Title: No Strings Attached
Author: Dee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 399
Pairing: NONE! meintions Gil/Sara & Gil/Nick
Characters: Gil Grissom and Nick Stokes
Warnings: Angst
Spoilers: For the epi with the green blood and the Jello men - Loco Motives!
Disclaimer: In my dreams they are like, totally mine!
Beta: Unlike podga I’m telling the truth…she made me write an angsty piece...FIRST! She demanded… ‘Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to write a serious (I mean serious as in non-OOC/AU=fluff,) one-shot that must seamlessly lead either off of or into a specific episode.’ The icon is high_striker’s.

“Thanks for dropping me off.”

“I have to drive by your place.”

“Yeah.”

“I sometimes want to rail against the need we all have for technology; how did we travel without vehicles? How did we ever manage without cell phones?

“Horses? Did we e-mail or use the land lines?”

“Go back further.”

“Way before my time.”

“And mine.”

“Sure.”

“Evelyn lived without it all.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t give you another vehicle to use while your truck is serviced.”

“All out…someone wrecked their last one.”

“I’ll pick you up on the way to work then.”

“Nah, it’s okay, got it covered.”

“You sure? It’s not out of my way.”

“It’s okay.”

“How’ve you been?”

“Me? Okay.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Water under the bridge, Gil.”

“Yeah. Sara wants me to join her.”

“Yeah, well…I’m surprised you haven’t gone already.”

“Really?”

“You said she was, ’the love of your life’.”

“Yes, I did.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Understand what?”

“If you both felt the same way, how come she left and you let her…how come you haven’t gone after her?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Yeah, like that’s a surprise.”

“There’s so much you don’t know.”

“There must be; but you like ‘complicated’ don’t you? You like to untangle the puzzle, but what do you do when you’ve solved it? Move on.”

“Nick, it wasn’t like that.”

“No? No. Sorry.”

“Are you okay? Really.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“It sounds like it.”

“Don’t think I have to hang on your every word, Gil, I’ve moved on.”

“I didn’t mean it like that…”

“…yes, you did. You solved my puzzle and then moved on. You’ll end up going to Sara because she’s still a puzzle, but what’ll you do when you solve it…her, move on again? Say thanks, no hard feelings, go about your business. I am over you, Gil; maybe, just maybe, Sara is too. Maybe she’s realised that you don’t ‘invest’ in relationships, maybe she’s really not expecting you to ‘join’ her. Maybe you’re as wrapped in aluminium as Evelyn was…deflecting people…relationships. Looking for something, someone who doesn’t exist, the unsolvable woman; the unsolvable man.

“You sucked me dry for a while back there…but I got wise and I moved on. It’s you who can’t move on. It’s you who’s gonna keep searching for something that’s always gonna be out of your reach…”

“…you’re home.”

“Yeah, I am.”

The End