A/N: I want to start this chapter with a shout out to all eight of the lovely ladies I've served or will serve as a bridesmaid. They've taught me more about weddings than most people could ever want to know … and I know that if I ever get married, they'll support me the way I've supported them.

Maisy13 – Before you start reading, remember what Sara taught us. Smiling suppresses the gag reflex. Hehe.

I don't own CSI.

Definitions

"Thanks for taking me to the movie," Sara smiled as she and Hank walked to her apartment door.

"Thanks for agreeing to come with me," he replied.

"Do you want to come in?" Sara asked as she unlocked the door.

"Sure," Hank smiled.

He followed her into the apartment. She turned on lights as she entered.

"Would you like a drink?"

"Sure," he said again.

Smiling, Sara went into the kitchen to get two beers from the fridge. Hank walked past her into the living room, where he sat down on the couch. Sara joined him, passing him a bottle. Hank put his arm around her, cuddling her against him.

"So, should we plan our next outing?"

"Okay," Sara said. "When are you …?" She trailed off. "Oh!" she exclaimed, jumping up off the couch and throwing Hank's arm off her. "I'm so glad you're here!"

Hank grinned. "Well, I'm glad I'm here, too."

"No, that's not what I … we need to buy our tickets."

"Tickets? For what?"

Sara rolled her eyes as she went to her desk and turned on her laptop. "Chicago? Mary's wedding? Remember? It's less than a month away. If we don't buy those tickets soon, we'll be within fourteen days of our departure date, and I'll have to sell off my very limited jewelry collection to pay for them."

Hank frowned slightly and put his beer down. "Sara … I thought I told you. I can't go."

Sara frowned. "What do you mean, you can't go?"

"I can't get the time off."

"You can't get the time off?" she repeated.

"No."

"I don't understand," Sara said, trying and failing to stay calm. "Didn't you ask for the time off?"

"Sara, calm down …"

"I am calm!" she yelled, her temper flaring up.

"I beg to differ," Hank said, standing up and crossing to her. "Sara, you're getting all upset over nothing …"

"I don't believe this!" Sara yelled. "This is not 'nothing,' Hank! I'm the maid of honor! We've had this wedding date forever! It's not like I just told you yesterday!"

Hank looked at her in surprise. "Why are you so upset about this?"

"Mary wants to meet you!" she exclaimed. "I want you to meet her! Hank, she's my best friend. She's like a sister to me. This is like you refusing to meet my family."

"I think you're overreacting."

"Oh, it's overreacting to want my boyfriend to meet my best friend?"

"Whoa," Hank said, backing up a step. "Who said that I'm your boyfriend?"

Sara stared at him in shock.

"I mean … Sara, we've never talked about this. I didn't know that you thought …"

"You …"

"We need to talk about this," Hank said. "I never …"

"You know what? We're not talking about this now," Sara said. "Go."

"What?" he asked in shock.

"Just leave. I don't want to see you right now."

"Sara …"

"Go!" she yelled.

Shaking his head, Hank got up from the couch. "Call me when you're calmer, okay?"

"Oh, yeah, I'll be sure to do that," Sara hissed.

Hank left, nearly slamming the door behind him. Sara sank down onto the couch.

"I hate men."

Sara was extremely peevish for the next few weeks. Her coworkers learned very quickly not to cross her; after she nearly tore Nick's head off for asking if anything was wrong, they were more than willing to give her space. They all knew that she was serving as her friend's maid of honor, and assumed that she was stressed over the wedding. She let them think that, knowing that she didn't want to tell them about her relationship – if it could be called that – with Hank. Greg kept his silence; he never even approached Sara to ask if she and Hank had had a fight, and she certainly wasn't about to confide in him.

All in all, she was rather relieved to get on the Chicago-bound plane that would take her to Mary's wedding. She could hardly wait to be able to talk freely again.

As she got off the plane in Chicago, she sighed. She had forgotten how much she hated O'Hare Airport. It was like a maze, and she had gotten lost every time she'd been there. She did manage to work her way through to baggage claim, where Mary was waiting for her. She grinned at the sight of her friend, who was bouncing up and down in anticipation. Mary spotted her and ran across the crowded room to greet her.

"You're here, you're here!"

Sara laughed as she caught Mary in a hug. "I can't believe how fast we got to your wedding! It seems like only yesterday you were calling to tell me that you were engaged," she teased.

