FIC: Ashes to Ashes Ch. 6 [CSI Las Vegas - Ashesverse: Part 1]
Ashes to Ashes
Part One of the Ashesverse
Rating: PG
Previous Chapters: One, Two, Three, Four, Five
Previous Stories: Oneshot Prologue
Author’s Note: Many apologies for the long delay on this chapter. Hopefully the remaining chapters won’t take as long to get out. I'm suffering from slight writers' block on how to transition from where I have it right now to the ending, but hopefully it'll be a short one.
Thanks to my beta, Joe, for looking over this as usual and also for reminding me that it doesn’t rain in Las Vegas very much at all. You’re the best!
The first strands of sunlight streamed in through Nick’s bedroom window the next morning, illuminating his bed within the beams. He turned over, grasping fistfuls of his sheets and murmuring indecipherable words in his sleep, before hearing faint footfalls outside of his bedroom door. “’Lo?” he asked out loud, sleep still covering his voice. “Sar? That you out there?”
A brunette head poked in through the doorway with a sheepish grin. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” she said. “Just looking for my luggage, you can go back to sleep.”
He threw the sheets off of himself and walked out into the living room, deeply wishing now that his air conditioner wasn’t broken. Looking around, he spotted her luggage propped up against an end table. Picking up the lighter of the two bags, he gestured to it with a grin. With a grateful smile, she walked over and took it from him. “Thanks,” she said, waltzing into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
To occupy his time, and to prevent himself from thinking too hard while Sara was using his shower and getting ready for the day, Nick turned on the television, and mindlessly flipped channels. His attention was piqued by the daily weather report, and he stopped on the channel long enough to catch it.
“Abnormally strong winds in the desert have created sandstorm-like conditions, adversely affecting our air quality. Residents are advised to stay indoors if at all possible today,” the female weather anchor intoned. Nick pressed the power button on the remote control, and flopped on the couch, trying to think of what he could do with Sara that didn’t involve going outside. His plans for the day were ruined otherwise. If he couldn’t come up with something, then they’d be stuck staring at each other the whole day, which wasn’t the worst idea in the history of ideas, but would be considerably awkward considering she was still technically one of his friends’ girlfriends, he thought with a slight grimace. Besides, even if she wasn’t with Grissom, would she even have any interest in him?
“Stop it, Stokes,” he mentally admonished himself. “Take it one day at a time.” He heard the bathroom door open, and twisting his torso, he caught a glimpse of Sara, dressed in her own clothes, hair wrapped in a towel. She caught his eye and smiled, and came over to sit on the couch next to him, gently setting aside the throw pillow that had been sitting in her spot.
“So, Nick, what are our plans for the day? You said something about a picnic last night,” she said, placing one hand on her knee. The thought of getting out away from everything, even for a day out with Nick, sounded quite relaxing after everything she had been through the past few months, and she was anxious to see what he had in store.
He let out a small sigh. “Weather report says no outdoor picnic today, sadly, air quality is horrible,” he said, forcing himself to look at Sara. Her expression of disappointment told Nick everything. “But,” he continued, “That doesn’t mean we can’t still do something, just we can’t do what I was originally planning. I’ll make it up to you this weekend, promise.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “There’s not much to do if we stay in your apartment for the entire day, unless you’re thinking of a marathon Scrabble session or something.”
“I was thinking Monopoly myself,” Nick said, as he ducked a barrage of throw pillows.
A few hours later, Nick and Sara were sitting next to each other on his living room floor, with a red checkered picnic blanket spread beneath them. “I like this idea much better than Monopoly,” Sara said between bites of her sandwich.
“Who said we weren’t going to play Monopoly when we were done?” he replied with a wink and a slight nudge.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, glaring at him playfully.
Silence filled the air, solely punctuated by the muted sounds of chewing and swallowing. Nick cleared his throat and looked over at Sara, who was intensely studying her portion of potato salad and occasionally jabbing her fork at it. “Let’s do something we’d both enjoy,” he said, attracting her attention away from her fork.
