They were well on their way to consuming copious amounts of Greg's coffee and they were only into the third tape. So far, none of the tapes had revealed anything of interest. They showed employees showing up for work, but none of them had yet shown their victim. Sara was getting quite bleary eyed and she kept having to consciously force her eyes to stay open.
Nick kept glancing over at her every once in a while and couldn't help but smile as he watched her head jolt upright every now and then as she tried to stay awake.
It was into the fourth tape that she finally did fall asleep, her head resting on her arms on the table in the AV lab.
Nick seemed to be watching Sara sleep more than he was watching the video surveillance tape and midway through the fifth tape he almost missed it when their victim appeared on the tape. He watched as she seemed to disappear into the back entrance of a store, purse in hand, and then a short time later walked back out and headed to some sort of dumpster enclosure. It was after she emerged from there that she seemed to stagger in the direction of where she died.
Nick rewound the tape and tried to enlarge the image to see if he could determine what had happened inside the dumpster enclosure. Unfortunately, the wall surrounding the dumpster obstructed just enough of the view that he couldn't tell exactly what had happened. He knew that they were going to have to go back to the mall a third time and that Sara was going to want to see the video first.
He reached over and rested his hand on her back, gently rubbing it as he softly spoke her name. "Sara."
She stirred slightly, a smile forming on her face at the sensation of Nick rubbing her back, but she wasn't quite awake.
"Sara." Nick spoke a little louder, continuing to rub her back.
"Mmn, that feels nice." Sara's eyes were still closed and she was doing her best to try and wake up.
Nick let out a soft chuckle. "Looks like sleeping beauty got her nap." He had a fleeting thought that he wouldn't mind watching her sleep outside of work, but then banished it as he realized they still had a lot of work to do before either one of them could think about going home, tired or not.
"What did you find?" Sara let out a yawn and then reluctantly sat upright, letting out a bit of a smile as she realized that Nick was still rubbing her back. She glanced over at him with an expectant expression on her face.
Only then did he remove his hand. He pointed at the screen to show her what he'd seen. "Take a look." He replayed the tape and then paused it at the point where the woman staggered out of the enclosure. "I just can't make out what's going on in that enclosure."
"That looks like it's our primary crime scene." Sara watched closely as she reviewed the footage again and came to the same conclusion Nick did that they were going to have to go back to the mall a third time to see what they could find. The irony of the situation didn't escape her. "Remind me to go out of town next year about this time."
Nick laughed. "Yeah, me too. Three trips to the mall in one day are a little much." He slid off of the tall stool and rested his hands on Sara's shoulders. "I'll drive, you can sleep."
Sara let out another yawn and glanced up. "I had a nap." She stretched a little, and then realized that she'd developed a little kink in her neck. Before she had a chance to say anything else, she felt Nick's fingers gently begin to knead her shoulders. A smile began to spread across her face. "Do you hire out?"
Nick just smiled at her comment. "We could probably work something out." In reality, he reasoned that he'd pay her just for the privilege of massaging her shoulders, but she didn't need to know that; not at this point anyway.
She laughed. "You'd better stop before I fall asleep again." She let out another yawn and then slid off the stool and stood up, turning to face him.
For some reason, Nick found himself just staring at her, not realizing that he was also blocking her from going anywhere. It wasn't until he noticed a slight color change in Sara's cheeks that he sensed that he should probably at least blink.
"What?" Sara was feeling more than a little self conscious at the way Nick was looking at her. "Do I have something on my face?"
Nick coughed nervously and then shook his head, continuing to look at her. "No." He couldn't help but smile at her. "You're really cute when you're sleeping." He wasn't sure why he'd said it, but from the expression on her face, he certainly didn't regret it.
Sara felt her lips twitching upwards into a smile at Nick's compliment. She wasn't sure what was happening here, but she was just going to enjoy it. She and Nick had always flirted, but this just felt different; he just seemed different, and not for the first or even second time that day she felt her stomach flip. "We should probably go." She averted her glance from his only to find herself staring at his chest.
"Uh, yeah." Nick knew that the faster they got to the crime scene, the faster they would be able to wrap things up and go home and grab some sleep before their next shift. Maybe after that he'd have to opportunity and the courage to ask her out. He was getting the feeling that she just might say yes.
As they walked down the hallway towards the front doors of the lab, Sara glanced over at Nick and smiled, her arm brushing his momentarily. He glanced back and smiled, and Sara suddenly felt as if everyone in the entire lab was staring at them even though they were the only ones in the hallway at that moment.
When they walked outside, the sun was beginning to set lower in the sky indicating that much more time had passed than Sara had thought. They climbed into Nick's Denali and as she buckled her seatbelt, Sara glanced over at Nick and looked at him curiously. "So how long was I asleep?" There was more that she wanted to ask him, but she wanted to test the waters first.
Nick let out a soft chuckle. "A while." He really wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep; he'd been dividing his attention between watching the surveillance tapes and watching her sleep and he hadn't really been paying attention to the time.
Sara smirked a little self-consciously as she considered his earlier statement that he thought she was cute when she was sleeping and decided to test the waters just a little bit more. She arched an eyebrow just slightly. "And just how long were you watching me sleep?"