Disclaimer: The characters of Body of Proof do not belong to me. I only own the nerve to borrow them and make them do things the writers of the show didn't intend them to do. No disrespect, though, and no copyright infringement either.

Megan was sitting on her couch, a book in her lap but ignoring it to the point where she didn't even know who wrote it (she had just asked the chipper sales clerk for the newest best seller for just this occasion: her lonely christmas; she didn't even know if it was a Dan Brown, a Ken Follett, or if the clerk had dared bill her for the newest Stephenie Meyer debacle). The only light in her apartment was that of the christmas tree lights. Lacey hat insisted she get a tree, that had been before Todd had revealed his plans for the holidays which included Lacey, his parents and his new girlfriend, Renee - but not Megan. She didn't have any illusions that she would be spending christmas eve with her daugher but she had thought she would at least see her over the holidays. No such luck, though. They would return on the 27th, late on the 27th and that was only if the travel plans weren't delayed by bad weather or Megan's ex-mother-in-law who was even more unpredictable than the weather and could make anyone bow to her moodswings - especially her son.

Megan sighed. She had actually been looking forward to the holidays - before she had heard of Todd's plans. Ethan had decorated the Medical Examiner's offices to the offended mumbles of Curtis. Everybody had been cheerful, there was low music - something else Ethan was responsible for - and they had all had some egg nog together. Each one had told of their plans for the holidays: Ethan and Kate were spending Christmas with their respective parents in their respective home states (Ethan had left for New York that same evening, Kate's flight for Minnesota had been this afternoon), Peter had a new girlfriend (not surprisingly) and was spending this evening with her, Curtis would spend his holidays in town with his sister and her family. She had told them that she was spending her Christmas with her mother but this plan had also been torpedoed when her mother informed her that she was spending the holidays in Aspen - with a new man. That had been a surprise, not a bad one after she had had some time to think about it. Her mother had grieved over her husband, Megan's father, for a long time and Megan was happy for her. Still, it meant spending Christmas alone.

She looked out into the late afternoon which was growing dark fast. It had begun to snow earlier and the residential street where Megan lived was turned into a blanketed dreamscape. It was quite beautiful, not yet muddy. There were obviously very few people willing to leave the house on this festive evening.

Another sigh. Megan looked at the book she held in her hands and found that she had been lucky: it was the newest Kay Scarpetta-novel.

"Thank God for small favors," the medical examiner murmured. She was just about to turn and switch on the light when the doorbell rang.

Megan looked confusedly at her apartment door as if it would magically reveal the person who had chosen this evening of all evenings to come to her door. Could it be carolers? But she would have heard them by now, after all, hers was the last apartment on the corridor. The readhead gave an annoyed sigh, convinced that whoever it was had probably made a mistake by coming to her door, and got up from the couch. The bell rang again.

"Coming," she called out as she took off her reading glasses and went to the door. When she opened it, she actually gaped in surprise: there stood Kate Murphy, her boss. And she had bags in her hands. Megan didn't know whether it was the lighting in the hall, the snow that was still glistening in the blonde's hair or the happy smile that graced the tall woman's lips but she was more beautiful than Megan had ever seen her. She was radiant and she left the redhead speechless.

"Merry Christmas, Megan," she said, her blue eyes twinkling happily.

"Kate, what are you doing here?" Megan was too shocked to even be polite. She would never have thought that her boss would appear at her doorstep on any night, much less Christmas Eve.

"May I come in?" Kate asked and Megan pulled open the door. Kate stepped inside and shook herself a little to get rid of any remaining snow flakes. "It's snowing," she informed Megan.

"Yeah, I know." Megan still tried to overcome her surprise and regain her equilibrium. Kate had completely caught her off guard.

"My flight was cancelled, there's a regular snow storm up in Minnesota," she explained why she was not wth her family right now as she had planned.

"Oh, and that's why you're here?" Megan concluded still a little confused.

"Well, since I wasn't going away for Christmas after all - at least not today and probably not tomorrow - I wanted to get some presents to some friends. And, as coincidence had it, some of those know your mother and told me she was going to Aspen with her... boyfriend?" Kate smiled and Megan had to laugh.