She let out a laugh. “And what would you think we’d both enjoy?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I was thinking a movie?”
“You mean, we’d go out to Blockbuster and rent something?”
Nick shook his head and held up the remote control triumphantly. “On-demand. I just upgraded for it a few months ago.”
She grinned and reached her hand out for the remote. “Let me choose.”
Twenty minutes later, they were back to sitting on the couch again, watching as the opening credits of the movie Sara had spent the last fifteen minutes painstakingly picking out scrolled across the screen. “Popcorn?” Nick asked, stretching his arms above his head and smiling at Sara. She nodded, put one finger over her lips and turned back to the screen, staring intently.
He got up from his sitting position, and slipped into the kitchen where he looked in the pantry for the microwave popcorn. At first only finding empty boxes, he finally found a box with one bag left. Smiling to himself, he slipped it into the microwave and began microwaving it for the time indicated on the packaging. Looking out to where Sara was, he pinched the creases of his forehead between two fingers and began massaging it gently. Not that he had a headache, but that he was trying to dispel the thoughts of the general connotation of two people watching a movie in the privacy of one of their homes. No. That’s not what he needed to be thinking about. Reaching into the cupboard for the popcorn bowl, he eyed the urn, sitting there, mocking him. He could have sworn it was saying to him, “You’re an idiot, Stokes, a complete idiot. She’s sitting there, on your couch, and all you have to do is talk to her.”
Yeah, well then, he was an idiot who valued his various appendages. No telling how she would react, especially considering her confessions of the last twenty-four hours regarding the whole situation she was in. Slamming the cupboard door a little too hard, to get away from the prying…imaginary eyes of the urn, he attracted Sara’s attention with the sudden loud noise. “Door slipped,” he said with a sheepish grin. She nodded and turned back to the movie, thoroughly entranced by something on screen.
Popcorn bowl in hand, he walked back over to the couch and sat down, placing the bowl between them. “Did I miss much?” he whispered.
She shook her head, picking up a small handful of popcorn and eating one kernel at a time. “Nothing too important.”
-to be continued-
Part One of the Ashesverse
Rating: PG
Previous Chapters: One, Two, Three, Four, Five
Previous Stories: Oneshot Prologue
Author’s Note: Many apologies for the long delay on this chapter. Hopefully the remaining chapters won’t take as long to get out. I'm suffering from slight writers' block on how to transition from where I have it right now to the ending, but hopefully it'll be a short one.
Thanks to my beta, Joe, for looking over this as usual and also for reminding me that it doesn’t rain in Las Vegas very much at all. You’re the best!
The first strands of sunlight streamed in through Nick’s bedroom window the next morning, illuminating his bed within the beams. He turned over, grasping fistfuls of his sheets and murmuring indecipherable words in his sleep, before hearing faint footfalls outside of his bedroom door. “’Lo?” he asked out loud, sleep still covering his voice. “Sar? That you out there?”
A brunette head poked in through the doorway with a sheepish grin. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” she said. “Just looking for my luggage, you can go back to sleep.”
He threw the sheets off of himself and walked out into the living room, deeply wishing now that his air conditioner wasn’t broken. Looking around, he spotted her luggage propped up against an end table. Picking up the lighter of the two bags, he gestured to it with a grin. With a grateful smile, she walked over and took it from him. “Thanks,” she said, waltzing into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
To occupy his time, and to prevent himself from thinking too hard while Sara was using his shower and getting ready for the day, Nick turned on the television, and mindlessly flipped channels. His attention was piqued by the daily weather report, and he stopped on the channel long enough to catch it.
“Abnormally strong winds in the desert have created sandstorm-like conditions, adversely affecting our air quality. Residents are advised to stay indoors if at all possible today,” the female weather anchor intoned. Nick pressed the power button on the remote control, and flopped on the couch, trying to think of what he could do with Sara that didn’t involve going outside. His plans for the day were ruined otherwise. If he couldn’t come up with something, then they’d be stuck staring at each other the whole day, which wasn’t the worst idea in the history of ideas, but would be considerably awkward considering she was still technically one of his friends’ girlfriends, he thought with a slight grimace. Besides, even if she wasn’t with Grissom, would she even have any interest in him?
