If this new little golden nugget of information was enough to make Hodges the King of the Lab Rats, then the speed at which it traveled through cyberspace in the form of a broadcast text message to all of the other lab rats was just enough to make the proverbial shit hit the fan all that much faster for Nick and Sara. They were sitting in the first session of the morning when the distinct chirps indicating that a message was waiting on their cell phone began to go off nearly simultaneously several times in succession before they both managed to turn them off. Of course being fairly certain of what was on those messages neither one of them could really focus on the current lecture which prior to all of this had sounded extremely interesting.
Nick's jaw tensed as he glanced over and noticed that Sara looked about as irritated as he did. He growled under his breath, thankful that they had arrived late and ended up sitting in the back of the room, "Hodges is a dead man."
"And everyone would immediately suspect you and me," Sara could appreciate the desire to carefully pluck each and every one of Hodges' eyebrows out, followed by his lashes and then onto his toenails before surgically removing his tongue, although there were his lightning fast fingers of his to consider, so maybe it would just be more prudent to break those instead.
"Good point," Nick whispered back. Hodges had certainly accelerated things considerably, he had hoped that he and Sara might talk a little bit about how all of this was going to work out once they got back to Vegas; in the back of his mind he was still a bit worried that he was a convenient rebound after her break up with Grissom. What if the Bug Man wanted her back; his simple declaration to Hodges' lady friend Lola that Sara was his girlfriend did not make it so. The amazing time they'd had together so far aside; she had yet to tell him exactly where she stood or rather he hadn't pressed her on the issue; he reasoned that they would have time to sort all of it out sometime before their plane touched down in Vegas.
Sara was mentally considering their options; the last thing she wanted to do was talk to anyone in Vegas until she and Nick had sat down and talked through where this thing was heading; he may have told her that friendship wasn't enough for him, but with the appearance of Hodges and Nick's sudden declaration that she was his girlfriend her emotions were bordering on panic; controlled and very suppressed, but panic nevertheless. In the back of her mind she had thought that she'd be the one that would get to break the news to Grissom; make it clear that her declaration that she needed a break was in fact an actual break-up. She wanted to remove any ambiguity from that conversation so that he couldn't jump to the conclusion that she'd cheated on him with Nick. An assumption like that was completely possible, even from a man who insisted he only followed the evidence because despite the opinions of some people, Gil Grissom did have feelings, which at times could be irrational.
The lecture was wrapping up and as some people filed out chatting about the implications of the information in the presentation and just how they might find ways to apply it in their own law enforcement agencies, Nick found that he'd missed most of the presentation because he was thinking about how to do a little damage control on Hodges. He nearly jumped when he felt Sara's hand come to rest on his arm, "Sorry." He glanced at her apologetically and he suddenly felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he considered that she looked conflicted.
"Hey, I think we need to go somewhere and talk," Sara was uncharacteristically not thinking about the cutting edge forensics the seminar had been about; instead she was thinking about what was happening between her and the man sitting next to her. She really hadn't considered all of the implications of taking that leap beyond friendship with Nick until it was clear that Hodges was going to make it his mission to ensure that every last person at the Las Vegas Crime Lab knew about the developments before they even had the chance to truly define it themselves.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," As much as Nick wanted to talk to her about all of this he was suddenly feeling very unsure of himself. Romancing her in San Antonio was one thing but living it every day in Las Vegas under the scrutiny of all of their coworkers was completely another. He had no doubt how he felt about her; what he was having doubts about was how she truly felt about him.
As they filed out of room the lecture had been in, they seemed to naturally spill out of the convention center along with other conference goers in search of fresh air and somehow without really saying where they were going, the river seemed to draw them. They walked in an amicable silence for a while and then they both seemed to talk at once, eliciting nervous laughter from both of them.
Nick decided to just cut to the chase and lay things out so that Sara would know where he stood, "I know that Hodges sort of put an awkward spin on things, but it doesn't change how I'm feeling here, Sara."
"I know," Sara knew that there was no way he would have been willing to cross that line with her if he didn't have real feelings for her, "It's just," she took a breath and then felt a nervous smirk flit across her features as she glanced over and locked eyes with him, "It all just makes things a bit more real and...girlfriend?" She looked at him expectantly, not really sure what else to say. There was just something about that word that made things more serious than maybe she'd been ready to acknowledge.
Nick studied her earnestly for a good long moment, "I was fairly certain neither one of them was going to buy that we were just coworkers after that kiss and I thought after last night that things between us had changed." He didn't want to sound frustrated, but he really wasn't sure if she was having second thoughts or if he was reading far more into the situation than he should have.
Sara felt her heart in her throat, "Things between us have definitely changed," she couldn't help the husky sound from infusing her voice, "I don't have any regrets about that, Nick." She really wasn't sure why this felt so difficult all of a sudden.
"I don't either," Nick felt his lips curl into a smile as he reached out and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear before he furrowed his brow slightly, "Is it the word 'girlfriend' or is it the idea of being with me?" He couldn't hide his own insecurity; he wanted to be with her, but just because she'd shared some moments of passion with him didn't necessarily mean that she wanted to be in a romantic relationship with him.
Sara's brows knit together as she shook her head and looked into his eyes, "It's not like that, it's not you...I just..." she took a deep breath to try and get her bearings, "All of this is a little overwhelming and trying to articulate to you what I'm feeling...it's not that simple...maybe it is the word 'girlfriend', or maybe it's because I only recently broke things off with Grissom, and maybe it's just that I didn't expect that this would happen with us...that you would feel this way about me; that I would feel that way too." She felt a wave of relief as the words left her mouth.
Nick's insecurity was still showing through even as he stepped a little bit closer and pulled her into a hug and whispered in her ear, "But you do want to be with me, don't you?"
Sara hugged him back fiercely, "Yes, I do; I do want to be with you, Nick." She had more than willingly stepped across that line into something beyond friendship and even the smugness of David Hodges stealing their thunder and shipping it off to Vegas at lightning speed before they were really sure what to make of it all couldn't change that.