formerfratboy | [for warrick and karen]

Entry tags:

karen,
warrick

[for warrick and karen]

While Nick didn't spend as much time in the lab as his coworkers and other lab-type friends did, he still let the honor fall to him to show Warrick around the place. He had the nagging feeling that he was supposed to be somewhere, but he couldn't quite remember what he was supposed to be doing. So instead, he walked Warrick through the lab, talking to him about the various projects and tasks they had going on at the moment.

"And... that's pretty much it," Nick said, gesturing at the lab after he'd given Warrick the walk-through. "If we were living back in 1980 or something, this would have been pretty cutting edge." He leaned up against a counter, crossing his arms over his chest. "And now, we just... make do with what we've got." At least their lab seemed to be staffed by the best of the best. Nothing to complain about there.

He paused, hooking his fingers in the beltloops of his jeans, and cocked his head to the side, then, as if remembering something. That thing he was supposed to be doing? He remembered what it was now, and he was going to have one mildly annoyed girlfriend if he didn't get out to her hut soon.

"Hey, man," Nick said, looking over at Warrick, "I've got to run over to Karen's, I left my binoculars over there and she said she was going to start spying on the neighbors if I didn't come get them soon. You gonna be cool here?"

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Karen's eyebrows rose in surprise at first with Nick babbling like he couldn't wait to get away, but it quickly turned to amusement when Warrick introduced himself properly.

She couldn't help but smile happily back as she shook his hand, and not just at the way Nick looked like he wanted to get away. Mostly, Karen was glad that a friend had shown up, because she didn't care how much Nick tried to pretend he was all right about Greg disappearing.

"It's nice to meet you too," she said, and gave Nick a smug, questioning look at that little admission.

Nick grinned a bit awkwardly at Karen and shrugged his shoulders. Of course he'd been doing nothing but telling Warrick how great she was. Right! He could go for that!

"Great, so!" He clapped his hands. "This is great. Real nice. I'm glad we're all, uh, here. Together." Not saying anything embarassing or incriminating. "Friends. Awesome. That's awesome."

Awesome in the way that any story that would involve the words hey, did Nick ever tell you about the one time... could possibly be.

I shoot Nicky a pained way to be smooth look, then open my eyes wide. Chill, man. Then I turn my attention back to his lady, smiling and shaking my head a little, sorta sympathetic.

"So, Karen, you're gonna have to tell me about yourself. All I can get out of Nicky, here, is 'amazing', 'gorgeous'--" I catch the sunlight shining off a plaque on her door and tap two fingers on it. "And Regional Manager. He's real proud of that."

You owe me hard for this one, Nicky.

Karen had to bite down hard on her lip to keep in her amusement at how uncomfortable Nick seemed to be, and as Warrick talked, she thought she had an idea of just why he was.

Of course, when he tapped on the plaque, a small burst of laughter escaped her, and Karen turned an overly sweet smile on Nick. "Thanks, sweetheart. I didn't know you felt that way."

That was about all the teasing she could get in before she'd started laughing again, so Karen headed over to a small pile of stuff on her bed and picked out Nick's binoculars.

Nick shot Warrick a glare, that tried to say something to the effect of you're laying it on a little thick there, buddy.

"Oh, of course I do," Nick said with an awkward grin. "You know, always chatting you up to my friends about how... great and managerial you are."

Fail, Nick Stokes. Fail.

Nicky's glaring and it's all I can do not to laugh like his lady, there, when he starts in on how managerial she is.

"Think you're looking for the word 'bossy', man," I say, tossing a smirk at my boy. "'Course he means that in the best possible way."

Karen hasn't exactly invited us in, and the huts aren't that big, so I'm leaning in the doorway, watching her and thinking Nicky picked a good one. Or since it's Nicky, she picked him with one soft look from eyes he could drown in. He probably rescued her from some damned thing.

"Of course he does," Karen agreed, though there was nothing but good nature behind it. She held the binoculars in her hand, not ready to hand them over to Nick, knowing he'd try to get out there with Warrick as son as he could.

There was probably good reason for it, too. "So, Warrick? How long have you known Nick?"

Nick reached out for the binoculars, but he knew that look from Karen. That look said you can't have this until I'm ready to hand it over.

Fabulous.

This was going to go real well.

"I wouldn't say bossy," Nick said, then turned to Karen. "I don't think you're bossy. I know bossy. You're not bossy."

She was too freaking cute to be bossy.

Oh, yeah, she's all right, 'cos my boy's acting like he left his brain in a jar in the lab, and she's still smiling at him like he's the best thing since sex. Or maybe it's the sex, but I'm so not going there.

I watch him figure out she and I are in this thing together and he's screwed six ways to Sunday, then I slouch into my lean. "Me and Nicky go way back. The math on that's kinda complicated, since he's been here a year and a half but the date he left from is two years ago for me. So--" I pause and think it over. 1997, huh. "Eleven years for me, ten and a half for him."

'Cos I'm feeling it, and I can, I grin at Nicky and punch him in the shoulder. "Since he was just a baby CSI, all chubby cheeks and peach fuzz."

Eleven years is a long time, full of what had to be hundreds of great stories to hear. The possibility of now being able to hear them filled Karen with nothing short of glee.

Of course, she was definitely happy Nick had Warrick around now, but some things were just important.

"Please," she said, managaging the most innocent look she could, "tell me you have pictures."

Nick had a snappy retort all lined up about their early days as CSIs, but then Karen said pictures.

And his jaw dropped.

