A/N: Thank you all for the reviews! This story is on two people's favorites lists; wow! I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the story so far. This is the chapter where Warrick appears!

Fridays were usually the days that employees working places looked forward to the most; it meant that they usually got the weekend to themselves. No paper-pushing, no walking through crowded buildings to get the latest fax to the boss, no worrying about trying to stay alert with the latest memos thrown around the building- the weekends were peaceful days for these hardworking citizens. For the members of the Las Vegas Crime Lab, that wasn't entirely true. Crime didn't suddenly stop on Saturdays and Sundays to give the members of law enforcement some time to themselves to rest up and get back to their own lives.

But the possibility of not having the weekend off was the least of Sara Sidle's worries at the moment. Friday was the day she had told Trey at the Midnight Night Club that she would be coming in to perform. The performance was also one of the least of her worries; she was more worried about what would happen during the performance. All she could think about was how uncomfortable she felt when he touched her, telling how nice a body she had. She couldn't stop thinking about the possible places his hands could've gone if she hadn't stopped him when she had.

She told herself not to go pointing fingers, however, because for as far as she knew he could just be one of those touchy-feely people, also known as the people you meet for the first time that go in for the infamous greeting known as 'the hug' instead of settling for a friendly handshake. Trey seemed like a nice guy, and he really could've just been trying to give her advice, she knew. He didn't seem like one of the creeps she had met while working her job that turned out to be convicted sex offenders in six different states, he seemed like a normal, successful man.

So Sara decided not to make a big deal over it. She didn't want to ruin the relationship she had with him (which was purely professional in all aspects), seeing how he had gotten her the job. If she said or did something that gave off a bad vibe from herself to him, she could be out the door in seconds without a diversion and she would be right back where she started. She didn't want that to happen; it was hard enough finding a place looking for performers the first time and she didn't want to have to do it again.

So after staying up for about three hours pondering this in her head the night before, Sara was sound asleep under a clump of blankets and pillows in the center of her bed at her apartment. She stirred just a little, waking up momentarily. She immediately regretted this; she always did this. She always woke up before her alarm clock went off which just made how exhausted she was ten times more apparent than the first time she cracked an eye open. She buried her head under a pillow, trying to muffle out the noises of the morning and fall back to sleep like a stubborn teenager who had to get up for school.

And as if on cue- as if Sara was given just the right amount of time to burrow back in her little hole like a small rodent- her alarm clock clicked on and the annoying sound of a cheerful-sounding radio-show host filled throughout her apartment. She didn't know how loud the volume on her alarm clock was set, but all the layers of blankets and pillows in the world wouldn't have been able to block out the sound entirely.

"Welcome to 97.7 AM radio!" Sara heard the man saying. She wondered how he could sound so cheery at 6:30 in the morning; she was enthusiastic about her work, yes, but even she wasn't as alert and excited until she had her first cup of coffee in the morning and had been up for about an hour or so. "It's currently 6:31 am on Friday, July 18—"

Sara groaned, turning her back to face the alarm clock in defiance. She almost felt like saying, "Five more minutes", but this guy was persistent and obviously had been at his job for awhile. He was good at being loud and obnoxious.

"Wake up and smell the coffee, sleepy-heads! It's a beautiful day outside with possible highs of 98 and 101 in Henderson and Las Vegas!"

Whoop-tee-do- that surely made Sara want to get up.

"We're going to be playing all the greatest hits of the 90's today, so get up and keep your radio tuned to 97.7!"

"Shut up…" Sara mumbled, finally sitting up and slamming her palm down on the alarm clock snooze button. Throwing pillows away from her so she could get up out of her little pillow-and-blanket fort, Sara yawned and raised her arms high above her head in attempt to wake herself up. Throwing the sheets off of herself she got up and headed toward the bathroom for a shower.

After showering, getting dressed and fixing her hair to make herself presentable, Sara grabbed her things and headed out the door, closing and locking it behind her. Reaching into her pocket, Sara got out her car keys and unlocked her car, getting inside and starting it up. Turning on the radio as she backed out of the parking lot (and making sure she did not in fact tune into 97.7 AM radio), Sara started humming along to Michelle Branch, which ultimately brought her train of thought back to where it was at 3:00 am that morning.

