A/n: Ok so I pretty much owe you guys the biggest apology ever for completely abandoning this story - things have een completely crazy lately and I've had either no time or no drive to write! But it's changing now - I have a 3 week break from uni coming up so I'm hoping I'll get the rest of this out over the break, or at least make a blooy great dent in the story! Anyway this chapter is not as good as I was hoping for it to be and I'll wholeheartedly agree with all of you who say the ending seems kind of half assed but I had to start some where and the only way is up! Hope you enjoy!

The Bay Hotel bar was as nice and ornately decorated as the rest of the building. A long, rich mahogany coloured bar ran the entire length of the east wall with well dressed bar staff stationed behind it. The bar was an old school bar with decorative brass pumps for the draught beers and optics for the spirits on the back wall. It was a change from most of the hotel bars in Vegas where almost all of them had gone 'digital' with the electronic pump attached to barrels in a room in the basement.

Nick and Greg were sat in a booth facing the bar so Greg had a good view of the cute little blonde bar tender while they drank. A small temporary stage loomed on the back wall and various sound and lighting technicians were setting up the equipment for the karaoke night. As of yet the place wasn't too busy but when Greg had asked would it fill up the staff were almost certain it would, "Karaoke night is pretty popular, and not just with guests." She had smiled. Nick groaned. A few more people entered and Nick frowned. Greg rolled his eyes.

"Would you quit pouting over there and start having fun?" He chastised. "We're on a once in a lifetime trip here and you're sulking because you have to sing in public. We're in Africa for cryin' out loud! No one here is going to know you. Get over it. You won't be the only one singing, all the guys will be. I certainly will be and I'd say once the girls get a few drinks in them they'll give it a go too. It's fun! That's what karaoke is...Fun!" He waved his hands around to emphasise the word fun.

"It's not the singing man; it's what the singing represents." Nick argued. Greg looked at him questioningly. "Losing to a girl!" Nick explained.

"Three girls." Greg corrected. "And me."

"That's hardly better." Greg huffed his offense. "Besides Sara's choosing the song and I just know she's got something horrible planned." He sighed.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"Who are you kidding?" Nick drawled sarcastically. "I know I would have humiliated her if we'd won." Nick fretted as more people entered the bar.

"Well you just better hope Sara's a better person than you...or get a few drinks into you and then you won't care. You might even enjoy yourself." Greg smiled as the blonde bar tender caught his eye again, distracting him. Nick sighed heavily, again, looking woefully towards the stage.

By the time Grissom, Brass, Sara and Sofia had arrived Nick and Greg had all ready finished off quite a few drinks.

"Looking forward to tonight Nicky?" Sara teased as she slide into the booth beside him. He glared back at her causing her to laugh.

"Well I know I am." Sofia chuckled, enjoying the afterglow of their victory over the guys. Over the microphone the host of the karaoke night warmed up the crowd, giving them instructions on where to sign up to sing and announced that the first singer would be on in ten minutes. Sara and Sofia practically ran towards the sign in sheet leaving three sulking men and Greg looking after them. Nick's heart fell a little when he saw Sara laughing with the DJ.

'What has she got planned?' He worried.

By the time Sara and Sofia had returned Catherine and Warrick had joined the group, both wearing great smiles on their faces.

"We didn't miss anything did we?" Cath enquired, sipping on her drink.

"No the big show hasn't started yet." Sara assured her, squeezing Nick's shoulder. The girls were loving every minute of this torture. They ordered more drinks and chatted while they waited for the evening to really begin.

Luckily for Nick Sara and Sofia had not been fast enough and he wasn't the first one up. A few people went up before him, each singing their own karaoke favourite. None of them were particularly good but they had fun with it and the crowd were giving them tons of encouragement. Nick began to calm down, knowing that at least he had a decent enough voice. Either that or he was calming down because he had quite a few beers in him.

"Thank you Carrie for that version of I'm so excited...I really believed you too. Next up we have Nick Stokes. Come on up here Nicky." The DJ called out. Nick felt as though his stomach had just landed in his shoes as he stood up and made his way to the mic. It wouldn't have been so bad if he knew what he was about to sing but he'd only find out when the rest of the bar found out. The spotlight shone down on him, blinding him slightly and blocking his vision of most of the crowd. The opening bars of a familiar song played and Nick couldn't help but laugh. 'Original Sara, real original.' He shook his head as the lyrics appeared on the screen.

