Sara woke up that morning and quickly got in the shower. She changed and ran into the kitchen, grabbing a piece of toast. She stuffed it in her mouth as she grabbed her pager and her cell phone and ran out of her house.
She looked around- no SUV. Shoot, her car was still at the diner. She took out her cell phone and punched in some numbers.
"Catherine?"
"Sara? What's up?"
"Could you come pick me up, my car...uh, it's in the shop."
"Yeah, sure. I'll be there in a minute."
"Okay, thanks," she said sighing and hanging the phone up. She sat down on the sidewalk and rubbed her head, wincing when her hand moved over the bump. The memories of the night before came flooding back to her and she shuddered as she thought of the drunk man. She then thought about Peter- he was a kind, gentle man. He seemed like a good guy, and...
Oh crap, the undercover job!
She mentally slapped herself in the face. How could she forget? What was she going to do? Damn, she was in a pickle.
What was she supposed to do, come up to this guy and say, "Hi, I'm Sara Sidle, I'm a workaholic with no life who has absolutely no experience in the social world. Want to talk?'"
She sighed as she came back to reality.
"Sara!"
She looked up to find Catherine staring at her.
"Sara, come on."
Sara blinked. "Oh, uh...sorry, Catherine."
She stood up and walked around to the passenger side of the car. She got inside and they drove off to the lab.
"Jeez, what happened to your head?"
"Is it that noticeable?"
"God Sara, what happened?"
"I fell down."
Catherine shot her a look.
"I did!"
"Sara..."
"What?"
"Tell me what really happened!"
"I fell, alright? Just drop it."
They reached the lab and Sara quickly got out of the SUV before Catherine could ask her any more questions. She walked through the doors and into the break room.
"Hey everyone," she said sitting down.
"Hey Sar," Nick said with a smile.
"Holy! What happened to you, Sara?" Greg asked pointing to her head.
Sara sighed- so much more trying to hide it.
"I fell down yesterday."
"Jeez, that's a bad bump," Warrick said.
"It's fine, really," she reassured them.
Grissom walked in.
"Alright, Sara, you're with me, we're working the robbery. Warrick, Nick- you guys get to investigate a robbery of your own at a local liquor store. Catherine, Greg- DB at Lake Mead," he said handing everyone their files.
Catherine and Greg walked out as did Warrick and Nick. Sara remained sitting on the couch.
"Sara?"
She blinked. "What?"
"You okay?"
"Oh, yeah, just sleepy."
She got up and smiled as she walked past him.
"Sidle!"
Sara jumped as she heard the Sheriff's voice coming up behind her.
"Sheriff..."
"Sidle, I am guessing you remembered our little job tonight?"
"Yes."
"Good, what are your plans?"
She raised a brow. "Uh...I'm just going to be doing what you said- I'm going to interact with the guy and then ask him more detailed questions."
"Good. Here's a picture of the man in question."
He handed her a picture. She looked at it closely- something seemed awfully familar about this guy.
"What's his name?" Sara asked.
"Peter Jones."
Sara froze. She felt a strong wave of nausea pass through her and she resisted the urge to turn around and empty the contents of her stomach in the wastebin beside her.
"Are you okay, Sidle?"
She turned around to look at the Sheriff and she nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Okay, good luck tonight."
He walked out leaving Sara looking as white as a ghost- it couldn't be the man who saved her from that drunk guy last night, it just couldn't. It couldn't be the same man.
She looked at the picture again.
Damn, it was him.
She put the file down and ran a hand through her hair- what was she going to do? "Hi, you remember me from yesterday, uh...I'm actually a crime scene investigator and I'm here to interrogate you so we can arrest you," somehow didn't seem like the best conversation.
Catherine walked in.
"Sara!"
She jumped. "Uh, hey Catherine."
"What's got you all tense?" Catherine asked.
"Uh...well, I...I'm going out tonight."
"You are?"
"Uh...yeah."
Catherine smiled. "Good for you, Sara."
"Heh, uh...thanks."
Catherine put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze before walking out and Sara sighed rubbing her temple.
What am I going to do? Peter is special! He can't possibly be the man who's been stealing all that money from all those states!
Sara felt herself panic a little.
Get it together, Sidle- like Grissom said, no victims are special. But this time it's a suspect...oh well, it doesn't matter! You can't have an intimate relationship with a suspect! You can't! Even if he is a strong, tall, handsome, kind man...
She shook the thoughts out of her head. "STOP IT!" she screamed. Grissom ran into the layout room she was in.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing, I...uh...I was yelling at Greg to turn his music down."
Grissom raised a brow. He knew she was lying, but he also knew it was best to not argue with Sara. He nodded and walked out and she buried her face in her arms.
God, this is horrible...I've only just met the man, but...I love him.
Did she just admit that?
"I love him..." she whispered. Her eyes widened- she just said it too. It wasn't a dream, she really loved this man.
What am I supposed to do? I'm going to try and get the information out of him, and if he turns out to be innocent and he figures out who I am, then what will happen?
She sighed as she stood up and walked out of the layout room.
"Grissom?"
