Guilty Pleasures

The loud knock on the door startled Sara out of her television-induced trance. "Sar, you home?" a male voice called out.

"Oh, no." Quickly, Sara muted the television and wrapped the afghan tighter around her shoulders, covering up the too-small tank top and shorts she was wearing. "Crap, crap, crap, crap! Coming!" she called back.

She unlatched the deadbolt and chain and cracked the door open. "What?" she demanded.

Nick's grin shone back at her. "It's Tuesday."

"Tuesday?" She frowned. "So?"

"So, you agreed that Tuesday afternoon, since it was your night off, you'd help me check out some places to take my sister and her kids when they come out next month."

"That was this Tuesday?" Sara groaned. "I'm sorry; I totally forgot!"

"Hey, it's okay. There's a month before they're here; we can do it some other time."

"No, no, I promised…" Sara glanced back over her shoulder and grimaced. "Just, uh, wait here a minute while I get dressed?"

Now it was Nick's turn to frown. "Out here? Sar, it takes you twenty minutes to change. I'm not waiting out here for twenty minutes." He started to step closer. "In case you haven't noticed, it's hot out here."

Sara moved to block his entrance, body blocking his view of the apartment. "I haven't cleaned; the place is a mess."

"For twenty minutes, I can put up with it."

"But you can't put up with the heat?"

"The mess is air-conditioned." He tried to get past her again, but her grip on the door was deadly.

"Nick, please! I'll be quick!"

"Sara…" He turned as if to go. She relaxed her grip on the door and was just about to push it closed when Nick whirled around, shouldered the door open and tossed Sara over his shoulder, the afghan falling to the floor.

"Nick! Put me down! Nick!" She beat futilely at his back, trying to get him to drop her.

"No way. I want to know what's so bad you don't want me to see." With a few steps, he was standing in the middle of her apartment.

Sara groaned, knowing he'd discover what was on her television. She felt his chuckle against her bare legs.

"Jeez, Sar. Never figured you for this kind of stuff."

Sara groaned. "Just, don't tell anyone at the lab?"

"Why? From the way you were acting, I thought you were watching porn or something!" He picked up the remote and hit the mute button, restoring the sound to VH1's "I Love the 80's."

"It's almost as bad," she grumbled. "No educational value at all."

"Absolutely not," he agreed. "Mind candy."

"Now will you put me down, so I can get ready?"

Nick grinned, rubbing her legs. "I dunno, I kind of like the idea that I finally managed to sweep Sara Sidle off her feet."

"Watch it, Stokes," she growled, tugging lightly on his waistband. "I've got some decent leverage in this position."

Sara found herself slowly being lowered back into an upright position. When her feet hit the floor, she couldn't help but notice just how close Nick was.

"Sara, you should know by now that you can trust me. With anything." He gestured at her television set. "Even your fluffy television shows."

She was acutely aware of his left hand still resting on her right hip, just above the waistband of her pants, just below the hem of her shirt. "I know. It's just…" she swallowed and gave him a weak smile. "It's silly."

"Nothing wrong with silly." His thumb was stroking back and forth, heating up that small patch of skin. "In fact, silly's a great thing on your day off." He leaned in just a touch closer to her. "Means you're unwinding."

Her smile grew a little. "I just…I like them. I missed most of those trends when I was growing up, so it's kind of fun to see them all." She half-shrugged. "Even though I was a little over their target age range, I always wanted a Care Bear. But, between life at home, and…things, I never got one."

He nodded. "Yeah…I wanted a Stretch Armstrong, and my uncle finally came through and got me one. I only got to play with it for a few hours before my sisters swiped it for their Barbies." His comment, and illustrating pout, had the desired effect of making Sara laugh. "C'mon, go get changed, and we'll go check out those sites." He turned her towards her bedroom and swatted her butt before giving her shoulders a push. "Not that I don't appreciate the current outfit, but you'll burn to a crisp."

She stuck her tongue out at him over her shoulder before disappearing into her bedroom, her behind still tingling from the gentle swat. Five minutes later, she emerged, in jeans and a faded blue t-shirt. "All right, Stokes, let's go check out those attractions."

Nick turned off the television with the remote he found on the couch cushions. As they left the apartment, he asked, "Hey, did that one commenter look a lot like Hodges to you?"

-#-

A few days later, Sara slumped into the locker room after a triple shift. The case was one of those that gripped her and wouldn't let her go until she'd exhausted every possibility…or herself. In this case, it was the latter. Grissom practically ordered her to go home and get some sleep, to come back and look at the evidence with fresh eyes. She'd only agreed because she couldn't argue with him without yawning wide enough to crack her jaw.

She opened her locker on autopilot, reaching for her jacket. It was only when her arm brushed something soft that she registered what was sitting there, looking at her with warm brown eyes and an embroidered smile. Her eyes misted over as she recognized the tan-and-white bear with a big red heart on its belly. Picking up the plush toy, a small card fluttered to the floor. She bent to pick it up, cradling the bear in the crook of her elbow, then sat on the bench.

Inside the card were two words.

Love, Nick.