I finally stopped crying, but couldn't bring myself to move away from Nick or look him in the eye. I just sat there curled up against him on his couch with my head on his chest, my fingers absentmindedly playing with one of the buttons on his shirt. I felt something lightly hit my cheek and I glanced up at him. Tears were running silently down Nick's face and it startled me. Not to see him cry, but that he was crying because of what I'd told him.

I reached up to brush his tears away with my fingers and he turned to look at me. I just stopped and stared at him, my eyes locking with his. At that moment, I saw something I'd never seen before. Or perhaps I'd seen it, but had just chosen to run from it. Nick adored me. Everything in his expression told me that. Maybe that's why I did what I did, maybe that's why this time, I didn't run away. I didn't even take time to think about it. I closed my eyes and softly kissed him.

Any worry I had that I was making the biggest mistake of my life, as I realized that my lips had connected with his and it was too late to take it back, were erased when he began responding. I'd never kissed anyone quite like that before and had never been kissed by anyone quite like that before. In a word it was electric.

We pulled away from each other, as much to catch our breaths as to stare at each other and wonder how that had just happened. Slowly I noticed a smile forming on Nick's face, then I realized that I was smiling too. He reached over and tucked a curl behind my ear, trailing his fingers against my cheek before reaching between us and taking my hand in his. I finally found my words. "Wow."

He chuckled and echoed my sentiment. "Yeah." He studied me for a moment before speaking again. "Sara, we should get back. We still have a case to work."

I nodded, I knew he was right.

"Are you going to be ok?" He was genuinely concerned.

I nodded. "Nick, I need to work this case." I felt him squeeze my hand. I knew he understood.

"Uh, about what just happened here, do you want to talk about that later?" He looked a little worried that perhaps I was going to tell him I had just gotten caught up in the emotion of the moment.

I nodded and smiled at him. "Yeah, I do want to talk about it later." I stood up and then wondered what I must look like.

Nick looked at me curiously as he stood up next to me. "Is something wrong?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "I need to go look in a mirror, I have a feeling that I look like I've been crying."

Nick chuckled softly. "Well you have been."

I shot him an amused glance. "I don't exactly want the entire lab to know that. I'll be right back." I disappeared into his bathroom and took a look at myself in the mirror. My face was red and splotchy and my eyes looked like they were designed to match.

Nick knocked softly on the bathroom door. "Sara?"

I opened it and smiled at his concerned expression. "Yeah?"

"I thought you might need these." He handed me a wash cloth and a hand towel.

I took them and wondered silently to myself how dumb I was to not have noticed before now what an amazing person Nick was. "Thanks." I spent a few moments washing my face, a task made more difficult by the damn splint on my hand.

When I emerged, he'd collected my jacket and was standing by the front door. I knew how anxious we both were to get a break in this case so we could put the culprit behind bars and I also knew that it was not a very good idea to stay here alone together until we'd had a chance to talk about that kiss.

By the time we got back to the lab, O'Reilly had still not called me back and I quickly grabbed a cup of coffee and headed back to the office I'd been working in, hoping I could decipher a bit more information from the case files.

I'm not sure how long I'd been pouring over the files, but I heard a throat being cleared in the doorway. I glanced up to see Grissom standing there. "How's the hand?"

I glanced at it and realized I'd been so absorbed in what I was working on that I'd managed to block out the pain. Now that I was giving it my full concentration, I realized it was throbbing. I wrinkled my nose as I looked back at Grissom. "It hurts like hell."

"Anything I can do?" Grissom looked, well, I'm not sure how to describe the expression on his face, but it made me nervous. I once thought I wanted Grissom to look at me like that, but now, well it was just too damn late.

I just shook my head and looked at him quizzically. "Not unless you can install Nerf dashboards in all the Denalis."

A flicker of a smile flashed across his face for a moment. "Well, at least you've got your sense of humor."

He studied me intently and it began to make me feel extremely uncomfortable. "Uh, Grissom, did you want something else?" I'm sure my expression held at least a little annoyance.

"Do you want a ride home later? I thought maybe we could get something to eat." He looked a little more confident than I thought he should.

I shook my head. "Nick has it covered." I turned my attention back to the file I was working on, hoping he would understand that I didn't want to further the conversation.

He didn't say another word and turned on his heels and disappeared.

Now that I was acutely aware of the pain in my hand, I decided to take a break and get a cup of coffee. I got up and made my way to the break room to pour myself some coffee. Just as I was about to take a sip, my cell phone rang.

It was O'Reilly. "I hope you have something for me." I smiled. "Ok, I'll get Nick and we'll meet you there." I hung up the phone and dialed Nick's number rather that search for him through the labyrinth of the lab. He picked up on the second ring. "Hey, O'Reilly has something for us, we need to meet him at the crime scene. I'll meet you in the parking lot."

I made my way out to the parking lot where Nick was already loading our kits into the Denali. I certainly hoped that what O'Reilly had found out would be pivotal in solving our case.