Title: Erase the Past
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Mike Keppler
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Mike Keppler, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

If only he could erase the past, reduce it to nothingness.

He didn't want to have to deal with all of this. He didn't want to drag Greg into something that could reflect on the man he loved, something that could hinder his career.

But what choice did he have? Mike asked himself. If he didn't tie up the loose ends of his past, then he and Greg could never be together openly and honestly.

He didn't want to hide from that past any more. Even it if meant that he would have to spend some time in jail, there would hopefully be some clemency, and it wouldn't be too long. He only hoped that if such a thing happened, Greg loved him enough to wait for him.

It wasn't fair to Greg to ask him to do that, though, was it? He sighed softly, closing his eyes, feeling an ache around his heart that he didn't want to deal with.

The thought of Greg being with someone else hurt so badly, but Greg had the right to make a choice. Once he knew about all of this, he would have to.

Mike could only hope that Greg chose him, and the future they could share.

Tonight was the night that the past would be erased. He would get rid of it, and if he was lucky, he wouldn't have to confess too much about it to the authorities.

He could only hope that his luck would hold out, and that Greg would still be with him once the smoke cleared. Just one more night, and their future could be assured.

Well, it would be if Mike came through the night unscathed. It could go terribly wrong, he knew. He could end up in jail, or even dead. No, he wasn't going to think that way, he told himself firmly, shaking his head. He wasn't going to die. He had too many reasons to live now.

He was going to avenge his love from his past, and he was going to put a stop to the evil that had killed her. And he was going to start a new life, a fresh life, with Greg.

Tonight would be the night that he could finally bury the past, put it behind him and turn away from it. When the sun rose tomorrow, it would be on a new life.

All he could hope for was that things would go as he had planned, and that there would be no problems. He had to be sure that his old nemesis would in that hotel room -- and he had to hope that he could shoot and kill the bastard before anyone else died.

There had been too many deaths already, all of them caused by the evil that Mike had unknowingly protected. He had never thought that it would resurface again.

But now that it had, it was his job to get rid of it. He was the one who had covered up that evil so many years ago, and he wouldn't have a clean slate until he'd eradicated it.

After tonight, it would be gone. The past would be over and done with.

Maybe he couldn't completely erase his past, but he could at least atone for it. And he could vanquish the insatiable evil that threatened to rise up out of the past before ti hurt anyone else.

If only he could do this without having any of it spill over onto Greg, that would be idea. Mike sighed, turning the idea over in his head, but knowing that it couldn't happen.

Of course this was going to affect Greg. Greg was his fiancé, the man he'd asked to marry him. They would be seen as a couple from here on out -- he just hoped that Greg wanted to stay engaged to him, and follow through to get married in the future.

That future with Greg rested on him being able to erase the past tonight. Maybe not completely erase it, but at least put it firmly into the past, where it belonged.

The past could stay in the past after tonight, Mike told himself. He wouldn't have to revisit it; the links to it would be gone, and he could move into the future with a much lighter heart.

It wouldn't be much longer now before he could put his plan into motion and leave his past behind.

***