Unlike Sara's reaction in the parking lot, Nick recovered quickly from the shock of being suddenly kissed and he moved his hands up to the side of her face, kissing her back fervently. The pleasure was rolling over him in waves.
Sara's mind was turning to jelly and she couldn't seem to conceive of anything other than one concept: More.
Her lips never left his as she turned herself more towards his body and overlapped one of his knees with her own. She slid her hands up his chest and began clutching at the front of his coveralls. Nick turned into her and slid his knee further under her leg as he pulled her closer still, his hands running up her back. He moaned when she moved a hand under the material and her fingers touched the bare skin of his shoulder. A band of heat compressed his chest when he heard her moan low in her throat in response.
Sara had always wondered whether he wore anything under his coveralls. Now she knew. His shoulder felt the way it had always looked to her- firm and muscular and sexy. What she hadn't expected was the softness of his skin... or the heat. He seemed almost feverishly warm. But she didn't mind.
I feel like I'm burning up myself.
She tried to get even closer, but their movements caused Nick to knock his head off the wall behind them and they broke off the kiss.
"Ouch." Nick grinned and rubbed the back of his head.
"Oh, Nick... I'm sorry. You OK?" She smiled guiltily and he laughed.
"Ah, I've taken worse knocks than that, trust me."
They were both desperate to resume the kiss, but for the moment neither of them seemed to have the nerve to make the first move again. Nick's lips quirked into a smile.
"So, Sara... Does this mean you won't be filing a sexual harrassment charge against me for the other day?"
She looked back at him in surprise, but she didn't get a chance to respond.
"Nick? Sara? You guys in here?"
Sara looked wide-eyed at Nick and then tried to smother a laugh as she quietly extricated herself from his limbs and returned to a sitting position beside him. She could feel her cheeks getting redder and she quickly pulled her knees up in front of her and rested her forehead on her arms just before Greg appeared beside the car.
"Hey guys... What's going on?" Greg looked mildly surprised at finding them sitting on the floor of the garage.
Without having to fake it, Nick let out a loud yawn. "Ah, it's just been a long day... or is it two now? I'm losing track."
Sara lifted her head while rubbing at her eyes, as if she too was fighting off sleep. "We're just taking a breather, Greg."
"Ah. You guys probably shouldn't even be here after what happened...Well anyway, everyone's getting together to run through what we've got. You guys finished with the car?"
"Yeah. I just have some stuff to drop off with Archie, but other than that..." Nick looked at Sara and she nodded her agreement.
"Yeah, I think we're done. I didn't find anything."
Greg looked at them expectantly and didn't show signs of leaving, so Sara climbed to her feet. Nick stood up behind her and moved towards the papers he'd pulled from the trunk.
"I'll just get these to Archie and change. See you in the war room in 5."
Greg nodded and turned to leave, Sara moving in behind him. Before she slipped out of sight, she glanced back towards Nick to see him watching her.
"Davis must have followed Robitaille to the house after the double-cross and Robitaille ran out the back and hid behind the dumpster where he succumbed to his woun-"
"But he couldn't have followed Robitaille back there. We questioned him not long after Smythe was killed at the presentation." Greg cut off Catherine. "I seriously doubt he could have left, chased down Robitaille to that house and made it back in the space of time before the police got there."
Sara added her two cents. "Well, it's an old place and it's obvious that a lot of people have been known to camp out there, so maybe someone else was around the house that day. And Robitaille was probably totally paranoid by then since he'd just been stabbed... So maybe he heard someone and mistook them for Stan Davis coming for him.He panicked in the middle of changing and took off out the back."
Warrick looked skeptical. "That's a lot of maybes. And he'd have to be pretty paranoid to run out of the house in just his gitch. Maybe we should run a tox screen on him and see if he was on anything."
Grissom nodded and Warrick flipped open his cell phone to make the call. Grissom continued with another query. "Have we figured out how Robitaille even got to the house?"
"I can help with that." Nick appeared suddenly in the doorway and moved to a place at the table beside Grissom. Sara refrained from looking directly at him, afraid she'd blush or something and everyone would instantly know what was going on in her head... or more importantly, in her heart. She knew she was being foolish, but she looked down at the papers in front of her as if deep in thought while Nick elaborated.
"I just saw O'Riley in the hall. He went through the plate numbers from around the house and he found an Audi that listed Robitaille as the R.O. They're towing it back right now, but there were obvious red stains on the driver's seat."
Grissom nodded. "Good." He looked over at Sara and then back at Nick. "You two up for some more car detail?"
Nick looked over at Sara, knowing she'd never say no to overtime. And as exhausted as he was, he wouldn't be able to say no either if he would be working alongside her again. She looked back at him with a tired smile and he grinned back, hoping she was thinking about the same thing he was. But surprisingly, Catherine intervened.
"Grissom, Robitaille's dead. His car's not going anywhere. Everyone's been working doubles here and we're getting strung out. We have a lot of evidence to go over right now, so why don't we save that for tomorrow?"
Both Nick and Sara stood on opposite sides of the table, each unbeknownst to the other trying to figure out whether they were relieved or disappointed.
Grissom looked around at everyone and tilted his head at an angle as if in challenge. "Alright then. What we have right now are theories and supposition. Let's run through it from the start and see what we can piece together based on the evidence instead..."
"I need coffee." Catherine blew at her bangs, moving them out of her eyes. "Are we done here?"
Everyone looked at Grissom hopefully and he held his hands up in supplication. "I think we can go to the D.A. with this. We have more than enough evidence to incriminate Davis. And that's in addition to the incident with Sara and Nick. Speaking of whom- Nick, are you going to follow up with Archie on those papers from Davis' trunk before you go?"
