O'Reilly was standing next to his dark colored Taurus as Nick and I pulled up in the Denali. He was holding his hands up next to his mouth and blowing into them and rubbing them together trying to keep warm. It occurred to me that he could have just sat in the car until we arrived, because even in the desert it's cold at night in the winter. Nick and I descended from the Denali and O'Reilly noticed the splint on my hand. "What did you do to yourself, Sidle? Try and take on another suspect?" I shook my head and felt a surge of annoyance at the barb O'Reilly had thrown my way. Right after the lab explosion, I had gone with Brass and a couple of officers to the apartment of a gang member suspected in a murder Nick and I had investigated and had pulled my weapon. The guy outweighed me by at least double and Brass made a point to tell me I was out of line. Nick heard about it and he gave me a gentle ear full as well, it had even gotten back to Grissom. "Worse, she tried to beat up my Denali." Nick tried to inflect a little humor into the situation. "What do you have, O'Reilly?" The beefy sergeant motioned for us to follow him into the house. It appeared that someone had been there since the last time we had and had pretty much trashed the place. I looked at him curiously. "Any idea who did this?" He chuckled. "If we did, I think they'd be our prime suspect don't you think?" "Maybe, maybe not." I answered wondering if it was a random burglary after people knew the residents were deceased or if it was in fact someone looking for something to cover their tracks. I wasn't betting on the intruder being the killer. It didn't seem to fit the profile we'd compiled. Why would they take such care to cover their tracks in a murder only to return and make complete chaos of the place? But then, as the old saying goes, they always return to the scene of the crime. I glanced at Nick. He nodded at me imperceptibly. "O'Reilly, did you come across any kind of address book or calendar when you were trying to contact the husband?" He nodded. "Yeah, it's back at the station." I felt a surge of irritation at the man. For a veteran cop, he could be a bit dense sometimes. "Uh, we're going to need to take a look at it." He just nodded at me. Nick returned to the Denali to get our kits so we could dust for prints. We couldn't rule out that the suspect didn't return to the scene and if they had, we might just get lucky and get a hit in AFIS if we could find a print. Nick began taking photos as I dusted for prints. We lifted a couple of partials and an entire palm print; then we hit pay dirt. Near the back door were a series of shoe prints. I had to chuckle. Warrick would be disappointed he wasn't here, he loved finding shoe prints because he'd found some of the worst criminals that way. I was having a hard time laying things out to lift the print and I heard a soft chuckle behind me. I glanced back and smirked at Nick. "Are you going to just stand there making fun of me, Stokes, or are you going to get down here and help me?" He just flashed me a grin as he knelt down next to me and helped lay out the static sheet to lift the dusty shoe print onto it. Once we were done, we packed up the kit and headed back to the Denali so we could transport the new evidence to the lab. "Got a call, let me know if you need anything more." O'Reilly was out of breath as he jogged off toward his Taurus. I glanced at Nick and tried to restrain my smirk. "Do they require detectives to take physicals every year?" Nick chuckled. "I'm not even going to dignify that with a comment, Sidle." We finished loading the evidence and the kits and climbed into the front of the SUV, heading back toward the lab. The drive back was almost as quiet as the drive out. I don't think either of us really knew what to say to the other after what had happened on Nick's couch earlier. I heard Nick clear his throat and I could feel the corners of my mouth curl up slightly as I anticipated the conversation that was coming. "Sara." Nick sounded tentative. I glanced over at him and tried to study him subtly. "Yeah?" He looked like he was trying to figure out the best way to say what was on his mind. "Uh, about earlier." I bit my lower lip as I contemplated trying to lighten the mood in the vehicle. Nick was one of my best friends and this awkwardness was killing me. "Earlier?" I could see momentary panic flash across Nick's face as he nodded. "Earlier as in the investigation or earlier as in the kiss on your couch?" I could feel my heart beating rapidly and suddenly I felt nervous. I tried to fight the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that maybe I misread Nick's face right before I'd kissed him, that maybe he didn't smile after we had broken apart. Suddenly, I wasn't sure about anything. He chuckled softly. "Earlier as in the kiss." "Oh." I never had a problem with stuttering until that moment. Who knew that a single two letter word could be so hard to utter? "Do you want to talk about it?" Nick sounded hesitant, dare I say nervous. I looked straight at him and just nodded as I continued in my new found speech problem. "I, uh, yeah, I mean, uh, we should probably do that." I glanced away from him and could feel the heat in my cheeks as I'm sure my face was deepening in color. I could hear Nick exhale. "I just didn't expect you to kiss me." My heart sank into the pit of my stomach and my mouth went dry. I felt the sudden urge to wrap my arms tightly around my body. I couldn't look at Nick. "Uh, I'm sorry." My voice cracked when I spoke, and suddenly I found the floor mats incredibly interesting. "Are you sorry?" It wasn't an accusation. There was a hint of a plea in his voice that almost sounded like he hoped I wasn't sorry. I glanced at him and could see him trying to search my face out of the corner of his eye as he drove. My voice didn't seem to want to work, but what finally came out was a combination of a croak and a stutter. "Uh, I, what I'm trying, I mean, we, you, I." It didn't make sense and suddenly I started laughing nervously. Nick's face was clouded with confusion. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I'm not sorry I kissed you." I was surprised that my sentence came out so clear. Nick didn't say anything and suddenly, I was worried again. I turned my gaze back to the floor mats and stuttered as I asked a question I feared the answer to. "Uh, are you sorry, Nick?" My brows were furrowed nervously and I bit my lower lip, hoping that rejection wasn't on the horizon. "No, I'm not sorry either." His voice was barely a whisper and I had to strain to hear him. My eyebrows shot up, I wasn't sure I heard him correctly. "What?" His voice was stronger and there was the beginning of a smile on his face. "No, Sara, I'm not sorry about that kiss. I've wanted to do that for a long time." If Nick had told me that he hated Texas, I could not have been more surprised. "You what?" He grinned at me. "Sara, I've wanted to kiss you for about as long as I've known you." "Oh." All I could do was just sit there and stare at him. In a word, I was stunned. We drove in silence for a while and then I shook myself out of my stupor. "Nick, why didn't you say anything?" He raised a slightly amused eyebrow at me. 'In a word, Sara? Grissom." "Oh." I realized he was right, until Grissom made his rejection of me clear, I would not have been able to see past the end of my nose to notice anyone else. "I've been really blind." I stared at Nick, studying his strong jaw and the deep lines etched into his face from smiling. He chuckled at me. "No, Sara, you've just been preoccupied." He reached over and took my good hand in his and grinned. "Do you think we could go out sometime?" I looked at my hand in his and glanced up at his handsome face, the face of my dear friend, and nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that." He squeezed my hand before releasing it as we pulled into the parking lot of the lab and just said one word that spoke volumes. "Good."