Title: Bliss
Author: DarkDreamer56
Archive: If you want it, ask please!
Rating: T
Pairing: N/S
Disclaimer: I don't own them, if I did, then there would be Snickers action 24/7 (okay, probably more like 18/6….they'd need a break now and then.)
Spoilers: None that I can think of…

A/N: This is in response to Julie's challenge, and it's 100 percentfluff. Happy birthday chica! Enjoy your new Ipod (I'm so jealous):)

Nick walked through his front door, letting it close behind him as he wearily sighed. It had been a particularly rough shift, and Nick could only think of crawling into bed.

The sight on his couch, however, brought a smile to his face, and changed his plans a bit. He found Sara curled up under the afghan his grandmother had given them as part of their wedding gift. Lying next to her was a stack of papers and a blue highlighter. As Nick got closer, he recognized the papers as a journal article Sofia had asked Sara to go over, and he couldn't help but smile at Sara's chicken scratch scrawled in red ink across the margins.

He moved the papers to the coffee table, moving a roll of Pep-O-Mint Lifesavers out of the way, before reaching back and popping one into his mouth; it had been a long shift. He moved to turn off the television, which Sara had fallen asleep in front of, when he heard her mumbling behind him.

"Hey, I was watching…" A sleepy yawn swallowed the rest of her statement.

"Must be pretty hard, considering your eyes aren't even open," Nick teased gently, making his way towards the couch and settling down next to her feet. He watched her eyes flutter open as a smile tugged at her lips.

"Well, I was watching it anyhow, but now I'm glad you're home." Sara pulled herself up for a moment, before shifting over and laying her head down in Nick's lap. He began to idly stroke her hair.

"I missed you too, but at least you got some sleep. You've been tired for awhile."

Sara smiled sheepishly, her eyes falling closed again. "Yeah, I was watching tv, and I decided to go over Sofia's article one more time…and next thing I know…"

"Well, I won't tell Sofia that her article put you to sleep…or maybe it was one of those awful soap operas she's got you addicted to?" Nick had found it amusing to check his TiVo recording options one day, and find a week's worth of soap operas saved. When questioning Sara about it, she admitted that she, Sofia, and Catherine used the nights that they told the guys they spent going over journals, actually catching up on that week's episodes.

"Nope, it was actually some reality show." She sighed as Nick's hand continued to run through her hair. "It follows the owner and employees of one of the wedding chapels on the Strip."

"Not the Intergalactic Chapel of Love, I hope?"

Sara giggled, a sound that Nick would never tire of hearing. "Nope, it's actually one that we've never had to investigate. This time, they had a couple that didn't speak a word of English, only Polish, and they had to figure out a way to get everyone through the ceremony."

"Why would someone want to get married that way?"

Sara shrugged sleepily. "I guess they really wanted to get married by Elvis. Or, an Elvis impersonator, anyways."

"Guess I don't see the appeal. Then again, I liked knowing what I was agreeing to when I said, 'I do.'"

Sara's eyes flew open, and her glare settled on Nick. "And what exactly was that?"

Nick knew he had to tread carefully if he didn't want to spend the night tossing and turning on the couch; nearly ten months of marriage had taught him a lot. "I agreed to spend the rest of my life with the most wonderful woman in the world." He could see that she was trying to hide the smile that was threatening to spread across her face, but it didn't work. Sara propped herself up gently as she leaned up and placed a soft kiss on his lips. She allowed Nick to take control of the kiss, leaning against him as her arms snaked around his neck.

Several minutes later, she mumbled, "Minty fresh," against his lips as she pulled away. Nick planted one more kiss on her forehead, and then headed into the kitchen for something to drink.

"Babe, you want something? We've got…" he paused as his eyes scanned the contents of the fridge. "…Pink Lemonade Snapple, Diet Coke with Lime…uh, Sprite, cranberry juice?" He grabbed a can of Sprite while he waited for her answer.

