Title: Precious To Me
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Ryan Wolfe
Fandom: CSI: Vegas/CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: Continuation of Looming Threat.
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Ryan Wolfe, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Greg and Ryan were both silent as they entered Greg's apartment, watching as Wolfie galloped into the kitchen and went to his food dish. The puppy, at least, didn't seem to have suffered any ill effects from chasing after the man who had threatened Greg.

Ryan was still having a hard time convincing himself that Greg was all right, that he hadn't been harmed in some way. He had examined every inch of the other man's body, and even though there weren't any marks anywhere to be seen, he still wasn't convinced.

"Ry, I'm okay," Greg had protested when Ryan had insisted on looking him over, lifting his shirt to make sure that there were no bruises on his skin, and had wanted to take him to the emergency room. "He didn't hurt me. He just grabbed me. It all happened so fast."

Greg turned to him as soon as Wolfie had bounded into the kitchen, his dark eyes serious. Ryan reached for his boyfriend, wrapping his arms around Greg and pulling him close, burying his face in the softness of the other man's hair and finally letting himself relax.

"I've never been so scared in my life as I was when I saw him grab you," he whispered, his voice choked with tears. "I just .... froze. I'm sorry, Greg. I'm so sorry. I should have done something. Wolfie was a lot braver than I was."

"If you'd tried to do anything, he might have killed me," Greg said softly, his own arms sliding around Ryan's waist to hold him close. "Ry, I would have done the same thing if our positions had been reversed. There's no way I'd have risked him hurting you."

"If was afraid that if I made any kind of move towards him, that he'd slit your throat -- or worse," Ryan told his boyfriend, lifting his head to gaze into Greg's dark eyes. "I didn't want to move, because I didn't know what he'd do. And I couldn't move. I felt like I was paralyzed."

"So did I," Greg confessed, a shudder going through his thin body. "It was like being touched by a snake. It was like I could feel how cold this guy was, even though he didn't say a word. He doesn't have any regard for human life, Ry. None at all."

"That doesn't surprise me, after what he put me through," Ryan said grimly, moving away from Greg and heading for the couch. He sank down onto the soft cushions, reaching for his boyfriend's hand and pulling Greg down to sit beside him. "He's an animal."

"He's conscienceless. At least, that was the feeling I got from being so close to him," Greg said, another shudder shaking his thin frame. "And after knowing what he did to you, I don't doubt for a second that he'd have killed me if it wasn't for Wolfie."

"Can you forgive me for not being there for you?" Ryan whispered, a lump forming in his throat. He couldn't get any other words out; he'd never felt so ashamed of himself, or so in need of forgiveness, in his entire life. "I should have done something, Greg."

"No, you shouldn't have," Greg admonished him, shaking his head. "If you had, I might be dead by now. I think you did the only thing you could do. You waited to see what his next move would be. It's Wolfie who took matters into his own hands. Errr, paws."

Ryan couldn't help but laugh at Greg's words, nodding in agreement. "It might be a good thing that Wolfie didn't realize how dangerous the situation was," he said, sighing in relief. "I'm just glad nothing happened to him, either. I was afraid that guy might --"

"Wolfie bit him!" Greg interrupted, almost laughing at the memory. "Sank his teeth into that guy's ankle and hung on for dear life. Then when he pulled away, Wolfie chased him. I guess he figured that he wouldn't be able to do anything to me if he was injured."

"I'm glad Wolfie attacked him," Ryan murmured, the lump rising in his throat again and cutting off his words. He had to swallow hard before he could speak again. "If anything had happened to you, I'd have been devastated. I just wish I'd done something to help."

"You did what you could, Ry," Greg told him, his voice soft and soothing. "If you'd made any kind of a move towards me, there's no telling what he would have done. I don't think he meant to kill me, anyway. I think he was just threatening you. Both of us."

"You're so precious to me," Ryan whispered before his throat closed and he was unable to get any more words out. He reached for Greg, pulling his boyfriend into his arms, closing his eyes to hold back the tears that he could feel coming to the surface.

"You're precious to me, too," Greg said softly, resting his head against Ryan's shoulder. "If that had been you, I don't know what I'd have done. We'll get this guy, Ryan. I promise we will. He'll end up behind bars, and he'll never threaten or hurt anybody again."

"He's not going to be that easy to catch, Greg," Ryan said with a sigh, shaking his head. "We thought we had him in Miami. He skated on a technicality. That's how easy it is for those Cuban mob guys to get away from justice. They always have an answer for everything."

"He doesn't this time," Greg answered promptly, his tone grim. "He threatened my life. He held a knife to my throat. We need to go to Brass and report this, and give him a description of the guy. He needs to know what's loose in this city."

"I'm pretty sure he already knows," Ryan told him, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, trying to relax. "Catherine's already told him. She thought that he should know, after I told her that I'd seen the guy at one of our crime scenes."

Greg nodded, lifting his head from Ryan's shoulder and sitting up straighter. "I agree with her. The cops need to know, and so does everybody at the crime lab. We don't want this guy threatening anybody else that we work with. We've all got to be on the lookout."

"I don't know what he's going to do next, but I can guarantee you he'll escalate," Ryan said, wishing that his words weren't true. "He's not going to stop there, not when he's been able to grab a CSI so easily. We've got to be more careful when we go out, Greg."

"I hate to stop doing things that we enjoy, but in the interests of safety, I guess we've got to stay home more for a while, at least until this guy is caught and put away," Greg answered, sounding regretful. "It's almost like we're the ones behind bars."

"It sucks, but we've got to deal with it, at least until he's not a threat any more," Ryan murmured, glad that Greg agreed with him about the need for them to be more secluded, and more cautious when they did go out. "But it's not like we're prisoners. We can still go out."

"We have to," Greg told him, a frown marring his brow. "We have to take Wolfie for walks, and go to the grocery store, and all kinds of stuff like that. Little mundane things. But we'll just have to be a lot more careful than usual. We'll have to watch our backs."

"We already do," Ryan reminded him with a sigh. "We'll just have to be even more alert than we already are." He smiled at his boyfriend, tightening his arms around Greg's slim waist. "As long as I've got you watching my back, I feel safe."

"I always feel safe with you," Greg murmured, brushing his lips across Ryan's cheek. "But we can't fool ourselves into thinking that we're safe just because we're being careful, Ry. We've got to try to find this man and put him in jail, where he belongs."

Ryan knew that Greg was right, but he doubted their ability to put this man behind bars and keep him there. He knew all too well just how wily the members of the Cuban mob could be; they'd escaped justice in Miami too many times for him to count.

But he wasn't going to tell Greg that. His boyfriend, and the life they had built together, was too precious for him to risk their happiness by bringing in dark storm clouds. He wasn't going to shake Greg's faith in that happiness, not if he didn't have to.

"You and Wolfie are too precious to me to risk having that guy running around," he whispered, gathering Greg into his embrace again and closing his eyes as he rested his cheek against the other man's hair. "We'll get him, Greg. I won't let anything happen to the two of you. I swear it."

Ryan hoped fervently that he could keep that promise, that he wasn't making it in vain. He would do everything in his power to protect Greg and the life they had built -- and hope that protecting his lover wouldn't mean that he'd have to sacrifice himself in the process.

***

Next story in series - Unwanted Gift/a>.