A/N: This is my response to the truth or dare challenge posted in the Sara/Nick fanfic Yahoo group! Hope you enjoy! Please R&R!
Disclaimer: Don't own it. Admittedly, I don't even own the truth or dare idea... though I've considered it in the past, just never put my muse to use...Onward!
"Are we there yet?" Greg moaned into Sara's headrest as their Tahoe sped down the highway in the direction of Lake Mead. He was bored stiff, never being able to sit still in a vehicle for much longer than an hour and a half. They were verging on three.
"No, Greg." Sara rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the nuisance that sat behind her. She stared out the window into the distance, hoping to catch a glimpse of the lake, but without success. Nick turned his head to face her for a moment, a faint smile crossing his face before he continued driving. It had been a long two hours and 45 minutes with just the three of them; and they were slowly tiring of each other's company... Or rather, Nick and Sara were tiring of Greg's.
Sara, sensing that Nick had been looking at her, turned to catch his eye in the driver's mirror with an annoyed sigh. What she wouldn't have given for it to have been only the two of them... but Catherine and Warrick had left early with Grissom, and Greg decided he would tag along at the last minute, leaving the pair little choice but to bring him. Nick winked at her before taking a quick look at the car clock and returning his sights to the road.
"Almost there, another 15 minutes at the most," he announced, causing Greg to sigh in relief.
"Good, because I'm so bored that I can barely stand it anymore," he stared again at the back of Sara's headrest, a mischievous thought forming in his mind. "Hey, anyone want to play Truth or Dare to pass the time?"
"I don't think it would be a good idea for me to play, I'm driving- If I ended up with a dare, we could all end up... well... You two go ahead, though." Nick looked straight ahead, determined to avoid looking at Sara, although he was sure the look on her face would be priceless.
"No, that's okay…" Sara looked at Nick incredulously, as if to say how dare you? "Greg, honestly, we only have fifteen minutes. Pull yourself together. I'm not playing Truth or Dare." Nick almost let out a snigger as Sara spoke, but managed to disguise it as a rather violent cough. "Alright, Nicky?" Sara asked with a knowing, venomous glare.
"Yeah. Fine." Nick covered his mouth with his hand. Greg moaned loudly.
"Come ON, Sara, I'm so bored! Please!"
"Later, Greggo."
"Saaarrrraaaaa……."
"Look, this is our exit. We're almost there." Nick rolled his eyes as Sara had beneath his sunglasses.
"Finally. I was beginning to think you were torturing me on purpose." Greg laughed lightly.
"Funny…" Sara said. "I was thinking the same thing." She glared now at Greg, turning in her seat to look at him properly. Nick swore he saw him recoil a few inches at her harsh tone.
"Are you two finished?" He poked a stagnant Sara Sidle in the ribs as if to awaken her from her gargoyle stare at the quirky lab-tech. She jumped, throwing her gaze with surprised eyes from Greg to him, sucking in a quick breath.
"What was that for?"
"We're here, darling." Nick smothered his voice thick with a southern drawl as he pulled the sunglasses from his face. He winked in her direction.
"OOOH! Look at this! The two lovebirds are showing physical affection! Wait 'till I tell Gris… He'll be so jealous that Nicky is making moves on his girl…" Greg undid his seatbelt at lightening speed and threw open the SUV door, running from the couple as fast as he could.
"Come back here, GREG!" Sara hurled her door open and started chasing after him, closely followed by Nick who locked the doors to the truck quickly before setting off at a sprint.
"You're a dead man!" He shouted, almost passing Sara before snatching her hand in his as he kept running. Arms linked, the pair were almost at the lake's shore before they caught up to the source of their alarm. Not knowing where to run next, Greg took off down the shoreline searching frantically for Grissom, Catherine and Warrick, who should have arrived shortly before them.
"Gris! Cath! Where the hell are you guys?" Greg howled in panic, shooting a darting glance over his shoulder to see how close Nick and Sara were to catching him. The look back slowed him down slightly, and the already close couple caught him almost right away, tackling him mercilessly into the rocky sand.
