Title: Relocation
By: anmani
Summary: Our heroes relocate.
Characters: Nick, Greg, Grissom, Warrick, Sara, Catherine, other
Genres: romance, AU
Rating: PG13
Warnings: none
A/N: This year HC Andersen would have had his 200th birthday. This is written to honor his work. He was a very unique person who traveled far and wrote some of the more classic fairytales. His fellow writers of the time thought of him as illiterate and foolish. Today nobody remember their names.

Greg was driving their truck watching the sun creeping up over the horizon. It was a clear morning with just the a few perfect clouds to make the sky assume the wildest colors as the sun neared the horizon. He took his sunglasses out and put them on actually it was Nick’s old ones and they were too big for him, but they were Nick’s. Beautiful Nick who was slumped in the passenger seat sleeping. Beautiful Nick whom he had chosen over his career.

He pulled over and took a few pictures of the sunrise before driving on. Nick didn’t wake when he stopped and he decided that it was best to let him sleep. They had been on the road 32 hours only stopping to eat or take pictures. Their destination was Maine and some northern county with a very low population; he kept forgetting what it’s called.

His thoughts went back to the day his destination had been McCarran airport. Coming from the beach the desert had taken him by surprise, everything had just been so different. He had rented a place before coming there through an old college buddy who had relocated a year earlier to Las Vegas. Little had he known that; that day was the one he would truly come to life.

His new job was with the Las Vegas Crime Lab as a DNA-technician and it was on the nightshift that just suited him fined he hated getting up in the morning and now it would not be necessary.

He still remembered vividly his first meeting with Nick; he had come down the hallway with Warrick and just looked so absolutely stunning. Falling in love at first sight had until then been something he thought was hoax. But he learned his lesson that night.

Nick had been a gentleman and offered to help him find his way round town. To begin with Greg was sure his feelings were unrequited, but Nick showed an interest and after three weeks they had gone on a date. Their second date had ended at Nick’s place and after that Greg could count the few days he had spend in his own place on one hand.

It had been hard to hide their relationship, since they had both been running around total love smitten. Most people at the lab were positive of their relationship but a good part of the uniforms had given them some heat nothing too serious though.

They had just had their one year anniversary when Nick was send out to a crime scene alone. It had been a busy night and Catherine figured she would be able to finish up the case they had worked on alone. The two uniforms at the scene had made a remark about having gotten the faggot. Nick had gone in to start processing the crime scene and then the two cops had left. 10 minutes later Nick was held at gunpoint. Greg shivered at the mere thought.

Catherine drove past Nick’s scene after having finished her own and had wondered way only his truck was there and no cops. She had called for backup and gone in. The bad guy had turned the gun on her and pulled the trigger, but a fraction of a second earlier she had dropped to her knees and fired her own weapon. Her bullet hit him in the shoulder making him drop his gun before he could fire a second shut. His bullet went into the wall above her head.

The two cops had gotten suspended and the homophobic issue had been raised again. The outcome was the usual. The police accept homosexuality and nobody shall be treated different just because they aren’t straight. The CSI’s had closed ranks and Nick only worked with Grissom; Grissom being the only one to demand enough respect from the cops.

But life had become harder after that. Nick had nightmares about being held at gunpoint and he also caught a lot of flag from his family. After three months they decided to leave town.

It had taken another three months of job hunting before they had gotten the right combination in Maine. They were real close to go to Hawaii when the CSI position was given to a son of someone high and mighty in the local council. Greg had even tried convincing Nick of Norway. But there was a lot of red tape because Nick didn’t have double citizenship like Greg. Australia had also been on the list and again it was Nick lacking a job and red tape.

Brass was the one who got the Maine thing going, apparently he had some family there and the mayor lived in a gay relationship with the senior doctor at the local hospital.

Greg would be part time at the hospital and part time at the police station working forensics. Nick would be part cop and part CSI. The place being too small to have a real lab like Las Vegas.

Grissom had called Sara Sidle to join his team and Greg had found a girl he had gone to college with who was also a wiz with DNA. Both had arrived a month before they left. Sara had moved into their guestroom and subsequently bought their house.

A smile spread on his face. After three months of dating and practically living at Nick’s place he had bought two kittens for them. A gray female called Moon and a red male called Jazz. Jazz was extremely social and always present. Moon possessed far more grace and kept to herself. She was one of those cats that you can’t adopt, she would adopt you. It had surprised them all when she adopted Sara; who claimed to not be a cat person.

They had decided in unison that the cats were to stay with Sara.

He was watching Greg driving wearing those way too big sunglasses and Nick promised himself to get him a proper pair for his birthday. He could see the emotions running over Greg’s face; a bit of sorrow and a bit of hate. Hate was an emotion so rare in Greg that when it presented itself Nick became nauseous and utterly terrified no matter whom the hate was directed at. Fortunately he mostly saw happy on Greg’s face.

