Title: Friendly Fumes

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: CSI is not mine and never will be, I'm not that lucky :-(

Spoilers: Through Season 4, but before 'Bloodlines'

Notes: This was meant to be a short fic of around 10 pages, but it got away from me and ended up as 30. ::sigh:: I have no control anymore.

Part 1 of 3

---

"You should ask Catherine."

"No."

"Sara –"

"No, Nick, the last thing I'm gonna do is move in with Catherine for a few days."

Unwittingly, the two CSIs entered a staring contest and it was a few moments before Nick relented with a grin. "Hey, it's not that I'm not offering, 'cause believe me I am, it's just that I figured you'd be more comfortable staying with Catherine."

"I wouldn't feel right asking Catherine," shrugged Sara. "It's not that we're not friendly but… well, you know how we are." Nick nodded. "And anyway, she has Lindsey."

"So?"

"Anyway, somewhere in all this, I do believe you offered me a place to stay, Nick," she smiled.

"Sure, you always got a bed at my place," he drawled. "When do you need it?"

"Tomorrow?"

"No problem."

"It might be for about a week though, the whole block has to be fumigated and, since the walls are paper thin, they've said it could take a while for the fumes to die down."

"As long as you don't expect me to eat vegetarian crap for a whole week, it's no problem," he said, causing Sara to laugh and swat his shoulder.

---

Sara couldn't believe how tired she was as Nick let them into his apartment. More often than not, she existed on only a couple of hours sleep a night and she was used to it, not requiring more. However, the last few weeks of tough cases had taken their toll and having to move out of her apartment was draining her energy more quickly.

They had driven their own vehicles to the apartment, in case one of them got called in before shift and, due to the hectic night, they hadn't had much chance to discuss the living arrangements. As soon as Sara had dropped her bag in the living room, Nick lifted it up again and carried it to his bedroom.

"What are you doing?" asked Sara as she followed him.

"Putting your bag in your room," he answered in a 'well duh' tone.

"I'm not taking your room, Nick."

"Huh?"

"You're already doing me a huge favor by letting me stay here, you're not gonna give up your bed for me as well."

"Well, we could share," he suggested, waggling his eyebrows. Sara laughed. "Yeah, maybe not," he grinned. "Seriously though, Sara, take my room, I'll take the couch."

"No, and if you insist on making me, then I'll find somewhere else to stay," she said firmly.

Nick shook his head in surrender and retrieved her bag from the bed, carrying it back into the living room.

---

It should have been silent. They'd been in Nick's apartment for nearly two hours and it should have been silent, but it wasn't.

"Haha, take that, Greggo," yelled Nick enthusiastically.

Sara stifled a groan. She knew Nick was into computer games and it was something she didn't have a problem with, except when he was playing them in what was effectively her bedroom. She guessed that he didn't keep his computer in his bedroom because there was more space in the living room, and it was closer to the fridge for beer replenishment. But, he didn't need beer replenishment early in the morning; right now he was drinking coffee to stay awake. Sara had learned that Nick and Greg were playing against each other via the Internet. He'd done the decent thing and worn headphones, but his jubilant yells of triumph every so often, or his cussing when defeated by Greg, rendered the headphones useless to keep the peace.

She couldn't believe she had automatically assumed that Nick's end of shift routine would be the same as hers. She always went home, had a quick shower, dried her hair and crashed into bed to get a couple of hours sleep. After that, she would wake up, eat some food, shower, dress and head into work early… very early. Nick, on the other hand, would get home, make something to eat and then compete against Greg. He told her that the games never lasted more than two hours before he went to bed, but he didn't realize that those two hours were Sara's usual sleeping time.

Having already showered and changed into pajamas, there was nothing left for Sara to do except sit and wait for Nick to finish his game. She had arranged the bedding he'd given her and was curled up on the couch with the duvet over her. Her book was lying on the floor beside her; she had given up trying to read when Nick's yells kept interrupting her concentration. She was being as quiet as possible – which she knew was crazy since he was wearing headphones and was concentrating so intensely on the game that he probably didn't even remember she was there – but she was being quiet purposefully, because she didn't want him to realize she was there and turn off the game to be nice; she didn't want him to change his habits just for her.

