A/N: Wow, Lindy, you are officially my girl. Your review made me soooooooooooooooooooo happy. I'm so glad that I'm at least entertaining somebody. As per usual, they ain't mine. I finally get a chance to write some Cath-Sara fighting. (Yay!) Catherine pisses me off sometimes. She's so…it reminds me of high school in a fairly unpleasant way on occasion. The opening to this chapter was really hard for me to write, but I hope it got better as it progressed.
Chapter Four: Oh hell, I've run out of chapter names.
The conversation had definitely taken a turn for the worse, Sara decided. Upon hearing her, "we need to talk" Mr. Terminally Optimistic had agreed. They'd driven back to Nick's place where both of them stood in tense silence for a few minutes. Ever the gentleman, Nick offered Sara the opportunity to speak first. Sara shook her head and insisted that Nick say his piece first.
"Sara, I know you know I've loved you for a long time." He started. "And I know that people had their doubts about us because of the whole Grissom thing. I know we've only been going out for a month, but we've been best friends so much longer." He knelt and extracted a ring box from his pocket. "Sara Sicily Sidle, would you marry me?"
Sara's heart seemed to have vacated its spot in her chest and relocated to her feet. In response to Nick's proposal, Sara's stomach had just performed feats a boneless circus freak would have been in awe of.
"I can't." She whispered, and then fled Nick's house.
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For the very first time in her life, Sara Sidle was very seriously faking ill and calling in sick. Actually, come to think of it, she probably didn't have to work very hard to fake it. She felt ninety-eight percent positive she was going to throw up and one hundred percent positive she was going to Hell.
She sat on the break room couch, staring at the wall, as though it held the answers to the mess she'd gotten herself into. Her evening only got better when Cath sailed through the break room door, dropped onto the couch next to Sara and unceremoniously announced "Sara Sidle, you are most certainly the biggest bitch the world has ever known."
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Greg found Warrick at the diner, nursing a cup of coffee. "Warrick, we've got a situation." Greg sighed, sliding into the booth across from Warrick.
"You sounded pretty urgent on the phone. What's up?"
"This is going to sound really horrible and crazy, but…Between Nick and Sara, who would you pick?"
Warrick's jaw dropped. "Sanders, you were right. That is horrible and crazy."
"Warrick, just pick."
"Sara's like my little sister, but Nick is my boy. We've been best friends for going on seven years. That's like asking a guy to pick between his sister and his brother."
"So pick." Greg pushed.
Warrick sighed. "This better not leave the table." Seeing an affirmative nod from Greg, he pursed his lips. "Nick."
"Then you gotta know, Sara's playing him. We gotta do something. She's gonna burn him bad."
"What do you mean, 'Sara's playing him'?" Warrick eyed Greg suspiciously.
"I mean Sara doesn't really love him."
"You're serious?"
"Like a heart attack."
"Man, what the Hell are we doing here? Nick is gonna propose to her tonight. Shit, we gotta stop him before he does something stupid." Warrick threw down a ten, enough to cover the coffee and a generous tip, not even pausing to say goodbye to the waitresses as he and Greg bolted out to the parking lot.
Two hours earlier
If Grissom were a smarter man…well, he wouldn't be in the mess he was in now. "Gil, there's something undeniable between us…" She started. "Chemistry, a vibe, you know, a thing. And I think it's high time we act upon it. Now that you and Sara have realized that you two were never a viable option…"
And with that, Grissom snapped. "Catherine, shut up. For once, just shut the fuck up. You and I, never going to happen. Sara and me, that will happen. She doesn't love Nick, and once she realized that we belong together, those two will be Splitsville and Sara and I will be very happy. You don't factor into that equation, Catherine."
Catherine's mouth dangled open. Tears stinging at her eyes, she turned on her heels and stormed out of the room.
In the present
"Excuse me?" Sara's head whipped around. "What did you just say?"
"You heard me. You are undoubtedly the biggest bitch in the world."
"Catherine, you need to check that mouth of yours before I check it with my fist." Sara threatened.
"Ever since you came to the lab, you've been nothing but trouble. I was right, Grissom should have left you in San Francisco where you belong."
