Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or CSI

I wanted to try a new writing style with this, never actually saying Sara's name. It's just a short story, like really really short. I came up with it after watching Play With Firefor the millionth time ). There is a few things about this I want to change, but I'm not really good at ending stories, so if I start making changes I will never publish it...hope that made snese :D.

Enjoy...

Paid Leave

She was on paid leave. It was her first day of relaxation since a long time ago, and she planned never to have one again. She loved her work; spending countless hours with her friends and coworkers had always appealed to her. At home she felt alone, like she was missing out on something. Her contract said that it was mandatory for her to take this day off and also because she had clocked in too many overtime hours. And after her accident, many thought that she needed to take a day off. It really had been a miserable day filled with rejection and drama. As she was walking down the hall at work, the room next to her blasted apart, hurting her coworker and giving her a few scrapes and a big scare. Because of this shock her supervisor had come up to her and shown that he really cared about her, she decided it was time to ask him to have dinner with her. She had suppressed these feelings for a long time, and could sense the chemistry between them. Right before she came home, she had asked him to go out with her. He had said no, and she explained that when he was ready it would be too late. But now she hoped to make it better.

Her phone rang and the concierge informed her that there was somebody downstairs to see her. She buzzed them in and headed down the stairs. As she approached the glass double doors that led to the outside of her apartment building, she saw a box of chocolates sitting next to the umbrella holder. There was an envelope with her name on them attached to the box, but that was it. No person. She felt excitement and sorrow; it had to be him, but was he too scared to speak to her face? She opened up the envelope right now, not caring anymore as to who was staring at her. The note inside only said, I'm Sorry. How she wanted to go over to his place and show him that she forgave him. But that would have to wait another day, because she was being paged.

Now she figured she had a reason to return to work. She walked up to her Tahoe and started to get in. As she hoisted herself up into the driver's seat of the car, she checked the pager again, just to make sure she wasn't hallucinating about being paged. Nope, the words were crystal clear scrolling across the screen. It was Catherine. Five minutes later she was back at work. As she waked down the hall she heard laughter coming from Warrick's office. He must be on the phone with someone, she thought. But as she rounded the corner she could distinctly hear Catherine's voice coning from inside. She figured Catherine didn't think she could make it to work that fast and was just briefly chatting with Warrick. She decided to stop and listen for a few moments; no one was around as it was between shifts. As she listened, she could sense that they were close to each other, almost whispering.

She caught a line of "I know a great restaurant in Reno." She smiled and shook her head; she had always suspected them of being closer than coworkers. But the words that made her stop smiling were the words that she dreaded to hear, and at the same time had been waiting for them for a long time. "You know, he really does love her. All he does in his spare time is think about what went wrong. He is too afraid he will make a mistake. He is never one to show regret, but you can tell it." She tensed up and glanced through the blinds to the office. Catherine was staring right at her. For one second she thought that maybe Catherine had meant her to hear that last line. That thought vanished as soon ad Catherine rushed out of the office looking bewildered and explained, "Oh, I didn't know you got here so quickly." As they walked to her office all she could think was, why am I here?

However, when Catherine led her past her office and towards her bosses, she knew something was up. This time she was right. He was sitting in his office all alone waiting for her, and Catherine let them be alone. He was just sitting there, glancing at her and then back to the chair in front of his desk. She could tell he was at a loss for words. Things like these rarely happened to her supervisor. She took a seat in front of him and sighed to herself.

He looked at her, caringly, and said in a gentle voice, "would you like to have dinner with me?"