Sorry it has taken me forever and a day to update, but I've been very busy with school work, and other things. But thanks to those of you who are still with me! And thanks for all the reviews. As usual, I don't own these characters. Bummer, huh?

By the way, I changed the rating because I've decided that this story is going to go somewhere I've never been before. If that offends you, then I'm sorry, but it's just where my muse took me.

~~~'~,~@

Sara had a bit of trouble falling asleep. It wasn't because she wasn't comfortable. Actually, she was surprised at how easy it was to get comfortable in Nick's lap. Her mind was running a mile a minute. At first she was thinking back to when Nick was sleeping outside by the campfire and asked her to marry him. It wasn't a bad thing, she thought, it was just scary. She'd never fully committed herself to anyone before. She was married to her job. Did Nick really want to spend the rest of his life with someone who was always working? Granted, he'd known her for four years now, and they had been dating for several months already, so he'd know what he was getting himself into.

After nearly an hour of thinking about being married to Nick, Sara decided that she probably wasn't going to be falling asleep soon, so she carefully slid from Nick's lap to the floor of the SUV, where she curled up in a ball, and leaned against the door.

She closed her eyes, and tried to clear her mind, but this time all she could think about was the man in the rest area, and then what she thought was another person in the bath house. Was she seeing things? Or was there really someone there both times?

Sara hugged her legs closer to her chest as she felt a shiver run up her spine and then back down again. She suddenly began the feel the way Nick must have felt when he was being stalked by Nigel Crane. She wondered what had been going through his mind. Or what about Jane Galloway? How had she felt? She had locked herself in her home, and tried to make herself disappear, but he had still found her. What if that same thing was happening to Sara now? Could it be Nigel coming after her? Or was he using her to get to Nick?

Sara's gaze fell upon Nick's sleeping form. His head had rolled over to the side, and was resting on the back of the seat. He had the most peaceful look on his face, completely oblivious to what was going on, and what Sara was feeling. Should she wake him up? Should she ask him to tell her everything was going to be okay? No. The last thing she needed to do was disturb him. He'd been driving all day and was probably more than exhausted.

She closed her eyes, and laid her head down on her knees, hoping that sleep would take over her as well.

Two and a half hours later, it finally did.

And a very short four hours after that, she woke with a jolt.

He was now in her dreams.

She and Nick were walking hand in hand through a hiking trail in the mountains. Nick had turned to her and smiled. Just as he was getting ready to say something, a masked figure came out from behind a tree. Without a word, he pulled a gun and fired a round into Sara's chest. She brought her hand to where the blood was slowly trickling from her body, and staining her baby blue t-shirt. She looked down at her the blood on her hand, then back up to the man who had shot her. Before she could say anything, he turned and ran back into the trees.

Sara felt her knees go weak, but she never hit the ground. Nick caught her, and slowly lowered her body onto the cool dirt that lined the path.

"Sara?" She could vaguely here the waver in his voice, but when she tried to speak, she only coughed up more blood.

"Sara, don't leave me!" She heard him beg.

She looked up into his brown eyes, and could see the tears streaming down his cheeks. She reached a shaky hand up to his face, and lightly caressed his cheek with her thumb. "I love you," she whispered.

The last thing Sara heard was Nick's painful cry.

Sara wiped the tears that had begun running down her cheeks and looked back up to Nick, who was still sound asleep. "It was just a dream," she whispered out loud.

She could tell that it was morning from the small streams of light that poured through the blankets she had hung up in the Denali the night before.  Looking down at her watch, she sighed. It was only 7:45 in the morning. Nick would probably be sleeping for another few hours. She knew she wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep now, even if she took medicine to help her.

Sara quietly climbed out of the Denali, and blinked a few times, trying to get used to the light from the morning sun. Even though there were plenty of trees, the sun still found some way to invade the campground.

She walked over to the fire circle, and wrapped her arms around her body as the wind whistled through the trees. One thing about Colorado that she'd never miss once they got back to Vegas was the wind.

Kneeling down next to the fire circle, Sara began to gather the logs and kindling they had brought with them into a tee-pee shape so she could start another fire.

Just as she was getting ready to light the match, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and jumped nearly five feet in the air, dropping the newly lit match, and matchbook into the fire.

She spun around and came face to face with a worried-looking Nick.

