A/N: Thanks so much for all your kind words about the first chapter. I hope you enjoy this one as much.

I don't own CSI.

Chapter 2: Nick

It was strange, really. If Sara had been asked who she was most excited to see upon her return to Vegas, she would have answered Grissom, closely followed by Greg. Her lover and her best friend were the two people she had missed the most during her time of soul searching.

It was odd, therefore, that she barely even saw Greg when Grissom took her to the lab. The team was gathered in the break room, watching the news report about Warrick's shooting. Grissom and Sara both stopped short in the doorway. While Grissom's steps were stopped by a strong sense of déjà vu, Sara's were halted by Nick.

He was sitting in the back of the break room, alone, his eyes full of tears as they stared at the television. Mindless of the exclamations and gasps around her, Sara pushed past Greg, Catherine and the techs, coming to a stop in front of the man who had been her first friend in Vegas.

"Nicky," she whispered.

Nick looked up at her. As their eyes connected, he lost his battle for control, and a sob escaped him. Sara knelt down to wrap her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Nick clung to her, sobbing against her shoulder.

When they finally broke apart, both wiping at teary eyes, they found that they were alone. Sara didn't know where the others had gone, and, truthfully, she didn't really care. She sat down next to Nick and took his hand. They sat together in silence for quite a while before Nick spoke.

"I guess it was his day to die, huh?"

"I guess so."

"Do you know where I was when it happened?" Nick asked.

Sara shook her head.

"In the diner. I was a football field away, but I couldn't get there fast enough. I used to run the length of a football field over and over again at practice after school, but I couldn't make it those hundred yards to save Warrick."

"Nicky, what could you have done?" Sara asked quietly. "The bullet went –"

"I know the technical details," Nick interrupted. "I know what the autopsy will find. I know what the official cause of death will be. But, Sara, I let him die. I let him leave that diner and walk to his death."

"Nick –"

"I stayed behind, Sara," he said, choking slightly on his words as new tears filled his eyes. "I asked him to go out with me, but he told me to stay and flirt with the waitress. He said he'd just go home and take a shower. And, I agreed. I didn't fight him, I didn't offer to go out with him again. I let him leave, because I wanted to flirt with the waitress. I wanted to get her number. I wanted … I was so stupid!" He slammed his fist against the arm of his chair.

"No, Nick," Sara said. "You couldn't have known. Okay? There's no way you could have known." She exhaled slowly. "I was asleep when it happened. Maybe if I hadn't been … maybe I would have thought to call him. Maybe, if he had been talking to me, whoever did this wouldn't have. Maybe they would have been deterred by the fact that Warrick was on the phone."

"How often does that happen?"

"How would we know? We don't get called to the scene when someone isn't shot."

"Fair enough." Nick looked away from her. "Do you know what really kills me about all of this?"

"Tell me."

"I feel …" Nick swallowed hard, fighting for control. "I feel like I let him down."

"Why?" Sara asked, genuinely confused.

"He saved me," Nick said, a tear breaking free and sliding down his cheek. "He saved me, but I couldn't save him."

"What do you mean?"

"He saved me when I was buried," Nick said. He exhaled. "I know you all worked together. I know it wasn't just him. I know that no one could have done that alone. But, Sara, when the dirt was pushed away, it was Warrick's face I saw. It was Warrick who saved me from blowing out my own brains with that bullet in that gun. It was Warrick who –"

"It was you who saved me," Sara said, grabbing his hand again. "Grissom may have been the first one I saw when I could open my eyes again, but I know that you were the one who found me in the desert, Nick. You were the one who doused me in water to try to bring me back. You were the one who talked to me, coaxing me not to let go. And, Nicky, if you don't think that made a difference, you're wrong."

"So, what are you saying, Sar? That I was saved and I saved you, so my karma was even? That it wasn't in my stars to save Warrick, too?"

"I'm saying, Nick, that we're a team. That we work together, and that we save each other. It's not always as dramatic as those two times, but we always pull each other up and get each other through. I can't count the number of times you or Warrick, or Catherine or Greg or Grissom or even Hodges, saved me from something that threatened to pull me under. This time … it was just the time that Warrick wasn't meant to be saved."

"It isn't fair, Sara!" Nick jumped to his feet and began to pace around the room. "Why did I survive and you survive, but Warrick …?"

"I don't know, Nicky," Sara said quietly, watching his progress back and forth across the room. "I wish I had an answer to that, but I just don't. All I can say is that the universe isn't finished with us yet. Warrick … maybe he had done all that he was meant to do. It was just …"

"His day," Nick finished, sitting down next to her again.

"Yeah."

Nick shook his head and fell silent. Sara sat next to him quietly, respecting his need for time to sort his thoughts. When he could speak again, his voice was small, lost.

"He was my best friend, Sara. How am I going to keep going without my best friend?"

Sara took his hand, holding it tightly. "You will keep going. We all will. Because, if we don't, we're letting Warrick down."

"Yeah," Nick sighed. "We have to find the person responsible for this."

Sara nodded. "It's what we do."

Fire jumped in Nick's eyes. "I'll tell you one thing, Sara. That person has sure messed with the wrong crowd. We will make him or her pay for what happened to Warrick. There is no way I will let my best friend die for nothing."