Summary: Four months after Nick and Sara found each other, a life-altering, career-changing opportunity presents itself at the Las Vegas Crime Lab. Will this chance bring the Graveyard shift closer together, or tear them apart?
Author's Note: READ AND REVIEW!
Disclaimer: No, I do not own CSI stuff. I do own Anisha, Maile, Dylan, All of Nick's family, Haylie and her family, and all the other characters you don't realize, k?
Rating: PG-13
Request: Read and review!
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"Hey Sara!" Haylie said after Sara answered the phone.
"Hey Haylie, how are things?" Sara asked as she took the cordless back into the living room.
"I'm doing great, but the kids have colds"
"Oh man, both of them?" Sara asked, remembering the adorable dimples of Haylie and Zach's daughter, Kaelyn, and the innocence of their newest addition, Devon Zachary.
"Yep, both of them," Haylie said, "Devon didn't get it as badly as Kaelyn did."
"Well, in a way that's good," Sara said, watching as Nick lay his head back and closed his eyes.
"So what are you up to?"
"Not a whole lot, getting ready to go to bed. Just got back from work and we're moving along in the cases."
"That's good. I seriously have no idea how you stomach those things. When Kaelyn was younger I almost threw up every time she… did something."
Sara laughed, "Haylie, you've always had the weak stomach."
"That's true," Haylie admitted, "So how are you and Nick doing?"
"Really good," Sara replied, deciding not to bring up the promotion in this conversation.
"How serious are you about him?"
"Oh, well... pretty," she replied.
"Really? Is he serious about you?"
Sara shrugged, even though Haylie couldn't see it, "I'm not sure."
"Well find out, DUH." Haylie laughed over the line, and Sara joined her. Sara decided to switch the subject before it became too serious.
"So what's going on in June?"
"Oh right. Well, Zach's company is sending him out there for a week, and he thought since you live there he'd bring all of us."
"Haylie, my apartment is only so big," Sara replied.
"Duh, Sara. He's staying at the hotel where the conference is for the week, and he suggested the three of us stay with you. You wouldn't mind have your sister, a five year old, and a newborn in the house, would you?"
"Of course not," Sara said, "Just call me like a week in advance so I can get out of here."
Haylie laughed as the two said goodbye and hung up.
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"So there is no way we can have it changed?" Grissom asked, "It has to be one of my team members?"
Brass nodded sadly, "Ecklie has told them that he needs his people because your team is so much better."
Grissom shook his head, "Now he's using that against us."
Brass nodded again, "I've tried almost everything possible to change their minds," he informed Grissom.
"What's the exception?" Grissom asked.
"Well, the promotion committee has six members, but the Head's vote counts twice, and as far as I know he and two other members have not been present for the last three meetings."
"So you're sayng we track down the missing members and try and talk to them before Ecklie?"
Brass nodded, "It's worth a try. Since you guys have cases, I'll take care of it. If I find the three, I'll ask for a meeting with them for you and Catherine."
"Why Catherine?" Grissom questioned.
"Both of you are the veteran CSIs," Brass said, "Just let Sara, Warrick, Nick, and Greg take care of Dylan and Lindsey for an hour or so."
Grissom almost found the suggestion humorous, but gave it some thought, "All right," he agreed, "If you can arrange it, we'll do it. But we only have three weeks until I have to submit a name. The regulations state if an appeal hearing with the promotion committee doesn't occur before the scheduled turn-in date, we're-"
"-Shit out of luck?" Brass offered.
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"Nicky, are you sure you want to try for this promotion?" Grissom asked him before shift started that night.
Nick nodded, "Yeah, Griss. I want it."
Grissom nodded, "All right. There is competition, Nick. You have to be on your game."
Nick nodded again, "All right. I will."
"I'll most likely base my decision on who does the better job on their cases this time. If it's too close, the next case will determine it."
"Okay, Griss. Thanks."
"The other one is Sara, Nicky."
Nick looked up at his boss, "Sara?"
Grissom nodded, "She wants it too."
Nick swallowed and glanced at the ground, trying to hide his feelings, "Thanks for telling me, Griss."
Grissom nodded as he went off to find Sara, the other CSI interested in the promotion. When he found her, he told her the same thing.
"Only one of you is getting it," Grissom reminded her.
"I know, Griss," she replied.
"The other one is Nick, you know."
Sara's head shot up from her computer screen, "Nick?"
