Disclaimer: If it's familiar to you, it doesn't belong to me.
Author's Note: In response to the Ultimate Snickers Challenge!
This is for George and Jorja, who play Nick and Sara to perfection, and, as always, for my fellow Snickers.
"With a hula hoop?" Warrick asked Nick with a look of disbelief on his face as the two walked out of the locker room and down the hall to the break room.
"Yep. And once he got in, he spread the trash bags on the floor, slathered them with rubber cement, and the rest was a piece of cake," Nick explained, recounting the crafty methods of the thief he'd help catch in his last case.
"Wow." Warrick was amazed. "Well you have to give the guy credit though, you need brains to come up with a plan like that."
"True, but don't you think it was kind of wasted? I mean the only things he stole were a portable CD player and a velvet painting of Elvis," Nick pointed out.
Warrick shrugged. "Well, no matter, he got caught. He'll get to do all the jailhouse rockin' he wants now," he quipped.
Nick turned to his coworker with a cocked eyebrow.
"Sorry, that was a bad one," Warrick admitted.
"Don't quit your night job," Nick smirked.
They walked into the break room and saw Sara stretched out on the couch, sleeping.
"How long has your better half been here?" Warrick asked as they both headed for the coffee machine.
"Funny," Nick deadpanned. "I don't know. I was still sleeping when she left." Nick poured a cup of coffee and went over to where Sara was sleeping. He stood for a moment, just watching her sleep. And somehow, she must have known he was there, because as she slowly opened her eyes, her gaze landed directly on him. "Hey," Nick smiled down at her.
Sara smiled back as she sat up so Nick could sit down. "Hey."
He sat and gave her a kiss. "What time did you leave? I didn't even hear you get up."
"I don't know, around two I think. We got a lead in our kidnapping case. A suspect, finally," she answered with a big yawn.
Nick handed her the cup of coffee he was holding; she took a sip and gave it back to him. "Was he your guy?"
"Gal," Sara corrected. "Yeah." She leaned her head against Nick's shoulder and closed her eyes.
Nick sighed. "You should go home. Get some sleep."
"I'll be fine. I just need coffee," Sara replied, her eyes still closed.
"Sara."
"I'll be fine," she insisted. "Besides, I'm kind of eager to see who will notice first." She opened her eyes to admire the platinum and diamond ring adorning her left hand, the ring Nick had given to her when he'd proposed early that morning.
"My money's on Grissom," Nick said confidently.
"Grissom? He wouldn't notice we were engaged if it was tattooed across my forehead. Besides, I've seen him around here this whole afternoon and he hasn't said anything yet. It'll be Catherine, definitely. And it'll only take her a minute, you watch."
As if on cue, Catherine and Grissom entered the break room.
"Well, I guess we're about to find out who will be the Smartypants in this marriage," Nick said as grabbed Sara's arm to pull her up with him as he stood. "So what's on the menu for tonight boss?" Nick asked Grissom.
"Not much, unfortunately. Or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it." Grissom paused as he looked at Sara and slowly furrowed his brow. "Did you have that on earlier today?" He pointed at Sara's ring.
"Ha! I told you!" Nick smiled triumphantly.
Sara smirked at Nick before turning to Grissom. "Uh, yeah. Nick proposed to me this morning."
Catherine and Warrick's eyes immediately fell on what Grissom was pointing at. "And you said yes?" Warrick asked with disbelief in his voice.
Nick shot Warrick a glare. "What, is it so hard to believe that I could get someone like Sara to marry me?"
"Yeah," Warrick replied with a smug expression.
Catherine slapped him on the arm. "Congratulations you guys." She smiled as she gave Nick and Sara hugs.
"Thanks," Sara beamed, the reality that she was going to be Mrs. Nick Stokes beginning to sink in a little more.
"Yeah, congrats man." Warrick put his joking aside and gave Nick a handshake and a hearty hug. He turned to Sara. "If he ever gets out of line you let me know. I know some people who know some people," he joked as he gave Sara a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Thanks, I'll keep that it mind," Sara chuckled.
Grissom extended his hand to Nick. "Congratulations. You're a lucky man."
"I know," Nick said as he glanced at Sara. "Thanks Gris." He gave his supervisor an appreciative smile.
Grissom looked at Sara. "I'm very happy for you," he smiled as he gave her a hug.
"Thanks Grissom." Sara was grateful that Grissom sounded genuine, especially after the rough patch they'd had in their relationship a while back. She was glad that they were both able to move past it and keep their close friendship intact.
"Now, if we're done with the congratulations, we have work to do," Grissom said, his statement not meant to trivialize Nick and Sara's engagement announcement but rather to help them get back into the mindset of work. "Drive by shooting," he said to the newly engaged couple.
Nick took the assignment slip from Grissom's outstretched hand and noticed a jar of something in his other. "What's that?" he pointed at the jar.
Catherine rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Don't ask," she warned.
"White chocolate covered grasshoppers, made exclusively in India. They're considered a delicacy. They're in such high demand that there's a three month long wait list. I finally got my jars today," Grissom explained excitedly. "Try one," he held out the jar to Nick.
