Spoilers: None, AU past all of season 5.
Thank you all for reading!
Shift passed quickly and busily—a double homicide and two breaking and enterings came in. She was on the verge of pulling a double—her third one in four days—when she remembered her appointment with Addie, the realtor. She looked at the clock and rubbed her eyes. Standing, she turned to Sofia, with whom she was working that night. "I've got to go. I have an appointment with my realtor at eight. I need to shower. I smell like death."
"Realtor?" Sofia said, smiling confusedly and speaking with her funny half-British accent. Someday, maybe if they got to be closer coworkers, Sara vowed to ask her about that. "Are you leaving Vegas?"
"No, I'm just….upgrading, you could say. I'm sorry. I've really got to go." In the doorway, she paused, "Listen…could you not tell Grissom that I'm house hunting?"
"Sure." Sofia smiled confusedly again. "Can I ask why….or would that be imposing?"
"No, it's fine…I'm just having some family things happen and some relatives need to move in with me. I just would prefer if Grissom not know."
"Sure. Whatever you'd like," Sofia said graciously.
"Kay. See ya later." Sara quickly went to the locker room. It was already seven-twenty; she would just shower here and use her change of clothes. She dried her hair quickly, skipped makeup, and put on her Paper Denim & Cloth jeans, a snug-fitting pink t-shirt, and a trendy royal-blue velvet blazer she had bought on a whim last weekend. Pointy-toed kitten heels completed the look. She ran out of the lab, waving at Greg, and drove quickly to the first house.
Since she arrived eight minutes early, she used the makeup kit she kept in the car to put on eyebrow pencil, eyeliner, mascara, a loose powder, and swiped lip-gloss across her lips. Addie's car pulled up next to hers as she stowed the kit underneath her passenger-side seat. Many thought Sara didn't give a damn what she looked like, but Sara liked to think she was a constant surprise to those she let close.
Addie was trim and short, with a clean-lined navy pantsuit and a chunky necklace. "Hi, you must be Sara," She did not look like the shark-realtor Nick had once described when he bought a townhouse with her.
"Yeah, you're Addie?"
"Pleasure." They extended hands and shook. "Now, you're a CSI that works nights?"
"Yeah, my friend Nick referred me."
"I remember Nick." Her smile was slightly bemused, and fleetingly Sara wondered if Nick had seduced her or something. "Now, you've got quite a list of demands: near the LVCSL, St. Christopher's, and Grace House Holistic Treatments? And four bedrooms?"
"Yeah. My cousin was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer and needs the treatments from Grace House. She's a single parent with two high school aged daughters. They'll all be moving in with me. I have a small condo; it won't hold four women. I also need my condo sold very quickly."
"Great. We can do this." Addie said. She quickly explained the situation with the houses: it sucked. Vegas's real estate market was booming—houses weren't going up fast enough. Finding a house with all those demands would be difficult, "but we'll try." Addie reassured her as they walked up to the first house. "This has a great open-plan layout on the first floor—lots of room, a fireplace, a formal living room, tons of amenities," she certainly was enthusiastic about her job. Sara deemed the house nice, but a little small.
The second house was a hacienda-style ranch, also very new. However, it only had three bedrooms. "I need four bedrooms. That's like the one requirement," Sara explained.
"Alright," Addie nodded. "I understand. Let's go onto the third house."
The next house was an open-plan Mediterranean-style that Sara immediately fell in love with. The outside was a gorgeous stone-and-stucco, with a Spanish roof done in gold and rust tiles. It was extremely pricey, and out in Henderson, but about ten years old, so it was fairly close to actual Vegas—Sara didn't really think she could live in bona fide suburbia without this sort of rationalization. Inside, it was open and fairly airy; the previous owners had painted all the rooms a cheerful lemon yellow. There was a main-floor master suite—perfect for Lilly, in case she became too weak to climb stairs; a huge kitchen with places for pots to hang above an island and two dishwashers and a large table space and everything—it was horrendously decorated, though; a big gorgeous great room with huge ceilings; a study with amazing built-in, glassed-in bookcases; another den upstairs; a dining room near the kitchen with an elaborate Tiffany-style chandelier; a utility room near the two-car garage; a separate laundry room; three bathrooms; and two porches, one screened-in. There were two fireplaces, one in the master suite. All of the upstairs bedrooms had walk-in closets, and the basement had a finished rec room with a small bar setup—perfect for teenagers. There weren't really any trees, because it was Vegas, but that was all right with Sara. The gravel yard was very well-kept. It was in a convenient part of Henderson—little mini-marts and fast food restaurants were only a few blocks away, but it was still very nice and filled with families. Granted, the house's price made Sara gasp, but Lilly was going to chip in. Plus, Sara had a ton of savings; she could afford it. She turned to Addie and said, "I'll take it. Now what do I do?"
"Already? You don't want to look at the fourth?"
"No, this is good."
Addie quickly walked her through the rest of it: bank, loans, mortgages, how much the down payment would cost. Sara cringed slightly at the price, but reminded herself that it was worth it. She called Lilly's home and left a message that said to call her back after seven, and told Addie to put her condo on the market. She went home, threw clothes on a chair in her room and collapsed onto her bed.