Disclaimer - I don't own CSI.

A/N: This is another late one. Though it's not because of technical issues but because I've been ill and then I've been struggling to get motivated to get back into this. And I've spent practically the whole week trying to sort this out, and I'm still not convinced this is good. But it's quite long, so hopefully that'll make up for it. I just hope it's been worth the wait.

Chapter 6

They drove back to the crime lab in complete and utter silence. Nick was mentally beating himself up for handling things the way he did. Though in someway he was relieved by the silence; while Sara hadn't jumped for joy and announced she felt the same way for him she also hadn't broken his heart by saying she felt nothing. It was probably for the best at that moment in time. They reached the lab as the sun was raising, just peeking over the buildings in the distance. It was quite beautiful actually, and thankfully provided a brief distraction from the intense and almost suffocating atmosphere.

"Oh thank God," Catherine exclaimed as Nick and Sara walked through the door just over an hour after nearly blowing up.

"You two had us seriously worried," Warrick added, leaping to his feet.

"We're fine," Sara forced a smile.

"Are you sure?" Catherine raised an eyebrow as she walked towards them, not completely convinced by what they were saying.

"Positive," Nick nodded. "We just want to get on with the case."

"At least come and sit down for a minute," Catherine suggested. "We'll make you some tea with lots of sugar; it's good for shock."

A few minutes later both Nick and Sara were sitting side by side on the sofa in the break room sipping on their cups of tea with Catherine and Warrick watching them intently, studying every tiny move they made. Sara merely sat with her head hanging low, focusing on the feet of her colleagues that stood in front of her, whilst Nick nervously caressed his mug of tea and mindlessly gazing round the room. Awkward didn't even come close to how Nick or Sara felt at that precise moment.

"Nick, Sara - my office, now," Grissom demanded as he appeared in the doorway.

Nick let out a sigh as he stood up to place his mug down on the table. He glanced back at Sara as she followed in his footsteps and they silently left towards Grissom's office.

Sara gently tapped on the partially open door and it's only occupant waved them in.

"Are you two okay?" Grissom began as his colleagues sat down in front of him. "Were you checked over by paramedics?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Nick insisted, trying to smile. "Just a bit shaken, that's all."

Sara nodded. "Yeah, it's not every day something like this happens." Her statement had a double meaning.

"Will you be okay to continue working?" their supervisor raised an eyebrow. "Now please be honest, no one will think any less of either you if you need to have a couple of days off, or at least a few hours rest before you get back to work."

"Well, I can only speak for myself but I want to get straight back onto this," Nick replied. "I want to find this guy."

Sara took a deep breath and agreed. "Me too. We need to finish this case. We owe it to the victims' families."

Grissom seemed reluctant to accept their answers. "Alright, if you insist. But if anything changes, please let me know."

"We'll be fine," Nick insisted, smiling politely.

After that Nick and Sara left Grissom's office and headed in separate directions.

Sara made her way to the ladies' room. She just stared at herself in the mirror for a few moments, trying to make some sense out of the things that had happened at that small house in Boulder City. It was supposed to be a simple scene. They were going to check the place out, look for any sign of a struggle or maybe even some blood, and they might have even found their main suspect in the process. That was what should have happened. They shouldn't have ended up holding a bomb and praying for it not to go off, and she was sure that she probably shouldn't have ended up finding out Nick had feelings for her either, not at that precise moment. What a strange turn of events. She still couldn't comprehend what had gone on. So Nick liked her, like in a more than friends kinda way? How was that possible? Since when? Why? How? She frowned at herself in the mirror, puzzled and confused. Sara turned the cold tap on and lightly splashed her face. Letting out a slow, agonising breath, she closed her eyes and leaned against the cold tiles as she pulled out some paper towels to dry her hands and face. This was going to be a very long morning.

Meanwhile, Nick was on the warpath.

"Where's Greg?" Nick snapped at Hodges.

"Hello, Nick, it's nice to see you too," he looked back at him with a blank expression on his face.

"Hodges, I'm really not in the mood for you or any of your crap," Nick insisted angrily. "Do you know where Greg is or not?"

"I think he's just gone to the ballistics lab...," Hodges trailed off as Nick disappeared. "Oh... Well, you're very welcome."

Nick scowled at Greg the moment he set eyes on him. "What have you got to say for yourself?"

"I'm sorry?" Greg scrunched his face slightly, seemingly guessing at what he could or should say that would make up for his little slip of the tongue.

"That's a start," Nick stated sternly. "What the hell do you think you were doing saying something like that over the phone?"

"I'm so sorry. But how was I suppose to know that it was on speakerphone?" Greg asked.

