Chapter 7
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Nick opened his front door and looked down at his watch. "You're three minutes late," he chided with a playful smile.
"Traffic," Sara smirked as she stepped inside.
"It's okay, I'll forgive you, since the food's not ready yet." He walked back to the kitchen and Sara followed, taking a seat at the partially set dining table.
Finally, things had really gotten back to normal. True to her word, Sara put her anger and frustration behind her, knowing she couldn't feel sorry for herself forever. It had been over a month since she even thought about "the rejection" and that night she spent at Nick's.
She wasn't sure if she was ready to "get out more," as Nick had once put it, so for the time being she kept busy with work. But it wasn't in a bad way; she worked hard and enjoyed it, not letting cases get to her. To blow off steam she'd hang out with Nick and Warrick, or usually just Nick. That was enough for her, to just hang out with friends, people she knew cared about her.
"Nick, you didn't have to do this," Sara said as she watched him stirring something on the stove.
"I know, but we had to have some kind of celebration," he replied, his back turned to her as he continued stirring.
Sara had been the one to crack the case the entire team had been working on for the past two weeks, a twisted murder/kidnapping scandal involving one of Vegas's top defense attorneys. As a congratulation, Nick offered to cook dinner for her. But what he didn't tell her, in order to not defeat the purpose of the celebration, was that it was also a kind of celebration of Sara moving past the Grissom ordeal. He noticed she seemed happier and more relaxed lately, and he was proud of her for it. He knew it must have been difficult to get to where she was, considering how hard she'd taken it.
"No we didn't." Sara was insistent but her tone conveyed her gratitude. She was so thankful that Nick had been such a great friend over the past two months, helping her through her problems. She had never asked anything from him, but he always seemed to be there. "Do you need any help?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Uh, sure. You can finish setting the table."
Sara placed the plates and glasses on the table and sat back down. "Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot," Nick replied, his head buried in the fridge and blocked from Sara's view by the open door.
She thought for second. "Uh, never mind," she changed her mind.
Nick stood up and closed the refrigerator. His expression made Sara quickly regret she'd even asked if she could ask him a question in the first place.
"Forget it. It's nothing."
Nick wasn't buying it.
Sara's mind raced as she tried to think of something to bail herself out, knowing Nick wouldn't let it go. "I, uh, was just wondering why you're wearing that dorky apron." She smiled at Nick, trying to sell her lie.
Nick's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong with my apron?" his tone was defensive. "I didn't feel like decorating my shirt with marinara splatter tonight."
"Well why didn't you just wear an old t-shirt?"
"Because I wanted to look nice for you." He paired his sarcastic quip with a wry smile. "Besides, it makes me look like I know what I'm doing. I thought girls liked it when guys know their way around the kitchen."
"While wearing an apron?" she gave him a look. "Not this girl." She smiled, remembering she had given him that same line several years ago during her first months in Vegas.
"Fine. I'll take it off." He untied the apron behind his back and pulled it over his head.
"I didn't say you had to take it off," Sara replied, amused that Nick was getting flustered.
"Well you said you didn't like it. So it's gone." He tossed the apron on the empty chair across from Sara and walked back to the stove.
Sara couldn't help but smile at the fact that Nick got rid of the apron just to try and please her. "You know, I don't really like that shirt either," she teased.
"Don't push your luck Sidle," he replied, not even turning around.
They ate their meal in companionable silence, broken only by Sara's occasional comments on how good the food was. They spent so much time together, in and out of work, that there really wasn't much to say. That was one of the things she liked so much about Nick, he wasn't afraid of silence. Most guys would get bored or nervous and make a lousy attempt at trying to break it by talking your ear off. But not Nick. Even when he wanted to say something, to try and get something out of her, he kept quiet, knowing that silence could be just as powerful as words.
"Had enough?" Nick eyed her.
"More than enough. I don't think I need to eat for the next three days," Sara replied. "Thanks. Everything was great," she smiled.
"You're welcome," he smiled back. He got up to take his dirty dishes to the sink.
"Nick, I can clean up. It's the least I can do," Sara offered.
"No, the least you could do is go into the living room and relax," he said as he took her empty plate.
She stood up. "Nick."
"Go," he pointed out to the living. When she didn't budge he grabbed her by the shoulders and walked her out, pushing her down onto the couch. He handed her the TV remote. "Stay."
She glared up at him. "I'm not a dog."
"Good girl," Nick teased with a smile as he patted her head.
Sara swiped at his leg but missed as he headed back to the kitchen. He quickly cleaned up and returned to the living room, handing Sara one of the two cups of coffee he was holding before sitting down next to her. They watched an entire episode of Sara's favorite forensics show before Nick finally spoke.
"You can leave. I mean, if you want to. I don't want to hold you captive or anything." For some reason he felt uncharacteristically awkward.
"If you want to kick me out just say so," she gave him a playful smirk as she stood up. "But I should go. It's getting late."
"Okay." He followed her to the door to see her out.
As Sara reached for the doorknob she turned around. "Thanks again for dinner."
"You're welcome," Nick smiled.