Mary laughed joyfully. "Tomorrow night, Sara, I'll be a married woman." She linked her arm through Sara's. "Come on, your baggage carousel is this way. I checked the monitor when I got here."

"Great."

Mary looked around. "Where's Hank?"

Sara sighed. "He couldn't come."

Mary's eyebrows shot up. "Why?"

"He couldn't get the time off."

"Oh, that's too bad. I really wanted to meet him."

"I wanted him to meet you, too."

"Why didn't you tell me that he wasn't coming?" Mary asked.

"I don't know," Sara shrugged. "I guess I kept hoping that he'd somehow manage it so that he could come."

Mary hugged her tightly. "You're here. That's all I care about."

"Yeah," Sara said, returning the hug.

"Hey," Mary said, pulling back and looking into Sara's eyes, "don't be mad at him over this. I don't want you two breaking up over my wedding."

"If we do … well, I can't say break up, really … it has nothing to do with you."

"What do you mean?" Mary asked, frowning in confusion.

"I went too far, Mary," Sara sighed. "I made too many assumptions. I had this idea that we were … I said something about him being my boyfriend, and he told me that I was going too far with our relationship."

"Oh, Sara," Mary sighed.

"It's my fault," Sara said. "I never should have assumed that he was my boyfriend. We hadn't talked about it."

"Have you?"

"Have I what?"

"Have you and Hank talked about it?"

Sara flushed slightly. "I haven't talked to him at all since the day we had that fight."

"Sara," Mary moaned. "Promise me that you'll talk to him when you get back to Vegas."

"Fine, I'll talk to him," Sara sighed. She reached past Mary to pick up her garment bag as it cycled past them. "Here's my dress," she said with relief. "I was so afraid it would get lost."

"Are you changing the subject?" Mary asked with narrowed eyes.

"Can't we please just drop it?" Sara asked. "This weekend is about you, Mar, not me."

Mary smiled. "All right. But, you and Hank had better make up by the time I get back from my honeymoon."

"Yes, ma'am."

Sara was a bit nervous about going into Mary and Tom's wedding rehearsal. She had met and disliked the other bridesmaids, Allie, Kelly, Rebecca and Julia, at the shower. In her opinion, they were all giggly, sorority types – the sort of girls that Nick undoubtedly dated during college. But, Allie and Kelly were Mary's cousins, and Rebecca and Julia Tom's sisters, so they had to be part of the wedding party.

Although she knew the bridesmaids, the groomsmen were all new to her. Apparently, she wasn't the only one; as the wedding coordinator lined them up, all the girls were introducing themselves to their partners.

"I'm Sara," Sara said, offering her hand to the best man.

"John," he said, shaking her hand. "I'm Tom's brother. What's your connection to the happy couple?"

Sara smiled. "Mary's my best friend. We were roommates in college."

"Oh, you're the one who brought Tom and Mary together!" John said with dawning understanding.

Sara smiled a bit uncomfortably. "So they tell me."

"Oh, yeah, all the credit is yours," John asserted. "Mary's roommate, Tom's classmate … hey, you're the crime scene investigator, right?"

"That's me."

"I'm majoring in forensic science. Maybe I could pick your brain later?"

Sara opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by the wedding coordinator.

"Okay, everyone, let's run this entrance into the church."

Rehearsing for the wedding actually wasn't so bad. The wedding coordinator and minister did their best to make sure that the wedding party and the bride and groom were confident with the progression of events for the ceremony. They ran through the entire thing twice, then called it a night.

"Ladies, you'll get here at noon tomorrow," the minister said. "Our church coordinators will show you to the bridal room when you arrive. Gentlemen, we'll see you half an hour later. The ceremony will begin at one. Any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Great," he said cheerfully. "I'll see you tomorrow, then. Try to get some rest tonight."

Sara wanted to laugh at the thought. She was staying with Mary at her parents' house. She was sure that sleep would be the one thing she would not get.

"Can I ask you something?"

Sara rolled over to face Mary in the double bed they shared in her childhood room. "Sure."

"Do you love Hank?"

Sara propped herself up on her arms. "Mary, I thought we agreed that this weekend would be all about you."

"I know," Mary said. "But, this thing with you and Hank is really bothering me. Will you just answer my question?"