"I was holding a bomb whilst speaking to you; how else were we having a conversation?"

"Yeah, okay, fine. But I didn't think about that earlier," Greg insisted defensively.

Nick nodded in agreement, rubbing his forehead whilst sighing. "Of course you didn't. I know that. I know you never meant to say anything. I'm not meaning to take it out on you it's just...," he trailed off, unable to find the right words.

"I really am sorry," Greg insisted sincerely.

Nick let out a sigh, forcing himself to forgive his younger colleague. "It's fine. It doesn't matter. What's done is done. Forget about it."

"On the plus side, you won the bet...," shrugged Greg as he plastered on a wonky smile.

"I don't really care about that anymore," Nick gave him a look.

"Maybe not... But I can't believe I lost. I was so convinced you wouldn't say anything. I didn't think you had it in you," Greg stated teasingly, though he was sure Nick didn't pick up on that.

"Apparently I do," he replied, shrugging slightly from embarrassment.

"I suppose I should probably take credit for it really," Greg stated, smiling a little. "I started the ball rolling."

"You did. But because of what you said I admitted that I had feelings for her," Nick agreed, looking dejected.

"I'm sure everything will work out okay in time," Greg tried to sound positive.

"Even if she ever forgives me for just dropping it on her the way I did it doesn't mean everything will work out okay," Nick insisted rather solemnly.

"It's a matter of when she forgives you, not if," Greg corrected his friend.

Nick looked sceptical. "I think that's a big ask right now."

Just then Greg's cell phone bleeped. It was Sara. Whilst Nick had tracked down Greg, Sara had chased up some results from the evidence they'd collected from their scene several hours previously, after composing herself in the bathroom of course.

Greg reached for his cell phone and quickly scanned over the message. He looked up, puzzled. "It's Sara. She's talking about something to do with having some test results back. I think it's for you. She must have sent it to the wrong person by mistake."

Nick shook his head sadly. "No, I doubt it was a mistake."

He walked away before Greg could say anything else. He began searching for Sara in the different labs, poking his head through most of the doors looking for where she might have been hiding. He stopped by the locker room and briefly entered the break room but he still hadn't found her. He knew she was most likely avoiding him, which he could understand to a degree, but their case was far more important than anything else happening in their lives at that moment in time. Whilst their issues could often feel huge and maybe even too big to handle they were nothing compared to the grief of losing someone you loved. Nick considered the days events to be quite large on the scale of major issues, scoring it a maximum of eight out of ten, and he was sure Sara would have rated it much the same. But that had to be forgotten and they had to work together in order to solve their case. That had to be their biggest priority.

As Nick began to saunter down the halls he smiled in spite of himself. What a bizarre evening it had turned into. He thought about what he'd said and the things he could have done differently. He was very annoyed at Greg for saying something so stupid over the phone without thinking first but he hadn't caused any real harm. And he hadn't meant to cause harm either. Whatever came of the situation it wouldn't be Greg's fault. In truth, if he could turn back the clock a few hours Nick wasn't sure he'd change a thing, besides the nearly dying part. He had finally found some Dutch courage, looked her in the eye and said the one thing he thought he never would. Perhaps it was because they were standing in a strangers kitchen and staring death in the face but maybe that was the best way to have done it. Nick never really had time to think about it or process what Greg had said over the phone before his brain was sending signals for his mouth to start talking. He hadn't panicked or freaked out over what her reaction was going to be; he'd just said it. Nick felt somewhat empowered by that. He had simply looked her in the eye and let his thoughts finally become actual sentences, an actual statement. He didn't regret it, not really, maybe the timing was a little off but some things had to be done in the moment.

Upon turning the corner his cell phone rang. He briefly spoke to Brass, who informed him that their closest thing to a suspect was being brought in for questioning. As he hung up, he spotted Sara sitting in the corner of the break room. Taking a deep breath he pushed open the door and made his way towards her.

"Hi," Nick smiled nervously. "I've been looking for you."

"Well, you've found me," Sara shrugged, glancing up at him briefly, barely acknowledging his presence.

"Adam Pritchard was pulled over half an hour ago. He's on his way here," Nick stated.

"That's great," she replied, pulling her lips into a tight smile. "Hopefully this case will finally be solved soon."

