Title: Trilogy – Two: Grave Danger
Author: Dee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1467
Pairing: Gil/Nick
Characters: Gil Grissom and Nick Stokes
Warnings: AU and fluff!
Spoilers: For S5.E24/25 – Grave Danger
Disclaimer: In my dreams they are like, totally mine!
Unbeta-ed: All mistakes will be mine.
A/N 1: A bit of an idea I had on holiday! Three episode related fics and snapshots of how the relationship is between Gil and Nick at that particular time.

Previous story in series - Trilogy – One: Fight Night

Over the two, nearly three years since the night Nick Stokes had told him about his family life, Gil Grissom had many moments when he actually remembered the shame he’d felt that night.  A physical feeling of discomfort at his own shortcomings...as Nick had related what his childhood had really been like.  And privileged was not a word that could have been applied to it; Nick had never mentioned it again, so neither had Gil.

 

Until that night Gil had always prided himself on his non-judgmental ways.  It wasn’t for him to make sweeping assumptions about anything or anyone, but that was exactly what he’d done with Nick.  He did know why he’d done it; there was a reason, and he’d buried it deep inside himself and he didn’t want to acknowledge it, even now, years later. 

 

He’d since tried very hard to treat Nick the same as he treated the others and he hoped he’d succeeded.  And the difference in Nick was astounding; the hero worship gone, well, that was to be expected, but replaced by a solid performance for his own benefit and the benefit of the victims and the department; he would easily have made Lead CSI if the budget hadn’t been cut.

 

Gil thought these thoughts as he walked along the corridor to the office where Catherine sat with Judge and Mrs Stokes.  Nick was buried alive, somewhere, and as that realisation hit Gil once more, he felt light headed and paused at the door for a moment or two.

 

He opened the door and walked in, a dry eyed mother and father talking with Catherine...and for a moment Gil thought he was going to vomit, the bile rose in his throat and he swallowed quickly a few times and but not before he nearly gagged.

 

Catherine spoke to him.  “You okay, Gil, you look...”  He guessed she was going to say sick, which is exactly how he felt.  He nodded at her.

 

“Judge, Mrs Stokes.”  He sat down next to Catherine and told them about Nick.  Told them he thought that their son was still alive, but didn’t really know, and that they had no idea where he was buried.

 

He thought they put on a good show but he wasn’t convinced, he remembered, vividly, Nick’s description of his childhood.

 

The Stokes’ stayed around the lab for hours and several time he heard both of them talking on their cells...discussing their work.  Only one call appeared to be to a family member about Nick.  And he wasn’t sure about that.  Gil thought that the Judge thought it was somehow Nick’s fault that he was in the situation, despite Gil and Catherine asserting that it was a random abduction and it could so easily have been any one of them.

 

The fire ant invasion saved Nick’s life, but very nearly took it in the process.

 

Catherine and Warrick went with Nick to the hospital and Gil stayed at the scene to process the devastation.

 

It was the next day before Gil made it to the hospital.  The Judge was in the waiting room on his cell and Mrs Stokes sat by Nick’s bed.  When Gil entered the room, she stood.

 

“Now that someone’s arrived, I’ll go get a coffee.”  She smiled at Gil and walked out and he could see she was retrieving her own cell phone from her pocket even as she walked out.  Gil hadn’t even spoken.

 

He moved to the side of Nick’s bed and looked at him and his eyes unexpectedly pricked with tears.  No man deserved what he’d endured.  Gil went to pick up Nick’s hand and saw the swollen fingers and the lotion barely covering the shiny, inflamed skin.  Between each finger there were bites piled on top of one another, and around his wrist and in the crease of his elbow.  There were bites elsewhere but in the sweat and heat of the creases the ants had bitten more ferociously.

 

He hesitated just a moment before picking up the limp hand, careful not to press it too hard, but he wanted Nick to know that he was safe, now.  Catherine had told him that Nick had regained consciousness but was heavily sedated and wasn’t able to talk much.  But as Gil held Nick’s hand the fingers curled around his own and grasped Gil’s hand as tightly as if he was conscious.

