Home of Greg Sanders Slash Fiction
Title: Minor Fifth: Walked This Floor
Pairing: Greg, Archie, and a dash of Nick/Greg
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned
by CBS, Bruckheimer Productions, et al. No money is being made and no copyright
or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: Archie and Greg get catty and Nick gets lucky, though he doesn't know
it yet.
Notes: Post-ep for Random Acts of Violence, and part of what eventually will be
a series of fics involving the minor characters.
"So," Archie says, leaning in the doorway of the DNA lab all cool and
casual-like, the laughter evident in his voice, "I hear you and Stokes have a
relationship."
Greg doesn't look up, doesn't react at all because that would certainly give him
away, but he is glad he's alone and he does wish Archie would come in out of the
hallway before someone walks by and overhears him. Is that how he knows? But
that was an A and B conversation and Greg didn't think anyone else was around
and ohhell. If Nick told him, he's dead. D-E-D and if he thinks Greg hasn't
picked up a little something about a hundred and one torturous ways to kill a
man since he's been working here, he's wrong. Dead wrong, in fact, and Greg
snorts.
"Something I said?" Archie asks, a little confused but mostly still smug around
the edges and Greg has no idea how to handle this. When he first started this
whole thing, he thought that Nick would be a little more observant than he is,
given, say, what the man does for a living. But he's painfully obtuse; either
that or he's not interested, but Greg always thought he was the kind of guy
who'd pull him aside and let him down easy so Greg's banking on the first
option. And he's pretty sure he's right because Nick does flirt back sometimes
and he didn't have it then, but now he's got at least a dozen answers off the
top of his head if Nick ever asks what he wins again (and they really should
start playing Name That Chemical Compound more often) and hey, he's open
twenty-four hours if Nick ever wants to take advantage. And he's careful; not
all night but twenty-four hours because that means before work, after work,
during even, and Greg's got the perfect rarely used conference room cased out on
the off chance hell freezes over and that ever happens. Oh, yeah. But. Now's the
not time to be thinking things like that about Nick with Archie right there and
anyway, the whole point was that when he started this whole thing, he didn't
plan on having to woo the most oblivious guy in the place without the entire
crime lab knowing.
"Yeah, Arch," Greg replies, and Archie hates being called Arch more than Hodges
hates being called Davey, but he sits for it with the CSIs because he really is
a sly little suck-up; more of a suck-up than Greg but less than Hodges and
really, Greg isn't even a suck-up so much as he is just helpful. "Nick and I
have a relationship. We work a lot of cases together."
Archie scoffs and Greg finally looks over at him, giving him the eyebrow. "The
flash-flooded hiker. The fetish club murder. The scuba diver up a tree. Old Pet
Sematary lady. And let's not forget the bus case."
"Ah, yes. The case where you bungled your chance and gave us all a bad rap?"
Greg was right in wishing that Archie would get the hell out of the hallway
because he's caught Jacqui's attention and Greg can see she's on the verge of
springing to his defense which, really, is the last thing he needs. Luckily
though, Archie's certainly not the first tech to have made that comment, so his
reply comes easy. "At least I had a chance to get out there and bungle things."
"So did I. Minus the bungling, of course."
And now it's Greg's turn to lean up against the table, all cool and casual and
smirking. "You were still processing evidence, Archie. I was processing the
scene." It's a difference Archie understands, even if it's just this side of a
little white lie. And the fact that Greg just scored one off him that made
Jacqui grin like the Cheshire cat isn't lost on Archie, who shoots Greg a look
before he turning around and making for his lab.
But Greg's nothing if not full of panache. "Archie?" he calls out, engrossed in
his samples again like this conversation isn't important at all.
"What?"
"With Nick, it's all about the right tool for the job. Remember that next time
he takes me out into the field."
And suddenly, Greg's not peeved about Archie anymore at all. In fact, he thinks
maybe he'll reward Nick with another game of Name That Compound when he comes
back in and who's that coming down the hall right now? Yeah, baby. It's gonna be
a good night.