The day dawned bright and clear. The southern California skies were a lovely shade of azure blue streaked with the occasional cloud and at that hour, only seagulls and a few early risers walked the beach of Coronado Island. Today was special. This was the day that Nick Stokes would marry Sara Sidle.

Initially, the entire lab was completely shocked at their surprise engagement. No one besides Warrick had even known that Nick was interested in Sara, and absolutely no one had ever thought Sara was interested in Nick. With perhaps the exception of Grissom himself, they all thought she'd be carrying a torch for Grissom until her dying day. He had noticed subtle changes in her since he turned down her dinner invitation, and he realized with a bittersweet note, that the signs were all there, she had in fact moved on.

Over the weeks following their engagement, it became obvious to anyone paying attention that Nick and Sara were deeply in love, in fact if they applied their skills of investigation and observation and looked back, it was fairly easy to see that they'd been in love with each other for some time, but had been keeping those feelings hidden. Now that the entire world was privy to know how much they loved each other, it was obvious especially in the little things. It was in the way Sara's smile broadened when she saw Nick, in the way Nick would hold a door open for Sara, and in the way they finished each other's sentences. Their relationship did nothing to detract from their ability to do their job, it seemed to enhance it.

In short, they made sense. They seemed to be two pieces of a whole. So when they announced just four weeks after their engagement that they planned to get married on the beach in front of the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego six weeks later, no one was really all that surprised.

Sara had asked Chloe to be her matron of honor, and Nick had asked his brother Mike to be his best man. Grissom pulled down a few favors and was able to get Ecklie and his crew to cover the nightshift for the weekend so that everyone would be able to attend Nick and Sara's wedding.

Sara was surprised when she awoke that morning that she wasn't nervous. She had assumed that every bride would be nervous, but instead, she was giddy. She couldn't wait to marry Nick. She hadn't seen Nick since the night before, because everyone said it was bad luck for the bride and groom to see each other before the wedding. As she pulled herself out of bed, a soft knock sounded at the door of her hotel room. She pulled her robe on and padded her way over to the door cracking it open to reveal Warrick standing there.

"Hey, girl. Nick wanted me to give you something." Warrick was smiling. Of everyone, he had been the most supportive right off the bat.

Sara yawned as she reached out for the small package Warrick held out for her. She had to chuckled. It was a small Tiffany's bag with a card inside. "As much as I love getting gifts from him, I hope he doesn't make a habit of buying me things from Tiffany's. We'll go broke."

Warrick laughed. "You love the attention and you know it, Sidle."

She giggled. "I do. But still, we're going to go broke if he keeps shopping there."

"I'll let him know you'd rather get a wedding gift from Dino's Pawn Shop." Warrick teased.

Sara smirked. "Very funny. Wait a second. I have something I want you to give him." She disappeared into the room and returned to the door a couple of moments later with a small wrapped gift with a card attached. She held it out to Warrick and smiled. "Tell him that I can't wait to marry him."

"I will." Warrick grinned. "And Sara, he wanted me to tell you the same thing."

Sara shut the door and crawled back into bed, taking a long look at the bag before she pulled out the card. As she read it, tears began to stream down her face. She couldn't believe what an incredible man Nick was.

'Sara,

You are the love of my life, the most amazing woman I know, and I'm privileged to marry you today. From the moment I met you, your smile began to capture my heart. I cannot wait until I see you dressed in splendor to marry me. You're going to marry me, a thought that leaves me speechless. I cannot fathom what I've done to deserve someone as amazing as you are. If I could fill all the books in the world with words of love, they would not even begin to express how deep my love for you is. So on this day when we'll commit to be together forever, please accept this gift as a token of my love for you.

All my love is yours eternally,

Nick'

Sara was smiling through her tears and she reached into the bag to pull out a signature Tiffany's box tied with a white satin ribbon. She opened it to reveal a silver heart shaped locket. A locket that she'd looked at when they'd gone to pick out a wedding band for Nick.

The phone rang and as Sara picked it up, she knew who it would be. She smiled as she heard Nick's voice. "I love you, Sara."

"I love you, Nick." Sara still had tears running down her face. "I can't wait to marry you."

"I can't wait to marry you." Nick's voice was thick with emotion. "Thank you for the poem, babe, I love it. The handkerchief was a good idea too."

Sara giggled. "I think I should have gotten one for myself." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "That's only part of your present, you'll have to wait till later for the rest."

Nick chuckled. "I can hardly wait."

They stayed on the line a few more minutes, just listening to each other breathe, neither of them uncomfortable with the silence.

"We should get ready, we have a big day today." Sara grinned, excitement was evident in her voice.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see you." Nick's voice was earnest.

They hung up and each of them began to prepare for the day.