Ira Deorum

Actually, we did end up flying. It took about an hour to get everything ready, and though I was chomping at the bit and at wit’s end, I had to admit I was impressed with the efficiency of it all.

When someone of Gil’s caliber is in trouble, the bureaucracy of it just falls away.

We had the warrants needed for a raid being signed as Catherine rallied the troops.

It's almost amazing how many cops and CSI’s from the other shifts wanted in. Just goes to show that if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.

Aw hell, they did it for me, of course they were gonna drop everything to hunt for Gil and bring him home.

But Sheriff Atwater has monthly schmoozing dinners with the Governor, and Brass is buddies with a few deputies out of Carson City, so convincing them that we were all gonna do this together was pretty painless.

But no way could the FBI mobilize as fast as we could right then, and frankly I didn’t want another Culpepper coming in and screwing things up. So no FBI was a small blessing as far as I’m concerned.

They found an abandoned mini-van traced to the church in Texas on a rural road outside a park several miles from Gil’s home, but that was it. A mini-van for God’s sake. Oh the humanity…

Brass and Sara are “following the money” as we speak. This guy’s had his fingers in many pies. Woo-wee!

My brother Mike has been busy rooting out other “soldiers” and shaking down sympathizers for the Lighters. My dad’s pissed cause he has to recuse himself from their trials when the time comes.

But as I said, our D.A wants to send all of them up the river in for what they did in Nevada.

Well, before they go to Texas to face the music there anyway. Turf wars are amusing. I’m still not sure what…

I was sitting in the breakroom, tapping my fingers against a table and forcing myself to drink a cup of coffee hoping I could stop worrying about Gil for a bit.

“Oh!…umm…sorry…man, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to lose it like that, it’s just…”

“Are…you two…I mean, I know you care about Grissom, we all do, but do you…” she started to stammer, something I have never heard Sophia do before.

“Do you care about him more than…like…more than just your boss or friend?”

That was certainly not a time I would expect one to be discussing personal relationships.

She didn’t know. I know Sophia kind of has a thing for Gil, and she is the kind of woman Gil may go for (if I had never been born that is), but again, we really didn’t want our relationship to be all over the lab, cause our relationship is our own business, so only Cath, Warrick and Brass actually knew.

“You don’t have to tell me, but you can trust me Nick. I won’t spread it around, but I rea…”

“Coming!” I said quickly, seeing the interruption as a great reason to make a beeline for the door.

As everyone gathered in the lobby to listen to final orders from the Sheriff, Sophia stood next to me, and I made a point to avoid eye contact, or else I was doomed.

I can see it right on your face ma’am. You’re thinking I freaked out on the plane, that I still have claustrophobic issues.

Which is amazing in a way considering how Greg couldn’t shut up and stop fidgeting.

Well, I felt so guilty about it, I confessed to Gil when we got back to the lab.

He laughed, then said something about how your mind and body will do whatever they need to do to get ready for, and get through, a rough patch.

We found the location of the land purchased by the Church, and signed for by one B. Zacharias (B for Brother, so not clever).

It was not in Lake Tahoe exactly. But just outside the resort area, closer to Spooner Lake.

And fifteen acres of land to search with a few small enclosures and buildings spread far and wide.

We had a chopper doing flyovers, but the trees were so thick in parts they really couldn’t see anything.

Would it have been too much to ask that these freaks build a huge compound that screamed “Main Building”?

Now, there was only one road into the area, so with cops around, no one was getting in or out without them knowing it.

Ha! There were some crazy chases. Warrick always enjoys a good foot race through the woods, and Bobby Dawson is a little speed demon it turns out.

Well, technically no, Bobby shouldn’t be packing heat, but, extraordinary times and all that.

It’s not like he shot anyone. But he and Warrick really did manage to piss the guys in the tree off as they waited for a few officers to show up and help get them down.

Warrick asked him about his partner Spencer, and how their daughter Olivia was doing in school.

Especially about an hour into it when they encountered some die hards hiding out in a shack.

Oh yeah, he was there. Ecklie just happened to pair up with him. Syncophantic putz he can be, but apparently he and the Sheriff personally took some Lighters on outside a building and even rescued a couple of teenagers being held there for de-programming.

