1. Chapter - The new case

CSI Las Vegas, canteen

Gil Grissom came in and found his team sitting around the wooden table, spending their break together and talking to each other while drinking some coffee. When they noticed him, they looked up.

Gil hold up a sheet.

"We've got a murder in 'Tribbiani's Bar'. One victim, female. Nick and Sara, you two will deal with that case. - Warrick and Greg, try to find out whose blood the door of the Sheldon-case is sprinkled with. This has top priority! - And.", he turned to the last one in the room, ".Cathrine, you'll join me. . Any questions?"

The presents shook their heads in agreement and Gil continued.

"Ok then, let us do something for our pay."

He turned around and left the room.

Staring at the empty doorway, Sara started:

"What.", then stopped.

Grissom came back, laid the sheet concerning Nick's and Sara's new case down on the table, then disappeared again, without saying anything additional.

Nick raised his right hand to his head and - in forced seriousness - said:

"Yes, boss.", then laughed. He knew Grissom would not have heard him.

Sara, smiling, added:

"He's been even more plain than usual - by the way, I didn't believe that was possible!"

Nick nodded.

"Yeah, I sometimes wonder if one day in the past our lovely boss has been replaced by a robot-"

"-and we just didn't notice", finished Warrick the sentence.

Cathrine emptied her cup and interrupted her joking co-workers:

"All right, guys - let's go back to work.", then stood up.

The others one by one raised, as well, until Greg was the last one to remain seated.

Nick and Sara exchanged a look, then took their jackets and took measures to leave the room.

Before stepping through the doorway, Sara turned around and said:

"Hey, Greg! Leave our robot some lubricating oil!"

"Pardon?", Greg didn't get the joke, and Nick explained:

"Coffee, all right?"

While the two left the others, Nick asked Sara:

"Your car or mine?", playing with his keys.

After a moment of contemplation, in which she thought about where her car was parked and what its interior looked like, Sara answered:

"Yours. But you'll have to drop me here afterwards, so I'll be able to fetch my car before going home. Is that OK? Otherwise we could take both cars."

Nick shook is head in disaffection.

"No, that's Ok. We'll take mine."

*****

Las Vegas, Nick's car

They were now about half an hour driving through the stop-and-go traffic of the metropolis. And yet they hadn't talked a lot.

Nick was concentrating on the traffic while Sara kept on staring out of the car window, pretending there was something so interesting that she was unable to turn away.

Both felt uneasy about the unpleasant silence standing like a wall between them, but none of them took measures to do anything against it.

This didn't mean they didn't want to do anything against it - they just didn't know what.

Sara frowned at her inability to think of anything to say. She really didn't care about the shop-windows and neon signs they were passing. Her thoughts were rotating about the question, what to say.

Nick - not even 30 centimetres away from her - felt nearly the same. He pretended to concentrate on the traffic, but now and again his eyes searched for Sara.

Every time he looked at her, he tried to say something - but couldn't think of any ingenious sentence.

He didn't know when it had started, that he had begun to see more in Sara than just a co-worker and friend. And yet he didn't admit himself he had fallen in love with the women sitting right next to him and behaving the way he was.

At the same time Sara wondered, why she was so confused. It was just Nick! They had talked about to many things in the past - why not now?

He hoped, she'd make the first move and say something, so he'd only have to answer.

She hoped, he'd say a word to start a conversation.

*****

When they arrived at 'Tribbiani's Bar' it was Nick who said - while opening the door -:

"Ok, lets find out what's awaiting us."

****************************************************************************

please r&r! this is my first csi-fanfic...