Forgive Me

Disclaimer - unfortunately I do not own the amazing programme that is CSI.

Nick climbed out of his Denali and addressed the PD Captain who stood before him. "What've we got, Brass?"

"Suspected murder suicide," he answered. "Alex and Janie Smith."

Nick nodded. "Witnesses?"

"A few are being interviewed now, but all are claiming they saw nothing and heard everything," Brass replied.

"Spousal disagreement gone bad?"

"You tell me," Brass raised an eyebrow. "Gonna speak to some more neighbours, see if I can get anything else."

Nick nodded and headed towards the pleasant looking home. You wouldn't think anything had happened just by looking. Nick told himself. Once again proving the 'don't judge a book by it's cover' proverb.

"Hey, you working this scene alone?" Brass looked back and shouted.

"Nah, the cavalry's coming," Nick smiled and walked into the house.

Sure enough, he was soon joined by Sara and Greg and all three of them set about working the scene. Nick agreed to start with the perimeter of the two bodies and the immediate surrounding rooms. Greg went around the rest of the house happily. And Sara had stuck with the bodies themselves, once David had cleared them.

Greg disappeared right away, not wasting a singled second. Sara too had cracked on with checking the bodies and, along with Nick, what was surrounding them. Or wasn't.

"There's some kind of void here," Sara announced.

"Hmm," Nick looked at the empty space and thought for a moment. "Maybe a coffee table or something."

"Huh, great minds really do think alike," Sara pursed her lips before turning back to the uncollected evidence in front of her.

Nick found himself holding his gaze for longer than she did. And longer than he intended to. He couldn't help himself, now could he? He tried convincing himself that he was a man and it was normal to stare at a women's body. That's all well and good, when the body doesn't belong to a women you work with, you consider a friend or possibly even a sister. But then again Nick couldn't help himself, really he couldn't. He always thought she looked amazing in what ever she wore, whether it be overalls when they processed evidence or that dazzling dress she wore for last years Christmas party. She'd kill me if she knew I remembered that on purpose. She'd kill me if she realised I was thinking about her at all. Nick thought. Man, she'd kill me if she realised who else had a habit of staring. Including myself. He had to admit that much. But even saying it in his own head made him feel sleazy and cheap. Made it like Sara was too. She was far from it. Pure class. And he stood by the fact that any man she ended up with would be the luckiest man in the world.

"Could you stop staring, please?" Sara asked politely.

"Huh, what?" Nick asked, coming back into reality.

"You were staring at me," she explained. "It was weirding me out."

"Oh, sorry," Nick shrugged his shoulders and smiled sheepishly. "I couldn't help myself. I had to return the favour."

"Excuse me?" Sara raised her eyebrows. "Return the favour?"

"Yeah," Nick smirked. "I couldn't help but notice you checking me out."

"I was checking you out? Please, don't flatter yourself," she scoffed.

"It's a good boost for my ego," Nick winked.

"Yeah, like your ego needs a boost," Sara rolled her eyes.

"Well you know what they say about men and their egos," he stated. "The bigger their ego, the bigger their…"

Sara eyes widened. God, does that mean what I think it does? She could only shake her head and pass him a sideways glare as Nick started to laugh at his own immature comment.

"Men," she scoffed under her breath.

"What's that Sar? Guessing my size?" Nick smirked, thoroughly enjoying his opportunity to flirt with her.

"Grow up, Nick," Sara insisted, looking curiously at a fibre near the victim and swiftly changing the subject. "I think I've got something."

"Oh, and what's that?" Nick asked, walking over to her to have a closer look, letting her drop the conversation. For now.

"Synthetic, I'm guessing," she added.

Peering over Sara's shoulder, Nick nodded in agreement. "Yeah, can't argue there."

Sara turned her head to face Nick, all ready to plaster a confident smirk on her face before she realised just how close he was to her. She was taken aback by how loud his soft breathing sounded in her ear. Does he know how close he's standing? Sara thought. She didn't want to say anything, she didn't want him to be embarrassed by their surprising proximity, although could he possibly be embarrassed after what he just insinuated about himself? Stop thinking about that! She didn't say anything because she kinda liked it. Back to the case, Sara.

"Um, I'll bag it and make my first stop be to Hodges when we get back to the lab," Sara insisted, clearing her throat.

"Good plan," Nick nodded.

He turned his head towards Sara slightly and locked eyes with her. Not good, man. Not good. He thought. And yet he couldn't part with her eyes for anything. Nick's heart rate gradually increased and his hands became sweaty and clammy. What's wrong with me? It's just Sara. That in itself was the problem; it had been a long time since she'd been 'just Sara' in his mind.

"I'll… I should, I need to…," Nick stuttered his words nervously.

"You should get back to the, um, the perimeter," Sara nodded, backing away from him slowly. "You know what Grissom would say."

"Yeah, I do. I can hear his words in my head already," he smiled.

Don't do it, Nicky! Perhaps not Grissom's words, perhaps his own, he wasn't sure he just knew he had to focus on the case they had been set.

"And I'll rush this and all the other evidence back to the lab a.s.a.p.," Sara added and walked away, not looking back at all.

"Sara," Nick called after her and sighed, before muttering under his breath. "Way to go, Stokes. Really did well this time."

He felt so guilty. If it wasn't apparent before that Nick had made Sara rather awkward with his ego comment, it was very clear now that by standing unnervingly close to his friend had made her extremely uncomfortable. My bad. Nick couldn't believe he had even virtually made a move on Sara, she wasn't exactly the type of girl to succumb to his charm easily and jump after him. But how she'd just acted had given him a rare insight of her feelings. Well, you know what they say, friends always make the best lovers.

"Hey, Nick," Greg smiled as he walked over to him. "How's it going?"

