"Ah, Nick, there you are," D.B watched from where he was sitting with the rest of the gang at the table in the break room. They were still trying to decipher some of the clues of the crossword puzzle, "You officially have a case. There's been a robbery at the Monaco and guess what? I'm going to let you pick who you take with you."

"Why me?"

"Well, I decided that the last person to walk in here would get it and since Morgan has a few days off, you're the last. Brass had a few things to do before he made his way there so I had a few minutes to spare while I waited," he smiled, "You don't have to if you don't want to, though. I can get someon—"

"No, no. That won't be necessary. You said I can choose who comes with me, right?" D.B nodded in reply to Nick and suddenly Nick wasn't sure whether to choose Sara and talk about what happened earlier or Warrick and well, talk about what happened earlier with Sara. At that moment, Sara looked up, shaking her head slowly so no one noticed.

"Is it really that difficult?" D.B's words shook Nick out of his thoughts.

"I choose Sara," Nick swallowed when he saw the glare that he was immediately welcomed with from her. She sighed and stood knowing there wasn't any point in arguing with either of them.

"I'm drivin', Cowboy," Greg made a whip sound with his mouth and Warrick laughed.

"Don't you always?" Nick rolled his eyes and turned to follow Sara who was already half way down the hall. He knew she was pissed at him and truthfully, he knew she had every right to be. He jogged to catch up with her, walking beside her and wanting to say something to make things better again but he wasn't sure what. He'd overstepped the mark before and just now and he was regretting every second of it.

Once they'd left the lab, Nick unlocked his car and got into the front passenger's seat, waiting for Sara to get in next to him. He knew she did when he heard a loud 'bang'.

"Hey, Sar', I know you're pissed but please, don't take it out on my baby," She ignored his remark and held her hand out for the keys. Nick put them in the other hand so she couldn't reach them.

"Not until you talk to me," She rolled her eyes.

"Stop being such a child and just give me the damn keys," It came out harsher than she expected it to, "Sorry…" He didn't reply, he just handed her the car keys and put the radio on, looking out the window. She pulled out of the parking lot, checking for traffic and turned the corner to make her way to the Monaco. After a couple minutes, Sara spoke.

"I expected you to be playing country or something…" Nick looked at her and smiled.

"Not every guy from Texas plays just country. Besides," he added, "Bon Jovi can be classed at both country and rock, it just depends what album you're listening to."

She held one hand up defensively and kept one on the wheel, "Sorry, Mr Music Man." She glanced at him and they couldn't help but burst into laughter. She put her right hand back on the steering wheel and began to sing along to 'Wanted Dead or Alive' as the music played. Nick glanced at her from the corner of his eye and smiled, there was that sound again. As she turned another corner, her hand reached over and hit the plus sign in the volume section of the radio, turning it up a considerable amount.

"I never knew you were a Bon Jovi fan, Sar'," It was true, he didn't.

She laughed, looking at him for a second and then focusing her eyes back on the road ahead again, "There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Nicky." That intrigued Nick.

"Oh, yeah?" He looked at her, "Like what?"

That was a question, what didn't he know about her? It was a very little amount, she knew that much. Throughout the years, Nick had found out many things about Sara Sidle and if she ever were to quiz him, he was pretty sure he'd get at least 90% of the answers correct. When he didn't receive a reply, he took it as an opportunity to speak again.

"There's not much you don't know about me either."

She raised an eyebrow, "'Not much'?" She carried on down the highway, only glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

"Well, I'd say you know everything except…"

"…Except…?" She repeated.

"Well, y'know…personal things…"

She nodded, "Ah. Yeah, same here." She ended the conversation at that, not wanting to divulge anymore information. He took that as his turn to stop talking and she went back to singing along to yet another Bon Jovi song.


They'd finally made their way to the Monaco with their kits in hand and saw Brass standing outside with a few other officers, "Hey, guys. Not sure if Russell filled you in but we've got a jewel theft upstairs on the 13th floor. Unlucky for some, huh?" The CSIs smiled and nodded, "You guys go on ahead and get to work, I'm going to finish talking to some of the staff and residence."

