Is this another Sara and Vartann one-shot I spy... oh why yes it is!
Inspired by "So are you going to kiss me or not" by Thompson Square and "Drink on It" by Blake Shelton.
Set mid-Season 12 (after Catherine left).
I hope y'all like it- please review.
(Yes I know- I'm British my love for country music is somewhat unfounded but it makes me smile)
Disclaimer: I own zilch.
A Moment of Fractured Time
The evening wound down into a typically glitzy night in Las Vegas as the glitter and neon was on display to the world as if to prove that there was something in the legends of the city. But that wasn't what he was looking for tonight. He just wanted a drink. He wanted a quite, escape from the insanity that made his home town.
"Double bourbon on the rocks please." He made his order perching himself on one the stools at the dive bar that was on his way home from work. With his eyes focused on his hands as he lost himself in his thoughts about what his life had become since Catherine had left. Work had been taking up most of his time not that he minded- it seemed to provide him with a distraction from what was going on in his personal life.
"Here" The bartender placed the drink in front of him and turned away to serve someone else, Vartann felt silently thankful that he had not been engaged in conversation because he was most certainly not in the mood.
If his ex wife could see him now she would had made fun him for being in one of the 'famous Lou Vartann sulky moods' but he didn't care. He'd come here to sulk. He'd come here to brood over the things he wished he'd said or done to stop Catherine from leaving him.
He wondered what he would have needed to have done to have made her fall for him, in the way he had fallen for her.
Perhaps there was nothing.
Perhaps this was all it was meant to be.
With that thought clouding his mind he took a sip of the fiery liquid letting it slid down his throat with a slow burn. The taste of it settled on his tongue like an old companion, he realised he'd missed drinking alone without the fuss of conversation, the need to entertain someone.
He had never been a man of many words, keeping to himself; quietly getting about his life hoping that people understood that he was there for them if they ever needed him and didn't take his silence as a cause for concern.
Catherine had changed that she had made him into the man that he had once been, a man that was willing to fall- a man who acted as if he had never been hurt before. Or maybe he was just fooling himself.
Maybe it was the knowledge that he had been hurt before that stood in the way of the things he wanted.
Maybe it was best for him to be alone right now.
But all of that those thoughts dissolved the moment she walked in.
It was the sound of her heels clicking against the hard wood floors that got his attention at first, alongside the wolf whistles coming from the regulars as they acted as if it was the first time they had ever seen a woman.
She was wearing strappy heels that clearly looked like they killed her feet, her ink black hair was in glossy curls around her face and she was wearing more make up than he had ever seen her in before. The dress she wore clung to her curves, a nude silk covered in black lace with a plunging neckline. She looked stunning.
"What are you looking at?" She growled at the bar tending throwing herself in the stool beside him. Her comment and the sound of her raspy smoker's voice proved that she was more than a little rough around the edges. And most certainly not the doll she was dressed up to be tonight. He mused at how these men would have responded to her had they seen the way she wielded a gun.
"Sara..." Lou said quietly not sure if he was willing to give up his night alone brooding for a beautiful woman. In that moment it hit him how stupid that thought was and cleared he throat calling her name again.
"Oh Vartann...Hi" She was attempting to be friendly but from the way that she was gritting her teeth it was more than clear that she was annoyed by something.
"Hi...What's wrong?" He asked turned to face her as she began taking a long sip of her G&T. She indicated for him to wait while she knocked back enough alcohol to want to talk.
"Oh so many things" She responded in the end, not answering his question. He just watched her and nodded as she raised her eyebrow at him, taking another large sip of her drink.
"What's got your goat?" She asked rattling a bit of ice against her teeth. "It must be bad if you're here." She commented taking a look around at the dive she had found herself in.
"Oh so many things" He repeated taking another mouthful of burning whiskey.
"If you're making fun of me Detective, I'll have you know, messing with a pissed of woman is not a good move." She smirked at him, looking across at him from under dark lashes the glass held near her lips for another sip of her drink.
"Don't I know it, ex wife." he explained with a sympathetic smile. "So what's he done now?"
"You don't want to hear about it." She shook her head indicating for a re-fill. The bar tender approached her with raised eyebrows at how quickly she'd finished her drink.
"Well...then you won't mind me talking about the problems I've been having with my next door neighbour's cats..." He sighed; Sara noticed that the low, slightly defeated notes of his voice were perfect for sarcasm.
"Okay...fine, fine...I'll tell you...but you have to promise not to judge me." Sara laughed, pursing her lips at him once she'd finished talking.
"I...promise I will judge you silently." He smiled, bowing slightly in front of her.
"Well...I was supposed to be picking Grissom up from the airport. After waiting for two hours there, on a Friday night, he calls to let me know what he won't be coming home after all...but I should go ahead and attend his mother's dinner party on my own..." She rolled her eyes taking a sip from her fresh G&T. "Am I terrible person for blowing my mother-in-law off?"