"Yeah, and believe me nobody was more surprised than I was about those news."

"So, I thought I'd come over and give you your Christmas present as well. This is for you, and this..." She gave Megan a small Christmas-y bag which contained a bottle of liquour of some kind, and then a bigger but lighter bag with a wrapped present in it. "... is for Lacey."

"I hope this is an ugly Christmas jumper and not something haute couture," Megan remarked half-jokingly and saw her boss color. "It is haute couture?"

"No, but it isn't a sweater either. We were shopping a couple of weeks back and saw this really cute cashmere jersey."

"Cashmere! Kate!" Megan pushed the bag back at her friend but the blonde refused to take it.

"Please, Megan. I... She looked really good in it and I know she wanted it." Kate turned beseeching, blue eyes on the readhead. "You see, it's... Todd and I are over." Megan nodded unsure of what that had to do with giving her daughter expensive clothes. "And I don't miss him at all but I miss Lacey. I mean, it wasn't like she needed a mother because she already has a great mother but... I saw myself a little like her cool aunt." Megan laughed.

"A cool aunt?" She asked and Kate's small pout made her laugh even more.

"Yeah. I mean, you don't have any siblings and Todd's sister lives in Paris, so... I thought I could be someone to spoil her sometimes, like an aunt." Megan smiled at that. She knew Kate and Lacey had gotten along very well while Kate was with Todd and she couldn't deny them the friendship they had established. Since Kate was now Megan's friend, she was still in Lacey's life and maybe "cool aunt" wasn't such a wrong assessment of her relationship with the girl.

"Between Todd's mother and my mother, I don't think she needs another person to spoil her..." Kate wanted to argue her point further but Megan held up a hand to stop her. "... but... I think with everything that's happened this year, especially with her being diagnosed with diabetes, I think I can let this slide. Just this once." Megan warned and Kate gave her another dazzling smile. Megan returned it with one of her own and for a moment they just stood there.

"I got a present for you, too," Megan then remembered and left her guest for a moment to catch the book she had gotten for Kate. She gave it to her.

"Open it," she urged.

"It's not even Christmas yet," Kate argued weakly.

"And Kate Murphy has never opened a present before Christmas," Megan teased.

"No, she hasn't," Kate asserted and they both laughed. Rather carefully, Kate opened the wrapping and revealed a hardcover book - one that she already had.

"Bass' Death's Acre... uh... thank you, Megan. I... you do know that I already got this, right? It's in the shelf in my office." Megan rolled her eyes.

"Of course, I know. But you don't have one quite like this." She reached out and opened the cover to the title page, it was a signed copy.

"Oh, my God. That's... Megan." There was that smile again, brighter than before, captivating, beautiful. Kate enveloped Megan in a short but tight hug. "That is so sweet. How did you even get this?"

"A friend of mine is friends with Bass and I asked him if he would get it and he did." The way Megan told it it sounded like nothing but it wasn't nothing. It was Kate's favorite book from her field of profession and Megan had cared enough to know, had cared enough to do this for her. The chief medical examiner was dumpstruck.

"This is... wow." Kate beamed at her friend. "Open yours." Kate pointed to the Christmas bag with Megan's present and the readhead lifted the bottle out of it.

"Cognac? My favorite brand. How did you even know that?"

"You mentioned it a little while ago when we went for drinks with Peter and Sam that night, remember?"

"A little while ago? That was in... September?" Megan said and smiled. Kate had remembered, she probably also remembered that she liked to drink it infront of a fire, possibly with some jazz playing in the background... and maybe some good company...

"Freak of memory," Kate responded. They stood for a moment and let the last half hour settle into their consciouness. It had been such a surprise but such a wonderful surprise on something that could only be described as a lonely evening. And Megan thought how nice it would be if Kate could stay but they still stood a little awkwardly in the hall with her open kitchen to one side, Kate was still wearing her coat and would probably soon go.

"Well, I should be on my way," said Kate as if she had read Megan's mind.

"More presents to deliver, Mrs. Santa?" Megan teased but Kate shook her head.

