Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or the characters (Apart from Courtney Milhern)
Summery: Sara invites her friend Courtney over from San Francisco while Grissom is away. She's supposed to be keeping her company and checking out the tourist attractions in Vegas, but of course, it doesn't go quite like Sara planned…
Spoilers: Leaving Las Vegas hasn't actually aired in the UK, but this is supposed to be set during Grissom's sabbatical. I haven't seen the episode; I just know the gist of it so there might be the odd factual error.
It was an ordinary night working the graveyard shift for Sara Sidle, ordinary with the exception of her supervisor not being present. She knew Grissom wasn't going to gone that long, but it still felt weird to walk past his office and not see him in there. It felt even weirder to go back to her apartment after shift, or sometimes even Grissom's townhouse, alone and not have him with her. Of course, she was trying her best to stay at the apartment, just in case anyone found her at the townhouse and wondered why she had a key to it. She had been sure it was Catherine who had followed her home one night. If it was she hadn't said anything, not even hinted, but maybe she just didn't want to ask personal questions at work. And work was exactly where Sara was when she rounded a corner by reception and found herself looking directly at a familiar face.
"Someone to see you Miss Sidle", the receptionist said.
The skinny blonde was already making her way over to her, a huge 'Surprise!' smile plastered across her face.
"Courtney..." Sara greeted her. She had not expected this at all.
"Hey Sara!" she said in the same enthusiastic manor of which she always chose to speak. She shifted the bag on her shoulder "I was visiting Vegas and I got a bit lost. Can you believe that? I mean, it's just like me isn't it?" she hadn't changed. Despite being intelligent enough to become a CSI -and a damn good one- she liked to dumb herself down, for attention or something.
Even though Sara saw through what was most probably an act, she smiled as genuinely as possible. "So, you though you'd come see me at work? Courtney, do you know what time it is?"
Courtney looked like a kicked puppy. It was obvious she hadn't expected that as a response. "Well, you know…" she said brightening up quickly "I just haven't seen you in so long, I thought I'd come and check out your new lab",
Sara raised her eyebrows as she watched Courtney's eyes follow Nick along the corridor. "No hitting on my co-workers", she insisted.
"Aww, come on Sara", Courtney pleaded "when was the last time you had some fun?"
"I'm choosing not to answer that", she replied haughtily. She spent so much time working, there was hardly time to have fun.
"So, aren't you gonna give me a guided tour?"
Sara sighed, remembering just how annoying her old friend got "I'm working, I don't have time".
"Ooh, maybe I can help?" she persisted, following Sara as she turned to walk back down the corridor.
"I don't think you'd…" she started, but Courtney cut her off.
"I am a CSI, you know. It's not like I don't know what I'm doing",
When Sara turned back to look at her, she had her arms folded across her chest and was glaring at her defiantly like a spoilt child.
"I'm sure you're perfectly capable of helping me, Courtney", she assured her "It's just…I don't think my boss would be too happy about it",
"You've really changed since you moved to Vegas, Sara", Courtney said. Perhaps it was just a statement but Sara couldn't help but notice the bitchy undertone of her voice.
"Really? Well you haven't change a bit"
"Yeah", she replied, ignoring the end of her comment "the old Sara was fun and did more than just work",
"I worked in San Francisco. You know that, we used to work together",
"So why can't we work together now?" she whined.
Sara was really starting to get annoyed with her now "Look…Courtney, this is not the time or place…if you're lost, go find a map".
Even that didn't seem to deter Courtney "But I thought we could spend some time together. Just you and me liked it used to be".
Having lost her patience with the woman a long time ago, she admitted defeat "Well right now, I've got work to do. You can stay here and wait for me if you want. Or there's a café over the road, I could meet you there when my shift's over".
She watched Courtney bounce off like she'd just hit the jackpot and carried on with her work.
About an hour later Sara was helping Nick look through missing persons database, when her phone started ringing. She only had to see that it was Courtney before she rejected the call.
"How about this girl?" Nick asked, bringing a missing persons report up on the screen. "Tricia Goodwell, age 24, been missing for 5 days…"
Sara didn't hear the rest of what he said because he phone rang again. She sighed and promptly shut that one off too.
Nick glanced at her "Who you avoiding?"
"Oh…Courtney, my friend from San Francisco", she explained.
"Ah, the blonde you were with earlier?" he asked a little too casually.
She smirked at him "Yeah that's her", then she paused before adding "I'm surprised you noticed".
"I'm a trained observer", he reminded her.
"Well I won't need to tell you not to flirt with my friends then, will I?"
He shrugged "I didn't know you had friends",
The angered look she shot him forced him to add "outside of work" on the end.
When her phone rang a third time, she sighed and excused herself.
"Yes?" she answered in a voice that showed just how pissed off she was.
"Will you be finished any time soon?" she heard Courtney's voice ask on the other end of the line. Did she have no idea how long a shift was?
"Uh…well I'm kind of in the middle of something…" she told her truthfully "but I might be able to get off early once this is done",
The very idea of 'getting off early' was something new to Sara, she almost always worked overtime.
"Oh…no, it's just there's this guy…" Courtney giggled "I might not be able to meet you. Hey, why don't you give me your address and I can come see you tomorrow!" she said as though she'd just invented the wheel.
Sara groaned, that meant she would have to stay at her apartment tonight. She had wanted to go back to Grissom's townhouse. Then suddenly she realised that she could just give Courtney Grissom's address. It wasn't like she needed to keep their relationship a secret from Courtney (not that she planned on informing her of said relationship). She smiled to herself and did just that, then returned to finish helping Nick.
I really shouldn't start new stories when I'm in the middle of others, yet I always do.