Title: Touch
Author: Halu
Category: Just a little AU, romance
Spoilers: None
Rating: PG
Pairing: Gil/Nick
Summary: Gil and Nick are pretty bad at communicating.
A/N: It's a short drabble. A writing exercise, if you will. Unbeta-ed.
Disclaimer: CSI does not belong to me. I'm just having some harmless day-dreams.


“I screwed up,” Nick muttered to Catherine the minute she got into the car. Catherine fastened her seatbelt and adjusted the rearview mirror. Nick could only see his own reflection staring back at him from the sunglasses that she was wearing.

“We all do things like that at one point or another,” Catherine said vaguely.

Catherine started the car and Nick resisted the urge to replay his mistake in his head until they reached the office and Gil inquired about the interrogation of the victim’s boyfriend.

“Denies everything but we did manage to get this…” Catherine held up a tiny ziplock bag with some threads in it. “It’s a sample of the carpet from the boyfriend’s place.”

“Good job. Now get that to Greg and hopefully, it will give us the crime scene.” Gil gave them a small smile and went back to feeding the python that they had collected at the victim’s place. It did not make Nick feel any better though. He had the urge to bang his head against the locker.

That was what Gil found Nick doing when he strode into the locker room, searching for Warrick. Gil quirked his eyebrow and remained motionlessly while he observed Nick.

“Interesting way to improve the blood circulation to your head. And I’ve always thought that taiji was a better alternative,” he commented when Nick paused for a minute.

“Wha…I was just…yeah.” Nick answered incoherently. He could feel the tip of his ears burning with embarrassment.

“Ah…Catherine filled me in on what happened at the boyfriend’s place,” Gil started and stopped. There was a short, awkward silence as Nick waited for Gil to verbalise the thoughts in his head.

“You pro…alerted him and almost put Catherine and you in danger,” Gil finally said.

“I provoked him because he was pissing the hell out of me. I wanted to hit him so bad. He laughed when he saw the photos of the victim. She was only fourteen…Gil…she had her whole life ahead of her…” Nick hit his head on the locker door again and rested his head on the door.

Gil reached over and his hand stilled a few inches above Nick’s hair. Nick lifted his head to glance at him. Gil’s fingers brushed over his forehead, branding Nick with a soft caress. Nick could not decipher the different emotions flitting through Gil’s eyes. However, he did feel the heat of the fingers as they paused for a moment before Gil pulled back.

“Think about who you are and what you do best. Then, do it.”

“Gil…”

A rapping sound on the door interrupted Nick and Warrick appeared at the doorway. Warrick was fidgeting which meant he had something interesting going on. “I paged you but you didn’t come. Greg wants us in Trace now. The tests on the mysterious metal in the cup are done.”

Gil nodded and gave Nick one last look before leaving with an excited Warrick. Nick slumped down to the floor of the locker room and his own fingers re-traced the path that Gil’s fingers had taken and desperately wished he could understand what was going through Gil’s mind. He contemplated the words that had been lodged in his throat, scrambled up from the floor and ran to Trace.

Nick neared the Trace lab and he could hear Warrick and Greg trashing the various theories out. He stood by the glass panel and wondered where Gil was when he felt a hand on his left shoulder. Gil’s hand.

“Gil, you make me feel like I’m on the top of the world one minute and down in the dumps the next with just one line.” Nick forced the words out of his mouth.

Gil’s hand tightened on his left shoulder. “You’re welcomed.”

Nick managed not to flinch and held his head high as he made his escape.