Title: Turn To Real Life
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Ryan Wolfe
Fandom: CSI: Vegas/CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
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.

***

Ryan woke with a start, blinking as he realized that it was still dark. He and Greg had spent their day off yesterday quietly at home, watching movies and ordering a pizza, and had fallen asleep in each other's arms after making love with smiles on their faces.

He hadn't expected to be awakened in the middle of the night by Greg snuggling close against him, his thin arms wrapped around Ryan's waist, sobbing softly against his shoulder. Ryan wanted to sit up, but he didn't; instead, he slid his arms around Greg, pulling his lover close.

"Greg, baby, what is it? What's wrong?" he asked anxiously, smoothing Greg's hair back from his forehead and pressing a gentle kiss against his boyfriend's cheek. "Did you have another bad dream?" That was the only thing he could think of that would make Greg wake in tears.

Greg started to shake his head, then nodded, raising a hand to wipe at the wetness on his cheeks. "I-I'm sorry," he whispered, sniffling as he spoke. "I didn't mean to wake you up. I was just to relieved to wake up and find out that it wasn't true and you're still here."

"What wasn't true? What happened, baby?" Ryan spoke softly, propping himself up on one elbow and caressing Greg's cheek. "Was it another one of those dreams where one of us dies? Those are the worst.I I've had those more than once, y'know."

Greg shook his head, gulping before he spoke again. "No, it wasn't one of those. It was worse. At least in the dreams where you die in my arms, I've been with you and loved you. In this one, we .... never existed. Like everything that's happened between us was a dream."

Ryan swallowed hard, understanding perfectly why such a dream would be a horrible nightmare for Greg. He would feel the same way if he'd dreamed about something like that; waking with the thought of Greg not being here would be more frightening than he wanted to imagine.

"It's not a dream, baby," he whispered, leaning down to brush his lips gently across Greg's mouth. "I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere. We're both real. You can even pinch me to make sure. But I swear I'm real. I'm real, and we're real, and I love you more than anything."

"I have to keep reminding myself of that," Greg murmured, looking up at Ryan with a wan smile. "Just let me lie here and look at you, okay? I want to make sure that you're not part of dream, and that you won't just melt away when I close my eyes."

"If I was inside you, would that make things seem less like a dream?" Ryan asked, unable to hold back a smile. "I'm not laughing at you, babe. I know how scary waking up after a dream like that can feel. I just want you to assure yourself that I am real."

"That would definitely let me know that this is real," Greg told him, managing a smile. "But I don't want to make love right now. Can you just .... hold me?" The last words were spoken very softly, as though he was almost afraid to say them out loud.

"Of course I can," Ryan said softly, moving closer to Greg under the covers and wrapping his arms around his boyfriend. He let Greg snuggle into his arms, turning over onto his back and moving one hand down Greg's side to rest on his bare hip.

Greg sighed contentedly, closing his eyes and rubbing his cheek against Ryan's chest. "I just need to know that you're here, and that you're not going to let me go," he murmured, sounding sleepy. "Just hold me, Ry. And kiss me. Kiss me like you'll never stop."

"That's not hard to do," Ryan told him as Greg tilted his head back to look up at his lover. When their lips met, he was the one who was sure that he was in a dream world -- a dream that he never wanted to wake up from, a dream that had somehow miraculously come true.

Touching Greg was better than any dream could ever be, he told himself, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend as their kiss intensified. Nothing else could ever feel this good; no one had ever kissed him with such passion, such abandon, such need.

It was several long minutes before the two of them broke away from the kiss, each man panting softly, their gazes slightly unfocused. "Did that feel real to you?" Ryan asked, his tone soft, teasing. "It definitely felt that way to me. I'm completely convinced."

"So am I," Greg whispered, snuggling more closely into Ryan's embrace. "I just .... when I have dreams like that, it scares me, Ry. I guess it's because I've spent so much time alone. I've always tried to act like it didn't bother me to be single, but sometimes it did."

"It used to bother me sometimes, too," Ryan admitted, sighing softly as he spoke. "Greg, I wish there was some way that I could wave a magic wand and make all of your good dreams turn to real life, and all the bad ones just go away. I'd give anything to do that."

"But you can't," Greg pointed out, shaking his head. "Nobody can. We've all got to take the bad with the good -- and that includes dreams. But the idea of all my good dreams turning to real life is pretty great. It's too bad something like that can't happen."

"If you could choose which dreams you could turn to real life, which ones would they be?" Ryan asked, his tone light and teasing. "I don't know if I could remember all of my best dreams. All the ones I can bring to mind are ones that involve making love to you. And that's already real life."

Greg smiled up at him, his eyes a little misty. "Now those are the kind of dreams I'd like to have every night," he murmured, pressing a soft kiss against the hollow at the base of Ryan's throat. "And I like having you make love to me every night in real life, too."

"That's a win-win situation for both of us, then," Ryan told him, returning the smile. "I could never get tired of being with you and making love to you. I don't think my life was complete until the day we met. I might have wanted to believe it was, but there was always something missing."

"Who would have thought that you'd find that missing piece in a place like Vegas?" Greg mused, moving his hand down Ryan's side. "This is usually the kind of place people come to lose their money, not to find the love of their life. Nobody expects that here."

"I sure didn't," Ryan admitted. "I thought I would find a job and get my career going in a new direction. I never even gave finding somebody to love a second thought. And I never thought I'd meet that person on my first at work. Or that I'd fall in love so deeply."

"I never get tired of hearing you say that," Greg said, sighing contentedly. "That you love me, I mean. You could say that to me every day, every time we look at each other, and I'd still want to hear it. There's just something special about those words when they come from your lips."

"If you want to hear me say 'I love you' every day, then I will," Ryan told him, brushing his lips across his lover's cheek. "You can hear that as much as you want, baby. I never get tired of saying it, either. So from now on, you'll hear it a lot more."

"That's another dream you've turned to real life for me," Greg said, smiling sleepily as he rested his cheek against Ryan's chest. "I've always wished that I'd have somebody in my life who'd tell me that they loved me every day. I knew that person was you when I first saw you."

"Any more dreams that I can turn to real life for you?" Ryan asked, only half-jokingly. "Seriously, Greg, I'd make every dream you've ever had come true, if I could. The good ones, that is. I'd keep all the nightmares away too, if that was possible. I wish it was."

"I wish you could, but I think I'm stuck with them." Greg sighed, closing his eyes and relaxing into Ryan's embrace. "I guess they're a small price to pay for being with you, though. I can deal with them. If not having them meant us not being together, I'd put up with them every night."

"I hope it's never going to come to that!" Ryan said with a laugh, trying to lighten the somber mood that Greg seemed in danger of slipping into. "I'll just try to keep them away, and make all the good dreams turn to real life, if I can. Will that do?"

"It will." Greg sounded tired when he spoke, though Ryan could hear the smile in his words and the tone of his voice. "All my best dreams have come true just because I'm with you. I don't need anything more than that, Ry. All I need to make me happy is you by my side."

"That's all I need, too," Ryan answered, his voice soft and husky with emotion. "Just to have you here in my arms." He closed his eyes, relaxing into the softness of the pillows; within moments, both men were asleep, sliding away into dreams with happy smiles and full hearts.

***