Title: Distractions
Author: DarkDreamer56
Archive: If you want it, ask please!
Rating: T
Pairing: N/S
Disclaimer: If I owned them, oh the possibilities…unfortunately they aren't mine, I just play with them sometimes.
Spoilers: eh, mild spoilers for the finale
A/N: This is in response to Julie's Closet Challenge over at the Snicker's group. Enjoy!
"I'm just saying…this is a crime lab, all of the labs are open for anyone to walk into, but they put a damn lock on a utility closet."
"Nick," Sara pointed out gently, "People can't just walk into the lab from the street." Personally, she understood Nick's frustration, but seeing as he was quickly unraveling, she knew she needed to keep the situation in control.
"Not helping Sar," he mumbled through gritted teeth. He kicked at the door in frustration. "Are we sure it won't open?"
Sara sighed and propped her elbow up on the box next to her on the floor before leaning her head against her hand. "Nick, the doorknob is jammed, I've already tried it, and it won't budge."
"And we all know how strong you are…couldn't even bring down a towel bar," Nick grumbled next to her.
Sara turned towards him and glared. She knew that since his abduction, Nick hadn't been fond of small spaces or being trapped in general, but he didn't have to take it out on her.
"If I recall correctly, you had some trouble pulling it down yourself. And you tried the door too, it's not gonna open."
Nick groaned in frustration, rubbing his hand over the top of his head. "I'm sorry Sar…I just don't like being in here."
Sara's expression softened as she noticed the panicked look in his eyes. She reached over and grasped his hand, squeezing it reassuringly. "Don't worry, okay? Greg is going to notice that we didn't come back, and he'll come looking for us."
Grissom had taken the night off, leaving graveyard to handle the slow shift. Ecklie had switched Nick back to graveyard, shifting Sofia to swing with Catherine and Warrick. No calls had come in, so the trio sat in the break room, working on reports until there was a case for them to work on. Sara had finished up early, and in a move that baffled both Greg, and Nick, she pulled out a bottle of pink nail polish and began painting her toes. The two guys exchanged amused looks, but continued on with their work. Greg opened a bottle of soda a few minutes later, jumping up from his seat with a triumphant, "Yes!" and causing Sara to spill the bottle of nail polish on the floor in front of her.
"Thanks Greg," she mumbled.
"But I just won a free soda!"
Sara glared, and rose to search for a stack of paper towels. Finding none, she headed towards the utility closet down the hall, hoping that the maintenance staff had some extra supplies in there. Nick followed behind, taunting her about walking barefoot through the lab. They found the paper towels in a remote corner underneath the utility sink, but discovered themselves locked in when the door slammed loudly behind them.
"Is there anything in that box that could help?" Nick asked a few minutes later, and Sara could tell that he was struggling to keep his voice under control.
She rustled around next to her and sadly shook her head. "Nothing but some plastic coated paperclips, a couple rubber bands, and a wad of duct tape. Hmm…a poster of a herd of elephants? Where do they find this stuff?"
"So why exactly were you painting your toenails in the middle of shift?" Nick finally queried, trying to keep the tone in his voice light.
Sara grinned at him sheepishly. "I wanted to wear flip flops to Cath's barbeque this weekend, and it seemed like as good a time as any. I'm sorry we're stuck."
Nick sighed. "It's not your fault, I'm the one who followed you in. And you didn't know the door was gonna jam…"
Sara could see the panic spreading across Nick's face the longer that they were trapped in the closet. His eyes darted around the room, and she could feel him tense beside her. She fished around in her pockets for something to distract him; all she found was a partially crumpled stick of Orbit Bubblemint Gum, and a tube of Warm Vanilla Sugar lip balm. She held them out in her hand as a piece offering. Nick gratefully took the gum, split it in half, and handed the other half back to her. Sara popped the gum in her mouth before applying a thin layer of lip balm.
"Greg!" Nick suddenly bellowed, causing Sara to jump.
Sara heard muffled sounds from the other side of the doorway. "Where are you?"
Nick and Sara both started pounding on the other side of the door. "We're in here!"
Greg sounded baffled on the other side of the door. "Why the hell are you two in the utility closet?"
"The door is jammed man, you've gotta call maintenance," Nick replied, irritation evident in his voice.
They heard Greg grunt on the outside as he pushed against the door. "It's stuck, is there anything in there you can use to un-jam it?"
"Just some duct tape and rubber bands."
"Ooh…sounds kinky, are you sure you don't want me to leave you two alone?" Sara rolled her eyes, picturing the cheesy grin plastered across Greg's face.
