Fairytale Of Las Vegas
A/N: Merry Christmas! And what better way to celebrate this festive season than with Snickers, the best pairing on CSI! This will be a short one shot about what Christmas means to Nick and Sara. Dedicated to the amazing BrokenDaisy, consider this your early Christmas present. Enjoy!
*Knock, knock*
"Go away," Sara groaned as she lay spread out on her sofa.
"It's me, Nick," he shouted through her door.
"What do you want?" Sara asked.
"Let me in, and I'll tell you," Nick teased.
"It's open," Sara sighed as she sat up. She really wasn't in the mood for this. "Now what do you want?"
"Is that any way to greet a friend?" Nick smiled as he rested a ladder he'd brought with him on the door.
"Nick, seriously, if you've just come to try and make me feel better, I'd quit while I was ahead if I were you," Sara raised her eyebrows.
"Well, I haven't. I've come to put up your Christmas decorations, hence the ladder," Nick smiled.
"I don't need your help," Sara protested.
"Sara, yes you do. It's 24th December, Christmas is tomorrow, and you don't have your Christmas decorations up yet," Nick explained.
"So, what good will putting up some decorations do?" she glared.
"You said, and I quote, 'My festive spirit is still with my Christmas decorations, in the attic.' So maybe, if we got your decorations out, you'll feel happier and more Christmassy," Nick grinned.
"Nick, thank you for the kind offer but I had planned on relaxing this morning, not stressing over what baubles look good where," Sara sighed.
"Come on, it'll be fun," Nick teased and looked at Sara with puppy dog eyes.
"Fine," Sara excepted defeat. "Good luck finding anything up there though."
Nick smiled, unzipped his jacket and flung it on a chair. "Lead the way, Sara."
Sara rolled her eyes and lead Nick out into the hall where just above his head was the hatch for the attic. Nick propped his ladder up against the ledge and slowly climbed up the 6 steps till the top half of his body was in the attic. Sara walked away and left him to it. He clicked on his touch and scanned for something that looked like it may have contained a Christmas tree or other decorations. Soon his eyes fell on a medium sized box in the far right corner. Nick had to climb inside the attic to reach it. Once he had, he turned round and crawled back to the hatch. He dropped the box on the floor and carefully followed using the ladder.
"I could only find one box up there," Nick announced.
"Told you you'd be lucky to find anything. I threw a lot of stuff out last year, meant to replace them but never got round to it," Sara explained as she walked over with a cup of coffee for her guest.
"Thanks," Nick smiled.
Nick lifted the lid to the box with his free hand. He was waiting to be pleasantly surprised but instead was just disappointed. Sara had little more than a tiny 2 foot tree, a handful of baubles and a pathetic, tatty star for the top.
"This is it?" Nick raised his eyebrows. "No wonder you have no Christmas spirit."
"Hey, don't mock my decorations," Sara smirked as she hit him playfully on the arm.
"Go get your coat," Nick said as he slipped his jacket back on.
"What about your coffee?" Sara moaned.
"I can drink it when we get back," Nick insisted as he walked towards the front door.
"Where are we going?" Sara asked.
"To get you some better decorations," Nick smiled.
"But Nicky, I…"
"Sara, put your coat on, the shops shut soon," Nick smirked.
Sara just smiled as she was pressured into doing something she didn't really want to do for the second time in about 5 minutes.
"I'll drive."
Nick parked his car in the multi-storage car park. They had less than an hour to find everything they needed to make Sara enjoy another lonely Christmas, and Nick was making it his mission to fulfil that.
Soon, Nick and Sara found themselves wandering aimlessly round the biggest Christmas decoration shop in the whole of Las Vegas. Nick was like a child in a sweet shop, he wanted absolutely everything he saw. Sara rolled her eyes at him.
"Right, first things first," Nick started as he wheeled a trolley down one of the first aisles. "You need a colour scheme."
"No I don't," Sara protested.
"Sure you do," Nick argued. "What's your favourite colour?"
"I don't think I have a favourite, I like most colours," Sara stated.
"Okay, maybe that can be you colour scheme, multicoloured?" Nick suggested.
"Sounds good to me."
An hour later:
"You still want your coffee?" Sara smiled as they shuffled into Sara apartment out the cold.
"Hell yeah," Nick nodded.
Sara set about making two new coffees and Nick made himself comfy on her floor next to all the bags of decorations and started planning where everything would go in his head.
"Shouldn't we start with the tree?" Sara asked as she walked through with the coffees.
"Have some patients, Sara. We'll get to that in a second," Nick teased.
"Fine," Sara rolled her eyes and flopped down next to her Texan friend. "Can we start with the tree now?"
Nick smirked and reluctantly moved towards the Christmas tree. It took him all of about 10 minutes to put it up and place it in the exact spot Sara wanted. She was very impressed. Next of course came the fairy lights. Sara had to snatch them from a very annoyed Nick after he couldn't untangle them.
