Chapter 10

Nick was glad they'd left Sara's car parked in his garage next to his own truck and taken a cab to the airport. Sunday seemed to be the time to leave Las Vegas; tourists headed home to restart their normal lives come Monday morning.

Each was quiet as they stood in line, inching their way up to the ticket counter. Stilted small talk had run its course, and there was a silent agreement between them that Grissom would not be discussed. And to talk of the work they did, of victims of crime and lab reports on bodily fluids seemed a sin to discuss while on the way to Hawaii. Sara was lost in her thoughts, rebellion was not in her character, and she had butterflies of doubt, a sliver of fear of getting caught.

She glanced over toward Nick, looking at him anew, as if she hadn't known him for over six years. She remembered how she'd almost written him off as an overgrown frat boy/ladies man. Oh, how wrong she'd been.

She liked his eyes, she decided. They'd always been gentle and full of humor. But now she saw a passion in them, a glow like they were lit from behind, as though a fire were burning inside of him. And his jaw…She'd always admired his jaw line, but now that she had experienced what that jaw could do…As she remembered the kisses on the top of her mountain, fireworks shot off inside her stomach, effectively roasting the butterflies.

"Sara?" Nick smiled brightly at her. "You okay?"

She blinked then returned his smile. "Of course. Why do you ask?"

"Because you're staring at me." Nick cocked an amused eyebrow as Sara's cheeks turned a dusty-rose pink. "What, ah…" he stepped closer and leaned in, reaching up and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "What exactly were you thinking about?"

"This," Sara said as she wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him to her in one swoop, kissing him passionately.

After a moment, a man behind them cleared his throat roughly, deliberately. They broke the kiss, grinning at each other, and glanced around. They were now the first in line, and a clerk behind the counter was looking at them expectantly, a sly grin on her face.

"Oops," Sara giggled and Nick bent down to pick up the bag he'd thrown some clothes into.

"Aloha," greeted the ticket clerk, whose name badge read Amanda. "Welcome to Paradise Air."

"Aloha," Nick returned the greeting.

"You'll have to forgive us;" Sara began, "we're on our honeymoon."

"Oh," purred Amanda, "how very sweet." Her eyes ran up and down Sara who was still wearing the sweats and tee shirt she'd put on at Grissom's. They both handed her their ids, and Amanda typed in their reservations. "Oh," she said surprised "your reservation was just made this morning."

"Yes," Nick beamed. "The trip was sort of last minute."

"Oh?" Amanda asked. "Did you elope?"

"Yes."

"No."

They both spoke at once, glanced at each other, then at the confused Amanda. "Sort of," was all Sara could think to say by way of explanation without going in to the entire story.

Amanda smiled brightly. She punched a few buttons on her keyboard, her fingers flying and a moment later their tickets slid out of the printer next to her. "Here you go," she handed each of them their tickets and ids and told them where their gate was. "Enjoy your trip and congratulations."

-

"Have you been to Hawaii?" Nick asked once they'd found two empty adjacent chairs at the gate.

"No. You?"

Nick shook his head and couldn't help thinking about the blonde hooker he'd interviewed a few months ago. "Hey," he looked at his watch. "We've got a few minutes before they begin boarding, you wanna hit the news stand… or the bar?"

"The bar? It's barely noon," Sara was amused, but not entirely disinterested.

Nick shrugged shyly. "I'm ah… not that keen on flying."

"Well, at least you told me before we got in the air."

"C'mon," he stood and took her hand, tugging her up with him.

-

"I'm not afraid of flying," he said after his first swallow of beer.

Sara nodded encouragingly, trying hard to keep from grinning. "No, of course not." She sipped her own drink

The beer and lack of sleep had loosened Nicks tongue and left him addled. "You know, we wouldn't even be here if Griss had been afraid to fly." The words were out of his mouth before he knew it, and Nick could have kicked himself.

"I'm gonna grab some magazines for the flight," Sara stood quickly.

"Sara," Nick called out to her, reaching up, trying to grab her arm as she passed by him. She didn't stop and he watched her leave the bar and turn out of his sight. "Damn it, Stokes," he muttered to himself.

