Chapter 29
Nick Stokes sat at the breakroom table eating his ham and cheese sand which. It had been a grueling 20 hours on a B&E/Rape case. Brass and his guys finally found the creep that was responsible. Knowing the criminal was behind bars made the hours of sifting through trash and dumpsters and lifting hundreds of prints worthwhile. Greg entered the room sipping on a huge blue raspberry slushy drink and plopped down into the seat across from Nick.
"I am sooo glad this case is done with." Greg rubbed his eyes and sighed.
"Yeah. I haven't eaten in over 12 hours. I need my strength!" Nick chomped off a huge chunck of his sand which in emphasis.
"You on tonight?" Greg asked as he slurped up the last of his drink.
"Thank God, NO!" Nick pushed up from the table and tossed his trash toward the can by the coffeepot.
"OOOH! He misses!" Greg exclaimed. Nick frowned and walked toward the crumpled up sandwhich picked it up and tossed it towards the trash can again.
"Wow! You must REALLY be exhausted! You missed from less than a foot away!" Greg laughed and stood up, pitching his now empty cup towards the can.
"Watch it man! I don't want blue goop on me!" Nick jumped back, watching as the cup clunked against the side and bounced back behind the can. "HA! SEE! Not as easy as it looks!" Nick moved the can to get the cup and his wrapper.
"GREG!" Grissom popped his head into the room and motioned for Greg to follow.
"Later, Nick!" Greg jogged out to catch up with Grissom.
Nick chuckled as he bent to pick up the cup. His smile faded when he realized he and Greg were not the only ones incapable of making cups and paper into the can. "Man!" Nick grumbled as he picked up Greg's cup, his wrapper and several crumpled up pieces of paper. He put them in the can and went to put it back when he noticed one more stray and slightly crumpled lump of paper. "First double shifts, now playing housekeeper." Nick continued to mumble and complain out loud to himself as he picked up the wad of paper. He stopped when he noticed the words "suck" and "nipple" on it. He put the can back in its place, took a glance around and unfolded the sheet completely. He sat down and smiled when he saw that it was some sort of erotic message.
"What you smiling about?" Sara asked as she entered the room.
Nick jumped and pulled the wrinkled paper close to his chest. "Oh, nothing."
Sara poured a cup of coffee and threw her magazine on the table across from Nick. She took her seat and laughed at the look on Nick's face. "Are you hiding that from me?"
"No." Nick stated and put the paper down on the table. He placed his hands on it, palms down.
"Sure are protective of nothing, Nicky." Sara smiled as she opened her magazine, pretending to be disinterested.
Nick watched her as she turned the pages of her magazine and sipped her coffee. He relaxed a little and glanced back down to the paper to continue reading the passionate note. His smile grew wide again. Sara glanced up and ripped the paper out of his grasp, standing up and moving across the room to read it.
"Sara........"He looked at her shocked expression and began to explain. "Look, its not mine. I found it behind the trash can....."
Nicks words faded into the background as Sara read the unfinished note. She smiled, knowing the handwriting and words all too well. These same words, perfected and completed, sat in her locker in an unmarked envelope that she found there hours ago.
"Nick. This is someone's private thoughts, not meant for us to read." She crumpled the paper back up and made sure it made it into the trash.
"I know that, Sara. But I was curious. I mean I saw the word nipple and had to look!" He shrugged his shoulders apologetically. Sara rolled her eyes at him as she picked up her magazine and coffee. "Men!" she mumbled and exited the room.
Nick stumbled over to the trash can and fished out the note Sara had tossed. He pushed it into his front pocket when he saw Sara look over her shoulder at him from the hallway. He smiled and waved to her. She furrowed her brow at him and continued on her way.
Nick sat back down and once again smoothed out the creases of the paper that now had a big blue wet spot in the middle. Nick frowned. He immediately looked to the signature. It simply said "All my love. G." His bets were on Greg for this one. But who was the current object of his affection? Nick folded the sheet into a neat square and put it in his back pocket.
"Go home, Nick." Grissom stood in front of him.
"What?" Nick didn't hear him enter the room.
"You've been here too long already. Go home." Grissom repeated.
"Yeah, sounds like a good idea." Nick got up and was about to walk out of the room when Grissom spoke again.
"So, Nick, uh, what was that piece of paper you were reading?"
Nick looked at him curiously, noticing how Grissom was tapping the tips of his fingers of his hands together. He seemed nervous. "Oh, nothing, just something that accidently got tossed."
"Oh. Well, just be careful what you get involved with, Nick."
"Ooooh Kay! Don't worry, Boss. It's no big deal." Nick flashed him his big Texas grin.
"But it might be to the people involved."
"Something you want to tell me, Grissom?" Nick now stood with his arms folded across his chest, a look of amusement on his face.
"No.......uh............" Grissom fidgeted nervously again. "It's just that I know how rumors spread around here........don't light fires that might get out of control."
"Did Greg tell you something?" Nick asked his supervisor.
"Greg?" Grissom remembered how he signed that note "G". "Well, I don't want to get involved, I'm just giving advice is all."
"Ok, Gris. Thanks." Nick smiled at him again and exited the room. Grissom just stood there watching him as he walked to the locker room.
Sara sat on the bench in front of her locker, holding the note that Gil had written and placed in her locker the day before. She laughed as she thought about Nick and his discovery. Hopefully he didn't fish it out of the trash. The last thing she and Gil needed was a romantic scandal. There was enough stress with double shifts and the elusive miniature killer on the loose.
"I KNEW IT!" Nick yelled from behind her. "That was your note!"
"Nick!" Sara quickly put the note back into the envelope and shoved it into her bag, clutching it to her chest. "What did you see?"
"I saw that you didn't want me to read that rough draft that got tossed out. And I know you have drool on the final copy." Nick sighed and sat down next to Sara, facing the opposite way that she was sitting. "I mean, Sara, what are you going to do? You can't get involved with a co-worker that way."
"I know, Nick, but uh, sometimes, it doesn't matter." She was fighting back tears. Doc knew, Jim knew, Greg basically knew, and now Nick. There secret was fast becoming a known fact. She wasn't ready to have all her secrets revealed. It was too much.
"But Greg, Sara?"
"What?"
"I mean, we all know he has a crush on you. But I thought you were smarter than that." He looked into her teary eyes and pulled her into a hug. He ran his hand up and down her back in a soothing motion. He body seemed to convulse with.........laughter? Nick pulled back and looked at her again. She was trying not to laugh out loud. She put her hand over her mouth and shook her head.
"What the hell is so funny, Sara?"
She sniffed and wiped her eyes, letting the last remnants of her amusement wash away before speaking. "Im sorry. But now that I hear you say it out loud, it's the most ridiculous thing ever. I mean, GREG!" She smiled at Nick.
"Yeah." Nick stood up, confused. "Well, I'm glad we had this chat then."
"Thanks, Nick." Sara blew her nose and stood, fishing her keys out of her locker.
"You might want to tell Grissom that its nothing, Sara. He was acting really weird about the note. I think he might have read it too. Greg's a terrible shot at wastebasket toss." Nick chuckled and exited the room.
"Crap." Sara slammed her locker door and headed towards Grissom's office.
A/N: ok, so not too long and kind of dumb, but it was an idea I had. And it shows how Nick was a bit naive when it came to their relationship. I know, might be a bit OOC for Grissom to ask that of Nick, but I thought it was funny. Comments appreciated as always. I think the end of this story is fast approaching. Im running out of ideas! But I plan to write another story soon. So, please leave a review. Wendy
