Disclaimer: Characters contained within do not belong to me.

Author's Notes: Happy holidays, everyone! I couldn't let them go by without posting something, a very small, likely very insignificant gift to all of you, my dear friends in this community. I hope you enjoy it and that it starts your new year with a smile.

Special thanks to Lisa who never gave up on this even when it turned from a Christmas story into a New Year's story. At least it didn't end up being a Valentine's Day story!

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The Best is Yet to Come

by Kristen Elizabeth

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There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. – Louis L'Amour

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There hadn't been much in the past couple of years that Greg Sanders felt was worth celebrating.

What did you say about the years that saw you beaten up and sued, saw one of your dearest friends in the world kidnapped and nearly killed before she left in the middle of the night without a word, saw another friend and colleague brutally gunned down in his own car, and ended with your boss and mentor packing up his bags and leaving town for good?

Nothing. There was nothing you could say. All you could do was keep hoping and maybe even praying that the next year would be better.

But even Greg, the one time pillar of hope and optimism in the crime lab, was starting to believe that maybe the happy times were gone and the future was a long, dirty alley with broken streetlights. Going nowhere good.

"I hate New Year's Eve."

Blinking, Greg glanced at the woman who'd snuck up on him while he was lost in his thoughts. "You?" he asked with faint surprise. "I would've thought it was your favorite holiday. Drunken debauchery and all that."

Riley gave him a small, mysterious smile from around the rim of her martini glass. "Don't get me wrong. It's a nice thought…starting over again…out with the old, in with the new. Blah, blah, blah."

"Blah, blah, blah," Greg echoed. He lifted his beer bottle. "I can drink to that."

"But that's only in theory," she continued, amused. "In practice, it doesn't really work out like that. Because no one, and nothing, changes overnight. It's a ridiculous expectation and we set ourselves up to fail if we think it's possible."

"Spoken like someone who's already broken her resolutions."

Riley rewarded him with a silver laugh that twisted his stomach in a very pleasant way. It was a feeling he was starting to associate with anything his co-worker did or said. He was really going to have to figure out what was going on with that. Soon. The last time he'd waited, he'd lost the girl to…

"Grissom?!"

The man's name, shouted from across Nick's crowded apartment, brought the din of the unofficial lab New Year's Eve party to a standstill. All eyes shot to the door and the man who had just entered, sporting a full beard, a healthy tan and a pair of blue eyes that could only be described as laughing.

Greg felt Nick bump his elbow as he wove his way through his guests to reach the new arrival. "Grissom?" Nick repeated, a huge grin on his face. "I can't believe it! You actually came! I didn't even know if you'd get the invitation!"

Before Grissom could answer, Catherine reached them. Three cocktails compelled her to throw her arms around their former boss. "Oh my god, you look amazing!" she told him. "Where the hell have you been? You don't call, you don't write…" She pointed at her watch, now twelve-thirty in the morning. "And you're a half hour late for the big event!"

"I am sorry about that," Grissom said to Nick, who waved off the apology. "I underestimated the traffic."

"He's just being nice. It's really not his fault."

The eyes that had been fixed on Grissom now looked past his shoulder and locked on the woman who had come up behind him. A different Sara Sidle stood at Grissom's side. Rosy-cheeks, shiny hair, wide, unburdened smile…but while all of that was great, a return to the Sara he'd once known and loved, it wasn't what made Greg's throat close up.

It definitely had more to do with the baby in her arms.

"We had a diaper situation," Sara finished with casual shrug.

Catherine was the first one able to make any noise, and even that was just a little squeak in the back of her throat. Nick tried to say something, but he just kept looking at the baby, then Sara, then Grissom, then back at the baby as if he couldn't quite put the pieces together. On the other side of the room, Wendy slapped Hodges' back to keep him from choking on a maraschino cherry. Brass, nursing a short scotch, just smiled, not surprised one bit.

So it was up to Greg to do something, say something. Bravely pushing through his now-dumbfounded co-workers, he came to a stop just in front of the couple.

