A/N: I'm not usually an N/S shipper cheerleader but in this time and place, it seems to work. I hold no rights to the song "Unanswered Prayers" written, sang and performed by my sexy Garth Brooks.
"Happy anniversary, Sara," Nick kissed his wife tenderly on the cheek and squeezed her hand lightly.
"Yeah, happy anniversary, Nick," Sara smiled. She blushed slightly, from her hairline to the cleavage peeking from the V-neck of her black silk dress. "Two years down and how many more to go?"
"An eternity," Nick held Sara's hand in his and softly ran the pad of his thumb over her knuckles.
"This was really nice. Getting the night off, having some dinner. It's not often we get to do this kind of stuff." She tucked some hair behind her ears and her smile slowly spread across her face like a shy butterfly.
"I know," Nick leaned in to kiss her again and nibbled on her ear a bit.
Sara giggled. "Stop…not here." She gently put a hand to his chest and pushed him away.
"You wanna leave?" Nick asked, trying to hide his excitement.
Sara looked around. They had finished a three-course meal and two bottles of red wine. They were supposed to be deciding on whether or not they wanted dessert. But right now it seemed that the only dessert that Nick was interested in was her body. She raised an eyebrow in a sultry manner. "Sure."
Nick leaned back in his chair and signaled to their waitress. "Check, please."
They exited the restaurant with their arms around each other, their pressing together, eager to return home and tear their clothes off.
As they walked out underneath the lighted awning, they passed by a woman with a male escort on each arm. Her blonde hair was perfectly coiffed, her make-up was elegantly applied. Her dress was a red sequined number and she wore a pearly white silk wrap draped over her shoulders. Her neck, wrists and ears dripped with diamonds. Sara wouldn't have paid any attention to her if the woman wasn't starring covetously at Nick.
Just as Sara and Nick were about to step into the parking lot, they heard a woman's voice call out,
"Nick Stokes?"
Nick stopped walking and looked down at Sara.
"Wasn't me," Sara said. "Turn around."
The diamond-studded woman was standing in the middle of the walkway leading up to the restaurant, hands on her hips. She turned to her male escorts and said, "Pardon me, gentlemen." She sauntered over to Nick and Sara, hands on her hips and a silly grin plastered on her face. "My word! It is you! Nick Stokes!" Her voice was thick with a Texas accent twice as syrupy as Nick's.
Nick's jaw dropped and Sara took notice of this.
"Who's that?" she hissed in his ear.
"Don't know yet," he whispered back. He crinkled his brow. "Uh…sorry. Do I know you?"
The woman beamed, "It's me, Heart! Heart Skyberg? Class of eighty-nine, Forsby High School? Don't be cruel and say you don't remember me!" She pouted a bit.
"Oh," Nick looked from Sara to Heart Skyberg and tried to jog his memory. "Oh! Yeah. Yeah, Heart! Uh, how are you?" Nick scratched his head and glanced at Sara again, who was standing by with an unreadable look on her face.
"You know me," Heart Skyberg shrugged. "Busy, busy, busy!"
"You look…great." Nick lied through his teeth. This was definitely not the Heart Skyberg he remembered. The Heart Skyberg that stood before him now had had obvious plastic surgery—nose, cheeks, breasts, lips, the whole nine yards.
Heart tossed her head back in a laugh. "Thank you. Like Dolly Parton once said, it takes a lot of money to look this cheap. You look great too, by the way. So muscular!"
"Uh…thanks."
"Well, it's funny running into you here! What are you doin' in Las Vegas?"
"I live here," Nick replied. "With my wife. Sara. My wife," he repeated as he pulled her next to him. "Heart, this is my wife, Sara."
"Hello," Sara said politely. She was utterly confused. Who was this Heart Skyberg? How did she know Nick? And who the hell would name their daughter Heart?
