kids. Why would it feel awful to someone who says they don't want kids? That doesn't make sense."

"That's a valid point." Nick returned to sipping and thinking. "Maybe being sterile would make him feel older and he's already insecure about his age because you're 14 years younger." Believing he was on to something, he spoke faster, "You know I love watchin' the Discovery channel. If you watch any of those animal documentaries, when they talk about the males, the most important and respected ones are the most virile. Maybe the idea of being sterile made Mr. Ph. D in Biology freak out that he'd be perceived as weak and old. I know I wouldn't feel as masculine if I knew I couldn't make babies."

"How do you know you can?"

Nick chuckled, "Technically, I don't, but I'm stayin' optimistic. It would be much different if I was walkin' around with snipped balls."

"But Gil is a cerebral, not a jock. He should be above feeling like that."

"He may be a genius, Sara, but he's still a man, and men are obsessed with their parts. They're our most precious commodity and we treasure them. The idea of lettin' some guy slice 'em open and render them useless goes against every primal instinct." Nick shivered, "Hell, I got the heebies just sayin' it out loud."

"You really think that could be it?" she asked, feeling an ounce of hope for the first time in days.

"Yep." His stomach growling, Nick reached into the bag for his burrito. "Men think about sex all the time, Sara, and no guy wants his alpha fantasies tainted by thinkin' about inferior balls." After swallowing a hefty bite of burrito, he said, "Let me throw this scenario at you too…what if there was a world-wide disaster tomorrow and only 10 percent of the population was left and it was up to them to re-populate the world? How would Grissom feel if he had his balls snipped and couldn't help save the world? Remember that movie Deep Impact? It was the one with the asteroid hittin' Earth. Not the Bruce Willis one, the other one, anyway, my point is - the government was takin' people to safety in a special cave, but there wasn't enough room for everyone, so they took only the people who were healthy and able to contribute to the re-population of the world. The old and the sterile were left to die in order to save the world. See…there's proof of my theory right there."

"A fictional movie is proof of your theory?"

"Hey, before 9/11, bringin' down the World Trade Center with an airplane would have seemed like a fictional movie plot too, but it happened." He held up his burrito. "If an asteroid hits tomorrow and I survive the blast, my boys and I will rise to the occasion. I bet Gris wants to be able to help too."

"But who is he going to re-populate the world with if I don't want to have kids?"

Nick stopped in mid-bite. "Wouldn't you feel obligated to have a baby in the post-apocalyptic world? The new world will need geniuses and you and Gris could produce a doozy."

"No, I wouldn't feel obligated."

"But what if every woman felt like that? The population would die out."

"Would you stop being gay to re-populate the world?"

"I don't have to stop bein' gay to get a woman pregnant. I don't even have to have sex with a woman to get her pregnant, that's what turkey basters are for," he laughed, "but I'd have sex if all the turkey basters melted in the nuclear blast. Greg and I would make our deposits out of civic duty, it wouldn't be cheatin'."

"Oh, so you could do your civic duty and be happy, but I'd have to give up my body and become a handmaiden for the cause?"

Nick chuckled, "Well hopefully the devastating event won't happen until after science discovers a way to hatch babies or make men pregnant, but if it happens before, then women are stuck with the job and while all the women have babies, the men would be doin' the physical labor and rebuilding the world. That's just the reality of the post-apocalyptic scenario, Sara. That is if it's not a toxic disaster that causes widespread infertility in men and women. If that happens then…"

"Stop." Sara laughed, "You're killing me. Do you have like a year's worth of canned goods in that new house of yours?"

"No, only a month's worth." He winked. "Now you know where to come for nourishment while you're gestatin' the future of our planet."

"Does Greg think you're nuts? Because he doesn't strike me as a 'planning for the apocalypse' kind of guy."

"Yeah, he's more of a 'the world is ending so let's party until it does' kinda guy."

"Speaking of parties, are you all set for his birthday?"

"For the party, yeah." Nick wiped his mouth with a napkin. "And I got him this great surprise gift. He thinks I got him a Best Buy card, which I did, but I got him somethin' else too. He's also expectin' that we…no, I can't tell ya that part."

