HAPPY NEW YEAR'S, EVERYONE!

A/N: This is a holiday story that I was hoping to have all completed and posted by Christmas. But life and my muse interfered. Sometimes she refused to work at all and sometimes she was so overactive that the story ended up getting much longer than I had anticipated. So I'm going to start posting it before I'm completely out of season. Set in Season 7. Thanks for taking the time to read.

Disclaimer: I have no claim to CSI or to the Energizer bunny. Santa wasn't quite that generous.

Chapter 1

The Invitation

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Grissom tossed his pen on top of his desk then whipped his glasses off. Leaning back in his chair, he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He had had enough of paperwork. Glancing at the clock, he realized he had been at it for nearly three hours. He still had a ton of paperwork sitting on his desk but figured he had gotten through enough to satisfy Ecklie who had been on his case for the past three days. Seemed that all Ecklie ever cared about was the damn paperwork. All he wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed with Sara. He had always hated the paperwork that came with this job but since he gotten involved with Sara, it was an even bigger chore to get through it. He'd much rather be spending time with his girlfriend than spending extra hours at the office pushing paper.

As was her normal routine, Sara had stopped by his office to say goodbye before leaving. Even though she had worked a normal shift that night, she was clearly exhausted from the doubles that she had pulled the previous couple shifts. So rather than following her home after only a few minutes as he had gotten into the habit of doing, he told her he would stay and catch up on his paperwork while she went home and caught up on her sleep.

Standing up and stretching, he started tossing papers in his bag. He picked up a white envelope but hesitated as he was about to throw it in the bag. He opened it and pulled out a heavy piece of white embossed cardstock. He re-read the invitation to the annual LVPD/Clark County Law Enforcement Christmas party that had been sitting in his In box when he had arrived the previous evening. He hadn't attended the party in probably over a decade. Seemed like most people had only one of two reasons for attending. Either they wanted to kiss up to the politicians and heads of departments that were in attendance or they wanted to get rip-roaring drunk. Neither activity particularly appealed to him so he usually made a point of working the night of the party, even if he was scheduled to be off. But when he first read the invitation last evening, he had thought that maybe attending this year would not be so bad. Now, every time he re-read it, he was warming up to the idea more and more.

Maybe that was because this year was different. He was different. Since he and Sara had started dating, he had also allowed himself to get closer to his other team members. Now he was wanting to spend more time with them outside work. But that would mean sacrificing some of his precious time with Sara and he wasn't willing to do that. There was one simple solution to that. They could finally let their co-workers and friends in on their little secret. But that had consequences, too. Big consequences that could risk their jobs and their careers although even that didn't seem as important as it did a year ago. He irritably shoved the invitation back into its envelope and tossed it in on top of the rest of the papers in his bag. He was torn. He didn't know what they should do. Should they attend or shouldn't they? He closed his bag and headed out of his office turning the lights off and locking the door along the way.

Once in his car and on his way home, his mind began going over the possibility of revealing their relationship. They had already proven they could work together without bringing their personal relationship into it. Well, almost always. He grinned as he remembered how he had almost slipped up during assignments the previous evening by calling Sara "honey." Thankfully, he caught himself at the last second and changed "honey" to "honestly". He was just glad that the trained ears of his investigators didn't catch him that time. But he knew it was only a matter of time until one of them slipped up badly enough for their teammates to finally catch on. As they spent more time together as a couple, they were becoming more and more comfortable with one another. As they were becoming more comfortable with each other, he was finding it more and more natural to casually caress her arm or place his hand at the small of her back as they walked or to brush an errant lock of hair out of her eyes or to call her "dear" or "honey", all without a thought. If they did ever reveal their relationship, they certainly wouldn't change their behavior while at work. They had talked about it once a long time ago. Besides, both he and Sara were too private to bring their personal lives into the office. It's just that they wouldn't have to worry about those occasional slip-ups. No, the real problem would be the higher-ups like the sheriff, the undersheriff and, of course, Ecklie. Ecklie would just love to finally have something to hold over him and even more so, something to hold over Sara. If he had to be honest with himself, Ecklie probably was the very reason that they had kept their relationship a secret for so long already.

