Chapter 3

I woke up being shaken by Nick. He looks at me and wipes away my fallen tears, I didn't even know that I was crying. "You were having a nightmare. What to tell me about it?"

I rubbed my eyes trying to stop my tears from running, "Nothing just go back to bed Nicky."

"Darlin' you're not the only one who gets nightmares. I use to get them all the time, I still do. Tell me what it was about." Nick took my hands from my eyes and held them.

"The victims talk to me, blaming me if there case doesn't get solved. Sometimes they do exactly what happened to them, to me." I sniffled and nestled my head into the crook of Nick's neck.

He ran his fingers threw my hair, holding me close to him, "You care about the victims Sara." I slowly nodded. We stayed like that for awhile, my tears stopped falling. And i had gotten restless.

"umm Do you want anything to drink?" I fumbled saying.

"Yeah, that'd be great." He smiled at me.

I slowly got off the couch and went into the kitchen. I opened the fridge taking out two beers, then setting them on the counter. I opened the freezer taking out a half finished bottle of vodka. With my hands shaking I opened the bottles and started chucking it down. The liquid burned down my throat, but I kept on drinking.

"Sara?" I spurted out vodka from my mouth startled. Nick came over to me taking the bottle from my hands then gently wiping the side of my mouth. "What are you doing babe?"

I say nothing, instead I wrap my arms around myself and look at the floor. Nick put the two beers in the fridge then the vodka back into the freezer. He opens the cabnets and all he finds are lots of boxes of Cherry Pop Tarts. I hear him take a deep sigh, which causes a tear to escape my eyes.

"Your living on Cherry Pop Tarts and alcohol, Sar." He puts his hands resting at my sides. "This isn't good babe."

"I know I need to buy more Brown Sugar Pop Tarts." I smile weakly.

"Sar you can not keep on doing this." He wraps his arms around me and I stiffen at his touch. The phone rings, it rings twice before he talks, "Aren't you going to pick that up?"

"No." I whisper.

The answering machine goes on then Grissom's booms over the apartment. "Sara, it's Grissom. I'd rather tell you this in person but this will have to do. I'm giving you two weeks of vacation. IF you come to the lab for anything except for personal then I'm going to put you on suspension." A few seconds pass, "Get yourself cleaned up hun." The phone goes dead and more tears escape.

"Grissom knows too?" I slowly nod, "Tell me?"

"I got picked up after shift with an .09 alcohol level. The didn't dock me but they called Grissom. I only had one beer before I drove." I explained to him.

"It could have been worse Sar. You could have hit someone and easily lost your job."

"I know." I whispered softly.

"Lets put you to bed then when you wake up we'll figure out what to do."

I wrapped my arms around him, "Thanks Nick."

Nick rubbed my back, "No problem."

"Stay with me?"

"I'll stay." he kissed my temple, " Let's go."

I walked him to my bedroom. I stripped off my pants then laid down in my bed, Nick took off his shirt revealing a very tone stomach, he removed his shows then crawled next to me. I rested my head against his chest and he wrapped a protective arm around me. Soon I fell asleep in Nick's arms. a few