A/N: My second CSI one shot, idea curtesy of my drinking hot chocolate and eating sweet-tarts, carmels, and wearing my fedora while listening to Frank sinatra nad Tony Bennett after midnight.
Discliamer: I do not own CSI or any of the characters.
Sweet Kisses
"Why is it that criminals always wait until the weekend to pull some stupid stunt?" Sara groaned as she trudged to the break room; upon reaching it, she plopped down in the chair nearest the door.
She had just pulled a double shift and was completely beat.
It was nearing two in the morning, and by all rights, she should have been heading home, but no matter how much she tried she just couldn't bring herself to go back to her apartment to get some well deserved rest. It was always like this; whenever she was on a case that didn't get solved, she couldn't sleep until she knew that it had been all wrapped up.
Needing a pick me up, she slowly got to her feet and moved over to the counter. Picking up a cup, she glanced towards the almost full coffee pot. The dark brown liquid tasted like dirt and had probably been sitting in the pot for hours, no one bothering to make a new pot, knowing that it would be no better than the old one.
Taking a short glance to the other end of the counter, she noticed Greg's can of Blue Hawaiian. No one could get near it during the joined break because Greg kept a close eye on it, knowing it to be a valuable find because of its decadent taste and luscious milky color, despite the dark grounds. Everyone knew better than to go near it because if they came within three feet of it, Greg would take their head off and cuddle it close to his chest.
However, on several occasions when he and Sara were alone in the break room, he had offered her a cup, but at the time, she never felt up to it.
After taking one final look at the black tarry substance, she filled her cup with hot water and grabbed a spoon. Greg wouldn't mind, he had offered it to her before, what was the difference between then and now?
"He'll never know…" Sara muttered to herself.
It was true, he probably would never know anyways; he wasn't even in the building. He was out with Nick and Grissom at a homicide over at the Four Aces.
Deciding that she wouldn't get caught, Sara pulled the milk out of the fridge and the sugar bowl down from the cupboard. Just when she got her hands on the lid, a voice from the door made her freeze.
"Put your hands in the air and step away from the coffee Sidle."
Sara put the can back down on the counter as she turned around to find none other than Greg Sanders standing in the door way.
He gave her a wide grin before walking further into the room and stopping right in front of her, slapping a hand on either side of her head, against the cupboard doors.
"And just what do you think you're doing Miss. Sidle?" Greg asked as his grin grew wider.
"Urgh, I thought you we're supposed to be out on a case with Nick and Grissom…" Sara moaned, not answering his question.
"Right you are Sara, however The scene is completely processed and Grissom decided to wait for the interrogations until we find out a little more. He claimed that he could handle the rest for now and sent Nick and me back here on call." Greg explained, still not removing his hands.
"Oh. Well, at least I have company now. Where's Nick?"
"I think he said he was going to meet Catherine over at some diner down the strip. Something about losing a bet and owing her dinner…"
"Or late night snack in this case."
"Too true. But you never answered my question Sara."
"And what question might that be?" Sara asked, trying to duck out under his arms, but to no avail.
Damn his quick reflexes… She thought.
"The one where I asked you what you were doing with my can of Blue Hawaiian."
"Who says I was doing anything with it?" Sara tried.
Greg just raised an eyebrow.
"Oh fine. I was going to have some, but do you really blame me?" She nodded towards the offending coffee not to far away.
"Not really, no." Greg said as he glanced over at the gross looking beverage.
He agreed with everyone else in the lab, the coffee here was worse than drinking arsenic. Soon after being moved to the field, he began bringing his own coffee with could be guaranteed to perk you up, but at the same time, not be a risk to your health.
"Then you'll let me have some?"
"Only for you…"
Greg released his arms as he took Sara's cup and made her some coffee, while she strode over to the small couch in the corner of the room and sat down on one of its lumpy cushions.
"Milk?" Greg called over his shoulder to Sara.
"Yes please." She replied.
"Sugar?"
"Only a little."
Greg finished making her coffee, and took the liberty of making himself a quick cup before reaching up in the top cupboard and pulled out a brown paper bag. He carried their coffees and the bag over to where Sara was sitting and sat down on the cushion next to the one she currently rested on.
"Thanks." She said as he handed her a cup.
"Your welcome m'lady." Greg replied as he nodded in her direction, being to lazy to get up and take a bow.
Sara giggled.
"So why aren't you at home sleeping? Your shift is over, isn't it?" Greg asked as he took a sip of his coffee.
"Can't sleep. Not until this case is over at least…" She too, took a sip of her coffee, its strong scent but creamy taste pulling her out of her drowsy state.
"You're working the 419 with Warrick and Catherine over at the Tangiers right?" Greg asked conversationally.
"Just Warrick. Grissom has her off with Sofia doing something for Ecklie…"
"Ah."
"Yeah."
A short silence fell between the two, leaving the only sounds to be the soft music flowing out of the radio on the table.
After a minute or two, never being able to stand silence for long, Greg pick up the paper bag and dumped it's contents onto the small coffee in front of them. Dozens of different types of candy came pouring out, settling into a pile of everything from fireballs to pixie sticks. Sara stared incredulously at the pile.
"Where have you been keeping that?" She asked, surprised that he had been able to keep such a large amount of candy away from any of their co-workers for any big amount of time.