Sheriff rescues kids, story at eleven. And it’s an election year too. He’s good to go.

Ortega is on the warpath again. He went after Sophia for that big shoot out a few months back. And he’s never liked Vartan, something about him being too friendly with Brass and the CSI’s.

Apparently he bet Sophia dinner that he could take out more Lighters than she could.

We struck out towards Spooner Lake looking for any clue of where they might have been holding Gil

Well see, they were questioning the ones they caught, but none were being very forthcoming with where Gil, or anyone else, was being kept.

Several folks were rescued that day. Homosexuals, Goths, two renowned professors who went missing from Stanford, and partridge in a pear tree. They also found a set of twins from my hometown.

Yeah, the press loved their story. Boy, their families got a nasty surprise when they get home. Mike arrested the parents personally.

It had stopped snowing, but my arm was starting to ache, walking in snow is a bitch, I hate it now, and I swore that once this was over Gil and I are off to Maui for a few weeks.

But when trying not to panic as you hunt for your lover, serenity doesn’t mean shit.

We trudged all the way out to Spooner Lake and saw nothing as the sun appeared and rose higher in the sky.

Yeah, we had wandered off the property, and were starting to head back towards it when Brass’s radio went haywire with chatter.

Some of the Carson City officers had arrested a few Lighters who said that a guy was brought in by plane the night before and was being held not too far from where they were.

“Well shit!” Catherine said, “What the hell are we doing standing around here?”

If I was listening to someone say it incessantly like that, I probably would have called for a psych eval.

At least until I hit the base of a hill going deeper into the woods and away from the water.

Catherine and Brass were right behind me when we heard gunfire and shouts, and they raised their guns ready for anything that was coming over the top.

I’d like to say he cried out my name, and we embraced on the hill in a romantic lover’s type fashion.

He ran down the hill towards us, and the next thing I know, I’m hugging a damn tree!

“They’re right behind me!” he said running to where Catherine and Brass were standing.

Gil, flanked by Cath and Jim. All three of them shooting up the hill as six Lighters tried to come down it.

Typical really, those two have known each other so long, a fire fight wouldn’t change anything.

I hadn’t moved from my tree yet. I think I was little tharn if you know what I mean.

But I was pissed that I ended up inhaling bark as he and the others kicked fanatic ass.

Well, after their little bonding session Gil looked over at me, and he grinned.

And he kissed me in a way I don’t think I’ve ever been kissed by him before.

His kisses have always been full of love, and affection. Often loaded with lust as well.

No holding back. No reservations. I realized that he was making himself truly vulnerable to me, giving me the power to really hurt him if I wanted.

I know he loves me, but in that moment, any doubt I may have had about the depths of his love disappeared.

Under other circumstances, I would have told him to fuck me, right there on the snow covered hill.

“Call them. We have to get to the cave on the other side of Spooner Lake, everyone needs to get there”.

“Christ Gil, you can’t ever match wits with a regular nut job can you? Have to go after the psycho mastermind nut jobs…” Brass huffed as we ran towards the cave, “I’m getting to old for this shit...”

You gotta love their banter ma’am. We’re all just one big dysfunctional loving family. I know it wasn’t a happy moment, but I couldn’t help but giggle.

Honestly, must have been some more psychological displacement going on. There we were, in pursuit of the man who was behind all this fear and pain and death, the man who wanted to “rehabilitate” my boyfriend, and what were we doing?

Well, rumor has it that he told Catherine I was his mid-life crisis, and she…uh...made him take that comment back.

I can’t believe I didn’t notice it right away, but when I did, I was hopping mad.

Well, when I saw the extent of it, it was lucky for them that I was nowhere near a Lighter.

The bruises on his face and body have pretty much faded, Gil’s always healed fast.

Well, apparently fanatics with grudges go all Hollywood these days; they like to monologue.

That’s right, official transcript from the de-briefings. It took four full days to take all the statements. Gonna be a long trial…

I’m guessing he put on his “bemused” look, like when he’s talking to suspects, or Ecklie.

Yeah, “dispel the illusion of acceptance” and bring forth a “purer, stronger society free of decadence.”

Gil was just a loose end Zephyr could use I guess. But he did refer to Gil as a worthy foe at least.

