I'mAMonkey – It would definitely be easy to write this if I just gave Katie to Nick but I like to keep people in suspense – I'm glad you're enjoying the story – thanks for reviewing.
Daisyangel – Thanks for reviewing the last chapter – you'll just have to wait and find out if you're right!
jewelbaby – interesting guess, a kid is quite a popular choice for people – thanks for reviewing.
Dying Angel1 – thanks for reviewing!
CatherineLouise – Thanks for your review - twins eh? Not a bad guess but I can't reveal it just yet…
I want George – thanks for reviewing!
Sabrina – Thanks for reviewing – sorry but I'm going to make you wait before I reveal what her secret is…
A Christy – lol. I heard my sister say that line (btw she is 20 years old!) and I thought 'I have to get it in somewhere!' – thanks for reviewing!
Aaunty Pasta – You'll just have to wait and see if she does – thanks for reviewing!
Charmin-Lady – Thanks for your review!
Some interesting guesses – here's the next chapter…
Chapter 7As the weeks rolled by it was old news that Katie was the 'fresh meat' in the Las Vegas crime lab and she had finally settled in. Warrick still continued to hint to her that she should open up and let her guard down with Nick but she was still being stubborn and refusing to let her true feelings surface towards him, deciding to concentrate on her work instead.
Nick was still trying to find the right moment to talk with Katie. Warrick's hints from their conversation a few weeks back on how to talk to Katie had been very helpful but he had never found the right moment to instigate a conversation. She and him had not been paired up for a case since the first one and was praying for Grissom to put the two together where maybe he could get a little closer. He had decided not to bring up the almost kiss with her and wished he had not tried to kiss her so soon. He was frightened he may have scared her off.
Katie stood in front of a dead body sat on his chair in front of the TV. She clicked away on her camera, shooting every angle of the deceased man until the coroner placed him in a body bag and took him for an autopsy to see the cause of death. It appeared to the coroner that he had been electrocuted, as no marks were found on his body and eyewitnesses had seen lightening strike the TV aerial on top of the house. 'Who'd have thought it?' she silently thought as Nick was walking over to her.
Finally the two had been put on a case together and were trying to ignore their thoughts by keeping professional. Nick was still searching for the opportune moment to speak with his colleague personally but every time he tried to there would be an interesting piece of evidence brought up by someone.
"Well, I just talked to the officer and the neighbours heard loud voices just before the lightening struck the house. Do you have any ideas?" Nick asked.
"I don't know. But whatever it was that caused the lightening must have been some sort of man-made conductor. There is no way the TV aerial could attract that much power," she replied.
"I've cleared the house so we can take a look around." Nick and Katie proceeded to search the rest of the house for any kind of conductor at all.
They quickly managed to search most of the house by splitting up and soon they reached a final untouched room.
As the two entered they were both feeling awkward, preferring to take pictures than look at each other. Each was wondering if the other knew that they had spoken with Warrick and if they still remembered the ending of that car ride, not that either of them could forget. Katie quickly finished photographing her half of the room and tried to open the door. It would not open.
"Nick? Did you lock the door?"
Nick turned round from where he was looking to face the female, "No, why?"
"The door is locked."
"What? How? We don't have the key."
Katie started to panic, "Oh my God. What are we going to do? There are no windows in the room. Oh God, we are going to die. The room will fill with carbon dioxide-"
Nick went over and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Ok, calm down. We are not going to die. We'll just call someone and they will open the door. Pass me your cell phone."
"I don't have it. It's in my car."
"What? I don't have mine either," Nick replied. Katie's eyes widened, "It's ok, we'll just wait for the police officer to find us."
"Nick they left. You said we were alright so they took off."
"Shit. Ok, it is going to be fine. We'll just have to wait patiently and someone is sure to find us." Katie slowly slid down to the ground and began to take deep breaths.
"This is probably a bad time to say this but I have a very small, but very real phobia of closed spaces. Soon I will freak out."
He sat beside her and placed a reassuring arm around her, "Soon?" She gave him one of her sideways glances and he realised it probably wasn't the best time to contradict her, "It's fine. Just relax."
40 minuets later and still there was no sign of help on the way. Nick and Katie had sat in complete silence in this time, apart from the occasional deep breathing of Katie, who Nick had thought may have passed out by the look on her face.
"Nick, no one is coming. We are not going to be found. We have to do something."
