Chapter 9 – Birthday Girl

Nick headed to the break room to wait for Grissom to hand out assignments.  He noticed Kate and Catherine seated at the table, so he went to sit down on the couch on the opposite end of the room.  Because of everything that had been going on with him and Sara over the past few weeks, he felt a little awkward around Kate and had been trying to avoid her.  She had asked him out for breakfast and dinner after shift a couple times but he had made up excuses that he was tired or he had things to do.  He did feel a little bad about that, not only because he'd led Kate to believe that he was interested in her, which he really was at the time, but also because there wasn't anything actually going on between him and Sara (Nick stretched his definition of "nothing going on" so that "more than one awkward situation laden with sexual tension" would still qualify).  Still, he realized he needed to sort out his feelings for Sara before he could even think about anyone else, which meant he was unfortunately going to have to stop spending time with Kate, at least for the time being.

Warrick walked in, greeted the ladies, poured two cups of coffee, and came to sit down next to Nick, handing him one of the cups.

"Thanks," Nick said.

"So what's up with you and Kate?" Warrick jumped right in.

"What're you talking about?"

"You.  And Kate.  It's not a hard question man."

"There is no me and Kate."

"Really."  Warrick didn't believe him.

"Look, I mean, she's great and all, and I do like her, but we work together.  And she's Catherine's niece."  Nick was reaching with his thin excuse, trying to convince not only Warrick but also himself.

"Right," Warrick said, not buying Nick's explanation.

"It's just not a good idea," Nick continued.

"Does she know you think that?"

"Uh…"

Warrick gave him a look.

"I know, I'll tell her," Nick said defensively.

"Well it better be soon because this girl's got it pretty bad for you."

"How do you know?"

"Please.  Give me some credit.  I've seen it, I know the signs," Warrick boasted.

"Oh, right."

"In fact, she's staring at you right now," Warrick said.

"Really?"  Nick asked, his back turned to where Kate was sitting.  "How do you know she's not staring at you?"

"Well of course ordinarily that would be my first assumption – well actually that wouldn't be an assumption, it'd be a fact – but trust me, she's staring at you," Warrick said as he patted Nick on the back and got up to join the ladies at the table.

Nick sighed.  He took a sip of his coffee as he attempted to stand up, but apparently couldn't handle both tasks at once and ended up spilling some coffee on his shirt.

"Great.  Just great," Nick muttered to himself.  He went over to the sink to grab a paper towel.

"Do we need to give you a bib?" Catherine teased.

Nick smirked as he started dabbing with the wet paper towel.

"You know that's not gonna come out with just water," Warrick said.

"Thank you, Martha Stewart," Nick quipped.

"I have an extra shirt in my locker if you want it," Warrick offered.

"Nah, thanks.  I'll live."

Sara walked in and started to pour herself some coffee.  "You need a bib?" she asked Nick when she noticed the stain on his shirt.

Nick rolled his eyes and went to sulk at the far end of the table away from the rest of the team.  He was waiting to see if Kate would try to stare at him again when Grissom walked in.

"Okay, hit and run," Grissom looked around to decide who to give the case to.  "Uh, Nick and Kate.  The rest of you, with me."

"Where are we going?"  Sara asked.

"For ice cream," Grissom replied dryly.

"Yay," Catherine said with mock enthusiasm.

To Nick's dismay, Kate spoke up as soon as they pulled out of the parking lot.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he said, knowing where this was going.

"Maybe I was getting the wrong message, but I thought that you…I thought that we…" she didn't know how to put it.

Nick spared her the embarrassment.  "I'm sorry."

"Did I do something?" she asked.

"No, no, of course not.  It's me.  Well I mean actually it's us."

"So I did do something."

Nick sighed.  "Kate, don't get me wrong.  I think you're great.  And I admit that I do feel something."  Whoa, déjà vu.  Haven't I had this conversation before?  "It's just that I don't think it would be a good idea, since we work together."

"Why, is it like, against policy or something?"

"No.  Well it is kind of against my policy," he lied.

"Oh."

"And besides, you're Catherine's niece.  She's my friend."

"Oh," Kate repeated.

"I'm really sorry, Kate," Nick apologized.  "If the circumstances were different…"

"Hey, don't worry about it.  I understand," Kate smiled, trying to hide her disappointment.

Nick felt terrible.  He glanced at her and could tell she was taking the news harder than she led on.  But she seemed to believe him, which made him feel even worse, since his explanation was just an excuse rather than the truth.  If the whole ordeal with him and Sara wasn't going on, he probably would have pursued a relationship with Kate.  And in some ways he thought he should have anyway, specifically because of the ordeal with Sara, just to get his mind off it.  But he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Sara sat at the breakroom table, alone.  As usual, she was the first one to arrive.  She took a sip of her tea and sighed.  The past few weeks had been tough, and that was without even considering her cases.  Every time she had worked with Nick, which for some reason had been a lot more than usual, they always seemed to find themselves in an awkward situation.  The scene in the jewelry store was beyond embarrassing, and stripping down the van as well as their clothes didn't make things any better.  She didn't know how much longer the tension between them would last.  She hoped not much longer; she wasn't sure she'd be able to handle it.

