Title: At the Killing Edge
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Nick Stokes
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: R
Author's Note: Mentions of rape/torture.
Series: 1) The Word Is Out, 2) In the Light of Day, 3) Property, 4) Flames of Hell, 5) Bottles and Broomsticks
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 Nick Stokes, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Nick looked down at the report in front of him, not wanting to read the words. They only confirmed what he already knew, anyway -- that Shane had indeed raped Greg. The semen inside Greg had been a match to a sample they'd gotten from Shane's laundry.

Still, Nick knew that a defense attorney would argue that it didn't prove rape, since Greg and Shane were admittedly involved in a consensual sexual relationship. Any attorney would try to insist that Greg had cried rape when the sex had gotten a little rough.

A little rough, Nick thought with an inner snort. Greg's body was bruised and battered; he could testify that Shane had beaten and raped him before, that it had been going on for months and that he had been too terrified to tell anyone what was happening to him.

And yet, he would still be seen as some kind of slut, simply because he was trapped in a horribly abusive relationship with his attacker. The thought made Nick's blood boil; his fists clenched on the paper in his hands, his entire body starting to shake with rage.

He didn't want to be here, working at the lab. He wanted to be at the hospital with Greg, holding him, being there when he woke up so that he wouldn't be scared and alone. He'd already been there through all the preliminaries; he should be there now, too.

But when he'd left the hospital, Greg had been sedated; the doctors had assured him that the young man wouldn't wake for hours, and that it was best to let him sleep. Nick had reluctantly agreed, though his heart had told him that he needed to be by Greg's side.

Now, he only had to wait for the rest of the team to present their findings, and for the next half-hour to go by. Then he could leave the lab and get to the hospital as quickly as he could, to sit by Greg's bedside until someone made him leave.

That was exactly what he intended to do, Nick told himself firmly. He was going to plant his ass in that chair and not move a muscle unless he was forced to leave Greg's room -- the last time he'd left to go to work, things had accelerated from bad to worse in a heartbeat.

His head jerked up as first Gil, then Catherine, and finally Sara and Warrick filed into the room. They all sat down, none of them looking directly at Nick, but all throwing him covert glances. It was as if they already knew how he felt, and were trying to hide it.

"All right, so what do we know?" Gil asked, looking around at them. Nick pushed the paper he'd been holding towards the center of the table, waiting for anyone who wanted ot pick it up and read the results to do so. He couldn't speak; if he did, he was afraid of what he'd say.

Or of what he'd do. He could feel tears gathering at the back of his throat, and the last thing he wanted was to have them come out now. He didn't want to break down, not in front of the people he worked with. They were his best friends, but he couldn't reveal his feelings to them.

If he did, then Gil and Catherine would insist that he switch shifts -- and then he wouldn't be working with Greg any longer. He couldn't deal with that; he lived for his hours in the lab when he could be around Greg, when he could hear the young man's laugh and see his smile.

"It looks like the semen inside Greg was a match for Shane's," Warrick said, his voice expressionless. It was easy for him to sound like that, Nick thought almost resentfully. He wasn't in love with Greg. He didn't have to care about what had been done to him.

Almost immediately, Nick felt ashamed of his thoughts. Of course Warrick cared about Greg. They all did. None of them wanted to see the young man hurt; they were all angry about what had been done to him. And they all wanted to see Shane behind bars.

But none of them wanted to punish him in the way that Nick did. None of the others wanted to rend Shane limb to limb with their bare hands, to let themselves go to the killing edge -- and beyond. None of them wanted to murder him for what he'd done to Greg.

It wasn't just the rape, Nick told himself. It was everything that had been done to Greg over the past few months. Greg had changed so much; he'd become quiet, flinching away from friendly hugs, never smiling in the way that he used to. Shane had taken all of that away from him.

Shane had not only stolen Greg's innocence in some ways; it was as though that bastard had taken away a part of Greg's very soul. And Nick was determined to get it back. He wasn't going to let Greg live the rest of his life in fear of the man who had so brutally abused him.

