Title: Coffee Talk
Author: April May
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: FRT
Archive: Greg Slash Archive, others please ask.
Disclaimer: The characters belong to Anthony Zuiker and CBS, and no profit is being made by this story.
Summary: Nick and Greg have an eye-opening conversation.
Set during the middle of the second season.
Feedback: jmpedlow@aol.com

As Nick made his way to the supermarket deli check-out line, he saw a familiar looking shaggy-haired young man waiting there.

"Hey, Greggo!" he called out.

Hearing his name, Greg jumped a little, then turned his head and smiled when he saw Nick.

"What are you doing here?" Nick asked. "I didn't know you shopped here."

"Getting some coffee. And a bag for the pot," Greg said, lifting it up to show Nick. "What about you?"

"Just getting a bite to eat before my shift," Nick said, indicating the roast beef sub he held in his hand. "You're getting supermarket coffee?" he asked teasingly. "What about that forty dollar Hawaiian stuff you usually drink?"

Greg shrugged. "I'm a little short of cash before payday. This is pretty good, though." The woman who had been ahead of him had just finished paying the cashier and left, so he moved up, placing the bag of coffee on the counter.

Just as Greg was about to ask the cashier for a twelve ounce coffee, Nick put his sub on the counter, telling her, "I'll take care of all this."

"You don't have to," Greg protested, "I wasn't hinting or anything..."

"Yeah, I know."

"And you don't have to rub it in that you make a lot more money than me."

"I'm not," Nick said, starting to feel frustrated at the way this conversation was going. "Just let me do something nice for you for a change, will you?"

Greg turned his glance from Nick to the bored-looking multiply pierced teenaged cashier who didn't seem to care who was going to pay as long as someone did, then back to Nick. Then, with a bit of an embarrassed smile, he relented, stepping back while Nick ordered two sixteen ounce coffees and paid for their purchases.

As they walked away from the counter, Nick said, "You know, I'm actually kind of glad I ran into you here because there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Okay. What did I do now?" Greg asked, looking a little defensive.

"I didn't say you did anything! Don't get so paranoid, man. C'mon, let's sit down," Nick said, indicating the area of small round tables in front of them. At that time in the evening, the cafe section wasn't very busy, so they had their pick of tables and ended up choosing one near the front window, away from most of the shoppers. When they were settled into seats cross from each other, sipping their coffee, Nick continued, "What I wanted to talk to you about is...a few days ago my youngest sister Melody was in town..."

"Isn't she the cheerleader?" Greg asked with some interest.

"Greg, I grew up in Texas, remember? They were all cheerleaders. Anyway, that's not the point. What I was trying to get at was that when she was here, she wanted to go out to one of the hot night spots that wasn't a casino, and I remembered that club you told me about and took her there. And...when we were sitting at the bar and looking out at the dance floor, I saw you out there dancing with someone."

"So if you saw me there, why didn't you come over and say 'Hi'?"

Looking uncomfortable, Nick said, "Umm, well...the thing is...this person you were dancing with was a guy..." And it wasn't exactly dancing either, he thought with some discomfort, remembering how they had been touching each other. And where they had been touching each other.

"Well, I am bisexual, Nick," Greg said in a matter-of-fact tone, not seeming to notice Nick nearly choking on his coffee.

"Since when?"

"I don't know. Always, I guess. I don't talk about it that much, but it's not like I'm not keeping it a big secret either."

"So that guy you were with was...your boyfriend?"

"Ex-boyfriend, actually. We split up a couple of days ago. He had trouble dealing with my weird hours."

"I know what that's like," Nick said then added, "Sorry."

"Thanks."

There was a brief silence for a moment as Greg drank his coffee and looked out the window and Nick began eating his sub. Then Nick said, "And you can be that open about...you know...this whole bisexual thing? Aren't you worried about what people will think?"

"Why do you think I look like this? And act like this? The way I see it, if people already think I'm a weirdo, I can get away with almost anything."

"I don't think..." Nick started to protest, but then admitted with a laugh, "Well, okay. Sometimes."

Sitting back and looking at Nick as if he was pretending to look him over for the first time, Greg continued, "Now with the way you look, on the other hand, people would assume you're either completely straight or gay and in total denial about it"

"Actually...it's neither."

This time, it was Greg's turn to almost choke on his coffee.

"I mean...I used to think I was completely straight, but lately I've been noticing this person - this male person - in a way that I'm not used to thinking about a guy, and I've been wondering if maybe I'm more..."

"Bisexual."

"Yeah."

"And this male person you've been noticing...would it be somebody I know?"

"Let's just say he's a self-described weirdo with a taste for expensive coffee."

Greg put his coffee down and stared at Nick, his dark eyes widening, as if he was trying to take in what he had just heard.

Before either of them could say anything else, Nick's pager went off. Silently cursing out its really bad timing, Nick took the phone out of his pocket. "Hey, Warrick, what is it?" he said when he got through. "Uh-huh....yeah...yeah...okay, I'll be there." Hanging up, he folded the phone up and put it back in his pocket.

"I've got to go," he said. "They just found the suspect's car on that shooting Warrick and I are working on, and now we've got to go through it for evidence."

"That's good, isn't it?"

Looking flustered, Nick said, "Well...yeah...except...never mind. I'll see you later." He got up from the table and started to leave, then returned, pushing the remainder of his sub over to Greg. "You can have that," he said and left.

Greg started out the window until he saw Nick walking across the parking lot. Then, taking out his own cell phone, he punched in some numbers. After waiting through an answering machine message and a series of beeps, he said. "Hey...Jeff? It's your favorite cousin Greg... Remember when we were at the Continental a few days ago and I asked you to dance with me to see if I could make this guy I was after jealous? Well, I just wanted to let you know it worked. Even better than I expected. So that PlayStation game I promised you is going into the mail tomorrow. And the next time you're in town, all the drinks are on me. I really owe you for this one, man. Big time."

After he hung up and put his phone away, he reached for the sub and began devouring it eagerly. Suddenly, he found himself actually looking forward to going back to work.