Title: Ridiculousness
Author: amazonqueenkate
Pairing: Greg/Nick
Summary: The bet was ridiculous, the situation was ridiculous, his words were ridiculous, and Nick's hands are shaking.
Notes: Companion to "Told You So".

It had been one of Warrick’s more ridiculous bets.

Fifty dollars had ridden on the heart of one punk-rocking CSI since he’d simply been an epithelial-obsessed DNA tech with a penchant for scuba-diving and a questionable wardrobe. Fifty dollars, dependent only on the way the door to the lab within Greg Sanders’ heart swung.

Of all their bets, it was the one they least discussed, the one they least egged one another on about. A touch in the break room or a meaningful glance between shifts, however, left Warrick’s eyebrows arched. And every time he caught Greg watching Sara or Catherine striding down the hall with an intense interest, he smirked and elbowed the taller man in the ribs.

It’d been so long, he’d almost forgotten about it. Almost.

But now, all he could think about was Warrick’s ridiculous bet. With Greg’s eyes not meeting his, his mouth running non-stop and his ramblings barely making sense – for a man who practiced all presentations of lab results, he didn’t practice sharing the inner-most workings of his heart very well – the only thought that filled his mind was the bet. A stupid, fifty-dollar bet.

He was hurt – mostly by himself – that he’d misjudged the situation so. He was angry – again, at himself – for gambling on another person’s emotions. He was disgusted, because he was a white-bread, Texas-raised, right-wing frat-boy, and nothing he’d ever tried or ever would try could change that. He was sad, for some reason he couldn’t articulate. And he was afraid – afraid for the friendship, afraid for the working relationship, afraid of what the others would say if they ever got wind this very moment.

Greg’s eyes were wet when he turned away. Sara’s eyes bore into him as he brushed past her in the hallway. Catherine’s eyes glinted as she watched him stride past the break room, and Grissom’s eyes flickered with his familiar curiosity as he turned the corner and burst into the garage.

Warrick looked up from peeling prints off the steering wheel of a car. “Hey, man.”

He blurted the first words that came to mind, words that slipped off the tip of his tongue as he tried to catch his breath, calm his jitters, and still his shaking hands.

“I owe you fifty dollars, dammit.”

Warrick’s eyes widened, and then fell away, saying nothing. But it didn’t matter.

Because now, instead of the bet, all Nick could think about was one of Greg’s more ridiculous sentences:

“I love you.”