"Okay," Nick nodded for Sara to lead the way, which she did, into the grand casino building. They'd been here many times but some how, it always seemed like it was bigger every time. Both Nick and Sara walked to the elevators located to the left of the large building and Sara pressed the button, calling for both. Nick laughed and shook his head at her impatience. The elevator to the right was the first to hit the ground floor.

"Ladies first," He motioned for her to enter.

"Well, go on then…" She laughed and he rolled his eyes at her. Even so, he stepped inside the empty elevator, waited for her to enter and then pressed the '13' on the keypad. They both put their cases down beside them before Nick spoke.

"Were you questioning my manliness, Sidle?"

Sara held her hands up defensively, "Hey, I'm not questioning it. I'm saying it doesn't even exist." She bit her lip to stop herself from smiling, something Nick found incredibly enticing.

"Oh, really?" He raised an eyebrow and somehow the small elevator was moving too slow for his liking.

She nodded, "Really."

"I can assure you that I am all man, Darlin'," He looked at the floor they were on, begging for it to move faster. Floor 12.

Before Sara could stop herself, the words were already out of her mouth, "Prove it." She swallowed, torn between hoping he didn't hear her and hoping he would shrug it off. He did neither. He took a few steps towards her, inches away from her face and whispered in her ear, "You'll find out soon enough."

They'd reached their floor and had already left. Sara on the other hand was met with a shiver down her spine from where Nick's breath had hit her ear. She was glued to the spot, replaying Nick's words over in her head. Find out what exactly? She was intrigued and exhaled a long breath she didn't know she was holding. What is he doing to me? Pull yourself together! Her thoughts dissipated when she realised she was still standing there and the doors to the elevator were closing. She quickly picked her case up and placed it between the two doors, stopping them and exiting, half running to catch up and follow Nick to the crime scene.

Once Sara entered the room, she was taken aback by the suite that met her eyes. Inside there was a large queen sized bed to the right of the room, with small black and gold bedside tables either side. The next thing she saw was the large bathtub at the rear of the room right in front of the even larger windows that extended throughout the entire length of the wall. The whole room was either black or gold decor and it was breathtakingly beautiful.

"Wow…" She breathed as Nick closed the door behind them. She couldn't stop staring at the Las Vegas Strip beyond the windows, she'd never realised how pretty Las Vegas truly was until now.

He turned to her and followed her as she was carefully treading past the bathtub, clearly mesmerised by the lights, "Have you never been in here before now?" He asked, not wanting to sound too arrogant.

She shook her head, "No. I mean, I could afford it but what's the point?"

He frowned, confused, "What do you mean?"

She laughed quietly but Nick could tell it was fake, "Well, what's the point in having a suite like this when you have no one to share it with?" At that, he looked her in the eyes and hated Grissom for the pain he was causing her. It was clear that their relationship wasn't as happy as the rest of the team had first thought and she missed him. Sara could feel his gaze on her and finally turned to look at him, she bit her lip suddenly feeling very vulnerable.

Nick tilted his head to the side, holding her eyes with his, "Are you happy?" He spoke quietly, not even sure if he should have asked.

"Of course I am, I'm just tired."

He sighed, "You know that's not what I mean, Sar'." She swallowed. I know.

"Yes," She put on a smile and broke the eye contact with him, "Now come on, we need to find some evidence in this complete lack of evidence." She wasn't wrong. The room was completely intact and they both wondered how a robbery managed to take place without the perpetrator messing the room up. Still, they took opposite ends of the room and began to process it just as they were trained to.

It took approximately 3 hours to completely process the room and take the evidence back to the lab. They eventually came to the conclusion that it must have been an inside job because of how tidy the suite was when they arrived and how, despite the fact it was a hotel suite, they could only find three people's fingerprints and DNA in the room; a man, his mistress and his wife which led them to believe that he regularly paid for the suite.

According to the wife, she had found her husband with his 'bit on the side', as she referred to her as, and an argument ensued. Later in the day while the mistress was working, the wife had seduced her husband, spiked his drink with sleeping pills and had stolen over $200,000 worth of jewellery from a safe supposedly meant for his mistress even though the husband swore it was all for her. However, Nick and Sara later discovered that the wife had sold the jewellery to fund her drug habit meaning the husband never got any of the jewellery back.

Once the case was solved, both CSIs made their way back to the break room, looking for D.B to see if there were any other cases.