Title: Demons of the Present, part II

Summary: Nick visits the hospital and Gil goes with him

Warning: mentions rape of underage childern and beatings

Warning part II: SLASH!!!!!

Pairing: Gil/Nick

Archive: http://angelfire.com/weird2/butterflywings

Series: Alterna ‘Verse

Rating: pg-13

 

Gil was oblivious to the people around him. It felt like he was in a plastic bubble, he sensed movement and heard the low murmur of voices but he paid them no heed. The only person, the only *thing* important to him right now was Nick. He stared down into Nick’s frightened eyes and held his hand, muttering soothing syllables. Gil was unaware of the looks he and Nick were receiving but if he had known he wouldn’t have cared. The ambulance pulled into the ER and Gil was forced away from the gurney and Nick, the doctor pulled him aside before Gil could enter the emergency room. "Are you family?"

"No, we’re partners."

"Cops?" the doctor questioned.

"Yes, but no." The doctor shook his head in confusion but he didn’t have the time to mess with those questions now.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"He’s been accused of raping a little girl, but he says the father did it. So please try and persevere all the evidence that you can. He was beaten by the father and possibly the police on the scene as well. I believe his jaw is dislocated and that’s why he can’t talk."

The doctor listened with half an ear to what Gil was saying but it was clear that the doctor was focusing on the first part of Gil’s statement with a disgusted look on his face. "Please go to the waiting room, call any family that you know of and we’ll let you know his condition as soon as possible." The doctor headed into the emergency room containing Nick who was already hooked up to monitors and surrounded by nurses. Gil stood in the hallway for a few moments gazing sadly into Nick’s room, before he turned away his eyes met Nick’s and he tried to convey with them how much he trusted Nick and that he wasn’t alone.

Gil hadn’t been in the waiting room for more than 20 minutes when Brass showed up. "Gil! What the crap do you think you’re doing! You don’t take yourself off a case! I take you off a case!"

"Jim, calm down I got off the case because I’m prejudced. The man accused, I know him, we’re" Gil hesitated if he said it to Jim then he couldn’t take it back, but all he had to do is think about Nick’s bloody face to realize that he didn’t really care, "dating. We’ve been seeing each other for a couple of months. It happened after that case where the ex-boyfriend killed his lover. Nick was an undercover cop, he was the prostitute that told us the boyfriend was abusive. He came to me after his assignment was up and asked me on a date, I said yes." Gil look up at the gaping cop, and for the perverse pleasure of it decided to tell him one more thing, "and I think I love him."

Brass took a few moments to compose himself before he spoke, "yes, well, it’sagoodthingyou’reoffthecase." Grissom smirked at smeared together sentence, but didn’t press the issue. "What can you tell me about the suspect."

"I can tell you I don’t think he did it and unless you have more then eye-witness testimony I’m not going to change my mind. Right now what I think happened was: Nick was undercover as a stripper and dancing at the house for the party, whether it was part of his assignment or an honest mistake he went into the little girl’s room and caught the father raping her, he was startled enough to allow the man to hit him, and stun him. The father then proceeded to systematically beat Nick so that Nick couldn’t talk or communicate easily with his hands. Then he called the cops and reported that Nick raped that girl." Brass looked skeptical.

"That’s pretty far-fetched. It’s a lot simpler to believe the father’s story."

"Well even if there wasn’t any evidence either way I would still believe Nick’s story over that man. Jim the guy’s a vegetarian because he doesn’t believe in killing animals. There was one time after a really heavy rain, and there were earthworms all up and down the sidewalk and he carefully picked up each one and placed them on the grass."

"Earthworms?"

"Yes, see earthworms breath through their skin so when the rain is really heavy they have to leave the soil and climb onto the sidewalk to gain some access to air, but once it stops raining the worms are stuck on the sidewalk, and as they try to crawl to the soil they scratch and scrape their underside. I remember when I asked him why he was doing that he asked me if I believed in karma. Then he told me that he did and that maybe if he saved enough worms it would balance out the people he had killed on the job. His eyes were so haunted Jim. There’s no way that was the face of a man that could do that. I just don’t see how it’s in him."

Jim studied Gil silently deciding that Gil wouldn’t budge on this unless there was evidence. So maybe that’s all Gil needed. "Look you can have the night off do what you need to do, but I except you into work on time tomorrow, mean while I’m going to check out the record on your friend, Mr. Nick..."

"Stokes, Jim his last name is Stokes." Jim could hear the finality in Grissom’s voice so he left without even a word of goodbye.

It was two hours later before he heard any news on Nick. Nick’s injuries included a broken jaw, dislocated wrist, concussion, and bruised ribs. He would have to be in hospital for at least two days and after that only allowed to leave if someone watched him. Since Gil didn’t know the phone number or address of any of Nick’s relatives it would fall to Grissom for the time being to be Nick’s decision maker. Gil, for his part, welcomed the responsibility because it meant he could visit Nick while in the ICU, normally only family was allowed in.

Gil had been sitting there for a couple of hours when Nick woke up. Gil immediately shushed him, afraid he would hurt himself.

"Carful, they had to wire your jaw for the time being so it can heal you can’t really speak." Gil listed Nick’s injuries and what the treatments were for them. "The doctor is planning on letting you out of the hospital in few days if everything stays in the green and you can stay with someone," Gil hesitated to bring it up, they had left things so open-ended but as they say in for a penny in for a pound. "I’d love to have you stay at my place. Oh and is there anyone I can call for you?"

Nick blinked yes. "Okay just blink the number and I’ll write it down and call." Nick slowly blinked out the number to his parents place, sure that they would contact anyone that needed to know. Gil could see how tired Nick looked so he decided visiting time was over, "Nick you’re hurt and you still have anesthesia in your system, so why don’t you get some sleep? I’m going to contact this person, and" Grissom sighed, "get back to work soon, but don’t worry I’ll be here right after with an update on your case. Nick blinked yes and held up his left hand in the classic sign of ‘I love you’. "Ditto."