"Oh, wow!" Heart's eyes sparkled along with the many diamonds that decorated her like Christmas lights. "Sara, you are just the luckiest little thing in the world!" Heart took Sara's hand in hers and shook it profusely. "You have a real winner in Nick Stokes here."
"I know that," Sara said, purposely trying to sound arrogant. "My question is: how do you?"
Nick jumped in, "Heart and I…dated for a little bit in high school."
Heart laughed shrilly. "We were quite a hot item, your husband and me," she told Sara.
Nick groaned silently, then quickly changed the subject before Sara—now wearing a look of shock at the audacity of this woman—could question, asking, "What are you doing in Vegas, Heart?"
"Oh, just having a little fun," Heart twittered. "Ain't it funny we ran into each other! Especially after we haven't seen each other in ages! So, you really live here now?"
"Live and work," Nick shrugged. "I'm part of the LVPD Criminalistics team."
"Crimi-what?" Heart cocked her head and toyed with her large diamond teardrop earrings.
"Forensics?"
"What's that?"
Nick then remembered: you needed "little words" when talking to Heart Skyberg. "I'm a scientist, Heart."
"Oooh, I see," Heart kept a silly smile on her face. "How interesting. I didn't know you were interested in science, Nick!"
"Well, it's one of those things that grows on you."
"Oh, hell. I remember all you thought about was football and girls. You were such a stud. Hey, remember that time during Spirit Week when we got married?"
"You got married?" Sara asked, looking at Nick in confusion.
"Uh, it was a school thing," Nick mumbled. "Our class nominated Heart and me to get married during a Spirit Week skit."
"He was downright excited about that," Heart grinned. "Weren't you, Nick?"
"I don't remember."
"Oh, sure you do. We used to have so much fun together. He really knows how to show a gal a good time, huh, Sandra?"
"It's Sara," Sara corrected.
"Oh. So, does Nick let you have a job?"
Nick wanted to slap his palm to his forehead as Sara answered, "I work with Nick. We're both CSI's."
"Wow. So you must be super-smart, huh?"
Super-smart? How old was she, twelve? "Uh, well, forensic criminology does take an extensive amount of intelligence."
Nick returned to the conversation, trying to prevent anything else from escaping Sara's mouth. "So Heart…what's up with you these days?"
"Absolutely nothing!" Heart splayed her arms out wide and smiled. "I'm filthy rich now, haven't you heard?"
"No…no, I haven't."
"Well, I married a rich man right out of college," Heart began playing with her perfectly manicured fingernails. "He was a good fifteen years older than me but that didn't matter."
"Was?"
"Well, we divorced three years later when he found out I didn't want no kids. I mean, what am I? A farm animal?" she laughed. "Anyway, thanks to the pre-nup, I came into a shitload of money—pardon my French, there, Sara—and well, I lived off of that. After my divorce was final, I married again. And again. And again. As of today, I've been married five times."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Nick feigned sympathy.
"Don't be, cowboy. I'm living the high life, just waiting to reel in another big fish. Thanks to all the cash that's flowing in monthly, I never have to work again. I can take vacations, I can travel, I can shop. Do you guys make good money at your little cop job?"
"We're not cops," Sara said sternly. "There's a difference between cops and criminalists."
"Oh…whatever."
"No, not 'whatever'. It's a very important job. It's—"
"Oh, wow, Sara," Nick glanced at his watch. "We better get going. The, uh, babysitter is waiting for us."
Sara, a bit taken aback and caught off-guard by Nick's excuse, did her best to play along. "Oh…oh, yeah. Right. The kids must be driving her insane."
"Nick Stokes!" Heart put her hands back on her hips. "You have children?" she exclaimed as if it was a piece of information that belonged in Ripley's Believe It or Not.
"Uh…yeah!" Nick shrugged. "Two of 'em. Two of the sweetest little things you'd ever want to meet."
Sara gave a small involuntary giggle.
