Title: More Than Meets The Eye
By: Clockstopper
Rating: PG
Summary: Love is sometimes right in front of you even if it's not your own.
Warnings/Spoilers: Some for Fannysmackin' in the vaguest way possible
Author's Notes: Remix of That Old Familiar Feeling. Some of the dialogue is lifted from there directly. It's the scene in the middle told entirely from Warrick's POV.

He doesn't mean to say it, but the words just sort of come out when he looks at Nick.

"You really love him."

Warrick watches as Nick looks up from his coffee, eyes wide like he's been caught with his hands in the cookie jar or something, all guilty and aw shucks and it makes Warrick smile.

"What?" He asks.

Nick's clueless sometimes. Not on purpose or anything like that, but sometimes he doesn't see the little things staring him straight in the face. Warrick's heard Greg going on and on about how Nick had no clue about Hodges' huge crush on Wendy—not that Warrick can blame him because who really wants to know about those kinds of things when it comes to Hodges.

He says it with that teasing tone that let's Warrick know that Greg's just being silly, making fun of his boyfriend—sometimes Warrick still has a hard time thinking about them like that, but he's mostly gotten over it— to his friends in the lab.

"How many years the two of you been together and you still look at him like that? Leave the honeymooning stage to actual honeymooners man."

"I'm not looking at him anyway."

Warrick wonders if he really believes that. If he doesn't even realize that when he stares at Greg it's with so much love that it's almost too sappy and too hard to look at. He didn't know that love like that existed and he still doesn't think it does, even with his new wife.

"Yeah, Nick, sure. Just wondering if all couples gotta act like that."

"We're not acting anyway. We're at work, man."

He wonders why he's just noticing this now. Nick and Greg have been together since the explosion, maybe a little bit after, but that's when Warrick noticed.

He thinks it's the beat down. He thinks it's Greg getting hurt and seeing Nick just loose it, worse than he's ever lost it before and all the digging and looking and proving that Greg had been justified, something that everyone should have known was self defense anyway.

Warrick had helped because he can't imagine being in that situation and because Greg's part of the team and it's only right to help after what he'd been through. Nick had cooled down, but Warrick still remembers the look in his eye that first time, when that punk had said something and how it had looked like the only thing Nick had wanted in that moment was to hurt that son of a bitch.

Warrick thinks three years to realize something that's been sitting right under your nose is a long time, but sometimes he's just as slow as Nick.

"Maybe I'm just hyper aware of people in relationships right now. Just never noticed it before."

Nick looks off somewhere. Warrick doesn't follow his eyes, but he sees the smile on Nick's face, bright and happy and Warrick doesn't need to look to know that Nick's looking at Greg.

It may have taken Warrick a long time to realize it and sometimes he doesn't think he should be blamed for that because he'd thought Nick had been straight. Nick's from Texas and he likes football and he talks with an accent and says things like ‘aw shucks' and ‘howdy' and there had been women and prostitutes, not paid for, but dead ones all the same.

It's stereotypical, but Nick never said anything to make him think any different so he didn't.

So it may have taken him awhile to adjust and then to adjust to the fact that Nick had chosen Greg, but he gets it now. Gets that there's no one else in the world for Nick and that sometimes, even when there's other people in the room, Greg is all Nick sees.

Warrick wonders what that's like.

"I did."

Warrick gives a fake grimace.

"Aw, come on, man. Gettin' sappy in your old age."

Nick smiles at him, dryly with squinted.

"Yo, you asked, man. I'm just telling it how it is. And I'm not that old."

"Whatever you say man. Still think you're getting soft."

"Never like I was anything different."

"Yeah soon you and Greg are gonna be braiding each others hair… if yours was long again anyway."

Nick rolls his eyes and Warrick just keeps laughing at him. Keeps laughing until Greg walks into the break room all smiles despite the fact that his face is still a little red and swollen looking and Warrick knows he's lost all of Nick's attention.

"What's all the commotion? I could hear Warrick laughing from Wendy's lab." Greg asks interestedly.

He stands a good distance away from Nick, close enough to know that they're friends, that they're comfortable with each other, but not close enough to assume anything more. Not that anyone on night shift cares, but he remembers that time he and Grissom found them making out in a storage closet during Nick's break.

Nick had been embarrassed and Greg had turned bright red and mumbled something about spit samples and ran off.

And after Ecklie, thinly veiled as that was, a desperate ploy to keep Grissom and Sara apart and Nick and Greg, they've been a lot more careful.

But Warrick knows when it comes to them, you can't hide it completely.

"Warrick's calling me old."

"Old, you Nicky. Impossible. You're as young as the next guy. Younger than Warrick."

"He's older by five months." Warrick says.

Greg purses his lips and Nick frowns.

"Still. Not old. Definitely not old."

Nick smiles and Warrick watches as Greg leans over him and pours himself some coffee, small and unnoticeable, but Warrick notices it.

"Just so you know, your semen samples should be done in record time because I am the best."

"Wendy's not running them?" Nick asks causally.

"Nope. Asked her if I could. Then she mumbled something about me just wanting to handle your semen. It was pretty crude. I think she and Mandy may have high fived over it."

Nick's eyes widen and Warrick thinks Greg should be glad Nick hadn't been in the middle of drinking anything otherwise it would be all over Greg's clothes.

"Greg."

"What? I didn't say it, she did."

"But…"

"It's only people that care, Nick."

Nick's eyes dart around lingering just a little bit longer on Warrick and Warrick wouldn't have noticed it, but Warrick gets paid to notice things like that.

"Just Mandy and Wendy and Warrick. Warrick. We're all friends here, right?"

Greg's fingers are stroking Nick's hand and it's so subtle, so hidden and it sucks that they have to be like that when Warrick's seen them anything but this subtle game. They're at work yes, and it would be unprofessional, sure, but they're on break, away from prying eyes and it's like they've gotten so good at this they fool everyone.

Everyone not looking close enough.

"Yeah, you're right. I mean… right?"

Greg rolls his eyes.

"Right."

"Yeah, sappy. It's all good."

Nick glares.

"Thanks."

"No problem man." Warrick says.

He picks up his mug and gets up from his seat. He doesn't have much time before he has to get back to work, pretend to be doing something on this new case even though he's handed everything over to the lab rats.

He puts his cup in the skin, sparing a small glance to Nick who's already talking in low whispers and smiles to Greg almost like he'd forgotten Warrick had been in the room, that they'd been having a conversation prior to Greg entering the room.

Nick nods and goes back to looking at Greg, eyes only for Greg.

It's weird to see your best friend so in love, Warrick thinks. To see anyone so in love, really because Warrick sees so much hate and violence in his job that he forgets that there is love, that it exists and that it's real.

Nick and Greg have it. They have it in soft touches and subtle whispers. In small glances and days spent at home together. They have it in all the little ways that mean it's the real thing.

Warrick wishes he knew what that felt like.

FIN