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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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2020-11-04
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Reality Check

Summary:

Pairing: Jim/Greg
Disclaimer: Not mine, wish they were.
Series: JiGr-verse
Notes: Kudos to Joanne for being a wonderful beta and a great source of feedback

Work Text:

Reality Check
by Kerguelen

 

Greg was enjoying a nice, mellow evening in the lab. The whackos and psychos must have been taking the night off since the night shift csis had barely left the building, let alone brought him anything to work on. Instead Greg had been making a major dent into the samples that were backed up from the other shifts. He was finally starting to relax. He'd been keyed up all week, waiting for Grissom to say something about Jim. Except for that, it had been a good week -- an exceptional week even. Breakfast with Nick, Lindsey and Catherine had been somewhat embarrassing, but it was great to be able to be out with Jim and not have to hide that they were lovers. At first they'd tried to act normal, but Lindsey had sussed it out quick enough and asked Jim if Greg was his boyfriend. Greg had been thrilled when Jim said that he was and Lindsey had told them she thought that was pretty cool. Greg looked up as Grissom walked in with some samples for him.

"Hey."

"Hi, Greg. I need you to process these for me. Top priority."

"Sure, no problem. It's been a slow night. I'll get right on it."

"Thanks," Grissom said, heading toward the door, turning back just as he entered the hall. "Greg, do you have plans after shift?"

"No."

"I'll grab you on the way to breakfast then."

"Okay, I'll be ready."

It wasn't until later that Greg started wondering about the invitation. Normally, Nick or Catherine would be the ones to tell him if people from the CSI side of the lab were going out and Jaqui would tell him if the lab crew was going. It was just strange to have Grissom ask. He was still pondering it when Nick came in to pick up his results.

"Hey, Greggo. Got something for me?"

"Your results, as promised," Greg said, shuffling through his files and handing the appropriate one to Nick. He watched as Nick looked over the results, debating whether or not to give in to paranoia and ask. "Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have plans after shift?"

"No, why? You up for something?"

"Grissom came by and said something about us going to breakfast, but he doesn't normally ask if it's a group thing - usually it's you or Catherine that invite me come with you."

"Grissom just goes along with us. He doesn't suggest it."

"That's what I figured. Looks like he's finally going to say something about me and Jim."

"You gonna tell Jim?"

"Nope. I can handle it."

"Jim's gonna want to know."

"And I'll tell him. Later. Once it's settled."

"Uh huh. Somehow I don't think that's what he had in mind."

"Don't you have a case to work on? Oh yeah, you do."

"Greg--"

"Go on. It'll be fine. I can handle it."

"All right. Just do me a favor, tell Brass."

"Yes, bwana. Of course, bwana."

Nick hit Greg with his file, but at least his joking around had distracted Nick and gotten him to leave. Greg went back to work and started to make plans based on whatever Grissom could throw at him. There was no way that he was going to stop seeing Jim.

*********************

Grissom didn't say anything out of the ordinary on the way to the diner over on 5th. It was all case related conversation about the latest batch of samples Greg had run for him. He didn't bring up anything personal until after they'd been seated and ordered their food.

"Greg, I wasn't going to say anything, but I'm concerned by your dating Jim."

"Concerned?"

"Yes. Office romances are dangerous in the best of circumstances--" Gil began before Greg cut him off.

"I wouldn't exactly call Jim and I an office romance. Technically, I work for the CSI investigating the scene. I rarely have any contact with Jim in an official capacity - at least not since you replaced him as shift supervisor."

"Technically that's true, but--"

"Technically? Grissom, cards on the table. You don't like me dating Brass. I'm not going to stop and you can't make me. This is not one of your operas. You can't convince me that he doesn't care about me or buy me off."

"I'm not trying to, I'm trying to get you to realize that he's a cop and that means he's putting himself in danger by dating men."

"Even if he isn't dating men, he's still gay. People can still find out. And it's not like I'm going around wearing pride shirts while singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.' He's happy. I'm happy. You're just going to have to learn to deal."

"Greg, you've got to see--"

"No, I really don't," Greg said, taking a deep breath as he prepared to pull out the big guns. "Look, Grissom, as a CSI, you're amazing to work with and I respect you a lot, but if you try and interfere with this, I will transfer to swing shift. I don't want to, but I'd do it."

"You're really serious."

"Yeah, I really am. I know we've only been going out for a week, but I've been crushing on Jim for forever. I'm not going to give up on this. If I get my way, I'll still be with Jim when he retires so we can be that obnoxious gay couple with the pdas, the public displays of affection ones not the personal digital assistant ones, you know? And we'll make everyone around us amused by how disgustingly cute we are or freaked out by the whole man/man thing," Greg said.

Grissom didn't get the chance to respond right away as the waitress brought their food to them. It gave him a chance to stop for a minute, to reassess. He'd thought Greg had been jumping in and putting himself into the position of rebound guy, but it sounded like Greg was really serious about this relationship.

"I didn't think - I guess I just assumed that this was just a passing thing for you."

"Most of my friends are settling down, getting married, having kids. I went to 5 weddings last year. The thing is I want that too. I want to know that there's one person I can talk to about whatever is going on, one person who'll be there for me, and I'm really hoping that person will be Jim. You may not have wanted that with him, but I do and I really hope he wants it too."

"He does. Jim's not meant to be alone. I know that sounds strange coming from the person who was trying to convince you to leave him alone, but he needs to have people to take care of. It's what he does."

"So does that mean I don't have to put in a transfer request?"

"I still don't like it. Despite everything, he's my friend and I don't want to see him get hurt--"

"But?"

"But I'll back off. As long as you're discreet and you're both happy, it's really not any of my business," Grissom said, mangling his eggs with his fork.

"He's still your friend. I hope I'm your friend. That makes it your business. It's just not as much your business as it was when you were more than that," Greg said with a small smile, trying to reassure Grissom.

Breakfast was uncomfortable and silent for a while, but Greg could never leave a silence alone and started telling Grissom about some case he'd heard about from day shift. Things were just getting back to normal when Gil spotted Brass coming into the diner. Gil winced as he Jim stormed over to their table, clearly spoiling for a fight.

"How many times do I have to tell you it's none of your business who I date?" Jim growled at Gil, before turning on Greg. "And you, I thought I told you to let me know if he was making a pain of himself."

Grissom watched in stunned silence as Greg reached out, grabbed Jim by the hand and pulled him down onto the bench seat with him. You didn't just manhandle Brass. You just didn't do it. And this was Greg. Little, "you make me nervous" babbling Greg taking control of Jim I'm-in-control-of-the-situation Brass. As far back as Gil could remember, there were only two people that Jim allowed to take such liberties with him. One was Lindsey and the other was Ellie.

"How about saying hello before going off, hmm? I'm assuming Nick told you and that's how you found us. As for why I didn't call, I didn't call you because I didn't need to call you. There was nothing to call you about. Everything is fine. Isn't it, Grissom?"

"Hmm? Oh, uh yeah. Everything's fine. We just decided to go have something to eat."

"Now then, when don't you take that hideous tie off, order something to eat and relax."

And then the most amazing thing happened. Jim took off his tie, smiled at his boyfriend and his old friend, and gestured to the waitress to come over.

 

The End