Sara finally finished going through the rest of the receipts from the Vargas'. She had turned up nothing. She let out a sigh of frustration and sat back in her chair and surveyed the mass of paperwork spread out all over the layout table.

"Nothing?" Nick asked as he walked in.

She nodded as she looked up at him, "You?"

"Same." He replied sitting down in a chair next to hers. " I just got off the phone with the agency that Dr. Vargas hired his day laborers from. Dead end." He ran his fingers through his hair.

Sara looked at him quizzically, "Did Greg ever page you?"

Nick shook his head, "You?"

"No." She replied.

Nick let out a deep sigh.

"So we're back to square one." Nick observed.

Grissom chose that moment to pop his head into the layout room. "How's the case coming?"

Sara looked up with a defeated look on her face, "Dead end."

Nick nodded, "We've gone over ever piece of evidence we have and we don't have anything yet. Maybe we're looking at it all from the wrong angle."

"Nick. Maybe that's the problem." Grissom looked at him with a knowing look.

"What do you mean, Gris?" Nick inquired, glancing over at Sara.

"You assume there's a right angle. Sometimes things are obtuse." Grissom gave Nick and Sara a half smile and then turned and left.

Nick just sat there nodding with a grin playing at the corners of his mouth, his arms crossed over his chest.

Sara tried to suppress a smile as she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. She began to chuckle.

Nick turned his head toward her, "What's so funny, Sidle?"

"You're slipping, Stokes." Sara grinned.

Nick raised a curious eyebrow at her comment, "Seems to me, Sara, we're in the same spot."

She looked at him quizzically.

Nick studied Sara briefly, "We're still at square one. Grissom doesn't know any more than we do."

"But he did point out that we've been going at it all wrong." Sara offered.

Nick looked at her with a look of amusement clearly etched on his face, "No, Sara. We haven't been going at this wrong. We've collected evidence and we've examined it in a very logical and forthright manner. We've hit a dead end. Now we back up a little and try a different angle. Just because the way we've been going about it hasn't produced a viable suspect doesn't mean that it is wrong, it just implies that it is not complete."

Sara looked over at Nick with a faint smile playing at her lips and spoke softly, "It's no fun to tease you when you're right."

A wide grin broke over Nick's face, "Was that another compliment from the mouth of Sara Sidle?"

Sara tried to stifle a smile as she turned away from him, "Don't let it go to your head, Stokes." She stood up and started reorganizing the paperwork on the layout table so she could store it back in the evidence locker.

"So you're not denying it then, Sara." Nick pressed as he stood up and leaned against the layout table as she gathered the paperwork.

Sara stopped what she was doing and looked up at Nick who was grinning. She raised an eyebrow at him and leveled a withering gaze at him, "Don't press your luck, Stokes. Gloating isn't very attractive."

Nick leaned toward her slightly, and spoke in a soft voice, teasing her, "So what is attractive, Sara?"

The first thought that came to her mind was 'you', but she held her tongue as she turned to face him, "Wouldn't you like to know?" She smirked at him and then hefted the box with all the paperwork in it and turned to leave. She managed to collide with Nick who was standing closer than she had anticipated and the box crashed to the floor, spewing it's contents all over. Sara's jaw just dropped as she looked at the floor.

Nick quickly stooped down and started methodically picking up the paperwork and setting it back up on the layout table.

"Thanks, Nick." Sara finally spoke. "I'd offer to help, but I'm not sure we have the coordination to be in close quarters on the floor."

Nick looked up at her and grinned with a wink knowing what she meant, but not wanting to miss the opportunity to tease her about how her comment sounded, he replied in a suggestive voice, "Just what are you implying, Ms. Sidle?"

Sara's face developed a horrified expression as she realized how her comment must have sounded. She blushed a deep shade of red. "Ah, I just remembered something I need to do." With that, Sara rushed out of the room and headed to the only place she could think of where she could be alone. The roof.