Nick had difficulty concentrating during the sessions the next day, especially when it happened to be a session that he was sitting in alone. He and Sara had talked long into the night, the tone of things becoming much more serious and effectively putting a damper on anything romantic that might have been entertained by either one of them earlier. Nick hadn't asked her to elaborate, but Sara felt compelled to tell him about just how she'd ended up in a secret relationship with Grissom and how at least in her mind it had all finally unraveled. That conversation led into others that delved a little bit into Sara's life in San Francisco and then what had propelled Nick to leave a secure future and his large extended family in Dallas for the unknown of Las Vegas. By the time they were done talking it was so late that sleep was the only thing on either of their minds and so with another full day of the conference ahead of them they had reluctantly said goodnight and Nick had slipped through the connecting door into his own room.

He was still processing everything that had transpired and what he hoped might still happen before the week was out. He knew that she wasn't one to jump into a relationship with someone without at least some analytical thought thrown in there somewhere, but he wasn't some guy that she'd just met, they'd known each other for years and maybe it was that at least in part that made him realize that he had to tread carefully to preserve the friendship that had grown up between them. Nick had gathered bits and pieces over the years to put together a picture of Sara that didn't include any close family and only a few close friends; essentially she didn't really have any roots and he sensed in her a longing to find a place where she belonged in such a way that she could firmly plant herself and have the life that she seemed to have missed out on somewhere along the line.

As much as he was trying to concentrate on the presentation on some cutting edge advances in trace analysis, his thoughts continued to drift to Sara. The way that her lips felt against his for the first time had been singed into his memory and he couldn't help but smile at the way she had eagerly returned his kiss. He had entertained thoughts about her for probably years that had just been embellished with the knowledge of what kissing her and holding her felt like. He couldn't remember the last time that he'd felt so overwhelmingly attracted to someone and the fact that they were friends put a spin on things that he truly had never experienced and hadn't really expected. If he was honest with himself, part of the excitement at what was happening between them was tempered with the fear that he was going to mess things up somehow and that just as she'd told Grissom things were over, that she might do the same to him.

As the session wrapped up and his seatmate commented on how compelling the presentation had been, Nick could only nod realizing that he'd completely tuned out the last half of it. He let out a soft chuckled as he filed out and began to search for a glimpse of Sara who was supposed to attend the same session he was after a lunch break. He knew they wouldn't have enough time to have a leisurely meal at some out of the way bistro, but that was ok; he was already formulating plans for a nice romantic dinner as soon as the last session of the day let out and then maybe after that, they could take advantage of those connecting doors.

Sara chided herself for feeling so giddy seeing Nick across the lobby of the conference center looking for her and she knew that he was looking for her because as she caught his eyes, his face was transformed by that mega-watt smile of his. The thought occurred to her that this was definitely the best case of requited infatuation that she'd ever experienced; she wasn't about to allow herself to think about the idea of falling in love at this stage of things, but she certainly was going to see where things led and go along for the ride.

Nick weaved through the crowd until he was standing next to Sara; he could broach the subject about dinner over a quick lunch, "Hey, how was your session?" He thought that she had gone to hear something about the application of theoretical physics in interrupted trajectories or something like that; he'd spent more time thinking about her than where she said that she'd been going.

"It was alright; I think that the premise of the theory is ok, but in practicum I'm not sure how applicable it is in the field." Sara looked somewhat disappointed that she'd spent an hour and a half listening to someone who had clearly done more theory in a lab than they'd ever spent working a crime scene. "How was yours?"

Nick smirked, "Good." He didn't want to go into detail about how he'd lost track of what the speaker was saying because he'd been daydreaming about her. "You hungry?"

"Ugh, yes, I'm starving," Sara had been even more frustrated at her speedy metabolism which had her stomach talking back to her in the middle of the session. Yes, food sounded good, and food with Nick sounded wonderful.

They filed out of the convention center and as they did, Nick felt her slip her hand into his. A smile spread out across his face, "I think that there's a deli around her somewhere we could grab something quick."

"Good, this is going to be a long day and since we're not going to have much time for dinner later we should make the most of it." Sara smiled at him and then impulsively slipped her arms around him before leaning up and softly kissing him, savoring the fact that she could do that just because she wanted to.

As they broke apart, Nick had a mischievous look and a raised eyebrow, "Just what did you have in mind, Ms. Sidle?" He had a few ideas about exactly how he'd like to make the most of their break, but he was fairly certain that hers involved actually eating lunch.

She pursed her lips together in an impish smile and placed a chaste kiss against his mouth before pulling away again and threading her arm through his, "A sandwich sounds fine; but we may have to consider a late dinner since Dr. Lee is speaking tonight." Dinner and Nick sounded like just the right way to wrap up the day up.

Oh, crap, that was it; Nick chided himself; he knew that there was some reason that his idea for a romantic evening out on the town didn't seem to gel quite right, "A late dinner sounds good; maybe dinner and a movie?" How in the world he could have forgotten that Dr. Henry Lee was speaking during a special evening session just further underscored in his mind exactly how distracted he was by Sara.

"Sure," Sara wasn't sure that by then she'd really want to go out on the town at all; they would still have to be up early for another day of the conference and at the rate they were going, they'd need another week off when they got back from Vegas to recover from the whole experience. She had really hoped for something a little bit more low key than the evening they'd had the first night they were in town.

Nick detected a hint of something in her voice and he felt emboldened for a moment and decided to test the waters a little to see just how far he might be able to push things, "Or we could just watch something on TV and order in." He watched Sara's face for any sign that maybe he had overstepped his bounds, but the response he got was definitely in his favor.

Sara felt a flip in her stomach as a smile spread across her features and she cast a glance at him as she answered, "Room service sounds perfect."