"No, these were the last ones. I'm on my way home." The readhead nodded and they both turned to the door.

"So, you're spending Christmas alone?" She asked.

"Yeah, that's what happens when work takes over your life." Kate's smile was bitter-sweet as she said it and Megan knew that she was included into the category of people whose work had taken over. She had thought that she had made some changes in the last few years, that she worked less and lived better, healthier. But still, here she was on Christmas eve, alone. And she knew Kate was right: too much work, too few friends. But then, there was one friend who stood in her apartment right now, looking not too thrilled to have to go back to her own house and spend Christmas alone.

"Why don't you stay?" Megan asked, surprising herself as much as her guest. "I was going to make myself some dinner later and there's enough for two. We could..." She looked at the bottle of cognac in her hand. "... drink a glass of this and tell each other Christmas memories." She was shaking her head in amusement over herself and wondered if she really wanted to do this? Sit around, sharing stories with her boss - but then, this boss was also her friend and they had never done anything like this before and maybe, maybe it would be nice.

"You want me to stay for Christmas?"

"Look, I know... this could turn into the most awkward evening each of us ever had - well, in my case it would probably not be THE most awkward considering the kind of situations my mother has made me live through - but... we are both alone for Christmas, which in itself is pretty pathetic considering that we are both very successful and attractive women, and this way we would at least be alone together." They looked at each other for a moment and then laughed.

"Alright, let's be alone together." Kate said as she regained her composure.

They decided to start on dinner and were soon emerged in cooking together in Megan's spacious kitchen. Kate loved to cook, it was one of her few hobbies, and she added some spices to their dinner that made for a delicious change. Megan was also surprised and delighted by the change company could make on an evening when really nobody should be alone. But it wasn't just that she had company, it was Kate. The tall blonde was actually quite fun when she was not "the boss lady" but just Kate, playful, teasing Kate.

"And then she turned to me and asked: Megan, where are your shoes?" Kate laughed at the story her friend was telling. It was another one of her "my mother is worse than your mother" stories but they had lost a lot of the bitterness they had had for Megan not so long ago. She and her mother were not friends and never would be but they got along better now than they probably ever had.

"Your mother can be quite the piece of work, I take it," the younger woman said and took another sip from her wine.

"That she most definitely can be. But then that's what a lot of people say about me." Megan smiled. They had finished dinner but were still sitting at the kitchen island, their empty plates pushed together, their arms leaning comfortably on the counter.

"I can't disagree but... you are very different. I mean, I don't know your mother well but from what I've seen of her... she's very public-opinion oriented, very much the politician whle most people wouldn't even call you diplomatic." She took the sting out of her words with an easy smile.

"It's probably the effect an upbringing like mine will have or can have," Megan agreed. "I take it your mother is very different from mine?"

"Yes, she's the heart of the house-type, if you want. She was always there when we came home from school - we, that is me and my two older brothers - she baked cookies with us before Christmas, cake for each and every bake-sale our schools had while we attended. She is a brilliant cook and her cupcakes are to die for. She's loving and protective - and she wonders why her only daughter is not more like her," she concluded with a self-deprecating smile.

"She doesn't like your field of profession?" Megan asked because she thought it must be bewildering for a woman like that that her daughter would want to spend her work-day with human remains.

"She respects what I do but she doesn't understand it, no. And she would rather I married a doctor than have that title myself."

"Does she give you a lot of grief when you're home?" Megan asked sympathetically.

"Not a lot but still more than my brothers get. One of which has a hard time even keeping a job. And Daniel, well, he's the eldest and he can't do any wrong at all, so..." Kate thought about what she'd said and Megan could almost see how she regretted it the next moment. "That sounds awful, you must think we don't get along, but we do."

"Every family have their problems, Kate, that hardly means yours is dysfunctional," Megan said and laid a hand on Kate's forearm. She found herself enjoying the touch but didn't let it last too long.

"I know. Just... I wish I could be home now - not that I don't enjoy the present company... I just miss them."

