Unpopular Boy

Author's Note -- Hey! This is my first ever CSI fiction. I hope that ya'll like it. I would definitely appreciate it if you would R&R. Also, I'll probably be doing a companion piece from Nick's point of view.

David Hodges had always been an unpopular boy.

He was the weird kid in elementary school, the kid who would rather sit on a swing than play kickball. He was smart though. The teachers loved him, he never talked out of turn or forgot to do his homework. He was picked on, but he was never beat up. The other kids just tried to avoid him if they could, and if they couldn't…well, they always could.

In middle school , while all of the other boys started to notice girls, David started to notice other boys. He tried not to stare as they all changed for gym, and for a while he managed to not get caught. Then, one day, he was. That's when he started to get beat up, when the teasing went from "harmless" child's play to words that cut deeper than any knife ever could. It got so bad that the school had to notify his parents. They weren't happy. His father, who had always ignored him started to punish him for everything, almost worse than the kids at school. His mother started to ignore him, even went so far as to deny his existence to her new friends.

In high school things changed a little. He got a boyfriend, a sweetheart named Jacob. Jacob's parents didn't hate him for what he was, and even let David move in, he finally had a place to feel safe. At school, he was still beat up, still called fag, but he had some friends now. A hodgepodge group of girls who wanted a "gay friend" just like in the movies. He knew he was being used, but it was nice to know he was wanted for something. He graduated top of his class, and was going to college on a full scholarship, same school as Jacob. Then, about mid July, Jacob was walking home from work alone and the kids who had always harassed David at school jumped him. Some old woman found him in the park and he was announced DOA at the hospital. The boys who had done it got off on lack of evidence, it was then that David swore he would find a way to put people like them in jail.

In college boys and girls alike fell all over him for his intelligence. He was smart, insanely so, and got his MS in Chemistry in four years. He never let himself get in a serious relationship, unwilling to be hurt again. He applied to some of the top crime labs in the country, wanting to be a technician in one of them, analyzing the evidence to lock killers up.

He took the job offered to him in Los Angeles. He hoped he would find a man that would take his mind off of Jacob. Unfortunately when he got there he was informed that while the lab was not technically allowed to fire him if he was gay, they would find a reason to if it turned out he was. He had always known that gays weren't well liked in law enforcement, but he had never thought it would be this bad. He ended up marrying the first woman that agreed to go on a date with him. They never actually slept together, preferring affairs to an actual divorce. They were content to live a lie, until she caught David with her brother on their fifth anniversary. The divorce was quick and rather painless. David applied to the top labs again.

This time he accepted the job in Las Vegas, working the night shift in the second best lab in the country.

When he got there, he was shown around briefly before being shoved into a lab coat and given a pile of evidence to process. He got to work right away, simply trying to do his best. It was true, he did suck up, but he knew he wouldn't be well liked, he never was, so he thought it best to get in good with his superiors.

He was right, he wasn't well liked. He was called a suck up by the CSI's and techs alike, and well as a snarky bastard. It didn't matter that he did his job to perfection, or that he worked as fast and efficiently as possible. He had to fill the position of "the bastard" though. Greg was the fun wanna be, Archie was the nerd, but a cool nerd, and he defiantly wasn't a chick or a ladies man or anything like that.

He played his part well, pissing off the other's he had to work closely with while worming his way into Ecklie's good graces. Sure there were pranks pulled on him, he had expected that when he excepted his role, but it was definitely better than anytime before, well almost anytime.

He still hadn't gotten up the courage to let anyone else into his heart, he just couldn't. He was, well, not happy, but content with the fact that he would grow old alone, never finding love again. That was until he saw Nick Stokes smile, really smile. A smile so big and white and genuine that it made your heart melt just thinking about it. See, David had given the Texan a big lead in a seemingly helpless case, just the thing the CSI needed to catch the guy who did it, that's when he smiled and clapped David on the back before practically running to go tell Grissom.

It was then that David resolved to see that smile more.

At first it was little things, things like making sure he processed Nick's samples first so that they would always be ready when the younger man came around. Then slowly, very slowly, it turned into other things. A conversation in the break room, a causal how was your day. All of it just made the relationship progress. One day, David got up the courage to ask Nick to breakfast, purely platonic, if that was all Nick wanted. To David's great surprise and pleasure Nick said he would love to, but not at the diner.

Nick invited David over to his house, Nick wanted to make breakfast for the two of them, and then, whispered quietly, so the others in the lab couldn't hear, maybe, later, Nick would cook dinner.

David smiled and nodded before going back to work.

The next day David was still smiling, and for once he didn't care that he had always been an unpopular boy.