"Greg…" Nick warned, quickly losing control.
"Okay, I got it. I'll be right back, just sit tight, okay?"
"It's not like we can do anything else."
Nick sighed again before placing his head on his knees. Things were quickly getting out of control; Sara knew she had to do something to get him through this. She herself was not fond of small, enclosed spaces, but things were much worse for Nick in that department, and understandably so. She couldn't imagine what could be running through his mind at that moment, and instinctively, she reached out to grasp his hand in hers again, this time surprised when he recoiled.
A hurt look crossed her face as she turned away, only to feel his hand slip back into hers.
"I'm sorry," he whispered roughly, "you just caught me off guard."
"Did Greg tell you about our case last week?" Sara asked quickly, hoping to fill the silence with her babbling and effectively distract Nick from their close quarters until Greg could get maintenance to open the door.
Nick furrowed his brow. "Yeah, did you guys ever find out what the contusions were caused by?"
Sara nodded. "Yeah, get this. The vic was beaten to death with aromatherapy candles. We found un-melted wax in the wound, and traced it back to his girlfriend's eucalyptus spearmint relaxation candle collection. Apparently, she thought he was cheating on her with his herbalist, so they got into an argument, and she started chucking her candles at his head."
"Wow, just when I thought I've heard everything," Nick answered with an empty laugh, but Sara still detected a detached quality in his tone.
"Soft Batch or Chips Ahoy?" Sara asked suddenly.
Nick gave her a bewildered look. "What on Earth are you talking about?"
"Come on, you pack away more cookies than any guy I've ever see, except maybe Greg. Which do you like better? Soft Batch? Or Chips Ahoy?" Sara squeezed his hand for emphasis. While it wasn't the best thing she could have come up with, it was the fastest. At the very least, she had confused him enough to distract him from their current situation.
"Soft Batch, I guess. They're chewy; Chips Ahoy are too crumbly and dry."
"But I like them. Soft Batch are so fattening…" Sara wrinkled her nose.
"That's the best part Sara. And it's not like you really need to worry about that, you could do with a few more cookies."
"Exactly what are you implying Nick?"
"You don't eat enough, and no, Starbucks Caramel Macchiatos don't count as food. You could stand to gain a few pounds."
They were silent again, both willing Greg to hurry up and get the maintenance staff. That distraction had not taken nearly as much time as Sara had hoped it would. She ran through other possibilities in her mind, and came up empty; so much for being good under pressure. Beside her, Nick was tensing up again, and his palm sweated against hers as he still gripped her hand. Sara prayed that they could get out of this without him having a panic attack, something that she had witnessed him go through a few days after his rescue. She shuddered, never wanting either of them to have to go through that again. And then suddenly, it hit her. Without hesitation, Sara leaned over, firmly pressing her lips against Nick's and cupping the back of his head.
In retrospect, Sara realized that her actions could have destroyed their relationship beyond repair. But all she cared about at that point was getting Nick through this. He seemed shocked at first, but it only took him a few seconds to respond fully to Sara's lips on his. The spark ignited between them was something Sara had only dreamed about, but she knew that it wasn't the time to dwell on that; hopefully they'd have time to explore that further another time, when they weren't trapped in a closet. Right now this was about keeping Nick distracted until maintenance could get the door opened. She played with the hair at the base of his neck as she let Nick take control of the kiss.
A few minutes later, he pulled away, panting heavily. Sara searched his eyes for any indication that she had screwed things up.
"Sara…you don't have to do this."
Sara found her hand still tangled up in his hair. "Did it work?" She had to bite back the tiniest grin when she looked into his eyes and realized that it had.
Nick gave her a small smile and leaned his head back against the wall. "Yeah, it worked, but Sara…" He tried to disguise it, but she didn't miss the slight hitch in his voice.
"Hey, it's okay," she murmured, "Just relax."
"I just don't want you to do something you're going to regret…"
"Do you regret it?" It surprised Sara to realize that she was holding her breath, awaiting Nick's answer. She let out a sigh when he shook his head. "Then there's nothing to worry about." Sara reached out to his cheek, gently stroking it with her fingertips. Despite the nervousness she was now feeling, she knew she had to keep it together for Nick.
"It just feels so small in here…"
"Hey, don't think about that," she whispered, leaning towards him again and giving him ample time to pull away if he truly wanted to. She felt him hesitate against her lips for a fraction of a second, but soon he was pulling her closer and urging her to deepen the kiss. Sara was trying desperately to keep things controlled, and stay aware of what was going on outside of the closet, but soon she found herself readily complying with his request and oblivious to everything else but the hunger in Nick's kiss.