Although she didn't know how, Sara sensed when Nick was about to finish his game and she quickly picked up her book again and pushed the duvet down to her feet, so that she appeared totally relaxed and not as if she was desperate to get some sleep. Nick switched off the computer, removed his headphones and turned to face her.

"Did you win?" she asked with a smile.

"I'm winning," he replied, "it's an ongoing game and strategically, I'm kicking his ass." Sara laughed at his enthusiasm and Nick shot her a grin. "You sure you don't want anything to eat, Sara?" he asked. "I'm gonna make myself something else before I crash anyway, so I can fix you something."

"No, I'm fine, but thanks, Nick."

"Okay. Well, I'm gonna eat and catch some zzs. I'll see ya later," he smiled.

"Yeah, okay."

---

"Hey, you look exhausted. Did Nick show you too much of a good time this morning?" asked Warrick as he found Sara half-asleep in the break room.

"No, he showed himself too much of a good time," she muttered in reply, causing Warrick's eyebrows to raise at her words. "He was playing some computer game with Greg over the internet for a couple of hours," she explained. Warrick was still confused as to why that was a problem, so she added, "His computer is in the living room, where the couch is, which is, you know, my bed."

"He's making you sleep on the couch? Man, no wonder he can never keep a girlfriend if he doesn't even show good manners with his friends," laughed Warrick.

"He offered me his bed," she smiled, "but I said I'd take the couch."

"Did you tell him you wanted to sleep?"

Sara shook her head and explained her reasons for keeping quiet. Warrick told her she should tell Nick so that he didn't do it again, but she refused, saying that Nick was doing her a favor and she wasn't going to complain.

"You know, I think Nick and Greg play that game every day, it's some kind of war simulation thing," said Warrick, eliciting a groan from Sara as she sunk her head into her hands. "Listen, I'd offer you a bed at my place, but I kinda have a guest right now."

Sara's head shot up. "Warrick, are you holding out on us? You know that the rest of us live vicariously through your love life, you gotta tell us these things," she smiled.

He shook his head. "A gentleman doesn't tell and, unlike my couch offering buddy, Nick, I am a gentleman."

---

"How'd it go this morning, Sara?"

"Oh, hey, Warrick", said Sara as she met his gaze. She was sitting in the break room studying a journal, with just over an hour to go until the end of shift. "If you mean was Nick still playing his computer then, yes, he was," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Why don't you just tell him?"

"I'm okay, Warrick. You know me, I don't sleep, I actually function better without it."

"Yeah, normally I'd agree, but you look worn out, Sara. Look, I'll talk to Nick, though I can't believe he doesn't see how tired you are."

"No, Warrick, just leave it," she said seriously. "Nick is perfectly entitled to do what he likes in his own apartment."

"Okay, but if you want me to talk to him, I will."

"Thanks," she smiled.

---

On the third day, Sara had planned to follow Nick home again, but when she overheard him talking to Greg about kicking his 'cyber butt' as soon as he got home, she decided to go with another option – pulling a double shift; she just couldn't handle yet another day of no sleep, but she still wouldn't talk to Nick about it as she knew he'd feel guilty. She wished she'd talked to him at the start, as now he would feel ten times worse because she'd already lost two days sleep. Nick easily bought her excuse and headed home, telling her to just press the buzzer when she arrived and he'd let her in. She knew it was crazy staying at work because she couldn't sleep at Nick's – the end result was the same, no sleep. However, she felt being at work was the lesser of the two evils. She ensconced herself in the layout room after the team left, but she didn't actually have too much to do; her major cases were all wrapped up and everything else could wait.

"Sara, what are you doing here?" asked Grissom, startling her and causing her head to shoot up to look at him.

"Working," she smirked.

