(A/N) Thank you for your amazing reviews. I hope you like this story…and I would like to thank my most wonderful betas. If you guys have any questions or want to beta this story, please leave it in a review or email me, and I will answer them.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own CSI or any thing to do with it, and I don't own the Academy Award nominated song, "Accidentally in love" By Counting Crows.
Last Chapter
"Well," Nick began, remembering a time: "It was in 2000; she came to investigate Warrick, because he did something wrong." He paused briefly. "We became great friends, flirting with each other on different occasions. She liked our boss, Grissom, at that time. She flirted more with him than me. So, I pushed all thoughts of us getting together, and I focused on my career. Late 2004, the lab manager Conrad Ecklie split up our famous night shift. He put Catherine as Swing Shift supervisor, and Warrick and I followed. Grissom, Sara, Greg, and Sophia stayed in the night shift. Well, pulling us apart brought us closer together…"
Just Remember…
Chapter 2: Accidentally in Love
By: Medha Gupta
Flashback: May 2005
"Ok, ready, aim, fire….YES!" Warrick screamed from the ballistics lab.
They were investigating the gunshot residue stains, and this one matched, placing the killer at the crime scene. He was walking out of the room when Nick walked up to him.
"Did we catch him?" Nick asked.
"Yes, he was there, we just disproved all of his stories," Warrick exclaimed.
"Finally and" he was about to continue when he saw someone walking into the lab. He only saw her back, but from where he was standing, he could see that she had brown hair, a great tan, and she was wearing a purple shirt and black pants. When she turned around, it turned out to be...
"Sara, girl, you look great!" Warrick stated. Nick was speechless.
"Thanks," she said. She turned around to go when Nick spoke.
"S-s-s-Sara, where have you been? I haven't seen you around…" He stopped when he thought that he sounded too stupid.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Grissom made me take a vacation. I have so much time already stocked up, I decided…for now, maybe a vacation from crime would be the best. So I went to Los Angeles to visit my friend," she responded. Warrick grinned.
"So you went to Los Angeles to take a vacation from crime?"
"Mmmhmm!" She nodded, beaming. Nick laughed.
"Yeah, go to one of the most crime stricken areas in the world, not counting Vegas, to get away from crime…right?" Nick added in, and Sara nodded again.
"Well, I have to go see Grissom now…nice seeing you after such a long time!" She walked towards Grissom's office. Nick stared at the retreating figure until she turned the corner towards the night shift supervisor, Gil Grissom's office. Sara turned around once before she turned to go toward Grissom's office.
She saw Warrick excitedly talking to Nick, and Nick was preoccupied. She turned back around and headed to Grissom's office.
"Hey," she said almost inaudibly.
"Hi Sara, come on in." Grissom gave her a small smile, "How was your vacation?"
"Good, miss me?" Sara asked.
"Well, yeah, we are really backed up with paper work, but you are on a case now with Greg," he said quickly.
"Yeah, okay." Sara walked out of the room. She admonished herself for feeling bad at what Grissom told her. What did she expect? Grissom picking her off of her feet, and sweeping her in a kiss? Sara had to laugh at that, it seemed so out of character for him, and just Grissom doing that would be funny. Sara was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she ran headfirst into an evidence-box-carrying-Nick.
"Aww, damn it!" Nick exclaimed looking at a messy array of sample bags, swabs, and pictures. Sara immediately blushed and began stuffing the contents back into Nick's box hurriedly.
"I'm sorry," Sara whispered embarrassedly. Nick glanced at Sara; she really looked beautiful today. He reprimanded himself for not ever seeing how much beauty this girl really had.
"Don't worry about it; I should've looked where I was going," Nick said, wanting to hold her hand and console her. She looked kind of upset, he couldn't figure out why. After all, you can't be on the verge of tears when you bump into someone with an evidence box, he thought. They threw everything haphazardly into the box, and picked it up. "Thanks, Sara," he told her smiling and putting one hand on her shoulder.
"You're welcome, and I'm sorry for bumping into you like that; I'm having an off night. Well, good luck on your case." She softly grinned before walking down the hall, and outside to her black Denali. She drove to the crime scene where Greg was already processing the evidence.
"What took you so long?" Greg asked.
"I was just talking to Grissom," Sara answered.
"Oh, how is your lover boy?" The younger man teased. Sara gave him a piercing glare before she asked Greg her question.
"What happened here?"
"Well, it is a B&E. The family was asleep, and their burglar alarm didn't go off, but all their valuable jewelry was stolen."
"Oh, any evidence?"
"Well, I pulled several stray hairs from the safe, and there were some fibers on the safe handle. I'm suspecting it's an inside job. Brass is in there talking to the family." Greg looked proud of his findings.
"Okay, let's go in and get the family's DNA and fingerprints so we can rule them out." Sara added. Greg concurred and they both went inside.
Nick put the evidence box in the storage room and went into his car. All that he thought about was Sara. When he got into his car he wondered what was wrong with him; this had never happened to him before. As he drove down to his apartment, he kept thinking of her face, her smile, and everything else. When he got to his apartment, he turned on the radio. The song playing sounded familiar, he recognized it from his niece's favorite movie, Shrek 2; usually he would turn it off, but now he listened to "Accidentally in Love," by the Counting Crows.
So she said what's the problem baby
What's the problem I don't know
Well maybe I'm in love (love)
Think about it every time
I think about it
Can't stop thinking 'bout it
How much longer will it take to cure this?
Just to cure it cause I can't ignore it if it's love (love)
Makes me wanna turn around and face me but I don't know nothing 'bout love
He took off his shirt, and went into the bathroom to wash his face. When he looked into the mirror he saw Sara standing behind him smiling. He turned around, but she wasn't there. "You love her," a little voice inside his head said.
"No I DON'T!" he said forcefully.
Come on, come on
Turn a little faster
Come on, come on
The world will follow after
Come on, come on
Cause everybody's after love
He walked over to his kitchen and looked at notes he got from his brother. He had found love. He always teased Nick about not him finding love soon. "You have found love," the little voice repeated again.
So I said I'm a snowball running
Running down into the spring that's coming all this love
Melting under blue skies
Belting out sunlight
Shimmering love
Well baby I surrender
To the strawberry ice cream
Never ever end of all this love
Nick didn't feel like cooking tonight, so he decided to order pizza.
When he pulled out the yellow pages, a picture slipped into his hands.
It was of him and his co-workers, or at least, when they did work together. Sara stood beside him, and she was grinning so widely in the picture. "Why are you denying this?" The annoying voice whispered irritatingly into his head.
Well I didn't mean to do it
But there's no escaping your love
These lines of lightning
Mean we're never alone,
Never alone, no, no
He put the picture down and ordered the pizza, his hand mechanically moving over the numbers that were the pizza man's. He ordered his pizza, and once again looked at the picture...
Come on, Come on
Move a little closer
Come on, Come on
I want to hear you whisper
Come on, Come on
Settle down inside my love
Come on, come on
Jump a little higher
Come on, come on
If you feel a little lighter
Come on, come on
We were once
Upon a time in love
The picture was taken a little bit after Krysti Hopkins's death, and the whole team had been there for Nick. He looked at Sara's picture, and remembered how great of friends they were at that time, when she was happy.
He wanted to make her happy. Nick wanted the smile to return on her gorgeous face. He wanted her. Finally, the voice in his head shut up, and he quit denying. Nick couldn't hold back his feelings: he was accidentally in love.
TBC