Sara walked to the door of her apartment and looked out the peep hole to see who was outside the door. Although she was depressed about the Grissom situation, a huge smile broke out across her face as she realized who was outside. She opened the door to see her fellow CSI and best friend Nick Stokes standing there with a grocery bag and a smile from ear to ear.
"Nicky! What are you doing here?" she said taking in the bag that was overflowing with goodies galore.
"Well, I thought I would come over before the shift and make you dinner. I knew that you probably would be having leftover Chinese and judging from the smell of the apartment I was right."
Sara grinned at his comment and playfully punched him in the shoulder after she took the bag from him and shut the door behind him.
"Smart ass." Suddenly she became suspicious as to why he really came over. Nick saw the look on her face and new what was coming. " Nick, why are you here?"
"Now Sara, don't get mad at me but I saw you in the locker room last night crying and I know it probably had something to do with everybody's favorite supervisor so I thought I would come over with dinner and ice cream. You love my stuffed eggplant and you know it. It always makes you feel better."
"Oh Nick. You didn't have to do that."
"Yes I did. You're my friend and you're hurting and I just want to make it better."
"But-"
"No buts!" Nick interrupted. "Let me do this. I want to." The look on Nick's face combined with his soft Texas drawl that was always much more pronounced when he was serious made Sara drop the subject and smile.
"Thanks Nick."
"No problem. Lead me to the kitchen!"
Sara led Nick into the small kitchen in her apartment and started getting out everything Nick needed to make his famous (well, to her anyway) stuffed eggplant. As they waited for the meal to be finished, Nick took out three pints of Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.
"Yeesh Nick! I'm not going to be able to eat that much ice cream!" Sara exclaimed looking wide eyed at the ice cream containers.
"Yeah, well, they're not just for you. You forget. It's my favorite ice cream too." he said with his goofy trade mark grin.
Sara couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face.
"Well, the eggplant smell good and done. Ready to eat?" Nick smiled at her and asked her,
"Am I ever not ready to eat?"
"Good point." Sara laughed as they got plates and drinks to go with their meal. They had easy conversation as they ate and before they knew it, it was time to go to work.
Nick and Sara walked out to Nick's car and began the short drive to the Las Vegas Metro Police Department Criminalistics Lab. As they neared the lab, Nick noticed that Sara was fidgeting restlessly in the passengers seat.
"Sara? Are you okay?"
"What? Oh! Yeah I'm fine." At Nick's disbelieving look Sara fidgeted a little more before saying, "Okay, I'm nervous."
"Why? Is this about what happened with Grissom yesterday?"
"Yeah. We had an argument. Well, I yelled at him. He just sat there. Like always." Sara looked out the window and seemed to be lost in her own thoughts again.
"Sara are you going to be okay? I could call and tell Grissom you're sick and you don't have to go in today. We could play hooky!"
"No. I have to face him sometime. Might as well be now." Nick nodded his head as they turned into the staff parking lot of the LVMPD. They sat in the car for a few minutes before Sara looked at Nick with a nervous smile on her face.
"Okay. I'm ready."