Grissom nodded, his face almost compassionate. He had a feeling this fight for the promotion would determine if Nick and Sara's relationship would last. He didn't want either one of them to get hurt, and yet he knew one would get it and the other would be left behind with the rest of them. Sara was like his daughter, and Nick was like his son. He didn't want either one to leave, but he didn't want their relationship to suffer either. He could only imagine if it were himself and Catherine in the same situation.
"Thanks for telling me, Griss," Sara said as Grissom left for his office. He needed to call his wife.
~x
"So they're both going for it?" Catherine asked after Grissom had called her that night."
"Yes," Grissom replied. He feared for them; not just because they were involved together, but because he felt almost a father-figure complex over both of them, and he didn't want to see them have to go through the fight he knew was coming.
Catherine sighed, "I was afraid of this."
"So was I," Grissom agreed, "This is going to be tough on them."
"Yeah," Catherine said, "By the way, Lindsey told me tonight that she wants to go through with the adoption."
"She does?" Grissom asked, truly surprised at the little girl's decision.
Catherine smiled at her husband's tone, "Yea, so tomorrow while she's at school I'm going to go get the paperwork for it."
"Are you taking Dylan?"
"No, Gil, I'm going to leave him home alone and pray he doesn't throw a party. Of course I'm taking him!"
Grissom grinned at his wife's playful sarcasm, "I was just checking."
"I know, it's new to you. Don't worry Gil, this isn't my first big job."
Grissom sighed, "I know. Well I better get going, Sara got the final list of suspects in our homocide."
"All right. I'll see you tomorrow. I love you."
"I love you too. Goodnight."
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"Dana Tyler, Regina Michaels, Savannah Taylor, Denise Raines, and Mikala Vaughn," Sara said, as she wrote the five women's names on the white board in the lay out room, "All five involved in David Simmons' life at some point."
"All right," Grissom said as he sat and looked at the list on the board, "How?"
Sara looked at the paper in her hand, "Dana Tyler was his fiancèe," she said, writing it under the woman's name, "He broke it off a month before the wedding. Regina Michaels is his first ex-wife. Savannah Taylor, a second fiancèe who never made it to the alter, Denise Raines was his second ex-wife, and Mikala Vaughn was his latest fiancèe."
"When did he break it off with her?" Grissom asked as Sara finished labeling the women, "Or did he?"
"No, he did," Sara replied, "About a month before he was murdered."
"Well," Grissom said, "All had good reasons to murder him, but hers is the closest. Any one of them own a ranch, or at least livestock?"
Sara looked at her paper once again, "Yeah," Sara replied, "Actually, Mikala Vaughn's family owns Vaughn Stables twenty minutes outside Vegas."
Grissom nodded, "Suspect number one," he said, glancing at his watch, "We can't check it out now. We'll have the receptionist contact the family and ask if it would be all right if we talked to them tomorrow night. Would you mind coming in at nine tomorrow?"
Sara shook her head, "Not at all. I'll be here."
"Good," he said, "by the way, you have to fill these out for the promotion."
Grissom handed her a stapled packet of papers, "All right, I'll have them on your desk tomorrow."
"Thanks, Sara," Grissom said as the two left the layout room.
~x
By the end of the shift, Sara had had every intention to stay later and continue working on the case, but five minutes before shift ended Nick found her in front of the computer in the lab. She was concentrating on going through their victim's files and paperwork she had found. She didn't notice anything until Nick's hands were on her shoulders, massaging the muscles gently.
"It's almost time to go," Nick told her as she nodded.
"I know," Sara replied carefully, not sure if Nick knew she was going for the promotion as well, "I was thinking of staying."
Nick raised an eyebrow, "Stay and be around Ecklie?"
Sara saved her work and shut the window down, "On second thought, going home sounds good too."
Nick laughed as they walked towards the locker room. He was acting cautious - he didn't know if Sara knew he was the other one going for the promotion. He decided if he didn't tell her and she found out from someone else, she would be hurt.
"I'm going for the promotion," Nick quietly informed her as they removed their I.D.s and other things.
Sara slowed her movements as she heard the words that confirmed what Grissom had said.
"I'm going for it as well," she replied as she picked up her black leather jacket and pulled it on.
Nick could feel the tension between them, and Sara could as well. It was the first time in four months they had been uncomfortable, so neither of them were scared. If the promotion news had come when they were first together, it probably would have scared them both. However, since they knew each other and how each other thought, it eased the tension a little. Neither of them wanted to make things worse, so they decided not to speak about it any more. Just before Nick was about to say goodbye, Sara's cell phone went off.
