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Nick closed the front door behind him with a sigh. He hadn’t realized how many questions he’d be fielding when he went to work that night. Correction, he thought, went to work alone. You’d think people had never heard of the flu before. Well, maybe the rest of the Vegas lab hadn’t, at least as it related to Nick’s lover.
He took the grocery bags to the kitchen and started to heat up some soup while he put everything else away. The water, juice, and pop looked a little out of place next to some of the wilder experiments in the fridge but Nick just rolled his eyes and opened the freezer to put away the popsicles and ice cream. He knew his lover’s stomach wasn’t up to the dairy treat but Nick needed something to give him strength to deal with his stubborn lover who somehow got worse when he was sick.
The tray of soup, crackers and juice ready Nick made his way to the bedroom and stopped in the door to just look for a minute. Gil Grissom lay against the dark sheets, asleep and Nick almost felt bad about waking him up but he knew that Gil wouldn’t have eaten anything during the night while he was away and he needed his strength to fight off the flu bug that was running through his system.
“Gil,” Nick said softly, setting the tray down on the bedside table. “Gil, can you wake up for me?”
“Nicky?”
“Yep; have you been asleep all night?” Nick asked. He helped Gil sit up and, before the older man could object, stuck a thermometer under his tongue. “Sorry, bad timing on the question. Just nod or shake your head.”
Gil shrugged and leaned back against the pillows. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d been so tired and just listless. Even the entomology journals Nick had left on the bed hadn’t been enticing enough to make him put on his glasses and read. He’d spent the night drifting and wasn’t sure how much he’d actually slept.
“Well, you’re still running a pretty high fever,” Nick sighed. “How much did you drink?”
“I don’t remember,” Gil said. He glanced at the soup bowl. “And I’m not hungry, Nicky.”
“I know, but you need to eat,” Nick replied. “Come on, eat and I’ll tell you what happened at the lab tonight.”
“It couldn’t have been that important or someone would have called me,” Gil said. He took the juice and sipped it slowly. “Nicky, I just can’t face the soup.”
“You are so damn stubborn sometimes. You need to eat so you can fight this bug, Gil,” Nick said. “I don’t want to face another night with Catherine as supervisor and honestly neither does Greg or Warrick.”
Gil’s eyebrow went up. “What happened?”
“Well you were right that it was a slow night,” Nick said. “Real slow and you know how Greggo gets on those nights.”
“Dancing, singing, or playing games?” Gil asked. He knew that his DNA tech was a little, well, wild. He normally didn’t mind as long as Greg’s work was done and honestly liked the distractions most of the time. Greg’s mind was like a puzzle that Gil was having fun figuring out because the young man was so opposite what he’d been when he was young.
“Greggo decided that it would be fun to have chair races,” Nick laughed. “Him and me against Archie and Warrick. We were out of the main lab and weren’t going to hit or hurt anything but Catherine just lost it. Told us how unprofessional the behavior was and she grounded us.”
It was all Gil could do not to laugh and spill the juice. “Okay, Nicky, how did she ground you?”
“She made us all stay in different labs and do paperwork for the entire night,” Nick said. “While she and Sara went out on the cases.”
“I’ll talk with her when I get back,” Gil sighed. “Are you going to stay with me today, Nicky?”
“I’ve been taking vitamin C all night so I don’t get sick,” Nick said. “Give me a bit to clean up and I’ll be back. You drink that juice and I’m going to bring you a water bottle when I come back. You need to stay hydrated.”
“I hate being sick,” Gil grumbled.
“I know and you’re a lousy patient,” Nick said. “But I love you anyway.”
Gil was asleep before Nick left the room. Nick frowned and rested his hand against Gil’s forehead. If that fever didn’t break in another day he was taking his lover to the doctor to get checked out. He didn’t care how much Gil argued, it wasn’t good for it to be left unchecked for so long. He grinned suddenly. It had happened; Nick had turned into his mother. He didn’t think he was going to tell Gil about that revelation though.