The baby was a girl, if the pink blanket she was wrapped in was any indication, which it might not have been given Sara's stance on gender equality. All he could see of the child itself were wisps of dark hair that would someday be curls and a nose that curved so perfectly he imagined it was hard not to want to kiss it constantly.

"How old is she?" Greg managed to ask.

Sara looked down at the baby with all the loving pride of a new mother. "Almost three months."

The math wasn't hard, but everyone was calculating in their heads. If Grissom had left them in mid-January and it was now the new year… However, only Catherine was tipsy enough to blurt out, "Jesus, Grissom. You work fast!"

In the past, Grissom would have ignored the question or let it slide with just a stern look. This Grissom, this new incarnation of the man they thought they'd known so well, merely slipped an arm around Sara's shoulders. "I think we waited long enough," he replied mildly. "Don't you?"

Catherine looked at him for a second before giving a loopy nod. "Yeah. Probably."

"What's her name?" Brass asked, stepping out of his corner to join them.

"Sydney," Sara replied. "Sydney Elise."

Greg swallowed heavily. "The last post card you sent was from Australia."

She blushed. Glancing at Grissom, all she could say was, "We really liked Australia."

Having fully recovered from his initial shock, Nick threw his head back and laughed like Greg hadn't heard him laugh since Warrick's death. His laughter broke whatever ice was left, and suddenly the party guests converged on the new little family, shouting off rapid-fire congratulations and homecoming greetings.

Greg let himself be shoved out of the way until he was on the outer edges of the crowd. Grissom and Sara, the two people in the world who hated group attention the most, almost seemed content to be answering questions and shaking hands, even accepting the occasional hug. Sara even passed Sydney to Nick, probably trusting him more than anyone considering how much experience he had holding nieces and nephews.

"So. That's the famous Sara Sidle."

He tried not to visibly startle at the sound of Riley's voice as she, once again, snuck up on him. With a sigh as he sank into an abandoned chair, Greg nodded. "Yeah."

"She's beautiful. In a very earthy way," Riley said thoughtfully. "I can see why you were in love with her."

Greg coughed, his eyes wide. "What? What gave you that…"

"I actually like men who have had their heart broken at least once. Makes them more human."

"Well, then." Having forgotten about the beer his hand, Greg took a hard swig. It was slightly flat, but still felt good on his suddenly dry throat. "You must really like me."

Riley looked down at him. "That would be the logical conclusion." A moment passed between them before she returned her gaze to the crowd. Grissom had the baby now. All of the commotion and noise had woken Sydney up and she was crying against her father's shoulder as he rubbed her tiny back, jostling her gently to soothe her wails.

"I stand corrected," Riley said with a smile. "Maybe people can change overnight."

Greg shook his head. "I don't know. I don't think that happened overnight." As he watched, Sara put her cheek on Grissom's shoulder and stroked their daughter's head to help calm her. It was then that he saw the band of platinum and diamonds on her ring finger. "More like…the better part of a decade."

"Regardless." With her glass, Riley indicated Grissom's relaxed, happy, paternal expression. "That is not the same man who left a year ago."

"Good things do happen," Greg murmured to himself. "The alley's better lit than I thought."

Riley tilted her head to one side. "That shouldn't make any sense, but I think it kind of does." She took a sip of her drink with a little chuckle. "What does that say about me?"

Greg stood, took her glass and set it aside along with his bottle. "I think I just broke my resolution," he announced.

"That was quick." She lifted an eyebrow. "What was it?"

He reached for her hand. "'Don't kiss Riley no matter how much you want to'."

"What a shitty resolution." Wrapping her arms around his neck, Riley's mouth found his. She tasted like apples, tart and sweet at the same time. He loved apples. He craved apples. He wanted to be buried in an apple orchard.

Drawing back soon than either of them wanted, Riley licked the corner of her lip lasciviously. "Technically, you didn't break yours. But I kept mine. Maybe for the first time ever."

"I'm your resolution?" he asked, sliding his hands around her waist. "I like that. I like that a lot."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sara watching them. She gave him a discreet thumbs-up before returning her attention to her husband and child.

Greg had no idea what the new year held in store, but it no longer seemed like the good times had come and gone. It really seemed like they might just be starting.

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Fin