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Secrets
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Its going to be another long night, Sara thinks to herself. Sitting at a red light on her way in to the lab, she can already see that things are not as they should be. As the light turns green, the driver behind her leans on their horn. Sara calmly rolls down her window and sticks her arm out the window, extending her middle digit, and grinned to herself. She proceeds through the light and drives on to the lab.
Then it happens; the rain. Rain falls down in sheets. She pulls into the lot and looks at her watch. 19:30hrs, still enough time, she decides to wait in her truck till the rain lets up. She turns on the radio and leans her seat back down, closing her eyes, she tries to get a few winks before shift start. Just as she gets comfortable there comes a tapping at her window. She opens her eyes and looks to see who it is. Jim is standing in the rain, she motions for him to hop in.
Jim opens the door and shakes the beads of rain off of his umbrella before seating himself. He slams the door shut and sighs deeply.
"Man, its really coming down." Jim says
"Yeah. I thought I would just wait it out before going in." Sara responds
"I know what you mean. I had the same idea, then you pulled up and I thought I would grace you with my company." Jim said, jokingly
"Well, colour me sooooo honored." Sara says as she places a hand on Jim's knee
Jim looks down and places his hand atop hers and leans back in his seat. The radio still plays softly in the background and Jim and Sara listen intently.
"In every heart, comes a time When you need it, then you'll find Only love can last forever"
Jim turns his head to see Sara with her eyes closed, mouthing along with the sappy tune. He lifts her hand to his lips and places a kiss on the back of it. She turns her head and simply smiles, as she squeezes his hand gently. Jim looks at her peaceful form and sighs.
"Share." Sara says
"Well, I was just wondering how much longer we should keep "us" a secret." he responds
"I'm ready whenever you are" she says, simply
Jim smiles and looks out the window at the rain, then he turns his head and decides to follow Sara's lead and try to catch a few winks. He leans his seat back and continues to hold her hand as they both drift off.
20:00hrs, and Grissom pulls into the lot. As he drives around looking for a spot close to the building, so as not to become drenched, he notices a truck with it's lights on. He drives past and recognizes the plate as Sara's. He finds a spot a few slots down from her and pulls in. Without benefit of umbrella, he makes his way to her truck, "maybe she left her door unlocked, I could shut the lights of" he thought to himself. As he approached the driver's side, he was wholly unprepared for what he saw.
He had to catch his breath as he saw Jim and Sara, holding hands, sleeping. He heard the engine still running and realized that the lights would not drain the battery. He ran his hand through his hair and began to stress about what he had just seen. He sees the occupants begin to stir and hot tails it inside the lab; Jim and Sara none the wiser to his presence. He seeks refuge in his office, sits behind his desk and immediately feels a knot in his stomach. He thinks to himself that he was too late, just like she said he would be. A tear escapes his eye and rolls down his cheek.
"Sara"
"Hey, Sara!"
Sara rubs the sleep from her eyes and rolls her head to face the window. Nick is standing outside, she unlocks the doors and motions for him to hop in. He quickly opens the door and slides in. Sara turns to him and gestures for him to be quiet and points to Jim, sleeping soundly, still holding her hand. Nick grins and lets out a muffled chuckle.
"Be quiet, he's asleep." Sara says, sternly
"So, how long have you two..." Nick begins
"Six months, tonight." she says, grinning
"Wow. You two really pulled it off. No one has a clue." Nick praised
He looked down at his watch and set the alarm for 20:45. He lay down in the back seat and closed his eyes. He thought to himself that he would only catch half an hour of sleep.
Sara woke later and as she rubbed her eyes, she noticed that it was 21:30. She sat bolt upright in her seat, shut the engine off, and gently rubbed Jim's cheek. His eyes fluttered open and he stretched his arms, yawning. He heard a soft snoring coming from behind him and looked to find that it was Nick. He reached back and slapped him on the leg.
"Nick, time to get up." he very nearly shouted
Nick rubbed his eyes and looked at his watch. He scrambled to sit up and all three of them jumped out of the truck and ran to the lab.
All eyes were on them as they ran down the hall and into the break room. Warrick and Catherine had looks of frustration on their faces as Jim, Nick and Sara took their seats at the conference table. Grissom was visibly upset and Nick turned to Sara and winked.
"Sorry, we fell asleep in the truck." Nick offered as an apology
Grissom turned to Jim and glared at him. Jim offered nothing in the way of an apology. He would let Grissom think what he wanted. As he looked back at Grissom, he saw something in the man's face. Something told Jim that Gil knew.
Grissom stood and tried to compose himself.
"Well, now that we're all here, we can begin." he said coolly
He flipped through the slips and decided a bit of punishment was in order.
"Nick, Sara, you have a dead body in the desert. Lots of bugs. Have fun."
Sara stood and took the slip from Grissom and she and Nick left the room and headed back to the lot. Jim stood and followed them. He would follow them in his own vehicle.
As Sara and Nick drove out in the rain to their scene, the rain picked up. The road was covered with giant puddles. The inside of the truck was fogging up and as Sara reached forward with her hand to wipe the condensation off the windshield, the truck began to hydroplane and they went soaring off the road. The truck rolled three times and then landed on the roof.
Jim was a little ways behind them and as he drove, he saw the tail lights of Sara's truck. Jim slammed on his brakes and his car skidded off the road and landed sideways in a ditch. Jim's head slammed against the driver's side window and he was knocked unconscious.
Nick and Sara were hanging upside down, still strapped in. The airbag did not deploy and both of them had head and bodily injuries. Sara was conscious, Nick was not. She fished through her pockets and, vision blurred, she dialed Grissom. The phone rang.
"Grissom."
He heard heavy breathing on the other side of the line.
"Who is this?" he demanded
He heard a faint voice.
"We skidded. Truck rolled. Nick out." she managed, through labored breathing
Grissom's mind was now on high alert.
"Sara? Is that you?" he asked, concerned
"Griss..."
The voice trailed off and then went silent. Grissom picked up his desk phone and called for an ambulance. He ran out of his office and out to the lot. Jumping into his truck, floored it towards the scene. As he approached the desert, he saw lights and heard sirens. He pulled over to the side of the road and ran to the scene.
There were two vehicles off the side of the road. Paramedics were bringing the passengers up to the road, and loading the stretchers into the ambulances. As he approached, he saw Sara in a neck collar and her leg splinted. He saw Nick in the same set up as Sara. His eyes widened as he saw the medics bring up the third person. It was Jim. He had a collar and his right arm was splinted as well as his left leg. There was blood all over his shirt and at this sight, Grissom immediately hated himself for his jealousy motivated crime scene assignment.