Title: Voodoo something to me
Author: Dee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2146
Pairing: Gil/Nick
Characters: Gil Grissom and Nick Stokes
Warnings: Very AU and OOC
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Not mine; not now, not ever.
Unbeta-ed: All mistakes will be mine.
A/N 1: A bit of a Halloween themed fic! I had the idea for it after a comment ilovemycsi made about my holiday back in September...

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The music in the club was so loud that Gil felt as if his body was infused with the sound and he felt almost sick from the pounding inside him.  He thought it wouldn't being doing his ears any good either...in fact that would be the case for every other person in the club.  That included Nick, whose idea it was to actually be here...

"Nick?"  Gil tested out shouting at Nick to get his attention and Nick heard his voice but the frown on his face indicated he didn't know what Gil had said.  He mouthed at Gil for Gil to lip read.

"I don't think I've ever heard anything so loud in my life.  Leave?"

Gil smiled and nodded and slipped his hand around Nick's waist and pulled him towards him for a kiss.  Always a plus for Nick being in a gay club with Gil...he was openly affectionate.

Nick turned and took Gil's hand to lead him through the throng of bodies towards the exit.  Both men were manhandled as they pushed their way through men, and a few women, reluctant to move and both of them had to bat hands away from their asses and Gil had a hand grab his balls...he stamped on somebody's toes and the hand disappeared.  It was just a lucky stamp...

Outside the club the music still was perilously loud but manageable.

"Sorry, babe."  Nick spoke directly into Gil's ear and Gil turned and kissed him again.

"It was a good plan but we couldn't have foreseen...or should that be foreheard..."  He laughed at his own joke and then continued.  "...shall we try somewhere else or..."

Just then a man interrupted them.  A tall, well-muscled young African-American dressed casually but expensively...even Gil noted that.  "You looking for a party?  I know a place...drink, music...nice men..."

"...no, thank you.  We're okay."  Gil spoke pleasantly and Nick smiled his agreement with Gil.

"Man...you sure?  The music won't be deafening and the company will be entertaining..."  The man then uttered a sing-song phrase to the two men bending close to them as he did so.

"Okay...that would be good wouldn't it babe?"  Nick asked Gil.

"Yes, it would be good...let's go."

The man laughed showing a row of perfect white teeth.  "Guy..."  He pronounced it the French way as 'Gee'.  "...La Garrotte."  He held out his hand and Gil's hand was very nearly crushed by the powerful grip.  Follow me, Gil...Nick."  He laughed again.  Gil didn't realise but he hadn't introduced himself...or Nick...to Guy.

They followed Guy away from the club and the bright lights gradually gave way to darker streets and then they turned into a quiet very dimly lit road.  After about a hundred yards Guy stopped and knocked on a door which immediately swung open to reveal a staircase.  Guy entered before them and Gil and Nick followed close behind him.

"This is exciting isn't it?"  Gil was very enthusiastic and Nick would never remember that he was being so uncharacteristically enthusiastic...especially since there wasn't a bug involved.

At the top of the stairs and through another door it opened out...like a large warehouse floor.  Most people were swaying to a rhythmic, but not that loud, drum beat.  Fewer people stood and watched the movers and several people stared directly at Gil and Nick.

Gil was grinning at the scene and Nick waved at the people staring at them...it all seemed so perfectly natural to both men and the atmosphere appeared happy and carefree.

They both thought, independently, that it was just about the best club in which they'd ever been...

Gil took Nick by the hand and led him into the swaying bodies and he started swaying in exactly the same manner and Nick followed...but Nick slipped his hands around Gil's neck and pulled him close and they swayed in complete harmony...their foreheads locked together.  They could each feel the heat being generated by each other's body and the sweat on them made the movement appear easier...

Gradually the drum beat increased in speed and sound and the bodies, including Gil and Nick moved as one.

Suddenly the rhythmic beat stopped dead and so did every person who'd been dancing...except Gil and Nick who were taken by surprise and took a few moments to stop their gyration and laughed at the fact and looked around just as a louder slower drum beat started beating out and then all the people around them began to chant.

Gil lost sight of Nick as he turned around and joined in with the crowd but he wasn't concerned...in fact he gave no more thought to Nick as he sang louder and faster keeping up with the beat...with a chant he knew so well...and was completely taken in with the beat and the chant and was as loud and enthusiastic as all those around him...

"Papa Legba ouvre baye pou mwen, Ago eh!  Papa Legba Ouvre baye pou mwen, Ouvre baye pou mwen, Papa Pou mwen passe, Le'm tounnen map remesi Lwa yo!"

All the people in the room turned gradually as one to face a window at the back of the room that Gil hadn't noticed before but with them he chanted at the window and lifted up his hands towards the window.  It started to glow with a warm yellow light and got brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding.  And flowing among them all was a luminescent mist intertwining with all the bodies, licking at their limbs as they swayed.

Guy La Garrotte suddenly appeared beside the window holding a golden staff held aloft and he swept it across the heads of the chanting people and they stopped, dead, as did the drum and the quiet after the thunderous drum beat and chanting voices was eerie and then Guy turned towards the window and started the chant himself and was swaying to his own beat...the people were silent but with their hands still held out towards the window they started swaying again...Gil compelled to follow just as he had before.

Suddenly strong hands grabbed Gil's shoulders and spun him around...

