Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to CSI or it's affiliates. I am merely a fan whose would like to take already established characters into a story of my own rendering.

Release

Chapter 1

Sara Sidle grumbled lowly as she walked into the lab on a hot Tuesday night in July. Usually in the desert, it gets pretty cool at night, even in the summer. But after the scorcher during the day, the night was taking longer than usual to cool down.

Coming from the coast, Sara was used to the breeze and even a little humidity. But in the desert, humidity was just a word in the dictionary. Her hands were proof. So, to add to the heat and her cracked hands, Sara also hadn't gotten much sleep.

It was going to be a long night.

Hoping the DNA evidence she'd submitted last night would be completed by now, she felt the best place to start would be Mia at the lab since the nightly briefing wasn't for another thirty minutes. She glided her way through the halls of the building and ended up in the DNA lab. Mia looked up from her work and smiled.

"Hi Sara!" Mia said cheerfully, but her smiled turn to a frown at the sight of Sara's pitiful self. She looked tired and angry that she was tired. "You ok?"

"No." Sara said as she slumped her lean figure over the counter and sighed. "I should just swear off men. They're not worth losing sleep over."

Mia's smile returned, "Amen to that." She shuffled through a few papers and, finding the one she was looking for, looked up ans help the paper to her coworker, "I do believe this is what you're looking for."

Sara's posture changed to an upright position as she took the paper, "Any good news?"

Mia's smile faded again, "No sorry. Not a match to and of the donors so far. But I still have three more to run. They should be finished tonight. I'll page you."

"Thanks Mia." Sara said and walked out of the room reading the report intently. Nothing to match the second blood stain she and Greg had found at the crime scene. Based on the murder weapon, the DNA match the other blood stain. If they could find the owner of the DNA, they had their killer. But so far they'd gone through six suspects with nothing more than bad vibes and good riddances for the victim.

It was sad to find a victim as it was. But to find a victim who didn't seem to have a friend in the world was worse. The victim, Sandy Rogers, had been a loner. After her divorce, she moved to Vegas to start a new life. She couldn't find work and soon became a dancer. She was smart and love to read and often preferred a good book to a night out with the other girls.

So someone stabbed her two days ago after raping her with a foreign object. It made Sara sick to think that all potential suspects so far had only said that they wished it had been them who held the knife. But it wasn't any of them.

They didn't even care that she was gone.

After her last relationship with Barry, a print shop owner she'd met on a case a few months back, Sara was beginning to feel like Sandy. No one cared if she lived and would be happy if she died. Is that really where I've ended up? She thought gloomily while making her way to the conference room. She was a Harvard graduate. Honors. A CSI with a 72 solve rate, which was above national, state, and was one of the highest in Las Vegas.

This was how she'd ended up. Her job was her life. She's tried to get a release like the others had. But her releases kept releasing her. First Grissom, then Hank, now Barry. Perhaps men were the way to release herself from the stress of her job.

I could learn to sky dive. Talk about a release. More ways than one. Sara smiled for the first time all night. Unfortunately, her happy thoughts caused her to forget her bearings and walked into the men's bathroom where Nick quickly whirled around after seeing her come in and desperately attempted to zip up his pants, "Sara! What the hell? This is the men's bathroom unless you've got something to tell me!"

Nick's angry comments caused Sara to wake up from her day dream and gasped at the horror of realizing that she'd gone into the wrong bathroom. She quickly covered her eyes with the report in her hands. "Oh Nick! Wow! I'm so sorry! I'm going!"

Embarrassment caused her cheeks to flush as she ran out of the men's bathroom and, not stopping, ran all the way into the conference room grateful that she hadn't hit anyone on the way. Horrified at what she'd just done to both herself and to Nick. Hopeful that since they weren't on the same shift anymore that she wouldn't see him again the rest of the night. She wasn't lucky with the last thought. Nick walked into the room and went to get a cup of coffee. Sara noticed that he didn't look at her.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you, Sar." Nick said while pouring a cup of coffee into a Styrofoam cup. He found two sugar pack and continued as he added them to the caffeinated drink. "I'm mean, you usually save sharing a bathroom until you've at least slept together for a while."

