Note: Thanks for the wonderful reviews. I really appreciate them.

I do need to say I'm sorry for something from the beginning of chapter one. I referred to the desert as a place that has no humidity and I have since been corrected. I'm working on a rewrite of that paragraph and I'll get it out soon. I'm from Louisiana and there's no such thing as no humidity here so when my sister-in-lkaw and her husband moved to Arizona I received reports of dry skin and no rain so my apologies. I'll make sure I do my research first next time. :)

Enjoy!

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.

Releases

Chapter 3

Arriving at work, Sara already longed to be anywhere else. The break that Grissom had proudly announced ended up being a match from a print smudge on the knife to the DNA from the rape kit. The print had been identified as a coworker.

Although she was happy for a match, she hated the fact that now she was forced to chance down a judge and get a warrant for the suspect's house with Greg while Grissom and Brass interrogated him.

Sara slumped in a chair in the break room ready to go home. Greg sat next to her and nudged his chair closer. "So, after shift I was thinking we could get some breakfast. Do vegetarians eat eggs?"

Sara smiled at Greg's innocence, "Well this vegetarian doesn't and although I appreciate the invitation, I'm going to have to take a rain check. I thought I was going to be off tonight so I didn't sleep that much."

"You're not cheating on me are you?" Greg's face was filled with a mock look of shock that made Sara laugh a little. It was good to feel happy about something. It had been a wonderful day with Nick and Greg was great company tonight.

And to top it all off, she had lasagna for dinner. "I think I'm going to eat while we're waiting on that warrant." She said getting up, "Wanna share?"

"No offense, but your sandwiches don't have any meat on them. Doesn't fill me up." He patted his stomach as he too got up and followed Sara to the refrigerator. "Besides, I brought some meatloaf I had leftover from my lunch at a cafe down the street. I know you're against meat, but it's good."

Sara decided this was a perfect time to gloat, "Well, I actually cook today and brought lasagna of my own making tonight. It's veggie, but there's plenty for both of us." Sara took the Tupperware out of the microwave and opened the lid to allow the aroma of pasta and tomato to fill the break room. Greg's smelled it and his eyes lit up in surprise.

"You made that! You can't cook."

Sara looked slightly hurt. "OK, I'm offended. And yes I made this with help."

"Who?" As far as Greg knew, she wasn't seeing anyone right now and she didn't have any family that hew knew of that had ever visited her.

Sara wasn't sure if she should tell Greg who had been her teacher. After all, he was know to spread a rumor faster than air could spread a germ. But knowing that nothing happened with Nick, she felt no shame in exposing her secret. "If you must know, Nick helped me. Did you know he can cook?"

"Yeah! He has the best recipe for barbecue sauce!" Greg started to tell a story about the time on Warrick's birthday when they'd had too many beers and were looking in the phone book for a stripper when he stopped himself. He's promised never to repeat the events of that night to anyone.

Then it hit him. Sara had lost sleep because of Nick and cooking. Just what else had gone on. He was feeling jealous. "So Nick taught you to cook? Who's house?"

Sara noticed the look on Greg's face and smiled big, "What does that matter?"

"It matters."

"OK. I went to Nick's. He taught me to make lasagna. We watched a movie then Grissom called me and I left to get some sleep before I came here. Happy?"

Greg didn't bother to hide his jealously now. "Happy? No! You were at Nick's! He taught you to cook! Why didn't I think of that?"

Sara laughed, "It's ok Greg. I not dating Nick. You can still chase me."

Feeling better, his desperate looked turned mischievous, "So does that mean you'll come over to my place after shift? I've got a great recipe for..."

"No Greg. The only place I'm going is to bed."

Bed was a place Sara had longed for all night. Three hours after her overtime shift should have ended, she finally found herself staring at her bed. She climbed out of her clothes and after getting into a loose t-shirt, she climbed under the covers and was almost asleep when her cell phone rang.

Not bothering to check the caller id, she answered the phone, "I don't care who this is, whatever you have to say better be good."

"OK, so I guess your shift went bed."

It was Nick. Sara immediately felt bad.

"Nick! I'm sorry. I thought I was going to be called back in or it was Greg wanting to cook for me or something like that. I'm just so tired. I didn't mean to be an ass."

"No it's ok. I had hoped to teach you how to make pancakes, that's all."

"Wow, pancakes sound good, but I've got to work tonight and I really need to sleep."

"I didn't think the great Sara Sidle slept more than one hour a week."

"I guess I'm getting old."

"No I think you're become human like the rest of us. I tell you what. I usually go on break when your shift starts so would you like to meet in the break room about half an hour before your shift starts? I'll bring pancakes and the recipe so you can practice."

Sara couldn't help but smile at Nick's instance. But she felt a pang of sadness knowing that he was just helping her find her release and not a relationship. At least she could enjoy his company outside of work while it lasted.

"OK, I'll be there."

Nick smiled from the other end of the line, "Good. It's a date."

The call ended.

Date? Date! No, he just said that for no reason. This was Nick. Not Grissom or Greg or someone else who might want to take a friendship to the next level. No Nick said it for fun. Or he was probably teasing her.

Too tired to dwell on it for too long, Sara put her phone down on the nightstand and allowed herself to fall asleep.

Her dreams were filled with Nick and pancakes.

"Hey man, you look nervous. Hot date after work?" Warrick asked while dressing into a standard issue jumpsuit. They'd just dealt with the fire department regarding what they had though was a crime scene that turned out to be nothing more than a man having a heart attack hitting a house that cause a small fire in the kitchen. Other than the driver, no one was hurt and the case was closed in record time.

Nick now thought of meeting Sara in a few minutes smelling like smoke. But then they'd both smelled pretty bad after dealing with a liquid man found inside a duffel bag. Perhaps she wouldn't notice too much.

"Nick? Earth to Nick."

"Warrick, man I'm sorry. I've got something on my mind."

"Would it have anything to do with a certain Miss Sara Sidle and lasagna?"

Nick was stumped. "How do you know that?"

Warrick smiled, "Greg."

"Greg? Sara told Greg about me teaching her to cook? She might as well as announced it in the bulletin. Man, I'm just trying to help her..."

"Do what?" Warrick interrupted, "Man, I know you've got the hots for her. You always have. So what are your real intentions. From what I gather, Sara's clueless."

Now Nick was getting upset. "Yeah, well, nothing's going to happen if I've got the whole lab watching us. You know what Ecklie thinks of interoffice dating."

"What should you care. You're on separate shifts now. Besides, I'm the only person Greg told. I made sure of that."

Nick felt a little relieved. Warrick continued, "But he did say he was upset at Sara for flirting with him when she was chasing you."

"He said that?"

"Yeah man. He said her eyes lit up when she talked about how she was learning to cook. You must be doing something right to make her so happy. Just don't rush it."

"I won't. I want to but I want to make sure she's ready for something besides a cooking lesson. Until then, we're moving on to pancakes." Nick smiled knowing that all the ingredients were in his car on the off chance that she might want to cook when she got off."

"Great, so no more BBQ at your house. Gonna be nothing be celery and carrots."

"And lasagna." The two men laughed and dropped the subject.