I really liked writing Vodka and Ghosts. It was a short but sweet story, but I think I can do more.
This story is going where Vodka left off. I don't know how far I am going to go with this, but bear with me for a time. Please let me know what you think, and if there is anything I could add to it, let me know. I'm a newbie at this and appreciate any pointers.
"So where do you want to go?" She nuzzled his neck as they waited for the cab.
"That depends," Nick drawled. "Do you want to get something to eat? Or would you rather talk some more?"
"Let's go to my place, and we can do both."
The next morning….
The dream was always the same: sitting in the station's locker room getting ready to leave when darkness enveloped the whole room. Sara blindly walked towards the door, but the more she moved, the thicker the fog became. She would lose her bearings and then seeing the light break through ahead would run to it. There was a man standing at the opening where the light began, but no matter how hard she would try, she couldn't get there fast enough. The fog thickened to the consistency of pudding, and soon she was doing more wading through the fog than running. The man's hand was reaching out for her, calling her name, but it seemed so far, so distant, that she couldn't recognize the voice. She always called out Grissom's name, but the louder she cried, the farther the man became.
Sara knew that if the dream kept going, the worst part of the dream would surface. The fog would clear it would seem, and she would make a break for it, but as soon as she got into a good stride, arms reached out for her, grabbing at her clothes, ripping into her skin. The more she struggled, the more arms tightened their grip. Soon she could see who was holding her down. She knew all of them, some by name, most by case number. They were people who died since she came to Vegas, and the number kept growing. The bodies soon blocked out the light until there was nothing else to do but scream…..
Nick was in the bathroom when he heard the scream. Racing to her room he saw Sara fighting off invisible attackers, kicking and screaming at her tormentors. He grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to wake her.
"Sara, wake up. It's just a dream, wake up Sara…" he called out to her, trying to wake her, but the thrashing continued. Soon he resorted to shouting, trying to startle her to wake from the nightmare.
Sara didn't know how long it had been that she had been thrashing about. There was nothing to see, but softly she heard a voice.
"Sara, wake up….." The voice was not very strong at first, but the reaction was immediate. The arms holding her down, and the faces blocking out the light let go. She could see the man again, and it seemed as if the voice came from him. She stood there for a moment, and started to walk toward the light again. From behind, she heard another voice, she turned to see a young woman, light brown hair and crazy eyes focused on nothing but Sara.
"Sara?" The woman said again, and Sara didn't want to say yes, but it seemed her body was on a different frequency to her brain. Her brain wanted her to say NO, but her head nodded in agreement to the question. The Taser in the woman's hand shot out two electrodes, and soon all Sara could see was an orangish glow, feeling the electricity through her body……
She awoke with a start. Sweat drenching her long black hair. Nick was there, holding her, trying to calm her as only he could. The words he murmured in her ear didn't make any sense to her; the cadence of his voice calmed her down. She went limp in his arms, circling his neck with her own arms and crying into his neck.
"Hey there, little lady, it's going to be all right," Nick cooed to her. "It was only a dream; you are going to be ok." He stroked her hair lightly, his touch responding to her every movement.
She was glad that Nick was here, but at the same time she was very embarrassed. No one knew about her dreams, not even Gil. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell her boss/lover, it was just that he wouldn't have listened. He held dreams with very little regard, and it felt like she would be talking to her father about Santa Claus, rather than a lover her deepest fears. The relationship she had with him was complicated for sure, and now that she was in it, she realized it wasn't what she bargained for. She did love Gil, but how much was really the question now. She and Gil were so much alike, and that was what brought them together eventually. It seemed safe, but not very satisfactory.
Now there was Nick. He didn't know about her relationship with Gil, and she intended to keep it that way. Last night was a mistake, she was drunk off her butt, and Nick had to be the wrong guy at the right place. Their night of passion was wonderful for sure, but both had doubts as to what was to happen in the morning.
Nick stopped stroking her hair and turned her shoulders to him. "You ok now?"
Sara shuddered at the thought of the dream, but nodded "Yep, just a bad dream."
She got up from the bed and surveyed the damage. The only thing on her bed was a lone sheet. The comforter, pillow shams, and anything else on the bed earlier was strewn across the room. The blouse that she puked on was draped over the mirror to her vanity; his shirt was hanging off the door to the bathroom. To say they were a bit anxious to get to be would have been the understatement of the century. From the bedroom door she saw the line of clothes, his on one side, hers on another that made a beeline to the bed. It was a wild night, they couldn't seem to get enough of each other then, now, in the daylight it seemed quite awkward for them.
Nick shuffled around her to get his jeans. He's a fine man, that is for sure, she thought to herself. I don't want to get him messed up in this; he's too good for that. Nick's back was to her as he dressed. She couldn't stop looking at him, no matter what her logical mind said to herself.
"You see anything you like there Sidle?" Nick smiled to himself, he didn't regret last night. In fact if the truth be told, he wished that it would have happened sooner. He had always been attracted to her, but her infatuation with their boss really turned him off. He didn't see the connection, he was so much older than her and it didn't seem that it would have ended happily. There was so many times that he wished that he took her up on offers to go out for dinner, drinks, whatever, but he was too scared of screwing things up.
She smiled at the remark, "Well, Mr. Stokes I think there is a LOT I like there, but in good conscience, I can't have."
He sat down next to her, his hand on her knee. He knew this was coming, the logical side o him said it made perfect sense, but his heart screamed otherwise. He tried to be nonchalant, but failed miserably.
"What do you mean? Sara, I know that this started probably in the worst way, but understand that I don't want it to be a one night thing."
"Nick, out of all the guys I know, you are the closest friend I have. I don't want to ruin that friendship, our working relationship…"
"Oh hang it all. This isn't about me at all is it?" Nick got up from the bed, ripped his shirt from the door and started to put on his shirt. "It's him, isn't it?" His back was to her. She didn't have to ask who he was talking about, she knew.
"He has nothing to do with it." She knew that wasn't the truth, but Gil and her had promised to keep their affair a secret, and of all people she didn't want Nick to know.
"That's not true and you know it." He said with malice, "Don't you get it? This infatuation you have with Grissom is going to come down to nothing in the end. Why can't you understand that? He is incapable of loving you the way you should be loved." He had turned to her, and she saw his eyes pleading with her. She couldn't tell him the truth, not now, not ever. She didn't want to hurt him.
"And you think you know how to love me?" She spat it back, but in her heart she already knew the answer to that one. "You got what you wanted, just leave ok? This was a mistake, and I'm sorry that I led you on." She turned away from him so he could not see the tears that threatened to come out.
He walked up behind her, gently wrapping his arms around her. His breath was against her ear, his cologne lingered in her nostrils, intoxicating her for a moment.
"I think I showed that last night, Sara. And for the record, I didn't get what I wanted. Only you can give me that." He drew her closer and lightly kissed her ear. "This wasn't a mistake, no matter what you tell yourself Sara Sidle."
She wanted to turn around, wrap her arms around him, kiss him with all her might, but she couldn't. She shouldn't have been with him in the first place. She loved Gil, not Nick. This was getting too confusing and she needed him to leave to get her bearings straight. She stepped out of his embrace, turning to him but not looking him in the eye when she spoke.
"I think you need to leave now."