Part 6

Shift came around sooner than Nick would have like, here it was, another night, another case, another crime. He walked into the locker room where he saw Sara clipping her phone and gun onto her belt – "Hey, Sar…"

"Hey Nick" She offered, she sounded a little distracted.

"You okay?" HE asked.

"Me…" She looked at him, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well…Jess told me what happened?"

She dropped her cell from her hand and it hit off the floor… "She told you what?" Worry filled the brunette as she prayed that she hadn't told Nick about the kiss. She honestly expected the next words from the Texans mouth to be – "You made a move on her" or "You jumped my baby sister" but that wasn't the case.

"She said that you took a beating…said she'd checked to make sure you were okay? Asked me to check up on you – so what answer can I give the doc? You doing okay?"

Sara bent down, relief flooded over her, soon followed however by guilt, maybe she'd delt with yesterday all wrong. "Err…yeah…tell her I'm fine"

Nick nodded, "Will do… that's what I like to hear" He winked.

"Yeah well, lets keep this between you and me… I don't need Gris putting me on desk tonight"

Nick nodded, "As long as you're okay"

"I'm fine thanks"

"Good to hear… oh and thanks for the files. You're a life save" He smiled and left.

"No problem" she offered quietly.

Sara lent back against the lockers, breathing deep. She couldn't believe that she'd done what she had. She couldn't even look at Nick without feeling guilty. Turning she slammed her hand onto her locker door with a sigh. "Shit…" she mumbled. She had no idea what she should do. It wasn't like there was anyone she could go to about it. No one could know that she put the moves on Jess Stokes.

"Hey you" Looking up it was Greg stood in the doorway.

"Hey" She offered back trying quickly to pull herself together and make it look like she wasn't having a break down.

"You okay?"

"Fine… I'm great" she offered trying to sound convincing.

He looked at her with a raised eye, "Well … Gris is in the break room. Come on…"

Nodding the brunette followed the younger CSI out into the hallways and towards the room where she'd have to face three people she didn't want to see. Catherine and Nick for obvious reasons and Grissom because he by now had hared what had happened last night in the interrogation room – her life was going from bad to worse.

Walking into the break room she avoided eye contact and went straight for the fridge where she grabbed a soda – trying to hide the pain from her ribs. "Okay…" Grissom's voice filled the room. "Catherine, Warrick – you two are on a DB – about three miles off the strip" he handed them the slip.

"Greg your with me" He continued then looked over to Sara who was now looking at him, "And you – are with Nick – both off you close that case and get the paper work done"

"DESK?!" Sara said it before she'd even thought about it. She was hoping to have a hard case to keep her busy and to get her mind of the mess her life had become. She looked to Nick.

"I said nothing" he defended.

"You're lucky you're working at all" she looked back to Grissom. "And we need to talk about what happened"

Sara just nodded. Anger evident – this was getting worse.

She felt Catherine looking at her – the blond was wondering what new totally destructive thing the brunette had done. Catherine was worrying about Sara.

---

"So what happened last night?" Nick asked, the silence was just too much as they both sat in the lab doing the paper work for the case. It had been a few hours now since the break room incident with Grissom and Nick had wondered just what it was Sara had done.

"What?" the brunette asked. Instantly regretting her reaction, she felt like it was written on her fore head – 'I took advantage of your sister'.

"Why's Gris so pissed at you?"

"Oh…err…" Sara tried to think straight, "I was… jumped in the interrogation room last night. I was winding the guy up trying to get a confession – got more than I asked for"

Nick just nodded, knowing that the last thing that the brunette needed was a lecture from him – she'd be getting enough question from Grissom and, by the look on Catherine's face – her also, nick thought. "Well… you need a shoulder to cry on … someone to talk to…you can come to me"

"Thanks Nick" Sara smiled, it did mean a lot to her. He had always been a great friend to her.

"Same goes for the Cath stuff to you know"

Sara just nodded now looking down to the table, "Yeah … just, not ready to talk about that"

Nick nodded, "Yeah I know. Just…if you ever need to"

"Yeah thanks"

"Hey…Sara" It was Grissom who cut into the little heart to heart she and the Texan was having, "Can I see you in my office?"

"Err… yeah" She shared a look with Nick before standing up.

"Good luck" he offered quietly with a reassuring hand on her arm.

"Yeah….thanks" She needed the luck. She followed the way to Grissom's office.

---tbc