*******

Chapter 15:

"Oh, Nick, we... the doctor said you had visitors, but we just assumed... I mean I remember when your father had that operation a while back and they wouldn't let me see him for hours. I guess we just assumed that they wouldn't let anybody... stay." Mrs. Stokes said.

She was a pretty woman, short brown hair cut to her shoulders, green eyes wide with embarrassment. She looked like the kind of woman that was beautiful back in her day and had aged with elegance. She stood in a navy blue work suit that was crisp and sharp. She clutched a purse in front of her and stood up as tall as she could. With heels on, Greg guessed she came up to about his nose.

"No, it's okay. Why don't you come in." Nick said fake smile practically plastered to his face.

Greg could tell that he was way nervous and probably a little embarrassed as well.

"Oh, of course... how are you doing sweetie. Are you feeling okay? Can you feel pain? Does it hurt at all?" Mrs. Stokes said as she ran to Nick's bedside.

The concern was very evident on her face. It was like in ten seconds flat she had slipped into nurturing mother mode. Of course Greg figured his mother would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed.

"I'm okay. They got me on some pretty heavy stuff some I'm kind of floating right now, but other than that I'm fine." Nick said honestly.

"I don't call getting blown up in a lab explosion fine. I mean you hear about these things in shady places, but not crime labs. I have half a mind to sue them for a hazardous work environment. Honestly." Mrs. Stokes said as she began to fluff Nick's pillows.

Nick looked thoroughly embarrassed.

Greg smiled as he turned away from Nick and his mother to Nick's dad who was still lingering in the doorway. Mr. Stokes had his hips leaned against the doorframe, his arms folded across his chest. He was wearing jeans. Greg thought it was a little weird that a Judge was wearing jeans, but the thought was only fleeting. He also had on some cool cowboy boots. His suit jacket covered up a black shirt.

He was tall, probably taller than Greg could ever hope to be. He had a slight build, but considering his age it wasn't a wonder that he didn't have bulging muscles. He had soft brown eyes that looked exactly like Nick's and graying hair. Greg could see that Nick looked more like his father than he did his mother.

Mr. Stokes walked in silently and sat down in a chair farthest away from Nick and Greg and Nick's mother who couldn't stop asking motherly questions.

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend, Nicholas." Mr. Stokes said accent very noticeable.

Sure Nick's accent was noticeable, but not as much. It was like his words just oozed with Texas drawl.

Nick went beet red at his father's words.

"Um... mom, dad... this is Greg. He's... well he's kind of..."

"Oh, we could tell that he's your boyfriend, Nick. It's not a problem. Of course it would be nice if you could introduce people properly."

Nick sighed.

"Right, this is Greg Sanders. Greg, these are my parents." Nick said.

Greg gave them his most charming smile and held out his hand.

"Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Stokes, Mr. Stokes." Greg said as Nick's mom shook his hand.

"Please call me Jillian." Jillian said with a smile.

Greg turned to Nick's father and held out his hand. Mr. Stokes looked at it for a minute as though it were going to bite him before he shook it. When he was done shaking he merely disengaged his hand from Greg's and went back to staring at Nick.

"Maybe I should go." Greg said voice a low whisper as he turned to Nick.

"Now, that's nonsense. You and Nick have a relationship. You belong here as much as we do." Jillian said.

"I just... I mean you... you deserve to visit with your son without me being here and things being..."

"Being what?" Mr. Stokes said in the same drawl.

Greg thought that he was going to jump every time he heard that voice. It was intimidating and Greg wasn't entirely sure it was supposed to be. Of course Greg was kind of dating his youngest son. That could have been upsetting him.

"Weird?" Greg said as though he were asking.

"Now, what would give you the impression that things were weird." Mr. Stokes said raising an eyebrow at him.

Greg wondered if his face was turning red. It wasn't that he wanted to leave Nick alone or anything. Hell, he couldn't stand being as far away from him as he was, but it wasn't exactly the way he had wanted to meet Nick's parents. He was thinking that Nick would gently break it to them and then they'd show up for an awkward Thanksgiving with all of Nick's siblings and Nick's parents.

This definitely wasn't the ideal situation. Greg was wearing clothes covered in blood and he smelt funny from the puke and he looked like he'd be thrown through the ringer. You could only make a first impression once.

