Chapter 1
Sara sat on the bench in front of her locker. She had opened her locker to find several Christmas cards that co-workers had slipped in through the slats of her locked door. She shuffled through the cards one by one. Nick, Warrick and Mandy had chosen typical Christmas cards with Santa and elves and decorated trees. But Greg, he chose one with Frosty the Snowman. Sara chuckled when she opened it and it played the Frosty the Snowman song. Leave it to Greg.
Sara glanced at the calendar on the inside of her locker door. December 21st. She had totally forgotten to get Christmas cards. At least she still had a few days to reciprocate. Sara stood up and pulled out her bag and put her cards inside. She was pulling on her vest when Catherine entered the locker room.
"Hey, Sara."
"Hey, Cath. You just getting off shift?"
"Yeah, I should keep working, but Lindsey has a Christmas pageant tonight and I cannot miss it. Thank God Nick said he would cover for me." She put her vest in her locker and pulled out her jacket and purse. She looked at Sara out of the corner of her eye. "You uh, doing anything special for the Holidays?"
Sara gave her a weak smile. "Probably working."
"Oh." Catherine smiled at her and pulled on her jacket. "I'm on call. Since Gil's not working, someone has to be around in case something big happens."
"Grissom's not going to be here?" Sara sounded shocked and disappointed.
"Yeah, he's taking time off to see his mother. I guess she is not in the best of health these days, so he wants to spend time with her."
"Oh. Well, that makes sense." Sara closed her locker. "Well, have fun at the pageant."
Catherine smiled at Sara as she exited the room. "Thanks, Sara." Sara turned and waved as she disappeared around the corner and down the hallway.
As she entered the break room, Sara smiled at Greg and Sofia. They sat at the table across from one another sipping coffee and waiting for Grissom to hand out assignments. Sara sat down next to Greg and smiled at him.
"Thanks for the card." She patted his arm. "It made me laugh."
"Well, anything to make you smile." Greg said as he waggled his eyebrows at her. This made Sara and Sofia laugh out loud.
"What's so funny?" Grissom entered the room and sat down across from Sara and next to Sofia.
"Just Greg." Sofia commented flatly.
"Oh, well, I hope he can keep up his sense of humor on a 419 in an alley."
"Oh, no, please, Grissom!" Greg pleaded with his supervisor. Grissom just smiled and handed him the slip.
"Have fun in the dumpster." Grissom smiled at him. Sofia and Sara laughed at Greg's reaction. "Not so fast with the laughter. Sofia, I need you to go with him."
Greg smiled as he grabbed the slip. Sofia stood and followed Greg silently out the door. Grissom looked across the table at Sara. "I, uh, don't have anything else pressing, so you have time to work on your court presentation."
"Great. I want this guy to be convicted." Sara got up from the table and headed to get her case files from storage. She grabbed the two boxes she needed and headed to one of the layout rooms.
Several hours passed as Sara went through the evidence carefully and rechecked her documentation. She was feeling confident that the scumbag who abused his family would pay for it in the end. Sara sat down on a stool and sighed.
"So, you think you're ready?" Grissom asked her from the doorway.
Sara proceeded to go over everything with Grissom, listening to his suggestions and making notes. She was glad that they had been getting along a little better. Things certainly weren't perfect, but she would take what she could get. After a half hour of review Grissom stood silently watching Sara as she wrote on her notepad.
"Sara." He stepped closer to her and glanced around to make sure no one would overhear. "I, uh, really think that maybe this year, you should consider taking time off for the Holidays."
Sara stopped writing, but didn't stand up from her crouched position. She stilled her pen mid-word. She stayed that way for a few seconds then began to write again. Grissom just stared at her and let out a heavy sigh.
"Sara. Will you please stop. Look at me, please."
"Fine." Sara thunked her pen down on the pad and stood facing him, arms crossed against her chest. "But I always work Christmas, Grissom. I don't have anywhere to go. Everyone else has family they want to see."
"I know, Sara. But I cleared it with Ecklie, and Warrick will take your shifts for a few days. Things are slow on Swing right now, he can spare him."
"What? Is this an order? Are you ORDERING me to take time off, Grissom?" She was getting furious now. She waved her arms around as she spoke to her supervisor.
"Sara, calm down!" Grissom pushed her down to sit on the stool next to her and placed a hand on each of her arms. "Listen. You have so much time accumulated, you need a break. You need to do this."
Sara just stared at him, the anger evident in her eyes. She was breathing in and out heavily through her nose. He knew she was still fuming.
"As I said, you have a few days off, but I'm not ordering you. But I do have a proposition for you." Grissom shuffled his feet and stared at the floor.
"What?" Sara looked at him now. "What the hell does that mean?"
"It means, Sara, that I need you to take a few days off and while you are off, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."
"What kind of favor? Cuz if it involves bugs, forget it."
"I thought you liked bugs?" He had a genuine hurt look on his face. This made Sara chuckle and soon she was laughing.
"Griss, I don't mind bugs at a crime scene. It's part of the job. I jut don't LOVE bugs the way you do. I prefer mine dead or exterminated." She smiled at him.
