DISCLAIMER: They're not mine, and I think we all know that.


Nick wonders what people see when they look at her.

He's watching her now through the windows of the lab he's working in as she walks down the corridor. She hasn't seen him and she's just walking, heading for some unknown destination, but then she's gone and he can no longer see her.

The thought has distracted him from the window he was piecing back together; it's all right, he's nearly there and he needs a break anyway, because shards of glass are beginning to take over his mind. Mindnumbing work like this always seems to inspire him to unusual thoughts, perhaps to save his mind from warping and dying under the almost physical weight of boredom. Nick has never been a jigsaw puzzle person.

He's often wondered what their suspects think when they see her. Of course their suspects cover the breadth of the human population, but he thinks most of them see Sara as nothing more than a pretty face, until she moves in on them. Nick likes watching her interrogate suspects through the glass because he loves to see her outwit them at every turn. She gives off an air of immense confidence during most of their investigations, even when it's just a wall or a facade. The civilians involved in the investigation don't know it, sometimes even her colleagues don't know it. So many people believe with Sara that what they see is what they get, but Nick knows she's not that simple or straightforward.

He knows about her reputation around the lab. Tough, single-minded, sometimes a bit short tempered, and he knows all that, knows it's true. But is that all they see? How can it be all they see when there's so much more to her? Oh, it's true she keeps herself apart. Not aloof, simply separate, moving in her own little world. He's talked to her about it - fought with her about it. He can't change her and he's come to realise that he doesn't want to. It just means that he sees two versions of Sara in the lab - the one everyone else sees, and the one only he sees.

It saddens him, sometimes, to think that their colleagues see Sara as one-dimensional, a little different. After all, he knows better. He knows that sometimes that tough image really is a facade, one that will crumble as soon as she's away from prying eyes. He knows that she's more than just a pretty face - he knows every inch of her body better than anyone else in the world, and he also knows more of her mind than anyone else in the world. Knows, he thinks, and loves.


THE END