 

Gil had been studying Nick’s hand but he glanced up at Nick’s face and was surprised to see his eyes open.  More accurately, the slits that were his eyes as the lids and skin beneath were swollen with bites.

 

“Hey, Nicky, you’re going to be okay.  You’re safe, in the hospital.”

 

“M’okay.  Itch.  Tired.  Back.  Hurts.  But.  Okay.”  Nick croaked each word, slowly and painfully, his voice almost gone from all the screaming he’d done lying in the casket buried in the makeshift grave.

 

“You will be okay, I promise.  I’ll take care of you, if you’d like?”

 

“You.  Will?”

 

Gil smiled down at Nick.  “I will.”

 

Nick smiled back despite his pain and closed his eyes.  This was lucky for Gil as Nick didn’t see the scalding hot teardrops as they fell from his cheeks onto the bedclothes.  He pulled the chair Mrs Stokes had used over to him with a foot and sat down and watched over Nick.  Some time later Mrs Stokes returned and pointedly looked at Gil as he held Nick’s hand.

 

“You shouldn’t hold his hand, you’ll wipe off the lotion.”

 

“I find comfort from holding his hand and hope he does too.”  Gil’s reward was an almost imperceptible squeeze of his fingers.

 

The next day, the Stokes’ announced that since Nick was on the mend they would be going home...they had too much work to leave it for too long and no one else would do it for them.  And they left.

 

Funnily enough, Nick seemed far more alert and appeared to recover the moment after they left his room.  Gil was visiting again.

 

“Are you going back to Texas...to recuperate?”  Gil wanted to know.

 

“No...I...no, I’ll be fine.”

 

“I just wondered if you were going back when you were discharged, as your parents have gone home.  I said I’ll take care of you and I meant it, you can stay with me or I can move in with you until you’re ready to...do whatever...”  Gil stopped talking, he had no idea what Nick was going to do until he was fit to return to work.

 

“Could you...  Would you move in with me, please?  You know, my own home.  Familiar.”  Nick had really become more alert at Gil’s confirmation of his earlier promise.  “I think I can go home tomorrow if my blood work comes back okay...shows no more ant toxin.”

 

“That’s good.  I’ll pack my stuff and pick you up here when you get the go ahead.”

 

“Thanks, Gris.  I appreciate your help.  Catherine’s offered, but she’d be over the top.  Warrick’s offered but he feels too guilty, it wouldn’t be comfortable.  Greg’s too hyperactive and Sara would probably kill me with her cooking.”  Nick chuckled at his assessment of his friends.

 

Gil thought for a few moments.  “You know what?  You’re right.”  And he laughed too.

 

Nick’s recovery was easy for Gil.  Nick was the most straightforward man he’d ever met.  He made an appointment with the LVPD psychologist and discussed with Gil what had been said, his bites didn’t become infected and gradually faded and he slept during the day while Gil slept in his spare room.  It’s what he wanted to do, except when he had an appointment to keep, and three and half weeks later, his therapist and his doctor allowed him to return to work.

 

Gil stayed for a few more days, but Nick told him he had to learn to live alone again, so Gil should go home.  Three times he turned up on Gil’s doorstep in the following couple of weeks, when he couldn’t sleep, and apart from a few angry moments, Nick returned to normal...despite his hair and moustache.  They caused endless jokes from the rest of the team, but Gil kept his mouth shut.

 

Gil felt proud for being part of the recovery, but was not under any illusion that he had helped that much, or even at all.  Nick did it alone.  His strength of character drove him forwards...to put it behind him.

 

One thing that Gil did notice was that no one from Nick’s family visited, or phoned him when Gil was there...if they e-mailed him, Nick never said.  In fact, he never mentioned his family once.  It saddened Gil but since Nick had obviously learned to live with it, then so must he, despite his own wish to have Judge and Mrs Stokes buried alive...to see how they would cope.

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