Title: Growth (#025 for the lover100 challenge)
By: lin71
Pairing: Warrick/Nick (duh!)
Rating: FRAO
Series: 1) Rough Case, 2) Visiting Nick, 3) The Evening After the Morning Before, 4) The New Guy, 5) Honesty, 6) Seize the Opportunity, 7) A Night Out, 8) Tell Me, 9) Night, 10) Whew
Warnings: none, no spoiler in sight, or at least not that I'm aware of (except for my A/N). Oh, and they're un-beta'd (as always)
Disclaimer: still not owning them, still wishing I did, yadayada. Bottom-line: don’t sue, please!
A/N: I try not to let events from the actual show interfere with my story (at least not with this series). So Nick has not come across any stalkers. If he had, the smex in this first chapter would be a little weird, and I’m not going there.

Having dinner while the air in the room is thick with anticipation of what’s gonna happen afterwards, was a sweet kind of torture. Both men had lost their appetite after a few bites, but neither of them seemed to want to make the first move, knowing the wait would only intensify everything that would happen later. Finally Nick decided it was enough, and he put his half-empty box of chicken chow mein on the table.
 
‘I’m gonna take a quick shower,’ he stated, getting of the couch.
 
‘All alone?’ Warrick asked, trying to look innocent. He stuck one last stir fried shrimp in his mouth before putting his box down as well.
 
Nick chuckled. ‘Don’t look at me like that man. You’ve already gotten me to do everything you want but if you join me I just know I’m not gonna make it to the bed and by the time I do, I won’t be of any use.’
 
‘Wanna bet?’ Warrick said questioningly, an almost evil look in his eyes.
 
‘It’s not a bet Rick, it’s the truth. As much as I would enjoy it, I’m not 18 anymore and I just don’t think I can handle three times in a row.’
 
‘Yeah, those days are long gone, you’re 29 now. That’s ancient, Nicky.’ Warrick smirked. He got off the couch and walked over to Nick, hooking his thumbs in the other man’s belt loops, pulling him close. ‘Lucky for you my gambling days are over. And besides, I’m not sure I wanna miss out on a whole lotta lovin’ because you fall asleep on me.’
 
His breath ghosted Nick’s skin again, not missing its effect once more. Their mouths close but not yet touching. It was Warrick who closed the distance between them, outlining Nick’s lips with his tongue before their lips touched. Too soon he broke their kiss, still holding Nick close.
 
‘Now go and shower. I’ll be waiting for you in the bedroom.’

Nick reluctantly stepped away from him, part of him regretting saying ‘no’ to Warrick’s offer of joining him in the shower, and walked over to the bathroom. He turned on the spray and shed his clothes, not wanting to spend more time taking a shower than absolutely necessary. More so, not wanting to spend more time apart from Warrick than absolutely necessary. The need to be that close was something he hadn’t experienced before, it went beyond just being in love. He felt complete, for the first time in his life.

As soon as he thought that, he started laughing at himself. ‘Great, now I sound like a chick-flick.’
 
He was just about ready to turn the tap off and make his way to the bedroom, when he felt a chill coming from somewhere. About half a second later he felt two arms come up around his waist and a muscular body pressing up against him, followed by the voice of his lover in his ear.
 
‘Bet’s on Nicky,’ Warrick whispered, voice a bit hoarse.

The sound of his voice alone sent shivers up and down Nick’s spine. He couldn’t refuse Warrick, even if he had wanted to, which he didn’t. He felt a warm mouth on the skin of his neck and shoulder, licking, sucking, and biting him. He let his head fall back on Warrick’s shoulder, only focusing on the feeling of his man’s lips and tongue on his skin, and fingers traveling across his chest in a tantalizing slow pace.
 
Nick’s breath hitched when Warrick brushed over his nipples with one hand, while the other traveled down to his growing erection. His skin already was sensitive from the shower, but the way Warrick was touching him and the feeling of his hard on pressing up against Nick’s ass was quickly sending him into sensory overload, again.

He turned around in Warrick’s arms, looking his man in the eyes before gripping his neck with one arm and pulling him down for a deep kiss while pressing his body against Warrick’s. He heard the other man moan in his mouth when their cocks were pressed together, and felt his other arm being pinned on his back before he could start touching Warrick.

‘Just let me baby. You just enjoy the ride,’ Warrick breathed in his ear, while he turned him around again, Nick’s back flush against his chest. He grabbed hold of Nick’s cock and started stroking again. Nick closed his eyes, losing himself in the feelings Warrick was sending through him, when he felt that Warrick took one of his hands and replaced his own hand with Nick’s. He turned his head and looked at Warrick, questioning.
 
‘I wanna watch you Nicky. I wanna look at you when you touch yourself,’ Warrick purred.
 