But he had to admit something to himself. Something that he, as a highly intelligent, highly educated man, hadn't want to admit for a long time. There was something primal in him that wanted to declare that Sara was his girlfriend, his woman. He hoped that Sara felt that way about him as well. But he knew that if their romance was revealed, it would be Sara that would take the brunt of anything that happened as a result. He knew that from a political aspect, he would probably suffer the worst formal punishment. As her boss, he would be the one facing reprimand and possibly being fired for taking advantage of a subordinate. But it would be her that would take the brunt of the office gossip and rumors. There would be the gawking stares, the sly glances, the pointing fingers, the whispered accusations of her sleeping her way to the top.

Still, the idea of revealing their relationship was becoming more and more intriguing. He would have to feel her out on it once he got home. If she was against the idea, he would drop it. He never wanted to force her into doing something that she didn't want to do. He had learned a long time ago, long before they were ever involved, that forcing Sara into doing something she didn't want to do would only cause her to fight back and withdraw into herself.

Once home, Grissom stepped through the front door of their townhouse and quietly closed and locked the door behind him. He gently laid his keys in the bowl on the table by the front door making sure they didn't jangle. He didn't want to wake Sara and the slightest noise would do that. She was the lightest sleeper he had ever known – not that he had much experience of other people's - especially other women's - sleeping habits. He shuffled through the mail that was lying on the foyer table. When he saw her invitation to the Christmas party mixed in with their postal mail, he realized that she had once again gotten her interoffice lab mail and their postal mail all mixed up. Not that he minded. It was just another little reminder of how easily their lives had blended together over the last year and a half.

He slipped his shoes off and walked softly into the kitchen. Grabbing a glass from the cupboard and the orange juice from the frig, he was about to pour himself a glass when he heard a cupboard slam and the water running in the laundry room off the kitchen. She was at it again, going full steam ahead when she should've been sleeping. He walked to the doorway of the laundry room and leaned against the frame. He studied her gorgeous backside.

When she didn't acknowledge his presence after several seconds, he finally spoke. "You should be sleeping. You've just pulled several doubles."

He chuckled when Sara jumped and spun around to face him.

"Damn it, Grissom! Don't you dare sneak up on me again!"

"Didn't realize laundry was that intriguing. Besides, I thought you'd be in bed." He walked up to her and slid his arms around her waist. Leaning forward, he mumbled just before their lips met, "I was hoping you would be in bed."

As their kiss ended, Sara slid her arms around his waist and laid her head on Gil's shoulder as he hugged her close. Sara felt the tension in her muscles melt as Gil's warm, muscular arms held her tight. She had never been one to like physical contact. Early on in her childhood, she had learned that physical contact equated to getting hurt. But there was something about Gil that made her crave his touch every time he was near.

"I took a nap on the couch when I got home. When I woke up, I felt icky so I took a shower and was going to crawl back into bed but then I saw we were out of towels. Figured you wouldn't appreciate drying off with a little bitty hand towel so I started doing laundry. Then once I started . . . "

"You couldn't stop."

She swatted him on the shoulder as she pulled out of his arms. She sometimes hated how well he knew her that he could finish her sentences for her. She reached to the side and grabbed a basket of freshly laundered clothes.

Grissom turned around and headed back to the kitchen while Sara headed upstairs to their bedroom to put their clothes away.

"Have you eaten anything yet?" he called out.

"Nope."

"Sar-a!" he hollered exasperatedly.

"Wha-at?" she called back in a sing-song voice.

"You've got to take care of yourself!" He shook his head. He would never understand where she got all her energy with as little as she slept and as little as she ate. She was like the Energizer bunny. She just kept going and going and going. "Should I make something? How about some omelets?"

"That sounds wonderful. I'll be down in a few."