Right about then is when the cavalry arrived, so Zephyr actually had the balls to tell Gil where he was going, and dared Gil to try and catch him.

Well, for one, Gil knows how to loose his hands from being tied up, and you never leave a hostage unattended in a building with more than one exit.

“I saw a flash of green, and my gut said to go towards it”, he told us on the plane.

We get to the cave. And it takes all they’ve got to keep me from charging in there.

As Gil explained, he’s a magician. Illusions, tricks, who knows what he could’ve done.

Anyone who currently wasn’t in a gun fight, chasing Lighters, or standing guard over prisoners was ordered to the cave.

We head to towards the cave, when all of sudden a speedboat comes flying out of the air, over our heads, and into the lake.

He’s out there, speeding across Spooner Lake. We’re all on the shore, mouths hanging open in surprise…

So the big face off doesn’t happen. Our big takedown of Zephyr turns into a game of find the body.

Now, the whole day is spent carting off Lighters, gathering evidence and searching the lake. This is a major operation, and when the press showed up I had to get away for a bit.

I come across Gil and Cath outside the cave commiserating. Sarah and Warrick were with some rookies trying to figure how the hell he got a speedboat out of the woods and over our heads.

I walk up to them, and grab his hand. He pulled me to his side, drapes an arm around me. Only then do I relax.

Took about 20 minutes to walk through it, and there was an opening at the other end just big enough for someone to crawl through.

Well, we found scuba gear at the far end of Spooner Lake, well Ecklie did, he tripped over the gear, and sprained his ankle.

Hey, if that’s the worse thing to happen to Conrad Ecklie because of this, he should be grateful.

You got that right, it was a bunch of tired folks who got back to Vegas that night.

Most just crashed right in the lab for a few hours, then went home to change and come back for their shifts.

Greg got a picture of Warrick and Bobby snuggled up and passed out on the couch in the break room together, and was gonna use it as blackmail until Gil snapped a picture of Greg and Hodges crashed out on the floor in Trace.

After my de-briefing, where I had to tell everything by the way-and the look on the Sheriff’s face when I slipped and referred to Gil as Peanut was hilarious- I took a shower and then tracked Gil down in his office.

He was checking his voice mails. Can you believe that? Like it was just another day at Criminalistics.

“I’d love to Nick, but my house is a pile of ash right now, I got calls to make.”

“I mean my home. You have clothes and stuff there…and a nice big bed to sleep on…and a man who just wants to hold onto you for awhile.”

It was early morning, so technically, we had about twelve hours or so before having to report back. Who knows what the criminals in Vegas were up to while we were away?

I kept telling myself that everything is fine now. Gil is safe, he’s here with you. They didn’t win.

I just listened to him breathe, whispered I loved him, and could swear his body just got more relaxed.

A week later, Gil and I are moving into our first house together. Two floors, but no basement or attic, and I don’t want to admit that it makes me feel safer than my gun does.

Well like I said, the D.A and the Sheriff, and the media keep bugging us about the finer details, and Gil just couldn’t stand it.

And I just wanted to talk to someone about everything who didn’t have a motive of some sort.

From the Journal of Nicholas Stokes:

January 28,2006

It’s nice to have a night off for once. It’s been quite a while. Pity Gil has to work, but those are the breaks I guess. We can’t spend all our time together, much as I want to. Especially after all that has happened recently with those damn Lighters and that bastard Zephyr who….

(Several paragraphs omitted.)

…but thank God for Lady Heather. It’s so nice to be able to talk to someone who understands completely and doesn’t judge you, at least until she knows enough about you to do so fairly. She’s coming over for dinner next week, and I know Gil is looking forward to spending an evening with her.

Anyone who makes him smile is ok in my book.

I’m going with him on his next trip to Marina Del Ray. His mom wants us to come up there for a long weekend, and I would like to meet her properly. We’re looking at early June for the trip. A weekend spent lying on the beach would be great, and I could ogle at Gil in his trunks. Bonus!

Not that I need a beach to ogle at my man. Oh the wicked things we do.

Like this morning, we get home from an actually easy shift and man, I am horny.

It had been a good while since Gil and I got down and dirty. Time, and energy just wasn’t there. Gil jumped in the shower as I sorted through the mail that we hadn’t opened in days (priorities, ha ha!).

