Disclaimer: I don't own them
A/N: Final chapter. As promised, alternate version will be up next week for those who are interested.Thanks for all thereviews.
They didn't work together the next night, though they had seen each other briefly in the locker room.
"We still on for tomorrow at lunch?" Nick had asked, striving to find just the right balance between "definitely interested" and "not too eager".
"Who gets to pick the menu?" Sara asked, as if the question would be a deal breaker.
"Darlin', you get the pick, though I already know what it going to be," he answered.
"Rosarita's," they said in unison. Nick laughed.
"You and your Poblano chiles," he said, shaking his head. "Some day we'll go home, and I'll take you to eat the best Tex Mex there is." He realized how it sounded, talking about the future like that, when he looked up and saw Sara's expression. Her emotions were mixed.
"You're getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you?" she said softly. "We haven't even had our lunch yet."
"If you haven't noticed, Sara, I'm a cup's half full kind of guy," he replied, just as softly.
She stepped closer to him, and Nick could feel his pulse in his throat. Being close to Sara was one thing, but being closed in by her was another.
"I've noticed," was all she said. She then turned and walked away.
"I'll call you," he called behind her, wondering if his voice sounded as desperately in need of oxygen as he felt.
They met at the lab the next day in the early evening, and fussed until Sara finally acquiesced to letting Nick drive his vehicle and leaving hers. He smiled at her awkwardness in letting him open the passenger side door for her. She looked grumpy as she sat in the seat, and he shook his head.
"It's an official lunch date, Sara. I get to open doors for you, and I payand everything," he commented. She glared at him for a moment, but then smiled.
"I'm not used to it," she said.
"You mean casual-fun-guy doesn't open doors for you?" he asked, in mock horror, though it wasn't as mock as he would have liked for it to be. "He should be ashamed." That garnered a look of disapproval from her, so Nick shut the door and laughed. He promised himself that he wouldn't bring the other guy up again. He was cool and confidant, and that was the way he would stay. He figured he needed to play easy with Sara. No need to spook her within the first 20 minutes.
He cranked up the SUV and they headed for Rosarita's, a little Mexican restaurant the two had discovered several years before while on a case. It was perfect in that it was clean, relatively inexpensive, and had a menu that both Nick and Sara could agree on. Nick looked over and noticed that Sara had allowed a little more wave in her hair than normal.
"I like your hair that way. You look really nice," he said. She waswearing a pair of dark jeans and a shirt. The shirt was what Nick thought they called "bohemian" and looked flirtier than Sara's usual. The thin fabric gave a nice view of her silhoulette.
"I like your hair too," Sara said, smiling at his shaggier look.
"Yeah, it hasn't been this long since junior high," Nick said, unconsciously sweep his bangs over to the side some. "You said you like it?"
"Yeah, it's different. Makes you look a little more metro, I guess. It's better than..." then she stopped.
"You can say it." Nick said. Sara looked chagrinned. "The mustache, right?" Nick said. Sara smiled, then giggled.
"I like it better than the 'stache, yeah." She started giggling again. "I'm sorry."
"That's OK," Nick allowed grimly. "I know G's been calling it the 'porn-stache'," he said. Sara looked surprised, but burst into unladylike guffaws. Nick had to laugh as well.
The food at Rosarita's was good, as always. Sara even managed to eat her stuffed poblano peppers without getting any red sauce on her buttery yellow shirt. Nick had the forethought to wear a pair of dark jeans, since his leg is where the sauce always seemed to land.
They followed the quick lunch with walking through some of the shops of the casinos, looking at things neither could easily afford. Nick was surprised at how easy it was to switch from being friendly coworkers to a date. He was holding her hand, and she was letting him open doors. She even let him buy her a pair of earrings she had admired. Of course, first she had to make sure that the sale price was theprice, and even then, she managed to gain another 10 off. She was flirting and letting her body contact his – a quick caress of the back, their legs and hips grazing past each other as they window shopped. They had stopped to look at some sunglasses, both looking for super dark shades, eschewing the blue and yellow tinted lenses available.
Sara had placed a pair on Nick and he was looking in the mirror.
"No, these would have looked better with the short hair," she said, picking another pair up.
"I thought you said you liked the longer hair," Nick protested. Sara leaned in close and pulled the shades off his face. Nick was very aware of how close she was to him as she leaned over.
"I do like it. I'm- I'm getting used to the longer look," she said as she twirled a bit of longish hair at the side of Nick's neck. She was so close that Nick thought he could probably count the eyelashes she had. He had an urge to kiss her then, but he thought it might be too soon for a girl like Sara. She stepped back abruptly and sighed.
"What?" he asked wondering what had stopped the moment.
"I'm wondering why you haven't made a move," she said. "Maybe you aren't that interested in me."
"That's crazy. It's just that this is a first date, a lunch date, and I'm not the kind of guy to move too quickly," Nick said, wishing now he had kissed her just then. Sara stepped back up to him and talked lowly into his ear, her breath sending a shivering sensation down his spine.
"You've known me for what, six years? And now - now I think you are that kind of guy." She leaned back and looked into his eyes.