Nick would have liked to come up with a smart retort, but every ability to think had left his brain by now. Warrick seemed to know how to push all his buttons, with or without asking him about it. All he could do right now, was do whatever Warrick wanted him too. He closed his eyes again and started stroking himself. He felt Warrick’s chin rest on his shoulder, watching his every move.

He tried to draw it out, keep the pace slow, but somehow Warrick had discovered he had an exhibitionistic kink before he had ever realized it himself. Or maybe it was just that Warrick wasn’t only watching, but had wrapped an arm around his waist to hold him in place, while he was grinding his fully erect cock against his ass as well.
 
‘You like this, don’t ya Nicky… me watching you,’ Warrick’s voice was low from arousal and almost enough to send Nick flying over the edge.
 
‘Uh-huh,’ was all he could answer.
 
‘Yeah, I thought so. Just like I love to watch you like this.’ He brought his hand up to Nick’s chest, caressing the hardened nipples, rubbing them between his thumb and finger. ‘Don’t hold back baby, touch yourself the way you like it.’
 
Nick tightened his grip a little, using his thumb to rub the droplets of precum over the head. Immediately he heard Warrick’s breath hitch, a soft moan escaping him. He answered by pushing back against Warrick a little harder, enjoying the fact that he could make Warrick lose control as well as Warrick could do with him, and opened his eyes so he could see his lover. The look on Warrick’s face almost did him in right away. He was watching Nick, pupils dilated with lust, his lips slightly parted.
 
‘Come with me darlin’, Nick whispered, his drawl a bit more prominent. ‘I want to feel you come, wanna see your eyes when you do.’
 
Immediately he felt Warrick’s body tense a little more against him, trying to hold on to his last bit of restraint. Never slowing the pace of his right hand, Nick brought his left hand to his mouth and sucked in two fingers, wetting them with his saliva.

He brought them down again and reached behind to brush them against his man’s opening. The moment he slowly entered him with one finger, he felt Warrick’s movements speeding up a bit and heard a string of soft moans and curses coming out of him.

It was Warrick’s hand, closing over his own, that sent Nick over the edge. His orgasm hit him with force and only pure will power kept him standing upright instead of dropping to the floor. Warrick followed seconds later, tightening his grip around Nick’s chest as if he was holding on for dear life, calling out his lover’s name.
 
It took them both a few minutes to gather their breath again, still standing close together under the hot spray.
 
‘Wanna head for bed, baby?’ Warrick asked, placing kisses on Nick’s jaw.
 
‘Mmm mm,’ Nick mumbled incoherently.
 
Warrick chuckled. ‘Come on Nicky, after all you promised me a massage sometime earlier today, and I know you always keep your promises.’
 
‘You trying to kill me?’
 
Warrick nuzzled Nick’s cheek. ‘Would be a great way to go, won’t it?’
 
Nick snorted. ‘Yeah, and just think of the faces of the other members of our team if they have to clean up that scene.’
 
‘COD: fucked each other to death,’ Warrick added, grinning. ‘That’d be a first, won’t it?’
 
‘The guys from Trace are gonna have a field day going over that evidence, that’s for sure.’
 
Suddenly the sound of a phone ringing entered the bathroom, snapping both men out of their post-orgasmic haze.
 
‘That’s mine,’ Nick said, quickly getting out of the shower. He grabbed a towel and tried to dry himself off a bit while searching for his phone.
 
‘Where did I leave that friggin’ thing?’ he muttered, walking in the direction of the sound. Not entirely to his surprise, he found it between the cushions of the couch and managed to pick up just before it switched to voicemail.
 
‘Stokes’
 
‘Hello Nick, did I wake you?’
 
Mentally kicking himself for not checking his caller ID before picking up, he sighed inwardly.
 
‘No mom, you didn’t. I was just about ready to head for bed though.’
 
‘But you’re not at home. I called your phone a minute ago and I got the answering machine,’ his mother stated.
 
Nick sighed, out loud this time. ‘No mom, I’m not at home. Do you really want to get into this right now? I’m tired as hell and I don’t feel like fighting with you now.’
 
‘There’s nothing to fight about Nick,’ his mother answered. ‘I may not like those one night stand type of things, but I can understand that you don’t like the fact that I want to interfere with your personal life or give you some advice. That’s no reason to come up with bad jokes about some male lover, like you did when I talked to you a few days ago, but we all say things in anger we don’t intend to say. It’s all forgiven.’
 
Nick couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
 
‘Mom, why would I lie about something like that?’
 
‘Because you were angry with me. I understand that and I’m sorry. You’re almost 30 years old and I shouldn’t pry, but I’m your mother Nicky. I want you to be happy.’
 
Warrick appeared in the door, wondering if Nick was being called in, and he mouthed ‘Grissom?’
 