So Grissom settled into his normal routine of fixing the meal while Sara took care of the rest of the laundry. It was just a natural routine they had fallen into shortly after they had gotten together. They had never really formally discussed her moving in with him. More and more of her stuff just gradually appeared his place and she was spending less and less time at her apartment. Then one day Sara happened to mention that she hadn't been at her place in close to a month. He casually said that maybe she should give up her apartment. She said OK and a couple weeks later, the last of her stuff had been moved into his – their – townhouse.

As Sara put their laundry away, she couldn't help but marvel at how natural this felt. She had never seen herself as the domestic type but she actually didn't mind doing things like washing clothes and putting them away. It just felt right to be taking care of the man she loved and adored. And it helped that he appreciated it and he didn't expect her to do everything around the house by herself. She knew that if their roles had been reversed this morning and he had seen there were no fresh towels in the linen closet, he would've tossed a load of towels into the wash so that she would have a clean one when she got home.

Once she was done putting the laundry away, she wandered back downstairs, sat down at the breakfast bar and watched Grissom as he finished up their omelets. They didn't talk. They didn't need to. They were beyond the stage where every second had to be filled with chatter. They were comfortable just being in each other's presence.

"Here, you go, honey. Eat up," Grissom said as he slid a food-laden plate in front of her.

At his term of endearment, her lips quirked into a smirk as she remembered Grissom's slip-up from the previous evening. "Not 'honestly'?" she teased him as he came around to join her at the breakfast bar.

"Huh?"

"It's 'honey' now? Not 'honestly'?"

"Oh, yeah." He grinned sheepishly as he cut into his omelet.

"Although I have to admit, it was a pretty good save."

"This time. I'm afraid one of these days I'm not going to catch myself in time."

"We'll just have to be more careful in the future."

"Why is it that you seem to have an easier time hiding our relationship than I do?" he questioned her.

Sara just shrugged.

He slipped up more often than she did. It seemed like he was more prone to use endearments or to touch her now and then. Sara, on the other hand, was more subtle by saying things that appeared to be innocent on the surface but took on a whole other meaning for them. Every time she would make one of her comments like "gray hair can be very attractive," he had to bite his tongue because to respond would be too revealing. And Sara knew that. She seemed to love taunting him like that.

They continued eating their breakfast in silence. Sara was so wiped out from her long hours at work over the past several days that she was in daze. Grissom's mind, on the other hand, was going a mile a minute. He was wondering how to best approach Sara with the idea of going to the Christmas party as a couple.

As they were finishing their meal, Grissom finally spoke up. "I saw that you got your invitation to the Law Enforcement Christmas party."

"Hmm? Oh, yeah," she replied distractedly. Her mind was blank as she was practically falling asleep in her plate.

"Did you know that this year the entire night shift staff has the night off? Last year was swing's turn so now it's night's this year."

"No, I guess I didn't. Since we didn't go last year, I kind of lost track of whose turn it was in the rotation."

"Yeah, so I figure the entire team is going to be there and most of the lab techs as well. They're probably going to think it odd if we don't attend."

"I wouldn't worry about it. Especially you not going. They'll just chalk it up as you being, well, you. As for me, I'll make some excuse. Maybe even tell everyone I'm going but then pretend to get sick at the last minute or something."

"I was wondering, um, well, that is . . . uh . . . "

She glanced over at her lover wondering what was making this normally eloquent speaker stumble on his words like a nervous teenager.

Finally he just blurted it out. "Sara, would you go with me to the party?" When she didn't respond right away, he tacked on, "As my date?"

She straightened up and stared him. He had her attention now. That was the last thing she had expected. "What?!" she managed to squeak out after several seconds had passed.

He turned towards her, took her right hand in both of his and looked deeply into her dazed eyes. "Sara, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to the Christmas party?"

