Title: Against the Rules
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Ryan Wolfe
Fandom: CSI: Vegas/CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
Table: 5_prompts, Month of November challenge
Prompt: Day 7 - Against the rules
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Ryan Wolfe, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Ryan pulled the Denali into one of the parking spaces in front of the crime lab, turning off the engine and leaning back in the seat. He turned his head to smile at Greg, reaching out to take his boyfriend's hand and squeeze it gently.

"I know you're tired tonight, babe," he murmured, sighing softly as he spoke. "I am, too. I think we should have both gotten more sleep yesterday, but we'll make up for it when we get off work today. I promise I won't keep you up all day again."

Greg blinked owlishly at him, squeezing his hand in answer. "Sorry," he mumbled, yawning and raising his other hand to cover his mouth. "I almost fell asleep. I'm not bored, I'm just exhausted. I don't think I got more than a couple of hours' sleep last night."

Neither of them mentioned that it was Ryan's nightmares that kept them both awake; the bad dreams that were coming to him more and more frequently now, dreams that were comprised more of memory than anything from an imaginary dream world.

Last night had been a particularly bad one; Ryan didn't want to let his mind linger on it, or he knew that even here, when they were perfectly safe, the memory of that nightmare would come rushing back over him, making him feel just as helpless as he had in his dream.

There had been shooting, bullets seeming to fly everywhere -- but none of them had been meant for him. Instead, his nemesis from Miami was shooting at Greg, riddling his boyfriend's body with bullets before he could get to Greg to pull him out of the way.

If he thought about that dream for too long, the fear would overtake him again; he could still remember how he had felt when Greg had shaken him awake, as though his entire world had crumbled around him and he had nothing left to live for.

That was how he would feel if he ever lost Greg. Everything he'd ever wanted or needed was embodied in this man who sat beside him, the man who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. The one person who he'd ever truly loved, the one person who made him feel complete.

He wanted to hold on to Greg every moment of every day, to protect him in every way possible, to be more than sure that no one would get to him. That dream last night had unsettled him, made him feel that his entire world had been turned upside down.

Ryan sighed, leaning his head back against the seat and closing his eyes. Until his nemesis was caught and put behind bars where he belonged, he would worry about Greg every second, even when they were together. It wasn't something that would just go away.

But he couldn't keep a protective eye on Greg all the time when they were at work. They were partners, which meant that they would always work crime scenes together. But there would be times when they might be in different rooms of the same house at one of those scenes.

And he definitely couldn't be overly protective of Greg here at the lab. He hated the stupid rules of the lab that forbade people who worked on the same shift to date; it hadn't been like that in Miami, and he thought they should change the rules here and make them the same for all of the labs.

He doubted that was ever going to happen, though; this lab had been following the same rules for too long for any kind of change to come suddenly or easily. Especially with someone like Conrad Ecklie running the lab, Ryan thought, wincing inwardly.

Ecklie probably wouldn't have anything against the two of them being bisexual men; he might not think it was the greatest thing in the world, but he didn't seem to have that kind of prejudice. But he wasn't the kind of man who would change the rules to suit his employees.

Their relationship might always be against the rules. They might never be able to be open about who they were and what they meant to each other -- at least not as long as they were working here. And that could pose a problem to their future.

He wanted to marry Greg. He wanted to make this man his, to give Greg not only his heart and soul, but his name -- and he wanted to take Greg's name. He wanted the whole world to know how much they meatn to each other, to have everyone know how much he loved this man.

What if the rules never changed, and they could never get married openly? Of course, they could have a civil union in front of a justice of the peace, or they could get married in one of the many wedding chapels here in Vegas. But that wasn't what either of them wanted.

They wanted to get married in front of their friends, for everyone who they cared about to be able to share their happiness with them. As long as their relationship was against the rules of their job, then they would never be able to do that.

He didn't want the two of them to always be against the rules, but if that was how it had to be, then they would find a way to work around those rules. There had to be a way, Ryan told himself. Sooner or later, they would find it -- and they would bend those rules to work for them.

For the moment, he could show his affection to Greg in a myriad of little ways. A touch of his hand on the other man's shoulder in passing; a smile that they shared across a room when no one else was looking. He would always be able to let Greg know how much he was loved.

He squeezed Greg's hand again, then reluctantly let it go, knowing that they needed to get inside and go back to work. Moments like this were few and far between, though, and he intended to savor them as much as he could when they came his way.

The two of them might be against the rules here at work, but when they were at home, nothing felt so right as the two of them being together. Even if they couldn't be completely free to be themselves anywhere else, they always had their home, their own personal space.

Greg rolled his head on the seat to smile tiredly at Ryan, sitting up with a sigh. "I guess we need to get back to work, don't we? I'd like to sit here all night, but it's still a while until we'll be able to go home. And I hope we'll both be able to sleep tonight."

"I hope so too, baby," Ryan said softly, holding back a sigh as he opened the door and got out of the vehicle. He hoped that the nightmares would give them both some respite tonight -- and that the danger they were both in would recede sooner rather than later.

***