She had already settled on the fact that it was an accident and that Trey didn't mean anything bad about the way he touched her. He was just that type of person, it didn't mean he was dangerous, or… lecherous. It just meant that he was friendly, that was it. But try as she might, Sara could not shake the uncomfortable feeling she got in the pit of her stomach whenever she thought about it.

You're obsessing over everything again, she told herself, Stop over-analyzing everything. She was just always weird this way about things like that; she always had been. She was just being careful, she told herself. One of her pet-peeves had always been being touched, and she barely knew Trey. Any physical contact with a person she didn't know very well other than talking or a handshake made her uncomfortable… so why just focus on Trey? There was no reason to, she told herself. He was a nice, normal guy who gave her the way out of her black tunnel of doom leading to her burning-out.

But working her job, Sara had seen so many things like this that had quickly escalated to something more. A simple touch… an 'accident', had sometimes turned into severe molestation charges, or worse. She wasn't a victim, though, she told herself once more, she was just being paranoid. She was not a victim and Trey was not a threat to her or anyone else. He was her partner, he was the piano player.

Finally reaching the lab, Sara got out of her and closed the door after grabbing her bag, taking a deep breath. She told herself to think of something else; if she looked as serious as she did now that would look fishy to the other CSIs in the building, and they would be able to worm the story of what happened the other night out of her. Then Trey would get in trouble, she would lose her job… and that wasn't necessary…

…Because Trey wasn't a bad guy, and she wasn't a victim.

Walking through the double glass doors of the lab, Sara put a smile on her face as she headed to the break room. Now that she had gotten all her worries about her new job out of the way, she could think of the positive things about it. The rush she would get when she was on stage in front of a large crowd of people- or the sudden jerk in her stomach she would feel that would make her vomit all over the people sitting in the first row of the large crowd of people (Positive, Sara, stay positive)- that would make her feel great. The spotlight would be on her, everyone would be watching her, waiting to see what she would do. She liked that, as she had never really gotten that much attention in her lifetime outside of the workplace.

Walking into the locker room Sara turned the lock on the metal locker that belonged to her until it clicked off. Taking it off she opened the door and put her bag inside, looking at herself in the small mirror positioned on the door of her locker. She still sort of looked like she had just gotten up, but she knew she would have time to fix herself up later in the evening when she got home before she had to be at the Midnight.

Lost in her own little world, she failed to notice Warrick walk into the room before he made his entry in the room verbal. "Hey Sara," he greeted her, making her jump a little as he opened up his own locker.

"…Hey!" Sara said, finally noticing him being in the room.

Sara Sidle and Warrick Brown's relationship had been like a rollercoaster ride. Since Sara had been called in by Grissom to handle the internal investigation of the Holly Gribbs case, they had gotten off on a rough front. Sara and Warrick were not ones to take any crap from other people, and since they both had that same personality trait they clashed like light and dark clothes in the wash. Recently, however, they amended their friendship and learned to put aside their differences. Warrick realized that Sara wasn't out to get him; that she was only doing her job, and Sara realized that Warrick wasn't someone who didn't accept responsibility for his actions, that he was a sensitive person with his own personal demons like herself.

"You and I are working together today," Warrick said, hanging up his jacket on one of the coat hooks in his locker. Taking off his sunglasses, he handed her a small slip of paper containing the information about their assignment.

"…Drive-by shooting," Sara read off the slip of paper, nodding slowly. "Fun," she commented dryly, looking up at him with a grin.

"Yeah, well, day-shift is actually handling all the good stuff- we get to search through a clump of metal full of bullet holes for six hours," he told her.

Sara scoffed. "You've got to be kidding me."

Warrick just shook his head. "Maybe we can ask Greggo for one of his CDs so we at least have some white noise," he shrugged, closing up his locker.

"Sounds good to me," Sara smiled.

Warrick nodded, walking out with Sara by his side. "I'll go see what he has and I'll meet you in the garage."

"Deal."

Two hours into shift Sara and Warrick were still working on the broken-down, rusted, dirty, old, bullet-filled Pontiac that was still missing one wheel in silence. Sara was under the car on a dolly trying to get samples liquid that was dripping from under the car. Actually, she wasn't sure what wasn't dripping; it was raining oil, gas and transmission fluid… and she didn't exactly have an umbrella.

"How's it going?" Warrick asked, wiping his hands off on an oil-stained rag.