Sara cleared her throat, making Nick look up at her. She avoided his eyes as she spoke, he voice carefully bland and quiet. "Greg's blood and DNA were on the broomstick, and the wine bottle," she said slowly, as though it was hard for her to get the words out. "They were inside him, too."

"So." Gil cleared his throat as well, his tone businesslike. "We know that Greg was sodomized with a broomstick and a wine bottle, and that he was raped. The welts and bruises on his body speak for themselves. And we know who did it. I think we've got all the evidence we need."

The team nodded as one; they were all looking at Gil now, taking their cues from him. Nick couldn't help but feel relieved that no one was looking in his direction; he was already worried that he'd made his feelings for Greg too public, too much the center of attention.

Maybe they knew him well enough to already have guessed at his feelings, but Nick didn't think so. He'd always thought that he had kept them well under wraps; he had tried his best to make it seem as though he only thought of Greg as a good friend, not as anything more.

But these people knew them both so well; maybe they had seen something in the way that Greg looked at him, something that he himself had never noticed. Maybe they knew just how he felt about Greg without even having to think about it. Sometimes, friends just knew.

Gil's eyes were on him; Nick squirmed uncomfortably in his chair, not knowing what to say. "I just want to find this bastard and beat the snot out of him," he whispered, shocking himself with his own words. "I want him behind bars. I want him punished to the full extent of the law."

"I want to kill him," Gil said quietly, the tone of his voice making them all look towards him with surprised expressions. Nick was sure that he heard Catherine gasp before she covered her mouth; none of them would have expected such words from Gil Grissom.

There was a murmur of assent around the table; Nick could hardly believe that his co-workers were sitting here expressing that kind of attitude. He would never have thought that any of them could feel this way about Greg, but apparently the young man meant a lot to everyone.

Greg could never mean as much to anyone else, Nick thought to himself. He had never thought that he was a possessive man -- but then, he'd never loved anyone the way he loved Greg Sanders. Greg was everything to him, his entire heart and soul, his very life.

What was he doing sitting here at the lab, when he should be with Greg? Abruptly, Nick pushed his chair back, getting up and looking around at the rest of the team. "I'm going to see Greg," he told them, his voice soft. "He needs me. And I need to be with him."

No one said a word; there were nods from everyone, as though they understood how he felt, but no one, not even Gil, said anything to make him turn around. Nick left the room, wishing that he didn't have to take the time to punch out before he could leave the building.

Once that was done, he practically ran down the hallway to the front door, then across the parking lot to his car. All he could think of now was being at the hospital with Greg, of sitting there and watching him sleep, holding his hand, talking to him, just hearing the sound of his voice.

He was lucky to have Greg in his life. Lucky to be close to him, to be able to love him, even if he wasn't sure that his love was returned. And he wasn't going to spend one more minute than he had to away from his love -- no matter what anyone else might think.

Should he stop and get something along the way? No, he told himself, turning the corner and pressing the gas pedal. He didn't want to take any more time than he had to. He'd already been away from Greg for an entire night. What if Greg had needed him, or had wondered where he was?

That didn't matter. In just a few minutes, he would be at the hospital -- and this time, he wasn't going to leave Greg's side again. Not without making sure that he was guarded, and that no one could get to him. Especially no one with any sort of intent to hurt him.

Maybe he was overreacting. Nick took a deep breath, trying to calm the rage that rose within him every time he thought of what had been done to Greg. His Greg. The most precious thing in his life. The man he loved beyond all thought, beyond all reason.

No. This wasn't an overreaction. His rage was perfectly justified; how was he supposed to feel upon finding out that the love of his life had been brutally raped, then sodomized with objects that had never been meant to be inside a human body? Anyone would be at the killing edge.

He wouldn't let this go. Even when they found Shane and brought him to justice for what he'd done, Nick still intended to even the score with him in a more personal way. That bastard had to pay, and pay dearly, for every second of pain that he'd made Greg suffer.

Nick tried to push his anger down as he pulled into a parking place at the hospital, closing his eyes for a moment before he opened the car door and got out. He would be with Greg in just a few moments; holding his love, being near him, was all that he would need to bring peace back to his soul.

***

Next story in series - Into Your Arms.