"No thanks," he politely declined, though with a somewhat disgusted look on his face.
"I heard that the combination of the white chocolate and the grasshopper hormones is supposed to be quite the aphrodisiac. You can take some and save them for later. My engagement present to you," Grissom said with a straight face.
Nick and Sara's faced simultaneously turned beet red, while Warrick and Catherine tried desperately to hold in their laughter.
"We'll think about it," Nick managed to say.
"Is that why you bought them?" Catherine asked in a comical tone.
"Uh, no," Grissom stammered. He glanced at the remaining assignment slip in his hand. "426 for you and Warrick, possibly gang related." He handed the piece of paper to Catherine and was quickly on his way back to his office.
The four CSIs looked at each other for a moment in silence before they all burst into a fit of laughter.
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After a laborious shift, Sara was glad to be home, looking forward to a peaceful morning of sleep. She stepped out of her clothes and changed into her favorite pajamas, a pair of Nick's boxers and one of his old fraternity t-shirts, and went out to the kitchen for a light breakfast before bed. She saw Nick sitting at the table reading the newspaper and eating a big bowl of Froot Loops. Why Nick only ate cereals with cartoon animals on their boxes she'd never understand. She took an apple from the bowl on the counter and rinsed it off in the sink. "Did you call them yet?" she asked as she nudged Nick with her hip to get him to scoot over on his chair so she could sit on one half of it.
Nick obediently scooted but eyed her irritably as she started reading the paper Nick had laid out in front of him. The five other chairs around the table were perfectly fine, and unoccupied. "Do you not see me sitting here?"
Sara replied by taking a big bite of her apple, which caused Nick to squint when the juices and tiny bits of fruit squirted out onto the side of his face.
"Sorry," Sara apologized as she provocatively used her tongue to clean Nick up. "So did you call them yet?" she asked again as she took another bite of her apple and turned the page of the newspaper.
"Huh?" Nick asked in a bit of a daze, Sara's tongue causing him to forget that one of his butt cheeks was hanging off of the chair.
"Did you call your parents yet to tell them we got engaged?" Sara clarified.
"Oh. Uh, no," Nick snapped back to reality, upset with himself for letting Sara lick her way out of trouble like that. "They're already at work. I'll call later when they both get home."
They sat in silence reading the newspaper until Sara finished her apple. She got up to throw the core in the trash, and Nick immediately reclaimed his chair. But Sara found a way around this situation as well, swinging her leg over to straddle him as she sat on his lap, face to face with him. She smiled seductively at him as she draped her arms over his shoulders. "Know what I'm thinking?" She was tired, she admitted, but not too tired.
"That you'll let me read the newspaper in peace?" he retorted.
Sara glared at him. "Try again."
He glanced down at the shorts on Sara. "That you'll stop wearing my boxers so I don't run out of them so fast?"
Sara scoffed. "Well now I'm thinking that I'm going to bed." She attempted to get up but Nick grabbed her by the waist to pull her back down.
"Okay, okay," Nick chuckled. He loved teasing her, but he knew he couldn't go too far if he wanted to have a good morning.
"I'm not in the mood anymore," Sara smirked.
"Maybe we can call Grissom up and ask him for some of those grasshoppers," Nick grinned.
Sara smirked again.
"Well we don't need those chocolate arthropods anyway. I got skills of my own," he boasted as he leaned in to kiss her. After a moment, the probing of Sara's tongue into his mouth convinced Nick he'd changed Sara's mood, so he stood up to carry her to the bedroom, Sara wrapping her legs around him in the process.
By the time Nick staggered into the bedroom, his shirt was already gone. He sat Sara down on the edge of the bed to help her remove her shirt, but before they could get it off, the alarm clock began to sound off its shrill buzz. They both stopped and looked at each other with confused expressions, wondering why the alarm was set for eight-thirty in the morning.
Sara crawled across the bed to shut off the alarm and Nick followed her, reconnecting his lips with hers as soon as the alarm was silenced. As they again attempted to strip off Sara's shirt, the alarm buzzed again, and again Nick and Sara looked at each other with puzzled expressions. Sara reached over to hit the reset button she thought she'd hit the first time, but before Nick's hands were back on her, the alarm went off again.
"Stop interrupting us!" Nick yelled, grabbing the clock and yanking the cord out of the socket. He threw the clock across the room and turned back to Sara, ignoring her cocked eyebrow. "Now where were we?" he grinned.
Much, much later, Sara lay contently in Nick's arms as she listened to the rhythmic breathing of his peaceful slumber. Her sleepy gaze landed on the plant sitting on the dresser next to the window, and she couldn't help but smile. It was the plant that Grissom had given her nearly two years before, the only plant she'd ever managed to keep alive for more than a few weeks. While it wasn't the most compassionate gesture, it was a gesture distinctly Grissom, and it helped her to realize that not only did the lab need her, but she needed the lab, specifically the people and the relationships she had with them.
And while Grissom was the one who made her realize she couldn't leave Las Vegas, he was also the one that brought her there in the first place, the one that allowed her to meet Nick. And for that, she would be forever grateful.
- The End -