Perfect Fiction

If it wasn't for the rain waking him up, Greg wouldn't have known it was a dream. It felt so real. Even after he'd woken up with a smile on his face he could feel his heart beating faster than usual. A few seconds passed as he tried to collect his thoughts and work out why he suddenly found himself in the dark.

Shit, so it was a dream.

He squinted a little and looked over to the window at the storm outside. From his apartment he could see a bright blur of neon lights through a delicate stream of water resting against the glass. The lights from the strip sleazily flashed slowly on and off and brought Greg down from his high as he realized he was alone, in his own home.

As much as he loved his job and his friends, he always felt wounded when he woke from a dream. He always felt the same burning beneath his rib cage when he realized that what he'd felt wasn't real. Day after day he would have to contend with the perfect fiction that his mind was creating, and it was painful to deal with, and too 'trivial' to matter to anyone else.

It wasn't as if much changed in his dreams. He was still Greg Sanders, a crime scene investigator in Nevada. He had the same co-workers and friends, and life was as normal as you can achieve as a CSI. For any outsider, the only difference between fact and fiction would be small, but to Greg it meant the world.

The only difference is that in his dreams, he was always that little bit closer to his best friend. In reality, Greg and Nick were close and they always had been. Since the day Greg joined the lab straight after graduating Nick had taught him the ins and outs. He had given him a tour of the lab, introduced him to the team and forced his heart to skip a beat with his deep brown eyes. That last part was the problem, but in his fictional world he had the courage to act on it.

The only difference between what he had and what he wanted was courage.

Greg pushed himself up from the cold leather couch and sighed. He figured he probably got layed down after coming in from work, which he had been doing more and more often, and accidentally fell asleep. It wouldn't make a difference anyway because he had the following day off work, which was a good job considering the double shift he just pulled. Double murder again. Not nice.

He flicked on the light and walked into the kitchen to make a coffee. Between tasks he opened the fridge and took out a left over Chinese meal from the last time he ate at home. He placed it in the microwave and watched it spin around in circles before it came to a halt and started to steam. If there was any hope that he was going to have a good night it had to start with Chinese food.

He took the meal from the microwave and picked up his coffee but made it no further than half way to the couch before he heard a knock at the door. An eyebrow cocked itself as Greg peered over to the clock on the wall. 22:31. Who the hell? He placed his meal on the coffee table and slowly made his way over to the door.

As he opened the door his visitor slowly peered inside at him with a concerned look on his face. A look that Greg would mirror as soon as he figured out who it was standing before him.

"Henry?" Greg squeaked in his still-tired state. He was about to invite Henry inside before a taller man pushed him to one side and smiled smugly at him.

"And Hodges" The taller man confirmed before pushing the door open and stepping past Greg. Henry smiled shyly at Greg and slowly made his way inside, but it was pretty obvious that he was uncomfortable doing so. It was almost as if Hodges had a gun to his head. Greg decided against arguing for the sake of his neighbors and instead followed them back towards the couch.

Hodges traced items in the room with his eyes and took in every detail with a devious look on his face. He stopped to look at the meal that sat on the coffee table and turned his nose up. Even he has better standards than that. Finally, after observing everything of interest, he turned to face Greg and took a seat. "I have some good news" he stated and looked up at Greg in an expectant manner.

The younger CSI responded by sighing and dropping on the couch beside the person that he saw as an inconvenience. He raised his eyebrows at Henry who was standing uncomfortably beside him.

Hodges rolled his eyes and straightened up "Oh really, Hodges? Do tell me more!" He mocked enthusiastically in Greg's direction. "Why yes, dear Greggothy. The good news is that this little intervention is take two."

"Take two?" Greg questioned nervously. It wasn't very often someone would turn up at his apartment unannounced, and they had certainly caught him off guard, but he knew that whenever Hodges felt like being persuasive it was very difficult to get out.

"Take two of Henry's birthday party." Hodges grinned. He had a mischievous grin that made people uncomfortable and it was probably that that forced Henry's confession.

"I-It wasn't my idea." He blurted, and Hodges glared at him.

Greg shook his head and leaned over for his coffee. "You're thinking that it turned out so well the first time you wanna do it again?" he mumbles sarcastically.

"No, dumb ass, if it went well the first time if wouldn't be take two, would it? I just assumed that we owed it to Henry to try again. The man in question merely looked down at the floor in defeat and nodded not-so-convincingly.

Greg merely swapped his coffee for his noodles and looked disapprovingly at his company. Yet another thing he had been doing a lot of recently.

"I told you it was a bad idea" Henry sighed as Greg started to consume his meal. He watched Hodges scowl and pull all of the stereotypical thinking faces. Scratching his chin, furrowing his brow and tapping his foot. Doing them all at the same time was enough to raise a smirk from the otherwise pissed off CSI but he wasn't going to give in that easily.

"Well, I don't see how you have a way out of this." Hodges finally confessed.

Greg raised his eyebrow at Hodges once again and he was just about to ask how that was so before another knock sounded from the other side of the door. Hodges smiled with victory at his victim and pranced his way over the room whilst Greg braced himself for whoever was stood in the hall.

"Right on time" Hodges grinned as he opened the door and beckoned the confused visitor inside.