They were on their way back to the lab to log in the evidence they'd gathered, including the protrusion from the gate; Nick had used a pair of bolt cutters to remove it. As they drove, something occurred to Sara. She glanced over at Nick. "What if she had nothing to do with that envelope?"

He smiled at her. "We'll have to see what the evidence says, but in the meantime, we need to take a break."

Sara smiled in spite of herself. "So you promised dinner and a movie. I hope we're going to watch something a little more exciting than surveillance videos." She smirked.

He feigned a serious expression. "I personally found them riveting."

"Well, maybe I'll have to reconsider that date then." She was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

Nick looked panicked for a fraction of a second until he noticed her smile. "We don't have to go out today you know, we could wait until we both have a little time off." It wasn't that he didn't want to spend more time with her, he was just afraid he was going to fall asleep and he wouldn't get to enjoy their date.

"You're not trying to back out now?" Sara looked a little worried.

Nick would have laughed if he didn't feel so insecure himself. "I definitely don't want to back out, I just want to be awake to enjoy our date."

The words were out of Sara's mouth before she could think. "So you don't want to sleep with me on the first date then." Only after the words were out of her mouth hanging in the air did it register in her mind what she'd said; her cheeks immediately turned pink.

"Are you offering?" Nick couldn't resist teasing her.

"Nick!" Sara looked embarrassed.

Nick let out a chuckle. "Hey, I'm not the one that brought it up."

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded. I meant sleep not sex." Sara was trying to keep from giving him the wrong impression, although the thought had occurred to her on more than one occasion.

He winked at her. "I know."

Sara looked out the window of the Denali and cleared her throat. "So what are we going to eat?" She hoped that changing the subject might help her cheeks return to their normal color.

Nick chuckled again and grinned. "I thought I'd order a pizza when we leave the lab so we can meet the pizza man at my house."

"What kind of pizza?" Sara realized that she hadn't eaten in a while and at the mention of pizza her stomach started to complain that it had been neglected for too long.

Nick had a mischievous expression on his face. "I was thinking double meat, hold the veggies."

Sara rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Actually, I thought I'd order two pizzas, one for you and one for me." He smiled at her.

Sara glanced over and raised a single eyebrow. "If you order double meat you'd better plan on brushing your teeth or I'm not going to let you kiss me."

Nick looked extremely pleased at the thought of kissing Sara and his smile widened into a grin at the thought. "I may just have to eat veggie then. I'm not sure I want to wait until we're done eating to kiss you."

The look on Sara's face was priceless. It was a mixture of surprise, pleasure and embarrassment. She and Nick had always been able to talk openly as colleagues and friends, but moving their relationship into the romantic realm was new and scary and the reality that he wanted to kiss her as badly as she wanted to kiss him had her stomach doing flips. "Ok."

Nick pulled the Denali into the parking lot just then and as he steered into a slot near the front entrance, he glanced over at her with a grin. "Let's go check this evidence in and get out of here for a while." If he'd thought no one would see them, he would have leaned over and kissed her then, but he didn't want an audience for their first kiss and he didn't think she did either.

They headed into the lab, evidence in hand, and quickly went to check it in. They would have to log the money in later, noting each and every serial number, but for now, they put evidence seals on it to ensure that it wouldn't be tampered with. After dropping blood samples off in DNA and the fibers they'd pulled off of the metal protrusion in Trace, they headed to the locker room to collect their gear.

Nick couldn't help stealing glances at Sara as she quickly sifted through a duffel bag that she'd pulled out of her locker to ensure that she had a change of clothes. There were just so many things that Nick had never really taken the time to notice about her before and the way she scrunched up her nose as she concentrated was one of them. Of course part of the reason that he hadn't noticed was that he hadn't wanted to get caught staring and out of habit he quickly glanced away and pulled his jacket out of his own locker as she stood up and closed her locker door.

"Ready?" Sara smiled at him, excited at the prospect of spending time alone with him outside of work. The fact that he'd said he wanted to kiss her was making her impatient to get out of the lab and she sincerely hoped that they'd actually get out of the lab before they got roped into working another case.

Nick grinned at her. "Yeah."

They had almost gotten to the door to leave the locker room when Grissom walked in. He regarded the pair curiously and raised an eyebrow at the bag in Sara's hand. "You two are here early."

"Actually, we haven't left yet." Nick informed him. He felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he noted Grissom's expression.

"How's the case?" Grissom hadn't had a chance to talk with either one of them since he'd assigned the case near the end of their regular shift.

"We still haven't gotten an ID on the vic, but the death appears accidental." Sara added.

"Although, we may have stumbled onto something else in the process." Nick continued.

Grissom interest was piqued.

They explained what they had found and what their suspicions were and that they expected that there was going to be quite a bit more follow up involved.

"Has the coroner done the prelim on the body yet?" Grissom was curious why they were leaving when there was still so much left to do on the case.

Nick shook his head. "I checked with David and they're backed up because of the vacation schedule. He thought he might be ready later on tonight."

Sara was anxious to get out of the lab, not only because she was hungry and tired and wanted to be alone with Nick, but because Grissom was looking at her oddly.

"We're just taking a break to get something to eat and hopefully catch a few hours of sleep." To Sara, Nick seemed oblivious to the subtle tension coming from Grissom.

"Although some of us have already had a head start on that sleep." Nick smirked at Sara with mischief in his eyes.

Grissom quirked an eyebrow.

Sara did her best to keep from smiling as she felt her cheeks begin to burn. "I had a nap."

Nick leaned towards Grissom and spoke conspiratorially. "Be careful if you go in the AV lab, I think she drooled on the table in there."

Sara's eyebrows shot up and she let out a cross between a chortle and an embarrassed snort. "Nick!"

Grissom's mouth twitched upwards in a boyish half smirk. "I'll keep that in mind."

Without any further discussion, Nick slung and arm across Sara's shoulders. "C'mon, Sidle, there's a pizza waiting with your name on it." He propelled her towards the front doors of the lab, leaving Grissom standing there with a curious expression on his face.