Title: A Spectacle
Author: Dee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1857
Pairing: Gil/Nick
Characters: Gil Grissom and Nick Stokes and the usual suspects
Warnings: AU, and v.v.fluffy
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: In my dreams they are like, totally mine!
Beta: Unbeta-ed. All mistakes will be mine!
A/N: I wrote this following a thread at nick_discussion about Nick /GE wearing specs, and whether he needed them or not.

“Hey, Gris?”

 

“Mmmm?”

 

“Have you got your spare glasses here?”

 

“Yes.  Why?”

 

“My eyes are itching so I've had to take my lenses out and I could have sworn I’d got my glasses in my bag, but I haven’t.”

 

“Mmmm.  They’re on the coffee table.”

 

“I know, I can see them lying there.”

 

“Here, have these.”  And Gil took off his glasses and held them out for Nick.

 

“No, man, they’re your new ones; I’ll have your old ones.”

 

“The prescription isn’t as strong in those, and your sight is worse than mine.”

 

“But they’ll give you a headache, that’s why you changed them anyway.”

 

“Then it’s a perfect excuse for me not to do anymore paperwork, and I do need to check some samples under the microscope and make some comparisons.  I’ll be okay, take them.”

 

Nick took the proffered glasses and slid them on.  “They look okay?”

 

“You’re worried about your looks in a pair of borrowed spectacles?”  Gil laughed and shook his head.  “You, Nicky Stokes, are vain!”

 

“I’m not vain, you know I’m not, but I just wondered if I looked okay.”  Nick was indignant and embarrassed.

 

“Not much, you’re not.  I do believe you’re blushing.”

 

“It’s hot in here.”  Nick chuckled though.  “Gotta go, I’m sorting the contents of that suitcase.  Later.” 

 

Nick turned to leave Gil’s office but stopped after several steps.  “Whoa, they’re weird…bi-focals, I’d forgotten.”

 

“Then take them off while you walk…”

 

“…you sounded just like Liza.”  Nick turned around to face Gil again.

 

“Liza?  Liza who?”

 

“Harry Belafonte’s Liza, and the bucket with a hole.”

 

“I think it would be more accurately called Henry’s bucket.”

 

“Didn’t I just know you’d say that, and…”  Nick waited.

 

“And what?  What?”

 

“And, the answer to your next question is, Odette Holmes.”

 

“Smart Alec…get on with your work, CSI Stokes.”

 

“Gotcha.”

 

“You know me too well.  Love you.”

 

“Wow, the ‘L’ word at work.”  Nick took the specs off and dangled then from his hand as he smiled at Gil.  “I will see you later, Dr Grissom, all of you.”

 

“Hi, Catherine.”  Gil spoke to a place behind Nick and Nick spun around.

 

“Catherine will you stop sneaking up behind me!”

 

“I never did, Nicky, but I’m beginning to wish I had, I get to hear all kinda things.”

 

“I’m going to work.”  Nick was really blushing now and he left behind a laughing Catherine and a smug Gil.

 

“Well, it’s a sad day, that’s all I can say.”

 

“Why is it sad?”

 

“Because I never thought, as long as I lived and breathed, that I would ever see the day when you were getting more than me.”

 

“More…oh, sorry.”

 

“Don’t be.  I’m green eyed; I don’t suppose you’d do a three way?”

 

Gil spluttered.

 

“And there we have it, the first time in living history that Gil Grissom has been struck dumb.  And for the record, I was joking.  Unless, of course, you do do three in a bed?”  Catherine wasn’t hopeful.  She dumped a file in his in-tray and laughed as she left his office.

 

In the evidence room Nick was busy sorting through a large suitcase full of letters and postcards and photographs.  As long as he remembered to look down out of the bottom half of the lenses he was okay with Gil's specs. He was just getting on with his work.

 

“Hey man, did you hear about that case with…what’s going on?”

 

“Sorry?  Warrick?  You okay?”  Nick looked up to see Warrick staring at him.

 

“The glasses, they’re Grissom’s.”

 

“Yeah, I borrowed them.”

 

“It’s odd, real odd, to see you wearing them, like you’ve become a…an amalgam of you and him.  Weird shit, man.”

 

“I borrowed his glasses ‘Rick.  Are you sure you’re okay?”

 

“I’m okay. I’m worried about you.”

 

“’Rick, what on earth are you going on about?  I borrowed Gris’ glasses because I had to take my lenses out and I forgot to bring my own glasses.  Is all!”

 

“What else do you borrow?  No, no, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know!  I’m gonna lie down in a darkened room.  See ya.”  Warrick ambled out of the evidence room, shaking his head.

 

Nick was also shaking his head at his friend’s behaviour.  It was a pair of glasses, for God’s sake.  But, he settled back down to his work.

 

Not five minutes had elapsed before Greg was bouncing into the room.  “Is it true?  Oh. Yes it is!  Warrick said you involved in some sort of role reversal.”

 

“Role reversal?”

 

“Yeah, you gonna start studying bugs and doing evaluations?”

 

“Believe me, G, you wouldn’t want me doing your eval.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“Go figure.”

 

“You’re being mean just because you’re wearing Gris’ glasses.”

 

“You calling Gris mean?”

 

“Noooo, I’m not.  God, Nick what’s got into you?”

 

“I’m wearing the glasses of SuperCSI; when I start wearing my underwear over my pants, be afraid, be very afraid!”  Nick gave what he hoped was some kind of maniacal laugh.  Greg looked genuinely worried and scuttled out of the room to Nick’s chuckles.

