Chapter 42 – Phone Wars

Nick spent the night at Sara's. Sara was exhausted and fell asleep almost right away, but there was no way Nick could even think about sleeping. He lay awake until 3 in the morning, thinking. He knew Sara had been hurt a lot before, but he had never really thought about it much. She had so many different things going on in her life that he had heard about and he was positive there were many more. She rolled over in her sleep and he smiled as she sighed and mumbled something about seafood. Her left hand came up to her mouth and Nick caught a glimpse of her diamond ring. It fit her perfectly, making her look more beautiful then she already was. Nick slowly moved closer to her and kissed her on the forehead, pulling her closer. She reflexively snuggled into his chest and he finally fell asleep with her forehead resting on his chest.

SnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickers

Nick was jerked awake by the phone. "Damn Grissom," he thought as he reached for the bedside table, thinking Grissom was calling him into work, but then realized he wasn't in his own bed. He opened his eyes just as Sara reached over him for the phone. She held herself up with one hand beside Nick's chest while she pressed talk and said hello. She slowly lowered herself onto Nick's chest as she spoke to Catherine.

"Good morning my little love bird," Catherine said playfully into the phone.

"Hey, Cath. What's up?" Sara said groggily. Sara saw Nick smile when she said Catherine's name.

"Oh, I'm just calling to check in on you two…make sure everything went well," Catherine said in a sing-song voice.

"Wha- how did you know about…?" Sara gave Nick a 'you-sneaky-little-man' look. "You knew he was gonna do it!" More a statement then a question.

"Do what?" Catherine asked in a badly faked innocent curiosity voice.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Sara said in a warning tone. But she still couldn't help the smile in her voice from coming through.

Catherine gave a little giggle. "Yeah, I did know…but that man lying beside you didn't show me the ring! No matter how much I begged!"

"He didn't, did he?" Sara looked at Nick with a smile. Nick smiled back, trying to suppress his own laugh.

"Not even a little peek! And after all I did to help him."

"Help him… what…exactly…did you do to help him?" Sara asked still looking at Nick. Nick opened his mouth and made a grab for the phone but Sara leapt up out of his reach.

"I did everything! I planned it all! Well, maybe not all of it…but a lot of it," Catherine said oblivious to what was going on at the other end of the phone. Sara was jumping around out of Nick's reach on the bed.

"You did everything?" Sara asked so Nick would know what they were talking about. Nick shook his head and made another grab for the phone.

"Everything," Catherine said again. On the other end, Nick smiled and leaned in to kiss Sara. She smiled too and stepped closer. He kissed her and slipped one hand to her waist and slowly took the phone out of her hand with the other, jumping away quickly so she wouldn't get it back.

"Ha Ha!" he said triumphantly. "Catherine! I thought we were going to keep that a secret!" he said to the woman on the other end.

"Nick? Oh…umm…I'm sorry I just couldn't help myself." Catherine was tickled pink that she got to be a part of this. "Sorry!" she said with a huge smile.

"Hey," Sara said with her hands on her hips. "I was talking about your little proposing scheme!" Sara said. Nick just smiled.

"You are not off the hook! I will talk to you later." Nick was about to hang up when Catherine stopped him.

"Wait! Charlotte wanted to talk to Sara."

Nick handed the phone to Sara and Charlotte came on the other end.

"Mommy, Catherine said that there was gonna be a surprise when I get home."

"Did she?"

"Yeah. Mommy, what kind of surprise is it? Is it a party?"

"No, pumpkin, it's something else. I'll tell you when you get home."

"But I want to know now!" Charlotte whined.

"Well that's too bad. I can't tell you over the phone. How did your sleepover go?"

"Good. Me and Lindsay set up a fort in her room and we played with all the dollies and Chester was the daddy. Isn't that funny?"

"That is funny. Ok, pumpkin, I have to go. I'll talk to you when you get home, ok?"

"Yep. Bye, Mommy. Oh, wait, Catherine wants to talk to you again."

Sara heard the phone being passed. "Are you going to give me details or not?" she asked suddenly in Sara's ear.

Sara smiled. "Maybe. You need to do some explaining too. But I can't talk now…I'll talk to you later."

"Ok…Charlotte says she loves you."

Sara smiled and hung up the phone. She was still standing on the bed with Nick next to her. She tried to suppress a laugh but lost horribly. She jumped forward into Nick's arms. She hugged him tight and he kissed her shoulder. She stepped back after a few seconds, careful not to trip on the bedclothes. She looked at her ring. This was the first time she had looked at it in the light. It was a solitaire, Tiffany cut diamond on a silver band. Sara smiled again and bit her lip.

"It's really pretty," she said to Nick. He smiled and took her hand, kissing it lightly on the back before entwining the fingers in his.