As soon as the word 'no' left her mouth, Sara regretted it. She was not accustomed to opening up to people until she trusted them, and although she knew intellectually that Catherine was trustworthy, to actually trust her meant she had to take a risk that her assessment might be incorrect.

Catherine watched the conflicted emotions on Sara's face. "You want to talk about it?"

Sara hesitated. Part of her wanted to talk to someone, but another part of her was so well practiced at keeping things tightly wound up inside, away from prying eyes, that she felt as if she stood on the edge of a precipice and was contemplating taking a step off.

Catherine ventured a guess. "Did Grissom do something?" It seemed to her that Grissom was always doing something to put Sara out of sorts; he'd been doing it since she'd arrived in Vegas four years before. They seemed to do this elaborate dance around each other, and just at the moment when you'd expect Grissom to step forward, he'd step off the dance floor altogether, leaving Sara there alone.

"Uh, no." Sara truly had gotten past the feelings that she'd held for Grissom; it had become a necessity to survive in Vegas, and it felt good too. She noticed Catherine's doubtful look and let out a soft chuckle. "Really, Cath. It's not about him."

"You're not planning on leaving are you?" Catherine knew that Sara had threatened to quit on more than one occasion since coming to Vegas and while it was true that the lab needed her, it was truer the that team as a whole needed her, and Catherine for one wouldn't let Sara leave without a fight.

Sara smirked and looked at Catherine full in the face. "I'm not quitting, and it's not about Grissom." She let out a sigh. "Look, Cath, I need to get back to my case." She pulled herself off of the couch, stretching a bit before reaching down to pick up her now empty coffee cup.

"Sara." Catherine had a serious tone in her voice.

Sara looked down. "Yeah?"

"If you need someone to talk to, my door's always open." Catherine smiled.

"Thanks." Sara gave her a tired smile in return before taking her coffee cup over to the sink and heading out of the break room and down the hall in search of Nick.

He was sitting on a stool in front of a layout table hunched over a file. As Sara walked in, he glanced up. A tentative smile flickered across his face. "Hey."

"Hey. Find anything?" Sara took a seat on the stool next to him, trying to stifle a yawn.

Nick shook his head. "Not yet." He furrowed his brow. "You didn't sleep."

Sara let out a frustrated sigh as she met his concerned gaze. "The break room really isn't conducive to sleeping. I had coffee."

Nick tried to keep the overt concern out of his voice with difficulty as he studied her features. "You could take the rest of the night off and go home and get some sleep."

Hurt flashed across Sara's face. "I can do my job."

Nick reached over and touched her shoulder. "We're at a dead end, Sar. Until we get the phone records there isn't much more we can do. You need some sleep." At that moment he didn't care if she thought he was being too concerned.

She wanted to be defensive, but she was too tired. She looked him in the eye and the compassion she found there helped her give in. What she couldn't bring herself to tell Catherine, she felt that maybe she could tell Nick. Of all the people she worked with, it was him that she felt the closest to. "I can't."

Nick wasn't sure what she meant exactly. His tone was gentle. "What do you mean you can't?" He knew that by reputation Sara didn't get a lot of sleep, but he suspected that there was probably more to the story than any of them knew.

"Sleep." Sara's expression was clouded. "I can't sleep." She wasn't sure how to put into words why she couldn't sleep, but for some reason she thought that maybe Nick might understand.

Nick ventured a guess. "Nightmares?"

Sara felt a hint of relief that he just knew, and she nodded her head. "Yeah." She studied the top of the layout table.

"Do you get them very often?" He had experienced them himself and for him they came in waves. There could be long periods where he could sleep just fine and then after a particularly trying case or near the anniversaries of certain events in his life, they'd come in with hurricane force and then slowly peter out.

Sara glanced up and studied him for a moment. There was just something about the tone of his voice that caused her investigative instincts to kick in. "You get them too, don't you?"

He nodded, knowing that she probably assumed that it stemmed from him being stalked by Nigel Crane. "Yeah. I think it comes with the territory in this job."

Sara looked at him with concern. "I'm sorry." She knew how troubled her dreams made her and knowing that her friend had them too was only partially comforting. She wondered how many times she'd been irritated at Nick for being sleep deprived at work, assuming that he'd been with another girlfriend in what she assumed was a long line, when in reality he'd been having nightmares.

Nick let out a soft chuckle. "They aren't your fault."

Sara smiled in spite of herself, thankful that he didn't really understand what she was saying sorry for. "Yeah, well, I wouldn't wish them on anyone."

Nick elbowed her. "Is that your way of saying you care about me?" He was teasing her, but there was some truth to his statement. He and Sara were close and yet he knew that she had difficulty vocalizing to people how she felt about them.

Sara smirked at him.

"Ah, it is." He grinned at her good-naturedly. "Admit it, I'm your favorite."

Sara couldn't help but snicker at his attempt to lighten the moment.

"I still think you need to go home and try to get some sleep. This case isn't going anywhere." Nick raised a single eyebrow at her to emphasize his point.

Sara let out a resigned sigh and looked into his eyes.

Before she could say anything in response, he continued. "If you think it would help, I could crash on your couch so you're not alone."

Sara looked like she was seriously considering taking him up on his offer.

Nick studied her as he continued talking. "I just know that it helped a lot when my sister Lisa came up and stayed with me for a little while after what happened with Nigel Crane. That way if you wake up, you've got someone to talk to."

Sara couldn't help the smile that began to tug at the corners of her mouth as she slid off of her stool. "Thanks, Nick." She startled Nick a little as she gave him a quick hug. "I think I'd like that."

Before she could step away, he returned the hug, holding her there for just a moment longer. "Anytime, Sara, anytime."