"No...I can't say I haven't done that before." The Detective laughed, before shuddering slightly at the thought of his ex-mother in law.
"I'm liking you more and more Detective...but as you can tell, it's not been a good night." She sighed, picking up the fresh glass that had been placed in front of her.
"You're right...that doesn't sound so great...he give you a reason for why he couldn't make it?" Vartann asked attempting to level with her.
"The same excuse as always..."Again she rolled her eyes in his direction. "Work"
"Well I'm sorry to hear about that, but if it's any consolation...you look beautiful." He commented hoping to cheer her up slightly.
"A complement Detective...I might even consider putting you in my good books." She gave him a coy smile, sending a shiver down his spine.
"Well...That's making me feel slightly safer about sitting next to you while you have a glass in your hand." He joked.
"You have a nice smile...you should let us see it more often." She said softly, studying him as he sat in front of her almost unrecognisable from the man she knew from work.
"Oh, butter that toast Ms Sidle...Do you want me to buy you a drink, because you all had to do was ask." He laughed, feeling surprisingly self-conscious at the attention she was giving him.
"I...was thinking something more along the lines of a date...since I've put so much effort in to getting ready tonight." She spoke in a low voice, leaning in, the dipping neckline of her dress getting his attention again. His breath caught in his chest slightly when he met her eye, the seductive smile she wore would be enough to make even a man with significant amounts of self control melt.
"What did you have in mind?" He couldn't help himself, he had begun playing her game and realised that he was enjoying it.
"Well let's get out of here first..." She gave a throaty laugh, leaning back with a half smile and a delicate quirk of her eyebrow.
"The way you are dressed is classier than almost all of the people in here put together...but don't tell them I said that..." He whispered to her, his blue eyes dancing with the dim lighting.
"I promise I won't." Sara leant in, resting a hand on his shoulder, she muttered into his ear. Her lips brushing the sensitive skin causing the hairs on the back of his neck to rise but he did his best to keep his cool.
Their eyes met again once she'd pull back, her hand remaining on his shoulder and a devilish grin on her lips. His eyes wandered resting on her smile, wondering what it would be like to kiss her. He could almost taste bitter, tingling taste of gin and tonic on her lips, the thought electrifying him.
"So Detective- Are you going to sweep me off my feet already?" She said huskily finishing off the rest of her drink, picking up her hand bag in the other hand.
He gave her a nod placing the money for their drinks down on the bar and leading the way outside into the Vegas dark, the night sky stretching out for miles above them. Sara took a deep breath, enjoying the feeling of the air caressing her skin as she steadied herself on her heels. As they stood on the curb watching in the stars in that moment all of the anger, and frustration that her evening had started with seemed to wash away. Her husband's almost persistent disregard for her feelings seemed to melt alongside the distance between them. None of it matter. Because for the first time in the past few months she felt settled- her life in Vegas had seemed to have just fallen back into place.
"Do you mind?" Her companion's voice came from beside her, bringing her attention back to reality. She glanced down to see the box of cigarettes and lighter in his hand.
"Go for it." Sara responded with a dazed smile.
Vartann lit the cigarette taking a drag while he watched her, attempting to gage what she was thinking about, where it was that her thoughts were lost. Sara turned to him slowly pivoting on her heels. She took the cigarette from his fingers, taking a drag; she blew a smoke ring handing it back to him. He thought it strange how with barely an hour together her smile had become so familiar.
"So are you going to kiss me or what?" She asked in a seductive voice.
He couldn't resist. Stubbing out his cigarette with his foot, he turned to face her with a small laugh, before pulling her towards him. With one hand resting on her waist, the other resting on her jaw he placed his lips on hers. The tangy taste of the gin mingling with the whiskey he'd be drinking creating a heady mix with cigarettes. She draped her arms over his shoulders she let herself become comfortable in his embrace deciding for this one night to ignore all of the rules in place.
Sara and Vartann pulled apart their eyes meeting in the almost darkness as their body warmth spread over each other's skin like wildfire. The traffic just seemed like a distant memory because the only sound that mattered was the sound of each other's heart beats.
"We haven't even had our first date yet-a first kiss already?" He teased her.
"Living in the moment is everything." She smiled teasingly.
"Oh...I know this one..." He pretended to think.
"D.H. Lawrence- he wrote Lady Chatterley's Lover." She smiled. "And you bought my drinks...so that counts as a date right..."
"I guess you're right..." He nodded. "So what's traditional etiquette for a second date?"
"I think it's time for a night on the town..." Sara asked with a wicked look as she hailed down a cab.
"You drive a hard bargain Sara Sidle..." Vartann laughed climbing into the back of the cab with her, not knowing what to expect.
"You ain't seen nothing yet..." Sara muttered huskily into his ear.
The one thing that surprised them both that night as they discovered the tourist traps of Las Vegas was the fact they both still knew how to have fun, how to smile and how to be happy for everything that they had in their lives. Rather than being melancholic about the things they felt they had lost...
The End