"On what?"

"Uh… work." She grinned at him, but the look on Grissom's face soon wiped her grin and she gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm just finishing off a few things," she lied.

"You're not working on anything that can't wait, why don't you go home?" he urged gently.

"I would if I had a home to go to," she muttered, hoping he wouldn't hear her comment, but he did.

"What do you mean?"

She knew she couldn't lie to him, so she took a deep breath and met his gaze. "My apartment is being fumigated, so I can't stay there for about a week."

"Fumigated?"

"Yeah, the whole block has an infestation of your little roach friends." Grissom's eyebrows rose. "Don't worry," she laughed, "I'm sure none of them are of racing pedigree, so they won't be a huge loss."

"You've had to move out of your apartment and your solution is to stay here?" he asked with a frown.

"No, I uh… I was staying with Nick."

"Was? Past tense?"

"Yeah, I wasn't able to get much sleep there due to his computer game competition with Greg," she explained.

Grissom asked why she hadn't talked to Nick about it and she gave him the same reasons she'd told Warrick. He shook his head, but could tell it wasn't worth arguing with her about, as her mind was made up.

"You can't stay here, Sara. For one thing, you don't have enough work to keep you busy and, even if you did, you can't claim overtime for it."

"I don't want overtime," she interrupted.

"And for another thing," he continued as if she hadn't spoken, "how's it going to look to dayshift when they find you walking around like a zombie through lack of sleep."

"I'll survive."

"I guess I need to requisition a new couch for my office in next month's budget, to cover situations such as this," he smiled, causing Sara to chuckle. She didn't move other than to tidy up some of the evidence she'd been studying and Grissom let out a sigh. "Alright, come on," he said.

"Huh?"

"You can't stay here, so I suppose I'll need to find somewhere for you to go," he explained as if he was being faced with the biggest chore in the world.

"Grissom, I'm fine."

"Get your stuff," he said firmly, stalking out of the room and giving her no option but to follow – he was the boss and he'd essentially ordered her to leave work.

---

Sara was still shaking her head in shock as she parked her car near Grissom's and followed him into his home. She had finally caught up with him in the lab parking lot and he'd told her to follow him home. Her shock at his statement was evident, but he just gave her a look that brooked no opposition and she'd mutely nodded her head.

She considered it great foresight that she'd taken her bag from Nick's when she left the previous evening. She had told him that she was going to have to do some laundry, so he hadn't questioned her motives and she now carried the bag into Grissom's and stood with it over her shoulder, waiting for him to say something.

Grissom had disappeared as soon as they'd entered and, minutes later, he still hadn't re-appeared. Sara stood nervously and waited for him, far too tense to even attempt to make herself at home. Her eyes roamed around the room, taking in everything she'd missed on her one previous visit. She was so engrossed in studying one of his butterfly collections that she didn't notice Grissom had returned until she felt him lift her bag from her shoulder.

"It's okay, I got it," she said, taking the bag back.

"I'll show you your room then."

She followed him into the guest room and he motioned for her to drop her bag, which she did.

"Just make yourself at home," said Grissom. "Uh, do you want anything to eat?"

"Would you mind if I just went to sleep?" she asked hesitantly. "It's just, I usually just crash for a couple of hours after I get home and then eat later."

"I do exactly the same thing," he told her with a smile. "Do you need anything? Oh, the bathroom is down the hall, second door on the right. There are towels in there, but I don't have a spare toothbrush or anything."

"That's okay, I have all my stuff with me; Nick just thinks I always take a toothbrush, etc. to work," she grinned.

Reflecting later, she considered that she must have tempted fate by mentioning Nick's name because, as soon as she had, her cellphone rang.

Glancing at the caller id display, she muttered, "Oh, crap," earning a look from Grissom. "It's Nick," she informed him, "he must be checking when I'm gonna get to his place."

She was just about to press the 'receive' button to take the call when Grissom removed the phone from her hands.

"Grissom," he said into the phone as he answered the call.