"I don't know," Sara said honestly. "How stupid is that? I'm all upset over this, and I'm not even sure how I feel about that guy. I'm so confused, Mary." She buried her face in her pillow for a minute, then looked at Mary again. "Grissom says that's the best place for a scientist to be."

"I don't think there's a science to this, sweetie," Mary said.

"I know," Sara moaned. "Unfortunately, that tends to be the way I think."

"Well, tell me how you feel," Mary said. "I'll help you sort it out."

"I just … I really felt like we had hit that stage in our relationship, you know? I feel like I'm his girlfriend. I guess I just assumed that he would feel the same way." She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "I suck at being a girl."

Mary laughed. "What on earth is that supposed to mean?"

"Girls are supposed to be all over talking about their feelings. I obviously can't do that … I can't even tell the guy I've been seeing that I want to define our relationship. That is so very manly of me."

Mary giggled. "Sara, I swear to God, sometimes you are the most ridiculous person I know."

"I'm not being ridiculous," Sara said defensively. "If I were better at this type of stuff, Hank and I would probably be fine."

"If you were better at this type of stuff, you wouldn't be you," Mary said gently. "And, if that were the case, chances are, Hank wouldn't have asked you out on a second date."

Sara sighed. "Can we please just worry about you now?"

Mary laughed. "Why would we need to worry about me?"

Sara sat up to look at the wedding gown that hung on the closet door. "Well, I think getting you into that dress could be cause for worry. It looks like it might weigh more than you do!"

Mary laughed. "It'll be fine. Just wait until you see it on me. It's so beautiful."

Sara smiled. "You're beautiful. I'm sure you just make the dress look good."

Mary smiled and grabbed Sara's hand, squeezing it tightly. "You're the best friend I could ask for, Sara. I just want you to be as happy as I am."

"I am happy, Mary," Sara said, trying to say the words with conviction, to believe them herself. "I really am."

A light sleeper in the best of conditions, Sara was awake as soon as Mary got out of bed in the morning. She smiled at her friend's jerky, nervous movements as she pulled on her bathrobe.

"Good morning, bride," she smiled.

Mary jumped. "Sara! You don't have to get up just because I did! Our hair appointment isn't until nine. Get some more sleep."

"What time is it now?"

Mary glanced at the clock. "Six."

Sara sat up. "I'm not tired. I'll get up with you."

"Don't you lie to me," Mary said. "I know we didn't stop talking until after two last night."

Sara laughed. "You've said yourself that I'm nocturnal. Besides the fact that I sleep strange hours, I'm jetlagged, and, as you know, something of an insomniac. My internal clock is completely screwed up. Believe me, the chances of me falling back asleep are slim."

"All right," Mary sighed. "Come on, let's go attempt to eat some breakfast."

Mary's nerves became more apparent as their hair appointment loomed closer. She could barely eat. Between Sara and Mary's mother, they managed to get her to drink a glass of orange juice and eat half a muffin. Once she had finished picking at her food, she went up to take a shower. She was in the shower so long that she made them nervous.

"Sara, go check on her," her mother said. "I'm afraid she's going to drown herself in that shower."

Sara smiled. "Unlikely, but possible. I'll check it out."

Sara made it up the stairs just as the water turned off. She knocked on the bathroom door.

"Mary? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Mary called back tensely. "I'll be out in a minute, and then the shower is all yours."

"Thanks."

Once they were dressed and showered – Sara wearing the button down shirt that Catherine had insisted would be best to change out of once her hair was done – Mary's mother drove them to the salon. The other bridesmaids were already there, waiting for them. Rebecca had brought coffee for them all; Sara suddenly found herself thinking that she wasn't such an awful person, after all.

The morning in the salon passed incredibly slowly for Sara. She, Mary and Allie had their hair done first. Kelly ran around, taking pictures of them with their hair in various stages of style creation. Sara was sure that after the wedding, she would have to hunt this girl down and burn the shot of her with her hair teased up like some sort of throw-back to the 1980s.

By the time they left the salon, Sara had to admit that they looked nice. She had not had her hair done like this in years, but she liked the effect of the curls piled up on top of her head. With a pang, she realized how much she would have loved for Hank to see her like this … and Catherine … and Grissom …

No. Grissom did not need to see her like this. She could take pictures to show Hank and Catherine, but Grissom … She firmly pushed the image of him out of her mind.