"Oh, I see what the issue is." Sara stood up. "You're jealous of me. Everyone in the lab wants me Catherine. Your beauty faded. You're what, forty, forty-five? You're nothing but a saggy rack and a prima donna attitude. I mean, let's face it. David, Greg, Bobby D., all the lab techs, most of the guys on days, Nick, and Grissom want me. Who wants you?" And then it dawned on Sara. "You want Grissom. You want Grissom and he wants me."
"Sara, I may be a little older, but let's face it. I'm still twice the woman you'll ever be."
"Yeah." Sara snorted. "You've also had twice the surgery I've had. And all of yours has been plastic."
"You little slut, take that back!" Catherine growled, slapping Sara.
Normally, Sara would have felt bad. Today was anything but normal. As Catherine's hand landed on Sara's face, Sara drew back her arm and belted Catherine one in the nose. "There goes your nose job." She taunted. Then she ripped off one of Catherine's fake nails. "Oops, there went a fake nail."
"You whore! Where do you get off implying that I'm a hooker? I'd like to remind you who's the one sleeping with Nick to get to Grissom."
"I'm in love with Nick!" Sara screamed.
Somebody cleared his throat, and it was only then that the two women realized that Grissom had seen the entire fight.
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"Come on, answer the damn door Nick!" Greg muttered urgently, punching the doorbell again.
"I'm coming." As Nick opened the door, Greg and Warrick saw how miserable he was. His face was stained red with tears, tear tracks running in funnels down his face.
"Oh my God, Nick, what happened?" Warrick pushed his way into the living room.
"She said she couldn't." Nick whispered.
"Who said she couldn't?" Warrick narrowed his eyes. "Sara?"
"I asked her to marry me and she ran away. I pushed too hard too fast." Nick laid his head in his hands.
"Oh, Nick." Greg winced. "It's a good thing she didn't say yes."
"How can you say that!" Nick grew enraged. "I loved her with all of my heart. We were perfect together."
Warrick had to do it. He had to tell Nick. "Nick," He started, trying to think of a delicate way to put it, "Sara has a lot of issues. Most of those issues are man issues. She's had a lot of shit to deal with. You remember how tough she took the thing with Gris, the almost DUI…"
"What are you saying Warrick?" Nick glared at his friend.
"She was using you to get to Grissom." Greg interrupted.
"What?" Nick's jaw dropped. "But…"
"I'm sorry bro, but it's true." Warrick placed a hand on Nick's shoulders.
"Leave me alone." Nick shrugged the two of them off and retreated to his bedroom.
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Sara didn't even give Grissom time to say anything. She rushed past him and to the parking lot. She had to tell Nick. She was going to tell him everything and hope for the best. Sara raced to Nick's house, praying that no cops aimed a radar gun at her. As she rounded onto Nick's block, big, fat, juicy drops of rain fell from the sky. "Oh great." Sara rolled her eyes. "A movie cliché. Just what I need." She haphazardly parked the Denali in Nick's driveway and ran up the path, banging on his door, tears streaming down her face.
To her surprise, Warrick answered the door. "Sara." His voice was cold. "What do you want?"
"Where's Nick? I have to talk to him." She cried.
"He knows what you did." Warrick's face remained stony. "I can't believe you Sara. I would expect this sort of thing from Cath, these manipulative games. But not you. That was the one thing that always impressed me about you. You didn't play those games, you didn't use other people. But I guess I was wrong about that."
Sara appealed to Greg. "Greg…"
"You were my role model." He replied sadly. "You made me remember what was important about the job. But you screwed over one of my best friends in the worst way possible."
Sara's eyes welled up with tears again. "You have to believe me, I didn't mean for it to turn out like this."
"Things like this never go like they were supposed to, Sara." Nick's emerged from his bedroom, a completely different person from the man Sara knew. His normally soft brown eyes had gone hard, the sparkle in them was dead, and his normally smiling mouth was set in a straight, angry line. "Warrick, Greg, I'll be fine. Sara and I need to talk." His eyes never left hers.
"You sure, man?" Warrick seemed hesitant.
"I'll talk to you later."
Warrick and Greg reluctantly left the two alone.
"Why, Sara?" Nick advanced. "Why would you do that to me?"
"Nick, please, hear me out."
"Go on. I'm interested to hear how you could rationalize this one."
