Brass never really looked surprised when the oddest pieces of a puzzle slid into place. "The thing that I don't get is what did Vanessa Ellis ever do to you?" He was sitting across an interrogation room table from a woman who was in her late twenties and from her exterior looked like the girl next door.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Monica Fitzgerald was the manager of the store that Vanessa had worked in and she looked as nervous as a cat in a room full of Rottweilers.

"C'mon Monica. You girls had a little tiff. She had it in for you with upper management or something." Brass seemed to specialize in spreading a little irritation into the room so the suspect would respond emotionally rather than rationally.

"No." Monica's brow furrowed. "Vanessa and I were friends. She wasn't supposed to be working." The woman was clearly troubled, but it was unclear if it was from remorse or having been brought in for questioning.

"Your fingerprints were found on the envelope the missing money was in, as well as on the duct tape. You were the one that put the money on that dumpster." Brass decided to cut to the chase and see what he might get.

The color seemed to drain out of Monica's face as she realized what Brass was implying.

"We know that you tampered with the gate." Brass continued. He slid a sheet of paper across the table so Monica could see it. "You're a mechanical engineering major at Western LVU. You knew exactly how to rig the hinge so it became a deadly weapon."

All the cards were on the table and Monica was white as a sheet as she realized that she'd been caught red handed. "She wasn't supposed to be at work. She was my friend." Monica looked truly sick.

Sara had been sitting next to Brass not saying anything to this point. "Monica, if Vanessa wasn't the target, who was?" There was something vaguely familiar about he stricken expression on the face of the woman sitting across from her.

Nick had been standing in the corner of the interrogation room observing. "Was someone threatening you? Bribing you?" He wanted to know what had motivated this woman to do such a thing.

Brass had a stoic expression as he kept his 'bad cop' face on.

Monica looked at Sara. "Brandon."

Sara's tone was soft. "Who is Brandon?"

Monica's voice was barely a whisper as she realized that her carefully crafted world had completely unraveled. "I wanted out and he wouldn't let me. He told me that if I didn't pay him he'd kill me."

"He was your boyfriend?" Sara was a little confused.

Monica didn't say anything for a minute.

"Why didn't you go to the police?" Nick asked gently but firmly.

"You don't understand." Monica looked at Nick and then Brass and then back to Sara.

"Why don't you help us understand?" As much as Brass tried not to, he had a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He had heard just about every justification under the sun for why one person killed another.

Monica narrowed her gaze at Brass. Her tone was a bit sharp. "He was my pimp, ok. I wanted out. I got this job and enrolled in school to make something better for myself, but he didn't like it and he told me that if I didn't keep giving him what his cut had been that he'd kill me."

Nick winced slightly as her words drudged up painful memories.

"You could have come to the police." Sara knew that this woman must have had a hellish life, but it still didn't justify murder.

Monica just shook her head ruefully.

Brass hardened his expression. "So Vanessa had to pay the price."

"I didn't think anyone but Brandon would get hurt." Monica sounded truly remorseful.

With the case wrapped up and shift over, Nick and Sara stood in the locker room trying not to be obvious about stealing glances at each other. It was finally Sara who decided to say something. "Do you want to grab breakfast or something?"

Nick just grinned at her. "I'd really like that." He quirked an eyebrow at her. "The diner?"

Sara looked a little mischievous. "I was actually thinking that I could cook for you."

Nick let out a soft chuckle as he considered what dessert might be. "So breakfast at your place then."

Sara nodded. "Yeah. Meet me there?" She felt a fluttering in the pit of her stomach.

"Yeah." Nick kept looking at her lips.

Not more than twenty minutes later, they were walking through the door into her apartment. As soon as the door had closed, they found themselves locked in a passionate kiss, breakfast all but forgotten as they stumbled down the hallway towards Sara's bedroom, leaving a freeform sculpture of discarded clothing on the carpet in their wake.

It wasn't until later when they were descending from the last waves of fading euphoric bliss that Nick remembered the purposed for which he'd come over. "We never did get breakfast."

Sara giggled. "I'm sorry." She leaned up and kissed him as she snuggled against his side. "I just thought an appetizer sounded a lot better at the moment."

Nick laughed. "Oh, so I'm an appetizer am I?"

Sara smiled. "Mmmn, and a really good one too."

Just Under One Year Later:

"I'm so glad you two came for Thanksgiving." Nick's mom Grace was gushing over Sara. She had begun to have doubts that Nick would ever get married, but Nick had surprised them all when he and Sara had eloped in the middle of August. This was the first time the entire Stokes clan was meeting Sara and the house seemed to be full as Nick and Sara visited with his mom in the kitchen.

Sara looked at Nick lovingly. She had never imagined a year ago that she would be married to him. "I'm glad we're here too."

Nick just grinned at her; she seemed to glow.

"Well I know you're a vegetarian, so I made you some tofurkey." Grace winced at the word.

Sara grimaced. "Tofurkey?"

Nick looked a little worried as he watched her pallor take on a greenish hue.

"What's wrong?" Grace looked worried.

Nick looked a little panicked as he looked at Sara as if he was asking her permission for something.

Sara just nodded and breathed out an entire sentence at the same time. "You tell her, honey, I have to go throw up now." She dashed out of the kitchen and made a beeline for the nearest restroom.

Grace looked at him for some sort of explanation. "What are you supposed to tell me, Nicky?"

Nick laughed a little nervously. "Sara's developed an aversion to meatless meat."

His mother just looked at him intently as she waited for him to continue.

He laughed again and then couldn't contain his grin as he told his mother what he and Sara had learned just a few weeks before. "We're having a baby."

The End