"Grissom?" came Nick's surprised voice. "Uh, it's Nick. Sorry, I must have misdialed, I'm trying to reach Sara."

"This is Sara's phone, Nick."

"Oh. Is uh… is she there?"

"She's not available at the moment, Nick," replied Grissom, shooting Sara a look as he heard her gasp. "Can I help?"

"Uh, no, I was just wondering when she's coming ho-- I mean, uh, is she gonna be there a while?"

Looking at Sara, Grissom replied, "I think Sara will be here until the start of the next shift, Nick. Can I take a message?"

"No, it's okay. Just tell her I'll see her at start of shift."

"Okay. Bye, Nick," said Grissom, ending the call and tossing the phone to a stunned Sara.

"You just lied to him," she accused with a grin.

"No, I didn't."

"You did. You told him I was gonna be working right through."

"No, I told him you'd be here until next shift, Nick just assumed that we were both still at work."

"If you ever get tired of being a CSI, you should become a lawyer, Grissom," she laughed.

Feeling a little edgy all of a sudden, he took them back to their earlier conversation. "You don't need anything then?" he asked.

"Umm, could I get a glass of water?" He nodded and started to leave when she suddenly said, "Uh, I don't have a robe or anything, just so you know." At his blank look, she added, "In case we meet in the hall on the way to the bathroom or something." She could feel herself blushing and silently kicked herself for over-talking again.

"Help yourself to water, glasses are in the cabinet next to the sink," he said as he left the room. "Oh, and Sara?" he continued, turning to face her once more. "Get at least five hours sleep, alright, you need it."

She nodded weakly as she followed him out of the room. She headed to the kitchen while Grissom veered off to his bedroom. Returning to her room with a glass of water, Sara gasped as her eyes fell on something that was now lying on her bed; it was Grissom's robe.

---

Amazingly, Sara did sleep for five hours and, emerging from the bathroom fully dressed, she found Grissom in the living room.

"Did you sleep alright?" he asked, searching her face to assure himself that she looked rested.

"Yeah, I even did as I was told and actually got five hours," she said with a proud smile. "Hey, how come there are no bugs in the guest room?" she asked as she moved to sit in a chair near the end of the couch where Grissom was sitting.

"Excuse me?" he queried, peering over the rim of his glasses at her. "Are you implying there are bugs elsewhere in my home? You're the one with the roach infestation, are you not?"

"You know what I mean!" she laughed. "You have butterfly and bug displays everywhere else; I uh… I noticed the ones in your bedroom as I passed on the way to the bathroom, but you don't have any in the guest room."

"I don't spend any time in the guest room," he explained. "Why put something I want to look at in a place I won't see it?"

"Good point," she conceded, smiling at him.

"Would you like something to eat?" he asked, getting up and walking to the kitchen. "I have a vegetarian pizza in the freezer. Is that too heavy for you when you just woke up?"

"No, it sounds good. Thanks. I always have my main meal when I wake up, I'm weird like that."

"Me too," he smiled. "I also have some salad and cheese, as well as bread if you want to make yourself sandwiches to take to work."

"Yeah? That'd be great. Nick didn't have anything in and I didn't have a chance to buy anything to put in his fridge, so I've had to make do with junk food for the last couple of days."

"Help yourself," he said, motioning to the fridge as he removed the pizza from the freezer and set it on the counter while waiting for the oven to reach temperature.

"Do you want me to make you something?" He looked at her blankly. "If I'm making sandwiches for myself, I can make some for you while I'm at it," she said.

"Yes, thanks. There should be enough for both of us, so just make me whatever you're having." She nodded and started removing various items from the fridge. "I'm just going to check my email, I'll be back in a minute to put the pizza in."

"It's okay, I got it," she smiled. "I'll call you when it's ready."

"Thanks," he nodded and walked towards his study.

---

They ate in relative silence, both studying forensic journals and only talking when there was an article they wanted to discuss with each other. As soon as they were finished eating, Sara packed her bag and asked Grissom where she should put the bed sheets once she'd stripped the bed.