She had the previous night off, and because of her situation with Nick, she astonishingly didn't come in to the lab.  Nevertheless, she didn't do anything spectacular; she spent the whole day cleaning her entire apartment.  She figured it would be nice to wake up the next day to a clean apartment; after all, it would be her birthday.

And there Sara sat, on her birthday, which was actually almost over, alone in the breakroom.  Catherine and Warrick entered a few minutes later, engaged in a semi-heated conversation about a case they had just finished working on.  They distractedly said hi to Sara and continued their conversation as they headed for the coffee machine.

"Hi Sara," a perky female voice said.

"Oh, hi Kate," Sara said.

"How was your day off?" Kate asked as she sat down next to Sara.

"Fine."

Warrick and Catherine sat down across from them, still talking about their case.  Kate and Sara watched them argue and quickly noticed that Catherine was undoubtedly winning.

Nick walked into the break room and saw Sara sitting at the table, her back turned to him.  He approached her from behind and bent down to speak into her ear, softly to make sure he didn't scare her.  "Happy birthday."

Sara couldn't help but smile when she heard his voice.  "Thank you."

"Today's your birthday?  Wow, happy birthday!" Kate said loudly enough for Catherine and Warrick to stop talking.

"Is today the 16th already?" Warrick asked, glancing at the calendar on the wall.  "Damn!  With this crazy case we totally lost track of the days!  Sorry, girl.  Happy birthday!"

"We?  Hey, speak for yourself.  Happy birthday, Sara," Catherine said as she came around the table to give her a hug.

"Thanks guys."

"So where are we going for breakfast?"  Nick asked.

"I don't know…" Sara forgot that whoever had a birthday got to pick where the team would eat after shift.

"I don't mean to rain on your parade and all, but can we go someplace with meat?  I've been jonesing for a juicy T-bone all week," Warrick said, causing Catherine to playfully slap him on the arm.

Grissom entered and immediately got down to business.  "Okay kids, time to get to work.  Busy night tonight.  Cath, Kate, 419 downtown.  Warrick, Nick, B and E."  He turned to Sara.  "And for me and the birthday girl, 425."

"What kind of suspicious circs?"  Sara asked.

"Don't know.  It's your birthday surprise.  Happy birthday."

Sara gave him a look.  Grissom had a weird sense of humor.

"See, even Grissom remembered.  That makes you look pretty bad," Catherine teased Warrick as everyone headed out to their scenes.

Shift was over and everyone was in a good mood as they gathered their things from their lockers.

"So where are we going?" Warrick asked Sara.

"Um, how about, ummm…" Sara thought.  "Von Graff's?  They have meat there, right?" she smiled at Warrick as she mentioned the restaurant that was famous for its steak and eggs breakfast.

"You're the best.  I love you girl!" Warrick said as he gave Sara a giant bear hug.

"Where's Grissom?" Catherine asked.

"And Nick?" Kate added.

"I don't know, I'll go find them and meet you guys outside," Warrick said eagerly as he bounded out of the locker room, causing the ladies to giggle.

Catherine and Kate left next, leaving Sara alone.  As she shut her locker and turned toward the door, it swung open.

"Oh good, you're still here," Nick said.  "I had to run out and get this from my truck.  I know technically your birthday was yesterday, so I guess now it's happy belated birthday," he smiled as he handed her a wrapped gift.

"Nick, you didn't have to do this," she smiled, accepting the gift.  She could tell it was a book.  "Can I open it now?"

"No, you have to wait until exactly 8:27," he teased.

She gave him a look and unwrapped her present.  "Oh my God, Nick, where did you get this?"

"That's the one you don't have, right?"

"Yeah."  She flipped through the pages.  It was a first edition of The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, the fifth volume in the collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories.  Her parents had given her a first edition set for her college graduation (that was their idea of what their daughter was interested in doing – being Sherlock Holmes), but when they had bought it, it was missing the last volume.  Over the years Sara had looked everywhere for it, but could never find it.  She couldn't believe that Nick remembered.  "This must have taken forever to find."

"Actually, my brother-in-law did all the work.  He owns a rare bookstore up in Seattle.  He made a few calls and tracked this one down in London."  Nick hoped Sara didn't take the gift the wrong way.  He was her friend, and he wanted her to have the book.  Besides, a book was a total platonic friends kind of gift, the most unromantic gift short of a Dust Buster.

"Wow.  Thanks Nick, I love it." Sara gave him a hug.  Was this book supposed to mean something?  The two had always exchanged birthday presents, Sara realized, but this time it was different, giving something that was personal and had sentimental value.

"You're welcome," he smiled.  They stared at each other for a couple seconds in awkward silence when the door burst open.

"There you are!" Warrick said when he saw Nick.  "Where the hell have you been?"

"Uh, in here?"

"Well hurry up, steak and eggs are calling!"  Warrick said as he let go of the door and it swung closed.

"I guess we better go before things start to get ugly," Nick joked.

"Yeah.  Thanks again for the book," Sara said.

"Sure," he smiled.