A/N: A chapter dedicated to Nick Stokes, and his Texan drawl.

Shout outs will resume next chapter. . .


Why is Sara acting so wierd? I swear that girl gets more like Grissom every day. Just because we show a bit of interest in her personal life, there's no reason to get all hissy and run away from Garage Duty. I don't know if she's worth this. Would you listen to me, of course she is, it just doesn't seem like it when she's being such a. . . such a. . . such a girl! First Catherine tells me she'll find her, but does she? No. At least I don't know, but I might as well have kept looking, right? Greg sends me on this wild goose chase, man I was being such a fool to think he'd know anything. I just wanna get to that darned car, and get to work.

I hate these zippers! These stupid, awful, useless zippers! They never work right. Or maybe I'm just having a bad day. Oh great, here comes Sara, it's about time.

"Where have you been? I was looking all over for you!" Maybe she can get my zipper. Man, does she read my mind? Without saying a word, not even a hey, she just walks over and does up my jumpsuit zipper with one swipe.

"I was just getting changed"

"No you weren't. I was all over this building, Sara. Where were you?"

"Can we start on this car? I'd like to get some sort of lead".

"Fine. Whatever" so NOW she's wanting to get on with processing.

Okay, so it's been two hours and not a word either way. Sara found some possible DNA match on the car seat, other than that there's nothing really to find, this is a waste of time. OW!

"For the love!"

"What happened?"

"I closed the door on my fingers! Ow!"

"Let me see"

"Why?"

"Quit being a teenager and let me see!"

"I am not acting like a teenager"

"Yes, you are" she says, grabbing my hand and checking my fingers. I feel like an eight year old getting a band aid.

"At least I didn't get all skippy and defensive in the Break Room"

"Just forget about that, kay?"

"No!" at this point, I really want to know what's happening around here. At least she's let go of my hand.

"No I will not forget about it. Sara, what is with you? First Grissom, then you get all defensive and testy, like.. . like. . . then you run away from Garage Duty?"

"I didn't run away!"

"Then what was it, Sara? What's this all about, huh?"

"Nothing that concerns you"

"I thought we were friends. I thought you forg. . ."

"This has nothing to do with that"

"Then what? What Sara? It's not like you're the one sleeping with Grissom!" She's turned away. I know that look. . . Oh my Lord, she is.

"Sara?"

"We need to get back to work"

"Sara, look at me" reaching for her shoulder, I grab it before she had time to reach for the crowbar in the tool kit.

"Sara, tell me you're not sleeping with Gil Grissom" what if it's true?

"Let go" I reach closer, swinging her around and grabbing her shoulders with my hands to see tears streaking her dirty face. I can't believe this.

"Sara?" she won't look at me, why won't she look at me. Oh man, what now?

"Just. . . please let me go"

"I can't believe it. I. . . I won't! Sara, do you even understand what sleeping with your superior will do to you?"

"I don't want to talk about it"

"Well we're gonna talk about it! Damn it, Sara! What is it with you and making things hard for yourself and everybody else?" This whole thing is making me mad.

"Me? I make things hard? Life, Nick! Life makes things hard! You havn't lived my life. You have no right to. . . "

"I do too have a right! You're my friend, Sara. I care about you and if you think I'm going to stand by and let you destroy yourself and him, you have got another thing coming!"

"Who said anything about destroying anyone? I love him!"

"I love you!" Where did that come from? We're both standing here stunned. Guess I'd better explain before this gets even more awkward.

"Yes Sara, I love you. As your friend and as someone who wants to help you through this, I love you. Why Grissom, answer me that okay? Why didn't you. . . why couldn't you've just. . . "

"I slept with Gil, because . . . We went out, ended up at my apartment, and it just happened. All I know is that I'm in love with Gil Grissom, and whether you can understand that or not doesn't matter"

How dare she? She could be putting the entire department at risk and for what? Some juvenile infatuation that ended with her and Grissom having. . . I think I'm going to be sick.

"I don't matter? Fine. I can live with that, but when you and Grissom lose your jobs, then he leaves you because his job is the only thing he could ever love in the first place. . ."

Slap!

She slapped me. Sara Sidle slapped me! Both of us look at the crowbar just inches from her hand.

"Is that next, Sara? You're gonna let that come next?" Staring her down, I grab her hands and wrench her against the Ford Explorer as she struggles.

"Let go of me!"

"I'm not gonna hurt you!"

"Off!" I step aside as she tries to kick my knee out, and do the only thing in my mind to diffuse the situation without hurting Sara: kiss her. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not proud of a lot of things coming from my mouth today.

"Don't make me do that again, Sara. Shut up, stop struggling and listen to me! I can't let you do anything more to destroy yourself! Grissom is. . . he's. . ."

"Gentle" she's turning away, hugging her arms to her chest, so I take her shoulders carefully again, forcing her to look at me. I'm not a hard man, she's just . . .

"A guy. He's guy and as such, I don't know how to say this so I'll just say it. You havn't exactly shown yourself to be hard to get where he's concerned. I'm not . . . hey, I'm not saying that I'm right, just that you have to at least concider that one of the reasons he slept with you could be his own loneliness and not affection for you"

"It wasn't like that"

"Wasn't it? I'm worried that this'll have a greater fallout than the lab exploding, than . . . I'm worried about you. Don't mess yourself up anymore. I'm here, and I'm giving you friendly advice. Don't keep seeing Grissom"

"I'm not giving him up now"

"Why?"