"This car is a piece of crap…" Sara mumbled. "Radiator's cracked…" she commented, making a grunting noise as she tried to move something on the car's underside. "And…"

Warrick raised a brow, waiting for her to finish her thought. As Sara was about to speak Greg ran through the doorway, holding up a box full of CDs. "I have the music!" he said in a sing-song voice.

Sara rolled out from under the car, wiping off her forehead with her shirt sleeve. "What'd you got?"

"Metallica…" Greg said, looking through the box. "Led Zeppelin—"

"No thanks," Sara sighed, rolling back under the car.

"Hey! That's all good stuff!" Greg said, trying to convince her otherwise. "It's rock 'n roll history!" he sang loudly, walking off back to the DNA lab playing air-guitar.

"Well, we don't want to listen to people who should be prescribed medication of they're screaming so much in their songs!" Sara sang back, reaching a hand back out from under the car, feeling around for something.

"What are you looking for?" Warrick asked.

"Wrench, can you give it to me?" Sara asked.

"Sure," Warrick told her, handing her the wrench that her hand just missed. "Say, Sara…"

"Yeah?" Sara asked.

"Has anyone ever told you that you can sing pretty good…?"

At the sound of that, Sara immediately dropped the wrench to the ground, hearing it hit the floor of the garage with a loud clank. Rolling out from under the car, Sara looked over at him, still laying flat on the dolly as she grinned. "So I've been told, but personally I think otherwise," she said, getting to her feet and heading over to the sink to wash up.

"No, really!" Warrick said, following her over to the sink. "I'm serious, girl; you've got some pretty nice pipes," he told her, shooting her a small smile.

"…Well, thanks…" Sara said, unable to hide her grin as she washed her hands after disposing of her oil-stained gloves.

"Have you ever considered doing karaoke at one of the night clubs?" Warrick asked.

Sara just laughed. "Does getting a job at one of the night clubs as a singer count?"

Warrick's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? You did?"

"Yup," Sara said, finding herself feeling a bit proud of her accomplishment. Warrick was looking on at her in awe, like she had just won some big award. It made her feel pretty good about herself.

"That's great, Sara," Warrick said, "Which club?"

"The Midnight," Sara answered, "I'm performing there tonight, actually," she told him, unzipping her blue CSI jumpsuit leaving her in her regular work clothes. Actually, for a minute, Sara had to stop and ask herself why she told Warrick she was performing there tonight- did she want him to come, or… was it just something she said off the top of her head? Sara didn't really even know Warrick as well as, well… Grissom, for example, but they were still friends, and… Sara felt oddly relaxed whenever she was around Warrick…

…and that would certainly help to ease her nerves while she was up on stage in front of a large crowd of people she had never seen before that were watching- waiting- for her to screw up and make a fool of herself. But Sara still ran the risk of making a fool out of herself in front of Warrick, one of her friends, so… she decided not to offer for him to come to her performance that night.

"Well that'll be fun," Warrick told her. "So are you getting off-shift now?"

"I better," Sara smiled, "I need to get this oil and stuff off of me before I go over there. I'm supposed to look stage-worthy," she said with a grin, throwing her scrubs on the table as she walked off.

"Okay, well… I'll see you later!" Warrick said.

"See you tomorrow, Warrick," Sara said, walking down the hallway to the locker room. After making a quick stop there and getting her jacket and bag, Sara walked toward the front doors of the lab. She found herself making a small stop in front of one particular room, however.

Looking into Grissom's office, she noted that he was currently away from his desk. Looking inside, she saw various test subjects in jars and a… she didn't know what, sitting on top of his desk proudly next to the little tablet that had his name. Unable to hide her grin, Sara poked her head inside and said, "Told you so."

Unbeknownst to Sara, Warrick left shortly after she did with one thought on his mind- surprising her. Driving toward his home, he had an uncontrollable smile on his face the entire time. He had noticed that Sara hadn't offered for him to come that night, which meant she wasn't expecting him to show up. Well, Warrick was going to surprise Sara and be in the middle of that crowd of people in the audience anyways. He had butterflies in his stomach; he felt like he was going to be throwing a surprise birthday party for someone.

Parking in the driveway of his home, Warrick got out of his car and jogged up to the front door, unlocking it and walking inside. Warrick knew Sara the least out of everyone in Vegas- he even knew Greg better than he knew Sara- and he thought that perhaps after her performance they could go grab a bite to eat or get a drink and get to know each other better. He didn't know why, but… he was really looking forward to this.