A/N: First of all, I would like to say SORRY to all who have been waiting. If this chapter sucks, my bad. It went straight from my brain to the computer so when a lovely bolt of lightning kicked my computer's ass I had to redo it from memory (something I don't have the best of!) After I got it re-typed, this site was being a jerk and wouldn't let me post anything! The next will be up much sooner than this one was!


Neither had the guts to tell the other how they felt so for now mind games would have to do for the both of them. Once they got away from the lab though, it was different. The friendly musings had ended, and neither had the nerve to say one word to the other.

Thirteen minutes and forty-two, forty-three, forty-four seconds into the drive so far, and nothing but dead silence. Neither had moved since they had left the parking lot, not even so much as to turn on the radio.

'Come on Sara! You were just talking and flirting with him fifteen minutes ago, why not now? Because there is no one around to stop you when you go too far? This silence is going to drive me nuts. Fifteen minutes can't be good! Maybe I pushed it too far…what if I scared him off! Oh man, Sara, you fucked up! I'm hungry, is he hungry? Is he going to say something? Should I say something? Oh, for fucks sake Sara, just talk!' she thought to herself, while Nick was having a similar conversation in his own head

"Fifteen minutes, man! Oh man Nick, you fucked up! She really does think you're a pervert! Fifteen minutes can't be good! Did I push it too far with her? I'm hungry, is she hungry? Jesus, is she going to say something?! Do I need to say something? Why cant you just flirt and talk with her like before? Too scared to be alone with her Stokes? You big baby, she isn't going to hurt you. For fucks sake, Nick, just talk!'

"I-" they both started to talk at the same time.

"Sorry, ladies first." He smiled.

"Don't worry, it wasn't anything important. What were you going to say, Nick?"

"It uh, it wasn't important." He sighed quietly.

"Okay" she sighed too

Another five minutes and …seventeen seconds of silence later, Sara was the first to talk. "So…you good?"

"What?"

"How are you doing, I mean? We haven't hung out in a couple of days, I was just curious…or whatever."

"Oh, well, I'm good. Thanks."

"Good" she smiled.

Silence again…

"Oh shit, Sara! I'm sorry! How are you doing? I totally forgot my manners, I'm sorry." He felt like an idiot

She laughed "Its okay, Nick. I'm okay."

"That great." He smiled back.

"Well, I maxed out on overtime, I know, imagine that, right?…Anyway, I got stuck in the lab so there aren't really any cases to mess with me."

"Right."

"Yeah." She sighed.

'Good lord, Nick, you act like she is going to kill you! Just say something to her before she thinks you hate her or something!'

"Sara, we don't…okay, when…you-"

"Spit it out, Nicky!" she laughed.

"Sorry…you don't, um…when we hang out together…it doesn't have to be because of a case, Sara."

"Anytime?"

"I really don't care when. We can hang out as friends, you know."

"I kinda thought that's what we did, Nick." She looked confused.

"No, we hang out as coworkers that understand and comfort each other. We should hang out as friends, not because one of us has a bad day at work."

She smiled wide. "Sounds good, Nick."

"Really?" he sounded surprised.

"Yeah, I completely agree with you."

"Great, um…what are you doing after work tonight?" he figured that by the time work was over, he would be able to tell her.

"Tonight…well probably the same thing I do every night."

"Which is?"

"Sit around and think about y-, how bored I am." She blushed, and mentally hit herself for her slip.

Nick grinned, he had heard her mess up and couldn't have been happier. She just said, well almost said, that she thinks about him. Besides liking him, what other reason did she have for sitting around thinking about him?

"Sounds like a blast."

"Oh, it is." She said with mock enthusiasm.

"Well, at the risk of ruining your fun, do you want to…go out?"

"Go out?" she grinned.

"Yeah, go out. We'll go someplace when we get back, as…as friends." he didn't want to push it too far with her yet. 'Maybe this case will go fast and we can get to tonight sooner...' he thought.

Her grin disappeared at the words 'as friends' and she slumped down a bit in her seat "Sounds great, Nick."

"Good. Um…not that I am trying to change the subject or anything, but…do you know where we are?" he looked embarrassed.

"You don't?!" she sat up.

"Well, I can't drive and read a map."

"I thought you knew!" she laughed.

"I'm serious, Sara. I don't know if we've even been going in the right direction. You never said turn anywhere, so I thought we just went straight for a while!"

