Chapter 3

Sara stands rooted to her spot in the doorway to the AV lab as her co-workers stare in shock at the image in front of them.

"What's going on, Sara?" Catherine asks, coming up behind her. The sound of her voice alerts the others to Sara's presence, and they all turn to stare at her in shock. Nick, remote control in hand, has paused the image on screen: Sara with her legs wrapped around Warrick's waist, mouth devouring his neck.

The matching looks on Greg and Nick's faces betray a mixture of shock and amusement, more amusement than shock as the seconds tick by. But while Grissom's expression is also a mixture, amusement is not one of the components. Anger, hurt, confusion, or all three, Sara can't tell. She looks at Catherine, hoping for one ally on the team, but her face mirrors Grissom's.

Sara flees.

She doesn't know where she's going, but she's getting there fast, plowing through the glass maze of laboratories with her head down.

"Sara," a voice calls out to her, an unmistakable voice, and her skin prickles as she remembers the words spoken by that voice earlier.

She stops, but doesn't turn to face him. When he gets close enough that she can feel his presence behind her, she turns to peer over her shoulder at him, yet her gaze still does not meet his eyes. She focuses instead on the v on his chest that his uniform button-down shirt has created.

"They know," she says, almost in a whisper, and resumes her flight from the lab.

"What?" Warrick asks to her retreating form. "Who knows?"

But Sara is unable to answer him, needing to get out of there as quickly as possible. He'll find out soon enough anyway.

Sara sits in the Denali, gripping the steering wheel. She wants to turn off her cell phone, drive away, and forget about her shift. She wants to, but she can't. So she sits here staring as her knuckles whiten, and watches the exit for Warrick and Catherine.

She's surprised when someone knocks on the window, and she wonders how anyone could have gotten by without her noticing. It's Nick and he motions for her to roll down the window.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey," she says, waiting to see what he wants.

"Change in assignments. You're with me and Greg."

"What?" she asks, astonished. "But you're in the middle of a case!"

Nick shrugs and shakes his head, indicating that he's as surprised as he is.

"What about Grissom?" she asks.

"He's taking the DB in the desert with Warrick and Catherine."

"That's insane!" she says as she opens the car door, nearly knocking Nick over in the process. She strides across the parking lot toward the lab, Nick following. "What does he think, that Warrick and I are just going to jump each other if we work together? We were off the clock!"

"I know..."

"And what's wrong with Catherine? What does this even have to do with her?" The angrier Sara gets, the faster she walks.

"Sara," Nick says, grabbing her arm. She shoots him a look of death, but he hangs on. "Just hold on a minute. You have to calm down."

Sara stops but refuses to look at him.

"Look, I agree with you," he continues. "What you and Warrick do on your own time is your business, and Grissom has no right to separate you on the job. I think everyone's just a little surprised, and I guess he's just trying to diffuse the situation."

Sara huffs a mirthless laugh.

"I know," Nick says, holding his hands up in the air. "And as for Catherine, come on, Sara. Don't tell me you've never seen all the flirting that's gone on between her and Warrick all these years. To Warrick it was probably just flirting, but I think maybe Catherine expected it to come to something someday. She's just hurt."

Sara looks at him warily. She didn't realize that Catherine had feelings for Warrick. For a CSI, she misses a lot about the people she works closely with.

"Look, I'm not saying that I agree with the way Grissom has handled this," Nick says, "but maybe it is best to let things cool off for the night. Greg and I have nothing to do with anything, wouldn't it be best to work with us?"

"Probably," Sara agrees begrudgingly.

"Besides," Nick says, putting an arm over her shoulder and guiding her towards the building. "Greg wants to hear all the juicy details."

Sara swats him and grins despite herself.

The rest of the shift goes relatively smoothly. Nick was right, it is easier working with the two people on the team who have nothing more than curiosity invested in the situation. Their curiosity is annoying her to no end, though. Especially Greg, who as far as Sara has ever been able to tell, doesn't have that little sensor that most people have to tell them when they've gone too far.

"So Sara..." Greg says, his tone of voice indicating that he's about to ask another wildly inappropriate question.

"Greg," Nick jumps in as Sara shoots daggers in Greg's direction. Nick signals for him to cut it out, and Greg finally takes the hint.

"I'm so glad shift is almost over," Sara mumbles to herself.

"Me too," says a voice behind her, a deep voice that twenty-four hours ago, was making her tremble with pleasure as it rumbled against her neck.

"Hey," she says, turning toward him. She's surprised that she's so nervous, but it's partially because of the two sets of eyes that are watching them while pretending they're not.

"You wanna go grab some breakfast?" Warrick asks.

"I don't know," Sara says, moving away from Nick and Greg. "I'm kind of tired."

"Me too," Warrick says with a slow smile. "I guess we didn't get much sleep yesterday. But Sara, I think we should talk."

"Yeah," she says, nodding. "Uh, why don't you come over to my place and I'll make breakfast. That way at least I can get into my PJs."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Warrick asks, his voice low, and Sara can't help but think once more how incredibly sexy it is.

"I can handle it if you can," she challenges.

"Alright," Warrick says. Sara starts walking toward the locker room when Warrick grabs her arm. "Sara..."

"Yeah?"

"What kind of PJs?"

Sara stands at her counter, chopping vegetables for the omelets she's going to make. She's not even sure that she and Warrick are really going to eat. They may just talk things through and then he'll leave, but the chopping is giving her hands something to do while her mind is engaged elsewhere. Of course there's always the third option of what they could do this morning, but Sara shakes her head as if the effort will really banish the thought. The third option can't really be an option. The previous morning was unbelievable, and hot, and... Sara sighs. She knows it can't happen again, not with all the trouble it caused at work. And she's sure that Warrick knows it too, despite his innuendo at work.

There's a knock on the door, and Sara moves to open it. She pulls down at her cropped pajama top, suddenly conscious of the sliver of stomach peeking out. She chides herself for being ridiculous, knowing that she's even shown that much stomach while at work in the past. But they're not at work now, and she remembers well what happened the last time they were together outside of work.

She opens the door and sees Warrick leaning against the frame. He's changed his clothes too, and looks sexy as hell in his black jeans and black button-down top. He's got a jug of orange juice dangling from his right hand.

"I'd have brought wine, but I figured we drank enough yesterday morning," he says as he hands it to her.

"I guess we did," Sara says, taking the juice and placing it on the counter. She feels Warrick's presence behind her, and her breath hitches when he places his hands on the counter on either side of her, encircling her in his arms.

"Sara," he says, his voice deep and intimate. "I thought you said your pajamas weren't sexy."

TBC