"Ok." Nick decided the take charge and stood up, followed by Katie. "Well we can't break the door in case any evidence is destroyed but frankly I think that is our only option." He tried to kick the door but ended up falling straight onto his butt. Katie couldn't help but stifle a laugh.
"That was feeble, Nick."
Nick stood up, "At least I'm trying something. The door must be made of lead."
"Yeah, lead that just happens to look like wood?"
He mumbled a 'whatever', which caused Katie to smile at his cuteness before quietly scolding herself for started to give in to her feelings.
"This is useless," Nick said. He turned to see Katie stood very close to him and he couldn't help feeling bewitched by her presence. The two made eye-contact and held their gaze. They started to lean in to each other…
"Nick? Katie?" The two pulled apart to hear the voice of Brass calling for them.
Nick groaned, "Yeah, we're in here." A few seconds later and the door opened to a jolly-looking Brass standing in the doorframe.
"Where were you guys? We have been trying to contact you two for a good few hours."
Katie walked past Brass and took a few deep breaths. "I never thought I'd be so happy to be breathing. We got locked in the room and we didn't have our cell phones. Thank you for coming." She quickly glanced at Nick before mumbling an excuse about having to go to the crime lab before rushing off.
Brass looked towards Nick, "Did I interrupt something?"
Nick groaned before walking away to a confused-looking Brass.
Katie was busy typing away on the keyboard in one of the evidence rooms, researching electrical currents. She had rushed back to the crime lab to start researching, but also to get away from Nick. She did not know if she could contain herself around him anymore after that close call.
She was unaware Sara come in to the room and sat at the computer beside her.
"Hey Katie, what are you up to?" Sara asked, sliding into the chair beside her and logging on to the computer.
"I'm just researching the joy that is an electrical current. We got a dead body that was electrocuted and I'm just seeing what could have conducted such a large current."
"Nice. Beats a stolen artefact from a museum. The owner is completely over-analysing and freaking out," Sara said, rolling her eyes.
"Good luck. Rather you than me."
"A rumour is going round that you and Nick were locked in close quarters together. Any truth?"
Katie furiously typed away on the keyboard, trying to busy herself, "Uh… yeah. We just got locked in a room at the crime scene. No big deal."
"Locked in a room with Nick? There are ladies in this crime lab that would kill to be in that position."
Katie nervously laughed, "Well they're welcome to it." She tried to avoid Sara's gazing eyes, "I better go pass some information on. See you later."
Sara smile, "Later."
Katie left Sara to her work and met Nick in the corridor.
"Hey, I found some examples of man-made conductors. Nothing matches what we found at the crime scene but it had to be of a substantial size to cause such a shock to the man."
Nick sighed, "Ok, we'll-" He was cut off by the sound of Katie's cell phone ringing.
"Hello? Yeah, I'm fine… I've finished now so I'll see you at home soon… ok don't worry… bye." She hung up the phone, "Sorry."
"Is everything ok?" he asked.
"Uh… it's fine. I'm going to go now since the shift has finished. See you tomorrow." Katie walked away, leaving Nick alone in the corridor. He was contemplating on whether he should catch her and tell her how he feels, not knowing if he had missed his opportune moment. 'Come on Nick, pull it together, go after her,' he thought.
Katie was half-way across the car lot, heading out to her car when she heard her name being called out by someone. She turned to see Nick running towards her.
"Nick, are you ok?"
"Yeah, I… uh…," he panted as he bent over to catch his breath. "I just wanted to say… I hope things are ok with us after today."
"Yeah, everything's fine."
"And I wanted to… Ok, I'm going to come out and say this. I like you. A lot. And I want to know if you would like to go out on a date with me?" He held his breath in anticipation of her answer. She looked at him for a moment, an inward battle occurring between her heart and her head, and one of them finally gave in.
"Ok."
"You know I completely understand if you don't-" Nick stopped. "You said ok?" She nodded. "As in yes?"
She smiled, "As in yes."
"That's great, how about tonight? We both have the night off, I checked," He grinned.
"Tonight's fine. 7 o'clock?"
"Yep. See you then." Nick watched as Katie walked to her car and drove off. As soon as her car was out of sight, he punched the air with his fist, "And Stokes hits a home run! Yes!" He whooped with joy and ran back to the lab, excited for his date.
Thanks to all that review. Chapter 8 should be on it's way soon...
Keep your guesses coming in... you'll all find out Katie's secret in Chapter 8...