"You can't say 'I can't tell you' and then not tell me. That's the ultimate tease."

"It's really stupid and you'll think less of me."

"Uh, Mr. Apocalypse, you've gone so far already, why not keep going?"

"I really could use some advice." He inched closer. "Last week while I was drunk, Greg and I got to talkin' about our old sex lives and the wild oats we had sown over the years. During the conversation, Greg confessed that he never had a threesome."

"Confessed?" Shaking her head, Sara chortled, "You say that like a guy not having a threesome is as rare as a Unicorn. Lots of men go through life without a threesome or a unicorn sighting and do just fine. Why should he be embarrassed that he hasn't had one? I think more of him because he hasn't had one. Did you make him feel bad that he didn't have one? Just because you and Warrick were on the Vegas orgy circuit…"

"I thought you were helpin' me? Judgin' me isn't helpin' me."

"Sorry."

"I did a lot of things I'm not proud of now, but that's water under the bridge."

"What's the current problem?" she prompted.

"I told Greg I'd buy him a threesome at the Bunny Ranch for his birthday. I thought it would be fun to see the geek gettin' pounced on by two girls for the first time in his life."

"Are you kidding me?" When he shook his head, she scolded, "You're buying him infidelity for his birthday?"

"Like I said, I was drunk at the time I made the offer. I didn't see it as cheatin' since I'd be partying with him" Sighing, Nick explained, "Greg was feelin' real insecure, so I thought makin' him a little more even with me as far as sexual experience goes, would give him a confidence boost. I really didn't think I'd be jealous of women touchin' him while I was there, but yesterday, when that new girl from Records was flirtin' with him, I got totally ruffled. That's when it hit me…I don't just want men not to touch my man, I don't want anyone to touch him, not even a paid chick as a joke. Greg's insecure about himself, but to the outside world, he's a fun, loveable, cute guy and chicks and men both want him. He may not believe that, but I sure as hell do and I don't share him. As far as I'm concerned, we're already hitched for life and I'm hardly the kind of guy who could watch his spouse gettin' it on with someone else."

"So, what's the problem? Just tell him what you told me."

"The problem is, he's excited! He's been talkin' about it the entire damn week, Sara." In a whisper he admitted his biggest fear, "And while I'm worried that he misses sleepin' with women, what concerns me most is that he'll enjoy it and want to keep tryin' stuff out, includin' a threesome with another guy. In my therapy sessions with Dr. Henry, he said that it's not uncommon for gay couples in committed relationships to invite a third guy into their sex life, a lot of times it's once to satisfy a mutual curiosity, but for other couples, it's all the time."

Seeing a different possibility, Sara posited, "Has it occurred to you that maybe Greg's only telling you what he thinks you want to hear?"

---

"I can't tell him the truth," Greg informed his rear-view mirror reflection as he drove back to the lab. "He's like totally excited and thinking he's doing me a big favor."

Driving down a street lined with strip clubs and adult stores, he began obsessing about the upcoming threesome. "I don't want to spend my birthday having sex with chicks-for-hire! My love life is perfect. What I have with Nick now, more than makes up for what I didn't get to do as a horny 20 year old." A billboard for Tweeters depicting a busty blonde inviting men to watch her 'shake her tail feather' made him cringe. "It seems like a lifetime ago that I wanted to fall in bed with a sex kitten and throw caution to the wind."

---

Still furious at his anatomy for getting him into a mess, Henry handed over his findings to Grissom. "The tox report shows the vic testing positive for a variety of STDs. No wonder his wife stabbed him four times. Men," he huffed, "always thinking with their penises. Men suck. Let me guess – this guy had a wife and nice life, right? But could he be happy with that? Noooooo, he had to give it to someone else without protection. The Neanderthal had to prove he was a man by spraying the world with his potent sperm. Am I right?"

Glancing up at the usually docile Toxicologist, Grissom lowered his glasses and asked, "Is this your subtle way of saying you want to start working in the field?"

"What? No," Henry replied in confusion. "Let me know if you have any questions on my report." He trudged out of the room. "I'm on break."

Grissom glanced down at his crotch. "Is that why she's angry?" Shaking his head, he set out for the Print Lab.