"Sidle," she said as she answered the phone, "Yeah, Cath. Well I was going to go home. Uh-huh. Yeah. Hang on let me ask," Sara turned to Nick, who was watching her, "Were you planning on coming over?"
Nick shrugged, "I wouldn't unless you invited," he replied, being every inch the gentleman he'd been raised to be.
"Hold on another sec, Cath," Sara said as she covered the mouthpiece of the phone and closed the space in between herself and Nick.
"You don't have to be invited, Nicky," Sara said, "That's why I gave you keys. I want you to feel free to come over whenever you want, all right?"
Sara ended her speaking by pressing her lips to Nick's for a quick, but meaningful kiss. Both of them knew that they each were trying to be careful, but also show each other they weren't angry.
"All right," Nick said, "You go with Cath, though, or whatever she wants to do."
Sara smiled at him, "I'll talk to you later," she said as she shut her locker and finished talking to Catherine as she walked out the door.
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"I heard you and Nicky are going for the promotion," Catherine said as Sara rocked Dylan.
Sara nodded.
"Have you guys talked about it?" Catherine questioned, looking at Sara carefully.
Sara shrugged, "Not really. We both just found out last night."
Catherine, whom had pretty much taken it upon herself to guide the younger couple, sighed, "Sara, you guys have to talk about it."
"Why, Cath? Whoever gets it will move on, whoever doesn't stays," Sara said as she made faces at Dylan, who was smiling.
"Sara, I have no idea how this will affect your relationship with Nick, but I know if it were me and Gil going for the same promotion, I would talk it over with him. Whoever doesn't get it is going to feel like the other person moved on without them."
"Catherine, Grissom will decide by whoever is the better CSI."
"Yes, and the other is going to feel inferior."
Sara didn't reply as she rocked Dylan gently, watching his brown eyes slowly slide shut.
Sara and Catherine made their way into the kitchen, Sara taking a seat at the island and Catherine rummaging in her cabinet for some herbal tea.
"Have you two said it?"
"Said what?"
"That you love each other?"
"No."
"Why not?" Catherine asked as she prepared the kettle.
Sara contemplated explaining her situation to Catherine, and decided to.
"I've told men before that I love them, and they would reciprocate for a while. Then they would... I don't know, get bored I suppose, and leave. Every single time I told a man that, he left. I'm not going to do that any more."
Catherine couldn't help but grin a little. It was a simple case of trust. Sara didn't trust men any more.
Well Nicky, Catherine thought, you're going to have to prove yourself if you want her bad enough.
"Well," Catherine said, standing nearby the stove so the whistle of the kettle wouldn't wake Dylan, "Were you friends or colleagues with the men before?"
Sara shook her head no.
"There's a difference. You and Nick were friends and colleagues before you got involved."
"That's true," Sara admitted, "And I know I'm running out of time. You can only be so old before you get married and have kids."
"Hey, are you discriminating against older wives and mothers?"
"Of course not," Sara said with a smile at Catherine's expression, "But I'm thirty-two, Cath. If I want to be married and have kids before I'm fifty, I have to get a move on, wouldn't you say?"
"Yeah, I think you should get moving," Catherine agreed, "But not with the wrong man."
"Are you saying Nick is the wrong man?" Sara asked.
"Not at all. In fact, I'm waiting for him to propose," Catherine said as the kettle began to whistle a little, and Catherine quickly took it off the stove before it got any louder.
"You're not the first person to say that," Sara informed her as Catherine handed her a cup and they sat at the kitchen table. Lindsey was already off to school, and Grissom hadn't arrived home yet.
"I'm not?" Catherine asked, looking interested.
Sara shook her head, "Warrick, Nick's mom, my sister, and Nick's sisters Kayla and Christine."
"Aren't you two going down in March for Christine's wedding?"
Sara nodded.
"Well," Catherine said, "I think what you need to do is talk to Nick about the promotion. I'm not wishing you guys bad luck, but if your relationship makes it through the promotion, I'd say you've got a keeper."
Sara laughed, "Nick's always been a keeper. But is he right for me?"
"Well, that I don't know," Catherine said, "That's something you'll have to find out for yourself."
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A/N: What do you guys think? I'm trying to cover a lot of the stuff early, cuz even after the whole promotion conflict clears up, Haylie still has to pay a visit AND Nick and Sara have to go to Christine's wedding. YES all of that is happening in this Volume! But don't worry your pretty little heads just yet – Volume III is in the works! ;)
Next Chapter: Catherine and Grissom begin the adoption paperwork, Greg meets a girl, and Warrick learns more about Anisha. READ AND REVIEW AND I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER! :-P hahaha