Nick nodded tiredly and looked at his watch. They'd been at it in here for around 3 hours. And he'd already been tired before that. "Yeah, he may have something for me now. I'll go check it out."
Everyone else started making noises about leaving and getting some well earned sleep as Nick ambled out the door and disappeared down the hallway. Sara watched after him, so tired she didn't realize she was just hovering there staring into space. Greg wiggled his fingers in front of her face.
"Hey, anybody alive in there?"
She blinked and immediately yawned. "Sorry. What'd you say?"
"Food? I'm buying."
She smiled but shook her head in the negative. "I'd fall asleep in my cornflakes. Raincheck?"
"You got it."
Torn between wanting to follow Nick and wanting to go home and fall into a deep sleep, she continued to hover a little longer even though nobody else was left in the room. She looked at her watch again just for something to do, then gave in and made her way down the hall towards the locker room.
The room was empty as well and a tired Sara put her name badge on the shelf in her locker and reached for her car keys, somewhat disappointed that she wouldn't see Nick before she left.
In fact, she was amazed she'd just made it through the last few hours without thinking about what had happened in the garage. But they'd been so focused on the case, there hadn't been time to consider anything else.
Now there was time.
And suddenly her brain was awash with the images and sensations of what it meant to kiss Nick Stokes; to really kiss him.
A small smile played across her lips as she made her way out to her car.
Nick was disappointed that he hadn't come across Sara anywhere after he'd left the AV lab and checked in with Grissom about the results. His brain had been on "casework auto-pilot" when he'd left the meeting room or he would have taken a moment to catch her eye and indicate that he wanted to talk to her when they got a chance. Although he had assumed she would have wanted to talk to him too...
He was even more disappointed when he finally entered the dimly lit locker room to find it empty.
Man, she left without talking to me. Is that a bad sign?
He switched to his street clothes and pulled his cell phone out as he walked towards the parking lot.
Sara got out of the shower and wrapped her hair in a towel, unsuccessfully trying to stifle a yawn. She had been planning on eating something before she hit the hay, but she didn't know if she could even keep her eyes open that long.
Dragging herself to the kitchen, she opened the fridge and pulled out a container of yogurt, leaning against the counter and absently spooning it into her mouth. She spied the small light flashing on the side of her cell phone on the counter and her heart skipped a beat.
Nick?
She flipped it open and read the display.
1 Call Missed from Nick Stokes
And there was a message. She quickly pulled it up and hoped he'd done more than a hang up...
"Hey Sar, it's Nick. Um... I was wondering... Well, I was thinking maybe we should get together and, uh... talk. Yeah... about what happened today. And the other day too I guess." He cleared his throat. " So anyway, gimme a call when you get this, OK? Talk to you soon."
Sara's heart was beating fast again and she immediately started to dial him back before she even had a chance to think about what she was going to say. He picked up after the first ring.
"Stokes."
"Hey Nick. It's me."
"Hi there. I thought maybe you'd already gone to sleep."
"Just about. I must have been in the shower when you called."
"Ah. Yeah, so..." The silence stretched out as they were both momentarily realized the enormity of what was happening between them. Saratried to save them both from the dead air.
"So...?" She got stuck there. She heard Nick laughing on the other end.
"Mind if I stop by?"
She was sure her smile must have been reflected in her voice. "Not at all."
"Great." He sounded like he was smiling too, and this made her smile wider as he continued. "See you in a bit."
She hung up the phone and threw out her yogurt. After she got dressed maybe she could make them some-
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.
Man, somebody has bad timing...
She tightened the towel around her body and moved to the door frowning. Putting her eye to the peephole, she cursed her bad luck. The last thing she needed was a visitor right now, when she was expecting-
Nick.
She laughed softly and opened the door, forgetting she was dressed only in a towel. But she remembered quickly when a look of mild shock crossed his features as he looked back at her standing in the doorway.
"Uh, hey there." She was blushing and couldn't stop herself. She clutched at her towel and tried to tighten it a little more. "I... I didn't expect you quite this soon."
He swallowed awkwardly and cleared his throat. "Oh, yeah... I... I was just..."
He faded off and she wrapped her arms across her chest uncomfortably.
"Sara, I... I'm sorry. I didn't realize..." He leaned against the door jam, grinning awkwardly.
"It's OK. I just didn't know you'd..." She shrugged and laughed a little.
"Yeah, well..." He was looking everywhere but at her as he spoke. "The truth is, I've been sitting outside in my truck trying to get up the courage to knock on the door."
She felt her heart speeding up in her chest. "Oh... Really?"
He ran a hand across the back of his neck and grinned with embarrassment and looked at the floor. "Yep."
Sara couldn't keep her smile at bay. "Well... then are you going to come in?"
He slowly raised his gaze to hers. She saw him struggling with something but she couldn't figure out what. And his next words confused her even more.
"I... Now that I'm here, I'm not sure this is such a good idea."
Her heart was starting to beat faster again, but this time for a different reason. Before she could ask him what was wrong, he slowly released a heavy breath.
"I think maybe I should go."
She stared at him in surprise, feeling her chances slipping away again. "But Nick, I... I thought you'd want to talk about... about today."
He shook his head and looked at the floor again. "Yeah, I thought I did, but... Listen, Sara-" He looked at her uncomfortably again. "I just better go. I'm... I'm sorry."
Sara couldn't think of a thing to say to stop him. She watched helplessly as he backed out of her doorway, her heart turning to wood in her chest.