A Nightmare in Seattle

Pairing: Sara and Nick (Snickers)

After Nigel is arrested and taken to a federal prison, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and Washington are safe. Now, Sara will spend some time with Deanna at a day spa while Nick is with Zach.

A/N: Chapters 12 and 13 occur simultaneously. This chapter has Sara and Deanna at the day spa.

A/N2: This chapter contains references to rape, abuse and murder. Consider yourselves warned.

Disclaimer: I don't own Nick, Sara, or any other CSI: Vegas character. I own the character Deanna and the other Seattle CSIs.

Sara and Deanna

"Deanna, what do you think is going on with our guys?" Sara asked as an aesthetician applied a body masque made with avocado and lavender on her body with a brush.

"I am pretty sure Zach dragged Nicky to a Washington Huskies basketball game," Deanna chuckle as her aesthetician applied a pumpkin and ylang ylang body masque on her body. "Maybe they took a ride to Tacoma, Bellevue or San Juan Islands. I just hope that whatever they are doing, they won't have a friendly banter session about which city has the best football team this season: Seattle, Dallas, New Orleans or New England."

"There's a part of me that would love to see what Nick and Zach are up to," Sara said.

"Me too," Deanna replied.

Flashback – 3 hours earlier

"Sara, I am going with Zach around town," Nick said. "You go to Deanna's favorite day spa with her."

"Don't worry, Sara," Zach reassured her. "I'll make sure Nicky doesn't flirt with the local girls. Just have a good time and get to know Deanna a little more. I am pretty sure with the creepy Nigel Crane business didn't afford you that opportunity."

"Sara, come with me," Deanna coaxed her. "It is my treat and you could use the pampering and stress relief. You will enjoy the massage that they give, it is heaven!"

"I tried to tell her that for a few years already," Nick chuckled. "I am glad you are pushing her in the right direction, Dee Marie."

"Sara, our appointment is at 10:00," Deanna said. "You boys behave yourselves or you'll really hear it from me!"

End of flashback

"Sara, I brought you here to relax and get pampered," Deanna said after a brief silence. "I also want to get to know my cousin's girlfriend. I might tell you a few things about Nicky that if he found out I told you, he'd kick my ass."

"Deanna, how did you become a CSI?" Sara asked.

"It's a very interesting story," Deanna replied. "When I was a little girl, I had always wanted to either work for the United Nations as an interpreter since I speak several languages or a fashion designer. In high school, I helped design some of the costumes for my schools productions. The teacher who supervised me told me that I had a gift and I should consider entering the field and recommending some colleges to apply to."

"You could have rubbed elbows with Donna Karan, Vera Wang, Kenneth Cole or Stella McCartney!" Sara was amazed. "What happened that made you go from fashion design to crime scene investigating?"

"I spent my freshman year at a rural college outside Saint Louis," Deanna continued. "I was so happy and enthusiastic about preparing for my career. One night, I returned to my dorm from having a study/social get together with a few friends at a nearby coffeehouse. I wanted to get some laundry done since I was low on clean clothes. There was a strange and nasty looking young man lurking in the common area of the dorm. He saw me and tried to grab me, but I fought back. I ran out of the building and he came after me. He caught up with me and brutally raped me. When it was over, I was lying on the ground naked, shivering and hysterical crying in pain. Two campus security officers saw me and I told them what had happened. One of the officers covered me with his jacket and tried to keep me calm while his partner called for medical assistance. The last few things I can remember was being airlifted to a hospital in Saint Louis, being taken care of in the trauma room and wheeled to the operating room to repair some internal damage. I woke up two days later to my parents, my brother, two or three police officers and my doctor in the room. I learned that I had suffered a broken left arm, collarbone, a few broken ribs, a punctured lung and numerous bruising."

Deanna took a deep breath and was quiet for a few moments. Sara looked at her to continue.

"I was in the hospital for a week and a half," Deanna said. "After I was released, I stayed at a friend's place for the remainder of the semester. My professors or instructors came to give me the lectures as I was recovering. I shaved off my beautiful long wavy hair and gained 40 pounds due to the trauma. It wasn't until the end of that semester I had an epiphany. I decided to refuse to be a victim, but a survivor and wanted to help fellow victims. I registered for biology, chemistry and psychology classes for the following semester. I also lost the 40 pounds and grew back my beautiful long hair. Then I applied to transfer to UCLA, Michigan, Washington, Connecticut and Cornell. You know where I wound up going. It wasn't until I went to Dallas to visit Nicky and the rest of the Stokes clan during Spring break 1997 that my life changed for the better. I was sitting in the guest house of Stokes Ranch reading an Anne Perry novel when Nicky came in and wanted to take me on a ride along with him around Dallas. At first I was reluctant, but he already did the paperwork and made the arrangements with his boss. When it was over, I knew that it was my calling. He asked me if I would like to work with the Dallas Police Department, but I told him that I fell in love with Seattle and wanted to make it my permanent home."

"Was he disappointed?" Sara asked.

"No, it turned out that he was glad that I found a home," Deanna smiled. "Even if I did work in Dallas, I wouldn't have worked with Nicky at all since he moved to Vegas a few months after the ride along. I graduated a year later and joined the Seattle Police Department and attended graduate school. After getting my masters degree, I became a CSI. How about you? How did you become one?"