"And don't take this personally but I miss Lacey, too, and even my mother and wish I could be with them tonight. Since I can't I think you're a very good substitute. I'm enjoying this." Kate smiled at Megan's words and squeezed her hand for a moment.

"So am I."

Later they lounged on the couch, each a glass of cognac in her hand, talking a little about work, a little about their lives. They were confortable and Kate felt that this was only in part due to the alcohol they had consumed. A greater part of it was that she liked Megan, genuinely liked her, and that Megan liked her as well. Sure, they were very different, not so much in their ambitions but more in their characters, still, they had always respected each other and had become friends quite against their own inclinations or predictions.

"What about Peter?" Kate heard herself ask. Megan had told her about her relationship with Aiden, they had gone out a few times and he wanted to pursue more. Only Megan thought that he was not quite "it."

"What about Peter?" Megan asked back.

"I thought that you guys had some chemistry between you." Kate smiled a very lazy smile and Megan could tell that she felt the effects of the cognac.

"I think we had, or maybe we have but... he's a little bit of a player. Not that I blame him but that's not the kind of man I want to go out with - or the kind of person," she added as an afterthought.

"Person?" Kate picked it up. Megan smiled knowingly and Kate had to laugh.

"Dr. Hunt, I never would have thought...," she teased.

"Why not?" Megan gave back. Kate looked at her, seriously contemplating the question.

"I don't know. You didn't ping."

"I didn't ping?" Megan asked, confused.

"You know, gay-dar?"

"You mean you have one?" Megan asked and her eyes went wide with surprise. Kate giggled, she really felt the effects of the alcohol now. She never would have thought she would have this particular conversation with Megan Hunt. But then, neither did Megan.

"It comes in handy when one is bi-sexual." Kate answered Megan's question and blushed as she met Megan's surprised look. It wasn't an altogether awkward silence that followed but both were aware that they appraised each other. Megan leaned back into her corner of the couch resting her head on her left hand.

"Is this the moment this gets awkward?" Kate asked. She prepared herself for the evening to end, though she was reluctant that it should. In truth, it was already late and maybe it was better this way, maybe it was time for her to leave. She simply didn't want to.

"No, why would it?" Megan asked and smiled. Kate answered her with one of her own.

"Are we going to swap "how I first knew I was attracted to women"-stories?" She then asked and they both laughed.

"Let's not." Megan answered. "Let's be unconventional and just say: isn't it obvious, women are gorgeous, duh!" Kate giggled at Megan's summery of what it was really all about. Women were indeed gorgeous, and so beautifully complex and there was really no more to say about it.

"All right, I can agree with that assessment." They smiled at each other.

"Look," Megan pointed out the window. "It stopped snowing." They both looked outside at the glistening winter-wonderland. It was beautiful.

"Let's go for a walk," Kate suggested.

"What?" Megan hadn't been prepared for that. She had actually thought that the evening would come to a close after their confessions but Kate seemed as reluctant as she herself was to let the evening end.

"Let's go for a walk," Kate repeated. Once again her eyes turned into beseeching orbs of pleading and Megan felt herself reminded of that movie she saw with her daughter: Puss in Boots, and she caught herself thinking that Kate's voice was even more sexy than Antonio Banderas'.

"It's below freezing," she heard herself argue.

"But only just. It just stopped snowing so it can't be that cold. Come on." Kate got off the couch and held her hand out to Megan which the redhead took after a moment's contemplation. Kate was right, it wouldn't be that cold and maybe the cold would sober her enough not to think about any of her friend's attributes as sexy. Though little chance there was of that happening.

The street around them was mostly quiet, there were still a lot of lights on in various partitions of the neighboring houses but sounds didn't carry to them. Their boots crunched on the snow, and they talked in low voices. Megan had linked her arm with Kate's and they looked at festive decorations all around them.

"It's so beatiful with the snow. I am so glad I don't live in one of those places where they don't have the changing of seasons," Kate remarked wistfully.

Megan nodded.

"Though I see the appeal of spending one's Christmas under a swingng palm tree with a Sex on the Beach in one hand and a fan in the other," she mused and then laughed at the mock outrage on Kate's face.