"Oh," Heart looked uncomfortable now. "Well, you guys must be in a rush. Nicky Stokes, it was fabulous seeing you again." She held out her hand as if he expected Nick to kiss it. He didn't and instead just gave it a light squeeze.
"You too, Heart," he said.
Heart gave a smile, a wink and then spun on her heels and hurried to catch up with her two male escorts.
Once Heart was gone, Nick felt he could breathe easier again. His chest, that had been feeling congested since Heart called out his name, suddenly cleared up and he felt a little light-headed.
"Whew," he sighed.
"That certainly killed the moment," Sara poked him in the ribs.
Nick didn't respond. He just took him in his arms and dipped her back a bit. He kissed her long and hard, their lips melted together perfectly.
"What was that for?" Sara asked, grinning.
"Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers," Nick responded.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'll tell you on the ride home." Nick smooched his wife one more time and led her to their car.
"So, are you going to tell me about Heart?" Sara asked. They'd been sitting at a red light about a mile from the restaurant.
"Do I have to?" Nick winced.
"She has some set of brass ones, Nick, to say all that stuff about you guys as a couple in front of me."
"Heart's always been a little…loud."
"No kidding. So tell me—how hot of an item were you guys?"
"Sara, do we really have to do this now? Can't we just go home and have hot sex without talking about my former girlfriend?"
"If you don't talk about your former girlfriend, not only will you be denied any sex, you'll be on the couch."
Nick swallowed hard. Damn. "Heart and I dated senior year of high school. God, she changed so much. When we were in school, Heart was like…the trophy girl, you know? She was just so…sweet and pure. Cute curly hair, sweet little voice, very…very innocent, you know?"
Sara nodded. She tried to keep an open mind about Heart Skyberg. After all, she was old news in Nick's world. The two-karat diamond on her finger wasn't nothing.
"I was head-over-heels for her since I was thirteen. She was the one I'd wanted for all times but I knew she'd never ever go out with me."
"Well, gee, I wonder why," Sara joked as she stroked Nick's arm.
The light changed green and Nick drove, still talking.
"Anyway, being the big loser I was, I would pray every night that God would make her mine forever. And if he would grant me my wish, I'd never ask him for anything again."
"And you dated Heart?"
"We had a few dates; we were together for two months, if you can even call it being together. She was very high-maintenance. She treated me like dirt. The ironic thing is, she broke up with me!"
"So what happened?"
"I went through the rest of high school alone, miserable and confused, convinced I'd never find love again." He glanced at Sara. "But remember when I said I thanked God for unanswered prayers?"
"Yeah."
"Well, after I saw Heart tonight, I realized something. God knows what he's doing. He had a reason for not putting Heart and me together. There's a reason he never answered my prayer. He had a bigger plan for me."
"And what was that plan?" Sara smiled.
Nick glanced at Sara, her face full of expectancy, and all he wanted to do was pull the car over and make love to her in the front seat of his Denali. "You, of course." He kissed her cheek quickly, an awkward trick to do while driving. "You know, you can talk and talk to God and then, when nothing happens, you're convinced he isn't listening. But just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care. You're the greatest gift he ever gave me."
"Then you know what, Nick?" Sara crept closer to her husband and rested her head on his shoulder. "Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers."
UNANSWERED PRAYERS by Garth Brooks
Just the other night a hometown football game
My wife and I ran into my old high school flame
And as I introduced them the past came back to me
And I couldn't help but think of the way things used to be
She was the one that I'd wanted for all times
And each night I'd spend prayin' that God would make her mine
And if he'd only grant me this wish I wished back then
I'd never ask for anything again
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
She wasn't quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams
And I could tell that time had changed me
In her eyes too it seemed
We tried to talk about the old days
There wasn't much we could recall
I guess the Lord knows what he's doin' after all
And as she walked away and I looked at my wife
And then and there I thanked the good Lord
For the gifts in my life
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he may not answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
Some of God's greatest gifts are all too often unanswered...
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers