Chapter 6 – New Years Eve

Sara packed up their stuff as quickly as she could. She had found a house but they wouldn't be able to move in for a while. Until then she would be staying with one of her cousins who lived about half an hour away from Vegas.

When she started working at the Vegas lab, she realized it would take awhile before people warmed up to her. Catherine seemed to be very territorial. She would snap at Sara whenever she got the chance and nothing Sara could say seemed to change that. She found out that Catherine had a daughter too. She was only a few years older then Charlotte, but she hadn't met her yet.

Grissom was just getting used to his supervisor job and was pretty distracted. Sara noticed that whenever she walked into the lab Grissom was there. She had always known him to be dedicated, but this was just overkill.

Warrick could tell Sara didn't really approve of his not being fired. Sara was a little reluctant to warm up to him, no matter how nice he was.

It seemed that Nick was the only team member who welcomed her with open arms. Whenever he saw her he would smile and always be very kind. Sara found he was a very good CSI and really enjoyed working with him. He would help her and calm her down when she was going too fast. It was almost like they had known each other all their lives.

Back at home, Charlotte was just getting used to living in a new place. She was in school again, but she would be changing again after Christmas holidays, when they got the house. When Christmas did come Charlotte was worried that Santa wouldn't be able to find them. Sara explained to her that Santa would always be able to find them no matter where they went.

On New Years Eve there was a company party for the lab. Sara didn't know if she should go because she was so new but Grissom and Nick convinced her to. She got dressed up and headed out to the hall.

Sara hadn't been to a party since she was in college so at first she just stood at the doorway. The hall had blue and silver streamers all over the place. There were 3 Christmas trees left over on the far wall but they were drowning in more silver and blue streamers. Across the wall to Sara's left was a huge snack table. At the end of the table was a long bar. There were a few people sitting at it but for the most part, everyone was dancing. Someone had blown up what seemed like hundreds of balloons that were floating around the dance floor amongst people's feet.

Sara watched this and smiled. She watched everyone until the song ended. Then the DJ made an announcement saying that there was half an hour until New Years so start finding the one you will kiss. This shocked Sara. She was going to have to avoid people so no-one decided they were going to kiss her.

Just then she saw Nick pop out of the crowd of people and come toward her. She pretended she didn't see him but he came anyway.

"Hey, Sara! When did you get here?" he asked over the roar of the music.

"About 10 minutes ago," she shouted back.

"That long? Why don't you join the party?" He asked taking her hand and trying to pull her into the crowd of people dancing.

"No, Nick. That's ok. I'm not much of a partier." She tried to get her hand back but Nick's strong hand kept it in his.

He smiled the smile Sara had learned to love very quickly. She tried to avoid his eyes because she knew if she looked right into them he would persuade her. She had thought last week that he might just be able to rob a bank with those chocolaty eyes. "Come on, Sara. It's not a party if people don't dance."

Sara smiled. "Fine, ok, I'll dance." She let Nick pull her into the crowd. She regretted saying it right after she did. "Dancing with him would be like dancing with fire" she thought. He spun her around and Nick started swaying to the beat. Sara just stood there, other people jostling her. Nick took her hands and moved them around, trying to get her to start. She slowly started swaying to the beat of the music. It was pretty upbeat and she had never been good at dancing, and the fact that she had barely danced since university didn't help much.

She was nervous to dance but Nick quickly changed her mind. He was having so much fun and he was a pretty good dancer. She smiled as he let go of one hand and spun her slowly around. She laughed once and started moving with Nick. She danced with fire around the floor.

The song ended and Nick took her hands and leaned in to talk in her ear. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" Sara looked at him and shook her head.

She had missed dancing. She realized that she used to dance all the time. Even if it was just around her kitchen. But she hadn't danced in so long and she missed it.

"You want to get something to drink?" He asked leaning close to her because the music was loud. Sara nodded and she followed him to the bar. They both got a bottle of beer and went over to a space on the wall. Catherine was there drinking wine and talking to a tall man Sara recognized as a dayshift CSI. When Catherine saw them she rolled her eyes. Sara could tell it wasn't for Nick.

"What's up Cath?" Nick asked happily.

"Nothing, Nicky. How's your night going?" she asked, obviously trying to avoid Sara's eyes.

"Awesome! I love New Years." He said taking a swig of his beer.

"It shows," she said before putting her empty glass down and going onto the dance floor to dance some more.

Nick and Sara stayed on the wall for about ten minutes before the DJ came back on and told them to get their kissing partners ready. There was a flat screen TV hooked up behind him and it was on to show the Times Square ball dropping and it said that here was 3 minutes until it did drop.

Nick turned to Sara. She opened her mouth and shook her head. "Please?" he asked softly.

"No, Nick…no," He smiled that smile again and asked again. Sara pursed her lips and told him no with her eyes. But of course she made the mistake of looking into those big chocolaty eyes. She closed her eyes and said, "Fine. But just a quick one."

Nick smiled and went to the bar where there was a bowl of streamers. He took two and walked back to their spot on the wall. He handed one to Sara and they both watched the TV. At 30 seconds everyone started counting down. Sara clutched her streamer in her hand. She was really regretting saying yes to Nick. He could have persuaded her to do anything he wanted her to. "Damn that Nick," she thought with a small smile.

At ten seconds she thought she might just slip away but Nick was holding her hand. "Damn that Nick," she thought again.

6…5…4…3…2…

Nick pulled Sara to him and kissed her. Sara nearly melted but it was over before she wanted it to be, and that scared her. He pulled away and threw his streamer to join the others in the air. Sara stood there with hers in her hand. She hadn't kissed anyone except her daughter in more then 5 years. Not her relatives or friends on the cheek let alone on the lips. She felt the room getting smaller and smaller and her breathing quickened. She thought about Alex and Charlotte and started to panic. She had to get out of there. She looked around her at the people cheering and kissing. She felt light headed so she did the one thing she could. She ran.