That was premature enthusiasm on Sara's part. You'd think she'd know better than to think that it would be so simple. She cursed herself for her naivety. She'd been doing her job long enough to realise nothing was ever simple when it came to murder. Sadly for them, their only key person of interest, Adam Pritchard, claimed to have an alibi. He told them he had been in a relationship with Rachel McDermott, the victim that was found in the living room, but insisted he was working at the time the murders took place. He claimed to love Rachel and was apparently planning on asking her to marry him. He told them all about the efforts he'd gone to win her round, saying he joined some green peace activist group just for her. Whilst the partners or spouses of murdered people are often the first port of call when it came to suspects, Sara just wasn't getting the same kind of vibe from this poor man. Adam had seemed genuinely devastated to learn Rachel had been killed and was desperate for them to find who'd killed her, instantly pointing the finger at someone who worked with Rachel at a restaurant in downtown Las Vegas. So they were practically right back where they started. Just great. Finding the answers they needed would be hard, not only for the fact that the case seemed to have more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing but Sara was still struggling to remain focused and composed when she was around Nick. There was a definite atmosphere hanging around them like a bad smell, an atmosphere she had most likely caused herself. They were awkwardly dancing around the whole thing, practically pretending that morning hadn't happened. She knew she should have just stopped thinking about Nick's sudden confession and concentrate on solving their current case but that was easier said than done.

"Wow, some guys have a strange way of trying to win a girls' affection," Nick commented absentmindedly as he and Sara walked through the hallway. She had seemed distracted so he tried to make small talk.

Sara let out a puff of air through her nose in obvious disgust and turned to address him. "Is that how you see woman, Nick? Are we just objects to be won in your eyes?"

Nick quickly shook his head. "No. That's not what I meant at all. I just mean that..."

"Is that what happened today? Did you hope to win my affection by swooping in and saving the day? And maybe if you were lucky I'd get to be your prize?" Sara's eyes narrowed.

"When did this become about today?" he questioned but it fell on deaf ears.

"I'm a person, Nick. A living, breathing human being with thoughts and feelings. I'm a woman, not an object. You can't just have me as and when you want me. It doesn't work that way anymore, times have changed," Sara announced sternly.

"I know. I'm not saying...," Nick stuttered.

"What you're saying is I should be pleased somehow that you want to be with me. Well, too bad, Nicky, because that ain't ever gonna happen. I don't need you. In fact I don't need any man for anything. I can and I will look after myself. And if you think differently then you really don't know me at all," Sara protested.

"Sara, wait, please...," Nick tried, shocked at her reaction.

"Save it for someone who cares," she snapped, and stropped off.

Nick looked around at the few lab techs who had heard the commotion and stopped whatever they were doing, finding a bust up in the corridor far more entertaining. Their conversation had escalated quickly, far too quickly. What was that all about? Well, maybe it was obvious what it was about but Nick was nonetheless stunned by her outburst. Not only had she pretty much clued some of their fellow colleagues into what was going on in their personal lives but she'd practically called him a sexist bigot. He considered himself many things but that certainly wasn't one of them. He could only hope that she was just reacting to what had taken place early that morning as apposed to voicing her actual opinion of him. He needed some fresh air.

An hour or so later Sara's pager bleeped again for the hundredth time that night - or at least it felt that way anyway - from inside the bathroom, Sara's preferred hiding place. She'd spent practically the past hour just pacing the tiled floor, seething with anger, both at herself and Nick. Why had she let herself explode like that? She'd let her highly charged emotions affect her judgement and she wasn't at all proud of herself. But inside the bathroom she was free to rant and rave about everything going on inside her head. Reluctantly, Sara lifted her pager and read the message before leaving in search of some evidence that would hopefully provide some answers to their case at long last.

"Thanks for this," Sara shot over her shoulder at Hodges.

Having just swiftly made her way past Nick in the break room, hoping she hadn't been seen by him, she concluded that she couldn't face being near him after her overreaction. She quickly looked around to see who was about before her eyes landed on Greg. She made her way towards him, trying to smile brightly. "Greg," she greeted.

"Sara," he echoed her greeting.

"Can I ask you to do me a quick favour?" Sara raised her eyebrows, biting her lower lip slightly. "Can you give these results to Nick for me?"

Greg looked thoughtful, and hesitant to answer.

"It's just that I'm needed... somewhere else..," she added, being rather vague.

This made up Greg's mind for him. "I can't, sorry. I'm just on my way to interrogation."

"Oh...," Sara seemed obviously put out by his decline.

"But you know, Sara, I've just seen Nick, he's in the break room. I'm sure you can spare a couple of minutes to drop your results off before you have to be somewhere else," he pointed out.

Sara forced a smile. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll do that. Catch up with you later?"

Greg nodded in response as he watched Sara walk down the hallway in the direction of the break room. He headed the opposite way, the way he'd been going before speaking to Sara but curiosity got the better of him and he turned around. He wasn't very surprised to see Sara talking to Catherine just outside the ballistics lab. He was too far way to hear what was being said but Greg could lip-read Catherine replying 'sure' when asked a question by Sara and she handed over the piece if paper she had in her hands. Three guesses as to what the question was. When Sara was out of sight Greg made a u-turn.

