Title: Goodnight Nick
Author: Bj Jones
Rating: FRT
Disclaimer: I don't own them. They are owned by various executives, producers, studios and writers who have more lawyers on retainer than I want to mess with. I'm not making any money and promise to return them.
Summary: Gil talks with Nick before he goes to bed.
Beta: Star (Gil)
Author's Note: One of the bunnies that came home from Vegas
Warning: *hands out tissues* Sorry folks this is a bad one. *hands out more tissues*

Challenge: 20 Established Relationships - Gil Grissom/Nick Stokes
Prompt: #20 - Memories

~*~

Gil looked into the mirror, smiling softly as his beard was finally growing back in. The stress must have been really getting to him for him to shave it off. Nicky loved it when he would rub the beard against sensitive areas. The small sabbatical had done him good. Helped him refocus on what his priorities were, what he wanted from his future.

"I can't believe Cath let Keppler do that," he said from the bathroom. "I mean, what was she thinking? The team has to trust their supervisor will support and back them." Gil leaned against the door jam and looked towards his lovers smiling face. "It's no wonder Greg practically pounced me when I came back... Don't even give me that look. It was all innocent." He laughed lightly. "Warrick informed me what Keppler's plan was and I'm still not sure in the logic of it all, but then I tend to look at the world a different way. I can hear you snickering."

He slipped out of his robe and grabbed his sleep pants out of the dresser. "Catherine didn't seem to apologetic, and I think she's perturbed that I didn't seem very sympathetic. Hell, it's not my fault she pissed off the team. A pissy Sara isn't pretty, as you will know. Whatever shot Catherine thought she had with Warrick, despite the Mrs. Brown still in the picture, has completely disappeared. He gives his trust out sparingly and well as you know once broken only an act of God will get it back."

Gil sighed as he sat down on the bed. "Sometimes I wonder if I should have just quit and stayed back East. Maybe do a study on some bug." He picked up the picture by the bed, rubbing his thumb over the smiling face of his lover. "But my happiest memories are here with you." He sat the picture back down before laying down in the cold, empty, and too big bed.

"Why did you have to leave?" Gil blinked away the tears; even after a year, the ache he felt never dwindled, the image of Nick lying too still in a plastic coffin, embedded in his mind. He waited, despite the ants, the fan dying, Nick held on in all hopes they would find him. And they had, five minutes to late. By the time they got the lid open, he had died from anaphylactic shock. Ants were the one bug Gil Grissom, the renowned Entomologist, hated.

"I miss you. It's not the same without you here. Greg doesn't laugh as much, Warrick is a shell of himself, and Sara... Despite the fact she knew you loved me and had my heart, she depended on you. Catherine just doesn't know what to do, losing you, then Sam." It was moments like this Gil felt his age. He turned off the light and lay staring at the smiling portrait. "Goodnight, Nick. I love you."

He closed his eyes and in that moment between awareness and sleep, "I love you, too."

*~ The End ~*

Next story in series - Fixer Upper