Sara ended up falling asleep on the couch and rather than wake her so she could sleep in his spare room, Nick simply got a blanket and covered her up with it. He had appreciated the distraction that the last few hours had provided. He was still hurting over not only Amy breaking up with him, but finding out that she'd cheated as well. He reasoned that he might as well try and get some sleep before shift, however unlikely it seemed.
Stripping down to his boxers he crawled under his covers and found himself just staring at the ceiling for a long time before he fell into a restless sleep.
It was several hours later when Sara was roused from sleep by the sound of someone in distress down the hall. She was a bit disoriented as she woke and then remembered where she was, but as she became more alert, she realized that Nick must be having a nightmare.
The confines of the coffin were closing in on him and the ants continued to swarm over him, biting as they went. Nick clawed at the top trying to find some way out. He heard voices and then suddenly faces were swimming before him. He could see Amy and John standing on top of his grave laughing at him. He continued to thrash, this time pushing on the sides of the coffin, knowing that he had to get out had to get away from them.
Sara pulled herself off of the couch and made her way down Nick's hallway towards his bedroom. When she opened the door, she could see him thrashing about, tangled in the blankets and obviously in a panic. "Nick."
"I just can't commit, Nick...I'm not ready to be with just one guy." Amy seemed to plead with him to understand.
"You're such a downer man...I know you had a tough deal, but no one wants to be around you anymore." John looked every bit the part of the ex-frat boy.
"I just want to have fun, Nick. Please understand...it's easier this way." Amy looked over at John.
"I'm the kind of guy she needs man." John lowered his voice conspiratorially. "At least for the time being...I hear your buddy Paul is seeing a pretty hot little number too."
The ants. They just kept crawling, and now they seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. Out of nowhere he could see the face of Rick Moranis and suddenly he was no longer in the coffin, but shrunk in someone's backyard surrounded by giant ants.
Sara called out Nick's name again softly so that she wouldn't startle him. "Nick." She was nearly at his bed now and as she reached forward and touched his arm, Nick screamed, gripping her arm and pulling her onto the bed.
One of the ants bit his entire arm and so he decided to fight back, but strangely, the ant began to talk and the voice sounded familiar.
"Nick." Sara was startled but not really afraid as she tried to gently wake Nick up. "Nick, it's me, you're ok." She hoped that her tone would break through his nightmare and help him to calm down.
Nick's eyes suddenly shot open, his breathing was rapid and as he began to recognize his surroundings, he realized that he had a death grip on Sara's arm as she lay sprawled on the bed next to him. There was a waver in his voice. "Sara."
"You had a nightmare...but you're fine, I'm here and you're fine." Sara tried to soothe him in the darkness as she listened to his labored breathing.
Nick's grip on her arm loosened as he realized what had happened and that he was probably hurting her. "I'm sorry, Sara." He felt so damn helpless that he couldn't have a normal night's sleep.
"Hey, don't apologize." Sara reached out to touch his arm again and caught his hand instead. She gave it an encouraging squeeze. "You've been through hell; you can't expect things to be fine overnight."
"All I want is a decent night's sleep." He sounded frustrated.
Sara was quiet for a long moment as she considered what to say next, and then suddenly it became clear. "Do you know why I've never talked about my family?"
Nick wasn't sure why she was bringing that up right at this moment, but he had wondered why she was so private about it given that they were good friends. But then again, he'd never told anyone but Catherine about how he'd been molested when he was nine. "I'm sure you have your reasons."
Sara took courage from the darkness of the room. "My mom killed my dad." The words hung in the air between them and she held her breath for a moment as she waited for Nick to say something.
"Oh, Sara, I'm so sorry." He really wasn't sure how to react to a bombshell like that, but it sure as hell explained a lot about Sara.
"I guess looking back, it was only a matter of time...he beat the hell out of her on a regular basis...I thought that was normal for so long." Sara's voice stayed even and in control; she had no intention of losing it, at least until she'd gotten to why she was telling him this.
Nick felt emotion welling up in his throat as he realized just why she identified so clearly with victims of certain crimes, and he wondered if her dad had ever hit her. "Is that why you became a CSI?"
"Part of it anyway." She could tell that he was feeling her pain. "She took the brunt of it so he'd never get his hands on us...didn't want us to grow up with that kind of scar...but growing up in a living hell is it's own kind of scar."
Nick felt tears slipping down his cheeks.
"The night he decided to take it out on me and my brother, she went after him...she had enough...and there was just so much blood." Her voice wavered as the images came unbidden to her mind. "We went into foster care...we were supposed to be safe...but I couldn't sleep for weeks...months really without having a nightmare."
The fact that Sara had a brother registered in Nick's mind. "What happened to your brother?" He was suddenly concerned that she was alone in this world and he knew how much his own family meant to him.
Sara let out a soft sigh. "We lost touch. The last I heard from him, he was living somewhere up near Seattle working for some dot com as a computer programmer. I think he thinks it's easier to not be around the people that remind you of the most painful part of your life."
"Sara, I really am sorry." He squeezed her hand and scooted over on the bed so she'd have more room.
"I can't change the past, I can only learn from it." She sounded at peace with what had happened to her. "Being forced to go to counseling has its benefits."
Nick wiped away the tears on his cheeks; he reasoned that Sara was right. At some point the nightmares would lessen; he'd learned that well enough after what had happened with Nigel Crane. But for now, he really didn't want to be alone. "Do you think you could stay in here with me?" His voice sounded small and vulnerable.
"Yeah." Sara smiled in the darkness as she squeezed his hand. "I'll be here as long as you like."