[ for karen: vegas plot ]

[formerfratboy]

Nick knew that there was something different the very moment he woke up. Not to say that his home and his bed on the island weren't comfortable, but, well, they still weren't exactly living in luxury.

Not that Nick ever had -- being a CSI paid the bills, but it still didn't leave a lot left over for high thread counts and plush mattresses. So when he woke up feeling incredibly well-rested, he knew something was wrong.

Same with when he opened his eyes and saw not his familiar hut, but a very lavish hotel room.

Same with when he raised himself up on one elbow, squinted to see out the window, and caught a glimpse of the Bellagio fountains below.

He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but he was home.

"Uh, Karen?" He reached out, nudging Karen's shoulder to wake her up. "Get up, things are weird."

Comments

[callofkaren]

Those words had become much too familiar over the years, and though Karen usually faced weird mornings with resignation, it didn't make her any more willing to open her eyes and figure out what was going on.

"Five minutes," she mumbled, and was a little glad to hear that she was still herself. At least there was that. "Bed is better than crazy right now."

[formerfratboy]

He couldn't argue that, but he also needed confirmation that he hadn't gone completely nuts. This, in many ways, was almost weirder for Nick than waking up with a tail, or in someone else's body, or any of the many other weird things that the island had done.

"This is more interesting weird than crazy weird. I think you might want to see this."

Sure, it wasn't prime fountain-viewing time; that was at night, when the light show was at its best, but still, it was something to behold.

[callofkaren]

Karen made another sound of protest, but Nick's voice and her growing curiosity cut through the desire to go right back to sleep and ignore the world. She shifted, pushing the blankets away, and that should have been enough to warn her before she even opened her eyes. Expensive hotel blankets didn't feel anything like blankets at home.

The room was way, way nicer than anything Karen had ever set foot in, and only a single glance out the window was about all the convincing she needed.

She shifted, blanket falling away as she got onto her knees to get a good look. "Oh my god."

[formerfratboy]

"Right?" Now that he's sure she's up, he slips out of bed and pads over to the window, tweaking aside the curtains even further. "I'm not just imagining this, right?" He presses his hand up against the windowpane, half-expecting to fall through, and being pleasantly surprised when the window seems, well, completely real.

[ aw man, i really thought i had responded to this. my bad. :( ]

[callofkaren]

"You're not," Karen said, her excitement growing as she scrambled out of the bed to join Nick at the window. "Are we in Vegas? Holy shit, we are totally in Las Vegas."

She grabbed Nick's arm and couldn't help bouncing in place a little. Any change in the norm that didn't immediately try to kill them was a welcome change. Besides, nothing could be worse than a killer Spongebob, and they'd already dealt with that once in their lifetime.

[formerfratboy]

"This is definitely Vegas," he says, and he lets a smile creep across his face. "I don't -- I don't know what this means." Did they get transplanted back to Nick's actual, real home? Is it an alternate version? Nick doesn't entirely know that he cares, as long as Karen, and Sam, are there with him.

Sam.

"Uh," he says then, looking around, trying to get his bearings in the room. "Where's the dog menagerie? And also, Sam?" There's a second room in the suite, it looks like, and he cants his head to the side, listening for the tell-tale sounds of barking, or playing.