Author: Joyce

Title: Reality

Disclaimer: Sara and Warrick are not mine

Note: I started this piece over a year ago and then I never finished it until I found it today. I hope you guys enjoy this little story and I promise, really I do, to write an update for 'New Beginnings' next.

Reality

They were all worried about Grissom leaving the team but he came back, just like he promised, and everything was ok again. They never saw it coming after that because peace was restored but he had left anyway, their rock. Warrick had decided to call it a day. He had told them he was done with his job, that he was done with Vegas and his marriage. He wanted something else for a while and they just stood there and watched him leave. Things never were the same after that. Catherine missed him without ever telling anyone. Nick and Greg did no such thing, they missed their buddy and told the world about it. Grissom rarely showed anything but his team knew he did miss Warrick, he had proclaimed him the rock of the team and now he had to try and rely on someone else. Sara wasn't sure what she was feeling, she couldn't say she lost a friend like Nick did or that she missed him like Cath but something had changed the day he left and she wasn't sure what...

A couple of months later...

Sara looked around her and smiled a bit. Paris. It looked like she always thought it would and so different at the same time. She had needed this, needed this time away from the lab and Grissom. She never would have thought that she would be the one breaking up with him but she had. She had got up and walked away because she had realized that the real relationship was never better then the fantasy had been. That was the bad thing about fantasizing too much, real life could never top it.

In the present she smiled when she saw a familiar person walking towards her in the lobby of the hotel she was staying in. Warrick. Who had chosen Paris as his hiding place as well.

"Sidle," he said when he stopped in front of her. "I imagined a lot of people calling me but not you saying that you were in town and wanted to stop by and say hello."

She shrugged. "I've been walking around in this city all by my lonesome for two days now, I needed some decent company and with that not available I thought...Why not? Let's call Warrick..."

He grinned and reached down to give her a friendly hug. "It's good to see you too, Sara," he told her with a smirk. "How have you been?"

She smiled at him and nodded. "I've been good. How about you? Paris seems to agree with you. You look decent enough."

He rolled his eyes at her covered compliment and motioned for her to follow him. Outside of the hotel they found a spot with great view of the Seine and silently they watched the river for a while.

"Paris does agree with me," he finally replied. "It cleared my head, you know? A break from casino's and corpses was what I needed apparently."

Sara studied him, not sure if she ever saw that smile on his face before. Warrick always looked cool and relaxed but there was something different about it this time, none of it was an act now. "I saw Tina before I left..." she began and he turned towards her.

"How is she?" he asked with no hint of resentment in his voice. "Still bitter," Sara replied shortly and he shook his head. "Why is it that she cheated on me but still makes me feel that I failed in our marriage?" he mumbled sarcastically.

"The woman is a bitch," Sara replied honestly and she stopped when she heard what she just said, blushing quite sweetly. "You said it, Sidle," Warrick told her with a wink before he started laughing.

"Anyway," he continued once the laughter stopped. "My sob story is in the past, buried and forgotten. What brings you here?"

"Grissom," she said and he nodded, waiting for her to say more but she didn't.

"He dump ye?" he finally asked and she rolled her eyes at him, not surprised that Warrick knew about them even if they hadn't told anyone. He always had a way to see through secrets. "No, I dumped him," she said casualy, waiting for the reaction to come.

Warrick eyes widened and he just stared at her. "You dumped him?" he clarified and she just nodded. "What has the world come to?" he commented before he started laughing again.

"Stop it, Brown," she warned him but it was no use and soon she joined him in the laughter.

"What are you doing tonight?" he asked her after they had collected themselves and she shrugged. "Nothing I guess," she told him honestly. "Wanna see the hottest club in Paris?" he questioned.

She just blinked. "You really think I'm a club going person?"

He gave her a slow smile. " Yeah, I think that a Sara Sidle who dumps Gil Grissom is a perfect person to go to a club and have some fun. Come on, what else are you going to do? Watch the walls in your hotel room?"

"I could have had plans," she said with a somewhat angry expression her face and Warrick stared her down. "You just told me you didn't so don't try to lie to me. I've been out for a few months but my investigative skills are not completely dead."

