Disclaimer: If it's familiar to you, it doesn't belong to me.
A/N: A Fourth of July present for my fellow Snickers, in response to a challenge.
Sara reached for her ringing cell phone and flipped it open. "Sidle."
"I know it's your night off, but it looks like I'm going to have to ask you to come in. Warrick just called, he has the stomach flu, been vomiting all day," Grissom told her without any kind of greeting.
Sara sighed. "Okay. I'll be- Hey! Do you mind?"
"What?" Grissom sounded confused.
"Nothing. I'll be there," Sara hastily replied and hung up. She shot an evil eye at Nick, who was sitting next to her on the couch, his arms around her waist and a smile on his face, pretending to look innocent.
"Well I was just looking for something to tide myself over since I thought I wouldn't be seeing you tonight but I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore." He flashed a boyish grin at her.
Sara rolled her eyes.
"Nevertheless, I believe we were in the middle of something before we were so rudely interrupted, and you know how I hate unfinished business," he said as he tightened his grip around her waist and pulled her with him as he lay back on the couch.
Sara tried to wriggle free from his grasp. "I need to get dressed. And you're getting your clothes all wrinkled," she pointed out.
"I can fix that," he said as he let go of her and started to unbutton the shirt he'd just put on.
Sara took the opportunity to get up. "If I don't hurry up we're going to be late," she said. Since it was her night off, she had been lounging in front of the TV in her pajamas when Grissom had called, while Nick was already dressed and had been saying "goodbye" to Sara on his way out.
Twenty minutes later, Grissom walked into the break room and saw that Sara was its only occupant. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.
Sara shrugged, not looking up from the latest issue of Journal of Forensic Identification that she was reading.
"Sorry, meeting with the DA on that kidnapping case we just closed," Catherine apologized for her tardiness as she walked in.
"Jewelry heist gone bad, pawn shop down the street. You're on your own, Warrick's sick." Grissom got right down to business.
"Alrighty," Catherine replied.
Grissom turned to Sara. "You and…" his voice trailed off.
Sara finally looked up. "What?" She raised an eyebrow in response to the strange look Grissom was giving her.
"Is that a bite mark?" Grissom asked as he peered intently at Sara's shoulder, his tone registering curiosity as well as a bit of surprise.
Behind her, Sara heard Catherine trying unsuccessfully to prevent from laughing. She immediately tugged at the sleeve of her lime green cap-sleeved shirt to try and cover up the mark. "No," she replied, not even looking at her shoulder but knowing her response was a lie despite the fact that she wasn't even aware she had anything on her shoulder until Grissom had said something.
Everyone's attention was temporarily diverted from Sara to Nick as he walked into the break room. He stopped in his tracks when he realized everyone was staring at him. "What?" he looked at them curiously.
"Careful, Grissom might want a dental mold," Catherine quipped as she walked past Nick to leave.
"Huh?" Nick had a puzzled expression.
"We were just discussing this article on the latest odontological identification methods being used in the UK," Sara replied as she got up and slapped Nick's chest with the journal, forcing him to grab onto it as she let it go so it wouldn't fall to the floor. She grabbed the assignment slip from Grissom, not even waiting to hear what she'd be working on as she walked out without another word, sparing herself any more embarrassment about the mark on her shoulder.
The two men left in the room stood looking at each other for a few seconds in silence.
"I don't suppose I get to work solo tonight," Nick said hopefully.
Grissom only raised an eyebrow at him. Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. He tossed the journal onto the table and went to find Sara. He pushed the door to the locker room open just as Sara's head popped through the polar fleece pullover she was putting on.
"What are you doing? It's a hundred degrees outside," Nick said, wondering why Sara was wearing long sleeves, and polar fleece at that, in the summer.
She pulled her right arm out from the pullover and turned her shoulder toward him to show him the reason she had to wear long sleeves.
Nick couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "Sorry."
She glared at him, but it was only a half glare; she couldn't be completely mad at him since she'd rather enjoyed everything else that was going on earlier that day at Nick's when she'd been bitten.
"Why can't you just change into a shirt with longer sleeves?" Nick reasoned.
"Because I don't have one," she smirked as she put her arm back into the sleeve.
"Sorry," Nick apologized again. "I'll make it up to you."
Sara raised an eyebrow.
"Tomorrow morning. Promise," he grinned as he gave her a kiss. "So where are we going?" he asked, referring to the case they had been assigned.
"419, North Vegas," Sara answered. "I'm driving," she quickly added when she noticed Nick was opening his mouth to say something.
Nick narrowed his gaze and stared at her in silent protest. Sara responded with a kiss that Nick realized was meant to change his mind.
"Don't mind me. Just forgot my ID," Catherine said as she entered the locker room and saw the two in a lip lock.