I hear Gil finish up in the shower as I head into the bedroom and strip down. My plan was to take a shower to get that day old lab funk off myself, and then see if Gil was “up” for anything. This wasn’t a desperate notion. Not really, I just needed to get laid.

Apparently so did Gil. I was half naked and facing the bed when Gil came up behind and put his arms around my chest, pulled back and kissed that spot on my jaw that makes me squirm. I was standing at attention in three seconds.

Gil, I’m all funky.

Don’t care.

OK, I warned you.

Shutup buddy.

That was the extent of our conversation. We don’t need to talk, we both know this dance we were about to do very well.

VERY WELL.

Damn.

He continued kissing along my jaw line and I was so into those sensations I didn’t even notice he had slipped my pants and underwear off until I felt those wonderful hands of his massaging my thighs, and skimming across my hips. Damn tease! When he brushed a hand lightly across the base of my cock, I couldn’t help but moan and shiver. I tilted my head back to lean against him, and he turned, giving me a soul-searing kiss.

When Gil kisses me so deeply, I always get a little teared up, I can’t help it. It’s gives me the most wonderful ache to know he loves me so much that he would kiss me like that. I turned in his arms and kept kissing him, over and over, trying to convey how much I love him too.

He got the message.

I looked into his eyes, normally a bright blue, they had darkened like the Pacific during a storm. I could see it, the lust, how close he was to just losing control and giving into the desire to just fuck me. I hooked my foot around one of his legs (I’m still not sure which one) and leaned back, pulling him onto the bed with me. Told him to take me, fuck me, make love to me. I think I was begging for it, but oh well. Pride means nothing when you’re so close to bliss.

He was on top, ravaging my mouth with his tongue, rubbing against my cock with his own, in long, devastating thrusts. God the noises I was making. He pinned my arms down with his, and I was totally vulnerable to whatever he wanted to do to me.

I spread my legs, letting him know I was ready. But he denied me. I heard a growl from him as he proceeded to kiss my chest. Then a moan as he tongued under my arm, licking the sweat, and inhaling my scent. I could smell him too. That spicy earthy musk that drives me wild. And I was wild. Gil was making me crazy. I was whimpering, shuddering and moving under him like he was fucking me to kingdom come, and he hadn’t even slipped inside yet. I saw him kiss the tip of my dick and almost blew my load right then. He got up on his knees, lifted my legs up over his shoulders, and I was so ready, all hot and sweaty and just fuckin’ ready for it.

Still he denied me!

But oh his devilish mouth. There I was, fisting the sheets as he rimmed me. His tongue swirled around and over and in. Up to my balls and then back down again. Over and over. Sweet marvelous torture. The little bites on my ass he started giving me had me writhing and tossing my head from side to side crying out. The sadist. I am pretty vocal, but I’m not sure what I was saying. Gil told me I tend to speak in languages he’s never heard of when I’m unhinged like that. I was unhinged. So fucking unhinged. Gil had me at the brink of coming with everything he was doing to me. It was so good, but not enough.

I could feel his cock poking into my sweaty back as Gil plundered my hole with abandon. I was gasping and cursing and whining and about to demand when he finally gave me what I wanted.

He slid his cock inside me with such wonderful ease it took my breath away, and all I could do was hang on for the ride. It was so raw and hot. I pulled on Gil’s hair, brought his face towards mine, kissed him as he continued moving inside me, picking up speed.

It was building. That feeling deep inside that makes your eyes roll back and all thought disappear. It was just building up and spreading through my body in shockwaves of pleasure as an orgasm hit me with the force of a speeding train. I came all over Gil as he fucked me until he reached his own completion with a hoarse bellow.

I don’t remember much after that, to be honest.

(One paragraph omitted.)

They say true love comes with a price. You have to find it, earn it, and pay to keep it. Or suffer the wrath of the Gods. And they don’t mean with money. But with sacrifice, blood, pain and tears. If that’s the case, then considering everything we’ve been through, on our own and together, Gil and I have paid that price. Paid it in spades.

I found the one I am meant to be with. That won’t change. And if I have to, I will pay that price again. Whatever it takes. Our love is worth any price.

We’re worth it.

Gil Grissom is worth it.

The End.