"What?!?" She was having a hard time processing what Gil was asking. He surely didn't mean it. But looking at the sincere yet anxious expression on this face, she knew he was. All she could think of was the consequences. "If we go as a couple, that'll raise so many suspicions. I mean, everyone knows that we wouldn't just go together casually, especially since you never go. So then there'll be all kinds of questions. What do we do then? Huh? Say oh yeah, we've been sleeping together right under your noses for a year and a half already. Can you imagine what they would say?" Her voice kept rising as she kept rambling on. "Oh, God, Catherine. She'll never let us live this down. And oh my God, Ecklie! Have you even thought about what Ecklie would do? He'd for sure fire me then. Or you. Or both of us. Geez, Gil, have you even given this any thought at all?!"

"Actually, I have. And if we handle this right, the team won't care. Sure, they may not like it that we kept this hidden from them but, this is you and me. They wouldn't have expected us to exactly share this. We're both private people and they know that."

"Well, it might not be so bad if the team knew. It would be nice to be open and honest with our friends. I've felt guilty lying to them. And it has been kind of hard to explain why the guys can't come over and hang out at my place anymore. We used to do that a lot and now it's been months since we've done that."

"Exactly."

"But that doesn't solve the Ecklie problem."

"It doesn't. But it's to the point that I don't give a damn. Ecklie has been a thorn in my side for far too long. I'm not going to let him dictate my life. Besides, the sheriff owes me a couple favors. Maybe we can get him to deal with Ecklie for us."

Sara was warming up to the idea a little now that the initial shock was wearing off. "It would be nice to be able to go into work or leave work together," she contemplated out load. "Or not have to worry about little slip-ups." But she still had big concerns. She knew that no matter what Gil said, Ecklie would be a problem. Even if the sheriff did step in, that would only take care of securing their jobs. She knew that this would be just another strike against her in Ecklie's book. And the rumor mill. Good grief, the rumor mill. That would suffer a meltdown with all the rumors that would be flying. She knew their teammates and friends would never suspect any type of favoritism, or least she hoped not. But others in the lab might not be quite so forgiving. There would always be people who would be suspicious of her motives for getting involved with her boss.

"Listen, honey," Gil started out as he brought his hand up to cup her cheek. "Just give it some thought. Weigh the pros and the cons. I think this could be a positive thing but I'm not going to push it. We'll only do this if you really want to. OK?" He smiled softly.

She smiled a little in return. "OK," she agreed as she nodded and rubbed her cheek against his palm.

He leaned in and brushed a soft kiss across her lips.

"Although I have to admit," Sara said as she slid over into Gil's lap, "that there's something thrilling . . . " She placed a soft kiss on his jaw line. " . . . and rather . . . " She placed another kiss below his ear. " . . . erotic . . . " He moaned softly as she placed a kiss on his neck in the opening of his button-down shirt. " . . . about keeping you a secret." She finally kissed him on the lips.

"Erotic, hmm?" he growled deeply before he took control of the kiss. He ran his tongue along her bottom lip and slipped his tongue inside as she moaned.

She pulled back and whispered, "Weren't you saying something earlier about hoping to find me in bed when you got home?"

"And that's where you're going, young lady." He slipped one arm under her knees and the other around her back and stood up.

"Gil! You're knees."

"What about them?" he asked as he carried her up the stairs.

"You're going to be paying for this later."

"Small price to pay if it means I get you in my bed."

"Caveman."

Grissom grunted in response. When he tossed her on the bed, she squealed and then started laughing. She loved Gil when he was in one of his playful moods. It was a side of himself he rarely revealed to anyone except her unless he lost himself in one of his experiments. She loved seeing that twinkle in his eyes and that grin spread across his face.

He joined her on the bed and started tickling her mercilessly.

"Gil, stop it. Please," she gasped between laughs.

"What do you say?"

"Nope, not going to say it," she replied as he continued to tickle her. She tried curling into a ball to escape his tickling fingers but they just moved on to the soles of her feet, her most ticklish feature. "Please, Gil. Please, stop." She could hardly catch her breath.

"Come on, what do you say?" he teased as he moved up to tickle the back of her knees.

"Na-uh."

When he moved back up to tickle her ribs, she couldn't take it anymore and she shouted out, "Gilbert Grissom is a sex god!"

Immediately the tickling stopped and Sara uncurled and laid on her back trying to catch her breath. Grissom moved over to lay half on top of her as he slipped one leg between her.