"Just that... I mean this most be a shock. I mean first your son is blown up in a lab explosion and then you find out he has a boyfriend... maybe it's just too much to take in all at once." Greg said trying to find anyway out of the current situation.

He didn't even want to look over at Nick who was probably pleading with his eyes for Greg to stay. Mr. Stokes just kept looking at him.

"I..." Greg was saved from babbling when his cell phone started to ring. He hurriedly answered it and sighed.

"Hello?"

"So were you just going to let us sit here and worry about you or were you going to call at some point?"

Great, Greg had left one awkward conversation with parents for another.

"What are you talking about?" Greg asked as innocently as he could.

There was no way that news of the lab explosion could have gotten all the way to San Francisco.

"I was just sitting down getting ready for work when I turn on the television to the news channel and it says that the crime lab in Vegas got blown up. I figured they would have called us if you had been hurt, but then again this is my wayward son we're talking about."

"Mom, look nothing happened. A few lab techs got hurt, but nothing..."

"Nothing happened! Well of all the stupid idiotic things you could say to me Gregory Hojem Sanders, this one really takes the cake. Your place of employment BLEW UP!"

Erika Christin Sanders was not a woman you wanted to piss off most of the time. Greg should have known this considering she was his mother. He gently pulled the phone away from his ear as she began to berate him in Norwegian using some very colorful phrases.

He tried moving as far away from Nick and his parents as possible who were staring at him with sudden interest. Greg hated being watched like a caged animal.

"Mom... mom... calm down... mom will you let me get a word in edgewise?" Greg said.

"Are you going to explain yourself? I knew you should have been a researcher, but no... and this is your father's fault. He encouraged all this nonsense. Not to mention you're grandfathers..."

"Could we leave Papa Olaf and my career choices out of this. Look I'm kind of busy right now..."

"What are you clearing up the wreckage?"

"No, I'm here at the hospital with a... with my..."

"Well spit it out already."

Greg sighed and rubbed his forehead. This was clearly not his day as evidence of everything stressful that had been happening. He just wanted to go over to Nick's house and collapse with Nick running his fingers through Greg's hair. Of course Nick was in a hospital bed so that didn't seem likely.

"I'm at the hospital with my boyfriend and his parents." Greg said.

The line went silent for a few moments. He could hear his mom's breathing as what he said processed in her head. She was not going to be happy.

"Well how long has this been going on? I mean were you ever going to tell me?"

"Do I have to tell you everything?"

"It must be serious if you're going to the hospital with him and his parents. And why are you in a hospital anyway?"

"It is serious and we're in the hospital because he was caught in the explosion."

"So you're dating someone you work with. You're not afraid..."

"No, mom, I'm not. Look I appreciate the concern, but I'm kind of busy here. Besides you're not allowed to use cell phones in a hospital so I should really go."

"Fine, but you're not getting off that easily. I want to meet this... man. I'm sure your father would feel the same way and so would your sister and your grandfather and the rest of the family."

"Sure whatever you say mom. Love you."

"Love you too, sweetie." Was the last thing she said before the line went dead.

Greg turned around to see Nick and his parents still staring at him. He gave them a nervous grin and shrugged his shoulders.

"Sorry about that. She worries too much sometimes." Greg said.

"Oh that's not bad. It's what a mother is supposed to do." Jillian said.

"Yeah, I know. She can keep me on the phone for hours if I let her." Greg said with a laugh.

"Well, my husband has informed me that he would like a minute with Nick alone." Jillian said.

"Oh... oh well I guess I should... I should go anyway. It's only a matter of time before Grissom calls up asking me to go into work..."

"You said you weren't going in." Nick said with a frown.

Greg looked over at Nick lying on his side in the hospital bed and his face softened.

"If Grissom asks me to come in, I think I should. I mean you heard what Hodges said about people having to pull doubles to make up for the fact that the lab blew up. Seriously it's not like I'm bleeding internally or anything."

"But you promised me you weren't going to go in."

Greg walked over to Nick's bed. He hesitated for a second before picking up Nick's hand and taking it in his own. He gave it a light squeeze before smiling at him.

"Greg, why don't you come down to the cafeteria with me and the girls." Jillian said.

