Chapter Two

"So you're saying this chick is innocent?" Greg said, puzzlement evident in his voice. He, Nick and Sara had been working a dead DJ, and Greg's bet had been on the ex-girlfriend, who'd found the body. 'Hell hath no fury,' he'd quoted, and Nick had sent Sara a look that clearly said, 'No kidding,' which Greg of course didn't notice.

"Yeah, she's innocent. Knife with the guy's blood on it, found in his boss' desk drawer, prints all over it from one person- the boss. The girl's innocent, Greggo," Sara said smugly. Greg rolled his eyes.

"And of course, I'm stuck here looking through that garbage bag while you two go and figure that out. Figures..."

"Well you looked so happy looking through that, we figured we'd leave you," Nick teased. Their conversation was cut short as Grissom walked in. Sara tensed immediatly, the smile fading from her face, earning her a concerned look from Nick. Grissom, oblivious as usual, it seemed, immediatly started talking.

"Alright, since you three are done your case, Greg, Warrick needs help with a B&E, it's pretty messy so lots of evidence to be logged..." Greg stood and stretched, making his way out of the room.

"Yay, logging evidence, my area of expertise..." he said, making a face at Sara and Nick.

"You two, one of you can finish the paperwork of this case and the other one gets to go work a different case." He looked at them over the rims of his glasses. "You can pick."

"I'll take paperwork, I know you hate it, Sar," Nick said with a grin. She rolled her eyes.

"You're my hero, Nicky. What's the case, Grissom?"

"You'll be helping Sofia with a murder at the Bellagio, husband and wife, looks like a murder-suicide but then again I haven't been there. She's about to leave, I'll give her a heads-up that you'll be meeting her downstairs in a couple minutes." And with that he was gone. Nick glanced over at Sara, who was staring into space again.

"You wanna switch? You and Sofia in the same room might not be a good idea..." he offered.

"Nah, I'm good...I'll have to talk to her sooner or later...might as well be sooner, when I have a case to think about. I'll talk to you later, Nicky." She stood up and walked past Nick to head out the door, and as she passed him he reached out and pulled her closer.

"I'll see you after shift, then?" he asked. She grinned back.

"You bet. I'll call you when I get back to the lab." Leaning down, she gave him a quick kiss and left, waving goodbye as she prepared herself to talk to Sofia and pretend she had no problem with the blonde.

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In all honesty, he hadn't been going back to spy on Nick and Sara. More like checking up on them. While he had only been gone for maybe thirty seconds, he hadn't seen Sara go past yet. What he hadn't expected, however, was seeing Nick slide an arm around Sara's waist as she was leaving; nor had he expected to see her let him. Even less expected was Sara grinning at Nick and leaning over to kiss him.

It was all he could do not to storm in there and ask what was happening, but he knew he had no right. He and Sara weren't involved; there wasn't anything in the rules that could stop Sara and Nick seeing each other, if they even were. But he couldn't stop the small wave of anger from running through him when he saw Sara leave and head towards the locker room, without even seeing him, and Nick, in the break room, finish his coffee and reach for the case file with a smile on his face.

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It was almost six hours later by the time Sofia and Sara returned to the lab. That time had passed by without incident- between Sara and Sofia, at least. There had been a small commotion in the lobby when the son of the dead couple saw them carrying something of his mother's in an evidence bag, and had freaked out. It had taken close to fifteen minutes to calm him down and assure him that it was protocol, that they were following up pretty much anything they could, and that he could get it back when they were finished. Neither CSI was eager to look over the evidence that shift, seeing as there was only half an hour left and they were both tired, so they decided to log it into the vault and re-open it the next day. On their way back to the car for their second load of evidence, Sara decided to call Nick- who probably hadn't moved from the break room- and ask him to have coffee ready...hopefully Greg's Blue Hawaiian.

"Hey, Sofia, want me to call Nick and have him have coffee ready for us? I doubt he's moved from the break room."

"Yeah, sure, coffee would be great...ask him to make mine black, please, it's too late for anything less." Sofia said with a smile, slightly surprised at Sara's attitude. She'd never really had a problem with Sara, but the brunette had always seemed slightly cold and distant towards her. Sara smiled back and pulled out her phone.

"Stokes," said the voice at the other end.

"Hey Nicky...it's Sara."

"Oh, hey Sar. You and Sofia finished the scene?"

"Yeah, pretty much. We have to go back for interrogation at some point, fun...Anyway, I was wondering...Sofia and me are bringing evidence in right now, into the vault, cause we're both pretty tired, would you mind getting some coffee ready for us?"

"Yeah, sure, I'm finished paperwork anyway. Me and 'Rick were just teasing Greg..."

"Ooh, do spill...yeah, Sofia asked for black and you know how I like my one-hour-left-in-the-shift coffee," she teased. That, in fact, had been the subject of one of their conversations just the night before, when Greg had commented about the fact that the amount of milk and sugar in Sara's coffee seemed to go down as the hours dwindled until it was just black.

