Disclaimer: I don't own them, I didn't create them, and I don't profit from them, but as always, coffee is on me if George and Jorja have the time.

Author's Note: This is a post-ep to Rashomama and what might have promted the snippets of debate about weddings between Nick and Sara.


The knock at Nick's door shook him out of a well deserved slumber. He wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep, but it couldn't be nearly long enough considering how long it had been since he had been allowed some decent sleep. Eleven hours working a crime scene and an additional fourteen hours plus waiting for the Internal Affairs Bureau to show up to interview him since his truck had been stolen with all of the evidence from the crime scene inside had turned it all into a blur.

He mumbled to himself on the way to answer the door, his newly shortened hair mussed and his t-shirt and boxers rumpled. "This better be important."

To say he was surprised when he opened the door was an understatement. "Sara." His drawl was thick and a bit slurred from sleep but he found Sara a welcome site with the way she'd let her hair curl all around her face; she'd obviously gotten a shower since he'd last seen her. "What're you doin' here?"

"I couldn't sleep." That was the truth, but it wasn't for lack of being tired; she'd had thoughts looping in her mind preventing that sleep. She'd even gone so far as to take a long hot shower to try and relax, but the moment she crawled into bed, she found herself just staring up at the ceiling as the thoughts looped again. She looked at Nick taking in his slightly grouchy demeanor and couldn't help but smile. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"S'ok." Nick ran his fingers through his hair as he let her inside and then shut the door. If it had to be anyone at the door, he was glad that it was her. Things between them on this case had been interesting to say the least and he felt like there were several things he needed to put out in the open so they were ok again. He just hoped that it wouldn't take too long and he could get back to sleep soon.

"I couldn't sleep." Sara repeated herself as they faced each other. She was slowly nibbling at her lower lip as she garnered her courage to do what she'd come there for.

Nick chuckled softly. "That's what you said." He was beginning to wonder what had really prompted her to come over here when she knew he would be sleeping. She had an earnest look about her that Nick was finding incredibly sexy, but then he'd always found her sexy almost from the day he'd met her.

"Yeah." Sara swallowed hard and studied Nick for a fraction of a second before she plowed ahead. "Uh, I was wondering...uh, that is..." Nerves were rushing around in the pit of her stomach as she took another step towards him and her voice turned a bit husky as she looked up into his eyes. "I was hoping I could borrow your hands."

Nick looked at her with a slightly confused expression until he realized that she had started to unbutton her blouse, revealing a rather lacy bit of lingerie. "Hmm, you want to borrow my hands." He wanted a little bit of clarification before he made any assumptions. The last thing he wanted to do was to assume he knew what she wanted and piss her off because he'd gotten it all wrong.

Sara nodded and the corners of her mouth twitched up into a sultry smile as she noticed the fire dancing in his eyes as they roamed her body. "Yeah, I was trying to imagine them, but it just wasn't working for me."

Nick nearly growled as he reached over and flicked the last few remaining buttons of her blouse open before slowly sliding it off of her shoulders. "I thought you'd never ask." He began to softly kiss her neck as he continued to slide his hands down her back, pulling her closer.

"Why didn't you just ask me again?" Sara murmured as she grabbed fistfuls of his t-shirt in her hands. There was almost a petulant tone in her question.

"Didn't think you'd say yes." Nick's lips were making their way tortuously slow along her jaw line; his hands slipping around along the waistband of her jeans to the front of them. He popped the button open just as his lips found hers.

There was nothing tentative about his kiss and Sara found herself melting against him, letting out a soft whimper as she felt his tongue sliding against hers. They broke apart a long few minutes later a bit breathless and Sara practically purred. "I'm pretty sure that was a yes."

Nick chuckled softly and then whispered. "I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather continue this in the other room." He glanced towards his bedroom and couldn't help but smile as Sara stepped towards him and kissed him again; allowing him to pull her with him.

By the time they finally tumbled onto his bed kissing madly, Nick had lost his t-shirt and his boxers were sitting low on his hips and Sara had been left in nothing but a very sexy piece of lingerie.

Nick mumbled against her lips. "I love lace." As much as he claimed to love it, he was doing his best to get Sara out of it and she didn't seem to mind.

"I love you." Sara moaned softly as she felt his hands finally began to loosen the string tie on the back of her sexy little outfit.

Nick smiled and looked into her eyes. "You know I love you too." He leaned down and kissed her softly just then, letting her know that no matter what had transpired over the last few days, he was always going to love her.

"I made a mistake." Sara murmured against his lips, pulling away just slightly. "I was wrong...I assumed that just because you wanted to get married that everything would change." The case had brought up a ton of issues between them that they'd been arguing about for the last two weeks since Nick had proposed to her and she'd gotten completely upset about it.

"It will change." Nick let out a soft sigh. "But not the way you think, Sar." He knew that even asking her to marry him was risky; they'd been friends for years and they'd started dating quietly a few months after his abduction and he knew he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life; he just hadn't expected her to react to harshly.

Sara snuggled a little closer, not wanting the break the mood with their conversation, but needing reassurance from him that all her fears about marriage wouldn't come true if they did get married. "Well, tell me how it will then."

An impish smile flitted across Nick's face as he finally succeeded in unfastening the back of her lingerie. "Well first of all, I get to be your love slave forever." He leaned in and peppered kisses along her neck as his hand began to slide her top off.

"Mmm, I like the sound of that." Sara couldn't keep her hands to herself as she worked to divest him of his boxers. They hadn't been together like this since before he'd proposed and all Sara could think about right at that moment was how much she wanted Nick.

Nick seemed to agree as he gave himself over to the passion of the moment; slowly loving Sara and letting her love him in return. It was much later when Nick woke up again, blinking a few times and then smiling at the warmth of Sara's naked body molded against his. It hadn't all been a dream and he was glad; the evidence was right there on the third finger of her left hand where she'd let him place it just before they drifted off to sleep.

As he stirred, Sara blinked her eyes open and then smiled, pulling herself up to place a lingering kiss against his mouth. "Hey."

"Hey." Nick had missed her; he was glad that they'd finally settled the issue of marriage between them. "I'm glad you came over."

"Me too." Sara let out a sigh and lay her head into the crook of his shoulder. "You know, I wasn't ever against the idea of you and me...I just needed to know that whatever kind of wedding we had didn't turn into a three ring circus." She was truly afraid that if they got married that it would turn into some big Texas country club affair when simple and small was all she really needed.

"We could elope...grab a couple of witnesses and get married on the beach somewhere." Nick had given this some thought; if they eloped they'd be married, and he could just deal with his family about it later.

"What about your family?" Sara knew that his family was important to him, and she had a feeling that he'd never hear the end of it if they eloped.

"They'll get over it." He wasn't so sure that was true, but he wanted to do what made Sara happy.

"I don't want to start off being married to you by having your family hate me...I don't want our wedding to end up like the one we just processed." Sara had identified a little too much with the bride in this last case.

Nick slid his arm around her waist and pulled her a little closer. "For the record, my family loves you." He leaned over and kissed her long and deep, smiling as he pulled away. "And I love you. So as long as we're clear on that, we can have any kind of wedding you want."

"I love you too." Sara smiled back at him before pulling him back into another long deep kiss.

Six Weeks Later:

The affair was simple really, right down to the fact that no one in the wedding party was even wearing shoes. In the end, Nick and Sara had flown to Hawaii to the island of Molokai to get married on the beach at the home of a friend of Nick's father. Much of Nick's family had met them there and a few people from the lab had too. It was everything that Sara had wanted and for Nick, that made the day perfect.

The End