A/N: I decided to extend this ficlet into a full story because the GSR thing has been irritating me a lot during season 4 and I needed a way to vent. And even though I really, really (really, really) don't like doing WIPs (you could say I'm a bit of a perfectionist ;-) ), I decided to go ahead and start posting now, due to the pathetically small amount of Nick/Sara fics out there now. So here it is!
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Chapter 2
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Nick stood at the curb in the passenger loading/unloading zone at McCarran. He was waiting for no longer than five minutes when he saw the familiar dark blue Denali pull out of the slow stream of cars and up to the curb where he was standing. The driver was also familiar, but not who he was expecting to see.
"If you're expecting a welcome back kiss, you've got another thing coming," Warrick joked as Nick opened the rear passenger side door and threw his suitcase on the seat.
"It's almost noon. Don't tell me she's been working since last night," Nick said when he opened the front door and climbed in next to Warrick. Nick didn't even know why he bothered to ask. He already knew the answer.
"She wanted to finish up."
Nick sighed. "Why does she always do this?"
"It's Sara," Warrick replied, as if that explained everything, which it did.
"So did things fall apart while I was gone?" Nick tried to lighten the mood.
"Like we can't survive without you for three days? Please. I didn't even realize you were gone until Cath asked Sara where you were."
"Glad to know I'm appreciated around there," Nick smirked. "Sara called me yesterday, sounded like you guys had a tough case," he said.
"Yeah. Kinda freaky, too. I'm sure Sara will tell you all about it." Warrick decided not to get into the details, knowing Sara would probably want to talk to Nick about it herself, under the circumstances. "How was the convention?" he asked.
"The convention itself was great, just not the fifty feet of snow we had," Nick exaggerated.
"Why do they always have those things in cities with the worst winter weather? How come they're never in Hawaii or something?" Warrick wondered.
"Maybe to deter people like you and make sure they only attract people who are serious about their jobs and want to actually learn about forensic science," Nick retorted.
"Right." Warrick tried not to laugh at the implication that Nick considered himself a die-hard forensics geek.
~*~
As soon as Nick got home, he headed straight for the kitchen. He was starving; he skipped breakfast and didn't dare eat the food on the plane. Just as he was finishing making his double-decker turkey sandwich he heard the front door unlock, open and then softly close. Two seconds later Sara walked into the kitchen.
"Hi," he smiled at her, just happy to see her face, even if it was a tired and over-worked one.
Sara didn't say anything; she merely walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.
Nick felt her let out a sigh as he held her for what seemed like at least a minute. He finally pulled her away just enough to give her a quick kiss. "Miss me?" he smiled, hoping to cheer her up.
"Every minute," she said as she kissed him again and rested her head on his shoulder, still holding on to him.
"You should get some sleep."
"I will," she replied, but didn't budge.
Nick waited, wondering if she was going to tell him about the case. She was obviously upset, and Warrick's vague remarks earlier had only made him more curious.
"So you gonna tell me about the case from yesterday? Warrick said it was 'freaky.' And you know him, if he thinks something's 'freaky' it must be really out there," he smiled, continuing to try to lift her spirits.
Sara managed a small smile. She looked up at him and sighed again, taking his hand to lead him to the living room.
"We can talk about this later. You should get some rest," Nick said, getting more worried as they sat down on the couch.
"I might as well tell you now and get it over with," she replied, not letting go of his hand. She took a deep breath and proceeded to tell Nick everything, about the doppelganger victim, Grissom's attempts to keep her distanced from the case, and finally, Grissom's 'speech.'
When she was finished, Nick stared back at her in silence for a minute, trying to process everything she had just told him. "What did you tell him? After he said all that?" he finally managed.
"Nothing. I just left. That's when I called you."
Nick remained silent, waiting for her to say something else, wanting her to answer his question without having to actually ask it. He knew it was wrong of him to even think it, but he couldn't help it.
"It didn't mean anything to me," she said, knowing exactly what was going through his mind. She couldn't blame him though; while the whole Grissom ordeal was the reason she and Nick were together now, it was also the thing that they had battled over the most before actually taking their relationship to the next level.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't help it."
"But you believe me, right?" she looked into his eyes. She was telling the truth; she would never lie to him.
"Of course," he replied truthfully. He knew she wouldn't lie to him, especially regarding something like that.
"I don't even know for sure if he knew I was watching. I haven't seen him since then," she continued.
"Well despite how easy it is to convince you to stay out of the lab," Nick joked, "you know you're gonna have to face him eventually."
Sara smiled. "I know. I'll figure something out."
"You always do." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed her forehead. "So how are you doing? I mean apart from the Grissom thing," he asked.
"Okay, I guess. It's just weird, in this job, you deal with death every day, but you never really think about your own until-"
"Sara…" he interrupted her, not wanting her to finish.
Sara sighed. "She just looked so much like me…" she trailed off, her voice wavering.
"Hey, it's all over now, okay?" He pulled her closer as he rubbed her arm to sooth her. Nick was actually glad that he was in Minneapolis and didn't have to work the case. He was sure he wouldn't have been able to handle it, even if it wasn't really Sara on that steel autopsy table. He couldn't even bring himself to think about it.
"Yeah, you're right," she sighed, fiddling with the buttons on Nick's shirt. "So how was your flight?" she asked, changing the subject to let Nick know that she wasn't going to let the case bother her anymore.
"Fine."