I'm goin' out tonight, I'm feelin' alright

Gonna let it all hang out

Wanna make some noise, really raise my voice

Yeah I'm wanna scream and shout.

No inhibitions, make no conditions

Gonna get a little outta line.

I ain't gonna act politically correct – I only wanna have a good time.

Nick laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

The best thing about bein' a woman,

Is the prerogative to have a little fun.

Oh, oh, oh go totally crazy – forget I'm a lady

Men's shirts, short skirts

Oh, oh, oh really go wild, yeah doin' it in style

Oh, oh, oh get in the action – feel the attraction

Colour my hair, do what I dare

Oh, oh, oh I wanna be free, yeah to feel the way I feel

Man! I feel like a woman

Nick cringed his way through the chorus. The crowd started clapping and cheering, giving Nick all the encouragement he needed. He threw himself into the second verse and by the next chorus he was dancing around and making a fool out of himself. At their table the group were in hysterics laughing at Nick as he finished up the song sliding along the stage on his knees.

"Thank you very much Mr Stokes for that...energetic performance! Shania ain't got nothin' on you." The host laughed over the microphone as a slightly red faced Nick made his way back to the table.

"Woohoo Nicky boy I didn't know you had that in you!" Catherine cheered when he sat back down.

"Yeah Nick that was really something." Brass shook his head at the young CSI.

After a few more people had sang it was the rest of the losing team's turn to sing.

"Next up we have a trio of singers, please welcome to the stage Gil Grissom, Warrick Brown and Jim Brass." The crowd cheered as they reluctantly made their way to the stage. The bouncy beat of an 80's pop anthem played over the sound system and the men's faces were a combination of anger, embarrassment and misery as the words appeared on screen.

"I see they've gone for a running theme in our humiliation." Grissom's mouth drew tight. He and Warrick pushed Jim up to the mic to start them off. He glared at them.

I come home in the morning light

My mother yells when you gonna live your life right

"You've got to be kidding me!" Jim said dryly mid line.

Oh mother dear we're not the fortunate ones

And girls they want to have fun

Oh girls just want to have fun

He sang as monotonously as humanly possible. Warrick took the second verse, trying hard not to look at the audience. Just look down sing and it'll all be over soon.

The phone rings in the middle of the night

My father yells what you gonna do with your life

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

Oh Daddy dear you know you're still number one

But girl they wanna have fun

Oh girls just wanna have fun.

The men banded together in their embarrassment and braced themselves for the high pitched chorus. Back at the booth Catherine, Sara and Sofia were doubled over laughing. Nick was smiling smugly and Greg was singing and clapping along.

They cringed their way through the rest of the song and ran off stage before the last few bars of music were even finished. Sitting down mortified and angry at the girls the men called a waitress and ordered themselves some drinks, strong drinks. Everyone was starting to loosen up now and they were really enjoying themselves. Sara braved the stage and gave a sizzling performance of Peggy Lee's Fever during which she barely took her eyes off Grissom, nor did he take his eyes off her. This of course did not go un-noticed by Catherine who was furiously nudging Warrick to draw his attention to it also.

"They are totally having eye sex!" She hissed. Warrick shrugged.

Next it was Catherine's turn to take the stage and with several screwdrivers in her system she choose to sing the Blondie classic I touch myself, which left Warrick very hot under the collar and earned her raucous cheers from the male audience. Jim, Sofia and Grissom avoided the microphone like it was Ecklie in a bad mood.

A somewhat inebriated Greg gave a very...enthusiastic performance of Rod Stewart's 'Do ya think I'm sexy?' gaining him a few female admirers in the audience, though not the attention of the female he was hoping to attract. When his singing failed to impress he began ordering cocktails from the woman of his dreams, well at least she would be tonight, in order to get her attention. Hoping that his superior knowledge of cocktails would impress her he ended up drinking a lot more than he should have.

"This is the best mojito I've ever tasted!" He squealed, thinking it sounded a lot more manly than it actually did. "Andrea, you're amazing." He smiled boyishly at her. She smiled back, albeit a little uncomfortably.

"You're not so bad yourself Rod." She giggled, he might be drunk and coming on way to strong but he was still cute.

"Will you marry me?" Greg swayed and made doe eyes at her, almost falling as he swayed a little too far left.

