Title: Catching the Red Eye Home

Author: Jeanine (jeanine@iol.ie)

Rating: PG, Drabble

Pairing: Sara/Warrick

Spoilers: Burden of Proof and AU thereafter

Feedback: Makes my day

Disclaimer: If it was in the show, it's not mine.

Archive: At my site Checkmate () , Fanfiction.net; anywhere else, please ask.

Summary: Sara comes to a decision

Notes: Response to the CS Reports LiveJournal Crayola Colours challenge - also known as me taking the easy way out! Contains the briefest of references to The West Wing.

***

For the second time in six months, she's looking at an empty apartment, everything she needs packed in two suitcases. But this time, she's leaving nothing in storage, is throwing no plant in the garbage.

This time, she's not looking back.

Much.

She'd been surprised at the reaction around the lab when she announced her plans to take a leave of absence; people asking her if she was sure, telling her that they they'd miss her. It had taken time for the paperwork to go through, for her to line up a job, and people had thought that she'd change her mind, but she hadn't, because she didn't have a reason to. She'd left in July, ready to start her new life, ready to leave her old life behind.

There was one person though, who hadn't been willing to let her go, and it had been the one person that she least expected.

For two people who had hated one another practically on sight, Warrick was the one who tried to convince her to stay. The one who emailed her every day, called her every other day, filling her in on all the gossip from Vegas, listening to her as she told him all about what she was doing.

She's not sure when she realised just how much she missed him. Or when she knew that friendship had slowly but surely began to slide into something more.

She does know that it hit her around Christmas that her six months was nearly up, and she still didn't know what she wanted to do at the end of it. To stay in Washington or go back to Vegas?

He'd helped her make the decision.

He'd come to visit her, telling her that he wanted to experience the Inauguration in person, so, along with thousands of other people, she'd found herself standing on the Mall on a freezing cold January morning, watching the motorcade go past, with him at her side. She wasn't much for politics, but she found herself getting caught up in all the hoopla, and by the end of President Bartlet's speech, she had a lump in her throat. Embarrassed, she didn't want to turn to look at him, but he made her, turning her gently, and then he did something that surprised her, but in a good way.

He kissed her.

Then she surprised herself and kissed him back.

They talked long into the night, but as the first rays of dawn made their way into her living room, Sara knew what she wanted to do.

He went back to Vegas, leaving her to finish things up in Washington, and it's taken her a while, but she's finally ready. The apartment is in darkness, her suitcases packed, and she can see the lights of her cab on the street outside. The red-eye to Vegas is leaving in a couple of hours, and he's waiting for her at the other end.

It's time to go home.