Disclaimer: I don't own them, I didn't create the, I don't profit from them, but as always coffee with George would be fun.
Author's Note: Ok, I had this idea tumbling around for a while and finally was propelled to put it down. I hope you like it and if you don't that's ok too.
"This is not funny." Sara gritted her teeth as she tried to put her right hand on a red circle.
"It's a team building exercise, Sara." Grissom remarked from the chair he sat on, holding a clipboard. "It's supposed to make us all bond."
"Then why aren't you in here, Gil?" Catherine quipped as she tried to keep her balance and her left foot on the blue circle.
"I have a bad back." Grissom smirked, evoking a chorus of groans from the rest of the team who were doing their best to keep from falling down on the Twister mat. "Besides, someone needs to spin."
"I'm gonna have a bad back if we keep this up much longer." Nick interjected. He was perched precariously over Sara, who was just inches from Greg, who was dangerously close to loosing his footing altogether. Only Catherine and Warrick it seemed had not tried to make the exercise more difficult than necessary.
"Ok, right foot yellow." Grissom called out, trying to hide his amusement at the contortions his team had put themselves in.
"Aahgk." Greg lost his footing and crashed to the mat. "I was so close."
"To what?" Warrick quipped.
Greg's arms had started to quiver even before Grissom had called out the last circle. "I could have held out."
"Uh, huh." Warrick replied doubtfully. The fact that Greg had gotten a good view of Sara's midriff right before he slipped was probably more responsible. It was no secret that the lab tech turned CSI had a crush on Sara Sidle.
Greg slid himself off of the mat, being careful not to disturb anyone else.
"So what is the point of this anyway?" Sara sounded impatient, but truth be told, her proximity to a very single very handsome Nick Stokes was causing her thoughts to turn a bit carnal, and taking him down on the mat right there in front of everyone was not quite what she had in mind.
"The point, Sara, is to observe your skills as a team, to see how you work together." Grissom explained, making a few notations on his clipboard.
She closed her eyes and spoke through gritted teeth. "We're the number two lab in the country, that should tell you something about our ability to work as a team."
"She has a point, Gil." As limber as Catherine was, she could think of far better things she's like to be doing with her time. She had a pile of case files that she needed to finalize and other cases that were pending that she needed to work on.
"I could do this all day and I'm still gonna win." Warrick was pretty confident that with his long limbs he could outlast anyone.
"Doesn't this qualify as cruel and unusual punishment?" Sara barbed Grissom's direction. The longer she stayed in this proximity to Nick the more frustrated she was becoming.
Nick let out a soft chuckle as he looked at her. The position he was currently in left a couple of inches at most between himself and Sara. He leaned his face towards her and whispered in her ear. "I never realized you thought being close to me was punishment."
Sara's eyes widened as she looked back at him.
What Nick had meant to tease her had elicited a reaction from her that he hadn't entirely expected, and he was pleased. He raised a single eyebrow at her as he felt his lips curl into a knowing smile.
Sara's cheeks flushed with color and she closed her eyes to try and keep her mind off of Nick. Unfortunately, she could feel his body heat radiating towards her, and his soft breath kept hitting her cheek. She swallowed hard.
"Right hand green." Grissom called out, noting with a bit of chagrin that Nick and Sara were in a rather compromising position.
"That's it, I'm done." Warrick commented at he turned and winced. "I sure hope this qualifies for worker's comp." As he pulled himself off of the mat, he held onto his lower back.
Grissom furrowed his brow in concern. "Put some ice on that right away."
Warrick rolled his eyes and turned his attention to his three remaining coworkers, raising an eyebrow in amusement as he took in the scene before him.
"Gil, how much longer do we have to play this stupid game?" Catherine gave him a meaningful stare. "I have cases to work on."
In answer, a half smile pulled the corner of Grissom's mouth upward as he regarded her over the rim of his glasses. "Left hand blue."
Catherine glared at him just before she hit the mat. "That was low, Gil."
He flashed her an impish smile. "Well you did say that you were getting tired of playing."
Nick and Sara were strangely silent. The last instruction had put them even closer together and Sara was finding that her breathing was becoming a bit erratic. Nick meanwhile couldn't help but stare at her. He had often fantasized about being close to her, but he'd never imagined that she'd be responding like this.
Warrick and Catherine exchanged an amused glance as they watched their coworkers. Greg's brow was furrowed, he had been watching since he'd gotten off of the mat and he was having pangs of jealously at how close Nick and Sara were. Grissom, meanwhile raised his eyebrows, trying to find a way to end the game now without looking jealous himself. Finally, he cleared his throat. "Uh, time's up, I think we can call it a game."
Neither Nick nor Sara seemed to hear him.
"Nick. Sara." Grissom spoke a bit more forcefully.
His voice startled them both enough that they both slipped.
"Umph." Nick landed on Sara in a tangled mess.
She just looked up at him, unconsciously licking her lips.
Grissom's eyes widened.
Catherine and Warrick shared another amused look and Warrick let out a low chuckle.
"Uh, I'm sorry, Sara." Nick finally remembered where they were and reluctantly pulled himself off of her. As he stood he offered her his hand to help her up, and then smiled when she didn't immediately let go after she'd gotten up. When she did let go, she pulled her hand away as if she'd been stung.
"It's ok." She just looked at Nick for a long moment and then glanced at her other coworkers, resting her gaze on Grissom. "Are we done?"
Grissom nodded, unsure of what he'd just witnessed.
"Good." She didn't say another word, she just made a beeline for the door that led from the training room out into the hallway.
The rest of the group trickled out of the room and headed back to work with the exception of Nick. He stood there for several minutes trying to process what had just happened. Shaking his head from side to side he finally wandered out into the hallway, pausing in the doorway of the locker room when he saw Sara standing there staring at her locker. With a furrowed brow he walked into the room and put his hand on her shoulder. "Sara, you ok?"
As she turned to look at him, their eyes locked and they just stood there staring at each other. Neither one of them was sure who moved first, but in the next instant their lips met, immediately intensifying as Sara wrapped her arms around Nick's neck and he snaked his arms around her waist. They were still in the middle of their kiss several minutes later, oblivious to their surroundings when Grissom walked into the locker room.
Shock registered on his face and it took him a moment to get his bearings and clear his throat.
Nick and Sara pulled apart, their chests heaving as they turned Grissom's direction.
No one said anything for a long awkward moment and then Sara spoke. "Uh, we were doing follow up to team building."
"Bonding." Nick interjected.
Grissom looked at the pair wide eyed, unsure of what to say.
Several hours later, Nick lay on his back in Sara's bed with a satisfied smile on his face. "I knew you were flexible, I just didn't realize you were that flexible."
Sara lay next to him, still trying to catch her breath. "You're pretty flexible yourself. That was pretty damn amazing."
Nick let out a chuckle.
Sara rolled over and propped herself up on his chest, a mischievous smile on her face. "So, do you think that Grissom bought the line about team building?"
Nick looked at her with a grin and laughed. "Not a word."
The End