Nick kissed her then, hard and passionately. It wasn't deferential or questioning. It was a branding kiss, claiming Sara. One arm was holding her tightly against him and his other arm held her neck firmly. As the kiss ended, they stayed still for a moment, letting their heads rest against each other. Both were a little out of breath, as if winded by the intensity of the kiss. Nick opened his eyes, surprising Sara with the fire that burned in them. This was a very different Nick, indeed.
"You want the truth?" he asked, breathlessly. "I want you now, upstairs in a room in this hotel. Truth is, I would want you in the parking lot of this hotel in the back of my Denali. I want you. But I can wait."
"Why?" she asked. He kissed her again, a little gentler, but no less passionate.
"I can wait, because I think you're worth waiting for," he said.
"No. I meant, why would I want to wait?" Sara asked. She met his gaze and arched one eyebrow. "I can say I would prefer the hotel room, and we've got four hours until shift."
Nick's serious look broke into an eager grin. He took Sara's hand and they walked quickly into the hotel lobby. Sara beat him to the punch when it came to pulling out her credit card.
"This way, you have no doubts about my intentions," she said to Nick's unasked question.
They barely made it into the room before Sara was unbuttoning Nick's shirt. She pulled it off of him and pushed him down on the bed, watching him as she kicked off her sandals and pulled off her own shirt. Nick wasn't surprised that Sara liked to be in control. He was surprised at the lacy balconet bra.
"I, uh, didn't think to bring any protection," Nick said in between Sara's passionate kisses. He had just thought of it.
"That's OK. I did," was her answer. Nick figured that was the last step that plunged him head first into love. That or when she said, "I like to be on top."
They lay in the room, watching the night fall over the city. Nicky lay on his back, and Sara was laid against his chest, her fingers intertwining with his. He was lazily stroking her back, wondering at the fact that they were laying there together.
"I don't know about you, but this is the best lunch date I've had," Sara murmured. Nick started to say something, but she began kissing his neck, and all thought left his mind. He wouldn't have guessed that Sara was made for screwing. He had dreamed, but he hadn't guessed.
"You are made for this," Sara said. Nick chuckled.
"I was thinking the same thing about you," he said, and kissed the top of her head, inhaling the fragrance of her shampoo. "Maybe we're just made for each other." He thought Sara stiffened slightly at that, but there she was again, kissing across his chest. He closed his eyes and sighed. "We should do this again tomorrow," he said.
"It might get expensive," Sara laughed. She leaned up and stretched, grabbing her discarded bra and matching(!) panties. "I am going to jump into the shower before we have to head into work." She started towards the bathroom. "Care to join me?"
An hour later they were making their way back to his Denali. Nick couldn't believe that he was holding Sara's hand; his mind was still reeling, in a good way, from how the lunch date had gone. He halfway hoped that they wouldn't be working together on a case tonight. It would be too hard to concentrate on evidence of a crime when the evidence of Sara was still on him. Even now, he thought he could smell her shampoo on him.
"Nick?" Sara asked, breaking Nick out of his reverie. By this time they were driving to the lab. "We're not going to say anything about this, are we?"
"No. I don't kiss and tell," Nick said. "Besides, all the male lab techs would be so jealous that my samples would be on the bottom of everyone's list. Not to mention Greg." Sara rolled her eyes at his answer.
"Good," she said. "I like for my personal life to be, well, personal."
"Agreed," Nick said. "But I have one question." Sara's gave him a look as if to say, 'go ahead'. "When are we going out again?" He was encouraged by her smile.
"I have plans tomorrow, and you have to work, right?" she said. Nick nodded, trying to forget that her plans were with Casual-Fun-Guy. Once Nick might have demanded exclusivity, but Sara was a grown woman, and she was a woman who would not like being told what to do. Nick could deal with another man, for now. If this were meant to be, Sara would drop him on her own.
And that's when Nick knew he had really transformed. He wasn't so insecure as to force Sara's hand; he could wait this out and let her see him for who he was. He was confidant in himself. And if Sara wasn't the one, she was out there, somewhere.
He and Sara shared a brief kiss that only hinted at where they had been and hour ago. She looked furtively around the parking lot before kissing him again, this time a little less chaste. She then checked herself in the mirror on the back of the sun visor.
"You look beautiful," he told her. And it was true, down to every little line starting to creep up around her eyes and the gap between her teeth. He loved that she blushed, but didn't try to deny it.
"So are you," she said. Nick could feel the blush creeping up his neck and into his ears and face. "Today was new for me," Sara said. "I don't want you to think that I hop into bed with just anyone over a date."
"A lunch date," Nick reminded her, smiling. Sara glared at him.
"I'm trying to tell you that you're special, to me," Sara said. Nick responded by reaching over and taking her hand.
"Then I guess that's something we have in common," he said. They shared a smile for a moment, then exited the SUV.
Nick had been altered by the last year - enough to make a play for Sara, and to appreciate who she was. He could let her make the next move. He hoped that Casual-Fun-Guy would be out of Sara's life sooner rather than later, but he was willing to put himself out there and get hurt, because he knew he was strong enough to take it.
Nick knew his own strength, and he knew what he wanted. For the first time in his life, Nick was his own man, unworried about approval. It was a big change, a good change. As he watched Sara walk into the lab a step ahead of him, he decided it was a great change.
A/N - I was afraid this wasn't a strong enough ending, but I wanted to leave it open for the imagination. Let me know what you think.