"Don't even joke about this. People who do this must be completely deranged," she said but joined Megan in the laughter.

"I actually did it - once," Megan confessed.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was the year before I met Todd. I had just finished my residency and was eager to start working at my first real job. It was my mother's idea to spent Christmas away from home. She had planned to come, too, but then something came up... I don't even remember what it was... but there I was, alone on a tropical island." Megan smiled at the memory.

"Did you have fun?" Kate asked and Megan's smile got a little wider. She nodded quietly and once again the two women found themselves giggling.

"That's something you can do at some point in your life but, on a regular, I enjoy this more. The decorations, the cold, snow, egg nog." Kate nodded.

They came to the end of the street and in silent agreement turned back towad Megan's.

"Do you miss having your own family - a husband?" Kate then asked out of the blue. Megan looked at her sideways.

"Do you mean at Christmas or on a daily basis? Or do you mean whether or not I miss Todd?"

"All of the above," Kate answered and looked back at Megan. The readhead couldn't quite read the look from blue eyes but contemplated the question.

"I don't miss Todd anymore. That isn't to say I didn't miss him for some time after the divorce. I sometimes miss having a family, having Lacey around all the time is a bigger part of it than having someone to share a bed with. I actually enjoy the part where I can come home when I want to and don't have to worry about waking anyone or being on the receiving end of a look that says: you're late, I had to cook dinner for myself, and where have you been anyways? Christmas is tough, as is Thanksgiving but those are only once a year respectively."

"What about..." Kate stopped, were she really going to ask Megan about that part of her life?

"What about?" Megan queried and Kate looked back at her, lifting her eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"Oh, you mean 'the sex'," Megan made quotation marks with her fingers and they giggled. Kate blushed lightly and Megan thought it looked adorable on the usually reserved blonde.

"Sex is easy," Megan finally answered.

"How so?"

"Do I really have to answer that, Kate?" The taller woman blushed a darker shade; maybe it really was something that explained itself, much like the attraction toward women. Still, she herself wasn't the kind of woman that would simply walk into a bar and leave ten minutes later with some man-candy - in case they were still talking about men at this point - on her arm that she would then take home. And she couldn't believe Megan was either.

"So...," she hesitated. "One-nighters?" She wasn't looking at Megan now but straight ahead.

"It's at least a possibility, not that I have engaged in many..." The redhead's voice drifted away. They both seemed to ponder the words and both felt a wet blanket fall over an evening that had been so pleasant until now.

"Then again, you don't have to make breakfast if you take matters into your own hands," Megan quipped and Kate turned to her with wide eyes. They laughed again and in the next moment Kate scooped up some snow and threw it at Megan.

"I think you need to cool off, Dr. Hunt," she laughed at the incredulity in Megan's face. The smaller woman took a few steps back and brushed the snow from her face and coat.

"You do realize...," she started then bent to scoop up two handfuls of snow herself and in throwing them declared: "... that this means war!"

It wasn't much of a snowball-fight, they were laughing too hard which threw off their aim. Megan got lucky after some minutes and hit Kate smack in the face. The blonde stumbled and then fell into the deep snow of someone's front lawn. Megan was there in a couple of quick steps but when she was looking down at Kate the taller woman was still laughing.

"You alright?" She asked smiling. She would never have thought that this level of childishness could be combined with just the right amount of sexy but Kate pulled it off. She lay there sprawled and then - to Megan utter amazement and delight - started forming a snow-angel. Megan laughed.

When Kate stopped moving her arms and legs around, Megan reached out her arms.

"Want a lift?" But Kate shook her head.

"Nuh-uh," she answered. She looked happier in that moment than her friend had ever seen her and Megan sank down into the snow beside her, laying down on her stomach, leaning on her elbows.

"I think you're a little bit drunk, Kate," she informed the blonde.

"I'm afraid you're right. I don't think I'll be able to drive home. And it's Christmas so... it will be impossible to get a cab," her face seemed apologetic, they both knew what that meant. Not that Megan minded.

"So, you're sleeping over," Megan assessed and saw Kate blushing a little. "I have a guest-room, you now that, right?"