"I was mad at Grissom. Furious. I needed a way to hurt him. I…I turned to you. But then I fell in love with you, and I couldn't bear to leave. My world was so much brighter when we were together. You know?" Her tears seemed to be channeling the pounding rain, coming down in sheets. "But then you proposed, and I realized what I had done. I couldn't marry you with that weighing on my conscience. I had to think about how to tell you, and I knew you'd be furious when you found out, so I ran. Stupid, I know." Shakily, she drew in a deep breath. "But I love you. And I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
Nick stared at her for a long moment before speaking. "I can forgive a lot of things, Sara. What I can't forgive is someone who lies. Someone who cheats. Somebody who uses other people for their own sick and twisted ends. So I want you to listen very carefully to me, because I'm only going to say this once. Get out of my house. Don't ever come back." With that, he ushered her to the door, practically shoved her over the threshold, and slammed the door.
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Unlocking her Denali, Sara started the engine. She waited for the grinding noise of the engine turning over and warming up before peeling out of Nick's driveway, getting on I-15 northbound, and getting the Hell out of Vegas.
The CD that had been playing on the way to Nick's house was still in the tray and it was only then that Sara realized she had taken Nick's car. Ten minutes later she had reached the outskirts of Vegas and found a secluded spot at Lake Mead. Turning the volume on the stereo up, she finally let loose and screamed in pain, wailing with a force Sara didn't know she possessed.
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Nick grabbed the keys that Sara had left on his kitchen countertop earlier, belatedly realizing that they were to her Denali, rather than his. It didn't matter, he needed a car, any car, for what he was about to do.
Nick had only been to Grissom's house once in the last five years, for the strip strangler case. But he still knew the way perfectly. Ten minutes later, he was pounding on Grissom's door. "Open up!" He bellowed.
Grissom opened his door to reveal a very pissed off Nick. "Nick, what's-"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Nick's fist connected solidly with his left eye. "You son of a bitch." He sneered at Grissom. "You arrogant, thick-skulled bastard. You never let her be done with you. You, being the jerk-off that you are, led her around by a string. You warped her. The real Sara never, ever would have played someone like this. I hope you go to Hell, Grissom." With that he turned and stormed back to his car, leaving a very pained Grissom at the front doorstep.
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He loved her, he did. And he wanted to take her back, but he couldn't forgive her. He didn't want to forgive her. She had hurt him in the worst way. But, if when she confessed, she had truly meant what she said about loving him, then he was defenseless.
Because he loved her. With all his heart. It would take time, but maybe he could start to forgive her. First, however, they needed to talk. He called her cell phone, but she didn't pick up. Sara, where did you go? He wondered, tapping his foot against the floor of the car impatiently.
Quiet. He immediately thought. Sara would want quiet. Secluded, out of town. Lake Mead. Nick pulled a very illegal U-turn across Fremont Avenue and headed for I-15.
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Sara's sobs had more or less begun to ebb as time wore on. Norah Jones' 'Don't Know Why I Didn't Come' wasn't helping, but Nick was right, this was good music to cry to. She was startled by a sharp rap on her window, and even more flabbergasted when she realized it was Nick. Quickly she rolled down the window.
"Hi." She whispered.
"Hey." His voice was equally low. "What you did was awful."
"I know." She swallowed. "I know. I understand why you never want to see me again. Don't worry. I'm packing my bags as soon as I get home and going back to San Francisco."
"Sara, did you mean what you said about loving me?"
Sara nodded. "With every fiber of my being." It was only then that she realized that Nick was outside, getting very soaked while she was inside her very warm Denali. She stepped out of the SUV, standing across from Nick. Within seconds she was soaked too. "Nick, I hate the fact that I've caused you so much pain. I know that by all rights, you shouldn't even be here right now. That's one of the things I love about you, that you have such a loving heart. And I don't deserve it." The tears had returned. Sara was half-amazed she had any more tears left to cry. Apparently though, she did. "Can you forgive me Nick? Will you take me back?"
Nick sighed heavily. "Sara, I –" And then he gave his answer.
A/N: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I KNOW. I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON FOR LEAVING IT RIGHT THERE. AND FOR NOT GETTING THIS CHAPTER UP SOON. The next chapter will probably be a little less angsty. Sorry to put you guys through this.