Before she knew it, Sara was straddling Nick's lap, one of his hands around her waist while the other was exploring the smooth skin underneath her shirt. One of her hands was splayed across his chest, while the other had returned to the nape of his neck.
"You taste like vanilla," Nick murmured, briefly pulling away to catch his breath. He leaned his forehead against Sara's momentarily, before capturing her lips again.
It wasn't until Sara heard Greg pounding on the other side of the door that she breathlessly pulled away from Nick. It took Nick a second longer to register the sound, but before the store swung open he was able to remove his hand from underneath Sara's shirt. She quickly moved off of him and tried to smooth down her clothes.
"Sorry it took so long, they had to find something to un-jam the doorknob with," Greg announced.
Nick jumped up quickly, muttering, "Thanks man," before pushing past Greg and heading down the hall towards the locker room. Sara was still on the floor, trying to catch her breath.
"I didn't interrupt something, did I?" Greg asked, quirking an eyebrow and leaning against the doorframe. "You both look a little…flushed."
Sara laughed nervously as she pushed herself up from the floor. "I don't know what you're talking about Greg, get your mind out of the gutter. We both just got a little antsy being stuck in here. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got something to clean up." She grabbed the paper towels and headed back towards the break room.
"I already cleaned that up for you. There were some Starbuck's napkins on top of the microwave. And here are your shoes, you probably don't want to walk down the hallway without them."
Sara turned towards Greg and smiled as he handed her the shoes. "Thanks Greg." She quickly pulled them on before making her way down to the locker room in search of Nick.
Sara paused in the doorway when she saw him sitting on the bench in front of his locker, staring off into space.
"Better now?" she asked quietly, crossing her arms over her chest. Nick looked up at her, a tentative smile on his face.
"Yeah. I think I might go for a walk though…get some fresh air." He rubbed his hand over the top of his head and sighed.
"Want some company?" Sara found herself nervous again. What had seemed okay while they were stuck together was suddenly worrying her. She really hoped that she hadn't screwed up their friendship by kissing him. When he didn't answer her, Sara focused her gaze to the floor. "Nick? Are…are we okay? Because I really hope I didn't mess things up, I guess I didn't think it through…"
"Sara, it's okay. I guess…I guess I didn't picture the first time kissing you to be in that kind of situation."
Sara looked up and smiled at him. "You've thought about kissing me before?"
Nick chuckled. "It's crossed my mind from time to time. I wanted to really enjoy it, you know? Not that I didn't enjoy it, I mean, it was a great distraction, but I still knew that we were trapped. Even kissing a beautiful girl couldn't completely distract me…I thought that by now I'd be able to move past all of this."
"Nick," Sara interrupted gently, blushing at his previous statement, "no one expects you to just 'get past it.' You went through a hellish ordeal, you're not going to just wake up one day and be over it. I'm sorry if I made things weird between us."
"You didn't make things weird. I just didn't want kissing you to be a distraction for claustrophobia. Not that it wasn't a great distraction, I just always figured if we kissed, it would be because we both wanted it, and not because you thought you had to," he rambled. For some reason Sara found that incredibly endearing, and she couldn't help but grin as she carefully made her way over to the bench and sat down beside him.
"Hey, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't wanted too. Why do you think I thought of it? Now, I can't change it, but would it make you feel better if the next kiss has nothing to do with being stuck in a closet?"
Nick looked up at her surprised. "Next kiss? So, you'd be willing?" Sara nodded, and before she knew it, Nick's lips had descended upon hers again, in a slow, sensual kiss that rendered her breathless.
"I knew I was interrupting something," Greg called gleefully from the doorway, his laughter infiltrating Sara's consciousness. Nick pulled away from her as Sara turned around and shot Greg her most deadly glare. He immediately got the picture and backed away quickly, muttering, "Thought they could fool me," under his breath.
She turned back to Nick, a grin tugging at her lips as a blush painted itself across her cheeks. "So was that better?"
"What do you say we go for that little walk?" Nick whispered back. "I think you just bought us at least a half hour before Greg tries to come find us again. I'm sure we can find some way to fill up that time."
Nick pulled her up from the bench, entwining their fingers as they headed out of the locker room and towards the exit. Sara couldn't wipe the smile from her face; it appeared that she would have many more opportunities to convince Nick that kissing him wasn't just a distraction technique.
FIN.
Yeah, a little angsty, a little cheesy, and probably a little unrealistic, but honestly, what fanfic isn't to some point? And what girl wouldn't want to be stuck in a closet with George? Hope you enjoyed, please review!