-

Sara grabbed a copy of Newsweek, and studied the cover of Vanity Fair. A photo of a half naked movie actress graced its cover, and Sara wondered who she was. She picked it up anyway, her eyes already moving on. Wedding magazines caught her eye, and she blanched at them, fighting the urge to stick out her tongue. She grabbed a copy of Sports Illustrated and bypassed the issue of Maxim for a copy of GQ. She wasn't sure Nick would be interested in either, but she wanted to get him something. At the register she added two large bottles of water, a pack of dried banana chips for herself and bag of mini Snickers for him.

"Hey," Nick was at her side and taking the bagged purchase from the clerk as Sara slid her credit card back into her wallet. "They're calling our flight." He looked at her, his eyes darting back and forth, searching hers. He wanted to know how badly his slip of the tongue had hurt her.

She was a little miffed at his comment, but wasn't going to let him see it. "Ok," she said smiling. "Where're we sitting anyway?"

Nick pulled their boarding passes out of his jacket pocket. "Oh," he said, awed.

"What?" Sara said straining to see the tickets in his hand, knowing that something had gone wrong, everything was going too well, and their luck couldn't last.

"She bumped us to first class," Nick said grinning.

-

"Aloha ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Paradise Air," a short stewardess said into the microphone as she smoothed her long black hair. "We're next in line to take off, and should be in the air shortly. Honolulu is only six hours away." A cheer went up from the economy class seating behind the curtains.

Nick turned his head to look at Sara who sat in the window seat to his right. "Hey," he said quietly.

She turned her gaze away from the window and read his eyes. "It's okay, Nick," she answered his unspoken question and put a hand on his arm.

"Yeah?" He dipped his head just a bit, intensifying his scrutiny.

"Yeah," she said resolutely. "Now," she changed the subject, "what do you know about Hawaii?'

"I know it became a state in 1959."

"Very funny," she made a face at him.

"Well, what do you want Sara? There's a warm ocean, white sandy beaches and alcoholic concoctions to drink."

"Concoct-" Sara stopped. Her fingers flew to her lips, her eyes growing wide. "Oh my God."

Nick sat up in the seat worried. "What?" When she did answer him right away, he panicked. "Sara! What is it?"

"Nick! How are we going to explain both of us going back to work with tans?"

He fell back into the seat with relief and laughed out loud. "Sara…who says we're going to make it out of the hotel room?"

Sara's mouth fell open. She sat back in her seat and looked back out the window as the plane taxied down the runway building up speed. Sara watched everything whiz past her faster and faster, thinking about being in bed with Nick as the ground dropped away beneath them.

-

"Champagne to celebrate your honeymoon." The stewardess held up a bottle of bubbly near her face, looking like a game show hostess. "Compliments of the captain."

"Thank you, and thank the captain too." Nick said pulling down his tray. Taking the champagne flutes from the stewardess, he handed one to Sara.

The stewardess popped the cork and filled each of their glasses. "I propose a toast," Nick said, holding up his glass.

"Somewhat appropriate since you didn't propose to me." Sara said smiling.

"Did you propose to him?" The stewardess asked, intrigued.

"No, actually. We got married by accident," Nick told her, smiling brightly.

She lifted her eyebrows. "By acci-" she thought it best not to ask "Well… If there's anything you need, please let us know."

"We will, thank you," Sara smiled sweetly. After the stewardess walked away, she looked at Nick. "That was kind of mean."

"What?" He laughed. "It's the truth."

She sighed. "What was your toast?"

Nick sat up, lifting his glass. "To the wonderful week we're going to have."

She clinked her glass against his and they each took long sips. "Hey," she said excitedly, a thought coming to her. "You wanna join the mile high club?" She wiggled her eyebrows at him.

"Nope," he said simply.

Sara was aghast. And disappointed. "You don't?"

"No. I won't be rushed with you. At least not our first time." He gazed deeply at her for a moment before taking her chin in his fingertips. "We're going to take our time."

"Oh," Sara said, smiling again.

-

It wasn't long before the alcohol, lack of sleep and the events of the past two days finally caught up with Sara. She fell into a gentle sleep, her head resting against the window. Unclipping his seat belt, Nick stood and grabbed a pillow from the overhead, gently slipping it under Sara's head. He watched her for a moment, a small smile on his face. He felt as if he should pinch himself. This couldn't be true. He couldn't really be on a plane bound for Hawaii with Sara at his side. It just couldn't be possible. It had to be a dream.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a/n: Thanks for all the reviews. Does a writers heart good.

My thanks to AlwaysWrite for the beta job and all her perfect suggestions.

Stay tuned for the next chapter…