Title: Waiting
Fandom: CSI
Characters: Nightshift CSI’s
Prompt: #55 – Spirit
Word Count: 978
Rating: K (Should be free of any coarse language, violence, and adult themes.)
Summary: Nick thinks back to the way things should have been…
Author's Notes: I just sat down to write something – with no aim in mind – and this is what came out.
Disclaimer: I own nothing …
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If I could do one thing and change the way things are; if I could step back years and rearrange the stars; if I could rewind the world and right a single wrong; if I could go back to the second I knew had changed it all; if I could tell my younger self the future I could hold… Then I would fix the past and not sit here on my own.
Nick blinked his thoughts away. He stared at the blank wall opposite where he stood leaning against the wall in the stark white hallway. People walked to and fro, never giving him even so much as a glance. He knew he had to go soon. Grissom was expecting him. But he also knew he needed to stay. Grissom could wait. He needed to do this. Besides, Catherine was with him anyway. She was always able placate the elder CSI when he was losing patience with his younger colleagues.
Warrick and Sara had gone off on an assignment. These days they were always wondering about wreaking some form of havoc and their antics were driving Griss up the wall. Nick himself was happy the two were able to find ways to amuse themselves – even if said amusement came at the expense of their clients. Nick sighed and closed his eyes, letting his chin drop to rest on his chest. In a semi-meditative state he began to count. One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Seven… Ei-
“Nick?” a slightly echoing voice to his right spoke. He looked up and smile.
“Hey Greggo,” he replied with the same echo. The man standing in front of him looked exactly as he remembered all those years ago. Greg looked just as he had when he’d first passed his proficiency and became a certified CSI.
“How is it you’re here?” Greg looked thoroughly confused. “How is it possible?”
“I think you know why, G,” Nick gave him a somewhat sad grin.
“Oh, right.” Greg looked back to the double door that Nick stood beside. There were windows in the doors. Inside he could see the people who worked walking back and forth, tending to their patients.
“We better head out,” Nick said, drawing Greg’s attention back to him. “Griss’ll be frantic with impatience.”
“Griss? You see him?”
“I work with him, G,” Nick grinned.
“You work with him?”
“Yeah,” Nick laughed. “So does Cath, Rick, and Sara.”
“Um… How about Brass?”
“Honestly, he hands out assignments.”
“Assignments?”
Nick couldn’t stop the wide smile from playing on his lips. “Yeah, assignments.” Nick pushed off the wall he was leaning against. “C’mon, let’s head outside.” The two exited the building. “They were going to send one of the recruiting agents to pick you up but I insisted on coming.”
“Recruiting agents?” Greg blinked. “What exactly do you do?”
“Well, me and the gang are guardians. You’ve been chosen to join us.”
“What do you guard?” Greg followed Nick as they walked away from the building.
“The living.”
Greg turned back to the door they’d exited to see the emergency entrance to Desert Palms Hospital. “Can I ask you something Nick?”
“Sure.”
“I can’t remember how it happened. Could you tell me?” Nick stopped walking and turned to his companion.
“It’ll come back to you eventually, but I could if you really want to know now.” Greg nodded. “You were at a scene,” Nick began. “You were working with a rookie, their first night on the job. It was just your luck that the cop outside was a rookie too. Perp came back and tried to shoot the new CSI but you used yourself as a shield for him.”
“How is he?”
“The rookie? He’s fine, a bit shell shocked but no worse for ware.”
“What about the cop?”
“He’s already passed on. He didn’t even notice the guy come back.”
“That sucks.”
“Does it suck more or less than the fact that you were ready to retire?”
“It’s a draw.”
Nick grinned. “You look pretty good for being in your sixties.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t look too bad yourself,” Greg grinned back. “Y’know, for being dead for, what is it, twenty or so years?”
Nick stared into his younger counterpart’s eyes. “I wish I’d’ve told you long ago, before I lost the chance.”
“Told me what?” Greg tilted his head to the side. Nick took a few steps towards Greg and took the ex-Californian’s hands in his.
“That I loved you all along.”
Greg smiled. “Well, from what I can see we’re going to be stuck together for a rather long time.”
“That’s actually an understatement,” Nick smiled back.
“So in that case, there’s nothing to regret anymore.” Greg leaned forward and captured Nick’s lips with his own. After a while he pulled back and his smile widened. “I know this is a strange time to be asking, but do you believe in past lives?”
“I once told someone that I didn’t, but that was a lie,” Nick rested his forehead against Greg’s. “I believe in them from the moment I looked into your eyes for the first time and my heart knew who you were.”
“I remember I once asked, in passing, you if you believed in soul mates.”
“What did I say?” Nick asked remembering full well what he’d said.
“That you believed soul mates where so special because they met up with each other so infrequently, but that they always met up even if it was just for a little while. No matter how many lives they lived in between they’d always find each other again.”
“I know you said no more regrets, but I’ll never stop regretting the time I wasted not loving you.” Greg traced Nick’s jaw.
“I know.” Greg smiled dropped one of Nick’s hands before leading him away from the hospital and through the streets of Vegas.
- 30 -
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