Title: Letting Go
By: ullman
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not Mine

***

'Just count to ten, honey.'

He grins wryly, he can almost hear his mother say those words as he stands there, clenching his fists, biting his bottom lip, all to stop himself from doing or saying something he knows he's going to regret.

It takes all his effort to keep his composure and the fact that no one in the room seems to notice how he's barely keeping it together should be reassuring, but the thought that apparently they just don't give a damn makes him even angrier. He watches Grissom hand out assignments and tries to ignore the hurt when his boss passes him by without looking at him.

He can't even believe this is happening, he knows he messed up but he's done apologizing for it and now it looks like he'll never get to be in the field again, all because of one mistake. Which is so unfair because everybody knows Nick screws up all the time and he still gets to go into the field, right?

He mentioned that to Nick the night before and although he had wanted to hurt Nick by saying that, he ended up feeling hurt himself when Nick turned out to be nothing but supportive. Damn that guy for being so nice.

"Greg?" He opens his eyes, briefly wondering why and when he closed them in the first place and looks directly into Nick's eyes. He looks around and realizes it's just the two of them, which usually gives him all kinds of highly inappropriate, yet entertaining ideas. But not tonight.

"What do you want ?" Greg asks, sounding hostile and he knows Nick hears it too as he arches his eyebrow at him, but doesn't comment on it.

"You." Nick says, shrugging lightly.

Greg can't help but smile at that, although he doesn't want to. "Tell me something I don't know, Nick."

Nick smiles, clearly relieved to see Greg smile, even if it is reluctantly. "Okay. I want you to work with me on this case," he waves a piece of paper in front of Greg's face and adds, "Or better yet Gris wants you to."

"Grissom wants me in the field?" Greg asks, not even trying to hide his surprise, only minutes ago the guy ignored him and now he wants him to actually work a case. Somebody should really tell Grissom that he needs to work on his communication skills. "You're not messing with me are you, Nick?"

Nick glances up from the paper and grins. "You know I don't do that at work, G."

Greg rolls his eyes at him, because that's one of the biggest lies he's ever heard, but he ignores it, instead he grabs hold of Nick's hand and drags him to the door. He stops by the door, turns around and leans over to kiss Nick briefly before saying, "I'm sorry for being an ass hole lately, Nick."

Nick doesn't answer him, so Greg moves around, already opening the door when Nick asks, "G?"

Greg sighs, he should have guessed that Nick wouldn't be satisfied with his apology and he turns around once again, not meeting Nick's eyes. "What?"

Nick chuckles. "Nothing. It's just...Coming out holding hands probably isn't a good idea, G."

***