"It has nothing to do with bugs. Can I continue?" He raised his brows at her.
"Please do." Sara sat and watched his facial expressions as he spoke. Whatever he had to say, it was apparent he was finding it difficult.
"Sara, my mom is sick. She's developed pancreatic cancer. This will be the last Christmas we have together."
"I'm so sorry, Griss." Sara put her hand on his arm. "What can I possibly do to help?"
"Well, here's the thing. She kinda thinks that.......well.......that..........that I'm seeing someone....and she was so sick and only worried about me.........so I told her..........and now she's expecting met to bring you to meet her."
"WHAT!? You told her I was your girlfriend?" Sara was back to angry.
"Sssshhhh." Grissom put his hands on her shoulders. "I didn't tell her that you were my girlfriend."
"Oh, good. WHEW!" Sara smiled at him.
"I told her we were engaged." He blurted it out and stepped back a few paces, afraid she would physically lash out at him, but she remained calm. Sara just sat on the stool, not saying anything. After a few minutes, she looked up and stared him straight in the eye.
"Why me?" He could barely hear her words.
"Sara." He stood there, not knowing what to say.
"Just tell her you broke it off. Tell her I'm no good for you."
"Sara, I cant do that. This is Christmas. Her only wish in life is to see me happily married. I just want to make her last Christmas a special one. Will you please help me out?"
"Why me? Why not Catherine? Or Sofia? Or Lady Heather?" Sara sat sternly staring at him.
"Because Sara, you know me better than anyone, even Catherine." He confessed.
Sara didn't know what to say. She stood there for what seemed like forever, playing out all the scenarios of how this would go with his mom. There would be personal questions about her family. How would she answer that? Did he expect her to lie? Where would she sleep? Where does his mom live?
"Sara. Sara." Grissom snapped his fingers in front of her face.
"Oh, sorry. I was just thinking." She shook her head hoping to refocus.
"Thinking yes or no?" Grissom smiled at her in hope.
"Well, I'm thinking that we need to come up with a plausible story on our engagement."
"You'll do it? Really?" Grissom smiled wide at Sara. "We leave in two days."
"Griss, where are we going?"
"Oh, she lives in Michigan. So, pack sweaters and bring a ski jacket."
Grissom smiled at her and pulled her in for a quick hug. "Thanks so much for doing this, Sara."
Sara smiled at him. They had two days until he was expected at his mothers home. Two days to create an alternate universe. Two days to get used to being around each other so personally. Two days until Sara had a Christmas she was sure she would never forget.
"Oh, and Sara," Grissom stepped close and whispered. "We need to keep this quiet. As far as everyone else is concerned, you are taking a much needed vacation."
"Right." She flashed a grin at him. "No worries in that department."
"Great!" He headed down the hall, a lightness in his step that had been absent earlier.
Sara put her head in her hands. What have I gotten into? She packed up everything into the boxes and put them back in lockup. Greg and Sofia were back with evidence from their dumpster dive so she decided to help process the clothing with Sofia.
"So, I see on the Holiday schedule you are actually taking some time off." Sofia mentioned to Sara as they were running the ALS over a pair of jeans.
"What? How did you know?" Sara looked up from her inspection of the garment.
"Ecklie posted the Holiday schedule when Greg and I were coming in. Its in the break room."
"Oh. I, Uh. I haven't really taken time off in a long time and I have worked Christmas since I got here in Vegas 5 years ago."
"Well, good. You deserve it, Sara." They continued to work in silence for a few minutes when Sofia began questioning.
"So, what do you have planned?"
"Oh, uh, just visiting with some friends out East. Have a White Christmas and all that." Sara smiled at Sofia, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.
"That sounds nice."
"What sounds nice?" Greg leaned on the layout table between Sara and Sofia with a huge grin on his face.
"Oh, uh, Sara is going out East for the Holidays."
"REALLY! Cool! You gonna go skiing? Sledding? You should build a snowman!"
"Calm down, boy!" Sara laughed at his enthusiasm. "I will probably throw a snowball or two, but I am not so sure on the skiing or sledding."
"Afraid you'll fall and bruise your butt?" Greg chuckled.
"Greg. My butt is none of your business. You should be concerned with yours."
"I will take that into consideration."
"Greg, are you going to help, or just insult Sara?" Sofia was sorting through photos as she spoke to him.
"Well, I can take your trace evidence over to Hodges and see if I can't encourage him to speed it up a bit." Greg grabbed the evidence bags and headed off to the Trace Lab.
"Why doesn't he just get a clue?" Sofia commented to Sara once Greg left.
"Ah, he is harmless." Sara pulled off her gloves. "I'm about done here. You need anything?"
"Nah, I got this. It's way past quitting time, you go ahead. I got this covered. We can go over any results tomorrow."
"Night, Sofia." Sara took off to find Grissom. He wasn't in his office or the Break Room. Maybe he had gone home. Sara let out a frustrated breath and headed towards the locker room. When she got out to her car she dialed Grissom's cell. All she got was voice mail. He must be sleeping already. Sara headed home and crawled into bed after a nice long, hot shower. She drifted off to sleep within minutes.