"Because he's the best thing in my entire life! He saved me! Gil gave me the best I've ever. . . he's good to me"

"If he's so good to you, why did he wait until now? Why not a year ago when you asked him?"

"He wasn't ready"

"Oh, he wasn't ready? Any man whose not ready for you doesn't deserve you"

"I'm going to forget you said that"

Grabbing for her again, I wince as she slaps my other cheek.

"Why can't I be happy? Why can't I . . . why can't you leave me ALONE?"

"Is that what you want? Fine! I'll leave you alone, go run to your precious Gil Grissom! Go on! In fact, I'll walk you to the door!"

She's grabbed her DNA sample, and we're storming out the Garage door, I'm hot on her heels, until we pass Grissom's office to hear him and Brass talking.

". . . you can't keep this up, Gil. For your own good, end it. I'm not going to tell you again"

"You're right, Jim. I can't go on like this. I'll do what I have to do to finish it"

Sara's stunned. I've gotta do something about this. It's not like I didn't warn her. Leaning over, I put my hand on her shoulder. She jerks away faster than a mad bull and stomps off towards DNA. Fine.

"Hey, dude! Did you just see Sara. . . Nick!" Warrick's voice doesn't register as I stomp off in the general direction of the Garage. The corner of my eye shows him standing dumbfounded, but I really don't care right now.

Taking a whiff of the Garage, I feel a bit better, guess it's the mechanic in me. Might as well make something out of this, so I start putting the tools away, stopping at the crowbar next to Sara's kit. Wiping my eyes, I whisper,

"Man, Sara. Why can't you just be different?"

"Not that easy, Nicky"

I turn to see Catherine standing at the door to the Garage. I guess I didn't notice how red my face was.

"Nick, man did she hit you . . . Twice?"

"Huh? Yeah. Slapped me good, eh?"

"Hah! Yes, yes she did. You wanna talk about it?"

"No, right now I want to clean up this mess and find the killer"

"How about taking care of those teary eyes and bruises of yours"

"Really? Are they that bad?" For the first time, I grab the mirror from Sara's kit and wow,

"Would you look at that! My skin's turning purple! I've got bruises, I didn't know she hit me so hard! Catherine, what am I gonna do?"

She's laughing! No wonder, I look like a drunk in a barfight!

"I've got cover up if you want it, Nicky"

. . . I can't believe I'm doing this.

"Why not."

"You serious?"

"Yeah!"


I wish I knew why I'm lettingCatherine put that gawdawful stuff on my face. . . I can't help but snicker a bit.

"Pretty funny, huh?" I ask, pointing to where Sara's ring mark is being covered up by goop.

"Sara slapping you in the face, or the reason she did it?"

"I dunno, man. I mean, Sara and Griss. . .oh man"

"You know, too huh?"

"Yeah! She told me"

"What?"

"Well, indirectly"

"Ah. Funny, huh. I mean Grissom must be pretty wierd"

"You can say that again. Wonder if he uses bugs"

"EEEWW!"

"Yeah, that is rank. Wierdest thing: Sara said it was the best she ever had"

Cath always makes me laugh.

"Really? Well she must've had some pretty bad sex if that's the case"

"Hmp. I dunno. . . okay I feel sick"

"Me too. Let's say we get through tonight with a laugh and just agree on how wierd it is that Gilbert Grissom is the best Sara Sidle's ever had"

"Deal"


So here I am, one irate Sara after, leaving for the recesses of places unknown, as I stumble up the walk to my humble abode. Warrick should be inside, he's got a key and his car's already in my driveway. Walking in the door, I've got a pit on my stomac at the thought of what Sara and Grissom could be doing right now.

"Dude, what happened to your face?" Warrick's first words, as I chuckle in the memory of washing that awful stuff off after shift.

"Sara happened to my face"

"Yeah, got that, but what the hell did you do to make her so upset?"

"Nothing, just. . . told her off for being . . . "

"In love?"

"NO! Sara is NOT in love, she's . . . she's. . ."

"Taken?"

"Shut up!"

Man, I hate this! Why can't I just get my thoughts together, and move on? It's like a teenage nightmare. Now Warrick's tossed me a beer and I open the can in a smooth motion perfected in my Frat days in university. Chugging the bitter sludge down my throat feels good, until I feel Warrick's hand on my shoulder.

"Dude, breath. There's more where that came from"

"Yeah. So, how'd you know?"

"Long story, most importantly, Sara's really shook up. I mean, major"

"I don't want to talk about it"

"Yeah. . . Want another beer?"

"Heck yeah"

"Sweet, bro. Hey, where's the remote?"

"You were sitting on it."

"Right. So, basketball or hockey?"

"Basketball, unless Baseball's on"

"Dude, Baseball? That's for old people"

"Is not"

"Is too" Warrick says, flipping to the highlights of last night's NBA game.

"Lightweight"

"Chicken Scratch"

Maybe this won't be so bad after all.