"I'm getting there," Nick shrugged his shoulders. "Have you seen Sara?"

"You haven't lost her, have you?"

"No, I think she went back to the lab with most of the evidence," Nick explained. "Just wondered if she had."

"She did. But she didn't look happy," Greg answered. "What did you do?"

"Nothing," Nick shook his head. "Doesn't matter."

"'Kay," Greg shrugged his shoulders and turned to walk away again. "If you say so."

Around the same time, Sara was just stepping out of her car, halfway through a conflicted conversation with herself. She tried not to be angry, not to show any emotion at all but it flowed out of her like it was a normal occurrence. How could he put me in a position like that? She wondered. How the hell am I supposed to feel now? Sara really wasn't sure what the answer to that question might have been. She wanted to allow herself to be flattered by the fact that she was clearly so close to Nick as a friend that he could stand so close to her and it not phase him one little bit. But at the same she was completely pissed at him. He had the nerve to do something like that, to say something like that, at a crime scene where he should have known to be professional. Where's the harm in flirting with a friend? Try telling yourself you hated it. Truth be told, she never hated it when Nick would flirt with her, he made her feel special and cared about, something only a minute number of men had ever done, and all those men had turned out all the same; cheating, lying scumbags. Can I really trust Nick?

Later that day:

Grissom! Sara screamed inwardly. Argh, I'm gonna kill him! Who would have thought that the one and only time in the entire world that she would have loved for Grissom to have stayed inside his box, his office, his own little planet, oblivious to human interaction that surrounded him everyday he went and suspected something. He went and suspected Nick and Sara of having some kind of argument and falling out, hence the enormous elephant in the room. What didn't help was when confronted about it, Sara flew off the handles, demanding Grissom to mind his own business. And stay out of hers.

So when the case continued on, the team regrouped in the break room. Grissom redistributed the new task load in an attempt to obviously get the best result possible and solve the case. He clearly thought he was helping, thought he would be helping Sara with the problem he knew she had, thought he was doing the right thing by Nick and Sara when he chose to put them together. And what was worse was that he could've put them out in the field where Sara could have had all the space she needed, but no, Grissom had shoved them both in a tiny, cramped, stuffy room to go over evidence they had already collected, making sure nothing was missed.

All Sara wanted to do was work solo and figure out why her stomach had filled with butterflies when Nick had looked her in the eye. It's not like he hadn't done that before. But it was something about that moment that felt strangely different, maybe due to his comments just moments before their awkward moment.

"So, you find anything we missed yet?" Nick asked, breaking the silence.

"No," Sara answered simply. "What about you?"

"Nah, me neither," he replied, shaking his head.

"Fantastic," Sara mumbled under her breath.

"Sara, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for how I acted earlier," Nick said sheepishly. "It was unprofessional and inappropriate, and I should not have said any of it. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Sara smiled, deciding to let bygones be bygones. "I'd already forgiven you."

Nick nodded before turning his attention to the evidence. "Hang on a second. What's that?" Nick thought aloud.

Sara leaned over and glanced at Nick before looking down at the evidence in his hands. "What've you got?

"Think I found something we missed," he stated. "Greg processed this piece of evidence, obviously not you or I."

"Obviously," Sara smirked. "You gonna tell me what you found?"

"Does that look like a fingerprint to you?" he asked, pointing to a garage door opener remote control that was found at their crime scene.

"Why yes, Nicky, I believe it does," she smiled as Nick turned to face her.

Sara found herself locking eyes with Nick in the awkward silence that followed. Her face was mere inches away from his. She tried so desperately to keep her breathing calm and under control but in doing so her heart rate hit the roof. What's a girl to do? Sara couldn't stop herself, she leaned closer just a teeny weeny bit, sighed audibly and squeezed her eyes shut when she realised just what she had tried to do. God, what must he think of me now? Bet he thinks I'm desperate. Because I am desperate.

Nick noticed what was happening and froze. What could he do? I can't do anything. She'll think even less of me. Part of him considered, perhaps just for a second, closing that small yet far too large gap between them and see if all the flirting over the years had indeed just been flirting or in fact some underlying… something. Test the waters basically. Nick had always liked her, he thought she was gorgeous and thinking about that probably helped him flirt with her shamelessly or even have the courage not to explode every time he got the opportunity to work with his Sara. My Sara? Where did that come from? Since when has been mine?

Sara cleared her throat and moved away from Nick awkwardly. That was kind of the theme for the day; awkward.

"Right, um, that's shift over, would you believe it?" Sara tried to smile but failed.

"No, it's gone fast today," Nick agreed, sticking to their small talk.

"Well, then, if we're done here, I think we should both head home, you know, catch up on some well needed sleep," Sara added as she stood up. "And when we come back tomorrow, all refreshed and well rested, we'll get this case all wrapped up."

"Sounds good," Nick nodded. "You head off and I'll just sort out this evidence."

"Okay then," she smiled, still not making eye contact. "I'll see you later then, Nicky."

Nick nodded and Sara walked passed him and headed for the door. Deep down, he wanted to stop her from leaving, he wanted to pounce on her and kiss her for all she was worth. Very inappropriate. Nick shook his head of that pathetic thought and started packing away the evidence, keeping his head down.

"Forgive me for what I'm about to do," Sara sighed as she stopped just short of the door, her back still turned to Nick.

"Huh?" Nick snapped his head up in Sara's direction and saw her turn back around and head straight towards him.

Before he had time to react to what was happening, Sara had cupped his face in her hands and planted a slow, sensuous kiss on his lips, lasting only a few seconds. She turned around again and walked out the room without saying a single word, as if nothing had just happened, as if she hadn't just kissed one of her best friends.

Thank you for reading. Ooh, what could possibly happen next? Hope no one hates me for the cliff hanger, next part will be up shortly. Review please.