"Jesus Christ," she whispered as she exhaled the breath she'd been holding. She brought a hand to rest over her heart, and felt as it began to slow down a little at a time.

"Sara?" Nick asked. "Are you okay?"

Sara pasted a fake smile on her face, and nodded. "Of course I am. You just scared me is all."

"Sorry," he apologized. "But Sara, I've snuck up on you before, and never gotten that reaction. Are you sure something's not bothering you?"

"I'm positive," she lied, stepping closer to him, and wrapping her arms around his waist.

Nick pulled her closer, and wrapped his arms around her back, placing a soft kiss in her hair. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Yeah, I know."

"I'll do anything for you, Sara. I mean it." His voice was serious as he pulled back to gaze into her eyes.

Sara felt the sting of tears forming in her eyes, but blinked them back before Nick could notice a thing. "Thanks," she whispered, lying her head back down on his shoulder.

After a few minutes, Nick pulled away and smiled as he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Now, what were you doing with my fire?"

Sara giggled.

"How about I get us some breakfast, while you go take a shower," he suggested.

"Sounds good."

Nick leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Sara's lips before pulling away from her and bending down next to the fire, poking at it with a large stick to try and get the flames going a bit more. "Looks like I'll have to find some more matches," he joked as he watched the matchbook slowly burning into ash.

"That'll teach you to sneak up on people," Sara joked.

"Yeah, yeah. Go take your shower, missy."

Sara gathered her belongings from the back of the Denali and quickly headed off to the bath house, trying to push all ideas of a stalker and her nightmare out of her mind. She took her cell phone with her just in case something did happen she could call Nick. She would have taken her gun as well, but it was packed in another bag that was under everything, and she just wanted to hurry up and get her shower over with so she could be with Nick again.

She entered the bath house, and found in to be completely empty. 'Great' she thought to herself. She thought about going back to Nick and telling him they were cleaning the bathrooms so she'd have to wait, but she concluded that she couldn't live her life like this. She began trying to convince herself that she was simply seeing things and everything would be fine.

Halfway through her shower, she had actually stopped worrying about her stalker. Her mind had wondered to other things; like how everyone back at the lab was doing and what exactly Nick was going to make for breakfast.

She bent down to pick up her bar of soap, but stopped when she saw two black boots leading to dark blue jeans standing outside of her shower stall. Slowly standing back up, she decided she was clean enough, and turned off the water. She quickly wrapped a towel around her body, and began gathering her shampoo, conditioner, and soap.

But she stopped moving when she heard the slight squeaking of the metal lock on the door being turned. All rational thinking left her brain as she stood stiff, still holding onto her toiletries, staring as the door slowly opened.

She helplessly watched as the tall, masked man slowly entered her shower stall, and shut and locked the door behind him. She opened her mouth to scream, but didn't recognize the pathetic whimper that she heard.

Sara reached for her jeans that lay on the bench in an effort to find her cell phone, but before she could grab it, he smacked her hand away, making her drop her soaps to the ground.

She stood straight, holding onto her towel for dear life. She was shaking, but she wasn't sure if it was from the cold, or from fear. Maybe both. She stared into his piercing blue eyes, trying to see if she recognized them. She did not.

He took another step towards her, and she backed up against the wall. There was no where else for her to go. "Who are you?" she asked in a small voice.

He didn't reply. Instead he closed the distance between their bodies, and grabbed onto her waist, holding on tightly. He pressed his body up against hers, and leaned in to whisper. "I've been watching you."

Sara tried to fight him off, but it was no use. He was almost six inches taller than she was, and a great deal stronger. He trailed a long finger down her right cheek, slowly, making the hair on her neck stand on end.

"Get away from me," she begged.

He continued trailing his finger down her neck, and shoulder, making her squirm.

"Please,' she added.

"So beautiful…" he started.

But the shrill cry of Sara's cell phone made him jump away from her with a start. He quickly left the shower stall and ran out of the bath house before Sara could do anything to stop him.

She felt her legs give way and she crumpled to the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest, and wrapping the towel around her body even tighter. Immobilized by the fear, she listened as her phone continued to ring as the tears that had threatened to fall earlier, finally succeeded, and cascaded down her cheeks.

@~'~,~~~

    TBC

~~~'~,~@