"Sorry I couldn't pick you up," Sara apologized.
"So we're even now?"
"Huh?"
"When you called me you said I owed you 'big,' but now you owe me for not picking me up, so now we're even," Nick explained.
"We are so not even," Sara scoffed. "You were gone for three whole days. Three and half days actually. My not picking you up doesn't even begin to make up for that."
"It doesn't, huh?"
"Nope."
"Then I guess we'll have to take care of that, won't we?" he teased with a grin as he took her hand and got up from the couch.
"You better believe it," she smiled as she followed him into the bedroom.
~*~
Catherine pushed open the locker room door to see Nick and Sara leaning against the bay of lockers having what appeared to be an intimate conversation. As soon as they heard the door open they both quickly straightened up and took a step back from each other.
"Relax, it's just me," Catherine said as she came in.
"Oh, hey Cath," Nick greeted, relieved.
"You know, you guys should just go public, it's a lot easier that way," Catherine suggested as she opened her locker.
"Yeah, we've talked about it." Nick looked at Sara. They'd been talking about it a lot for the past several weeks. When they first started dating, they wanted to keep their relationship under wraps, just in case things didn't work out, but they were now well beyond the stage where they had anything to worry about.
"And it's not like you have that many people to tell anyway," Catherine added.
"Yeah well that wasn't by choice," Sara gave Catherine a playful smirk.
"Hey, it's not my fault I have such keen instincts and sharp observation skills," Catherine smirked back. Only a few weeks after Nick and Sara had started dating, Catherine had figured it out on her own, merely by noticing the subtle changes in their behavior towards each other. "But Warrick was your own fault," she reminded them.
"It wasn't my fault," Sara narrowed her eyes at Nick.
"Can I help it if you're so irresistible?" Nick teased as he pulled her into a bear hug and planted a juicy kiss on her cheek. He wasn't going to deny the fact that it was his inability to resist Sara that caused Warrick to catch them in a comprising situation in the locker room a couple months ago.
Catherine rolled her eyes and smiled at the two. "Well we better get going kiddies. We don't want to miss roll call," she said as she headed to the break room for assignments.
"You ready?" Nick looked at Sara, wondering how she felt about seeing Grissom for the first time since his little speech the other day.
"Ready," she replied confidently, determined not to let Grissom bother her. She was with Nick now, and there was nothing Grissom could say or do to change that.
Nick and Sara entered the break room to find everyone else already there.
"Nick, Sara, you're working with me, 419 at Vista Junior High," Grissom informed them.
"Junior high?" Nick hated when kids were involved.
"No kids. School was already out. The night custodian," Grissom said when he realized what Nick was thinking.
"Well, we're out. We got a long drive," Warrick said as he and Catherine headed out.
"Later," Nick replied as the two left.
"Nick, why don't you grab your kit and wait for us in the parking lot. I need to talk to Sara before we go," Grissom said.
"Uh, okay." Nick looked at Sara, as if to ask her if she wanted him to stay so they could confront Grissom together. But she made no indication of it, so he left.
"Sit down." Grissom pulled out a chair for Sara and went to take a seat across the table from her. He figured it would be best to keep a distance between them, just to be safe.
Sara sat down, starting to get a little nervous, but mostly just angry. She knew this was about his speech in the interrogation room the other day. What could he possibly have to say to her?
"Before we head out I think there's something we have to settle. Well something that I have to settle anyway," Grissom paused before continuing. "First I wanted to apologize for the way I acted on the last case, distancing you from it. I guess I thought I was trying to protect you. From what, I don't know. But it was my fault. I let the case get personal."
"It's okay. We all do it sometimes. We're human," Sara looked at him with a straight face.
"I thought about the case a lot over the weekend. Especially about what I said to the suspect when we brought him in."
Sara felt a knot forming in the pit of her stomach, waiting for Grissom to drop the bomb.
"You were watching, weren't you?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"I'm assuming you realized that what I said didn't apply to just our suspect."
"Yeah."
Grissom waited a second before continuing. "I know it's been awhile, but this case made me realize something that I should have told you a long time ago." He paused as he tried to read her expression, but was met with only a blank stare, so he went on. "The reason I said no, that day you--"
"It doesn't matter anymore," Sara cut him off. She didn't want to hear him finish. She didn't even care what his reason was anyway.
"Sorry?" Grissom looked at her, confused.
"It doesn't matter. I've moved on. I'm over it. You." She couldn't believe he actually thought she'd still be pining over him. Did he honestly think she'd wait around forever? For him? She never figured Grissom as the egotistical type. But then again, he was never good with people, maybe he never really thought about it.
"Oh," was all Grissom could say. He realized he had never even entertained the thought that Sara would move on and forget about him. He figured people wanted explanations when they were turned down. At least that's what he thought. He wasn't really sure what other people wanted. Chalk it up to inexperience. He wasn't used to dealing with these kinds of situations, these kinds of feelings.
"Look, I just want to put this whole thing behind me, if that's okay with you," Sara failed to completely mask the anger she was feeling.
"Sure. Of course. The last thing I want is for this to get in the way of our work."
"Don't worry, it won't." Her tone was bitter.
"Okay," Grissom said, a little taken aback by Sara's abruptness. But he knew that Sara was right. They needed to just forget about the whole thing. They were professionals; they had to focus on their work.
"Nick is waiting." She got up from her seat and headed out to the parking lot.