Drunken Innocence

Sorry to keep up with this story, but it keeps going on in my head!

'Come on Sidle! You're gonna make both of us late!' He yelled through the house.

The only response he got was silence.

'If you've gone asleep again, I'm gonna pour freezing cold water over you to wake you up.' He warned as he started walking towards the back of the house.

'I'm coming, I'm coming.' Sara said, hopping out of the guest bedroom door, trying unsuccessfully to pull on her second boot. 'And do you have to yell? I'm five feet away.' She muttered, as she finally rammed her foot into the boot, and triumphantly did up the zip.

'You're the one who wants to go looking for your car.' Warrick helpfully reminded her. He was leaning against the doorframe into the kitchen, watching her with an amused smirk on his face.

Sara narrowed her eyes at him, but held her tongue. He could just as well have made her take the bus back to the strip to go car hunting.

'Although, seeing as it's probably been towed, I don't know why we're going looking.' He told her.

Sara sighed. 'It might not have done.' She tried, but even she wasn't that hopeful.

'It would help if you could remember where you parked it.' Warrick said for about the forth time.

Sara didn't bother answering with words. Why speak when a glare can say just as much?

'I mean,' he carried on, ignoring the look, 'fancy forgetting where you parked your car. I never saw you as the person to forget something like this. Then again, I learnt a lot of new things about you last night.'

Sara responded with a stiff middle finger.

Warrick laughed. 'Oh, another new trick.' He said.

'Keep it up, Brown,' Sara growled at him in warning.

'And you'll do what?' Warrick asked. He shook his head. 'You're forgetting who's holding all the cards in this, Sidle. Now if you want your secrets to stay secret, I'd start by being nice to me.'

Sara only just about managed to bite her tongue, knowing that he was right, he did know an awful lot that wouldn't be good to be spread around the whole lab.

'You wouldn't.' She challenged instead.

'Oh, wouldn't I?' He challenged right back, a satisfied smile on his face. 'Now are you ready yet? We should have been leaving half an hour ago.'

'Well if you'd have woken me up, we would have been going half an hour ago.'

'Ah, but you looked so cute with your hair sticking up and just that little pool of saliva collecting at the corner of your mouth.' Warrick told her, his grin hidden from her as he led her out of the house.

Although he did feel the heat of her glare on his back as she followed him out.

'It was rude enough that you fell asleep in the middle of our conversation. But now I'm getting blamed for not waking you up?' Warrick shook his head mournfully. 'That's low.'

'All you had to do was poke me or something.' Sara muttered, mostly to herself. 'But oh no, it's bad enough you saw me when I was slaughtered, now you've seen me fast asleep as well.'

'And with bed head.' Warrick reminded her. 'I'm finding it hard to decide which was funnier.'

'You're a bad bad man, Warrick Brown.' Sara told him.

'And it's so fun.'

'Just one more time.' Sara pleaded.

'We've done the whole strip and back again.' Warrick said. 'It's not here.'

'It might be. There are a lot of cars. We might have just missed it.' Sara said hopefully.

'It's not here. It was probably towed last night. And we're gonna be late for work.'

Sara glanced at the clock on the dash, seeing he was right. She sighed, kneading her head trying to get the throbbing to stop and to try and remember what she did with her car last night.

She eventually sighed again, stopping with the thinking because it was making her headache ten times worse, and just accepting the inevitable that she wasn't going to find her car miraculously parked at the side of the road.

'So we can go to work now?' Warrick asked, glancing at her.

'Yes.' She snapped.

Warrick laughed. 'You know, you get in a really bad mood when you've been drinking.' He told her in a conversational tone as he made an illegal u-turn and dived down a side road.

'Warrick!' Sara exclaimed. 'Are you trying to kill us?' She asked as the sound of car horns followed them.

'Hey, this is all your fault.' He reminded her.

Sara didn't exactly have a come back to that. So decided for once to do the right thing, and keep quiet. As Warrick bombed his way through a confusing maze of back roads taking them to CSI HQ, Sara found her eyelids growing heavy, sleep wanting to take her over. She fought it for a moment, before giving up, closing her eyes.

She jumped a mile as someone poked her in the side. 'No sleeping.' Warrick told her firmly.

'We're not even there yet.' Sara said grumpily.

'No sleeping. It'll just make you feel worse.' Warrick repeated.

