Title: A Hand On the Door
By: Caroline Crane
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: PG
Summary: Missing scene for "Suckers". Down time in the crime lab.

Greg waited until he saw Grissom and Sara leave before he left his lab and headed for the break room. He wasn't taking any chances, not after the last time he'd been accused of slacking. He wanted to see Nick, but he wanted to get out in the field too, and that wasn't going to happen if Grissom didn't think he was taking his job seriously. And he did, but everybody needed a break once in awhile.

Especially Nick, at least if the rumors Greg heard about the hours of videotape he had to sift through were true. He grinned to himself as he poured two cups of coffee, then headed back down the hall in the direction of the A/V lab. No one stopped him on the way to ask questions about what he was doing wandering the halls with two cups of coffee, but when he reached the lab and pushed the door open he let out a sigh of relief anyway.


Nick glanced up at the sound, smiling at the sight of Greg walking toward him. "Who let you out of your cage?"

"If that's the thanks I get I can probably find somebody else who wants this," Greg answered, holding up both cups of coffee as he backed toward the door.

"Hang on, get back here," Nick said, reaching up to take the cup Greg held out for him. "Thanks, G. You read my mind."

"It's a gift." Greg grinned at Nick's soft laugh and sank into an empty chair, glancing at the hotel surveillance tapes Nick was fast forwarding through. "I heard you're stuck in here all night."

"It's not as bad as it looks," Nick answered, taking a sip of hot coffee before he set the cup down and glanced at Greg. "It's not that I don't appreciate it, but if Gris catches you in here…"

Greg waved off the question with one hand, setting his own cup down next to Nick's before he answered. "He's gone already. He and Sara took off a few minutes ago. Besides, I get a break. Not even Grissom can mess with the union."

Nick grinned and turned back to the screen, watching the image scroll past in double time for a few seconds before he looked at Greg again. "I heard you were working on that vampire case."

He'd known Nick for a long time, long enough to know that anything even the slightest bit out of the ordinary still freaked him out a little. He'd lived in Vegas long enough to be used to this stuff by now – he worked in law enforcement, so he should be just as jaded as everybody around him. But that was the thing Greg liked best about him – not just that he still managed to see the good in people after everything he saw on the job, but that he still let things like kids playing at being vampires surprise him.

"Ran some DNA. Nothing interesting. Cath and Warrick are doing all the fun stuff."


"You'll get out there," Nick assured him, the same way he always did when Greg complained about all the time he still spent in the lab.

"Says the guy who's stuck in here going through surveillance tapes."

"Touché." Nick smiled over the top of his coffee cup, and Greg's stomach flipped when he caught the look in the other man's eyes. "It's not my fault Archie's on vacation. Anyway, it's all part of solving the case."

Greg managed not to roll his eyes at the speech he'd heard a dozen times. And okay, sometimes Nick's perpetual optimism could be a little annoying, but mostly it just made Greg want to kiss him. That was out of the question while they were on the clock, though, so he settled for letting his fingers brush across Nick's sleeve when he reached for his coffee. "Well if anybody's gonna be stuck in here with me…"

"What, you mean you wouldn't rather have Sara around to flirt with?"

"It's not too late for me to take that coffee back, you know."

That earned him another grin, and he didn't bother trying to check his laughter when Nick took another sip of his coffee. "So what's the deal with the vampires?"

"Just a bunch of teenage wanna-bes. It's the next step up from Goth in the Teenage Rebellion handbook. Why, you got a thing for vampires you're not telling me about?"


Nick scowled at the monitor and set his coffee down again. "No. It just sounds like an interesting case."

"Interesting like you'd rather be tracking down some freak who thinks he's a vampire, or interesting like you kind of get off on the idea of sucking on somebody's neck? Because I'm open to new experiences."

And it wasn't like Nick hadn't sucked on his neck before, but he blushed anyway, and Greg had to stop himself from leaning in and demonstrating exactly what kind of experiences he was open to. He knew he should get up, get back to work and stop thinking about Nick at all until they were safely away from the lab, but it was hard to stop thinking about him when they spent so much time under the same roof. Granted, they didn't work together all that much these days, but whenever Greg got frustrated about that he reminded himself that it was only temporary.

"You're open to vampirism."

Only Nick would actually use the word 'vampirism' in conversation – well, maybe Grissom would too, but that wasn't a comparison Greg wanted to dwell on. He could tell Nick was mostly kidding, but there was a little uncertainty in his voice, and Greg kind of liked that he could still keep Nick guessing after all this time.

"I don't judge," he answered, keeping his expression as serious as possible. "I mean it's not something I'm into, but if you want to explore your kinks…"

"I don't have a vampire kink," Nick interrupted, blushing even harder now and Greg couldn't help laughing.

"You sure? Because it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Nick rolled his eyes at that and turned to face Greg, forgetting about the surveillance tapes he was supposed to be watching. "Positive. But if you don't shut up I'm going to develop a sleeping alone kink."


"Hey, you brought it up," Greg answered. He grinned at Nick's frown and leaned forward, glancing over Nick's shoulder to make sure there was no one in the hall before he pressed a quick, placating kiss to the corner of Nick's mouth. "But if you're not ready to deal with your dark side I can wait."

"I don't have a dark side."

That much Greg couldn't argue with – it was one of the most confusing things about Nick, but Greg kept coming back for more, so maybe he had a few unexplored kinks of his own. Like a hero complex kink, or possibly a vanilla kink. Or maybe he had a full-blown Nick fetish, because Nick was different than anyone he'd ever dated and Greg couldn't get enough. They hadn't gotten sick of each other yet, anyway, and Greg was almost sure that wasn't going to happen.

He didn't want to screw up a good thing, though, and he knew if he kept hanging around Nick while they were working he'd do something he'd regret. "I better get back to work. We can talk about your dark side later."

He stood up and took a few steps toward the door, but before he got more than a foot away a hand reached out pull him backwards. Nick's fingers were warm against his wrist, thumb moving in small circles on Greg's skin. His knee pressed against Nick's thigh, knocking him off balance just enough that he had to reach for the back of Nick's chair to keep himself from falling.

"It's not a kink," Nick said, voice low and if anybody walked by right now there was no way they could miss what was going on. "But if you want to talk about that neck thing some more later I won't be complaining."

Nick was smiling up at him, his mouth just a few inches away and it was way too tempting. He couldn't really blame Greg for leaning in, not when he was still holding on to Greg's wrist, his other hand resting on Greg's hip. And making out in the lab was definitely off the list of acceptable workplace behavior, but Grissom wasn't around and it wouldn't hurt to give in just this once.

Nick's lips parted automatically under his, his hand leaving Greg's hip to slide under his lab coat and up his back. And it was warm in the room, but Greg shivered anyway, wishing suddenly that they weren't in the A/V lab where anyone walking by could see them. He could think of a few places in the building where they might find some privacy, but he knew Nick wouldn't go for it. Even this was a huge risk for Nick, but that was part of his charm. He'd call it conscientious – Greg didn't bother pointing out that the word most people would use was 'uptight' – and it was just a part of what made him Nick.


Greg pulled away with one last soft press of lips on lips, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to straighten up. "You sure you don't want to find someplace to have that conversation right now?"

Nick laughed low in his throat and let go of Greg's wrist, turning back to the monitor as though nothing had happened. "Thanks for the coffee."

"Any time," Greg called over his shoulder, not trusting himself to look back. If he found Nick watching him he might just turn around and kiss him again, and if he did that there was no way he'd be able to go back to work. It was going to be a long shift, vampires or no, but at least he had something to look forward to at the end of it.