---

"I got a partial," Mandy announced to Jacqui in a lifeless voice. "Is this the longest shift ever or what?" The weekend couldn't come soon enough.

"It's 8:15, you only have 45 minutes to go, my dear."

Watching Henry hustle by her glass-walled lab without looking at her made Mandy's heart ache.

"You've been out of it all week," Jacqui remarked, growing weary of sharing her lab with the mopey Tech. "Are your pregnant sisters on your case again?"

Too ashamed to admit her secret to anyone else, Mandy lied, "Yeah."

"Hello, Mandy," Gil greeted his employee upon entering the room. "Do you have anything for me from the partials we gave you from the Jane Doe scene?"

In a haze, Mandy handed over the report. "I pieced together a full print and came up with Dawson Miller. He's an ex-con."

"Excellent." Grissom quickly scanned the page. "Doc just told me Jane Doe was pregnant at the time of her death, so our homicide is now a double." He grabbed his cell to call in the name to Sofia. "Maybe Jane told Dawson Miller he was going to be a daddy and he didn't like the news." Much to the CSI's surprise, the normally upbeat Print Tech burst into tears. What is with everyone around here?

"Maybe he got angry because she tricked him into sleeping with her and getting her pregnant," Mandy cried. "Some women are evil that way."

"Uh…"

"Can I take off early, boss?"

Staring at the sobbing woman, Gil nodded. "Sure."

"Thank you."

Once Mandy was gone, Gil turned to Jacqui for a clue.

"Color me just as confused." Jacqui continued her work. "I don't know, she's been one card shy of a deck since she went out on the date from hell with Sanders last month."

"That's exactly why co-workers shouldn't date." Gil punched in Sofia's number and walked into the hall with his cell to his ear. "I have a name."

---

"Amber," Greg stated as he fluffed the blow-up doll's locks of the same color. "That's a great name for you." He tucked her under the covers up to her waist and grabbed his wine glass from the nightstand. "Some people might think I'm weird for talking to you, but I find it therapeutic." Sitting on the edge of the bed, he said, "I don't usually tell people this, but I know you won't blab," he chuckled, "I've been in and out of therapy over the years. Nick and my parents know that, but no one else. In high school, I went to this shrink, Dr. Murphy, and he had me talk to a Barbie doll when I was working through girl problems, so you're not the first plastic babe to hear my inner thoughts. Talking to Barbie helped actually. At home, I didn't have a brother or a sister, so when I had something to get off my chest that wasn't Mommy-appropriate, I started telling Ted E, my favorite bear. If that stuffie could talk," he laughed.

His wine glass empty, Greg stood and walked over to the dresser and filled it a third time. "Good thing I bought three bottles or Nick wouldn't get a sip. This Cab is phenomenal. Then again, it should be at sixty bucks a bottle." Raising the glass, he smiled, "But nothing's too good for the birthday boy! I'm only turning 33 once, right?" His smile faded. "One or two more blows to my skull earlier this year and 32 would have been my last birthday, so I really do have reason to celebrate and spoil myself."

After a gulp, he returned to the edge of the bed to chat with Amber, "The sommelier said this Cab was a plush, muscular wine, so I bought it to go with the plush, muscular man sharing my bed." He had been dying to brag about his fiancé to someone, but telling his friends wasn't practical since they were Nick's friends too, and other than Catherine, he knew none of them would really be up for hearing intimate details of their gay love life. "I've explored every inch of my man's body, so I'm speaking with knowledge when I say he's perfection personified."

Kicking off his shoes, he curled up on the bed. "This house is big enough for us to have a home gym, which is great for a lot reasons. The cop gym that Nick belonged to was totally intimidating, I hated going there with him." His feathers ruffled at the memory. "It wasn't just a lack of muscle that made me self-conscious, I have a bunch of scars and people can't help but stare at them - some even asked questions. It's nice not to have to deal with that anymore."