Nick and Sara pulled apart, not embarrassed but rather disappointed by the interruption. "I'm still driving," Sara said to Nick as the two headed out.
They arrived shortly at a quiet residential neighborhood in North Las Vegas and found Brass waiting for them in the living room of one of the homes.
"Vic's name is Troy Julian," Brass stated, gesturing to the body lying on the carpet, a middle-aged man wearing nothing but a Speedo imprinted with tiny butterflies. "Doesn't live here. But the ex-wife, Vanessa Richardson, does," Brass continued, pointing to a frazzled looking woman sitting on a nearby sofa, lacerations on her arm being treated by a paramedic.
Sara noticed an issue of People Magazine and a sewing machine smeared with blood lying next to the victim. "What happened?"
"Vic and his ex-wife were fighting over the "50 Hottest Bachelors" issue of People. The magazine subscription is in the vic's name, but the ex-wife got the house in the divorce settlement, so she claims the magazine is technically addressed to her."
Nick and Sara looked at each other in disbelief. They saw plenty of cruelty and violence in their job, but sometimes it was people's stupidity that amazed them the most.
"Things got ugly, sewing machines were thrown, and voila," Brass concluded with a wave of his hand, gesturing to the victim on the floor.
Nick rolled his eyes and knelt down next to the body. "What do you think Dave, blunt force trauma?" he asked the assistant coroner.
"We'll have to confirm it at autopsy, but I'd say that's a safe bet," David answered, examining the victim's head wound.
"I'm gonna talk to the ex-wife," Sara told Nick.
They quickly processed the scene and headed back to the lab. The case turned out to be much easier than they thought; the ex-wife guiltily confessed to killing her husband before they had even finished processing all the evidence. They sat quietly in the break room filling out the paperwork, eager to finish up since it looked like they'd get to head home early, as long as no other calls came in.
Nick signed his name and closed the case folder. He glanced at his watch and stood up. "Come on."
"I'm not done yet," Sara replied.
"We'll be right back. I just want to show you something."
Sara looked up from the forms she was filling out.
"Come on, hurry up." He held out his hand to her.
She gave him a look as she tentatively took his hand. Nick pulled her up from her chair and out of the break room, down the hall, up the stairs, and onto the roof.
"What are we doing up here?"
"Watching the fireworks," Nick replied in a tone that indicated he thought it was obvious.
"I don't see any-"
As if on cue, the Las Vegas night sky began to light up with colorful fireworks.
"Every Fourth of July when we were kids my dad used to take all of us to the park to watch the fireworks. So I've always equated watching fireworks with being around people I love," Nick explained as he snaked his arms around Sara's waist.
Sara rolled her eyes, not sure if she thought Nick was being cute, cheesy, or both. She leaned back against his chest as she looked up at the sky. They watched the fireworks for a few minutes in silence before Sara spoke. "Do you think anybody would notice if we just stayed up here the rest of the night?" she asked, enjoying the feeling of being in Nick's arms.
"Did I just hear that Sara Sidle would ditch work to spend time with her boyfriend? Must be some guy, to pull her away from the work she loves so much," Nick teased.
"He's not all that great," Sara playfully replied.
"Really? Well that's not what I heard. I heard he's incredibly handsome, smart, has a killer smile, a great sense of humor…"
Sara turned around in his arms. "Quit while you're ahead," she advised with a smile and a kiss.
"Well that's what I heard," he said before he kissed her back, and soon they were lost in the moment, so lost that they forgot where they were and would have started reaching for shirt buttons and belt buckles had they not been interrupted by a bright light shining in their faces.
They broke apart and realized someone was shining a flashlight at them, like they were two teenagers making out in a car and had just been caught by the police.
"Do you mind?" Nick held up his hand to shield the light.
"Sorry," Greg apologized as he turned off the flashlight and placed it in one of the pockets of his new black CSI vest, the vest he'd been proudly wearing everywhere, even in the lab, to show off that he'd finally become a CSI-1. "Uh, sorry to, uh, interrupt, but Grissom was looking for you two. Dispatch just called in a triple homicide, he wants all of us to go."
"Yeah, we'll be right down," Nick told him, still holding on to Sara.
"Okay." Greg headed back inside.
Nick turned to Sara and sighed, realizing they wouldn't get to go home early after all. "I guess this means we'll just have more unfinished business to take care of later."
"Well, speaking of unfinished business…" Sara glanced down at the bulge in Nick's pants.
"You know, I also heard that Sara Sidle would help her boyfriend out in a situation like this," Nick said with a mischievous glint in his eye.
She grinned at him. "I'll tell Grissom you'll be down in a minute," was all she said as she left Nick alone on the roof to deal with his problem himself.
"Hey! I never heard anything about her subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment!"
- The End -