Their eyes met for a split second, and without thinking, Sara closed what little space there was between them as her lips met Nick's in a gentle kiss. She pulled away after a brief moment before Nick had a chance to react. She looked into his eyes, trying to read them. She saw nothing that indicated he was opposed to the idea, so she leaned in to kiss him again. This time, Nick responded fully, his hands finding her hips as he pulled her towards him.
But before Sara could get too wrapped up in the kiss, Nick abruptly pulled away. "Sara, wait." His voice was barely above a whisper.
"What?" She looked at him, confused. She thought the kiss was going well. More then well, actually.
"What is this about?" He let go of her hips.
"What do you mean, 'what is this about'?" She was slightly annoyed. She thought it was obvious.
"Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm against this - believe me, I'm definitely not - but I just want to make sure we're doing this for the right reason," he continued, keeping his cool.
Sara took a step back. "There's a wrong reason?" she challenged with a glare.
Nick knit his brow, trying to think of a way to express his concern in the least offensive way as possible. He took a deep breath. "Look, I know you've been through a lot these past several months, first with Hank and then with Gris-"
"You cannot be serious!" Sara scoffed when she realized what he was implying.
"All I'm saying is-"
"Forget it. You don't have to say anything." She angrily flung open the front door and stormed out.
"Sara!" Nick called out, but she kept walking. He stood in the open doorway and watched her drive off.
Sara sped away, blinking back her angry tears. She couldn't believe him. Had he seriously thought she was that desperate? Did he honestly think she was "settling" for Nick, using him like that, just because he was there for the taking?
Nick closed the door and went back to the living room, letting out a heavy sigh as he sat down. Maybe he had jumped to conclusions too quickly. Sara did say she was over the whole Grissom thing, and it certainly appeared as though she was. So maybe she wasn't looking for "the next best thing," someone to take her mind off him. Maybe she was just lonely. They still seemed to be hanging out together a lot, even though Sara didn't really need Nick's company the way she did before.
Or, there was the possibility that Sara wanted to be with him just for the sake of being with him. He couldn't complain about that; while they were already friends, he couldn't say he'd never entertained the idea of what it would be like to be more. It was so hard for him to pull away from her when she kissed him, but he had to be sure of what they were getting into and why. He didn't want to take advantage of her vulnerability, if that's what this whole thing was about.
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"Is our BMW here yet?" Warrick asked Sara as she walked into the break room.
"No," she replied as she headed straight for the coffee machine.
Warrick sighed. "I'd like to get started processing some time this year," he quipped. He watched with a curious eye as Sara poured her coffee without so much as a glance at Nick, who was leaning against the counter not two feet from her.
She filled her cup and walked out as quickly as she had come.
Warrick looked at Nick. "What was that about?"
"Nothing." Nick sipped his coffee.
Warrick challenged him with a raised eyebrow. "Lately you guys have been joined at the hip, and now all of a sudden she won't even look at you."
"It's just Sara being Sara." Nick threw his empty cup in the trash and headed for the A/V lab, trying to keep his frustration in check. He knew things between him and Sara would be tense, considering what happened the previous night. And he definitely wanted to talk to her about it, but the lab certainly wasn't the place to do that, especially since they had work to do. So the only thing to do was to get through shift without any altercations. Luckily they were working separate cases, so they didn't see too much of each other.
Sara sat in an empty conference room, getting dizzy scanning pages and pages of phone records but pressing on in order to try and stop her mind from wandering to Nick. She dreaded coming in to work that night, and was thankful that she wasn't working with him. She knew there were things that had to be said, but she'd have to make it through the night first.
After she'd left his house, she stayed up for several hours thinking about what she'd done and what she'd said, and she came to two conclusions. One, she knew she wasn't angry with Nick. While she did storm out of his house plenty mad, she eventually realized that what she really felt was disappointment. She thought he valued their friendship more than to even consider the idea that she would ever use him like that. Two, she knew she really did have feelings for Nick. Part of the reason she'd left so abruptly was that she feared Nick might have been right, that she really was looking for someone to replace Grissom. But once she calmed down she knew that was definitely not the case. Over the years she and Nick had become good friends, best friends. They'd worked the tough cases, pulled the doubles and even some triples, and Nick had always been there, levelheaded, relentlessly optimistic, unfailingly supportive Nick. He was the only constant in her life, and she'd grown so accustomed to it that she'd almost taken it for granted. And the fact that she was so hung up on Grissom didn't help any. But over the past several weeks, spending so much time with him, she finally saw what a great guy he really was.
A voice broke Sara's thoughts. "Earth to Sara."
"Huh?"
Warrick furrowed his brow. "You okay?"
"Yeah." She straightened up in her chair.
"You getting anything from those phone records?"
"Only a headache," she quipped, flipping through the pages.
Warrick studied Sara and still thought something wasn't quite right. "You sure you're okay?"
Sara only looked up and glared at him.
Warrick quickly got the message. "Okay. Well our BMW's in the garage, if you wanna take a break from this."
"Good. It's about time." Sara got up and hastily headed for the garage, leaving Warrick with a puzzled expression on his face, wondering what could have been bothering her.