Moving On
Disclaimer: Don't own CSI and you know this because I'm just a poor college student who writes fan fics. If I really owned the show, would I be spending time here? I think not. But as I don't own it, this is a great place to be ;)
Chapter Nine
Sara ended up taking Nick into the mountains on his last day before he had to fly back to Vegas. They drove up in the morning and had a picnic lunch. They spent a good portion of the afternoon hiking and exploring the area. Sara hadn't been into the mountains aside from her DB in Rocky Mountain National Park the day Nick arrived. It was beautiful and both of them took quite a few pictures.
"Well Sara, I am glad you let me stay with you this week, it's been great," Nick said as they sat on a log catching their breath. The high altitude made them both breathe harder than usual.
"It was great having you," Sara smiled, "I kind of missed working with you."
"Oh, I thought I should tell you, your friend Lucy and I exchanged phone numbers, you don't mind do you?" Nick asked.
"Not at all," Sara punched him lightly on the arm, "I knew you'd end up find a girl here somehow."
"Hey, Lucy seemed really nice," Nick defended, "and she's the one who asked for my number. I was more than willing to exchange it."
"Yes and you're Mr. Innocent in all this," Sara teased him.
"It's not like this relationship can get me into trouble if it goes anywhere, we're in different states. For now, we're just long distance friends," Nick told her.
"Okay," Sara smiled.
"I'm glad that you seem so much happier here," Nick changed the subject.
"Me too," Sara agreed.
"I mean it, you're not so uptight, you are looser, happier. I am really glad to see you've changed, Sar, we were all worried about you," Nick told her, "even Grissom. He'll be glad to know that you are happy."
"I'm surprised he even noticed I was miserable," Sara said bitterly.
Nick heaved a sigh, "We both know how Grissom is. I wish I could have changed him for you, Sara, I really do. I like to think of you as one of my sisters. It really hurts me when you are hurting and it makes me want to protect you. But I'm glad that you finally realized how bad things were getting and took the initiative to make yourself happy. I was really sad to see you leave, but if you're happy, I'm happy for you."
Sara turned and looked at him, speechless. She tried to fight back the tears that threatened to spill over. She had never realized that Nick looked at her in that way. Finally, the tears started to fall and Nick pulled her into his arms.
"Thank you for telling me that," Sara sniffled, "I didn't know you felt that way. I love you too, Nicky."
"I don't know what it was, but when I met you, I felt like you were one of my sisters," Nick told her, "and I love you just like I love every one of my siblings."
"Thanks," Sara smiled, "and don't worry about Grissom. It was hard, but I think I'm finally over him."
"Good," Nick said, "that's what I want to hear. It was so frustrating to see what he was doing to you. I like Grissom, but the man is socially inept."
The rest of the day was spent enjoying the views on the trail they had chosen to hike. They drove back to Sara's apartment and Nick cooked them dinner. They enjoyed the last night of Nick's vacation and then went to bed a little early because Sara had to drop him off at the airport.
"Okay, you have to come back to Vegas to visit sometime," Nick told her as they parked the car.
"Not for a while," Sara said, "I just used up several vacation days when I haven't had a job here for that long."
"True, but you owe me a visit now," Nick poked her.
"All right," Sara smiled, "now stop picking on me so you don't miss your flight!"
"Because it would be horrible if I had to spend extra time here," Nick winked.
"It is if you're missing work," Sara reminded him.
"True, unfortunately. I guess you can't go past the security checkpoints, we should just say goodbye now," Nick sat down his bags.
"Bye Nicky," Sara hugged him.
"Bye Sara," Nick squeezed her back.
Sara watched as he walked away, thinking about his insistence on her visiting him in Vegas. She sort of hoped she wouldn't have any vacation time for a while. The thought of going back to Vegas was very unappealing to her. The truth was, she didn't know how she'd react to seeing Grissom again. Being away from him made things easier, but if they were together again, she wasn't sure if she'd be upset or if she'd be okay with it.
"Hey, you're late," Fred Mayer informed Sara.
"Almost, but not quite," Sara said, "I still have two minutes. I fell asleep after I took Nick to the airport this morning and I forgot to set my alarm. Besides, you're not even in the break room handing out assignments yet."
"Actually, I already did," Fred smiled, "you're with Alex on a missing person case. He's probably waiting for you in the parking lot."
"Thanks," Sara spun around and headed for the parking lot where Alex was indeed waiting for her.
"About time, Sara," he teased.
"Technically, I wasn't late, Fred handed out assignments early," Sara told him.
"Yeah, I haven't even been waiting long," Alex said, "so I think our case is in your neighborhood."
"Really?" Sara asked as she put on her seatbelt.
"A few blocks away, but it's the same area. The scenario is the husband went off on a business trip a week ago. Came home and found that his wife was missing and he found a puddle of blood near their bed," Alex explained as he drove.
"Have the detectives verified that the husband was actually out of town?" Sara asked, suddenly reminded of a case back in Vegas. The case when Grissom ended up doing an experiment for her sake, proving that in fact the husband had killed the wife before leaving for his business trip.
"I don't know, we'll have to ask when we get there," Alex said, "why?"
"Just reminded of a case in Vegas when the husband killed his wife right before he left on a business trip," Sara explained.
"Oh, we'll find out soon enough," Alex turned the SUV into a driveway, "this is the address."
A detective met the CSIs and directed them into the house where they studied the scene. Sara decided to question the husband while Alex collected evidence.
"Sir, I'm Sara Sidle with the crime lab, can I ask you a few questions?" she asked.
"Yeah, my name is Marc Johnson," the man told her.
"Okay, Mr. Johnson, where exactly were you last week?" Sara asked.
"I was in New York, on a business trip," Mr. Johnson said.
"All right, when exactly did you notice your wife was missing?" Sara inquired.
"I came home this morning and I thought she was still in bed. I went into the bedroom and she wasn't there. I didn't think much of it until I checked every other room and I couldn't find her. There was no note or anything saying she was out and it was really early anyway," Mr. Johnson explained, "so I went back into the bedroom and I noticed the blood."
"Did you touch anything in the bedroom?" Sara questioned.
"No, I ran to get my cell phone and I called the police," Mr. Johnson told her.
"Good, we may need to talk to you again, if so, we'll be contacting you," Sara told him.
"What are the chances that my wife is alive?" he asked.
"I'm really not sure, Mr. Johnson, we don't know what happened," Sara said, "that's why we're here."
"You're not going to find her, are you?" the man started to cry.
"I really don't know, sir," Sara frowned, "we'll do our best."
Sara rejoined Alex inside the home, "Finding anything?"
"Some possible signs of struggle, did you get anything out of the husband?" Alex asked.
"Not much. Just that he was out of town, came home, couldn't find his wife, saw the blood and called us," Sara said, "his story seems to check out. He seemed genuinely upset."
"Doesn't sound like your Vegas case," Alex noted.
"I didn't really think it would be, I just like to keep all possibilities open," Sara opened her field kit to collect a hair from the pool of blood.
A/N: I had the HARDEST time writing this chapter! I don't know what happened. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for being patient with me. With the school year rapidly winding down (only a month left!) I'm getting busier and finding less time to write.