A/N: Hello hello, my fellow readers and writers. I have a new story to share with you all. Timeline will be during Season 6 right before the The Hanukkah Story. I thought this would be an interesting story to really delve into C.C.'s inner strength and determination. Hope you all like this idea. Please review, it serves as a motivator.

Chapter 1 – Feminine Intuition

It was the beginning of December. New York City resembled a winter wonderland as snow glistened on the ground and slowly continued to fall on the twinkling Christmas lights around the city. As pretty as the city was this time of year, however, the Sheffield family had no intention of staying there, for they had rented a beautiful log cabin in the mountains out in the Midwest. Niles, however, had been let off the hook this year; for the cabin was only big enough for the family and maid service was already included.

Niles was quite happy to finally have the Christmas holiday to himself. Of course, he adored the Sheffield family, but he was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to spend Christmas with his parents and brother up in England. He had already booked his flight. He would spend a week by himself at the Sheffield mansion before taking his flight the next week to England. He missed his family a great deal and could not wait to see them. Not to mention a week at the mansion alone should prove quite interesting.

He planned on taking advantage of all the amenities in the house, mainly the hot tub and Maxwell's brandy and cigars.

Of course, as he sat on the couch, alone in the mansion, he couldn't help but let his mind wander to a particular infuriating blonde. The last few months between them had been interesting and as much as he pretended to be happy about the fact that he wouldn't see her for the next month, he knew he was just lying to himself. Everyday just wouldn't be the same without her to throw insults at and catch hers in return. Not to mention, he had no one to be bitter with on the holidays.

He thought very seriously about calling her and inviting her to the mansion. He felt some pity for her as he realized that she wouldn't have anyone to spend the holidays with, for she had no man of her own, her family relationships were strained and the Sheffields were out of town. He thought maybe she would go on a vacation, but he decided that was unlikely considering she hadn't mentioned it to him or Maxwell before. If she was going anywhere, she would of taken the first chance she got to rub it in his face.

I wonder what Babcock is doing right now…

…..

C.C. sat on the couch in her penthouse apartment, glass of scotch in her hand. She hated this time of year. The cheeriness of it all, the decorations, the lights, the happiness, the carolers, the little snot nosed brats sitting on Santa's lap, all of it. This holiday was just an excuse for people to stop working and be artificially nice to one another and waste money on meaningless gifts. She hated it, and it made her sick to watch the whole city shut down Christmas day.

The truth was, however, her deep rooted Scrooge like hate for Christmas went beyond the surface. The holiday had brought nothing but heartbreak for years in this woman's life. On countless occasions as a child, she would wish for her mother to stop drinking and her father to come home, but as many times as she had sat on Santa's lap at the mall and asked for her father to come home, it was sadly never delivered to her. Her adult years didn't fare well either, for every year she would spend Christmas in her apartment aloneor out of town, alone. Either way it didn't matter, for it still hurt just as much whether she was on the beach or on an ice cap. There was even one year when she was actually dating a guy who she really liked at the time, who actually broke up with her on Christmas. C.C. had legitimate reasons for despising this holiday.

She let her mind wander as she twirled the scotch around in the bottom of cup before quickly dumping it down her gullet. She winced as the scotch burned on the way down her throat. She poured herself another glass before turning on the TV and watching a 48 hours mystery. She dozed off on the couch with the cup of scotch on the table in front of her.

…

Niles was starting to get hungry, so he decided to make a few things in the kitchen. He didn't feel like cooking a big feast, so he just grabbed a few different frozen foods and prepared to heat them. He put a chicken and mashed potatoes TV dinner into the microwave and one hot pocket in the oven. Those were his guilty pleasure frozen food. Since hunger was getting the better of him, it is not surprising that he did not notice that someone had put a fork in the microwave earlier that day.

He left the kitchen for a few minutes in order to catch run upstairs and change into his pajamas. He briskly walked back down the stairs and he immediately smelled a very strange odor. Figuring it was just his food starting to burn, he opened the door to the kitchen and was simultaneously greeted with a massive explosion from the microwave. As if gasoline was poured on everything in sight, the fire massively spread onto the curtains, encasing the walls fairly quickly.

Niles started to panic. Truth is he was deathly afraid of fire, for he had known a kid who died from smoke inhalation from a house fire when he was a child. He looked under the sink and pulled out the fire extinguisher. What he did not realize, however, was that the fire had grown immense in size and even with all the chemicals in the can, there would be no way he could extinguish this. He panicked as he began to feel trapped by the flames. He did all he could think of to do and attempted to throw a bucket of water on the flames encasing him. But as he tried to fill up the bucket, the black smoke cloaked him; he became short of breath and slowly fell to the ground. The flames began to jump around some more and little by little they began to encase his clothing.

…

C.C. awoke with a start. She didn't know what it was, but something felt very wrong and ominous as she sat in her penthouse. She felt as if she needed to be somewhere else. She thought for a minute before having the sudden urge to rush to the Sheffield mansion. She just felt that she needed to be there.

She quickly grabbed her keys and practically sprinted down the stairs. She was still unaware, of course, of why she was sprinting but she just felt like if she didn't hurry that she would miss something or that it would be too late.

She fought bitterly through the nightly New York traffic in her BMW. She was used to this sort of thing and she drove like a mad woman around cabs weaving in and out of traffic. Pedestrians were more worried about being run over by her than the cabs as she continued to drive somewhat erratically.

She arrived at the Sheffield Mansion horrified as a huge cloud of black smoke and the smell of burning permeated through the air. Her thoughts immediately went to the whereabouts of her supposed enemy. She realized that he could be out and not even aware of the fire, but the possibility that he was in the house this very moment scared her tremendously. Clearly the fire department hadn't been called or if they did, they were taking their sweet ass time. As dangerous as this would be, she had to go inside.

Bracing herself, she barged through the front door of the house, the fire hadn't appeared to have encased the entire living room, but smoke was clouding her vision somewhat. She continued her search around the living room. The air grew warmer as she moved closer to the kitchen and she realized that must be the source of the flames. Of course the cardinal rule was never to open a hot door, but C.C. had never been one for following rules. Not wanting to touch the doorknob directly, she found Brighton's baseball bate and started hitting the door. It only took one hit, for the door hadn't been completely shut, and flew open abruptly.

There, on the floor, she saw, Niles covered in flames. Instinct immediately took over and she quickly took off her blazer, as well as some blankets from the living room and put the flames out that had encased him. Adrenaline was rushing through her and she knew that Niles needed to be removed from the house. She grabbed him under the arms and quickly pulled him out of the room. The back door was encased with flames and she knew that she would have to pull him through the front door. With more strength than most women, she continued to drag him through the living room. She didn't stop until she was completely out of the house. She debated on calling an ambulance but decided that waiting would only make his chances of survival less likely.

She continued to drag him until he was next to her car, where she opened the door and lifted him up, first putting his upper body in the seat then lifting his legs in after. Once he was in the car, she immediately, grabbed her cell-phone and called the fire department telling them the address and that no one was there.

She anxiously drove to the hospital, her face etched with worry and fear as the man she loved was on the verge of death in the back seat of her car and he could leave her without ever knowing how truly felt about him.