Thank you to everyone whose still reading this—school's out, so I can write more, but I'm not entirely thrilled with the direction it seems to be taking—so…just hang in there, please!
Sara woke, extremely hungry, at seven-fifteen. She padded into the kitchen and started boiling water for Ramen noodles. As she was stirring the block of noodles into the water, the phone rang. She grabbed it and pressed talk. "Hello?" she said.
"Hey, Sara, it's Lilly." Her cousin sounded smiley. "You found a house?"
"Uh, yeah." Sara cleared her throat. "It's great, Lilly. I'm sure you're going to love it. At first I was just looking for something…for this year, or two years, but it's definitely a more permanent house than just that."
"What's it look like?"
Sara explained the house, "You'd better bring all of your kitchen things; I'll take digital pictures tomorrow and email them to you later." After she talked about the bedrooms she said, "I was thinking that you can have the first-floor master suite. It'll be easier for you to get around in. There's a fireplace and a private bathroom and everything. And tell the girls that their bedrooms have walk-in closets, too, and the three of us have a huge bathroom upstairs to share. There are two sinks. It's just wonderful, it's an amazing old house." They discussed the rooms and furniture for the next forty minutes. Lilly wrote down Sara's address because she had allowed the girls to order bedroom accessories from Pottery Barn Teen and ship them to Sara's apartment. They also decided on a moving date three weeks in the future. "I'll talk to Addie, make sure everything gets cleared by then. I'll take the week off of work to get everything moved and settled in." they segued off of that, and began discussing paint colors until Sara glanced at the clock and realized she had less than an hour to get to work. They hung up, and Sara rushed around, taking a quick shower and drying, but not straightening, her naturally wavy hair. She put some makeup on and threw on the jeans, shirt, and blazer she had tossed on a chair. She hurriedly left her apartment and prayed that she wouldn't be late.
Still, when she dashed into the break room five minutes before the start of shift, Grissom raised an eyebrow and said, "That was close. We were wondering where you were."
She shrugged and sat down next to Greg and across from Sofia. "I still have five minutes."
Greg looked at her strangely, "Didn't you leave in that outfit this morning?"
She nodded and was purposely vague. "Busy day. I didn't feel like finding another outfit when I hadn't really worn this to work." Greg raised an eyebrow but decided not to say anything in front of Grissom.
"Okay," Grissom said. "It's a slow night so far. Greg, you're with me at what looks like an accidental death at an apartment. Sara and Sofia, finish up paperwork."
They began to walk out and Sara followed Grissom. "Can we talk?"
"Sure," he said, sounding surprised. "Let's go to my office."
As soon as they were inside his office, she turned to him, "I know it's short notice, but I need the week of August 11th through August 17th off of work."
He looked surprised. "Vacation?" he asked.
"We'll call it that." she said. When his facial features indicated he wanted more, she relented, "I'm buying a house and need that week to move."
"A house?" Grissom said. "Why?"
"Because I haven't lived in a house since I was sixteen and I realized that's more than half my life, and I want a house."
"All right. Just bring me the vacation papers and I'll find Nick or Warrick or someone to cover. Don't forget to fill out change of address papers."
"Right. Thanks." Sara walked off to the locker room to put her purse away.
Greg was sitting on the bench and looked around furtively for others when she came in, "Sara Sidle, you sneak, are you seeing someone?" he asked. He grinned and waggled his eyebrows.
"What? No." she said. "Why?"
"You came in wearing the same outfit you left in. I was thinking maybe you were at someone's house? And you just told Grissom that you were moving. In with the boyfriend, perhaps?"
Sara cringed mentally; she couldn't believe that she hadn't shut the door. "No, I'm not, Greg. I bought my own house. I just had a lot of things to do yesterday, I didn't home till nearly two and didn't get a ton of sleep."
"All riight." Greg said in a voice that implied he didn't believe her. She ignored him, walking down to the conference center to finish up her paperwork. It had backed up considerably in the last several weeks.
She was a little shocked to see Warrick grudgingly filling out paperwork at the glass-topped table, and Nick was standing near him, rifling through filing cabinets. "What are you guys still doing here?" she asked, finding her last case folder and spinning it onto the table.
"Nothing to do tonight, so we thought we'd get this damn paperwork outta the way before we do have something to do but Cath gets on our back about paperwork." Warrick explained, tiredly flipping a page.
"So Catherine went home?"
"Yeah. She wanted to watch Lindsey sleep. That's what she called it. I don't think she ever sees her anymore."
"Well, when Ecklie gives you the only shift where your daughter's awake and not at school…." Warrick's voice trailed off.
"That must suck," Sara said sympathetically, signing her name in five places before going back to fill out the forms.
"Hey, how'd the house-hunting go, Sar?" Nick questioned kindly.
"I got one," she smiled quickly. "It's really close to the lab."
"Buying a house?" Warrick said. "Any reason you're dumping the apartment?"
"My cousin and her daughters are moving in with me." Sara said. "My cousin needs cancer treatment, there's some high-tech facility near here, she wants the girls with her."
"Adopting a family?"
"Helping my own." Sara said. She looked down. "Long story—Lilly—my cousin—I lived with them for quite a while, when I was very young. Returning a favor, I guess."
"When are you guys moving in?" Warrick asked.
"Three weeks," Sara replied, raising her eyebrows and swallowing to show she knew it was quick. "Lilly's treatment….." her voice trailed off.
"Well, if you need any help—we can lift things, like couches and entertainment sets and stuff." Nick said, and Warrick nodded. "Just call."
"Thanks guys. I will."
"Thank God, I'm out." Warrick said, "I'll give these to Cath tonight." He stood, shrugging on his jacket, "See ya guys. Nick, you heading out soon?"
"Yeah, I've got this report to finish. See ya tonight." He sauntered out.
Sara stood up, retrieving the rest of the files she hadn't finished. Nick glanced up, amused. "How many cases are you backlogged with?"
"About seven or eight, I think." She shrugged. "Not enough investigators on a shift, not enough time to do paperwork." She set the stack down with a resounding thud.
Just about then, Sofia, who was supposed to be in the conference room finishing her paperwork—she actually liked paperwork, something that baffled the rest of the CSIs—poked her head in. "Sara, we got a call. Grissom wants us to take it." She looked at Sara's pile of papers, "Damn, you're backed up."
"Yeah, well, I don't like to use my overtime up doing paperwork." Sara said. She stood, though, and began to file the folders. "What's the case?"
"Dead body in a motel called the Tropical Oasis. Vega suspects she's a prostitute. I wanna drive"
"Great," Sara said grimly. "I'll see you later, Nick."
"Yeah. See ya, Sofia," Nick continued to fill out forms as the two women headed to the locker room to grab their kits and coats.