As much as Nick looked like his mom, his brother Mike looked like their dad and as Sara walked into the guest house to find the pair sitting on the couch watching football and drinking beer with a nearly empty pizza box on the coffee table in front of them, she couldn't help but smile.

Nick's mouth was full of pizza as he looked up. "Hey, Sar." He felt a wave of nerves hit him as he studied her expression to see if he'd royally screwed things up or if she looked like she was willing to forgive him for acting like an ass.

"Hey." Her smile widened slightly showing a bit of the gap between her front teeth. She was more nervous that her body language showed, but she could tell from the way Nick looked that he'd had time to calm down and that quelled her fear a little.

Nick swallowed his pizza and chased it with a sip of his beer before coming to his feet and moving towards her, his eyes searching hers. He whispered softly as they stood inches from each other. "I'm sorry."

Sara nodded almost imperceptibly before Nick's lips softly brushed against hers.

"You gonna introduce me, little brother?" Mike Stokes had the same impish grin that graced Nick's face on a frequent basis and he was anxious to finally meet the woman that Nick had spent the last few hours talking about.

Nick grinned and turned towards his brother. "Mike, this is Sara." He turned towards Sara and smirked. "And Sar, this is my older brother Mike."

"Nice to meet you." Sara extended her hand to the younger version of Bill Stokes.

"I hear you've been hanging out with mom." Mike looked as if he was privy to an inside joke as he glanced over at Nick.

Sara felt a bit unsettled for a moment and then she put on the confidence that she used every day on the job and squared her shoulder as she face Mike. "Yes, and we had a good time."

Nick reached for Sara's hand, feeling his fears ease a little as he felt her give it a gentle squeeze. "I'm glad." He couldn't help but smile at her.

"It was very enlightening." Sara had a smug look on her face.

Mike laughed. "I like her, bro." He wasn't going to tell Sara that he'd been listening to Nick go on and on for the last couple of hours about how he was going to do whatever it took to make it up to Sara for acting like a jerk. Nick had never told him exactly what he'd done to be a jerk, but he'd known his brother long enough to know that he was capable of doing plenty of stupid things; he'd had him as an older brother to show him the way. And in the back of his mind, Mike Stokes was convinced that his brother was in love.

Nick glanced over at Mike and gave him a very pointed look. "Don't you have to be going?"

"Nick." Sara looked at him a little surprised that he was so quick to get his brother to go home.

"No, he's right, Sara. My wife Kelly would really like me to be home to help get our boys to bed; there's less bloodshed that way." Mike chuckled at Sara's reaction. "They're a bit of a handful."

Sara couldn't help but like Mike; he seemed to have the same down to earth demeanor that Nick had. "Well it was nice meeting you."

"You too." Mike gave Nick a pointed look before looking back at Sara. "You'll have to have Nick bring you by the house to meet Kelly and the boys."

"Ok." Sara wasn't really sure what to say; Nick might have completely different plans in mind and she wasn't sure she wanted to be scrutinized by his entire family.

"We'll talk about it and give Kelly a call." Nick interjected as Mike grabbed his keys and headed for the door. "You'd better stop in and see Mom before you take off."

Mike winked over his shoulder at the pair. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Nick just rolled his eyes and chuckled, glancing over at Sara as nerves surged through him once again; neither one of them saying anything for a long moment and then they both spoke at once.

"Sara, I'm sorry, I acted like an ass."

"Nick, I shouldn't have given you advice you didn't ask for."

Nick smiled at her. "No, this is my fault, Sar. I didn't even give you the chance to finish what you were trying to say."

Sara reached over and stroked his face with her fingertips. "I shouldn't have assumed that what helped me would help you too."

"I feel like a jerk." Nick let out a deep sigh and clenched his jaw as he looked up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back at Sara. "In the back of my mind, I was thinking that Grissom had asked you to try and get me to agree to going to see one of the department shrinks...I know you better than that." His tone was laced with regret.

Sara looked hurt and her frustration came through in her tone. "Yes, you do know me better than that; I only suggested it because even though I didn't want to see a counselor, it ended up helping me more than I could possibly imagine." Her voice caught a little as she continued. "If nothing else, it helped me to forgive my parents for the hell I grew up in."

"I'm really sorry." Nick's voice wavered. He wasn't sure what else to say, and he hadn't even considered Sara's own experience when he'd yelled at her. If he'd felt like a jerk before, he felt like an even bigger one now.

"I know you are...I forgive you." Sara smiled at him as he seemed to relax a little. "I still think that you shouldn't write counseling off...but that's your decision, and you need to be the one to make it."

Nick looked at her quizzically as his nervousness subsided. "What did I do to deserve you?" He was completely serious. He felt like he was way out of his league with her, and part of him wondered how long it would take her to realize that.

Sara's lips twitched into an impish smile. "I don't know, what did you do?" She couldn't help but giggle as both of his eyebrows shot up in protest.

"Hey." Nick smirked at her.

Sara slid her arms around his neck and smiled as she felt his arms encircle her waist. "You know I love...you." She cleared her throat and stiffened a little bit as she realized it was too late to take her words back, the last one had been a whisper.

Nick was unable to keep the shocked grin off of his face and he whispered back. "You do huh?"

Sara nodded, grateful that he wasn't rejecting her, but feeling like she'd never been this exposed in her life. "Yeah, I do." She swallowed hard as she waited for him to say something, anything. Instead, she felt his lips pressing gently against hers in one of the sweetest kisses she'd ever had.

As Nick pulled away, his voice was thick with emotion. "I think I've loved you for a long time."