In a word, Nick was frustrated. As soon as he and Sara had gotten back to the lab with the coffee, all hell had broken loose. Their current cases were suddenly shelved as the call went out for all hands on deck. A rather high profile judge up for re-election had been found dead in an alleyway along with his wife and sixteen year old son in a less than savory part of town and the mayor wanted CSI all over it.
Any idea that there would be a single shift and a date to follow that night went right out the window; pulling a double shift would be a lucky thing; it would be far more likely that they'd all be pulling triples. The only person even close to getting to go home soon was Greg simply because he was already well into a double shift when the call came in.
Now here the team was pouring over the alley looking for any shred of evidence to point them in the direction of who might have killed the judge and his family. The distasteful task of notifying the only surviving member of the family, a twenty year old daughter away at college, fell to the sheriff who was a close family friend of the deceased.
"I've got nothing." Sara sounded frustrated. She'd spent the better part of the last hour looking under and around the family's car for any possible trace evidence. From first glance, they'd been killed there, but the question remained: why? If they could answer that, it might shed more light on who had killed them.
"Maybe when we get it back to the garage we'll be able to find something." Nick wanted to sound positive, but he hadn't really done much better. He'd photographed the scene and was about finished and ready to head back to the lab. He knew that the task to comb over the car would fall to him and Sara; and if they couldn't have that date, at least they'd get to spend some time together, even if the circumstances were rather morbid.
"I've got a shell casing." Warrick sounded relieved that he'd found something. He was tired and just wanted to go home and spend some time snuggled up to Tina; holding onto a soft warm body to reassure him that not everything in this life was full of death and darkness; something he saw far too much of in this line of work.
"The tow truck should be here pretty soon." Greg looked completely bleary-eyed as he walked up to where the other three stood; Catherine and Grissom had both left the scene some time ago; Grissom to go with the bodies and Catherine off with Sophia and Brass to start interviewing coworkers and friends of the judge to help get a picture of the real man behind the robe.
"Greg, why don't you go back to the lab and get some shut eye?" Nick looked a little concerned about the younger CSI. Despite consuming copious amounts of coffee, it was clear that what Greg needed was some good old fashioned sleep.
"Don't think I can drive." Greg responded, glad that he had ridden to the scene with Grissom in the first place.
"So we have nothing and one shell casing." Sara harrumphed as she shook her head in disbelief. If she'd thought her previous case had come to a standstill, this one had gotten there at warp speed; of course that could change just as fast. Hopefully the preliminary examination of the bodies from the coroner would yield clues that the scene hadn't.
"Look, we're all tired and I don't think we're going to find anything else out here tonight." Warrick reasoned that someone needed to take charge. "I'll take our evidence and Greg back to the lab." He held up the bindle the bullet casing now resided in and a sort of half smirk graced his face.
"And Sara and I will wait for the tow." Nick could think of worse things than to spend an evening with Sara alone; although he was going to make damn sure that a few uniforms stuck around so that they would have a little extra protection. This was definitely not the part of town that he would choose to take a date into; even if they were both carrying weapons.
Sara couldn't help but snicker a little at the cheerful tone in Nick's voice, but she really wasn't complaining. She'd rather be out here with him that anyone else; and she also wanted to talk to him about how they were going to handle this new relationship in front of their coworkers. It was obvious from tonight that they could clearly remain professional, but if double and triple shifts happened too often, the only time they might be spending large quantities of time together was at work. They were going to have to achieve some sort of balance for this thing between them to have a chance of working out.
"No argument here." Greg mumbled; it was amazing that he was even still standing for someone who was much more asleep than he was awake.
"See you guys back at the lab." Warrick sort of pushed Greg in the general direction of where his Denali was parked and then shot over his shoulder a little barb. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do." A smirk was apparent on his face as he let out a low chuckle at the grin that spread across Nick's face and the embarrassed smile that spread across Sara's.
As Warrick and Greg climbed into the SUV, Sara glanced over at Nick and her left brow arched ever so slightly. "So, what does Warrick know exactly?" It wasn't that she didn't want anyone to know; she just wanted to know what it was that they knew so she wasn't blindsided.
Nick's lips twitched into a boyish smile. "All he knows is that we went on a date...and that I was looking forward to going out with you on a second date. I don't think anyone knows that we're officially dating. That is unless there was someone in my rig earlier that I didn't' know about."
Sara couldn't help but giggle at the image of someone spying on them. "Ok." She tried to put a more serious look on her face as she met Nick's gaze. "But what are we going to tell them all...should we tell them all?" She really didn't know what the consequences were for dating a coworker really; not that she hadn't considered it before when she had Grissom tunnel vision. She just didn't know if the others would have a problem with it, or if it would interfere with their jobs.
Nick gave her a thoughtful glance. "Well, we should at least say something to Grissom since he's our supervisor." A smile spread across his face. "And if Catherine found out about it later and neither of us were the ones that told her, she'd be pretty upset...as for Warrick...I think he'll be glad...he's been telling me that I should ask you out for a while now." Nick wasn't about to tell her just how long that was; although it was something that he was sure Warrick would be happy to tell her.
"That's good." Sara wasn't sure how Grissom or Catherine would take the news; Grissom because it would definitely be clear that it was too late for him to do anything about the feelings that she knew he had but had squashed for years, and Catherine because she was rather protective of Nick and the two women had never particularly bonded in the nearly six years that they'd worked together.
"Of course Greg's another story." Nick couldn't help but chuckle at how Greg would take the news that he and Sara were dating; especially given that he thought he was already dating someone.
"I'll tell Greg." Sara smiled; she liked Greg, and while it was true that the younger CSI had been very open about his attraction to her; her feelings for him were much more sisterly in nature. He'd become a very good friend over the last year in particular and Sara knew that deep down, he valued that friendship far more than any potential relationship that they both knew would never happen. Greg would be happy for her because Sara knew that what he really wanted was for her to be happy; Nick would make her happy, of that she was fairly certain. The question begged as the occasional doubt reared its ugly head, would she really make him happy?