Title: Watching the News
By: Caster
Pairing: Slight Greg/David
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: These characters are used as a creative outlet and will always be returned in a proper condition.
Summary: In honor of London.

***

There's a television set in the break room of the Las Vegas crime lab, but no one ever watches unless it's the Weather Channel.

It's the worst when CNN or FOX is on; they hate it, but they can't tear their eyes away. Sara doesn't like to watch stories about dead boys found in cars and Catherine doesn't like little girls who go missing and Brass hates when a couple more troops in Iraq are killed, a death toll no one seems to keep track of anymore. They see it enough in their every day lives; they don't want to see it on T.V.

But David watches when no one else can. A little girl goes missing; he feels sick and he's reminded why he hates the world. There are 55,000 missing children cases every year in the United States; the problem (besides the fact they go missing in the first place) is that television stations never plaster 55,000 faces of missing children on the evening news. They say there are too many.

When he wakes up that evening, he hears about London. It's the whispered story of the city that night; all over the place, the repeated question, "Did you hear about what happened in London? A bomb exploded there."

When he asks for details, no one can really give any. All anyone knows is that a bomb went off and that it killed people. End of story. And David supposes that details were second priority; the death of many was the first.

When he gets to work, he boots up his laptop and discovers that thirty seven have died, but who knows? There may be more. Everyone compares it the 11th of September; some even say that it was nothing compared to "what happened to us".

But one person is too many. That's what he thinks.

In the back of his mind, he remembers Spain last year and the 191 people who died when the bombs destroyed the train. There always seems to be another bomb, always somewhere, always ready.

Some say that what happened in Spain is nothing compared to what happened to us, as if it were a competition. Which country has it the worst? Which country is more at risk? The question hangs and day by day, the world uncovers the answer.

The Powerful People have a big meeting and they say they are resolute and horrified by what has happened and the events of London are dreadful.

In the break room, David watches the news when no one else can.

He feels someone sit next to him and he somehow knows it's Greg, even when he doesn't check to make sure. He just can't seem to look away from the footage.

David wants to fix the world. He wants to stop the genocide in Africa and the war in the Middle East; he wants to feed the starving and help those dying of AIDS. He wants to shut down rape camps and destroy sexual slavery.

He leans on Greg's shoulder tiredly and Greg holds him; clutches his hand and places a kiss on his forehead, even in front of watchful eyes. They don't care who sees, because they're lucky to be alive while 37 people in London were not. His heart feels heavy. No one except Greg would believe he has a heart anyway, but it aches when he watches the news.

David knows he can't clean the world's mess himself, but he and Greg could do something. The two of them plus all of America and every country who can afford to change the world.

Imagine if the entire world decided to change for the better.

Imagine what we could do.

FIN.