Once he polished off his wine, Greg lunged over the doll to set his empty glass on the nightstand. "The home gym is also great, because I get to watch my boyfriend crack a sweat and flex his biceps. When he's done with his workout he's completely ripped and his testosterone level is off the charts." Starting to feel the effects of three rapidly consumed glasses on an empty stomach, he stretched out on the bed. "My cowboy is a big time romantic, but when he comes looking for me after lifting, romance is the last thing on his mind."

Propping up on his elbow, he told excitedly told his confidant, "On Tuesday, I was up here hanging a picture on the wall when Nick walked in after his workout. He said 'hey' and when our eyes met, we knew we wanted the same thing. He was only in gym shorts and I was only in boxers. Eyes locked, we shoved our shorts to the floor and like two hungry tigers we paced toward each other until our mouths met in a kiss so hot, that I thought we'd spontaneously combust." He mindlessly ran his fingertips over his lips, while replaying the memory. "The next thing I knew I was on my back and he was standing between my thighs and rifling through his nightstand drawer. I was so caught up in the moment and Nick that I actually blurted 'maybe we could stop using condoms'. You should have seen the glare Mr. Responsible shot me as he held up a Trojan. Yeah, we're disease-free and monogamous, but shit does happen on the job with all the blood and why take a chance of passing something along, right?" He sighed, "I had a good friend who died because his partner cheated on him and gave him AIDS. After doubting Nick the other day with the party planner, I wanted to prove I completely trust him."

"Back to the good part." Rolling onto his back, Greg continued the story, "After a nanosecond of foreplay I was begging for him to take me. That wasn't a shock, because I've been doing that a lot lately. He always tells me to chill out and let him do things right, but that day, he obliged me. I figured it was because he was pumped from his workout. To say I immediately regretted rushing him would be an understatement." His sweetest chuckle pierced the air, "I was gasping in his face saying a word I won't repeat in front of a lady when Nick reached out and tenderly stroked my hair while saying 'now do you understand why I tell you no sometimes?' In that moment, I totally got it. He's always thinking of me and helping me avoid unnecessary pain and suffering in my life. Sometimes I'm just too dense, stubborn or impulsive to see it or appreciate him, so he made me feel the difference."

Greg's voice cracked as his eyes drifted to a photo of him and Nick in Catalina. "I may be an occasional idiot, but I'm smart enough to know that I'm in love with the greatest guy. He's so special, he's everything to me, and when you have everything, the last thing you need is third party intervention."

After a few minutes of quiet contemplation, Greg said, "I think he's trying teach me another lesson. He doesn't really want me to have the threesome." His smile returned, "You know, for a girl with a really big mouth, you're a very good listener."

---

"This discussion should really be between the two of you," Nick told Sara as he drove back to the lab.

"I'm bouncing all this off you before I talk to him."

"The thing I still haven't heard you verbalize is why you don't want kids. You keep sayin' you don't, but you never say why. If I was Gris, I'd want to know why."

"Even if you didn't want kids? Why would you need to know?"

"Curiosity…to get closer to the person I love…to help if there was an issue."

Staring out the window of the Denali, Sara softly replied, "I don't want to watch my child suffer. I remember how much life hurt when I was a little girl. The world is a scary place…we see proof of that every day. Look at what happened to you and what it did to your mother and you were a grown man. Look what happened to Cassie and that little girl last month who got molested by her neighbor." She shook her head. "I couldn't handle it. It would eat me alive."

"You can't focus on the negative, Sara. You can't worry about stuff that probably won't happen."

"School will happen. Kids are vicious. I can't bring a child into this world knowing what I know about this world." She glanced over at her friend. "What if something happened to me on the job? Something terrible, like what happened to you or Greg. Think of the pain my child would go through. If something happened to Grissom and me, we don't even have family. The kid would be an orphan and reliving my foster care nightmare."

"You could name Greg and me in your will. Then you'd know your kid would have somewhere to go." He flashed a warm smile, "Somewhere with a month's supply of canned goods in the event of an emergency."

"The idea of Greg being a mommy to my child is supposed to comfort me?" she laughed. "It doesn't."

"I know he's a big goof at times, but you should see him with our dog. He's really a good parent, Sara. Seriously, you can tell a lot by how well a person cares for and train their dog. He's real sweet with Chico, spoils him too. I have no doubt that he'll do great with a real kid too." Nick bragged, "The other day, he came home from Petsmart with a bunch of toys and this deluxe microbead bed."

