Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own CSI.

A/N: I wrote this... way too long ago, and have been procrastinating editing it ever since. Basically, nothing is canon after 9x02, and I don't think there are any real spoilers. I haven't posted anything in ages, so I'm a little scared...

For Keegan, who beta'd this twice and bugged me to edit/post it, otherwise I wouldn't have posted. She re-worded a ton of this, so probably about half of it is her words, haha. Thank you, you're awesome! ;)

She missed him most in winter.

In any other season it was so much easier to pretend that she wasn't alone in bed. But in winter, she would climb under the cool blankets and wish desperately for Gil to be there, to help her warm them.

It also didn't help that Laura believed people should layer clothing or bundle up in blankets when they were cold. She never turned on the heat until the temperature of the house dropped below 50 degrees. There were only so many blankets in the house and Sara got cold easily. After a few weeks of misery, she stumbled upon a solution one day by accident.

She'd washed her bedding earlier in the day and had left them in the machine until that night. It was past midnight by the time the dryer completed its cycle, and she was exhausted. Bed called her name.

The blankets, fresh from the dryer, were nice and warm. She wrapped one around herself eagerly, snuggling into its warmth, and sighed because in a way it felt like Gil was there, holding her tightly in his arms. She smiled at the memories and collapsed into bed, falling asleep more quickly than she had since leaving Las Vegas, dreaming of happier times.

The next night Sara placed one of her blankets in the dryer again, as a test. She wanted to see if it had been the warmth of the blanket or being exceptionally tired that had helped her sleep.

As she had hoped, the heat of the blanket helped, and although a warm blanket could never replace Gil's loving embrace, it was better than having nothing around her.

This became part of her nightly routine, heating up her favourite blanket. She would wait until after Laura was asleep so she wouldn't have to explain her unusual use of the appliance. Missing having a man in her bed was not something Sara wanted to discuss with her mother. Their ages made no difference; it would still be uncomfortable.

Sara knew it was a waste of electricity and expensive for her mother, but she didn't really care. When apart from Gil, she could be selfish if it meant making their separation even a little bit easier.

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Laura didn't pay her bills blindly, so she noticed when electric bill went gone up. Since the only heat control was in the living room and it controlled the whole house, she knew that they weren't using more electricity, at least not for heat.

Still, she asked no questions, never mentioned it to Sara. No amount of money could compare with seeing and speaking to her beautiful daughter everyday. Nothing could compare with getting to know her daughter and finding out Sara had found the kind of love that Laura herself had never been lucky enough to have.

So Laura happily paid the higher bill, and Sara continued to heat her blankets in the dryer whenever she was cold, or even just feeling particularly lonely.

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Gil came to visit her for a week, after Christmas. According to the thermometer in the hallway, it was a pretty cold week, but neither felt it. They were too busy revelling in being together again to notice anything else. Gil met Laura, spoke to Laura and spent some time with Laura but really he was there for the woman he loved. Not her mother.

"I warm up my blankets in the dryer every night," Sara confessed to him on his second night in San Francisco. They were cuddling in bed after making love, and her words were slightly muffled because her head was resting on his chest. "It's too cold in this house."

Gil chuckled sleepily into her hair. "Does that mean I'm going to have to move?"

"No, don't move," she said firmly. "You're better than any blanket."

"Good." He sighed happily.

He tilted her chin upwards so he could kiss her and she snuggled closer to his body.

"I thought you didn't want to move?" she teased after a minute.

"I didn't; but apparently parts of me are feeling rebellious," he said and promptly kissed the smirk off her face.

Another day, during what became a much more serious conversation, Sara explained to him why she had been using the dryer so much, and why she didn't need to when he was there. The real reasons.

And when he left, she cried until she was worn out, her body exhausted because she'd stayed up most of the night before, not wanting to waste precious time together with Gil by sleeping. But lying in bed, she still couldn't find sleep. Not without Gil, not without his warmth. So she found her favourite blanket again, the one she hadn't used once while Gil visited, and headed towards the laundry room.

In January, a year and two months after leaving and seven months after last seeing Gil, Sara decided it was time to go home. There was nothing more she needed to do that couldn't be done, more easily, by her fiancé's side. She was tired of missing him, tired of that pain.

Even though they talked on the phone almost every night and he had become much more open with his feelings, she was still afraid of not being welcomed. And if she was, she had a reason all set up for why she hadn't warned him of her arrival. She wanted it to be a surprise. She knew from experience that if she was the one expecting him, she would go crazy waiting and wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything until he arrived.

So she packed up her things, hugged Laura goodbye and purchased the next one-way ticket to Las Vegas.

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It was cold in Las Vegas when she returned but that didn't concern Sara, not that day. If all went well, she would be in bed within an hour or two and no warmed blanket would be needed. Her personal better-than-a-heated-blanket bedmate would be there with her.

An excited Hank greeted her when she entered the house, but there was no sign of the only other male allowed to kiss her. Hank alternated between barking and excitedly running around the living room while she searched the house for Gil.

She was about to give up her search, when she heard him shout at Hank to calm down, and followed his voice. She found him in the garage, loading what appeared to be a dry quilt into the dryer.

"Miss me much?"

End.

A/N: By the way, in case she wants to use it sometime, the term "better-than-a-heated-blanket bedmate" belongs to Keegan.

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