Title: Untitled
By: Caroline Crane
Pairing: Nick/Greg

Nick had never seen his house so clean. Not that he was a slob, but work kept him pretty busy, and when he did find himself at home he spent most of his time sleeping. Well, he spent a lot of his time with Greg lately, but they definitely weren't cleaning. So it was weird to walk into his house and find it spotless, the floors practically shining up at him and the acrid scents of lemon and antiseptic lingering in the air.

"G?" he called into the silence, frowning as he dropped his keys on the table and made his way a little further into…well, he was pretty sure this was his house. "What's going on, man?"

For a second there's no answer, then he hears a door open at the end of the hall and Greg's there, pushing a laundry basket along the hardwood with one foot as he balances what looks like a load of sheets in his arms. And he never thought about it before, but now that he was actually witnessing Greg doing laundry, it seemed sort of…unnatural. "Are you…did you wash my sheets?"

Greg glanced up at him then, expression sheepish and sort of resigned, and Nick was really getting tired of the self-pity trip he'd been on ever since the accident. He got it, just like he got why Greg was so nervous about his job. Because the shaking hadn't stopped yet, which meant he was working less hours than usual – 'easing back in', Grissom called it – and if he couldn't get back into the swing of the night shift he was going to be looking for a new job sooner than later. Still, that didn't explain what Greg was doing, and it was all Nick could do not to walk down the hall and take the sheets out of his arms.

"It's not like I haven't been using them too," Greg said as he reached the bedroom and pushed the basket ahead of him into the room. "Besides, it was something to do."

Nick paused in the bedroom doorway, watching Greg drop the sheets on the bed and resisting the urge to cross the room and lift the basket for him. Greg was okay now, his burns mostly healed and the doctors had lifted all the bans on any strenuous activity – which meant the sheets really did need a decent washing – but it was still hard to watch Greg exerting himself for something as stupid as clean sheets.

"You're telling me you did my laundry because you got bored."

Greg shrugged without looking at him, face turned away from Nick but even in the muted light of the bedroom Nick could see him flinch. He swore it didn't hurt so much as feel weird, his new skin too tight and it was just going to take him some time to get used to it. That was what the doctors said, but it was still hard for Nick to watch. Hard for him to keep himself from trying to fix it, but even if Greg would let him, for the first time in his life Nick had no idea how.

"G…"

"I have to do this, Nick."

"You have to do my laundry?"

"No…I mean…" Greg laughed then, but it sounded a little hollow and when he turned to look at Nick he wasn’t smiling. "The therapist said to do this kind of stuff. Said it would be good for my hands, practice my motor skills."

"So you cleaned the whole house?"

"Well, I skipped the oven," Greg answered, and when he smiled a little Nick let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Just for a second he could see a glimmer of the old Greg, but as soon as it surfaced it was gone again. "What am I supposed to do if I can't go back to the lab?"

They'd talked around this subject a thousand times, but neither of them had said it out loud yet. Nick knew exactly what Greg was asking; it wasn't just about his job, because yeah, it would hurt to lose that, but Greg was the kind of guy who landed on his feet. What he was really wondering was what happened if they didn't work together anymore, what happened when Nick didn't have to keep him around just because it was easier than breaking up with him.

And it was still weird to see this side of Greg, because he always came off as so self-assured that Nick never would have guessed he'd have such a hard time believing Nick wanted him around. Then again, maybe he had a right to worry, because Nick had spent an awful lot of time trying to talk himself out of his feelings for Greg before the explosion.

"You can find another job," Nick said, crossing the room as he spoke and pulling the sheets out of Greg's hands. "And if that doesn't work out you can always move in here and be my housekeeper. At least we know you can still do that."

Greg grinned at that, chasing most of the worry out of his features and Nick ignored the way his heart skipped at the sight. "You can't afford me," he said, but his hands were already pushing up under Nick's shirt. "I know how much you make."

"Yeah, but I offer really good benefits." Nick's hand closed around Greg's shirt to pull him forward, swallowing the sound of his laugh with a kiss.