"Oh my god, Nick!" she laughed harder "Are we really lost?!"

"We're not lost, Sara…I just don't really know where we are."

"Wow, big difference!" she was still laughing.

"Immense." He finally laughed too.

"Just keep going, maybe we'll see a sign or something"

"Look at your map, try and figure out where we are."

"Nick…I don't have one in here." she blushed.

"You serious?!"

"Afraid so" she said.

"Sara… who doesn't keep a map in their truck?"

"Me, obviously."

"Better hope we find a gas station."

"Look, there's a sign." Sara pointed, and Nick pulled over.

"Great, thirty miles to the nearest town." He sighed.

"Oh Nicky, don't whine. What town are we going to?"

"Someplace that starts with an 'H'."

"An 'H'? Look on the assignment slip."

Nick dug around in all of his pockets and came up empty. "Um Sara, we may have an issue…"

"You lost it?" she said with wide eyes.

"I must have dropped it when I fell back at the lab." He blushed.

"Well, that's what you get for showing off." She grinned.

"I wasn't…showing off."

"Oh bull! Staring the whole time...its a wonder you didn't break your neck!"

"I wasn't staring, there was…"

"Another bug, Nick?" she grinned, and he blushed more.

"Okay fine! There wasn't…before, on your shirt…when…"

"You gonna talk, Nicky?" she laughed.

"When I was looking at you before, Sara, there wasn't a bug."

"Nick?" she smiled.

"Yeah, Sara." He sighed.

"I'm not retarded. I know there wasn't anything there."

"Really?"

"Oh my God, a bug, Nick? A five year old could've done better than that!"

"Yeah well…We should find that assignment slip. Did I give it to you?"

"You wish"

"Ha ha, Seriously, we need it."

"Just call Grissom."

"Sara, there is no way in hell I am going to call that man and tell him that I lost the slip…you call him."

"No! You lost it, you call."

"Come on, just call and ask. He doesn't need to know I lost it."

"Fine, you're a baby, you know."

"Oh, you love me and you know it." he smirked.

"What?!" she snapped "No, I don't! Who told you that?!"

"Um…it was a joke." He was confused "Didn't mean to piss you off. Sorry"

"I'm not pissed…just give me your phone, I'll call."

"What's wrong with your phone?"

"Its dead now give me yours." She held her hand out.

"Needy, aren't you?" he started to hand her his phone, but pulled it back. "Don't tell him I lost it." he finally gave her his phone.

"Whatever"

"Seriously Sara, don't tell him."

"All I'm hearing from you, Nick, is blah, blah, blah."

"Pain in my ass…"

"Damn straight, now shut up its ringing." She said, while putting her hand over his mouth.

"Grissom."

"Hey Griss, its Sara."

"What's up?"

"You wouldn't happen to remember where Nick and I were headed do you?"

"Why?"

"Because we're lost."

"Look at the slip."

"Well I would, except Nick lost it" she looked at Nick and grinned. He licked her hand and she punched him.

"Hamilton, I think."

"Shit!"

"What's wrong, Sara?"

"There isn't even a Hamilton on the sign. Nick went in the wrong direction." She sighed.

"Great, well I have to go. Look at your map and figure it out."

"Bye" she hung up and handed Nick his phone. "Wrong way, Nick."

"I told you not to tell him, Sara!"

"Oops, must have slipped." She said innocently and shrugged.

"Yeah, right."

"Honest. I can't believe you went in the wrong direction."

"Well, I can't believe you don't have a map."

"I was cleaning out my truck a couple of days ago and I must have thrown it away. Normally there is one in here."

"Which way should we go then?" Nick asked, while looking around.

"Back the way we came, I guess. There was a gas station about twenty miles back."

"We are never going to get to the scene." He sighed loudly.

"Well whose fault is that Nick? Grissom and Greg never got me lost before." She said, obviously not with enough humor in her voice, because Nick snapped.

"Whose fault? It's your fault, Sara! Who the hell throws away a map?! We are in the middle of nowhere, without a clue or a map, and you sit there and joke around about it and then blame this shit on me?! Maybe if you weren't so damn busy taking pity on yourself and messing with me, we would be at the scene by now!" he punched the steering wheel and got out of the truck.


Ooooh anger! Well, I hope that it wasn't too horrible for you all.

You know the drill, review it!

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