Title: Last to Know
By: Caroline Crane
Fandom: CSI: Vegas
Pairing: Nick/Greg; Sara/Hodges (sort of)
Rating: PG
Summary: Sara's bad day just got a little worse. Written for the Sara/Hodges challenge.

She was still laughing at Nick's parting shot when he ducked into Greg's lab, leaving her to face Hodges alone. Her good mood was tempered a little by the look on Hodges' face, but she pushed down the wave of annoyance and got right to the point. "You paged me?"

"Hmm," Hodges said, his gaze fixed on something just over her shoulder. Sara frowned and started to look, but just then he shook his head and reached for the printer. "Pity," he said, his tone almost conversational as he glanced down at the results in his hand. "You didn't have…designs on Stokes there, did you?"


"What?" she snapped, the question taking her by surprise.

"It's just the way you were…tilting."

"Tilting," she repeated, her tone flat and her arms crossed over her chest. Normally that would be enough to make even Grissom back down, but Hodges just blinked innocently at her and then smiled that smile of his again.

"You know, tilting. Just now, when you were walking together, he was talking and you were sort of tilting your head. It's what women do when they want to show they're available."

She opened her mouth to tell Hodges exactly what she thought of his knowledge of women in general, then stopped herself when she realized that would just invite him to tell her way more than she ever wanted to know about his life outside the lab. "Why are we having this conversation?"

"I just thought you should know," he answered, and his gaze flickered over her shoulder again for a second before he looked back at her. Automatically she turned to look – Nick was right across the hall, his back to them. It was easy to see him through the glass, though, and even from a distance she saw how close he and Greg were standing. They were sort of leaning toward each other, and Greg was…tilting. His head was angled just a little, a half-smile on his face as he listened to whatever Nick was saying.

"I hate to have to be the one to point it out," Hodges continued, jolting Sara out of her reverie. She felt her face flush as she tore her gaze away from what was going on across the hall, suddenly feeling as though she'd intruded on a private moment. "I'm not seeing anyone, though."

"What?" she choked out, her blush deepening as she turned to look at Hodges again.


He smiled imperially – there really wasn't any other way to describe it, not that she'd spent much time thinking about Hodges' smile – and shrugged. "We're both intelligent people, Sara. We're certainly well-matched."

"Well-...? I've got a case to solve," she said, her mouth twisted into a scowl as reached out to snatch her test results out of Hodges' hand. She turned on her heel before he said anything else, grabbing the door handle and yanking it open just a little too hard. And this was just perfect -- it wasn't enough that she'd humiliated herself in front of Grissom again, but now Nick...and with Greg, of all people. But even that was easier to believe than the fact that Hodges had just hit on her.

"Think about it," Hodges called after her, and Sara couldn't help herself; she glanced over her shoulder, shooting him a glare that would have stopped most men dead in their tracks. But Hodges just smiled and gave her a little wave before he turned back to his computer.

She glanced longingly at the locker room as she marched down the hall, wishing she had time for a long, hot shower.