He had never thought of Greg as beautiful on the outside, what had attracted him was that obvious positive energy radiating of him all the time. It was the second time in his life that he had fallen head over heals in love. The first had been unrequited and he had only been 17 so it was a feeling long forgotten.

No matter what he did Greg supported him, no matter how ugly a crime scene was a smile from Greg made it all seem less important. The gunpoint situation had really tested their relationship and he knew now that nothing coming from the outside could undo it.

Greg who bounced on his step who always had some part of his body following a rhythm only known to him was his solid rock. Whenever his feelings were in a turmoil Greg was the rock he could cling to. In that way they were opposite, Greg was a mess on the outside but perfectly calm inside whereas he was always picture perfect but his mind was a mess.

He would gladly have followed Greg to any country they had talked about and he would have worked cleaning toilets. But Greg had insisted that they should both be able to do what they loved. Nick had complied as he usually did; it was nice to have Greg to take charge. Whenever they danced Greg led him; but when it came to personal care Greg could spend hours getting clothes and hair and even makeup perfect. He had never really known any man, who wore makeup, but Greg did on occasion and he had to admit that he liked it.

Maine had never been a state he had imagined living in, it was going to be cold and wet compared to Texas and Nevada. But the job descriptions were promising and if the locals already had accepted prominent people being gay it would just be so much easier.

Four days after they started their journey they arrived at the small police station in north east Maine. Brass had arranged for a house they could rent to begin with and the clerk at the police station handed them the key and told them to go clean up and come back to meet the gang.

Dear Greg and Nick

The pictures of Jazz and Moon are from yesterday when we had the heat record for this summer. They were both so lethargic that they didn’t bother to eat. But as usual the bad guys double when it gets so hot. We were flat out last night. Catherine has finally kicked Eddie out. I can’t believe she held out for so long. The man he is such a prick. Warrick is watching over her like a hawk but nothing new there. Holly is busting her ass off to get her level II, but she has some weird slip ups. I hope she makes it though. Archie is getting married to a woman who owns a computer shop what else could she be doing.
Doc has been ill for a couple of weeks; he had caught an infection from a db he had worked on.
Guess I can’t keep it from you guys. I’ve been on two real nice dates with Gil! I am so excited. He is a real good kisser. He is just as hopeless as me to show feelings. But I think we’ve reached some mutual understanding.
Moon likes him for some weird reason. Gil came over after a tough case and asked if I needed to talk about it (it was before the first date) and Moon did her usual on the back of the couch stunt. And then all of a sudden she sauntered down his shoulder and laid down in his lap.

I’m glad to hear that you like it up there in the cold north. I’ve planned for two weeks of next summer and thought I might spend them with you. Unless things with Gil gets real serious. But you wouldn’t mind that.

Hmm Jazz is doing his usual dance on the papers so I’ll finish now.

Love you guys.

Hugs and Kisses

Sara

Greg was reading over Nick’s shoulder. He loved the updates from Sara especially the pictures of the cats. They had got 3 kittens from the local vet and kept Sara updated with pictures of them. Two males and a female they were all tabbies, but so incredibly different.

Nick reached up and pulled Greg down for a kiss. They had been here for 18 months and they had fitted in right away knowing that this was the best thing ever.

Dear Greg and Nick

I am so happy for you guys. It’s fantastic. Well off course it was sad that the children had to loose their parents like that. But that you could adopt is just amazing. Gil and I are looking forward to come up next month to see them. I’ve got news too.
The bad one first: Jazz has got kidney problems. So he has to go on a special diet, but he gave us a real scare three days ago and Gil took him the vet.
Now the good one: I am PREGNANT.
It is so exciting. Gil was ecstatic I have never seen him like that.
Archie’s son got run over two weeks ago. He’s gonna be ok, he got of with a broken leg and a broken hand. Archie had been out with the pram when the car swerved and hit the pram up on the side walk. At least the driver stopped and helped call assistance.
Holly got beat up by a guy she had dated for a couple of months. She has taken three months leave. We’ve got two new level I. A Latino guy (damn good looking) and a Wisconsin yahoo (makes Hodges look good). But they come highly recommended.

I’ll finish now I’m supposed to go pick up Jazz from the vet in an hour.

See you soon

Love

Sara

Nick read it out loud to Greg who was feeding the little baby boy. A car accident a month ago had left the two children in the backseat alive and killed both parents. There was no family suited to take care of the children so they adopted the 2 month baby boy and the 2½ year old girl. Children was the one thing they have missed in their relationship, but they knew that gays usually joint have children so they had accepted that they would probably never become parents.

And they lived happily ever after.