The second Sara finished her last swallow of coffee, she tapped Nick on the shoulder. Turning over the empty cup, she told him, "No more hot liquid, See? So tell me about the bet . . . now."
Nick groaned. "Oh come on Sara, we have work to do."
She shook her head. "You promised, Nicky."
"It's not like it's anything you'd find funny, anyway!"
". . . which means it is something I'd find annoying," she finished for him. "Now tell, or I'm going to assume it was a bet about me and hit you."
"Well, er, it wasn't really about you. Just a little bit." Sara simply continued to look at him and Nick knew he was caught. "Fine, just keep in mind, it wasn't intended to be about you."
"Spit it out!"
"We just had a little bet about Grissom . . . about whether he had a good reason for missing work last night or not. We didn't know you were the reason!"
Sara raised an eyebrow. "And did I qualify as a good reason, or a bad one?"
"Well that was the problem. We couldn't decide. Because you weren't exactly an emergency, but it wasn't like he was blowing off work for no reason, either."
Trying to stay calm, she took a deep breath. "Yeah, well, how about you let me know when you two decide, ok?"
Nick blinked. "You're not, uh, mad at us?"
Sara smiled serenely. "Why would I be mad at your innocent bet, Nicky?"
She took a step toward the door, which happened to also be a step toward him, and Nick quickly took a step back. Still smiling, she patted his cheek. "I have no reason to be angry," she told him as she headed for the door. Just before she passed through it, she took careful aim and walked right over his feet. "Nope, no reason at all," she said with a wry look at him.
A few hours later Sara leaned against the breakroom wall, telling Catherine, "I just wish every criminal in Las Vegas hadn't decided to take this week off. Nobody would be so interested in my life if there were actually crimes to solve."
Catherine snorted. "You just keep telling yourself that. What did I tell you the other night, Sara? Everyone's fascinated with your life because we didn't know you had one!"
"Like I'm not having enough trouble with everything going on without everyone putting in their 2 cents. And their twenty dollars."
Grinning, Catherine noted, "So you got Nick to tell you about the bet, huh? And he's still alive? Well I've got to say, Grissom's had a calming influence on you."
"'Calming' is NOT how I would classify it. I can't even tell you how much stress I've been under with all this shit going on. I mean, not that he's a bad influence, but I wouldn't say he's calmed me down."
"I beg to differ," Catherine shook her head. "So far tonight you've driven here at a speed not exceeding 85, you've refrained from killing Nick over this bet, and you're actually conversing productively with me. I'd say something calmed you down!"
Sara shrugged. "Ok, so maybe I'm trying to be a good girl around here lately. But this whole relationship thing . . . anything but calming. I feel like everything is so out of control!"
Catherine smiled. "Yeah I hear you, hon. Love ain't always as grand as we like to think." Tapping a finger against her chin, she tilted her head thoughtfully. "So – what do you think about the bet? Were you a 'good' reason?"
Sara grinned. "Hell yeah! Besides, if I hadn't been throwing up every five minutes he probably would have showed up here. So I think me being hung over counts as a good reason."
"Yeah, that was what I was thinking too. What do you say we go tell the guys who won their bet?"
"Oh yeah! I want to see Warrick's face when he realizes I made Nick tell me about it." She paused. "Oh, by the way, who did win? Was it Nick's or Warrick's money that was on me being a good reason?"
"Warrick's. Yeah," she nodded, "Grissom's other pet stood up for him."
Sara faked an offended look. "His other pet? You mean I'm not the only one? Well I'll just have to have a talk with him, now won't I."
Catherine snickered. "Yeah, you just show him who's the main pet around here. Now, come on, let's go scare the guys."
