Title: The Silence of Isolation
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Gil Grissom
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1drabble
Prompt: 24, Silence
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 Gil Grissom, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Greg's silence bothered him much more than it should.

His boyfriend had been back at work for a while now, and in most ways, it seemed that Greg's ordeal had been put behind him, and that he was recovering well.

But in some ways, Gil knew that wasn't the truth. Greg still looked over his shoulder all the time; he still went pale when they were out anywhere, even some place as innocuous as the grocery store, and a man he didn't know walked close by him.

He still flinched away from touch, unless it was one that he expected. And most of all, he was silent so much of the time, when he never had been before.

It was that silence that worried Gil the most.

Greg had never been a garrulous person; he didn't chatter all the time. But he tended to do things like hum along with music, or start conversations to break a silence.

He didn't do that any more, and that made Gil worry about him. He couldn't help but wonder if Greg might be starting to burrow into himself, if he had somehow decided that being quiet was a way of making himself inconspicuous. It was obviously some kind of coping mechanism.

Any way that he could cope, short of doing things that were self-destructive, had to be seen as good. But this silence, this quietness, was so unlike the Greg he knew.

When Greg was quiet, that usually meant that he was thinking. But this wasn't a silence of thought. It was a silence of isolation, of drawing away from the world.

Gil knew that was the last thing Greg needed right now. Rather than pulling away from the people who were close to him, he needed to engage with them, even to talk with them about what had happened. That might make it easier for him to put the past behind him.

It had been a hard road for his boyfriend to walk down, but at least Greg hadn't had to deal with all of this alone. He'd had Gil right by his side.

Gil sighed softly, wondering if his presence had been enough.

He wished that he could do more, but unless Greg would allow him to take a more active part in dealing with his recovery, then all he could do was stand on the sidelines and offer support.

Most people would say that was more than enough, he told himself. But for him, it wasn't enough. He needed to be sure that Greg was recovering, that he was going to come through this intact in mind and spirit, as well as in the physical sense.

He had to find a way to get Greg to snap out of this silence, before it began to affect their relationship. Gil didn't know how he'd do that, but he would find a way.

He was going to help his boyfriend back to a normal life, one way or another.

***