"Wait, mom, you didn't say they were here." Nick said eyes widening a bit.

"Well, when I told them what happened, all your sister decided to pack up what they were doing and come here. Your brother will be in by tomorrow." Jillian said.

Nick pouted.

"Oh don't be like that, Nick. Your sisters just wanted to be sure that you were doing okay."

"Maybe you should go in instead." Nick said looking up at Greg.

Greg smiled.

"Don't want me to meet the family?"

"It's not that... they're crazy."

"Now, Nick don't talk about your sister like that. Jill, take Greg here with you to the cafeteria. I gotta talk to my son."

Greg was going to protest, but the look in Bill Stokes eyes said there was no room for argument. He let Jillian usher him out of Nick's hospital room as he spared one last look to Nick.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So..."

"So." Bill said.

Nick felt like he was six years old being questioned by his dad about the missing cookies in the cookie jar. Nick knew his father was waiting for him to say something before he continued.

"Um... I..."

"Are you in any pain?" Bill asked.

Nick shook his head as best he could.

"I'm not going to say anything about how this wouldn't have happened if you had become a lawyer like me and your mother wanted you to be."

Nick wished he could roll his eyes. If that was his father's way of not mentioning it, it wasn't really affective.

"I..."

"I know you like you're job Nick. You come home every Christmas and I see the way you talk about it. You love it."

"I do."

Bill smiled and nodded his head.

"I always thought it was weird, the way you took to science and all. Can't remember anyone in my family that actually liked science. I hated it in school. But from the moment you first got your little chemistry set thing... I knew. I knew it was gonna be your passion."

"It wasn't that I didn't want to become a lawyer. I did... at first. I just... I couldn't understand... I just couldn't understand it I guess."

"You're not the only one. Your sister Carly couldn't understand it either. I admire the fact that you felt you have to go off and do something that you liked... that you were passionate about. Hell I was even okay that you had to move to Vegas because of it."

"The research labs were too boring. I couldn't stay there."

"No, I get it. I understand. A man needs to move out on his own and find himself."

"So... why did you want to speak to me alone? This isn't about Greg, is it? Because I told you a long time ago that..."

"I know, I know. And it took me a long time to get used to the fact that you were... gay. But I did... course your mother was very persuasive with that. I don't have anything against this... Greg."

"Well you could stop being so intimidating towards him."

"I'm just acting like my normal self. Though I have to admit that he certainly isn't what I expected from you."

Nick frowned. It was bad enough that it had taken a few years for his dad to come to terms with the fact that Nick wasn't ever going to settle down and get married to a nice girl and pop out grandchildren, but Nick wasn't sure what to make of the fact that his dad had been thinking of the sort of guy Nick would fall for. It just seemed kind of... wrong.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I thought... now I'm not the best at this. I've certainly thought about what kind of men your sisters would bring home. It's taken me a bit longer to get used to the fact that my youngest boy would be bringing home a guy as well, but in all honesty I thought it would be someone more... bookish."

"Greg's smart. He really is."

"He works with you."

"He's a CSI level 2. He was a lab technician for a little while in San Francisco, but he didn't like it. He's not... I mean he can be... bookish when he wants to be, but not usually."

"He's younger than you."

Nick was always amazed how his dad never really asked questions. He just assumed that his answers were correct. Nick equated it to him being a lawyer.

"Yeah."

"By a lot."

"It's not that much."

Bill Stokes quirked an eyebrow.

"Seven years isn't that long."

"He's only twenty-seven. He must be pretty smart to be done with school and working already."

"I think he skipped a few years in high school."

"You think."

Even know was he was asking a total question it really wasn't a question at all.

"How long have you two been dating?"

"We've been working together for almost four years."

"That's not what I asked Nicholas."

"Honestly... a week or so."

"So we shouldn't be angry that you didn't tell us about him."

"We've been really busy lately. And... honestly... it doesn't feel like it's only been a week. Feels like it's been longer than that."

"You love him."

"Yeah... I do."

Bill Stokes was quiet for some time. He looked as though he were thinking about something. It was some time before he spoke again.

