Chapter Text
Nick looked up as he and Warrick entered the locker room to find Greg putting his lab coat away, almost slamming the door before reaching for his bag. The bad mood the lab tech had been in earlier was apparently still around, which was rather abnormal for the rather abnormal guy.
"You okay?" Nick asked as he reached his own locker.
"Fine."
"Okay." His tone was clearly sceptical, which was, predictably if he'd been thinking, like painting a target on his chest.
"What?" Greg demanded, facing Nick and tossing his bag over his shoulder.
"You've just been a little antisocial today, that's all," Nick said, holding his hands up in an attempt to appear unconfrontational. He tried not to notice that Warrick was surreptitiously distancing himself from the building situation.
"I'm not allowed to be in a bad mood for a day?"
"I didn't say that."
"Is this because I kicked you out of the lab?"
"This isn't because of anythi—"
"Good, then leave me alone." He turned quickly, brushing past Sara without a word as he exited the locker room.
"What was that all about?" Sara asked Nick as she came in, and he just shrugged helplessly.
"I have no idea. He's been like that all day though. Pushed me out of a chair to get us to leave the lab."
Warrick shook his head as he changed his shirt. "I didn't think the guy could be serious long enough to get into a snit."
Sara stopped, then looked back over her shoulder in the direction Greg had gone. "No way he'd still be upset over that."
Nick gave her a sideways look. "You wanna be a little more cryptic?"
She turned back to her locker, answering as she took out her coat. "I just, well, told him a little while ago that he just couldn't ever be serious."
"What?" Nick looked over at her with disbelief. "Why'd you have to tell him that?"
She shook her head. "He asked me what it was he didn't have."
"And you told him," Warrick asked, "just like that?"
"Well, no. He was holding some lab results hostage."
"Still, that's just cold Sara," Nick said, trying to ignore her now slightly defensive posture.
"Maybe it was little blunt, but if he didn't want to know, he shouldn't have asked."
"Maybe not," Warrick said with a shake of his head, "but now we have to put up with his bad mood just so he can show you his serious side."
"Look, it's not m—" she broke off, then looked towards them with a smile, "me he's showing it to."
"What are you—" it was Nick's turn to cut his own words off, and he shared a look with Warrick as Sara's smile grew wider. "You've got to be kidding."
"I don't know."
"Don't look at me man," Warrick said, "you're the one he's flirting with."
"We were not flirting, we were fighting. Be serious."
"Oh, I'm being serious," Sara's smile got even brighter, "and apparently, so is he."
"Yeah, well, then why were you the one he asked for the personality tips."
She shook her head. "If he'd asked you, would you have given him an honest answer?"
Nick shifted under their gazes, trying to find a response that wouldn't prove her point and still be the truth. He failed. "No."
"Then that's why he asked me."
"Yeah, well you're nuts," Nick closed his locker a little harder than he'd intended. "Sanders does not have a thing for me, at least not anymore than he has for anyone else here."
"He wasn't being rude to Catherine today, just you Nick."
"And Warrick."
"Yeah, but I was with you," the other man pointed out and Nick glared at them both.
"Just give it up."
"Come Nick," Warrick smiled, "look at the evidence."
"Don't even start with that. There is no way Sanders has any interest in me at all."
"You mean Greg, don't you?" Sara asked, just a little too sweetly.
"What?"
"You've just called him 'Sanders' twice in less than a minute," Warrick answered for her. "Trying to create a little artificial distance there?"
"Did I do something to you guys that you feel the need to get revenge for?" Nick asked. "Because whatever I did, I'm sorry."
They shared a look and then turned back to their own lockers. "All right," Warrick said without looking at him. "We'll let it go."
"Thank you." He pulled on his coat and looked up to find Sara watching him again, still with that smile on her face. "Good night," he said firmly, grabbing his bag as he left the locker room.