A/N: I don't know of any churches in Las Vegas, nor do I know the names of the highways. I just made these up.
Thanks to adpi22, oceanwave, oOoOo, cRaZyPiXiE, MissyJane, Nat, krisnina77, and spikes-storm for reviewing chapter 6.
The rest of the week was all a blur to Sara. It was already Saturday morning. She had been given Friday night off, and she actually took it. She woke up around 9:00 Saturday morning. The wedding was scheduled for 1:00 pm. She had four hours to decide whether or not she was going to go.
Sara and Nick had barely said two words to each other after their confrontation in the locker room a few days earlier. And luckily, they had not been paired together on any cases. She didn't know what she would have done if they had been.
She walked into the kitchen, where she made herself a cup of coffee. She missed the friendship she had had with Nick before this whole mess started. She missed the flirting, the looks they gave each other, and just having him around her. She would never deny that she was attracted to him. How could she not be?
Sara knew she needed to do something to get him back into her life, but what? Even if he was married to another woman, at least she would be able to talk to him without feeling uneasy.
She walked into her bedroom, and pulled a dress out of the closet. She bought it the day before, just in case she ended up deciding to go to Nick's wedding. It was dark blue, had spaghetti straps, and a handful of rhinestones strewn about the front of the gown. The bottom half was slightly layered, and hung to her ankles. She had to wear shoes with heels just so the dress wouldn't drag on the ground.
Sara laid the dress down on her bed, and got some clean clothes out of her drawer. She headed to the bathroom, and drew herself a bath. She lit a few candles. She turned on the radio that sat on the back of the toilet, and U2 came out of the speakers.
~*~*~
See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you
Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you
With or without you
With or without you
~*~*~
Sara smiled. She had always been a big fan of U2, and this was one of her favorite songs. She pulled off her t-shirt, and stepped out of her pants and underwear. She stuck a toe in the tub full of water to test it.
Just right.
Sara poured a cap-full of Rose Bubble Bath into the water, swished it around, then lowered herself into the tub.
~*~*~
Through the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And I'm waiting for you
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away
~*~*~
Sara felt her body relax. She closed her eyes, and quickly drifted off to sleep.
~*~*~
My hands are tied
My body bruised, she's got me with
Nothing to win and
Nothing left to lose
And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
With or without you
~*~*~
The shrill sound of her cell phone ringing brought Sara back from the pleasant world of unconsciousness.
Sara quickly hopped out of the tub, wrapped a towel around her dripping wet body, and ran to her bedroom, where her cell phone was still ringing.
"Hello?" She answered breathlessly.
"Sara, its Grissom. I need you at the lab right now."
"What? Why?" Sara looked at the clock. It was already 10:30. She had two and a half hours before Nick's wedding.
"It'll only take thirty minutes, I promise. I just need you to finish filling out one of your files so I can send it to the D.A's office. I just noticed it now. Sorry."
Sara sighed. "Alright. I'll be there in twenty minutes."
She threw her phone down on the bed, cursing herself for even answering it in the first place.
Nearly forty-five minutes later, Sara arrived at the lab, and ran to Grissom's office. "Hey, what took you so long?"
"My stupid Tahoe got a flat tire. I was only about two miles away, so I ran the rest of the way here." Sara slumped down in the chair across from his desk, and wiped the sweat off her forehead.
"Ok, I just need you to sign these." Grissom pushed a file across his desk towards Sara.
"That's it! All you needed me to do was sign some papers?"
"Well, if you would've done it when you first filled out the file, I wouldn't have had to call you." Grissom remained calm.
"Dammit!" Sara reached for a pen, scrawled her name on the few lines that required it, and then rushed out of his office, and down the hall again. She pulled her cell phone out, and called a cab. She had already called a tow truck for her Tahoe since she didn't have a spare tire, and they said they'd have it ready in less than an hour. It had now been thirty minutes.
When the cab finally arrived, she told the driver to take her to the car shop where her Tahoe was waiting for her.
Sara finally pulled into her apartment complex just after 12:00. She had an hour, to take a shower, get ready, and get to the church. St. Andrews, where she had only been once before, was nearly twenty minutes from her apartment so she needed to hurry.
Sara quickly showered, washed her hair, got dressed and put on her make-up: silver eye liner, pink roll on blush that had a bit of a shimmer to it, black mascara, and pink lip stick with a clear gloss over it. She left her hair curled, and hanging at her shoulders. At 12:45 she was ready to go. She grabbed her shoes, a simple pair of silver heels, slipped them on, then headed for the door, purse, keys, and cell phone in hand.
As soon as Sara got on the highway she regretted it. For as far as she could see cars were lined up bumper to bumper, barely inching forward. She flipped on the radio in her Tahoe to see what the traffic report said.
"Well, folks if you've got some place to go, I would suggest taking State Route 15. There was a four-car pile up just about a mile past the exit to St. Andrews Church. I hope nobody out there is in a hurry, because-" Sara turned the radio off, not wanting to hear the rest of the bubbly voice telling her she'd be stuck in traffic for a good long while.
"Dammit!" She cursed beating the steering wheel with her fists.
Nick walked out of the room designated for the groom, dressed in his black tuxedo. He walked into the body of the church, and looked up at the altar. He noticed most of Monica's family and friends were already gathered in the pews on the left side of the church. Nick's parents were sitting on the right side. He had invited all of his sisters, and brother, but they couldn't make it. For that he was grateful. He didn't even want his parents to be there, but they insisted.
Nick walked up the aisle, noticing all of the bouquets of white roses that were scattered all over. He hated roses. He much preferred Lilies of the Valley or Carnations, but he let Monica do whatever she wanted with the wedding. He began wondering how he was even going to be able to go through with it.
Warrick was already up at the altar waiting for him when he got there. "Took ya long enough."
"Yeah. Sorry." Nick looked out over the congregation. He noticed Grissom, Catherine, Lindsey, Greg, Brass, Dr. Robbins, David, Archie, and a couple other lab techs from the night shift sitting behind his parents.
"She's not here, Nick."
"Not like I expected her… I just-"
"Hoped?" Warrick finished.
"Yeah."
Before either man could say another word the organist began playing "The Wedding March", and Bianca, Monica's maid of honor began her walk down the aisle.
TBC
The song I used here was "Without or Without You" by U2
Sorry this was kinda short. I just wanted to get it out of the way before the next chapter which will probably be significantly longer.