"Psst," Greg whispered loudly as he approached the older woman. "Psst, Cath."

"What are you playing at?" Catherine raised an unamused eyebrow as she looked up from the piece of paper Sara had handed her.

"Sara just asked you to give those results to Nick, right?" asked Greg, verifying what he already knew to be correct. "She's clearly avoiding him."

"Yeah. And? What's your point? Wouldn't you avoid him after everything that happened?" Catherine raised an eyebrow, clearly not impressed.

Greg stuttered over his words. "But..."

"Maybe you should just stay out of everyone else's lives and focus on your own for a change," she advised, maybe not as politely as she could have.

Sara couldn't have been more pleased that Catherine took the results off her hands and was willing to hand them over to Nick. At that moment in time it felt like the only rational thing to do. How could she face him after what she said? She couldn't. Things between them hadn't exactly been running smoothly since they got back to the lab earlier that morning and then she only went and made things worse by taking her frustrations out on him. Yes, she had every right to be frustrated, both with him and their case, but she couldn't just come out and say that, could she? No, of course not, she had to speak in riddles. In fairness she was quite good at delivering cryptic little messages and Nick was pretty good at decoding them - he'd had a lot of experience. Sara wasn't exactly going to make it easy for him, lay it on a plate for him, she was going to make him work for it. She wanted him to understand that what he'd said while they were both in mortal peril had really messed up her head and was really conflicting her thoughts, feelings and emotions. In short, she was thoroughly confused and bewildered. She was supposed to be smart, supposedly a scientist with all the answers, but to this she felt there was no right answer, none that she could come up with as she strode down the corridor. Why had he done this? Why did he have to mess with everything? Why couldn't he just leave things alone?

She finally arrived down in the morgue, having absentmindedly continued to walk until she was far enough away from prying eyes. She let out an involuntary sigh of relief. Pushing open the swinging doors, Sara stepped inside the main part of the morgue where all the magic happened and practically collapsed against the cold white wall next to the doorway.

"You're not very dead," Doc Robbins announced, startling Sara. "I don't wish you to be, of course, but we usually have dead people down here."

"Sorry... I'll go...," Sara went to move towards the door. She hadn't even seen him.

"No. Stay," he insisted. "I could use the company."

Sara smiled, somewhat embarrassed.

"Please, take a seat," he pointed towards some chairs near the door.

Sara smiled once again as she did as she was instructed.

"So I hear you have had a rather stressful day," Doc Robbins stated, with a hint of question and curiosity in his voice. He lowered himself down on to the chair beside her.

"You can say that again," Sara commented, nodding her head.

"You look as though you have the weight of the world on your shoulders," he added, looking concerned.

"That's why I came down here. It's quiet and I can think," Sara explained.

"That's quite alright, Sara. You don't have to explain yourself to me," he insisted. "You can stay here for as long as you wish."

"Are you sure?"

Doc Robbins nodded. "Take all the time you need, my dear. Take all the time you need."

Those were exactly the words she'd been subconsciously pleading someone would say to her, specifically Nick. Sara felt she needed to be told by someone that it was okay to not have all the answers about something for a change, to not have an instant right answer. She felt she needed to be told that it was okay to think about it and to not rush anything.

She jumped a little when her cell phone vibrated. It was Catherine texting her to arrange for both woman and Nick to meet up and collaborate their thoughts and ideas regarding their current murder case. Sara sighed, knowing it would mean she'd have to face, and very likely speak to, Nick, the one person she was trying to avoid more than anything. It was one of those things really. It had felt to Sara that just recently not a case had come through the lab doors that she and Nick hadn't solved together, and that hadn't been a bad thing until that morning.

She forced herself to stand, smiling politely at Doc Robbins as she pushed open the swing doors and stepped out into the corridor. A sobbing mother shuffled past her, reminding her how much she hated her job. Sure, she loved it too but there was also a lot of hate in her relationship with the crime lab. Sara loved solving puzzles but hated comforting distraught relatives who'd more often than not needlessly lost a loved one. She loved using her love for science to prove that someone was lying or at the very least not telling the whole truth. And she loved working with people who were just as intelligent as she was, who had the same mindset and the same desire for the truth. She loved working with Nick, she always had done. They were the dynamic duo of the graveyard shift. They fed off each other's strengths and weaknesses, bounced ideas around with ease, and quite often had the same thought process when it came to proving someone's guilt. Many had said they were the perfect match. But could that, or should that, ever apply to life outside of the crime lab walls?

