The Birds and the Trees, a csi fanfic

Title: The Birds and the Trees

Rating: PG-13 for language

Warnings: None

Author's Note: This fic was inspired by my good friend RaRa, who was lucky enough to have a Snicker dream and told me all about it. Me being me, I of course asked if I could write it into a fic, and here it is.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with CSI. Zip, nada. I'm not making any money out of this; it's merely my way of making up for what I'd love to see on the show, yet hasn't happened. Neither do I own the song "When You Kiss Me" by Shania Twain. I don't even know if I got the title right. And now, without further ado...

The Birds and the Trees

It was an unusually slow night at the Las Vegas crime lab. Evidence to this(and we all know what never lies) was the fact that a few of the women in the lab- Catherine, Sara, and Sofia- had commandeered the break room to have a 'girl chat' as Catherine called it. Sara had tried to beg out due to paperwork but, in the end, she was sitting at the break room table with the other two, paperwork spread in front of her, as she worked her way through it and occasionally threw in a comment about whatever the others were talking about. At the moment the topic was houses- or, more specifically, back yards. Catherine had mentioned that in her back yard there was a huge tree, as high as the house, that Lindsay loved to climb.

"The mother part of me is ready to lock her inside when she's up there, but the rest of me remembers what it was like to climb trees," Catherine said wistfully.

"I love the trees near my house," Sofia said with a grin. "I don't climb them, but there are a lot of birds that have nests and you can hear them nonstop." She turned to Sara. "What about you Sara? What do you like best about the trees around your apartment?" she asked, trying to draw Sara more into the conversation. She just shrugged.

"No trees around my apartment. No birds either."

"You're joking. Why don't you upgrade? Get a house somewhere?" Catherine asked.

"Hey ladies," he said as he made his way over to the coffee machine. "Is this Greg's or the normal stuff?"

"Normal," chorused Catherine and Sofia as Sara bent over her paperwork again. Nick, coffee in hand, settled himself next to Sara and poked her in the ribs, trying to get a reaction. All he got was a glare that clearly said 'I'm working and not happy, fuck off'. He raised a hand in surrender at the exact moment that Grissom made his presence known.

"Nick, Sara, 419 on the Strip, Brass'll meet you." He handed them the slip of paper with the address on it. "Cath, Sofia, I need your help on a triple homicide." And with that, he was gone. Sara sighed and piled up the papers that had spread out.

"Anything wrong, Sar?' Nick asked as Catherine and Sofia left, exchanging knowing looks. Sara, not noticing the other women, just shrugged.

"Nothing."

Nick rolled his eyes and just followed her. He knew her well enough now to know that when she was in one of her moods, you didn't push things.

Flashback

Nick waved at Greg as he headed down the hall towards the break room. Right now what he wanted was coffee, because even though it was a slow shift, he'd had hardly any sleep the night before. He paused at the door as he heard voices inside.

"You're joking. Why don't you upgrade? Get a house somewhere?" Catherine asked someone, presumably Sara, since she was who Cath and Sofia were looking at.

"Cath, please. The stuff I have in my apartment would fill maybe one third of a house, if that. And a house...it's a family thing, something you have with a husband or boyfriend or kids. None of which I have or likely ever will have..." she trailed off as Nick walked in and grinned at the trio, hiding that he'd heard what they'd been saying, while inside he was wondering how Sara could constantly put herself down like that.She was gorgeous, no man in the building could deny that. He sat beside her and poked at her, thinking maybe a little of their normal playful banter would cheer her up a little, but all he got in return was her 'fuck off' glare. He raised his free hand in defeat as Grissom came in.

"Anything wrong, Sar?" Nick asked her. It wasn't like her to actually show that she was upset, even to a small degree; normally she'd bottle it all up inside.

"Nothing." Nick rolled his eyes. He knew when to not mess with her.

Back to normal time

Nick waited for Sara to drop her pile of papers back in the evidence vault, then they both headed up to the locker room to grab their coats before heading out. She was still being unusually quiet and Nick was starting to get a little more worried. He knew she could dwell on things.

Once they reached Nick's SUV, Sara waited silently for Nick to open the back door so they could put their kits in. She didn't even try to get the keys from him so she could drive, like she normally did, she just got into the passenger seat and leaned her head against the window, staring out. Nick shook his head; he'd have to make her talk sometime tonight. He pulled out of his spot in the lab parking lot and headed out towards the Strip.

To cover up the silence, Nick reached over to turn the radio on. Some song was playing that he didn't recognise exactly.

I can see you with me when I'm older
All my lonely night are finally over
You took the weight of the world off my
shoulders (the world just goes away)

He happened to glance over at Sara and was shocked to see a couple tears falling down her face.

"Sara? What's wrong?" She looked up at him and away again quickly.

"Nothing...nothing, I'm fine.."

"Sara, you're crying. That's not fine."

"Nick, we've got a scene to get to.." He shook his head and pulled over into the parking lot of a small convenience store. "Nick, come on, I'm good, there's nothing.." she stopped as Nick reached over and gently turned her head to face him.

"We're not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong, hon," he told her gently. "Was it something that happened at break?" Sara started to nod, then violently shook her head. "It was the house thing wasn't it?" She turned away from him again and a few more tears made their way out of her eyes. "I thought so...c'mere, Sar," he said, unbuckling both of their seat belts and pulling her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. She curled up against him, hiding her face against his chest.

"Why do you do this to yourself, Sar? You're always putting yourself down and you don't deserve it. There's no way you can tell now that five years from now, you won't be married. There's plenty of guys who'd jump at the chance to be with you."

"And that's why I've had such wonderful luck so far, I take it?" She replied bitterly. "A man who prefers bugs to people, and a two-timing bastard..."

"That's because you go the distance without waiting, Sara. That's the one reason."

"Yeah, and I'm horrible with people. I've accepted that. Cath and Sofia just brought it up at a bad time is all. I've known for a long time I'm hopeless in the love department, that there's little to no chance of anyone loving me." She tried to sit up and pull away but Nick wouldn't let her go.

"What if I told you there was someone very much in love with you, Sara?" He looked down at her. "Someone who's had a crush on you for the longest time, a crush that's grown so much over the past five years that it almost hurt when I thought I'd never have a chance with you?" Sara stared at him, eyes wide, tears and fears forgotten.

Five years later

"Sara!" The woman in question whirled around to face her two female co-workers, Catherine Willows and Sofia Curtis.

"What do you two want?" She asked, exasperated. She'd had nothing but questions since she and Nick had arrived at the lab earlier that night.

"Warrick told us! Come on, spill!" Catherine ordered. Sara rolled her eyes; she had expected this. Without a word, but with a huge grin on her face, she held up her left hand to show them the ring that sparkled softly in the harsh light of the lab. It was nothing terribly showy- a single diamond set on a silver band- and she knew she'd end up wearing it on a chain around her neck so it wouldn't get in the way of her gloves, but it represented everything that meant anything to her now. Nick, his love for her, and her love for him. He'd shown her how to live again, and slowly she'd gotten used to the idea of being loved, after so long of love being the thing she wanted and feared the most. And now, five long years after their revelation on the way to that crime scene, here she was, engaged to Nick Stokes.

La fin.