'I just want ten minutes shut eye.'

'You're not drooling all over my car. I just got it cleaned.'

She grumbled something to herself that sounded awfully close to a bad word but rubbed hard at her eyes, trying to encourage them to stay open. 'This is going to be a long night.' She muttered, mostly to herself.

Warrick looked over at her in sympathy. 'You could just call in sick.' He told her.

'I know. But I hate calling in sick.' Sara said. 'Kind of ruins the workaholic image.' She joked. 'I'll be alright as long as I've got a coffee cup in hand at all times.'

He glanced over at her once more, as if deciding if she really was up to working, before looking back at the road. 'Just don't puke at any crime scenes, will ya? I don't think Gris would look too favourably on that.'

'I don't get sick.' She muttered. 'I just get a hell of a headache.' She added, going back to kneading her temples.

Warrick pulled into the car park seven minutes later, and even Sara was beginning to think she was gonna break the record she was so proud of and get sick with a hangover. 'Remind me never to drive with you again.' She told him.

'Just when you're hungover, or in general?' Warrick asked.

They sat in the car for a few minutes, Sara desperate to ask him a question that had been gnawing at her since she woke up (the first time), but not knowing how to ask.

'Spit it out, Sara. I don't think you can say anything to shock me now.' Warrick said, a smile on his face.

'I…I was just wondering what, or whether, or…'

'I won't tell anyone.' Warrick told her, saving her from the babbling.

'You won't?' She asked hopefully, giving him such an endearing look Warrick had to laugh.

'I promise. Your secret is safe with me.'

Sara looked at him gratefully before her eyes narrowed slightly. 'At what price?'

'Oh, I'm sure you'll find someway to repay my discretion. I'll leave it up to you.' He said.

'You're enjoying this, aren't you?' Sara accused.

'Oh yeah.'

Everything looked normal when they walked into CSI. Sara didn't know what she was expecting, but she was still half afraid about what else she had done last night, and was dreading seeing the others. Warrick disappeared in the direction of the locker room, whilst Sara walked slowly to the break room, ready for a much needed coffee. She was distracted slightly by the sight of all the workmen in the blown up lab, remembering as if it was stuck on repeat the feel of the blast warm against her skin, the noise filling her ears making her head throb even now.

Nick was already sitting in the break room watching the late edition of the news. He greeted her normally enough, putting her at ease slightly. 'Have you seen Warrick yet? Grissom's gonna be here any moment.'

'Uh, no, I haven't.' Sara told him, pouring a strong cup of coffee. As if on cue, Warrick walked in, catching Sara's eye briefly with a look she couldn't decipher before he started teasing Nick about some football result.

Grissom arrived a minute later, handed out assignments, and Sara was beginning to relax. She and Nick had a suspicious death at a gym to investigate. They were just walking out, when Grissom called after her. 'Sara?'

She stopped dead in her tracks, her heart missing a beat. 'Uh, yeah?' She asked, turning around slowly.

'Was there something you wanted to talk to me about last night?'

Sara schooled her features into a surprised look. 'No, why?'

'I had a few missed calls from your cell. I left my phone here by accident.'

oh crap. And phew

Sara kept the surprised look as best as she could, as she shrugged. 'I didn't call you last night- I forgot to lock the keypad on my cell, it dialled a load of numbers by accident.' She quickly said, seeing Warrick smirk and quickly hide it out of the corner of her eye.

'Oh. Right.' Grissom said, obviously wondering whether to believe her as he said bye and started walking out.

Sara breathed a sigh of relief, making Nicky give her a strange look. 'I thought he had answered one of them- my cell bill would have been huge!' She babbled instantly, rushing past him as she felt her cheeks begin to burn.

It was the last time she was going to ever ever drink. Again. And she didn't miss Warrick's amused look as he started following Griss.

She was never going to be able to look Warrick in the eye again.

Warrick walked in the break room at end of shift to find Nick alone, flicking through channels on the tv. 'Hey- how was your case?' He asked.

Nick flicked the switch on the tv as he turned to Warrick. 'Suspicious circs turned into an open and shut fight over the running machine.'

'No way.'

'Way- vics been on the machine for close to half an hour, and you know what people are like with those machines, gotta have the exercise, so the suspect grabs him by the back of the shirt, yanks him off. He hits his head on the handle, dies from sub-dueral haematoma. Guys been charged with manslaughter.'