"Oww… Okay, white flag…" Greg's face was stuck between two large rocks, small grains of sand finding their way into the crevices between his teeth. Sara giggled girlishly, smiling at Nick who smiled back, still holding her hand as he pinned Greg down.
"That's for being annoying…" Sara chuckled, patting Greg on the back before standing up, Nick following her lead and helping their victim rise from the sand.
"And saying she was Gris's girl…"
Greg's eyes grew wide as he brushed himself off, wiping the sand from his jean shorts and Hawaiian beach shirt. "So you are…"
Sara cut him short, cocking an eyebrow as if he were completely stupid. "Shut up, Greg."
"Hey, when did you guys finally get down here?" The trio looked up to see Warrick walking down the beach in sandals and a pair of board shorts, brandishing Catherine, who was wearing a hibiscus-dotted summer dress at his side. Grissom was bringing up the tail of the party, stopping momentarily to study a decaying log in search of an interesting bug specimen.
Nick caught Sara's eye for a moment then answered: "About five minutes ago… we made a little sprint to the beach." He looked at Greg, who was wiping his tongue with his hands viciously, trying to get all the sand out of his mouth but succeeding in only adding more to it; the backs of his hands were laced with the tan beach powder. Warrick and Catherine raised their eyebrows, looking slightly dismayed at his behavior. Nick caught Warrick's eye and mimed a punch with his fists, winking toward Sara. The CSI 3's eyes lit up as he understood what Nick was implying.
"Ahh… I see…" Warrick winked back at Nick as Sara had caught Catherine's eye and was trying to communicate much the same thing. "Well, we have the picnic basket up on top of the hill there… We were just waiting for you guys, so c'mon up!" Catherine, Nick, Sara and Greg followed him up the slight slope to where their picnic basket indeed stood, an oversized blanket sitting beside it, unfolded and ready to sit on. Somewhere in the trek Nick let go of Sara's hand, and she was surprised at how empty it felt. Whoa… what the hell was that? Sara felt her stomach do a backflip, the startling sensation followed by a bout of nervousness. She didn't notice that she'd stopped walking.
"C'mon, Sar!" The young woman with the raven colored hair was awakened from her strange and instantaneous reverie by the sound of Nick's voice, still laced in his southern accent. Looking up, she smiled weakly and made it up the rest of the hill to join her co workers. Grissom, finally noticing that Sara, Nick and Greg had arrived, followed in her wake, carrying a large beetle like specimen in a magnifying jar.
"Hey Gil, glad to see you're getting something out of this trip; I thought you'd be bored as sin." Catherine greeted the boyish face of Grissom with a smirk, half kidding, half serious.
"I would call it a waste of time, but…" His eyes were still focused intently on the new addition to his collection. "Well, in any case, we're required to attend at least one seminar in team building annually, and since we missed all of them this year, Ecklie insisted we perform at least one team-building exercise together before reports go in next week."
"… And I figured this would work best." Catherine interjected, eyeing Warrick momentarily before averting her gaze to the rest of the night shift team. "We just need an activity… I brought Linds' book along- there are quite a few trust activity ideas in here to look at…"
"How about Truth or Dare?" Everyone looked at Greg now as if he were mad. Nick, who had sat himself intentionally next to Sara, stared at him warningly. Catherine cocked an eyebrow.
"Truth or Dare. You're serious."
"Well, I'm not the one brandishing the child's games book… It's a mature game." Greg nodded to himself as if the decision was final. Grissom looked thoughtful.
"Actually, that might suit our purpose well." His words were met by the disbelieving looks of four CSI's, unable to decide what surprised them more; that he seemed to know what truth or dare was, or that he'd agreed Greg's idea was a good one. The lab-tech, however, looked playfully pompous, shooting a mocking, insolent look glance at Nick, who rolled his eyes impatiently at his childishness.
Greg looked excited.
"Okay, so who's first?"
