Title: Villain
Author: sarcasticsra
Rating: G
Pairing: gen
A/N: Thanks for beta'ing, Kelly.
Summary: Get a new bad guy.

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Ecklie sometimes felt like he was constantly wearing a black cowboy's hat.

So often, he played the villain: trying to get Nick fired, doing everything he could to ruin Grissom, demoting Sophia, breaking up the graveyard shift. He did things like that every day.

He was an asshole, right? The stereotypical "bad guy." There couldn't be anything decent about him - who else would everyone hate? And he didn't really care the majority of the time. He played politics, clashed with Grissom, none of it mattered. It was like a huge game.

Then, however, Nick had been kidnapped and buried alive. One of his guys, no matter how much Nick probably disliked him. None of the petty grievances between himself and Grissom or whomever on the graveyard shift had mattered. Nothing had, except for getting Nick back alive.

Ecklie hadn't played the bad guy, for once. And now, that Nick was back and safe and things were returning slowly to normal, Ecklie found that he didn't want the black cowboy's hat any longer.

He didn't want to be the villain.

-End

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