"Good."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Greg was surrounded by six woman, all of whom sounded like they belonged in a tear-jerker chick flick featuring Julia Roberts as the rambled on and on. Sure Greg knew they were nervous about their brother, hell Greg was nervous about their brother, but the sheer volume of conversation was getting to be too much.

And they took a special interest in Greg. If they weren't glaring at him they were staring at him with interest. One even went so far as to poke him. She looked like she might be the oldest of the bunch and she looked the most like Jillian. She seemed to the ring-leader too. She kept pushing Greg for answer to the questions she was asking. It wasn't like Greg knew much about Nick's condition.

He only knew what the nurses were willing to tell him. Had he been up to the challenge he might have tried to get one to tell him everything, but his main concern had been Nick first and foremost. Just seeing Nick had been the first thing on his mind.

"So, you're dating my brother." The older one asked.

It was clear she hadn't spent much time anywhere but Texas. Sure Nick still had his accent, but Nick's was muted compared to all of theirs. They all had that Southern belle thing that was making Greg's brain hurt.

"Yes."

"For how long exactly?"

"Christina... really is it necessary to question Greg right now. He's been through a lot." Jillian said.

Christina rolled her eyes at her mother. Greg thought it was funny that a forty something year old was rolling her eyes at her mother like a child would.

"We just wanna make sure this is the best guy for Nick is all, momma." Christina said.

It was Greg's turn to roll his eyes. They'd been sitting in the cafeteria for at least twenty minutes now. They had gotten done with the questions involving Nick's help. Jillian had had more information then Greg so he just sat back and let her handle it. A few of Nick's sisters got teary eyed at the account.

Then Jillian had introduced Greg and the girls had exploded into a flurry of questions and words that didn't make any sense to Greg. He sat and listened until Christina stopped the noise to interrogate him personally.

"Look I really don't wanna answer these questions right now... I'm kind of tired." Greg said.

"Oh no, you can't pull the tired card." Christina said.

"You're better off to just answer her questions, Greg." Melinda said.

She was Nick's sister and she was two years younger than Christina. Greg was going to have to come up with a system to remember all their names. He was never any good with names.

"Seriously though. I think I should head back to my place and rest..."

"So you'd just leave Nick here in the hospital all by himself. That doesn't scream good first impression." Christina said eyes turning a little cold. She was definitely scary.

Greg was very tempted to roll his eyes at her.

"Aw, no Chrissy. I think we should leave the poor guy alone. He was in an explosion after all, same as Nick. And he does look a little frayed around the edges. I mean look at his hair." Tina said.

She was older than Nick by two years. Greg had seen various pictures of her. She and Nick seemed really close. Nick had warned him that, though all his sisters liked to mess with his head, she was the worst at it. She looked the most like Nick and their father.

"What about my hair?" Greg as very tempted to reach up a hand to try and fix it, but he didn't want to appear vain in front of Nick's family.

"Oh nothing. Just wondering if it's always supposed to be like that." Tina said.

"Oh, pay no mind to Tina here. She just loves messing with peoples heads. Even people she just met for the first time." Carly said.

Carly was the middle of the girls. She looked the most like Jillian Stokes. Greg knew she was a school teacher. She seemed nice enough. She and Nick's sister, Maryann, who seemed to be the meekest wallflower Greg had ever laid eyes on save Nick before the 'radical' transformation, were the only two not interrogating him.

Maryann stood idly by messing with her glasses and smiling softly at Greg. If Greg hadn't known better he would have guessed she was around his age the way she was acting and all. She was a fair mixture of both of Jillian and Bill Stokes. She was a lawyer too. Greg wondered how she could possibly be a lawyer with such a shy exterior.

"Well, as much fun as I'm having with all of you, I really think that..."

"GREG!"

Greg looked over his shoulder to see Jacqui standing with the biggest basket of cookies he'd ever seen in his whole life. Archie and Bobby were standing next to her. The were absent one Hodges, but Greg guessed that was because Hodges had just gotten back to the lab.

"Excuse me for a second, will you."

Greg didn't even stay around to listen to Christina protests. He got up hurriedly and walked over to where Jacqui, Bobby and Archie were standing.

"Hey, I thought you guys had to work?" Greg said.

"Yeah, well Jacqui got time off for being injured and we had just come out on break. Figured that we'd go after Hodges and all." Bobby said.