"You are." Sara spoke, drawing surprise from Nick, who sat beside her, leaning on his hand. Her lips curved into a sucker smirk, and to Nick's surprise, she turned to wink at him, her fingertips grazing his on the picnic blanket.
"Truth or Dare, Greggo?" He quickly tore his gaze from Sara's fingers, still feeling them on his own before asking the lab-tech his own question. Greg suddenly looked shifty, and, truth be told, a little deflated that he'd been beaten at his own game.
"Uh, Truth."
"You wuss!" Nick admonished, knowing he was just taking the easy way out until his turn was over. Catherine watched the banter with raised eyebrows. Warrick, however, did not look at all surprised, rather more amused. Grissom sighed, annoyance barely noticeable on his face, but still there.
"Give him his question..." Nick looked displeased but grudgingly complied, wracking his brain for an incriminating question to ask.
"Alright, then…" he looked thoughtful for a moment, staring at Greg who was grinning profusely. Realizing a rather large hunk of beige something-or-other in his teeth, Nick squinted, suddenly sickened.
"Man, when's the last time you brushed your teeth?"
"Nick, that's a really dumb question." Sara interjected, a little pissed that their chance to seriously humiliate Greg was wasted on a question about oral hygiene.
"Toolateheaskedit!" Greg spilled as fast as possible, pointing his finger at her to halt her speech. He straightened himself out and repeated, this time more slowly: "Too late, he's already asked it. This morning." Nick, belatedly realizing what he'd done, shook his head. In a last attempt, he asked:
"Then what the hell is that?" He pointed at the great light brown mass in Greg's teeth, cocking an eyebrow. Greg sat rigidly, only moving to extend his arm out to Catherine in a silent request for a pocket mirror. She rolled her eyes and snatched up her purse from beside the picnic basket, handing him the mirror before returning to reading her daughter's party book, looking slightly uncomfortable at its contents. Greg peered at his mouth in the mirror and grimaced. Grissom and Sara started to chuckle when he announced that the foreign bit was sand. Nick grinned broadly, watching him pick the hard grains from between a front and eye tooth. Warrick, missing almost the entire fiasco, was looking on with Catherine, reading the table of contents of Lindsay's book.
"There is a Truth or Dare section in here, after all." He finally announced, looking at Greg, who in return seemed slightly more turned off than before. "Here." Warrick lifted the thin book from Catherine's lap and tore out the activity card at the end of it. He ripped along the lines indicated on the thick sheet, leaving the group with a small stack of truth questions, and one of dare questions. "There we go." He handed the book back to Catherine. "I'll buy Lindsay another one." Somehow, Warrick had forgotten it belonged to the girl; he imagines she'd want to tear the questions out herself. Catherine smiled fondly at his thoughtfulness.
"It's alright. She won't mind."
"Who's next?" The group was surprised to hear Grissom pushing the game forward.
"Nick is." Greg answered with a cocky grin. "I get to choose who's next, since I went last. Truth or Dare, Nicky?"
"Dare, of course." Nick returned Greg's cocky look with determination, surprised to feel Sara's fingers dancing absent mindedly on his once more. "Hand me a beer, would ya, War?"
Greg watched Warrick hand Nick a cold can of beer from the picnic basket and, determined to keep up the tough front, requested one too. Before long, everyone was brandishing a drink, watching Greg and Nick's battle of wills.
"Alright… I have one-"
"Don't you need to pick one out of the pile?" Grissom asked.
"No, I don't need to… I've had this one in mind for a while." Greg smirked evilly, and Sara was beginning to get the butterfly feeling in her gut once more, certain that Greg's intentions couldn't possibly be good.
"Nicholas Stokes, I dare you to kiss Sara Sidle… On the mouth, tongues, and lip nibbling."
A/N: Yes, yes... don't kill me, I know that was a cliffie... I'm splitting the story into about two chapters, just to keep chapters at an appropriate length... I'm still working on the second half, too. Please drop me a review on your way out! XD... (... Don't kill me... meeeeeep...)