Sara knew he was trying to make light of the situation and smiled. But she decided not to let the last comment go, "So is that an invitation?" Her voice was flirty. She needed to flirt right now. It was the only release she could find.

Nick walked to where she was sitting and joined her at the small table, "Why Sara Sidle! Are you hitting on me?" His sly smile didn't was encouragement enough to continue, but Sara's need to confess her problems overcame her desire to flirt more.

"Nick, I'm sorry. I was thinking of another way to find my release from here. I was so consumed with my thoughts that I ended up in the men's bathroom."

Nick smiled, "So it wasn't just the need to see me?"

Sara blushed, "I was actually thinking of taking up skydiving. Men don't seem to be doing it for me."

"That's only because you've never found the right guy." Nick said as his eyes lit up with an idea. "But I could help you. We can try different things. Horseback riding, hiking, skydiving. We'll find a new release together. Watching sports on TV can only get you so far, right?"

"I was kidding Nick." Sara's tone was serious, but there was intrigue in her eyes and Nick saw it.

"That's ok! It's good for you to want to get away from the lab." Nick said to her while getting out of his seat to get another cup of coffee. She was sure she heard him say "Finally!" under his breath but she didn't retort.

Sara went back to looking over her report when Greg walked in. He looked exasperated and was relieved to find Sara sitting at the table reading a report. He walked briskly to her and plopped himself down where Nick had been sitting. "There you are!" He said looking at her in the eyes. There was a little anger in his voice, "I've been looking everywhere for you! You didn't come to briefing, which was ok since we're working on the Rogers case and Grissom said the DNA results were in and you probably went to get them but then I went to Mia and she said you got them..."

Nick was amused as he looked at Sara's expression. She was trying not to get mad but her nerves were already shot due to the earlier incident. He decided to rescue her. "Greg! Greg! My man! You know a lot about Rage Against the Machine right?"

Greg, who obviously didn't know that Nick was in the room, whirled around to look at the older man whom he often saw as an older brother. Like a small child who'd been offered candy, he quickly forgot both Sara and his tantrum as he heard the name of one of his favorite bands, "Why yes I do!"

Nick's smile widened much to Sara's amusement, "Great. Warrick and I are having trouble with a suicide note that was left at our crime scene. It's obvious that it was murder but we think the song in the background has a hidden meaning. But we can't figure out the lyrics."

"I'm on it!" He turned back to Sara, "It won't take long!"

Sara just continued to smile, "That's fine. We're still waiting on the other DNA results anyway. I'll go back over the bedsheets while I wait for you."

"Yes! You're a doll!" Greg gave her a small kiss on the cheek as ran out of the break room in search of Warrick.

"It's a good thing he has a short attention span." Nick said as he claimed his seat again. "But now you own me." His voice was very flirtatious and made Sara blush slightly.

"What do you have in mind?" She asked.

Nick's dimples deepened into his chiseled face. "I'm going to help you find your release from work. And I know where to start."

Sara couldn't contain her excitement. It was nice to have a handsome guy want to help her in a non-sexual way. Although her flirtations with Nick had always been innocent, her thoughts hadn't. Still, even though is was only as friends, Sara relished in the thought of spending time with him outside work. "What do you have in mind?" She flirted back.

"You'll see." The tone was still sensual in Nick voice. He moved closer to her face and whispered in her ear. "Just put on something comfortable after your shift and come over to my place."

"I'll see you then." Sara whispered back in a sensual way. The tension was hot but as quickly as it had come, it went. The two CSIs got up from the table and with innocent smiles, walked out of the break room together, Sara first, and went their separate ways on separate cases to finish their separate shifts.