"Hope we're not interrupting anything." Archie said.

"Who cares if we are? I want to see Nick. Damn bastards just let me outta the hospital not too long ago and do you know how long it took me to find a basket of cookies this big? And look at you. You look terrible, Greg. Why is it the doctors kept me forever when all I had were scrapes and you look like you've got some actual wounds here and you're all up and walking around. You should be laying down in a bed." Jacqui said.

Greg had never personally seen Jacqui's mothering hen act, but he'd heard Nick talk about it plenty of times. Most of those times, when Nick was very sick and being stubborn, he'd agree with her. Now that the shoe was on the other foot Greg could see why it would irritate a stubborn person.

"I snuck out." Greg said un-apologetically.

"Dude aren't afraid one of them doctors is going to try and get you into a bed?" Archie asked.

"No, I'm a grown adult. Anyway how are things at the crime lab?" Greg asked.

"How are things at the crime lab!? How are things at the crime lab he asks? You're boyfriend was just in a major explosion and you're thinking about the crime lab?! Maybe I didn't give you the whole neck break speech, but that doesn't mean I still can't give it Mister because if you think for one second that..."

"Jacqui calm down. Look... I just need to keep busy is all. If... if I sit down... and I think... if I think about what happened I'm gonna..."

Jacqui's face softened as Greg's voice became more broken.

"Oh honey. Archie take these cookies." She said handing Archie the basket.

Archie took it without complaint, his face looking a bit sad as well. Jacqui grabbed Greg and pulled him into a tight hug.

"I just don't know what to do, Jacqui. I mean... I wanna be there for him, but every time I look at him... I've been keeping it together for him, but I can't... I don't know if I can..."

"Of course you can. And you wanna know why, because we're all here for you. The whole Circle is here for you." Jacqui whispered into his ear. Greg let out a choked laugh.

"So, what I'm an honorary member now?"

"Something like that. Look Nick doesn't expect you to be perfect. Hell her already thinks you can't do no wrong. He loves you so much... he just wants you to be there for him." Jacqui said.

"It's a little hard with his family around. I'm trying to charm them, keep Nick happy and keep myself from falling apart... it's a lot to deal with."

"And it doesn't help that it looks like you haven't gotten a moments rest. You've lost some blood and energy Greg. You really should take a break."

"I can't take a break. Nick needs me here."

"What Nick needs is for you to be healthy. Look just trust us Circle members to take good care of him. And Hodges is coming round after he gets off shift. Annoying as that man can be, he does have a way with Nick. I'll get Archie to drive you home so you can rest and you can come back in the morning."

"You know I told him I loved him today. And don't' forget to mention it was in the must screwed up way possible... but I said it. Told him I'd make up for flubbing it. Doesn't seem real that all that just happened this afternoon."

"I know, but it did and you know you still got a chance to make this up. Besides you can't be perfect at every little thing."

Jacqui and Greg laughed at this. Laughter is good, Greg thought. Laughter would keep the tears at bay.

"Now, like I said. Archie'll take you home. You need some rest. I'll tell Nick you went back to your place." Jacqui said grabbing the basket from Archie.

Bobby decided to take it from her though and she smiled graciously at him. Archie grabbed Greg by the wrist. It was clear that even if Greg tried to protest they wouldn't listen to him. It wasn't like he had energy to spare by arguing with someone like Jacqui so he let himself be pulled away by Archie.

"Jacqui." Greg called when he and Archie were almost to the exit of the cafeteria.

"Yeah?"

"Don't tell Nick I went back to my place... tell him I went home." Greg said.

Jacqui looked confused for a second, but then seemed to catch the meaning of Greg's words. She shook her head and Greg shook his as he continued to walk with Archie.

"So where's your place man?" Archie asked.

"You know where Nick lives?"

"Yeah been there a few times, but I thought you said you wanted to go home?"

"That is home."

Chapter 16

Home ||| Spuffy Fan Fiction ||| Spander Fan Fiction ||| Spangel Fan Fiction ||| Harry Potter Fan Fiction |||Without a Trace Fan Fiction |||CSI Fan Fiction ||| Stargate: Atlantis Fan Fiction ||| Stargate: SG-1 Fan Fiction |||