Chapter Four: Southern Arousal In the Layout Room

Sara had never really enjoyed the smell of the morgue though she had the stomach for it. It was cold and dark with bodies lying still on tables, some had been through autopsies and others had not. The morgue was definitely not an environment in which she wanted to work in but she had considered it years ago. Either way, she still saw the condition the victims were in and they told her as much as they told the coroner.

"So Doc, what do you have for me?" Her voice sounded more cheerful than she felt but the doctor hardly noticed anything otherwise.

"I think it's pretty evident that she died of exsanguination," stated the doctor, standing beside the table where the pallid deceased lied. "However, if you notice the petechial hemorrhages in her eyes, asphyxiation is more likely to be the cause of death."

"She has multiple contusions on either side of her trachea. Almost as if she was strangled."

"The vic was definitely strangled. There are fractures to the cornu of the thyroid cartilage. What people don't realize is that it takes very little force to strangle someone. Many assailants use more pressure than they need to."

"So strangulation is the COD?"

"Yeah definitely. I noticed that she has a lot of flesh wounds on her back; a few though are pretty deep. One pierced her liver fairly badly."

"Hence why you do not know if she died of exsanguination or asphyxiation?"

"Basically. But if she died of exsanguination, there would be no point to strangle her now would there be?"

"True," sighed Sara. "So asphyxiation first and then exsanguination. He strangled her after she fell through the glass."

"That would explain the many shards of glass I found embedded in her back," remarked the doctor, pointing lightly to the side table where Sara saw little pieces of bloody glass in a metal tray.

"Do you think you can send those to trace for me? See if they match the glass in the shower just for reassurance."

"Yeah, of course."

"Thanks, Doc."

He nodded and turned away from her as she left the morgue, glad to be rid of the heavy stench of death in the air. Sara immediately went to the layout room where she had the sheets of the victim's bed on the table. Nick was with Brass in the interrogation room, questioning the victim's boyfriend about his whereabouts.

"So this is what Sara Sidle does on her breaks," Nick jested, leaning against the doorframe of the layout room, watching her finish up processing the white sheet on the table. "Get anything?"

"It's clean. There's nothing on here. Not even peanut butter." After she said the last part she glanced up at Nick and saw him making a gagging gesture with his finger down his throat.

"That's very becoming, Nicky."

"Why thank you. You know what's even more becoming?" he inquired, strolling leisurely towards her with a look in his eye that she could not completely place.

"What?"

"Your ass in those jeans."

The smirk on his face widened at the embarrassment that flooded hers. She blushed and kept her eyes on the ALS equipment that she had begun to put away. She removed the orange glasses from her face and tucked the machine underneath the table for her to store away later.

"I'm serious, Sidle. You make a grown man weak in the knees with that wiggle of your hips when you walk." He was close behind her, almost breathing in her ear and she shuddered as his breath caressed the flesh of her neck, down her shirt.

She licked her lips and was at a complete loss for words.

"Cat caught your tongue, darlin'?"

"What did I say about company time, Nick?"

"That was sex. This is just mere flirtation, conversation if you will."

"None of that either."

"You do it just as much as I do."

"I do not! I don't tell you that you look damn hot in that vest of yours or how that drawl is melt-inducing."

"And what a damn shame it is that you don't."

"There's a time and a place for things, Nick, and the layout room is not one of them." She turned around and faced him. His face was close to hers and his body was near enough for her to effortlessly reach out and touch it.

"Yes, there is. And right now is the time and the place to tell you that your ass looks damn fine in denim."

"You really know how to compliment a woman, don't you?"

"It is a compliment, Sara, not an insult. And I know how to treat women just fine."

"Yes, I forgot about your reputation for being smooth."

"You know you want me, Sidle," he said arrogantly, taking a step in advance towards her.

"Am I that transparent?"

"I think you give yourself away when you stare at me in the locker room."

"I don't stare. I admire," she corrected shamelessly.

"Well, the two look a lot alike. You could admire many other ways that are just fine with me."

"Let me guess. They involve "admiring" you on the break room table?" she said, her voice flat and hard as rock.

He stopped cold and stared incredulously at the woman before him. "What did you just say?"

"I was insinuating the two of us having sex on the break room table."

His dream instantly flashed through his mind and he could not meet her questioning eyes. The feeling of her warm body writhing in pleasure and ecstasy beneath him consumed his mind, his senses. Before he could stop it, he was hard as a rock and in dire need to screw her silly.

"Nick, are you alright?" Sara's voice sounded genuinely concerned and she gazed into his lust-filled eyes innocently.

"I'm fine." His drawl was thicker and huskier than he had intended it to be but she hardly noticed or didn't mind.

"So I guess the break room table is out of the question?"

"Oh, it's perfectly fine with me but I didn't know that you're considering having sex with me on it."

"Don't get your hopes up, Cowboy, and I can't help but notice that you've managed to get something else up." She raised an eyebrow at the last word and gave him a long glance down, then back to his face.

Her bravado was undoubtedly bolder than he had ever seen it at that moment and there was not a part of him that minded. At least now he had a clearer idea of what she thought of him but maybe everything was just a game to her. He didn't mind that either.

The hunger in her eyes caught his attention all right but what enthralled him entirely was her hand firmly grasping his package through the denim of his jeans. He swallowed hard while his eyes went wide with shock. There was little pain compared to the gratification of having her hand on him.

"Didn't your momma teach you ta keep your hands to yourself?" he questioned, his accent unconsciously strong but also higher in pitch.

"I didn't think you would mind, Nicky," she purred.

Was he dreaming again? he wondered to himself. No, he was not dreaming, he concluded when she removed her hand from his groin. Sara didn't look discouraged or angry with him when she turned her back to him once more.

"Now if you'll excuse me Mr. Stokes, I've got to finish up here."

"And I've got to go take a freezing cold shower now because of you," he muttered, taking long strides towards the door even though it was more painful that way.

"Mind if join you?"

He whirled around on his heel, his jaw to the floor. But his look of astonishment and disbelief promptly turned into a scowl when her straight face cracked into a smile and fits of laughter followed. He would get even with her soon enough, he decided as he made his way to the locker room, and when he did, she wouldn't be laughing. She would be screaming.

A/N: Not my favorite chapter I would have to say. Maybe it's because I already wrote one today and writing two is overload. Maybe.