"Was that so bad?" he teased as he rubbed his leg up and down between hers.

"You are so mean to me. Why do I put up with you?"

"Because I'm a sex god," he stated as he leaned down to capture her lips.

As he pulled back, Sara said, "You know, I could blackmail you with that. Can you imagine what Nick and Greg would do with information like that? Or better yet, what Catherine would do with it?"

"Or I could blackmail you with it. I'm sure Ecklie would find it interesting."

"Eeeewwww. Don't even mention that man's name in our bedroom again!" she exclaimed as she pushed Grissom off her and he rolled over onto his back. As she got up off the bed, he hooked his hand in the back of her waistband and pulled her back down.

"Agreed. That is one image I don't want in our bedroom." He rolled back over on her. "So what are you going to do to erase that image from my mind?"

Sara rolled him over and straddled his abdomen. She started unbuttoning his shirt placing feathery light kisses on his bared chest as she went. "I'll do this . . . and this . . . and this," she whispered between each kiss.

The rest of the world and all its cares and worries faded away as they focused on each other and fulfilling their mutual desires.

Afterwards, they lay spooning. Gil was running his fingertips lightly up and down Sara's bare arm and shoulder. They lay silently enjoying the afterglow and being in each other's presence.

Sara was so content and happy that she felt like she was going to burst. She never thought she would experience this. She had never felt that she deserved this kind of happiness. All her life, whenever she had let someone in close to her, she had ended up hurt. Even Gil had hurt her repeatedly. For years, every time she would get close to him, he would pull away. She had almost given up on him several times but her heart wouldn't let her, like it knew that the reward was worth the risk even when her mind was telling her to back off before she got hurt again. Thankfully, this time, her heart had not only been stronger than her mind, but it had also been right.

This was the kind of happiness that permeated her whole being. It was the kind of happiness that made her want to burst out in laughter from the sheer giddiness of it. The longer they were together, the happier she was. At first, she thought they wouldn't last. That something would happen and Gil would pull away again. That was one of the reasons she had initially wanted to keep their relationship private. She would've been so humiliated if everyone had known about their relationship and then he would've walked away. But she knew now that they were together forever. She knew that she could never live without Gil and that he couldn't live without her. They never said the words but they didn't need to. They had a connection that went beyond words and time. And if they were going to be together forever, they couldn't keep their relationship a secret forever.

Grissom thought Sara had finally fallen asleep as her breathing evened out only to hear her whisper his name.

"Gil?"

"Hmmm."

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, anything."

"Can you grow your beard back?"

Grissom was rather shocked as she was the one who had asked him to shave it off in the first place. "What about the beard burns? Remember? That's why I shaved it off in the first place."

Sara smiled softly as she remembered. It had been getting a bit conspicuous wearing scarves and high-necked tops all the time and it had also been getting a bit uncomfortable as spring rolled around and the temperatures started climbing. "Well, I figure if everyone is going to know about us anyways, it'll be easy enough explaining away the occasional beard burn."

"Sara," he asked hesitantly, "does this mean what I think it does?"

She rolled over onto her back and looked into his eyes. "Yeah, I guess this does."

They shared smiles as they gazed into each other's eyes. They both realized that their lives and their relationship were about to change dramatically.

"Just promise me one thing."

"What's that, honey?"

"That we do this as a couple. That we're in this together."

"We're in this together. Forever."

The words had finally been said and Sara's heart soared.

He placed a tender kiss full of love on her soft lips.

"So, will you?" she asked as he pulled back.

"Will what?"

"Grow your beard back," she replied as she ran a fingertip along his naked jaw line.

He shivered at her touch. "I'll start on it after the party."

"No," she mumbled. "In time for the party."

"Why?"

"Because you look so damn hot and sexy with it, especially in a suit." She nipped at his lower lip.

He growled and started nuzzling her neck.

It was a long time before either one of them got any sleep that afternoon.

TBC

If you decide to leave a review, thanks in advance. It's greatly appreciated.