"There should be some chocolate milk in the door, thanks," she called. He glanced at the bottle quizzically, unable to recall the last time he had seen chocolate milk in their refrigerator, but dutifully grabbed the jug and poured a glass.

When he came back into the living room, he saw that she had turned off the television and changed into her pajamas, a pair of his boxers and a tee-shirt. She was sitting up the couch with a hair tie between her teeth, in the process of putting her hair up. Nick thought to himself, not for the first time, how lucky he was to be in the position to see Sara this way every day for the rest of his life. He could sit for hours, watching her do the most mundane things, like fold laundry or brush her hair, realizing that he was getting to take part in a piece of her life that no one else could.

"How was shift tonight?" Sara asked him as she gratefully accepted the glass of chocolate milk.

The details of the case were already fading from Nick's mind, as he chose to focus on the feeling of being home with his wife.

"Long…not as fun without you and Greg there to entertain us. Man, we've got to talk to Grissom about trying to get at least one night off together soon."

"We do…but we had fun in the meantime."

Nick raised an eyebrow, and subconsciously threw his arm around Sara's shoulder. She giggled again. "We?"

Sara placed her glass down on the table and snuggled into Nick's side. "Yeah, Greg found this website with all these old board games, so we played Monopoly against each other online. I kicked his ass."

Nick chuckled. "Naturally. But why didn't he just come over? You know, play Monopoly in person. It's so much more satisfying to see the person's face when you're building hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place."

"True, but he just got a kitten…and he didn't want to leave George all by his lonesome." She yawned again and let her head fall against his shoulder.

"You know, I was looking forward to coming home and crawling into bed with my wife."

"I'm comfortable here," Sara protested mildly. Nick rolled his eyes and stood up, pulling her gently towards their bedroom. By the time he stripped down to his boxers, she was already curled up on her side of the bed, underneath their enormous comforter. He slid in next to her, shutting off the light on the end table before wrapping his arms around her and kissing the side of her neck.

"We don't have to get up early do we?" he murmured, pulling her closer to him.

"I want to go to the book store tomorrow before work." Sara sighed softly and began to trail her fingers lightly across Nick's hand, a habit she had picked up when they had begun dating. It usually signaled that she was nervous about something, though he wasn't sure what would make her nervous about buying a book.

"What do you need to get?"

Sara paused for a moment, and then whispered, "I was thinking about picking up a book of baby names."

"Why do you…oh….are you saying?" Realization hit Nick like a Mack truck, and he wanted to be perfectly clear about what she was telling him before he got excited.

She turned in his arms to face him, and he could see the nervous expression on her face through the early morning light filtering into their bedroom. "I know we said we were going to wait a little bit longer…but I guess Mother Nature disagreed." A nervous laugh followed as she studied his expression.

"We're going to have a baby?" Sara was wide eyed as she nodded, biting her lip. An enormous grin broke out across Nick's face as he pulled her closer and kissed her softly. "We're going to have a baby," he repeated, needing to hear the words out loud.

"We're going to have a baby," Sara confirmed, beaming back at him as his hand reached over to touch her abdomen.

"Say that a hundred more times, and it just might sink in"

Sara molded herself to his side, resting her head in the crook of his shoulder as his hand continued to caress her abdomen. "Well, you've got about seven months to get the idea through that thick skull of yours."

"I love you," he whispered, planting another kiss on her temple, still giddy from the news.

"I love you too." Sara sighed softly, and Nick could tell that she was falling asleep; now he understood why she had been so tired over the past couple weeks, and he wouldn't try to keep her awake when she and their child needed the rest.

Nick knew that sleep wasn't going to come anytime soon, so instead he watched Sara sleep, wondering what their child was going to be like. Would it be a girl, with Sara's curls and his smile, or a boy with his charm and Sara's eyes? Would their child be as stubborn as Sara, or more relaxed, like him? With a smile, Nick realized that he would have a lifetime to find out.

FIN.