"He looks so cute when he's annoyed," Sara thought.
Sara leaned forward, with a massive smile on her face, and reached out to place a glittery bauble on her Christmas tree when Nick touched her arm.
"Wait stop," Nick announced.
"Have I done something wrong?"
"No, but something is wrong," Nick said.
"Okay, you're starting to worry me Nicky," Sara gulped.
"There's no Christmas music on," he smiled.
"That's it? Don't do that again," Sara insisted.
Nick shrugged his shoulders and walked over to Sara's stereo and CD collection, in search for the perfect album. However, he was once again disappointed.
"No Christmas CDs?" Nick raised his eyebrows.
"I do have one," Sara protested as she walked over and reached right for it, then placed it in Nick's hand. "You've just got to look hard enough."
Nick glared at Sara for a moment before putting on the Christmas songs he was desperately craving.
Back to the Christmas tree. Nick and Sara continued to put the remaining baubles on the tree, whilst finishing their coffees. Finally came the tinsel. It was a lovely silver colour and went so well with the random baubles and Sara's living room, it tied everything together.
"Last but not least…" Sara started.
"The Christmas Angel," Nick finished Sara's sentence and handed it to Sara.
Sara smiled as Nick handed her the ladder. She climbed up and placed the final piece on the top of her Christmas tree. She was very proud.
"What do you think?" Sara asked as she climbed down.
"One word; beautiful," Nick smiled as he stared longingly into Sara's eyes.
Sara smiled back sheepishly as she sat back down on the floor, and Nick followed.
"You were right, that was kinda fun," she smiled.
"Told you," Nick winked.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, with the soft sound of festive songs mumbling in the back ground.
"I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know. Make my wish come true... All I want for Christmas is you…," Sara started singing softly under her breath.
"So, Sara," Nick started as she turned to face his colleague. "What's your favourite Christmas song?"
"That's a bit random," Sara stated.
"No it's not," Nick argued. "Just answer the question."
"Um, I guess I'd have to say Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl. One of my happier memories of when I was a kid was coming home to find my mum dancing around the kitchen to that song," Sara smiled as tears swelled in her eyes.
"So you associate that song with happier times?," Nick nodded.
"Guess I do. It's probably also why I'm the way I am, bitter and cold. It's one of those things, I love Christmas 'cause it reminds me of my parents but I hate it for the same reason," Sara sniffled as a single tear somehow escaped her eye.
"Come here," Nick said as he pulled Sara in close, in an attempt to stop her heart breaking tears.
"Sorry," Sara muttered into Nick's chest.
"Sara, you have nothing to be sorry for, nothing at all. You're fine, better than fine, you're perfect. Practically perfect in everyway," Nick smiled and tried not to laugh at the last part.
Sara pulled away for a moment and raised her eyebrows at his choice of words.
"What? My niece's make us watch Mary Poppins every Christmas," Nick shrugged.
"Okay," Sara nodded slowly, not quite sure if she believed him.
"You okay now?" Nick asked.
Sara nodded and sat back in the position she was before she burst into tears.
"That reminds me," Sara started. "Why are you even here? Should you be in Texas with your family right about now?"
"Yeah, but I didn't fancy it this year."
"Seriously? I would give anything to have a family like yours. Trust me, spending Christmas on your own is not fun," Sara snapped.
Nick knew all this, and was one of the reasons he was there. He'd lied to his mum, telling her he had to work Christmas Eve so he couldn't get through, when actually he'd learned Sara had spent every Christmas since she moved to Vegas alone. He'd never really thought about her being on her own before. He thought about inviting Sara to his parents house but didn't want her to feel embarrassed. Nick was proud of the tree he'd put up with Sara and wasn't at all sorry he was there and not with his family.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that," Sara sighed.
"It's fine," Nick smiled.
"Oh, I forgot to ask, what's your favourite Christmas song then?" Sara asked.
"It would probably have to be Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade, but I love Fairytale of New York too," Nick smiled.
Sara smiled as they slipped back into another silence. They were both getting pretty tired but Sara didn't want Nick to leave, she didn't want that day to end. She had had a really good day in the end, and now she also had a really amazing Christmas tree.
"Sar," Nick said, breaking the silence.
"Yeah," Sara answered and turned her head to face him.
Without any warning Nick leaned in and kissed Sara, not once, not twice but three times before she started kissing him back. Sara wrapped her arms round Nick's neck, and his arms hung loose round her hips. Sara pulled Nick to his feet and he pined her to the wall, all without separating lips. Eventually, both Nick and Sara realised oxygen was very important.
"We should really stop," Nick panted.
"But I can't," Sara smiled.
"And if you could, would you?" Nick asked.
"Probably not."
Thank you for reading. Love you all so much for reading. Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Review please.