"Fine, I'll go with you " she agreed somewhat hesitantly, watching him nod happily before he walked off. "I'll be back in a couple of hours, Sara," he warned her. "Be ready."

A couple of hours later...

With a sigh Sara stood in front of her mirror, studying herself. She had not packed anything that she could wear to a club so she had spend the past hours shopping. With Paris being the city of fashion she figured that buying a decent dress would have been easy but they had either been to expensive or to sleazy, in some cases both. Finally she had found a nice dress, an hour before Warrick was coming to pick her up. Now she was doubting her decision, the black dress was beautiful but showed more of her curves then she ever let anyone see see, let alone Warrick.

The knock on the door made her frown but then she straightenend her back and opened the door. Ready to face him. The smile that greeted her eased her nerves and the appreciative glance he gave her made her feel oddly proud. Maybe this was not going to be such a bad night after all...

45 minutes later...

"What do you mean we can't go in?" Warrick said slowly, trying to supress his irritation while the bouncer tried to understand what the tall man before him was saying. "No," he finally replied in broken English. "This is party, private."

Warrick sighed and tried again. "Two more can't hurt." The man stared at him blankly, "No," he just replied and Warrick knew he was defeated. When he turned back to Sara he saw her trying to hide a smile and that made him even more irritated.

"Let's go," he mumbled and she had trouble following his angry steps. "This would have never happened in Vegas," he then muttered to himself. "Bouncers love me there! They roll out the red carpet when they seem me..."

That was it, she stopped and laughed because if was all so absurd. She was in Paris, in a tiny black dress while the cool Warrick Brown was just denied access to a nightclub. Something that had never happened to him before in his life.

Warrick stopped when he heard laughter behind him and when he turned around he saw Sara clutching her sides while laughing and he found it such a cute site that his irritation vanished.

"It's not funny, Sidle," he said, lingering above her and she just shook her head. "No..." she finally managed to say, "just a bit weird, that's all. Now come on, I've got a full mini bar back in my hotel."

"But I wanted to take you clubbing" he protested, trying very hard not to look at her swaying butt as she walked before him. "Getting drunk is much more fun," she replied. "Now come on,!"

Two hours later...

"This is more fun," Warrick slurred while he was laying sprawled on Sara's bed with the brunette next to him. "Yep," she said brightly, "Fun!"

"Sara?" he asked and she tried to move to face him. She failed three times in doing so but finally she was facing him with a cute and serious, albeit drunk, expression on her face. "Shoot!" she near shouted, "Only not really, please."

"I won't" he promised her and she smiled at that. "Sara," he tried again. "I just wanted to say...you have a nice ass."

She blinked twice before an even bigger smile broke out on her face. "You have a nice ass too!"

"Thanks!" he replied, his smile matching hers.

"Warrick?" she said and now he was looking at her while trying very hard to concentrate. "Two people," Sara began, "who have nice asses like us, great asses even...Two people like that can have sex, right?"

"I think they have to have sex," Warrick decided, after having pondered her question for a few seconds. "Good," she mumbled happily, moving in to kiss him. "That's settled then..."

Three weeks later...

"I'm gonna miss you," Warrick told Sara while she was packing her bag and she looked back at him. "I'm gonna miss you too," she confessed and both where silent.

"Come home with me, Rick," she whispered after a while and he frowned. "I thought this was just a Paris thing?"

"Maybe," she said, shrugging. "I don't think so to be honest. What I do know is that I don't want to leave you here. We missed you at home, you miss Vegas and we could have something going here. Come home with me."

He shook his head. "I would," he told her. "But I can't just get up and leave. I have a job, a place to live. I need at least a week to tie up all lose ends here."

She walked over to him. "Then come home in a week," she pleaded. "Sara," Warrick whispered, "I was never the one you dreamed about, you know that."

"I was never the one you dreamed about either," she replied and she got him there, she could see it. "This feels like it could be something real, Rick. Not a dream but real."

He leaned down and kissed her, relishing in her smell and the feel of her near. "What are you doing in a week?" he then asked her and she smiled. "Picking up my boyfriend from the airport?" she questioned with a hopeful expression on her face and he just nodded. "Good answer," was the last thing he said before he kissed her again.

The End