A/N: Had a little case of AWB goin' on lately. It's like writer's block, but it's attempted-writer's block, which is even more annoying. Add that to the excessive busy-ness, lack of sleep, and you've got yourself a procrastination sandwich. Plus, it turns out that Document Manager doesn't feel like playing nice with me right now. Excellent. It's officially taken me twenty-two hours just to upload this. Sigh. What is with this site lately?
Anyway, thaaaaaaank you to all the lovely (if slightly insane… naming no names) reviewers. :) Nice job with everything that's been posted lately, y'all! Sigh… I feel so crappy and pathetico, compared to you guys!
The buzz of the alarm clock on his bedside table awoke Nick from his restful slumber. He squinted at the strip of light that had managed to get through the drawn curtains, and was falling across the two bodies lying in his large bed in the centre of the room. He rolled over on his side to silence the offending sound, groaning lightly, before lying back down on his back, turning his head to look at the woman laid beside him.
Although a part of him was relieved that they hadn't ended up in some compromising position during the course of their sleep, he found himself slightly disappointed that Sara was in almost the exact same position she had been in when they fell asleep; curled on her side, her arms folded under the pillow to cradle her head, and her hair hanging slightly over her face, a few strands flitting up and down lightly as she peacefully breathed in and out. Although their hands had drifted apart as they'd slept, their bodies were still within a comfortably close proximity, without anything being awkward or uncomfortable. Or so he hoped. He himself still wasn't exactly sure as to their current status on the relationship front. The more he thought about it, the more it confused him, although he didn't exactly want to come out and ask Sara what her take on everything was. He was so lost in thought that he barely heard the alarm sound again, seven minutes later. Rather than hit the snooze button again, he decided to just give in to his schedule and get up now, instead if having to rush, as he sometimes did when he slept a little longer.
Despite the alarm sounding twice, Sara still hadn't stirred. As several scenarios of him waking her up ran through his mind, Nick forced himself to push his developing feelings aside for the moment, as he reached an arm out and brushed Sara's hair out of her face. Although the buzzing of the clock had not woken her, she instantly opened her eyes at the touch of Nick's hand against her face. She spoke a little hoarsely as she pulled one hand from beneath the pillow and wiped her eyes, dark circles already forming from her un-removed eye makeup from the shift before.
"Hi..." Her sleepy smile instantly lit up her face, and Nick couldn't help but notice how refreshed she seemed, when compared to the utterly drained woman he'd been faced with just hours ago. He smiled back at her.
"Hey. You sleep okay?"
"Yeah, I did, actually. I mean…" She leaned up slightly to look at the clock behind him, raising her eyebrows in surprise at what she saw. "Nine hours. That's the most sleep I've gotten in a long time." She smiled a bit self-consciously when Nick smirked teasingly at her.
"Yeah, and I'd believe it. You've gotta take better care of yourself, Sara." He shook his head a little, trying to keep from bursting into a lecture he knew Sara was sick of hearing. "But you already know that." He exhaled as he leaned up to rest on his elbow. "So, showers. You wanna go first, and I'll make us some dinner in the mean time? There's shampoo and stuff in there."
"Umm, yeah, okay, sounds good. Thanks." She stretched herself out in the bed, before sitting right up and climbing out, heading towards the bathroom.
"Catherine?" Archie's voice sounded down the hallway of the crime lab, causing the blonde woman walking unusually slowly to come to a complete halt before turning around to speak to him. She sighed wearily as she spoke to him.
"Hey, Archie. New case stuff, right? You know the A/V part of this isn't my thing…" She ran one hand through her hair, a frustrated air about her as she checked her watch on her other wrist.
"Uh, yeah, I know. That's going good, by the way, but I actually wanted to ask you about something else." He paused for a moment. "You doing okay?"
Catherine turned her eyes from the clock on the wall back to the lab tech standing in front of her. "What? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I just pulled a long double, and I cannot wait to get back home. The phone records took us on a freakin' wild goose chase, which ended up nowhere, while Nick and Sara got to head off home early." The hint of a grudge could be detected as she sighed loudly again, blowing hair off her face.
Archie's face began to crease up into a smug smile at Catherine's words. "Ahh, they did, huh? 'Cause actually, that's what I was coming to ask you about." He lowered his voice slightly, although the hallways were empty. "What exactly is going on between those two?"
In spite of her exhaustion, Catherine's tired eyes suddenly lit up. "Thank you! They were acting so weird on shift yesterday, and then acted like I was the one with something going on. I mean, half the time they couldn't stop flirting, and then the next thing, they'd be avoiding each others' eye contact like it was lethal or something."
A grin spread over the pair's faces. "Ahh, they seemed to have dropped that by the time they got to me yesterday. We sat looking at the video surveillance for, like, eight hours, and boy, did we have some interesting stuff going on there." Catherine's eyebrows shot upwards as her mouth opened a little wider in surprise as she squinted her eyes at him.
"Oh, do tell…"
Archie chuckled lightly. "Well, I didn't really see that much, since I was working, although I think I was the only person in the room who actually was." They both chuckled. "Yeah, we had a little shoulder-massage going on."
"Oh my god!" Catherine's mouth was now completely agape. "Did we really not see this before?"
"I don't know if there really was anything to see before. But then again, I don't see 'em together a lot, so…" He drifted off, still looking at Catherine. "Do you think we should say anything?"
Catherine grinned at him, raising her eyebrows again. "To whom?"
"Well, I was actually talking about them, but now you mention it…" Catherine's conspiring smile made him consider his options for a moment, before quickly decided to stick by his friends. "Well, I don't think we should tell anyone else."
"Right. And if I know Sara and Nick, they won't want us saying anything to them directly. God, those two'd probably find a way to talk themselves out of being busted together in the supplies closet, if they had to, and we don't want to scare them or anything. I can imagine they're both pretty freaked as it is." She paused thoughtfully, before suddenly looking Archie right in the eye and speaking with more enthusiasm than she had all day, causing herself and the young man before her to laugh loudly in the middle of the deserted corridor. "I'm so excited!"
Nick was just taking the pan of cooked pasta off the stove when he heard Sara shouting at him from his en suite bathroom. He couldn't make out the words, and although she didn't sound like she was exactly in danger, he ran to the door anyway.
"Sara?" A muffled voice sounded from inside, and he could barely hear her over the running water. The words "towel" and "toothbrush", when added to the two items he could see sitting on his dresser, allowed him to deduce that Sara had forgotten to take them into the bathroom with her, although he wasn't exactly sure what do to with regards to getting them inside. He yelled through the door.
"Sara? Do you want me to drop them around the side of the door?"
With her "okay!" shouted back at him, he went to retrieve the two bathroom necessities, and held them in his hand as he waited by the door, expecting Sara to open it a just a crack so that he could pass then through to her.
What he did not except was for Sara to yank the door open completely, leaving her standing naked, exposed and wet, mere inches from his body, drops of water dripping off her and onto the floor between them, the look of pure shock on her face reflecting his own expression.
A/N: I guess this could totally go in one of two ways now, huh? ;)