Title: Time After Time
Author: pheonix-fire13
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Spoilers: Play With Fire, Stalker, and Grave Danger

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"Hey Nick!" Greg said walking into the room. The Texan looked down and wiped his eyes quickly.

"Hey G." He responded lightly. The blonde looked into the window of the interrogation room and saw Nigel Crane staring back. They sat down silently for a while before Greg had an idea and jumped up happily smiling brightly.

"Come on. We're having a guy night out! Just us!" He said, making Nick frown.

"I'm not allowed to drink yet."

"Never said we're going drinking." He told him beginning to gently pull him towards the exit. "We're having a sleepover!" He squealed before laughing. Nick even had to crack a small smile. The Texan thought about protesting but decided that he didn't want to be alone anyway so allowed Greg to drive him to his place. The apartment was small and on top of a small convenience store where 2 old Japanese men worked. The room's themselves were gently blues and greens not bright orange and yellow like he imagined, but what shocked Nick the most was Greg's pet…a sloth.

"Claudio, Nick. Nick, Claudio." The blonde said handing him the small slow creature happily. It clung to him making small contented noises in the back of his throat. He smiled up at Greg gently petting the greasy fur on the animal. Smiling back, he took him on a short tour of the four-roomed apartment before taking him to the living room/kitchen to watch movies and eat pizza. Soon Greg noticed that Claudio and Nick were both dropping off into the blissful thing called sleep so he stood up.

"Come on time for bed." He led him to the guest room. "You can sleep with Claudio if you want, he just sort of lays there, but he snores don't let him fool you. I'll be in the room right next to ya if you need me!" he said before leaving keeping both doors open for a reason. The reason soon became clear as a small whimper caught his attention and he quickly got out of bed despite having just fallen asleep and went to the other room. Claudio was on top of Nick's head holding onto his shoulders as he heaved for breath just awakening from a nightmare.

"Greg?" The voice that came out of the strong man was small and filled with fear. The blonde went over quickly and sat down pulling Claudio off his head as he did so.

"You ok?" He asked softly.

"Yeah…sorry…you uh…you can go back to sleep." He told him lying back down. Greg hesitated all of two seconds before lying down beside him placing the sloth between them where it snuggled happily. "What're you doing G?"

"Watching over you." Greg responded as if it was obvious. "Now sleep." Nick nodded for the first time feeling protected and allowed himself to drift to sleep.

"Thanks Greg." he said softly before listening for any response. He got none for almost 10 seconds before the ex lab tech began to sing softly to him.

"'If you fall I will catch you, I will be waiting, time after time…" The two fell asleep almost simultaneously but never mentioned the time they spent together for another year.

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