"Oh, of course..." Through the phone, she could hear Nick get up and head over to the coffee pot, calling over his shoulder, "Aren't you lucky Greg, you have the honour of two lovely ladies asking for your coffee..." His voice clearer as he turned back to the phone, he said, "Yeah, it seems Greg had a little run-in with one of those motion-activated things. 'Rick sent him into the back of the store to check out the damage there, and every time Greg moved he'd hear stuff like 'I'm gonna getcha!' and 'Stick 'em up!', so after like ten minutes Warrick figured okay, Sanders must've found SOMETHING to keep him there for that long, he was only supposed to check if there was damage...So he walks in, find Sanders standing stock-still in the middle of the room, hands in the air and practically shaking." Nick paused for a moment while Sara finished laughing, then added, "And apparantly, Greg has decided he's never going near anything motion-activated again if he can help it." In the background she could hear Greg protesting.

"You just had to tell her that...come on man..."

"Oh...boy...that was priceless...what I wouldn't give to have seen that. Anyway I've gotta go, I'll talk to you in about..." she eyed the pile of evidence bags appraisingly, "...ten minutes."

"Alright, see ya soon Sar." She couldn't keep the smile off her face as she clicked her phone shut and picked up another load of bags to carry.

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Heading towards the break room, Sara grinned when she saw that Greg had his back to the door. Putting a finger to her lips to stop Nick from saying hello, she snuck up behind Greg.

"Stick 'em up!" She said, right in his ear. He whirled around and she, Nick and Warrick burst into laughter. Sofia stood there, eyebrow raised, wondering what in the world was going on.

"Sanders had an encounter with one of those motion-activated gangsters at our B&E," Warrick explained. "It was saying things like, as Sara demonstrated, 'stick 'em up', and Greg here was standing there for ten minutes thinking he was about to be shot." Sofia chuckled and shook her head as Greg slumped lower in his chair.

"I'm never going to live this down, am I?" He mumbled under his breath. Sara reached over to ruffle his hair.

"Sure you will. We all have our moments, yours was just a little out of the ordinary. At least the guy wasn't real." Turning to Nick, she asked, "Coffee?" He nodded to the steaming cup that was next to him and she sat down, immediatly picking it up. "I'm guessing from your comment to Greg when we were on the phone that this is Greg's Blue Hawaiian?" she asked.

"Yup." He laughed as Sara grinned and took a sip. "So how was the scene?" He was asking about Sofia and he and Sara both knew it.

"Pretty good. Small ruckus with the son of the couple but nothing other than that." Nick nodded and squeezed her hand under the table as Sofia sat down next to Sara and picked up her own coffee. Warrick turned his attention from Greg to Sofia.

"So how'd dinner with Grissom go?" It was all Sara could do to keep her mouth from dropping open in shock. Warrick knew about it?

"Pretty well. We got a lot done, I think he's learning to trust me," she said with a grin. Staring into her coffee cup, Sara didn't really hear much else. Nick, on the other hand, was actually curious as to what had actually happened.

"Dinner with Grissom? That's different. He's normally pretty anti-social," he commented.

"Yeah, it had to do with the case I was working last week with one of the guys from days. He apparantly went to Ecklie and said I'd screwed something up, so Grissom wanted to talk to me. It was the end of shift so he said we should grab dinner and finish talking later," she explained. Nick nodded.

"Sounds like our Griss." He was inwardly shaking his head. Sara had jumped to conclusions...although, from what she'd heard, he probably would've figured the same thing. He squeezed her hand again and she looked up at him, eyebrow raised. He grinned at her, then let go of her hand and stood up. "Well, I'm beat, guys. Paperwork does that to ya," he said with a wink as he headed out the door.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna head home as well," Sara added. "And scenes are more tiring than paperwork, Nick," she called to his retreating back. She finished her coffee, grabbed her cup and Nick's and put them in the sink, and left, waving at the others.

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"Did you hear any of what Sofia said?" Nick asked Sara as she came into the locker room.

"No. Although I'm guessing from the look on your face that it was good?"

"Dinner was because someone on days said Sofia screwed up a case she worked with them, and Grissom wanted to talk about it." Nick told her.

"...Oh..."

"But, the conclusion you got to was possible, given that you didn't know the whole story and heard him say, like, one sentence," Nick pointed out. Sara shrugged.

"It doesn't really matter."

"Guess not." Nick pulled Sara into a hug. "You coming over? I'll make pancakes or something..."

"Yup. Wouldn't miss it," Sara said with a grin.

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Author's Note: Second chapter :) Tada. I've got the whole storyline for this planned out -grin-

Thanks to: Baby23, AnMaDeRoNi, hockeymom, bomber6, I want George, Cherrydrops12, Cheryl, Mma63, NickGilGreggonumber1fan(wow that was a mouthful to type :P), loose-cannon-with-a-gun and Adie24 for your reviews! Made my day :)

Up Next: Sara and Grissom talk and this time, it's Nick jumping to the wrong conclusion...Sofia becomes an unexpected ally...and I actually include a Kelly Clarkson song in a fic ;)