Title: A Christmas miracle

Summary: Christmas eve, Las Vegas, a magical GSR moment.

Spoilers: none

AN: I wrote this just today to take a break from exam studying and to try to find some kind of joy about the upcoming holidays. I was going to wait to post this on Christmas eve but I knew if I did I would never post it. So here it is, a few weeks early. Hope you like and Happy holidays to all.

A Christmas Miracle

Outside, the stillness of the streets of a quiet Las Vegas neighborhood was scantily interrupted on this early Christmas eve. A family carrying plastic bags full of Christmas supplies in their home, returning from a last-minute shopping trip. A family exiting their home, the children hopping to the car as the mother warned them to be careful not to slip on the ice and ruin their new clothes. Seconds later, all settled in the car, they pulled out of the driveway, heading to a family dinner. Children playing in the snow, making snowmen and chasing each other with handfuls of snow and laughter as the adults in the home told stories about their year. Houses and trees lit up with bright, colorful lights.

Inside one small, dark apartment, a figure curled up under a blanket on a living room sofa, hands curled around a warm cup of tea, observing the sparse activity outside dejectedly. Sorrowfully, she observed the happiness she had never experienced and knew she never would. All she had to look back on on childhood Christmases were bruises and yelling. And all she had to look forward to on future Christmases was this emptiness and loneliness.

She thought about her friends. Warrick and Greg were working Christmas eve this year, then heading home to spend Christmas day with family and close friends. Nick was in Texas with his family already. Catherine had the night off to spend with her daughter and would be working the following night instead. Grissom was also off, spending time with his bugs, maybe? Not that it mattered, she reminded herself bitterly.

Sara herself had tried to work the night but Grissom had insisted she take this year off, declaring that she had never taken the holidays off. She had protested, stating that she didn't have plans but he had ignored her, as he always did.

So now she sat here morosely with nothing to distract her mind from this pitiful existence she didn't dare call a life. She thought about the bottle of Jack sitting in her freezer. She wanted it. But she knew it was a bad idea to drink in her state and considering the problems she had experienced with alcohol in the past few years.

She glared accusingly at the tea in her hands, the warmth slowly seeping from the cooling beverage. She knew she wouldn't drink it now. She set the cup on down on the coffee table just as a knock was heard at her door.

Curious, she walked to the door and looked through the peep hole. Her first thought when she saw him was work. There was a case and he needed her to work after all. She opened the door and motioned him in.

"New case?" she asked directly, not in the mood for pleasantries.

"No." he stated as he stood there, seemingly nervous under her questioning stare. "I, uh, I was hoping I was not too late."

"It's only seven, Grissom."

"No... Sara... am I too late?"

She stared at him, disbelieving. Could he really be talking about what she thought he was?

"So..." he asked nervously, and a bit sadly. "Do you want me to go?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. I just, I don't know what to think. Are you serious?"

"I am."

She continued to stare at him skeptically.

"Listen, I've thought about this. I didn't just come here on impulse tonight. I've been thinking about this for a while."

"And the office?"

"We'll find a way. If it comes to that, I'll leave the lab and find a teaching position. I've been offered several times over the past few years..."

"But the lab is your life..."

"It's a very miserable life. The only time I'm ever happy is when I'm around you."

"Grissom, I don't know what to think. For years I've been trying to show you that we were both miserable apart, and all you did was push me away and hurt me continuously. I don't want to do it anymore. I can't."

She looked at him through teary eyes. She wanted so desperately to believe him, but her brain reminded her to shield her heart from him.

"I don't want to do it anymore either. No more running. Just us."

"You won't start something and then leave me more alone and more miserable then ever?"

Pleadingly, she searched his eyes for honesty.

"No. I've made up my mind. I'm done hurting us both."

Carefully, she pulled him to her in a tight hug as the tears fell.

"Took you long enough." she let out through sobs. He held her as her body shook with sobs until she calmed a few moments later and pushed herself from him.

"Just remember, I know how to hide a body and get away with murder." She said with a dead serious expression.

He looked at her in shock before she broke into a smile and a laugh.

"I'm only kidding." She said and he finally smiled. "But please don't hurt me again." He could see the vulnerability in her eyes.

"I won't." he stated reassuringly as he wiped the tears from her face and pulled her back in his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder and relished the contact.

"We can take this slow?" she asked timidly.

"We'll take it as slow as we need. We have the time. Now what do you say we make Christmas?"

She bit her lip. "I don't have much here. I have no decorations, not even a tree, and my fridge is low... I haven't celebrated Christmas in decades."

"Then we'll go get what we need." She disentangled herself from him and offered him a bright smile as she reached for her jacket. With a hand on her arm he stopped her as he pulled her closer again.

"One last thing... may I kiss you? Or would that be moving too fa.."

She laughed as she closed the distance between them herself and silenced him with her lips on his. He cupped her face with one hand, the other resting possessively on her back as the electricity flowed through them. Moments later, foreheads touching, gasping for breath they both laughed happily.

He retrieved her jacket from the back of a chair and handed it to her. She took it and put it on as he led her to the door.