"Sorry, my mind wandered for a second," Kate confessed and Megan found that there were worse places a mind could wander to. She saw Kate close her eyes, and her own began to indulge in the beauty that was Dr. Kate Murphy. She felt a tug at that moment, in her fingertips, to touch those cheeks, to caress, to cup that strong jaw. It was overwhelming and she found herself taking off her left glove and pushing a strand of blonde hair from Kate's face. At that moment the younger woman opened her eyes and looked straight at Megan.

There were no words for what they both knew had to happen. Megan leaned over the the tall woman and they kissed.

The realization that this desire had lingered within each of them for a long time now hit them both. And a kiss that should only have been a sweet acknowledgement of an evening spent in companionable compatibleness, deepened to something neither woman had anticipated. Tongues soon joined the heated meeting of lips and the women pushed into each other, breaths mingling, hands getting lost in too many layers of clothing. There was no cold anymore, there was only heat and it consumed them hungrily for several long minutes.

It was Kate who finally broke the contact. She gulped lungfuls of air before she could even form a coherent thought much less speak it.

"Is this...," she could feel Megan's labored breaths at her throat and her thoughts got distracted for a moment. "Is this a good idea?" She finally asked.

"Probably not," Megan answered truthfully. Kate nodded and Megan let herself fall back and over onto her back. They were both staring at the night sky, stars twinkling above.

"And there wasn't even a mistletoe in sight," Kate mused and Megan giggled.

"Does there always have to be a mistletoe just because it's Christmas?" She asked.

"Hmmm..." Kate pondered. "... if you look at that formation of stars, they do look a little like a mistletoe, don't they?" She drew a wide pattern over the sky and Megan had no idea which formation she might be looking at.

"No," she answered because in truth there was nothing to see. They both knew it and it made them laugh a little.

"I guess not," Kate agreed. She turned on her side and looked at Megan's profile. She was so beautiful, Kate had always thought so but never had allowed her thoughts to linger. She did that now. "So, mistletoe or not, will there be more kissing in the future?"

Megan turned her face to her.

"I don't know," she answered truthfully.

A while later they were back at Megan's apartment. Kate had taken an overnight-bag from her car which she kept there in case of any work-related short-notice trips. Since she lived in one of Philadelphia's posh suburbs, she liked to be prepared. It also came in handy in cases like these.

They hung up their coats and took off their boots. They were both chilled from lying in the snow for a while but the heat in the apartment already warmed them nicely.

"Would you like another glass of cognac?" Megan asked but with little enthusiasm. She was tired and she wanted to be alone to think about some of the things - really only that one thing - that had happened that evening.

"No, thank you."

"Hot chocolate?" Megan found herself asking.

"No, I think we should probably call it a night." Megan nodded. She looked shyly up at Kate, and shy wasn't a thing she usually did. But she saw the same hesitation in Kate who was usually so imperturbable. The taller woman smiled and then took a step toward Megan. She enveloped her in a tight hug and Megan answered it in kind.

"Thank you for inviting me to stay," Kate whispered.

"Thank you for staying," Megan answered and meant it. This had all the makings of the loneliest day in the year, but Kate made it... a very merry Christmas. And it got a little merrier still when the tall woman broke the hug and took Megan's face into her hands for another, a last kiss. It was just their lips, it was just a moment but it wasn't chaste, and it wasn't friendly. It lingered on Megan's lips and mind long after this night. And whenever she thought about this night in the future, she would stop and savor the memory of this moment because it was perfect.

They parted but let their hands hold for a moment.

"Goodnight, Megan."

"Goodnight, Kate. And merry Christmas." The blonde smiled at her hostess and then let go of her hands. She went down the hall to where the guestroom was.

"Towels are in the closet in the bathroom if you need them," Megan called after her and Kate lifted her hand in ackowledgement. Then she disappeared behind a door. Megan stood there for a moment, staring into space, letting the events of the evening sink in. Then she smiled.

"Merry Christmas, Megan," she whispered to herself and then turned toward her own bedroom and sleep that for once came easily.

The End.