A/N: For Lina on her 18th. I am so very sorry.

Disclaimer: Wish I owned them, but I'm only playing.

Pot Plants

It had not, in fact, been Grissom (48, single, socially inept) giving her a plant that had caused Sara Sidle (32, single, volatile) to reconsider her leave of absence submission.

It had been Nick Stokes (32, single, dependable) taking her out for a drink and the events that followed that changed her mind.

"I handed in a request for a leave of absence today," she said, over Mai Tais in a quiet (for Vegas) bar outside the centre of town.

Nick almost choked on his drink. "Pardon?"

"I just can't work with Grissom. He doesn't show any respect for me or who I am."

"Grissom's a good guy, Sara. He's socially deficient, but good." Nick was frowning.

"Yet he doesn't bother to learn one of the principal things about me …" Her gaze was defensive, lower lip curled.

"You hardly made it a widely-publicised fact," Nick said gently.

They sat in silence, conversations from around them lapping at their ears. Then, Sara pushed out her chair, face crumpled as a piece of scrap paper. "I'm off now." And laying down some change on the table, said, "let's go Dutch," and practically ran off out the doors.

When she arrived back at her apartment with tear tracks down her face and a bottle of wine in her hand, she kicked off her shoes into the steadily growing pile at the door. The phone rang. "Hello?" she said into the receiver, resisting the urge to sob.

"Hi Sara."

"Nick."

"You didn't seem too happy when you left tonight. I thought I'd check up on you, make sure you got home okay."

"Thanks but I'm fine," she replied, grabbing a face cloth and wiping away the salty marks.

"Are you sure? You don't sound so fine." He'd obviously caught the sob in her voice.

"No, but I will be."

"Sara, I'm coming over. Someone has to share the alcohol you bought."

She smiled despite herself. "You know me so well."

"Give me ten minutes."

"No, wait!" However, she could hear his phone click off. "Bastard," she muttered and rushed to clear the junk away from the front door. Sara Sidle was not a slob.

Eight and a half minutes later (not that she was watching the clock) the doorbell rang. "Hi," she said opening it.

He smiled and she wanted to collapse into his arms, crying. She restrained herself (just) and managed a croaky "hello" back. "Do you want a drink?" she asked, hanging up his coat and taking him through to the lounge.

"Whatever you're drowning your sorrows with," he replied with a smirk.

"White wine okay then?" she said, pouring two generous glasses.

"So, to my new life ahead of me," she said, holding up her glass, and promptly burst into tears.

He moved to sit beside her and placed one sturdy arm around her shoulders. "It's all right sunshine. It's going to be okay."

"I don't want to leave," she wailed, burying her head in his chest. "I like work so much!"

"I know, Sara."

"I can't work with Grissom. I can't stay at a place where I," she choked, "have feelings for my supervisor."

"You should move on from him maybe, get over the fact that he has the social skills of those bugs he loves," Nick said with what seemed to Sara like excessive anger.

"Grissom would probably say that bugs have high social capabilities," she said, laughing soggily.

"Not those grasshoppers. They eat each other," Nick said darkly. "Sara, seriously, move on."

"I tried," she sniffed. "I went out to dinner with Hank, you know, just a little while ago. But it's so difficult."

"Sara half the guys at work are madly in love with you. You're not exactly going to struggle to find sleeping partners in this world."

"Yeah, they're all madly in love with me. That's a good line for cheering me up, Nick. Except there isn't anyone."

"Of course, no one at all. Just David, Greg and Archie," Nick said, listing them off on his fingers, somewhat irritably. "Rex from day shift thinks you're hotter than Cath, which is saying something given his obsession with her a couple of years back. Shall I go on?"

"Greg likes me?" Despite herself, Sara was curious. And a little flattered.

"Ickle Greggo has a bit of a crush actually."

"Who else?"

"Bobby in ballistics thinks you're cute," Nick shifted uncomfortably and took his arm from around her shoulders. "Then there's me."

It took a while for the final part to register. "Did you just say what I think you said?"

Nick coughed and looked down at his hands. "Yes."

"Oh, Nick." She chewed her lip, confused and unsettled.

"Don't 'oh, Nick' me, Sara. I like you. I've always liked you." If he had tacked a 'so there' onto the end his tone couldn't have sounded more childish. "But I went out with other women, I got over the ice queen I was never going to have because she was addicted to Gil Grissom, I tried not to stare at you constantly, I tried to stop you from knowing. I'm sorry."

"So you were staring at my ass when we investigated the Stark murder?" It was the only coherent sentence that came to mind.

Nick had the decency to look embarrassed. "I may have been, yes. You just looked so cute in that crash helmet."

"Which is why you didn't look at my face once, right?"

"See! This is what I like about you. It's simple. There's no complications, there's no awkwardness."

"I've got Hank." Her voice was uncertain but she was smiling at him, a rare sight on Sara Sidle's face.

"Hank is an idiot."

"I trust I have better taste than to sleep with an idiot," she replied. "Although, with the asinine way you're behaving at the moment, I might rethink that."

"Oh, stop flirting with me, Sara," Nick said, using his thumb to gently wipe the tears from beneath her eyes.

"I believe you've used that line on me before, Stokes."

"That's because you keep on giving me need to use it."

She smiled again, the traces of tears gone from her face, and Nick leaned forward and kissed her. She could feel the heat of his body against hers and, as uncomfortable as her couch was for kissing, she didn't want it to end for a very long time. One of his hands was on her back and the other brushing through his hair and she could feel her own hands (it didn't seem as if she was quite present) running up and down his back, making him shiver against her.

They broke apart and Nick looked awkwardly at her. "Sorry."

"For the fantastic kissing or for your hand not going straight to my breasts, as every woman so obviously wants?" She stroked his arm. "There's nothing to be sorry about - although we've effectively ruined our friendship forever."

"Were we all that close anyway?"

She laughed.

"Stay in Las Vegas," he said, dark eyes pleading.

It was then that she made her decision. "Okay," and reaching over to her phone, she dialed Grissom's number. Answerphone. "Grissom? It's Sara. I've been rethinking what I said and I'd like you to destroy my Leave of Absence forms. Thanks."

"Hopefully he won't call back," Nick said.

"Why not?" Sara asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Because I'd like a tour of your apartment," he smirked. "Especially your bedroom."

It was the next morning when she padded out of bed, leaving Nick sleeping peacefully, and turned on the coffee that she noticed the plant on her doorstep.

Grissom.