“Stop it, Stokes,” he mentally admonished himself. “Take it one day at a time.” He heard the bathroom door open, and twisting his torso, he caught a glimpse of Sara, dressed in her own clothes, hair wrapped in a towel. She caught his eye and smiled, and came over to sit on the couch next to him, gently setting aside the throw pillow that had been sitting in her spot.
“So, Nick, what are our plans for the day? You said something about a picnic last night,” she said, placing one hand on her knee. The thought of getting out away from everything, even for a day out with Nick, sounded quite relaxing after everything she had been through the past few months, and she was anxious to see what he had in store.
He let out a small sigh. “Weather report says no outdoor picnic today, sadly, air quality is horrible,” he said, forcing himself to look at Sara. Her expression of disappointment told Nick everything. “But,” he continued, “That doesn’t mean we can’t still do something, just we can’t do what I was originally planning. I’ll make it up to you this weekend, promise.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “There’s not much to do if we stay in your apartment for the entire day, unless you’re thinking of a marathon Scrabble session or something.”
“I was thinking Monopoly myself,” Nick said, as he ducked a barrage of throw pillows.
A few hours later, Nick and Sara were sitting next to each other on his living room floor, with a red checkered picnic blanket spread beneath them. “I like this idea much better than Monopoly,” Sara said between bites of her sandwich.
“Who said we weren’t going to play Monopoly when we were done?” he replied with a wink and a slight nudge.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, glaring at him playfully.
Silence filled the air, solely punctuated by the muted sounds of chewing and swallowing. Nick cleared his throat and looked over at Sara, who was intensely studying her portion of potato salad and occasionally jabbing her fork at it. “Let’s do something we’d both enjoy,” he said, attracting her attention away from her fork.
She let out a laugh. “And what would you think we’d both enjoy?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I was thinking a movie?”
“You mean, we’d go out to Blockbuster and rent something?”
Nick shook his head and held up the remote control triumphantly. “On-demand. I just upgraded for it a few months ago.”
She grinned and reached her hand out for the remote. “Let me choose.”
Twenty minutes later, they were back to sitting on the couch again, watching as the opening credits of the movie Sara had spent the last fifteen minutes painstakingly picking out scrolled across the screen. “Popcorn?” Nick asked, stretching his arms above his head and smiling at Sara. She nodded, put one finger over her lips and turned back to the screen, staring intently.
He got up from his sitting position, and slipped into the kitchen where he looked in the pantry for the microwave popcorn. At first only finding empty boxes, he finally found a box with one bag left. Smiling to himself, he slipped it into the microwave and began microwaving it for the time indicated on the packaging. Looking out to where Sara was, he pinched the creases of his forehead between two fingers and began massaging it gently. Not that he had a headache, but that he was trying to dispel the thoughts of the general connotation of two people watching a movie in the privacy of one of their homes. No. That’s not what he needed to be thinking about. Reaching into the cupboard for the popcorn bowl, he eyed the urn, sitting there, mocking him. He could have sworn it was saying to him, “You’re an idiot, Stokes, a complete idiot. She’s sitting there, on your couch, and all you have to do is talk to her.”
Yeah, well then, he was an idiot who valued his various appendages. No telling how she would react, especially considering her confessions of the last twenty-four hours regarding the whole situation she was in. Slamming the cupboard door a little too hard, to get away from the prying…imaginary eyes of the urn, he attracted Sara’s attention with the sudden loud noise. “Door slipped,” he said with a sheepish grin. She nodded and turned back to the movie, thoroughly entranced by something on screen.
Popcorn bowl in hand, he walked back over to the couch and sat down, placing the bowl between them. “Did I miss much?” he whispered.
She shook her head, picking up a small handful of popcorn and eating one kernel at a time. “Nothing too important.”
-to be continued-