"Whoa! Easy there stud." Nick laughed as he stepped up beside him and caught him. "I think maybe it's time for us to go home." He put his arm around his friend and tried to lead him out of the bar.

"I don't want to go." Greg sulked. "I want to stay here with Andrea!"

"I know you do buddy but we have to leave, Andrea will still be here tomorrow I promise." Nick cajoled.

"You promise?" Greg turned to Andrea with pleading eyes. She couldn't help but smile.

"I promise." Greg beamed and turned to Nick, ready to leave.

"She's going to wait for me." He tried to whisper but failed, causing the blonde bar tender to giggle.

"That's great!" Nick smiled. "I'm sorry about my friend here; he was drinking to get your attention. You know you really should give him a chance, he's not such a bad guy when he's sober." The bartender smiled and nodded as Nick led Greg out of the bar and half carried him to the elevator.

"I love her!" Greg sighed as the exited the elevator and found the rest of the gang lounging on the couches. Nick did a double take when he saw Sara sleepily curled into Grissom's side with Grissom's arm around her, but figuring she was just a little drunk and Grissom was a gentleman he didn't think anything of it. He dropped Greg into one of the leather arm chairs where he flopped back with a big grin on his face.

"Hey Cath, you might wanna head out and buy yourself a nice hat – Greggo here's getting married." Nick joked, the group chuckled. "Isn't that right Greggo?"

"Yes!" He said dreamily. "Her names Andrea and she has shiny blonde hair and pretty green eyes and we're going to get married and live here in a house on the beach and I'm gonna teach our children to surf and she's going to make them cocktails." Greg rambled; unaware that his speech was providing great entertainment to the rest of the room. "And there'll be dolphins and they can play with the elephant." He concluded.

"Maybe it's time you went to bed." Grissom suggested with a smile and raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, come on buddy, let's get you tucked up." Nick smiled at how childlike Greg was and helped him to his bedroom.

"Bed sounds like a great idea to me." Sofia drawled standing up and walking towards the bed room with added swing in her hips, when she got to the door she cast a look over her shoulder at Jim who immediately jumped up from his seat and faked a yawn.

"Yeah I think I'm gonna head to." He said before briefly wishing everyone goodnight and practically running to the bedroom. The remaining bodies in the room exchanged looks smirking at the pair's behaviour.

"I want to go to bed too!" Sara whined into Grissom's side. He smiled and pulled her up off the couch towards the bedroom. Their actions were watched with great interest by Catherine.

"Goodnight guys!" He called back at Catherine and Warrick who were exchanging glances.

"I'm going to head off myself." Catherine groaned as she pushed herself off the couch.

"Yeah I'm gonna grab a glass of water then I'm hitting the sheets too." Warrick yawned. "Damn everyone's so tired – do you ever think we're getting old?" He laughed.

"Maybe." She sighed. "Goodnight." The door to her bedroom closed with a snap leaving Warrick looking in after her. He shook his head and smiled. He poured himself a glass of water and headed towards his room passing Catherine's door he heard her moving around inside and singing.

I close my eyes and see you before me

Think I would die if you were to ignore me

I don't want anybody else...

A smile crept across Warrick's face as he turned from his own door and entered Catherine's room.

-

In Sara and Grissom's room Sara was already lying on top of the covers her face buried in her pillow. Grissom stood in the doorway and looked at her thinking about how adorable she looked when she was sleeping.

"Aren't you coming to bed?" Her words were muffled by the pillow.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a second." He remained where he was standing taking in the moment; it would sound silly to anyone else but in that one innocuous moment, standing there watching her, hair all over her face as she lay sprawled on her bed, the love he felt for her was incomprehensible. And that's when he knew how he was going to make this trip memorable for her.

"Gil." She cried from the bed, missing his body to curl up against. He tore himself from his thoughts and obliged her climbing under the bed sheets and pulling her in with him.

"I love you, you know that?" He said softly, kissing her hair.

"I love you too sweetie. Goodnight." She said sleepily. A muffled noise penetrated the wall, it sounded like giggling.

"What was that?" Sara asked, her eyes opened wide in almost terror.

"I don't know but I hope it's not what I think it was. I pray it's not what I think it is." Grissom grimaced. That's when they heard the sound that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.

"Oh Jim!"