"Please tell me you don't," he said, looking imploringly at Warrick. It wasn't that the possibility of pictures was bad -- well, if you didn't mind late 90s fashion -- it was ...yeah, it had to be a violation of the man-code or something.

"And I never had chubby cheeks," he insisted. "If anything, y'all should have been force-feeding me sandwiches."

Damn, Nicky, no sense of self-preservation. He sets himself up again and again. It's almost painful to watch. Not so painful I can pass this up, it's too rich.

I give Nick the saddest look I can manage when I'm biting the side of my tongue to keep from laughing, then turn back to Karen. "You know, I don't. I had some." I kinda shrug, hang dog. "But when he broke things off between us last year, I just couldn't stand to look at them anymore," I say, and put just enough bitch into it to make it questionable.

Karen was pretty sure Warrick was still going on with teasing she so approved of, and she almost lost it for a split second before biting down had on her tongue and keeping a straight face as she turned to Nick.

She didn't even say a word — she'd lose it if she tried to speak — and just gave him a questioning look.

Nick, meanwhile, was staring at Warrick with a look that only could be compared to a deer in the headlights.

He knew that the whole buried-alive thing fucked him up -- he wasn't having an easy time of it here, and he'd made plenty of missteps and had a ton of setbacks, but he didn't quite imagine him going that much off the deep end as to do, well, that.

Warrick's statement had caught him so off-guard that he didn't really even have the time to think that his friend was simply messing with Nick's head. Instead, all Nick could do was be really, really confused.

"What the hell did I miss?" Nick asked, eyes wide.

Damn, Nicky. What did I miss? I'm working hard to keep it off my face 'cos that's not a conversation a man wants to have with his best friend in front of his lady.

It's not a conversation a man wants to have with his best friend at all.

I clap my hand to my chest, playing it for all I'm worth. "It pains me that you don't remember--" I skip the 'Baby'. I did promise. "--Nicky."

Shooting Karen a look and a wink, I say, "After Griss and Sara, Greg and Cath, Wendy and Hodges...we were the only ones--" Then I punch Nick and shake my head, laughing roughly. "Don't mind him, Karen. My showing up like I did knocked him straight back to stupid."

Karen's shoulders shook with laughter she was doing her best to contain, and she shook her head at Warrick.

Actually, she was pretty sure she couldn't talk without bursting into laughter again, so she moved over to Nick and handed him the binoculars. She barely resisted patting him on the cheek.

Nick took the binoculars blindly, still staring at Warrick, mouth hanging open while he processed what Warrick said.

It was the Greg and Cath that clued him in.

Cath would eat a kid like Greg for breakfast, then move on to someone a little more... well, the polar opposite of Greg, pretty much.

"You've got to be bustin' my chops, man," Nick said slowly. "You've -- I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that, or anything, with, you know, but --" He cocked his head to the side. "Warrick, come on, man, either my life took some weird left turn or -- man! You're totally playin' me, you have to be."

"Nick," I say, eyes closed and head shaking. "My friend, that is just sad."

In more ways than one, but right now I'm not letting myself think about how hard it must've been for my boy, dealing with what happened here on the island instead of at home. I'm not sure I could've done it, man, and that's the stupid thing about Nick. He thinks I'm strong. Boy's an ox.

A'ight, Brown, pull your head back to the game before you lose it, yo.

I do. I shoot him a disgusted look. "And I honestly can't say what's sadder. That you're still not sure, or you actually think I'd be so hard up as to need to tap your ass." Craning my head to look around him, I pretend to look him over. "Not that it's not a fine ass. It is a fine ass, don't you think, Karen?"

Karen was half caught between wanting to sit down and laugh for a good long while and half wanting to pull Nick aside and let him know how adorable he was. Actually, she could probably do both later.

She also decided right then and there that Warrick was alright. "I'm gonna have to agree, Warrick."

Nick's head reeled with the conversation bouncing back and forth. "We're talking about my ass now," he said, almost making it to a question.

He shook his head, finally bursting into laughter when he thought back over the conversation. "Man, you are ... you are something else, Warrick," he said, grinning. "You -- oh, man, just you wait." No one played Nick Stokes like that without at least getting.... some sort of nerdy retribution.

"Yeah, yeah." I mime his gums flapping with my hand. "All talk and no play, Nick. All talk and no play."

Now baiting Nicky is not the best idea. Most of his stuff is pretty played out, but my boy's a nerd. And I never met a nerd who didn't bring his A-game when it came to revenge.

But, it's worth it, you know what I'm saying? 'Cos I got to bust my boy's chops for awhile, and none of us are standing around scuffing our toes in the dirt not meeting each others' eyes while doing the 'who does he love more?' dance. Now? We're all old friends, and me and Karen are gonna get on real fine.

So I sling my arm around Nicky's shoulders, reach out with the other hand to muss his hair, then turn a smile on Karen that'd melt butter in a freezer. "A'ight, Miss Filippelli, you and I gotta make a deal, here. You tell me what my boy's been getting up to on the island, and I'll tell you..." I smirk at Nick. "Anything you want to know."

Within reason. There are some things a man won't dish about his bros. But Karen? She's cool, and I'm guessing that won't be a problem.

That was an offer Karen couldn't really refuse. Not entirely anyway; it wasn't like this was the one and only time she would talk to Warrick, she was making sure of that. Nick couldn't be around all the time.

"Nothing interesting to report," she said, giving Nick a look that said he was getting off easy for now. "Unless you count the war the jukebox has on Nick, anyway."

And she was keeping it light, because the rest wasn't her place to say.

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[for warrick and karen]

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