 

Maybe the glasses did wield some sort of power.

 

Nick continued to chuckle as he set about his work yet again.

 

Inevitably, just a few minutes later both Hodges and Wendy came in to see for themselves what had left Warrick dazed and Greg miffed.

 

“Oh, I like them, they suit you, Nick.”

 

“Thank you, Wendy.”

 

“You really think so?  I don’t think Nick looks as good in them as Grissom does.  You can’t make someone an intellectual just by changing his eyeglasses.”

 

“Just like you can’t make someone your best friend by kissing ass?”

 

Wendy laughed and David looked smug.  “I am his intellectual equal.”

 

“And I live with him.”

 

“You’d better give up, he’s got you bang to rights.”  At least Wendy knew when Hodges should throw in the towel.   She practically dragged him out of the room while smiling at Nick.

 

Nick huffed out a few breaths and hoped that was the last of the interruptions.  He should be so lucky.

 

About ten minutes later Sara wondered into the room, reading a toxology report she was holding.  “Nick, did you see the tox results for Lawler?  It says here…what…”  She looked at Nick as if she’d seen a ghost.

 

“Why are you wearing his glasses?”  She spoke to him as she might to a murder suspect she knew was guilty.

 

Nick took a deep breath.  “Because I had to take my lenses out and I’d forgotten my own glasses.  Does it matter?”

 

“Does it matter?  Of course it matters, what’s he using, he could be damaging his eyesight?  Do you know, all you ever do is take from him.”

 

“I do?  What do I take from him, Sara?”

 

“You take everything and give nothing back.  You’ve taken over his life, keep him away from his friends, make him do what he doesn’t want to do, he’s unhappy, I know he is and it’s all your doing.”  Sara didn’t shout but she spat her words out with venom, across the table from him, but leaning towards him.

 

Nick had a strange feeling; he’d been waiting for this moment for years, ever since Gil and him had got together and then gone public.  He actually felt relieved, as if, once and for all, it was out in the open.

 

“Wow, Sara.  You’ve been waiting a long time to get that off your chest.  I’m sorry for you, but whatever you think of me and Gil together it won’t change anything for you and Gil…he’s gay.  You never stood a chance in the first place.  For what it’s worth you’re right about one thing, he is unhappy; not with me, but with all this.”  Nick gestured around the room with his arm.

 

“He’s reaching saturation point dealing with all the shit this work throws up.  He looking for something else, and so am I.  We go together you see, he would follow me just as I will follow him. 

 

“But then you got one thing completely wrong.  I make him do what he doesn’t want to?  You’ve seriously underestimated just how stubborn the guy is, hell, he’s made it a life mission to be obstinate.  A mule is a pussy cat beside him.”  Nick smiled as he thought of the battles of will he’d had with Gil, and the battles that undoubtedly lay ahead, but it was all part of their life together. 

 

“You need to let it go, Sara.  Let him go.  The only person hurting, is you.”

 

Sara looked as if she’d been battered, but Nick thought he saw a fleeting look of comprehension cross her face.  She knew she’d lost and that it was.  The.  End.

 

He hoped so.  He felt as if a weight had been lifted from his own shoulders.

 

“He always thinks of you as his friend, you know, and so do I, even though you’ve tried my patience over the years.  I just got lucky he turned out to be gay.  A quirk of fate.”

 

Sara nodded and although she still looked defeated Nick thought she might have turned a corner, an emotional corner.  As Nick watched her she seemed to be weighing up all the evidence.  He hoped she reached the right conclusion.

 

Just then Nick’s cell buzzed and he felt it vibrate in his pocket.  He took it out to read a text message.

 

It was from Gil: ‘cath wants a 3some joking i hope lygxx’. Nick smiled; that would be over his dead body, or Gil’s.  When he looked up Sara was gone.  Nick would have plenty to discuss with Gil when they got home.

 

He started to sift through his work again, he’d lost at least fifteen minutes.  He was getting used to Gil’s glasses though, and hopefully the furore had died down.  But then there was still Catherine.

 

“Nicky, how’s it going?”

 

Not what he expected.  “A lot of interruptions to be honest, Cath, so slower than I hoped, but I’ll catch up.”

 

“Good.  You never know, there just might be some connection to someone in those letters that’ll help us.”

 

“I hope so, but most appear to be from pen-pals from overseas.”

 

“Could have visited.”

 

“True.”

 

“Gil says it’s okay for him and you to have a threesome…with me.”

 

“That’s great.”

 

“Oh, come on, Nicky, it wouldn’t…what?  You don’t mind?”  Nick didn’t think he’d ever heard Catherine shriek before. 

 

He laughed out loud.

 

“He told you.  Spoiled my fun.”

 

“It didn’t spoil my fun though.  As if, Catherine.”  He dropped his voice.  “I’ve spent years fending off attacks from other interested parties.  You stand no chance.  Okay?”

 

“It wasn’t even worth a try?”

 

“Nope.  Not sharing.  Not ever.”

 

“I know.  Don’t mind me, I’m just jealous, I need a...a distraction of my own.  It’s finding them and keeping them, that’s the problem.”

 

“Yeah.  I got me a keeper.”

 

“And so has Gil.”  She smiled at Nick and walked out of the evidence room.

 

“Hey, Catherine.”  She turned back to look at Nick.  “What about the glasses?”

 

“What about them?  I guess you forgot yours?

 

“Yeah, yeah, I did.”

 

The End