Their brainstorming session was brief but highly productive. Whilst very little DNA and trace evidence had been found at the original crime scene, the gun used had been identified as a 9mm semiautomatic Beretta M9, a weapon commonly used by the United States Armed Forces. It was also quickly established that their only potential suspect, Adam Pritchard, had been in the bomb unit in the army and was discharged for dishonourable conduct, but the case was dealt a low blow when Catherine produced a list of everyone who'd purchased C4 online in the past six months and his name wasn't one of them. Their running theory that Adam had made the bomb and sent it to himself - though they were still working on the 'why' - then murdered his girlfriend and her housemate quickly went out the window. Nick had been adamant that Pritchard was guilty after discovering his so-called alibi was full of holes, but as Catherine pointed out, that didn't necessarily mean he was guilty of anything. Sara was inclined to agree, having looked the guy directly in the eye and witnessed his genuine heartbreak upon hearing the woman he loved was dead. She was the first to admit that she could be extremely cynical at times, but she really didn't believe that kind of devastation could be acted.

Just when the three occupants of the room were getting agitated and frustrated by the situation, and two were finding being in the same room as each other extremely awkward, the long awaited ballistics report came through. The tests revealed that the striations on the bullets came back to a weapon belonging to a man named Scott Davidson. Nick instantly recognised his picture; the man worked with Rachel, and Nick had spoken to him, noting how much he seemed to care for her. He quickly remembered that Davidson had called Rachel several times a day for a few months, but only then put the connection together. An hour or so late Nick spoke to Scott Davidson again and discovered that the man was very much in love with Rachel, more like infatuated with her - obsessed, besotted, etc, etc - but it was obvious that he could have come across as a creepy peeping Tom, even if that was never his intention. Nick soon found out that Davidson had been stalking Rachel, taking pictures of her wherever she went, learning her routine and habits, and sending her gifts and flowers. Adam Pritchard had been disgusted by this guys behaviour, as any boyfriend would, and went to give the guy a piece of his mind, telling him that under no uncertain terms would he go near Rachel again. But Scott retaliated with a bomb, constructed by an ex army friend of his, his way of telling Adam to back off, that there was no way on earth that was he in anyway good enough to be with Rachel. Meanwhile, Sara discovered that whilst the postal office didn't have any security cameras, a CCTV camera caught footage of Scott Davidson's SUV at the end of the street around the time the bomb was sent, further proof of his guilt. And to make matters worse for the man they found traces of blood on items of his clothing. On the night that Rachel was murdered, Scott went to confess his love for her, demand that were meant to be together, but he didn't take the rejection very well. Sadly Madison Fisher returned home just in time to hear the fatal shot that subsequently sighed her own death warrant.

Catherine smiled widely, pride brimming inside her for her fellow colleagues. "Well done boys and girls. I'm going to go arrest a killer."

Nick smiled back, equally as pleased at the result, as she left the room. But upon leaving, she left behind Nick and Sara and a horribly tense atmosphere. Nick opened his mouth to speak but before words could even form in his brain Sara jumped right in.

"I'm going home Nick, it's been a long day," Sara insisted, and tried to move past him. It really had been a horridly long day but a long, hot bubble bath was calling her name and her bed was beckoning her return. She wanted to forget about everything that had happened that day. And while she was glad that the case was finally over and that for a short while she had been able to pretend that everything was exactly the same as it had been twenty four hours earlier, but that was during work time; she couldn't keep up her act for longer than was extremely necessary. Now she just wanted to be at home away from everyone, away from him, to process the day's events.

"There's something I wanted to say to you first," Nick insisted, holding up his hands.

Sara sighed uncomfortably and stopped in her tracks.

Nick cleared his throat and mustered up the courage to break the silence. "I'm sorry for earlier...," he mumbled.

"No, I am. You deserve lots of things, Nick, and me having a go at you isn't one of them. So I'm sorry," she countered with a slight sigh, still not looking him in the eye.

"Yeah, but I'm sorry for how we got to that point."

Sara could only glance down at the titled floor, and fidget awkwardly.

"We could talk... If you want...," Nick shrugged, pleading with his eyes that if she was about to turn him down that she would do it gently.

"You need to give me a little time to get my head around this... everything...," Sara stated, rambling through nervousness.

Nick nodded, trying to hide his doubt and disappointment. It wasn't what he'd hoped to hear, but it wasn't what he'd dreaded hearing either.

Thank you for reading. Sorry this has taken me so long to post. I've had a nightmare with the ending of this. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with how I wrapped up the case but I'm not very good at that sort of stuff so just use your imagination, pretend it was good. More to come soon. Review please.