Title: Moving On
By: Rapidfan
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Rating: PG-13
Warning: character death
Summary: "Grave Danger" didn't really end the way they show on TV. Here's what really happened. Everything since has been a fantasy.
A/N: For the CSI Anti-Block Challenge #23. "Moving"

Everyone said he needed to move on. Move past the pain, put his life back on track. So many clichés, it made his head hurt. How was he supposed to forget? How could he let the pain go? The pain was the only thing left that was real. He wanted to keep it, it was little enough.

Nick had still been warm when they dug him up. Still warm.

Greg didn't remember losing it. He'd heard snippets of conversation about it. They talked about it when they thought he wasn't listening. He didn't remember the screams. He didn't remember Grissom pulling him off Nick…pulling him out of the tomb that had held his love for too long.

He had still been warm.

They couldn't have been more than thirty minutes too late. Just thirty. The bullet had ruined his beautiful profile. Greg hadn't known, not really known, how a 9mm slug could alter the features of a face it traveled through. He'd never forget now.

Grissom had held him for a long time that night. He'd been afraid to let him go, he'd said. It didn't matter. Greg was still in that hole. He would always be there now. It didn't matter where they moved him, how they held him.

He had still been warm.

"I was afraid we'd end up burying two." Catherine was relieved that he seemed to be doing better. He'd eat what they put in front of him. He closed his eyes when they asked him to try to sleep. If it gave them peace, it was little enough to do. They all hurt too. They had all been shocked, horrified by what was found below that hard ground.

He had still been warm.

Greg could taste the coppery tang of his blood. Washed away so long ago, but still on his tongue. That was okay. He could move past this, in his own way. Soon, he wouldn't think about it anymore. Soon, it wouldn't hurt to breathe.

He would make sure that they didn't have to find him still warm. He would do that for them. It was little enough.