Title: Sweet Uncertainty
By: Caroline Crane
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: PG
Summary: A conversation over breakfast.

"So I hear you're seeing some mystery woman."

Nick managed not to choke on his coffee, but Greg still felt almost bad when he saw the look on the other man's face. He'd just assumed Nick had heard the rumors going around at work; he was one of the CSIs, after all, and they usually heard everything before he did. It was obvious Nick didn't have a clue what he was talking about, though, and Greg wasn’t sure whether or not that was a good thing.


"What?"

Greg smiled and dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Don't tell me you haven't heard the rumors. Everybody says you've been acting weird, they all think you've got some new girl you don't want anybody to know about. Brown thinks it's because you're doing somebody on the job; most people like that theory. Can't really blame them, right? Wouldn't be the first time. Catherine thinks you're keeping quiet because you can't take the ribbing from the rest of them. Grissom and Sara don't really give a damn as long as it doesn't interfere with any cases. I think she even means it this time."

"Who?"

"Sara," Greg answered, just a hint of exasperation creeping into his voice. He liked Nick – he liked him a lot more than he'd set out to – but sometimes the clueless routine got a little old. "Last year she would've been jealous, but I think she's pretty much over that. Haven't seen her making cow eyes at you in awhile, anyway. Kinda painful, watching her try to flirt." He winced at the memory, then shrugged and flashed Nick another amused grin. "Still, can't blame a girl for trying, right? I mean let's face it, baby, you're hot."

Nick's eyebrow quirked at the world 'baby', but Greg just grinned and reached for the ketchup. "So are you?"

"Am I what?"

And now he looked hopelessly lost, but Greg wanted to know the answer too much to let him off the hook. At first he'd been kidding, but now…well, it did make a weird sort of sense if he stopped to think about it, and they weren't together every minute. Lately they'd been together more than they were apart, but Greg wasn't sure if that meant anything. "Are you seeing anybody else?"


Endless seconds ticked by before Nick answered, but finally he shook his head slowly. "No."

"Good," Greg said, hoping he sounded cooler than he felt. "Me either." And yeah, there was a masochistic part of him that wanted to ask if Nick wanted to see other people, but he figured he'd already pushed his luck enough for one meal.

For awhile neither of them said anything; Greg could see the wheels turning in Nick's head, but he didn't want to say anything Nick wasn't ready to hear and ruin everything. They had a pretty good thing going already, and he didn't need a bunch of labels to make it better. Maybe it would be nice to know where he stood, but if it meant giving up Nick altogether he'd just as soon never say it out loud.

"So they've really been talking about me?"

"Yeah," Greg answered, looking up just in time to see Nick frown. "Relax, they'll get tired of you before long and move on to somebody else."

"Warrick mentioned something about that," Nick murmured, his voice low enough to force Greg to lean forward to hear him. For a second he just stared down at the table, then he cleared his throat and looked up at Greg again. "But they're not talking about us, right?"

Greg shook his head and looked down at his half-eaten omelet, regretting that he'd brought up the stupid rumor to begin with. "Not that I've heard."


"But if they were talking about you they'd probably make sure you didn't hear about it, right?"

Somehow he managed not to roll his eyes. Maybe Nick just didn’t spend enough time in the lab to know how the gossip mill worked, but Greg was pretty sure if anyone had a clue about them that he'd have heard about it already. "Trust me, if somebody heard we were sleeping together they would've asked me by now. I mean you and me…that's crazy."

"It's not that crazy."

He looked up to find Nick grinning at him over his pancakes. And okay, he hadn't really been expecting that reaction; mostly he'd been expecting Nick to panic, possibly tell him it was over and walk out before they even finished breakfast. He definitely hadn't expected Nick to grin at him like he thought it was funny that nobody had figured out they were involved yet. "Okay, maybe it's not that crazy."

Nick just grinned at him for a beat or two, and in the silence Greg could almost convince himself that they were finally on the same page regarding their relationship. He knew now that they were exclusive, anyway, and that was a lot more than he'd known a few minutes ago. The real question was whether they were exclusive because that's what Nick wanted, or if it was just because Nick didn't have any other prospects at the moment.

"Still," Nick said, and Greg's smile faded almost instantly at the way he drew out the word, "it's probably a good thing that nobody's figured out…you know. I mean if Gris found out…"

Greg stifled a sigh and resigned himself to the fact that they were finally going to have that conversation. He'd known it was coming; he knew Nick well enough to expect the standard 'we have to be careful' warning. He'd expected it a lot earlier than this, really, but the truth was that they didn't really spend a lot of time talking when they were alone. If Nick wanted to talk about it he wasn't going to try to change his mind, though; at least once they got everything out in the open he'd know where he stood. "There's no rule that says we can't date. It's no different than if you went out with Sara."