Nick shook his head and mouthed back ‘My mother’. He stiffled a laugh when he saw the pained look on Warrick’s face, before turning his attention back to the phone.
 
‘And I appreciate that you care mom, I do, but..’
 
He was cut off before he could finish his sentence.
 
‘So, now that that’s behind us I was wondering whether or not you are coming down here for Thanksgiving. It’s okay if you don’t bring a girlfriend, because I was thinking of inviting Darlene Waterson over. You know her, don’t you, she went to school with you, I believe.’
 
Nick groaned audibly. ‘Mom! Stop fixing me up with all kinds of girls that I’m not interested in in the first place!’
 
Suddenly he felt a steadying hand grip his shoulder, and a warm body close behind him, offering him a silent support. He closed one hand over Warrick’s hand on his shoulder.
 
‘It’s just not right to spend your life alone Nick. You are an attractive intelligent young man and you deserve to be with the right woman. And besides, you’re the only one apart from your brother that can…’
 
‘Don’t even start with the whole ‘children and carrying on the Stokes name’ thing!’ Nick started to sound annoyed. He took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before exhaling.
 
‘I’m gonna say it one more time mom, and if you don’t believe me... well, that’s your problem then. But what I told you the other day wasn’t a lie. I don’t need a girlfriend, because I finally admitted to myself that I am gay. And I am in a relationship with someone, like I told you. His name is Warrick and I’m over at his house now, which is why I didn’t answer the phone at home.’
 
‘No you aren’t, and you don’t,’ his mother said, a hint of doubt in her voice. ‘We didn’t raise you like that Nick, we’ve made that perfectly clear years ago when you were saying something like that too.’
 
Nick snorted, feeling tired as hell all of a sudden. ‘So now you know how long I’ve kept it a secret mom. And I’m tired of it. Tired of pretending to be straight, tired of living a lie and for the first time in years I’ve started to be honest to myself. And I really hope you will come around and extend the invitation for Thanksgiving to us both, but if not I’ll just need to learn to deal with that. I’ll come down there alone, but don’t even think about setting me up with some girl.’
 
‘That man there? I need to talk to him,’ his mother demanded.
 
‘O no you don’t,’ Nick protested. ‘You’re not gonna start a whole rant about him corrupting your innocent youngest child. If you want to meet him, you can meet him in person, and if that’s too much to ask you don’t need to talk to him at all.’
 
‘Don’t you talk to me like that Nicholas Stokes!’ His mother sounded agitated by now, her calling him Nicholas was usually a pretty good indicator.
 
‘Mom, I’m sorry, but that seems to be the only way to get through to you,’ Nick answered, trying to stay as calm as possible. ‘And right now it really is your choice. I’ve made mine when I decided to be honest to myself, and I will live with the consequences that may come along with it.’
 
Both mother and son were quiet for some time. Nick was the first to start talking again.
 
‘You know what mom, just think it over for a few days. I know I shocked you pretty bad, but I just hope you will realize that nothing has changed. I’m still the same, and I still love you. I just stopped lying to you.’
 
He snapped his phone shut and immediately he was pulled into a tight hug. Nick buried his head in the crook of Warrick’s neck and wrapped his arms around him.
 
‘m sorry,’ he mumbled.
 
Warrick pulled back a little so he could look Nick in the eyes. ‘What the fuck are you sorry for?’
 
‘That you had to hear all that. And about me telling my mother I wanted to bring you along to meet them. I should have asked you about that first.’
 
Warrick shrugged. ‘Yeah, well, meeting the parents isn’t exactly in my top 5 of favorite things, but it has to be done some time anyway.’
 
He looked at Nick with a hint of a smile on his face. ‘This is scary man, we’re together for what.. a week? And already talking about meeting the parents and celebrating the holidays with them. Next thing you’ll wanna met my Gran.’
 
‘I already know your Gran, Rick.’
 
‘Well, you get the point.’
 
He tightened his arms around Nick again. ‘I just can’t believe what’s happening to you over the past few days babe. You keep saying that it all kinda scares you, but in the meantime you read your mother the riot act and you practically fought off a police officer that as much as looked at me in the wrong way.’
 
Nick looked at him, surprise evident in his face. ‘Yeah I did.’
 
‘Yes you did.’ Warrick kissed him on the top of his head. ‘Wanna head for bed?’
 
‘God yes, I’m practically asleep on my feet already.’
 
‘Damn,’ Warrick retorted, smiling proudly, ‘I wore you out, didn’t I?’
 
‘Nah, but talking to my mother when she’s like that feels like pulling a triple. Not to mention she kinda killed the mood.’
 
‘Okay then, sleep it is.’
 
Nick looked at him with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. ‘Maybe you can set the alarm clock a bit early?’
 
‘Already done.’