Title: Too Late
Pairing: Nick/Sara romance very much implied
Fandom: CSI
Theme/Lyric Code: L.40 ("Pain" - Jimmy Eat World)
Genre: General, romance
Rating: G
Warning: N/A
Summary: Sara once gave Grissom a chance years ago, but he took too long. She's moved on... and he's too late.
Other: For my original 40-mixed (with an underscore) challenge on LiveJournal. Occurs within season 6, sometime after 6x12 'Daddy's Little Girl'. There is a reference to 3x22 'Play With Fire'. This was a tad bit strange for me to write since I'm certain Grissom is doing Catherine and could care less about asking Sara out. But you know how them plotbunnies can be... (premiered 03/06/06 at 607am.)


I never thought I'd walk away from you; I did.
( Jimmy Eat World, "Pain" )

Nick sighed as he finished up his last few things before the end of shift. Beside him, Sara yawned, then looked over at him.

"That case sure took a lot out of us."

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, it did." Turning to face her, he grinned slightly. "And now it's time to go home."

Sara grinned back, but hers was bigger than his. "You leave first. I'll catch up with you later."

"Gotcha." Looking around to make sure no one could see, he leaned over and kissed her before standing and leaving.

A few minutes later, Sara was getting ready to leave, when Grissom walked into the room. Sara looked up. "Hey."

"Hi."

Realizing that Grissom wasn't just dropping in to say hi, Sara stood still and shrugged a bit. She wanted to leave, damnit... but she hid her impatience (and she hid it well) with a smile. "Whatcha need?"

"I... I wanted to ask you if you'd like to... have dinner with me tonight."

Well, imagine that. So many years of chasing this man, stuck in some tough-to-get-out-of cycle of one-sided love, being turned down by him several times ... and now he was asking her out. Funny how things worked out. Could it have been her comment the other day about how "some people just shouldn't be together" when he was talking about how thermite works that brought him to his senses? Maybe.

...Too bad she'd moved on already.

Not that he knew. No one did. She and Nick had been able to successfully keep their official relationship under the radar since the McBride case, sure that if anyone found out, it could cause tension — not between the two of them, necessarily, but between them and the rest of the team. Perhaps they were just a little paranoid... or perhaps they were simply being careful, waiting for the "right" moment to allow their relationship to be known about.

Grissom was still awaiting an answer. For a moment, Sara was unsure of how to answer without making it known that Nick was the one she was with — and then it hit her.

"Remember a few years back, when I said that you could be too late? Well... now's that time. I'm sorry." With that, Sara left, not bothering to stick around to see the dazed look that had appeared to Grissom's face.

After all, she had someone else to get home to.


A/N: Still moving stuff over from my writing journal