By the time Sara arrived at work that night, enough self doubt had crept in that she was nervous about seeing Nick. The thought had occurred to her that she might have seriously overstepped her bounds by kissing him like that. He might have told her that he thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever known, but it wasn't exactly a declaration of love. Or was it?
There was a part of her that was looking forward to seeing him, but there was another part of her that was dreading it. In fact about five minutes after she'd driven away from Nick's house the doubts had begun. Only the look that he'd had on his face had kept her from completely wallowing in doubt; he had looked surprised to be sure, but he'd also looked quite pleased.
A tiny smile played at Sara's lips as she stood in front of her locker and opened it so she could hang up her jacket. As she reached for her ID badge, she heard someone else enter the room and as she glanced up, she felt as if her heart had done a triple flip.
Nick grinned. "Hey." There was so much that he wanted to say to her and yet he wasn't sure where to start or if he really had enough time. Her kiss had sent him spinning into outer orbit and by the time he'd come back to earth, she had been gone for a good five or ten minutes. He had lain awake for several hours, dopey grin still in place, as he thought about how sharing one sentence with her had changed everything.
Sara swallowed hard and her cheeks hurt from the grin that had taken over her face. "Hey."
Neither one of them said anything for a very long moment as they just continued to stare at each other. Finally, they both started to laugh from the awkward tension in the room.
Sara was the first to speak. "So, I was thinking." Sara cleared her throat again not quite looking at Nick. "I mean, I've given some thought to what happened, what I did, and I wanted to know, no, what I need to know is if that was ok." She looked into his eyes, her insecurity dangerously close to the surface. She valued Nick's friendship over anything else that might lie between them and she wanted to make sure that she hadn't done something to damage it. When Nick didn't say anything immediately, she continued talking, feeling a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Because if I've stepped over the line."
Nick stopped her in the middle of her sentence by placing a finger against her lips. A smile spread across his face and he was looking at her intently. "It was more than ok."
Color infused Sara's cheeks and she began to smile nervously as Nick pulled his finger away from her lips. "Oh." She still couldn't believe that she had been so bold as to just show up on his doorstep and kiss him.
Nick raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her. "Are you ok with it?" He hoped that she was. His declaration that he thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever known had been a step in a very deliberate direction that he'd been contemplating for some time. The catalyst that had set it in motion had been the case that he'd worked on with Catherine. He found Sara utterly fascinating and infinitely irresistible. When she had kissed him, hope had surfaced that she might actually feel for him what he felt for her.
Sara nodded; her voice a whisper. "Yes." After what did and didn't happen between her and Grissom, she had thought for a long time that a workplace romance would be a bad idea, but Nick made her want to reevaluate that. There was something so genuine about him that she wanted to trust him with her heart. He had been her friend for four years and he'd never given her a reason not to trust him, but it was still scary.
"Good." If Nick could see his own face, he would have reasoned that his smile couldn't possibly stretch any further.
Sara felt a wave of nervousness wash over her again and she began to speak to break the silence that had fallen between them again as they had continued smiling at each other. She looked away. "So, what exactly are we going to do here?" Her cheeks felt hot and she considered that maybe she should have come to work late and avoided this conversation. "I mean, I guess, what I'm trying to say is, I'm confused." She furrowed her brow. There was really no reason that she should be confused if she stepped back and examined the evidence, but the last time she'd made assumptions, she'd assumed incorrectly, in fact, she seemed to have a track record when it came to personal relationships of making the wrong assumptions.
Nick stepped towards her and put a hand on her shoulder. His voice was a soft whisper, but he still had a smile on his face. "Sara, you're beautiful to me."
Her eyes snapped to his. "You said that." Fear and insecurity were swinging like a pendulum in her eyes. She wanted desperately to believe him, but she just wasn't used to being treated the way she knew that a woman should be treated.
Nick nodded and reached up and tucked an errant curl behind her ear. "Yeah, I did say that. I mean it." He watched the conflicted emotions flicker across her face. "I care about you, Sara, and I want to be a lot more than just friends with you. You mean a lot more to me than that. I think that we could have something pretty incredible between us if we gave us a chance."
Her reply was full of wistfulness and hope. "Ok." She looked into his eyes, the fear replaced by trust even though inside she was a bundle of nerves.
Nick caressed her cheek with his fingertips as he looked at her intently. "Can I kiss you?" He had been so startled by Sara's kiss that morning, that he hadn't really had a chance to enjoy it and he'd been looking forward to seeing her so that he might be able to return the kiss.
As much as Sara wanted to kiss him, she was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that they were standing in the locker room before shift and anyone could and probably would walk through the door at any moment. She swallowed hard as she furrowed her brow at him. "Here?"
Nick felt a pang of disappointment but let out a soft chuckle as he flashed her a sheepish grin. "Yeah, that probably wouldn't go over so well with Grissom, huh?" He nervously ran his fingers through his hair and stepped back a little.
Sara smirked. "No, it probably wouldn't, at least at the lab." She really wanted to kiss Nick, but she felt like she needed a little time to adjust to the changes that were happening between them and kissing in the locker room where anyone might see them wasn't how she wanted to do that.
Nick smirked back at her. "You know, you really left me pretty speechless this morning."
Sara felt herself blush in spite of the fact that his confession gave her a certain amount of satisfaction. "I could say the same for you."
Nick chuckled softly. "Do you want to grab breakfast after shift? You know like a real date?" Why he felt nervous speaking those words to her when they'd shared countless meals together he wasn't exactly sure. Perhaps it was because it was a marking a starting point of something that he knew was going to last a very long time.
Sara smiled at him. "I'd love to have breakfast with you." She let out a soft laugh and then smirked again. "As long as this shift doesn't turn into a double."