"Top shelf behind the tea bags." Greg replied nonchalantly.
"So that's why no one found it…" Sara mused. Being on the graveyard shift, coffee was much better for keeping them up than tea was so no one really ever used the ever growing sum of tea bags that Ecklie kept piling upon them.
"Pretty clever huh?" Greg asked as he popped a carmel into his mouth, "Kiss?" He asked as he held out a Hershey's chocolate kiss towards Sara.
"Sure."
Greg smiled as he quickly leaned in and gave Sara a small peck on the lips before pulling away and tossing the candy to her.
A blush ran up the sides of her neck as she turned her gaze towards the ground after peeling off the wrapper and placed the chocolate on her tongue. Greg chuckled softly to himself before decide ding that it might be better to apologize, rather than leave Sara in an uncomfortable situation.
"Sorry about that Sara, I wasn't thinking…" Greg managed to get out.
You're lying and you know it. You were thinking, you had planned on giving her the chocolate kiss all along… Greg's mind told him.
"It's alright Greg." Sara said, blushing redder.
"By the looks of your face you don't look alright."
"I'm just… shocked… is all. Not that I should be or anything."
"What do you mean by that?" Greg frowned.
"It's in your personality to joke around and goof off, even if you have become more mature in becoming a field mouse."
"Why am I still a rodent by the way?" Greg asked suspiciously, secretly thinking it was a conspiracy against him.
"Because you make a cute rodent." Sara smiled.
"Cute you say?"
"Yep. I mean, your hair speaks for itself." Sara laughed as she reached up and ran the hand that wasn't holding her coffee through his soft spikes.
"You like my hair?" Greg asked as he rose his eyebrows, not expecting that.
"Who doesn't?"
Another silence captured them as they just sat back and stared at each other. However, it was soon broken by Sara recognizing the lyrics to the song that was currently playing on the radio and began singing along with it unconsciously.
"L, is for the way you look at me. O, is for the only one I see."
"V, is very very," Greg joined in, "Extraordinary. E, is even more than anyone that you adore…" They both trialed off.
"You know, I never took you for a rat pack lover Greg, whereas you're always playing something heavy or loud." Sara said as she set her now empty cup down beside the candy.
"Are you kidding? Frank Sinatra is the only true soul swinger out there! Ever wonder why I started to wear my fedora?" Greg asked, reminding her of the old fashioned hat from the thirties that he insisted on wearing almost everywhere when he was off duty.
Hell, I would wear that thing on duty is Grissom would just let me… Greg mused.
The song continued on for a couple of seconds before Greg got an idea. Putting his cup down, he stood up and extended his hand out to Sara.
"Dance with me, Sidle." Greg said simply as he waited for her to take his hand.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Sara said quickly, "I'm really not in the mood for dancing. I'm still half asleep, I would probably drop down in the middle of a step.
"Don't worry Sara, I won't let you fall, I'll catch you." He said trying to reassure her.
Sara looked at his hand hesitantly before taking it and letting him pull her to her feet. He had them spinning around the room in seconds to a simple waltz; adding a twirl here and a dip there.
Just when Sara was starting to get into it Greg stopped upon hearing a faint noise from in his pocket. He let go of her as he dug into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone that was playing some heavy metal song. How he could go from Frank Sinatra to Marilyn Manson in less than a minute, she'd never know…
"Sanders." Greg said as he flipped open the phone and held it to his ear. "uh-huh. Alright. I'm on it."
Sara watched as he closed his phone and stuck it back inside his pocket.
"Grissom?" She asked suspecting it couldn't be anyone besides their boss.
"Yep. Looks like Nicky and I have to get back to the Four Aces to catch up with some potential suspects."
"Oh."
"Sorry for cutting the party short." Greg sighed as he took their empty cups to the counter.
"It doesn't matter, I should really get back to looking over the files for my case at the Tangiers."
"Hey Sara," Greg said as he returned and began bagging up his candy.
"Yeah?" She lifted her gaze from the floor tiles to find the young CSI only a couple of inches away from her face.
"Here's a kiss for later." He replied as he slipped another chocolate candy kiss into her hand. He swiftly kissed her cheek before turning to leave. "I'll see you later Sara." He called over his shoulder.
"Bye Greg." Sara sighed as she made her way towards the door as well but was stopped short by Greg walking back in.
"I thought you were leaving." She stated.
"I am, but I was hoping that you would go home and get some rest. It looks like you need it." Greg smiled as he ran a finger over the tiny bags under her eyes.
"But-"
"No buts Sara. Get some rest. I'll know if you didn't."
"Fine."
"Promise?"
"I promise. Now get to your crime scene before Grissom decides to spend an hour interrogating you on why you're late." Greg just smirked before rushing out of the break room.
Sara followed seconds later and headed for her car. Before she had time to open the door, a vibrating went off in her pocket. She pulled out her phone to find a new text message. It read:
Sara,
Since we didn't get to finish our dance properly tonight, I was thinking we could pick it up where we left off next Friday at the Lab Party.
Hope to see you soon.
Chocolate Kisses,
Greg.
Smiling, Sara quickly typed out a short reply before hoping into her car and heading home for a long nap:
Greg,
I would love too. I'll talk to you soon.
P.S. - Wear your fedora…
Sara.
