Nick had been so engrossed in carving his pumpkin that he hadn't really been paying attention to what Sara was carving into hers; although he'd stolen more than a few glances at her wondering why he'd been so stupid to not have asked her out sooner. Of course there had been the Grissom factor to consider; and then after he'd been abducted and buried alive, his confidence that she would have gone out with him out of anything other than pity had flagged a bit. But regardless of all that, he was glad that they were out now on what he hoped was the first of many dates. The fatigue he was going to feel later during shift was well worth it if what his gut was telling him was right.
Sara had hardly looked up from her pumpkin as she carefully and methodically carved. She could tell that Nick kept looking over at her, and she couldn't' help but smile as she recalled the kisses that they'd shared just a short time ago. Everything that had made her decide that Nick was the kind of man that would make a good dad, made her realize that he was also the kind of man that she should have been looking to date for years. If she'd been able to see what she really needed, she could have avoided the Hank disaster altogether and perhaps realized that although Grissom was a brilliant man; he was not the man for her.
Nick cut a few more tiny pieces of pumpkin flesh off of his pumpkin before he put his knife down and sat back with a satisfied grin to admire his work. "I think I've got you beat here, Sar." He was so completely confident that he had the superior pumpkin that he hadn't even glanced over to study Sara's now that his was finished.
She simply raised a single brow as she continued to carve away. "Oh, you think so, huh?" She was close to being done, but still had a few details that she wanted to carve into it before she turned it towards Nick so he could get the full effect.
"Yep, years of Stokes honor is on the line here." He had his arms crossed over his chest as he looked across the table at her. For the first time he actually looked at her pumpkin. As he did, his confident smile drooped a bit and his eyes widened. "What is that?" He wasn't sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing, and if he was, there was no question that his pumpkin hadn't even come close to the one Sara had carved.
Sara could hear the bewilderment in his voice and she glanced up at him and smiled softly. "What does it look like?" She looked at Nick with a hopeful expression that he could figure it out on his own.
"Whales." He narrowed his gaze as he studied it more closely. "Couple of different kinds." His grin widened as he looked up at her. "I didn't know you were so artistic."
"There's a lot you don't know." Sara felt herself blush before she cleared her throat and turned her attention back to her pumpkin, spinning it around so Nick could see the rest of it. Sara pointed out a few of the more obvious things that she'd carved. "There's a pair of Humpback whales, a pair of Orcas and some seals and porpoises."
"I think I'd better retire and warn my family not to take you on during pumpkin carving time." Nick was grinning like a fool at Sara. In the back of his mind, he'd be more than pleased to have the opportunity to have Sara around his family for that sort of event.
"So are you saying that I won?" Sara couldn't resist teasing Nick. She could tell from the look on his face that there was no question in his mind that she had.
"Did you win?" Nick snickered. "Sar, you not only kicked my ass, you cleaned up the floor with it. My mean looking cat here can't even compete." He spun his own pumpkin around to reveal a rather menacing looking cat with an arched back.
"It's very Halloweeny." Sara offered as she took in the precision and clean lines that he'd carved into his gigantic pumpkin.
Nick grinned at her. "Well, thanks, but you still won."
"What did I win?" The thought occurred to Sara that while Nick had indicated that they were going to have a contest, he never did specify if there was a prize involved.
Nick gave her a thoughtful smile. "Uh, I guess I didn't really think about that...but I know if I had been the one to win...I wouldn't mind kissing you again." He wiggled his eyebrows at her to help reinforce his point.
Sara giggled. "I'll keep that in mind if we have a rematch." She really wouldn't have minded kissing Nick again, but she was having fun relishing in beating him at something he'd been so confident in winning that stringing him along for a little while sounded like a good idea to her.
Properly chagrinned, Nick smirked at her. "Well I seem to be fresh out of pumpkins." Given that pumpkin innards were still clinging to their clothes and that the walls and floors still weren't completely clean from their pumpkin fight earlier that was probably a good thing.
"I guess we'll just have to wait until next year for that rematch then." Sara smirked back at him a bit impishly. She had no intention of waiting that long to kiss Nick again, especially since he seemed rather eager to kiss her.
Nick just chuckled and shook his head in amusement. "A whole year, Sidle, do you think you can wait that long?" He knew he couldn't wait that long. He wanted to spend some quality time kissing her again before the end of their date; which based on the time displayed on his watch was going to have to be soon if either of them were going to get much sleep before shift.
"I can, but I'm not sure you can." She was openly grinning at him; thoroughly enjoying this flirty banter going back and forth between them. She really didn't want the date to end, but she also knew that despite her brazen request, she really wasn't ready for things between them to get too physical too early if they wanted to see if a real romance between them would work.
Nick laughed and then smiled at her as his eyes seemed to caress her face. "I could, but I don't really want to." He really didn't see a point at beating around the bush; he'd known Sara for a long time and he wanted to see where things between them might really go if given the chance.
Her grin widened and her eyes seemed to sparkle. "I don't really want to either." She pulled herself up from where she was sitting and moved around to the side of the table he was sitting on. "But since I'm the one who won...I think you need to kiss me."
Nick tried to swallow a smile without much success and then reached out for her hand, pulling her to sit in his lap. "I think I can accommodate that." He leaned in and softly kissed her, smiling against her lips as he felt her arms slide around his neck.