Grissom turned to look at Sara from his place in the break room.
"I'm going to take off early tonight."
"Okay."
"See you tomorrow morning."
She walked out nonchalantly and walked to the diner- it wasn't far from the lab. She sighed in relief when she found it was still there and she unlocked the door and got inside. She headed home and took a shower.
As she was drying her hair, a thought popped back into her mind- Sheriff Mobley said to dress nice. Did she have anything formal?
Afraid of what she might find in the dark corners of her closet, she walked over to it hesitantly and slid the door open.
Slacks, slacks, slacks, jeans, jeans, slacks, shirt, shirt, shirt.
She sighed as she continued to search the remnants of her closet.
Shirt, shirt, shirt, jeans, shir- hey, what was that? She raised an eyebrow as she slid the other clothes aside and pulled out something from her closet.
"Holy crap."
Holy crap indeed- she held in her arms a long red dress that ended just below the knees and showed off her back. She was scared- what if this was the only thing she could find?
She searched through her closet desperately now, trying her best to find something else. It was to no avail.
"I swear I must've been drunk when I bought this dress," she sighed as she began to change into it.
She stared at herself in the mirror- she turned around and yelped when she saw how dangerously low the dress actually was. She sighed as she headed back to her closet and much to her surprise, found shoes to go along with the dress.
"Catherine must have something to do with this," she muttered and got to work, trying to do something with her hair.
She looked back over at the clock- it was 6:55. The performance was at 7:45. She took one last look at herself in the mirror before walking into the kitchen and grabbing her bag. She walked out of her apartment and headed to her SUV. She looked at the LVPD sticker in the window- that would be suspicious. As much as she liked the guy, she couldn't let him know who she was. She instead decided to call a cab.
Sara handed the cab driver some money and she got out of the car. She looked around- every time she had been at the Lucky Seven there was a dead body around the corner waiting or in a hotel room. She observed the surroundings further- no dead body. It felt strange to be outside of her home dressed up all nice, but she quickly reminded herself why she was there. She walked through the glass doors to the casino.
She walked through the casino- it was hard to see where she was going with all the lights from the slots and all the people walking around. She finally made it to the bar and sat down.
"Compliments of Mr. Jones."
She looked up to see a waiter standing over her with a beer in his hand. He set it on the table in front of her. She turned to look at the stage and saw Peter sitting at the piano with a smile on his face. He waved at her and she stood up, walking over to him. Completely forgetting why she was there.
"Why, Ms. Sidle, don't you look fine."
"Uh...thanks," she said, her cheeks turning light pink once again. He had that effect on her.
"So, what're you doing here?"
"I came to watch your performance."
He smiled. "Well, I'm glad to see you again."
"Me too," she said with a smile.
He looked around.
"You want to talk after the performance?"
Oh, did she.
"Yeah, that'd be great."
"Okay, I'll come around to get you afterwards and we can talk," he said. He flashed her a big smile- his lips curled over his pearly white teeth and she was absolutely speechless.
"U-I-Okay," was all she managed to get out when he kissed his fingers and brushed them against her lips. He walked off and she went back to the small table she had been sitting at. She glanced at the clock over the bar- it was 7:15. She sipped her beer slowly, waiting patiently for the performance to begin.
More and more people started to arrive and take seats at the emptied tables. Sara listened to the conversations around her- something about a motorcycle, and another conversation was about someone's cousin's wedding. She looked at the clock again. 7:30. She felt butterflies in her stomach flutter around.
What if Grissom found out about this whole thing? He would have her head, that's what would happen.
But what would he be mad about- would he be mad she did this without his consent or the fact that she was in a relationship? Wait, was she even in a relationship? She shouldn't jump to conclusions, she heard Grissom telling her. Her thoughts were interrupted by the lights dimming.
It was time. Now she felt more sick to her stomach than ever.
"Hello ladies and gentlemen." God, his voice was heavenly.
The crowd clapped and some people cheered.
"Tonight I have a very special show for you."
Sara smiled- he knew how to handle a crowd.
"Now, I got to tell you- the strangest thing happened yesterday."
Some of the women were screaming. Sara resisted the urge to laugh.
"I was walking around town and I saw this drunk guy. He was trying to get lucky."
The crowd urged him to continue on.
"So I knocked the guy out and helped the poor woman."
The women cheered and the men made a big commotion.
"And I will tell you, she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life."
Sara blushed as the crowd clapped.
"And she's sitting in this audience tonight."
Everyone looked around as if they knew who he was talking about. Sara tried to disappear.
She looked up to see Peter smiling at her. "Sara, this song's for you."
She smiled as she felt her cheeks turn more red and he started playing the piano along to his song.
"She makes the world stop turnin'."
She put a hand to her head with an uncontrollable smile across her face.
"Wind stop blowin', volcano stop ragin'."
"The sun himself glances down upon her."
"Just to see her smile."
"And every move she makes is graceful."
"She's innocent and pure."
"Like the petals of a white rose."
"White roses, white roses."
She couldn't look at him- was this really happening? He wrote a song for her? It couldn't have been real.
She looked up at him as he continued the song; it was real.
TBC