And he knew that look, he'd seen it a thousand times in the lab when he got a little too into his explanation of whatever evidence he was processing. The arched eyebrow, the tightness around Nick's mouth, and the sigh that he felt more than heard all told him that as far as Nick was concerned, it was totally different than if he was sitting across from Sara instead of Greg right now. He'd spent a lot of time in the past two months telling himself that it didn't matter that Nick was still a little weirded out by what was happening between them, but when Nick looked at him like he was stupid for even suggesting that they didn't have anything to hide…well, it was starting to get a little old.

"It's not the same, man. You know it's not."

Greg shook his head and looked away, watching their waitress pretending not to watch them argue as she wiped down a table nearby. The restaurant had been fairly busy when they got there, but somehow over the course of their breakfast it had managed to empty almost completely. Greg wasn't sure how long they'd been sitting in the booth picking at their food, but suddenly he wasn't hungry anymore. The morning had started so well – a little breakfast, then a quick trip back to his place, and he knew Nick wouldn't turn him down when Greg asked him to stay. They'd spent every night this week together, there was no reason to think Nick would say no. Not until he opened his big mouth and brought up that stupid rumor, anyway.

"Hey."

He looked up reluctantly at the sound of Nick's voice. He knew he should just blow it off, pretend it didn't matter that Nick was still so worried about people seeing them together. If he was smart he'd smile and laugh it off and tell Nick that it was no big deal, that nobody was going to catch on. He'd make Nick understand that they didn't have anything to worry about as long as they kept things the way they were now, and then he wouldn't have to worry about losing what they already had. He got the most important part of what he wanted already, so risking what he had for something Nick couldn't give him was just stupid.

"Nobody would believe you were sleeping with Sara even if it was true," Greg said, hoping his grin looked more convincing than it felt. "She's got some serious issues. If you tried to dump her like you do with all your other women she might even get all Fatal Attraction on you. Now there's a case that would keep us all busy for awhile."

It was grimly satisfying to watch Nick wince, but when he stood up and reached for his wallet Greg knew he'd gone too far. He told himself not to take it back; it was true, for one thing, and anyway it wasn't his fault Nick was still stuck in the closet. Even as he thought it he found himself standing up, though, and before he could stop himself his hand closed around Nick's wrist. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?"


Nick's gaze strayed to the fingers wrapped around his wrist, but Greg ignored the urge to pull his hand away. If Nick was looking for a way out of this Greg wasn't going to make it easy for him, at least not until he got some kind of explanation, no matter how hard it would be to hear. He watched as Nick dropped the money he'd been holding on the table, then carefully reached over and pulled Greg's fingers off his wrist. His heart sank as Nick shook out of his grip, but then Nick's hand caught his and squeezed for a second before letting go. Greg looked up, not bothering to hide his surprise when Nick nodded in the direction of the door.

"Maybe we should take this conversation someplace a little more private."

"Yeah…yeah, okay," Greg stammered, barely remembering to grab his jacket before he followed Nick out of the restaurant. He started toward his car, but before he got more than a few steps away Nick grabbed his arm and tugged him in the opposite direction.

"We'll come back for it."

Nick didn't let go until they reached his truck, and for one wild second Greg actually thought Nick might press him up against black metal and kiss him right there in the open. He knew better, though, so when Nick let go of him and unlocked the door Greg told himself he wasn't disappointed. Besides, he was still too confused about what had happened in the past few minutes to hold onto his disappointment for long.

"You're not going to drive me out into the desert and kill me or anything, are you?" he asked once they were both in the truck, his laugh a little nervous around the edges when Nick glanced at him. It was a lame joke, but judging by the sudden intensity in Nick's eyes he wasn't completely sure it was that out of the question.

"No." Nick gripped the steering wheel but didn't start the truck, staring out the windshield for a few seconds before he sighed and looked over at Greg. "I just didn't really want an audience. That waitress…"

"Yeah, I noticed." Greg relaxed a little when he realized Nick wasn't pissed, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear. "Look, I was just joking around back there. I know you're worried about Grissom finding out about us, but he won't. He probably wouldn't believe it even if somebody told him it was true."

He wanted to say that there wasn't really anything to find out about yet, not until they put some kind of name to what they were doing. He thought about pointing out that technically they weren't even dating, that sex didn't really count as a relationship even if it was regular. But he knew it was more than that, even if neither of them was willing to talk about it. They'd gone out enough times to count as dating, and there was a lot more to the time they spent together than just sex. At least he hoped there was; usually he was pretty good at figuring these things out, but with Nick it seemed like just when he thought he knew where he stood something else happened that made him question things all over again.


"So," he said when he couldn't stand the silence anymore, "are you gonna take me home or are we just sitting in the parking lot all day?"

He smiled when Nick glanced over at him, swallowing a relieved sigh when the other man laughed and reached for the ignition. They hadn't actually gotten anything cleared up, but they hadn't broken up either and that was what mattered. He settled back against the leather seat as Nick turned the truck in the direction of his place, telling himself he'd have plenty of time later to worry about just how close Nick was to calling things off.