"Just leave them," he told her, prompting a curious look. "I'll attend to them later, when I'm doing my own."

"Oh, okay," she shrugged. "I'm gonna head into work, if that's okay."

"It's still early, Sara," he said softly.

"I know, but I need to be there before Nick or he'll get suspicious."

"You can always tell him you went out to eat, which is technically true," he commented, nodding his head towards the discarded dishes in the kitchen.

"Geez, Grissom, it's scary that you can think of plausible excuses like that," she laughed. In reply, he winked at her, stunning her into silence. When she finally regained the power of speech, she looked at him seriously. "Thanks for letting me stay here, Grissom, I appreciate it."

"You're welcome," he responded, but his tone held no emotion whatsoever, leaving Sara thoroughly confused.

"Well, I uh, I'm gonna go to work. I guess I'll see you there."

"Yes. Bye, Sara," he said, watching as she left, but not bothering to open the door for her, instead letting her see herself out.

---

"Thanks again, Nick, I really appreciate you letting me stay," said Sara as she filled Nick in on the fact that she would no longer be staying with him.

"No problem, Sara, any time," he smiled as he left the room to start work on his case.

Grissom overheard the tail-end of their conversation as he strode into the break room to pour himself a cup of coffee. Still facing the wall, he arched an eyebrow as he heard Sara puff out a sigh as she watched Nick's retreating back.

"You okay?" he asked as he turned to look at her.

"I'm fine," she said too quickly and he cocked his head to the side. "Really," she insisted. "Some of my samples are back, I'll be in Trace," she informed him as she walked past him.

---

"Sara, what are you still doing here? I thought you would be out of here early for once this morning, desperate to get back to your apartment and straighten it out," said Grissom when he found Sara still in the break room an hour after shift had ended.

She looked up at him with a deer-in-the-headlights expression and his curiosity rose. His gaze fell to the book on the table and she snapped it shut, but her finger was marking a page.

"The phone book?" he queried, stepping towards her and stopping on the opposite side of the table. Before she had a chance to react, flipped the book open to where her finger had been. "Motels? Sara, what's going on?" he asked seriously.

"Nothing," she lied.

"Sara." He pinned her with a glare and she shrugged. "Sara," he repeated, more firmly.

"I'm just looking for a place to stay the rest of the week."

"Your apartment isn't ready yet?" She shook her head and he looked at her in confusion. "So, why did you tell Nick it was?"

"I didn't."

"Sara, I heard you earlier."

"Well, you must have misheard, because I didn't tell him I was moving back into my apartment." He arched his eyebrows and she added with a grin, "I took a page out of your book."

"What does that mean?" he inquired.

"I told him I didn't need to stay with him any longer, it's not my fault if he automatically assumed that my apartment was ready."

He didn't look convinced and Sara explained that she had overheard yet another computer game wager being made between Nick and Greg and she couldn't bear to go back to Nick's as she felt she may end up saying something that would cause problems in their friendship.

"And now you're planning to stay in a motel?"

"You know how much I earn, Grissom, there would need to be one hell of a deal to allow me to stay in a Vegas hotel for a few nights."

"So you plan to stay in a motel?" he said incredulously. "Sara, you can't do that."

"Yes, I can."

"Sara."

"Grissom, I'll be fine. I might stop by a camping store and buy myself a sleeping bag first, so that I don't have to sleep on their sheets, but I'll make do."

"You are not staying in a motel," he said resolutely and Sara gave him a challenging look. "Sara, I don't want the next case I investigate to be the murder of a female CSI found dead in a seedy motel room."

"Stop being so dramatic," she chastised.

"I suppose you'll have to come home with me again then," he muttered sharply.

"Grissom, I didn't exp—"

"I know," he interrupted, "but you're not staying in a motel. Get your things and follow me home."

His orders given, he stalked out of the room, not waiting for Sara.

---

TBC