"We've got to get out of here...now!"  Nick whispered urgently to Gil who tried to get free of Nick's hands.  "No, babe.  We've got to get out." Nick let go of Gil's shoulders and with all his strength grabbed Gil's right wrist tightly and pulled him through the thong of people pushing and bumping them as he went...but no one paid them any attention...

Gil was trying to pull away from Nick and he knew Gil was strong and could have shaken him off but Nick found the strength from somewhere to hold onto him and even as Gil tried to pull away from Nick's grasp he was being dragged from the room and through the door to the staircase.

As if being pulled apart from the crowd loosened their hold over Gil he moved more easily once they were through the door and they almost tumbled down the staircase to the door to the street.  Just as they were in reach of the door Guy La Garrotte appeared before them...he grinned maniacally and held his rod out at the two of them the mist swirling around him and licking at the bodies of Gil and Nick.

"STAY!"  His voice boomed out at them.

"No! Papa Legba says be gone."  Nick spat the words out at Guy, emphasising the name, Papa Legba, and stood his ground; he was still holding onto Gil's wrist like his life depended on it.

As if an electric shock had coursed through his body, Guy shrunk back form Nick and diminished before their eyes becoming smaller and smaller and then transparent until he just become vapour in the air mixing with the mist...the rod fell to the floor with a clatter.

"Man, have we got to get out of here."  Nick spoke urgently to Gil and with his free hand opened the door and pulled a much more willing Gil out onto the same dimly lit street they'd seen maybe ten minutes...maybe an hour...maybe a day ago...

"Run, this way." Nick commanded, still holding Gil.

"Yes!"

Nick turned to see that Gil was now looking as worried as Nick and he nodded at him, Nick let go of his wrist as they ran as fast as they could towards the brightly lit street ahead...it crossed Nick's mind that he had no idea Gil could move that fast since Nick was running as fast as he could and Gil was almost beside him.

It took them a minute or two to get to the street and when they did...there was a crowd of happy people milling around...music and singing coming from the various clubs and bars and shops were open hoping to sell their tacky wares...  It was a vibrant street night time scene quite normal for the city...

Gil and Nick stopped at the corner of the streets and drenched in their own sweat they stood with their backs against a shop window trying to catch their breath.  Nick stood up and looked back from where they'd come and stared...

"What the..."  He didn't finish and Gil, unable to speak after the exertion stood up and followed Nick's view into the street they'd just run out of like a couple of escaping convicts.

It was as brightly lit as the one they were in...people were dancing and singing and bars and clubs plied their noisy trade.

"Fuck."  Gil belatedly finished Nick's exclamation.  "What just happened?"

"I don't know and, to be honest, I don't want to know."

"I remember I was...I don't know...would it be preposterous to say I was under a...a spell?"

"Not at all.  I think that's exactly what happened."

Gil looked sideways at Nick and laughed, humourlessly.  "You're joking?  Yes?"

"Uh-uh."  He shook his head.  "I need a drink."

"Good idea.  Back to the hotel?"

"Hotel.  Yeah.   Definitely.  Hotel."

They didn't speak but as one started at a brisk walking pace, despite the crowds, for their hotel.  It took them about twenty minutes and they didn't speak at all.

They went straight to their room, stripped and took a shower together...but it didn't lead to sex as usual...they just washed the sweat away.  Once out of the shower Gil called room service and ordered a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of Jack Daniels.  They both needed liquor although they'd hardly spoken ten words to each other.  Their drinks arrived and Gil went to the ice machine and returned with a bucket full.  Nick had poured two drinks and Gil dropped ice into each glass.

They took their glasses and looking at each other drank the contents down in one go.

"So?  You know what happened?"  Gil wanted to know when he could speak.

"I have no fucking idea."

"But you knew to get out...you pulled me out...I didn't want to leave.  You knew about Papa
Legba."

"Yeah, I know.  From a college trip here back in the day...he's the gatekeeper to eternity...or hell...anyone who believes must ask to pass by him."

"You think I was...we were drugged...or ..." Gil wanted to say it was a spell but that was surely too preposterous.

"...not drugged. I think we were hypnotised."

"Hypno...by whom?"

"Guy La Garrotte.  He said that thing to us both and then shook your hand.  That's why you were worse than me...he didn't touch me."

"That's...true."  Gil was remembering the handshake that nearly broke his bones.  "Yes, I can see that...but this Guy..."

"...hey, let's google him."  Gil nodded at Nick's excellent idea.

What they read was a sobering account...

He was the son of a wealthy family from North Carolina and was in medical school in the city; he'd disappeared, on this very date in 1972, never to be seen again.  They stared at the photograph.

"That's him...he was exactly the same now as that old photo."

"Yeah, it is.  Missing, presumed dead.  Although what does it say here..."  They read another article and both sat staring at it for several minutes.

His best friend had said, at the time of his disappearance, that he'd been worried because he'd got himself mixed up in some kind of Voodoo sect.  In fact, Guy La Garrotte had been seen on many occasions in the same area of the city on the same date he'd disappeared but investigations by the police, and private detectives hired by his family, had found nothing...except reports from some very frightened individuals that had been dismissed as drug or drink fuelled or plain hysteria...reports that said that they were convinced they'd seen a ghost...

Gil shuddered.  "Well that settles it...I'm never coming to New Orleans on October 31st again..."

"You got that right."  Nick nodded his complete agreement.

They clinked their glasses together and drank some more to the distant sound of maniacal laughter...

The End

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