Chapter 2
Nick found Sara in the locker room. "Hey gorgeous."
If only.
"Hey Nick."
"How was your conference?"
"Good actually. Nick, do you think I'm pretty? I mean do you find me attractive? I mean..."
The tears were on her face before he could process it all. "Sara, please don't cry."
Nick sat next to her and she buried her face in his neck.
When she finally looked at Nick he saw embarrassment in her eyes.
"Hey none of that," he said softly as he tucked an errant curl away behind her ear. "You don't ever have to be embarrassed by anything you do around me, okay? Hey, let's go out for dinner tomorrow while they are doing the lab deep clean. What do you say?"
"Oh I forgot about that."
"We can dress up for a real meal for once. My treat. You up for it?"
She smiled and nodded.
"And Sara I think you are a fox."
It was nice to hear, even if it was just from a friend.
The black dress that Sara wore was short, very short. The whimsical fabric stopped well above her knees and the tiny straps came around her shoulders to form a thin halter top. Her long smooth legs were bare and her feet were encased in black strappy sandals that were perilously high.
When she opened the door for Nick she thought something might be wrong. He stood in the dark hallway saying nothing.
"Nick?"
He blinked several times. "Sara...Damn Sara"
She looked down at the dress. She had never been good at the girly stuff. "Do I look okay?"
"Sara I know that we are just friends and I know that's probably all we will ever be, but damn you're so hot!"
She grinned as she took Nick's arm
It was Sofia who noticed them first, the wiry dark haired CSI from night shift who made all the female officers, and a few male ones, all aflutter when he walked through a crime scene.
His back was to them and Sofia could see that beside him stood a tall, willowy brunette. Her dress was nearly backless and barely covered what it should have.
She nodded to where the couple stood chatting amiably with the hostess. Nick's arm was casually draped around Sara's shoulders. They looked, happy and relaxed. "Isn't that Stokes?"
Grissom turned his head just in time to catch a glimpse of Nick and Sara being seated directly across from them.
He had the presence of mind to clamp his mouth shut and to the untrained eye he seemed to be calm, but Sofia saw the little pulse rise up in his neck. It was the same pulse that she had seen when the night shift supervisor was particularly irritated by her boss Conrad Ecklie.
"I guess you were right. I misread Sara. She appears to be taken."
Grissom's eyes never left Sara's back. "I guess so." He swallowed his bourbon in one gulp and signaled the waiter for another.
They were on their second course, and still Nick and Sara had no idea that they were in full view of Grissom and Sofia. In fact, they had not idea that the other couple was in the restaurant.
They were on their main course when Sara excused herself to go to the ladies room. When she opened the door to leave, Grissom was posed languidly against the wall with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He had positioned himself so that she would be the first thing she saw when she opened the door.
Sara teetered on her heels. "Grissom! What are you doing here?"
"For a woman that was supposedly so smitten with me less than 24 hours ago, you seem to have recovered fast"
Sara looked at him in confusion. "Grissom...It's not what you think." Why was she trying to explain herself to him?
He moved closer to where she stood. His lips were less than an inch from her mouth. His eyes were hot with anger and betrayal. He knew that he was behaving irrationally, but he couldn't stop himself.
"And tell me Sara, where does one find a dress with so little material?"
She tried to think what to say. What was Grissom doing here and why was he behaving like this? Her mouth went dry as her eyes took in the dark suit and silver tie that Catherine said brought out his eyes.
"Grissom..." her mouth opened and closed a bit. "I don't understand..."
A Texas accent came from the right of them. "Sara what did you do, fall in?"
Nick's words faded as he took in the scene. He looked from one to the other.
Sara's voice was thin and trembling. "Nick, can we please go?"
The younger man stepped in between them and put his arm around Sara. "Sure we can go sweetie."
He scowled at Grissom. "What are you doing? Why can't you just leave her alone? Do you get off on making her feel bad? How did you know we were here anyway?"
Nick felt Sara's body rack with sobs as he propelled her away from Grissom. Gil tried to touch her when he saw the tears running down her face.
"I swear man, if you lay one hand on her I will be out of a job and you will be out of some teeth."
Grissom swallowed hard and watched the couple as they walked away.