"The one with the suede-like cover?" When he nodded, she shook her head. "That's a disaster waiting to happen, trust me. I bought it for Bruno and he ripped it to shreds and sent those microbeads sailing over every inch of the house."

"Did you tell him not to chew it or did you just let him go to town? Because Chico started to chew it, but I firmly told him 'no' and sprayed the pillow with some of that Bitter Apple stuff and he's not tried since."

"Really? How do you keep him off the bed? Or do you let him on the bed?"

"No, ma'am." Nick explained, "We love our boy, but he's a dog and dog's paws have dirt and germs on them from walkin'. Chico sheds too. We have real expensive bedding, so it's not an option to have him jumpin' on it. The first time he tried, I yelled 'no' and shook a soda can full of coins. That sound really scares dogs. It worked like a charm."

"Where does he sleep?"

"We have a huge laundry room. We keep him locked in there with a radio on in there at a low volume. He loves it, he gathers his toys and makes himself comfortable in that bed. Before we go to work, we give him scratches and kisses and tell him good night. We have a doggie door leadin' into the backyard from the laundry room, so it's real convenient. When we come home from work, we play with him and feed him. When we go to sleep for the day, he takes a nap on this real shaggy rug Greg put at the foot of our bed. When we need privacy in the bedroom, we lock him in the laundry room though. We tried just shuttin' the bedroom door with him on the outside, but that didn't work." Nick laughed, "We learned that last weekend."

"I'm almost afraid to ask." Sara treaded cautiously, "Does it have something to do with a body part being licked by your dog?"

"Ha!" Nick shook his head, "When Greg is trashed he gets real loud in bed."

"I find it hard to believe that he's ever quiet in bed…or anywhere."

"Not often, that's for sure." After a mutual chuckle, Nick continued, "So, the big moment comes for G and he's doin' his usual drunken noise, which sounds like he's scream-singin' the word 'oh'." He mocked his lover, "'OooohhhHHH! OooohhhHHH!' All of a sudden I hear Chico howlin' along with him from the other side of the door. It was like they were tryin' to outdo each other. Greg was too caught up in the moment to notice, but I was laughin' so hard at the duet, I could barely finish."

Sara covered her eyes. "I can totally picture that spectacle…unfortunately."

"Hey now, I'm like you're brother, so don't be thinkin' about me naked in bed."

Thrilled to be laughing and in a better mood, she assured him, "Trust me, it's not a turn on when you're naked on top of Greg."

"I never said I was on top of him, that's your active imagination talkin'." Nick winked. "But I'll leave it at that."

"I can't believe he's that trained," Sara huffed in frustration.

"Hey! It's not like I slap a dog collar on him and make him get on all fours. That little perv begs me to…"

"I was talking about Chico!" she interrupted before her friend divulged another embarrassing detail. "I was impressed that you trained your dog so fast."

"Oh." Nick anxiously cleared his throat. "Yeah, he's a real good dog."

---

"Chico!" the tipsy dog owner barked, "Don't lick our plastic guest! If you bite her, she'll deflate!"

Uncorking the second bottle of Cabernet, Greg willed his lover home. "Come on, Cletus!" He couldn't wait to set him straight about their gay love life. No chicks or third parties of any kind. For better or worse, it would be Sanders and Stokes Party of Two for the rest of their lives.

"I can't wait to see his reaction to you, Amber, and to what I have to say." He giggled, "Between the two of us, we're going to blow his mind." His laughter intensified, "I bet you're accustomed to blowing something else."

***

Next part of The Day Before You.

• Main CSI page
• The new stories
• Gil/Greg stories
• Gil/Nick stories
• Gil/Warrick stories
• Nick/Greg stories
• Nick/Warrick stories
• Greg/Warrick stories
• Nick/Bobby stories
• Jim Brass stories
• David Hodges stories
• CSI: New York stories
• CSI: Miami stories
• All f/f stories
• Other pairings & threesomes
• Gen CSI stories
• C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation: The Complete Ninth Season