"When I was almost thirteen," Sara started after taking a deep breath. "My parents were constantly fighting. My dad beat my mom, sometimes my brother and I were caught in the crossfire. One day, he really beat me for violating some absurd rule and for my mom was the straw that broke the camel's back. She ran to the kitchen, grabbed the biggest knife she could find and stabbed him to death. She was arrested and charged with first degree murder. After the trial and guilty verdict, she was sentenced to life in prison. My brother and I were bounced around foster homes until we each turned eighteen. The last foster home I was in, the family was so sweet, kind and encouraged me to follow my goals and aspirations. My foster dad persuaded me to apply to Harvard and a few other schools. I attended Harvard and majored in physics. One day, I went to a seminar that was given by a Gil Grissom who was working for the San Francisco Crime Lab at the time. When it was over, I introduced myself and we had an interesting conversation over coffee. He told me that the San Francisco Crime Lab is always looking for people and that I should consider working there after graduation. After I got my Bachelors degree, I started working on my masters degree, but I dropped out afterwards. I applied for a job at the Crime Lab and Grissom was my mentor and boss until he got transferred to Vegas. He recruited me out of San Francisco to investigate Warrick Brown's involvement in the fatal shooting of a rookie CSI on her first day on the job. The rest is history."

"I am so sorry to hear about your upbringing," Deanna said. "Do you keep in touch with that nice foster family?"

"I call them once a week and email them every other day," Sara smiled. "They are proud of my accomplishments and brag to their friends about their criminalist foster daughter."

"I wish our aestheticians would just get back here," Deanna whined. "I am starting to feel a little sticky from the masque. What about you?"

"I am not yet sticky," Sara chuckled.

Their aestheticians showed up, cleaned off the masques and took the two women to separate rooms for their massage. They emerged an hour later and dressed in bathrobes for lunch.

"Sara, how did you meet my cousin Nicky?" Deanna asked. "I always hear about his prospective. I would like to hear yours."

"It all started when Nick's friend Warrick Brown left a rookie CSI name Holly Gribbs alone at a dangerous crime scene so he could place a bet for a corrupt judge," Sara said. "She was shot several times and taken to the hospital. Gil Grissom recruited me out of San Francisco to investigate Warrick. As soon as I arrived in Vegas, I went to the hotel where Grissom was supervising a demonstration to show the victim was pushed out of a window of the Presidential suite. This demonstration however was done on a rooftop. Your cousin threw dummies off that rooftop. I was talking with Grissom about old times and asked him why Warrick left Holly alone. A few moments later, Nick came down with his clothes covered in that roof dust. Grissom introduced and Nick looked at me with his charming grin. We could have flirted or gotten hooked at that moment, I had to find and confront Warrick about his actions. Meanwhile, Holly died on the operating table before I found him in a casino gambling. After handling the investigation, I was hired full time. However, it was a bumpy road to get Nick and I together in a romantic relationship. I was originally in love with Grissom, but I was friends with Nick. Then I dated a paramedic name Hank, but it ended when I learned that he was using me to cheat on his girlfriend."

"Nicky told me that Hank is a fucking skank," Deanna said. "Believe me, I had been there myself and it sucks ass. Nobody deserves to be treated that way. I wish that Nicky would have told me and I would have flown to Vegas to take care of that rotten skunk from hell."

"I am perfectly capable of taking care of that fucking asshole myself," Sara chuckled. "You want to know how Nick and I finally got together. It was after one of our beloved detectives was killed in the line of duty and it affected both of us. Nick invited me to his place to have dinner and to talk. We agreed to start dating and the rest is history. So, how did you and Zach meet?"

"When I was a first semester junior in college," Deanna said. "I went to Japan to study abroad. How I first met him was a case of mistaken identity because he looked like a guy I went to high school with. I ran up to him and said, 'hey Jeff, long time, no see!'. I knew I made an ass of myself when he didn't respond right away. When he did, the Bostonian accent was a dead giveaway that he wasn't Jeff. We introduced ourselves and walked to a teahouse that served the best sweets in Tokyo. I learned that he was a pre-law student at Boston College and his family's a part of Boston Society. I told him that I was a double major in psychology and biochemistry and my family's part of New Orleans society. However, we weren't spoiled rotten and entitled kids, our families expected us to cultivate a work ethic. The semester went by and we had to go back to the States. We forgot to exchange addresses before parting. However, when I started my senior year at Washington, there was an interesting twist of fate. I was reunited with Zach and found out that he was attending law school at Washington. We resumed dating almost immediately. When I started working for the Seattle Police Department and my graduate studies, he proposed."

"Nick told me that the wedding was one of the most beautiful he has ever been to," Sara smiled.

"It was despite that punk cousin of ours making an idiot of himself," Deanna chuckled reflecting on her wedding day. "Sara, do you think Nicky will pop the question in the near future?"

"I am not sure if and when he'll do it," Sara shrugged.

"He loves you so much," Deanna beamed. "I have a feeling it will be sooner than later."

"I love him a lot," Sara smirked. "I want to wake up everyday with him."

"He feels the same way about you," Deanna chuckled.

They finished their lunch and drank some calming herbal tea. Both women still wondered what their men have been up to. Their aestheticians allowed them to relax another half an hour before they had to go for their facials. When they finished and put back their street clothes, Deanna paid for their pampering and bought Sara a mini spa kit for when she needed instant pampering at home. As soon as they left, they walked around the shops and did a little shopping.

TBC