Nick smiled at her softly. "Honestly, I think I've been thinking about it off and on since we got together, but I really decided to do something about it a couple of weeks ago; I just never had enough time off to do anything about it until today."
Sara furrowed her brow. "And I had to come over here and mess everything up."
Nick laughed. "You didn't mess it up, honey; you just changed the timetable a little bit. Besides, I didn't want you to break up with me." His expression was a bit more serious.
Sara just looked at him for the longest moment still amazed that he'd asked her to marry him. "How were you going to ask me?"
Nick shifted his weight a little bit so they were lying facing each other on the couch. "Well, there was the bear, he was part of it." He reached over and brushed her hair off of her face. "And then I was going to make you a romantic candlelit dinner and, well, I hadn't gotten very far in planning this and that's why the bear was in the Denali." He looked at her a bit sheepishly.
She chuckled. "Well, believe it or not, I think a romantic candlelit dinner would have freaked me out."
Nick arched a brow in mock skepticism. "You? Not the woman who thought she was going to become the topic of the next 'Forensic Files'."
Sara swatted at him. "I'm sorry about that but you were acting weird."
He smiled. "I was nervous. I didn't know if you'd say 'yes'."
She looked at him with feigned suspicion. "Hey, this isn't one of those bait and switch things is it? I seem to recall there was a ring in this deal somewhere."
Nick laughed and leaned over and kissed Sara chastely before opening the ring box which he still had in his hand. "No bait and switch; it's the real thing." He watched Sara's face as he let her look at the ring for a long moment.
Sara just stared at the ring. The reality of what he'd just asked her sinking in further. The ring itself was exquisite in its simplicity and Sara knew that it was perfect. She felt a lump in her throat as she realized that she would never have another moment with him quite like this and she wanted to remember it forever. She looked up into his eyes and she spoke in a voice that was a mixture of excitement and sentiment. "Will you put it on my finger?"
Nick grinned at her and tried in vain to pull the ring out of the box with the same hand he was holding onto the box with. He let out a chuckle. "Maybe I should get up first."
Sara shook her head and reached over and pulled the ring out of the box and handed it to him. "There." A smile began to spread across her face as Nick slid the ring onto her finger.
Nick's voice was slightly husky. "It looks good on you." He never would have imagined when he'd met her four and a half years ago that he would be giving her a ring full of a promise of a life together.
Sara couldn't keep the smile off of her face as she looked at the ring on her finger. She was really engaged to Nick Stokes.
"I was thinking that we might need to get you a necklace or something to put it on when you're working crime scenes." Nick had agonized over whether to buy her a traditional diamond engagement ring or to buy one that wouldn't tear latex gloves. In the end, the diamond had won out and he was glad.
Sara furrowed her brow for a moment. "I guess I really can't wear it like this at crime scenes can I?"
Nick chuckled. "Well you could, but I'm not sure the department's budget for gloves could handle it."
Sara rested her hand on Nick's chest. "I love you."
"I love you too." Nick suddenly felt emotional and he found himself blinking back tears.
Sara leaned in and kissed him, her arm snaking around his neck as they traded long deep kisses for quite a while; and then a thought occurred to her and she began to giggle.
Nick pulled back and looked at her quizzically.
Sara smirked. "I just realized that our food is cold." She wasn't really complaining, but she realized if they kept up their current course they were going to be very hungry later.
Amusement flickered across Nick's face. "I wouldn't want to get in the way of Sara Sidle and food."
Sara narrowed her gaze at him, trying to keep from smiling. "That's the future Mrs. Stokes to you buddy."
"I like how that sounds." Nick's perma-smile returned full force.
"Me too." Sara's smile was giving Nick's a run for its money.
They pulled themselves up off of the couch and reheated the food before they settled themselves on the couch again.
Sara kept pausing to look at her ring and Nick couldn't resist teasing her. "You know if that's distracting you, I could hold onto it until you're done eating."
Sara feigned a glare at him. "Don't even try it. I'm not taking this ring off for anything."
Nick grinned. "That's good to know."
Six Months Later:
Nick and Sara had just returned from their three week long honeymoon to find a few things had changed around the lab. For starters, Conrad Ecklie had been fired after Sophia had filed a sexual harassment charge against him, and when that news had come to light, several other women who had worked under him on dayshift had come forward with similar accusations. The Sheriff had made it clear that he had a zero tolerance for such behavior and to underscore that, he'd promoted Sophia to the position of assistant lab director to replace Ecklie. In addition to that, both Catherine and Grissom had taken it upon themselves to negotiate for a little change in staffing; news that both Nick and Sara found exciting since it meant they'd be working together back on the night shift again.
It was a startled, yet surprisingly pleased Gil Grissom that discovered the last change one evening when he walked into the locker room and interrupted a rather intense lip lock between two other lab employees.
Someone had decided that if Nick and Sara could not only date, but get married and still work together, then anything was possible. He had found her in the locker room after shift and she could tell that he had something on his mind that he wanted to talk to her about. In the end, words really weren't really necessary because that kiss told them everything. And it was only three short weeks later that Catherine and Warrick eloped.
The End