Warrick laughed. 'Why do people insist on running on those machines when there's the open road and no time limit?'  he wondered out loud.

'Air conditioning.' Nick suggested.

'So, you up for breakfast?' Warrick asked.

'Can't, gotta get to the bank and pay my electricity bill before it gets cut off.' Nick said.

Warrick frowned.

'Apparently the bill got lost in the post. Or I accidentally put it somewhere and forgot about it.'

'Got ya. So where's Sara?'

Nick shook his head. 'Don't know- locker room?' He suggested. 'She's been weird all night.'

'Weird?'

'Like her head is somewhere completely different.'

In a pool of alcohol, maybe. 'Oh. Everyone has off nights.'

'Sure- well I've gotta go and save my air conditioning.' Nick said, sauntering out. 'See you later.'

'Later.' Warrick said after him. He thought about grabbing a coffee but as it looked like it had been there all shift he passed on it, and went to get his bag from the locker room.

He couldn't help the laugh that escaped as he entered. Sara was sitting on the edge of the bench, leaning forward with her head in her hands, against her locker door. 'This is so not a good place to sleep.' Warrick told her sitting down next to her.

'Com-for-ta-ble.' Sara said, the word drawn out with a yawn.

'Yeah, but you'll be more comfortable at home in bed.' Warrick told her.

'Can't go home- no car.' Sara explained, her eyes still closed.

'Didn't you phone the impound?'

'No go.'

'No you didn't or they couldn't help you?'

'They couldn't help. No car.'

'Oh.' Warrick said, frowning slightly. 'Where on earth did you leave it, then?'

'Don't know. Can't remember, remember?'

'Come on.' Warrick said after a pause, getting to his feet and dragging her up to. 'Let's get you home.'

'Umm. Home.' Sara sighed. 'Let's go.' She said, pulling herself away from Warrick and rubbing at her eyes. Warrick frowned at her retreating back, wondering what had just happened to transform her so quickly.

'You wanna get breakfast?' Sara asked as they walked towards Warrick's car. 'I'm starving. Plus I owe you.'

'You owe me a lot more than breakfast.' Warrick said. 'But I'm willing to have it in instalments.' He said.

They drove to a small diner in the outskirts of town, well used by the CSI's and cops as they served good portion food and cheaply.

Warrick ordered his usual, eggs bacon sausage and beans. Sara ordered pancakes topped with maple syrup with a side of fried eggs easy over, and a portion of fries just to top it all off. Warrick watched bemused as she ate the lot, washed it down with ice tea, then watched him still finishing his.

'Hungry?' He asked.

'Not anymore.'

'Good.'

'Good.'

'Okay then.'

They looked at each other for a moment, before they both quickly looked away. 'We should get going- or you'll be carrying me to the car again.' Sara joked.

'Yeah. And you're not exactly light, Sidle.'

Sara hit him on the arm as they walked out of the diner.

The ride to Sara's house was quiet- a comfortable silence after all they'd had to talk about over the last few days. Sara could imagine that with some guys, i.e. Nick, there would still be awkwardness, unasked questions, wondering. Warrick was chilled, and Sara couldn't imagine him telling anyone what had happened, even though she could see him using it at every opportunity he could to get out of doing something he didn't want to. He didn't seem to want to know more, or to ask questions she didn't want to answer, he just was…there. Helping her even when he didn't have to. Sara never thought of him as much outside of a work colleague before, but then again, she hadn't really known him outside of work before.

They rounded the corner into Sara's street. It was a cul de sac off a larger street, quiet at anytime. The houses were some of the oldest in town, a few converted into apartments like Sara's, with off street parking outside.

As Warrick pulled up outside the house, both of them had their eyes on the driveway, and the shiny tahoe in the parking space.

'Well that solves that riddle.' Sara said with a laugh.

Warrick regarded her, then looked back at the car with a shake of his head. 'Well, at least you're a safe drunk.' He said thoughtfully.

'Now we just have to find my keys.' Sara added, opening the door, and getting out.

'We?' Warrick called somewhat belatedly, following her out. 'What's with the we?…Sara?'

He only got one response. And it sounded strangely like the laugh was aimed at him.

'Oh, you so didn't just laugh at me, Sidle.' He warned as he followed her up to her apartment.

There might be more. But only if you're good J