Mary's mother drove them back to her house, where they threw together everything they would need for the day. Fifteen minutes later, the limo arrived to take them to the church.

Sara, as the maid of honor, had the job of helping Mary into her dress. She and Mary's mother helped her step into the dress; then Sara laced it up the back while her mother made sure it was hanging right.

"Oh, Mary," she sighed as Sara finished tying the corset back. "You look lovely."

Sara looked up to see tears standing in the older woman's eyes. Smiling slightly, she stepped around to see Mary from the front.

"You make that dress beautiful, Mary," she beamed. "Just like I said you would."

Mary smiled, and leaned forward to hug her mother and to kiss Sara's cheek. "Thank you both. I couldn't have done this without you."

Sara broke the tender moment by looking at her watch. "Okay, we need to line up in fifteen minutes, so, bridesmaids, let's put our dresses on!"

There was a general flurry of activity as the girls ran to grab their pale pink dresses. Laughing, they zipped each other's dresses and fixed each other's hair. Finally, they all picked up their flowers and lined up in the hallway.

The music began, and Julia, the lead-off bridesmaid, began her slow progression down the aisle. Mary, who was standing behind Sara, grabbed her arm.

"Thank you," she said.

"For what?" Sara asked in confusion.

"For this. For being my friend – for being my sister." Mary hugged her tightly. "I love you, Sara."

"I love you, too."

Sara's turn came, and she processed slowly down the aisle, trying not to focus on the eyes following her. She focused instead on Tom, who beamed at her as she drew closer to him. She smiled back, thinking that she never could have guessed when Tom was assigned to be her lab partner that she would one day watch him marry her best friend. She finally came to a stop across from the best man, who smiled at her. She smiled back, and turned to the back of the church, where Mary had appeared on her father's arm.

Sara's eyes filled with tears. By the time her friend was halfway down the aisle, the tears spilled over. She didn't even bother to wipe them away.

Sara hated weddings. She hated the very idea of them, and she wasn't entirely comfortable with the concept of marriage. Even so, there was no way to stop the tears.

Mary truly was a beautiful bride.

Sara's flight back to Vegas left early on Sunday morning. She hoped that she could get home in time to sleep for a few hours before going in to work that night. Not for the first time, she regretted not asking for Sunday night off, too. It would have been far easier to go back to work the next day.

The reception had gone late Saturday night; Sara was exhausted when she sat down in her seat on the plane. She fell asleep as soon as they were airborne, and did not wake up until the plane touched down at McCarran. She stumbled a bit as she stood up. The man sitting behind her kindly helped her take her bag from the overhead compartment.

"Thank you," she smiled.

"Rough weekend?" he asked with a smile.

"Stressful," she replied. "Thanks again."

"You're welcome."

Sara wheeled her bag from the plane to baggage claim. She glanced up at the monitors, trying to see which carousel her garment bag would be on.

"Sara?"

She looked around in surprise. "Hank?"

He smiled. "Hi. Welcome back."

"Hi," she repeated, completely shocked to see him. "What are you doing here?"

He smiled again. "I thought you might need a ride home."

"And you thought I'd want to ride with you," Sara said coldly. She paused and looked away for a moment, then back at him. "How did you even know when I was coming back?"

"Warrick told me."

"Warrick needs to stop telling people my plans."

He sighed. "Sara, we need to talk."

"I thought that I had said far too much already."

"I was wrong, okay?" Hank said, running his hand through his hair. "I never should have yelled at you for saying what you did. I would …" He reached out and took her hand. "I would be lucky to be your boyfriend, and I should have realized that long before now. I'm so sorry that I hurt you. That was never my intention."

Sara looked away. "And you think that makes it all better?"

"I'm sure it doesn't," he said, reaching up to touch her face with his free hand. "But, I think that it's a good place to start." He smiled. "Come on, Sara. Let me take you home. Let's talk about this. Let's get back to the relationship we had … or, to an even better one."

She finally smiled and squeezed the hand that held hers. "All right."

Hank grinned and leaned in to kiss her. "Thank you."

She smiled against his lips, and slid closer, putting her arms around his neck. "Thanks for coming to get me. I hate cabs."

"I know."

She giggled and kissed him. "You'll stay and talk for awhile?"

"Yeah." He kissed her deeply. "Or not talk."

"Or not," she agreed, kissing him again.