Disclaimer: I don't own CSI. I'm but a humble fan and writer.
A/N: A different pairing that I've been meaning to tackle. Warrick and Sara fans do exist, and I have never seen these two hang out much. Especially around Valentines Day. It would be interesting to see them discuss it (this isn't really shippy, though). Set before Sara left, obviously. I hope all of you like it.
Ficlet 33: Flowers for Fries
It wasn't often that Hodges wasn't in the Trace lab, but today was a rare exception. Sara was content to have the room to herself as she ran the tests needed to identify a particular unknown substance. It was a good fifteen minutes until she heard footsteps.
That was probably Hodges now. She paid no attention, hoping he wouldn't chastise her for 'invading his territory'.
However, she was startled when she heard the low timbre of Warrick's voice.
"What are you doing in Trace?"
"Warrick," she turned her attention to him, "I thought you were Hodges."
"I thought you were him, too," he replied, looking mildly amused.
"Well, I was just running some tests. It's been a few minutes so if you want to wait…"
"Sure," he pulled up a chair, "I don't have much else to do."
"So…" she took a seat nearby as well, "How's your case going."
"Dead end. I'm hoping trace will give me something I can work on. You?"
"I'm helping Nick wrap up his case. Just needed to run this and hope for the best."
He made a noise of agreement and waited along with Sara.
Out of the blue Sara turned and addressed him, "We don't hang out a lot."
A pause.
"Sure we do."
"No, I mean just the two of us. Alone. At least not since a few years ago."
He straightened up in his seat, "Oh. Well yeah, I guess we don't."
She didn't have anything else to say and neither did he. They sat there in stony silence, except for the odd whirring of the mass spectrometer and some far off voices spouting technical jargon.
"It would be kind of... weird, I guess. Awkward?"
He answered after the long gap in conversation, which Sara didn't realize at first.
"You mean hanging out by ourselves?"
"Yeah," he hunched back down and looked at the machine in front of him.
"Kind of like now?"
Warrick laughed, "Sort of."
"Well I think we should try and do something," Sara tilted her head to follow him as he got up.
He asked, "How about break?"
"Is that where you're going?"
"Yeah," he smiled, "You wanna join me?"
She rose quickly, "Sure."
They arrived at the break room, which was as empty as the trace lab.
"Where is everyone?"
"Out on assignment, I guess. We're stuck here in the lab."
She smiled and sat down, joined shortly by Warrick. A string of red and pink paper hearts hung on the door, the only indicator of the approaching "holiday" of love.
"It's going to be Valentines Day in a few days."
The confused CSI followed her gaze, and spotted the little decoration on the door.
"Oh," he gave her a look, "I couldn't tell around this lab."
"What do you expect? Flowers and candles around the microscopes?"
"A little banner would be a nice change. I heard there were heart shaped lights on sale..."
"Fire hazard," she quipped, "Plus they'd be too distracting. That and the banner."
He smirked, "Grinch."
She feigned outrage, "I am not! Valentines Day is not much of a holiday compared to Christmas."
"We gonna get into a debate about this?" He still sported the same smirk, trying not to laugh.
Sara ust shook her head and started to get up, "I'm getting something to eat, you want anything?"
"I'm good."
She made the quick trip to her locker and back, noticing there was no other signs of the February holiday. There wasn't any other decoration on the other doors. Just the break room.
"Hmm," she placed her bag lunch on the table, "I'm going to have to agree with you. I didn't see anything remotely "seasonal" around here."
Warrick was sipping a soda he had stashed in the fridge, "Seasonal? So now you are comparing it to Christmas."
"I don't know what else to call it," she replied.
"So there's nothing on any other door? No flowers, no pink signs, no little diapered babies holding arrows?"
"Nope, nope, and not even close." She marked off on her fingers.
"So much for the day of love," he sighed.
Sara unpacked her bag, taking out a wrapped sandwich and a small paper container.
"What do you have there?" he started eyeing her food.
"Tomato sandwich and homemade fries," she looked up at him, eyes narrowing "I know that look. You said you weren't hungry!"
"Come on Sara, show a brother a little love," he teased.
She sighed, but couldn't help her grin, "Well it is the season... Here. Help yourself."
Warrick reached over and snatched a fry.
"We should definitely hang out more often."
"Fine. You bring the flowers, I'll bring the fries."
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See that last line was the inspiration for my title. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hope you all liked this non-ordinary Valentines Day ficlet. Please tell me what you think. Thanks.
