Nick and Sara sat at the café. They hadn't had breakfast together since the shift had been split up. They both missed this.

"So you back to 4pm start today?" Sara asked Nick as they both took a sip of their coffee.

Looking down at the watch on his wrist he responded sadly, "Yeah, only 6 hours and I am on again. At least you don't have to start till midnight."

"Do you like it? The different shift? Working for Catherine?" The last was asked with a slight sneer that most people would have missed.

"Now, now, put your claws away. She isn't that bad."

"Seems to have gotten a little power hungry for my liking. You have to agree with me there."

"I'll concede she approaches jobs with a slightly different attitude then she did when she wasn't a supervisor. But, she is still finding her footing… I suppose."

"You hate it don't you?"

Nick grinned over his coffee cup. All pretence of political correctness gone, "Yeah, I hate it. The hours are the WORST. I haven't had a date in over 5 months. For some reason women don't like their first date to be breakfast or lunch. They want a three course meal."

"Harder to get laid too I bet. I wouldn't put out for anything less than a three courser."

"Sara 'first date' Sidle, hey?" Nick teased the brunette across the table. "If I had know that I would have asked you out years ago. What about you. How is your love life? Still chasing that mad scientist?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sara took a large swig of her steaming coffee to try and cover her embarrassment. Nick continued to look at her. Realising he knew what she had held secret so long she groaned. "How many people know?" She asked, dismayed that her secret unrequited love was not actually a secret.

"Just me, and Warrick, Catherine, Greg, Hodges…. Jackie..Brass"

Sara dropped her head to the table. "Brass knows?… I want to die. How….. how can you all know this?"

"We are professional investigators, trained to observe …. and gossip." Nick reached and patted Sara's head as it lay on the table opposite him. "Look Sara, I know this is none of my business and I don't want to butt in but… don't you think it is time to move on. I mean.. It has been 5 years that I know of. How many years before that only you can know. You can only get slapped down so many times before you can't get up again."

Sara lifted her head of the table and looked over at her friend. "I know. It's just that… I give up and then he says something, or does something that makes me think. … Yes, he does want me… and then…..nothing. It's like what he said or did was just a figment of my imagination. Haven't you ever wanted someone who didn't want you?"

"Yeah, I have." Nick looked down into his mug. A sad expression crossed his handsome face.

"What did you do, how long before you gave up?"

"The thing is you never really give up….. you wait it out for a while and then…. You look around. You never really take your eye off the prize but you look for other options… second or third prizes if you like, sometimes the lesser prizes are better suited for you even if you don't realise it at the time. If you focus on the one thing to the exception of all others you may miss out on something really great. The way I look at it, you try out some other options, see how they go. If they don't work out then what have you lost? Nothing! You are still in the same situation. But if they do work out… who knows, one day you might just wake up and realise that you haven't thought about that prize for a long time."

"Do you still think about your prize?"

"Yeah, I do. But I still look around. No use flogging a dead horse."

"So I went from a prize to a dead horse did I."

It was Nicks turn to feel the embarrassment that Sara had felt a few minutes before. "I guess you are trained to observe too."

"You would think so but I have to be honest. It was Greg who told me."

"How did he know?"

"He is going to make a fine CSI one day."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Each taking in the fact that the other knew a secret they though no one knew.

"I miss working with you." Sara broke the silence first.

"Me too."

"Maybe we should try and catch up more often, after work. We could see a movie or something."

"Yeah, maybe we should."